Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

Three days had passed and everything was terrifyingly peaceful. Jack and I were still getting along, Alex and John even seemed to be warming to one another. Marissa was keeping me entertained and it almost felt like we’d never been apart. Most of my days were spent flitting between her and John and I honestly didn’t think I’d been happier since those first couple of months with Alex.
“Oh, bite me,” I laughed, pulling another box out and onto the table to continue setting up for the Orlando show tonight.
“I’m just being honest!” Marissa laughed back. “You were legitimately my least favourite person for like a year.”
“I was never your least favourite person.”
“You were!” She continued to argue. “Your angsty phase was so annoying. I even liked Cammy better than I liked you.”
“You take that back!” I gasped in fake outrage. Cammy had, frankly, been her least favourite person in our group of friends since the moment the two had met. Well, apparently excluding sophomore year, as I was finding out.
“I swear to god,” she replied. “You only became bearable again when you started getting sick of Mike.”
“And here I thought our friendship was indestructible.”
“It is now,” she chuckled. “But, as teenagers, you and I were judgemental as fuck, so don’t act like you’re surprised, Jasey, because I won’t believe it.” I opened my mouth to continue pretending to argue back when another voice began to talk laughingly.
“We’re trying to do a soundcheck here, and all we can hear is you two bickering,” Alex said, coming into view with Jack beside him, who immediately wrapped an arm around Marissa.
“She honestly just told me she preferred Cammy to me,” I told him, faking disgust at the thought. I had, in truth, been a whiny little brat for a while there, so I didn’t actually care that she hadn’t been fond of me then. Hell, I wasn’t fond of me then. I was, however, super proud she rode it out.
“Gross,” he replied, copying my fake disgust. “What are you girls up to today?” He asked, grabbing the last box to help me set up. I felt the corners of my lips pulling upwards at the act that he didn’t seem to think twice about and looked away from him so he couldn’t see.
“Disney,” Jack said immediately. My head snapped to Jack and Marissa, the small smile immediately replaced with shock as I saw her nodding along, as if it were no surprise. I spluttered a little, but was promptly ignored by all my friends.
“Gross,” Alex said once more, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, fuck off, you’re just jealous you weren’t invited,” Jack scoffed. “Acting like you didn’t spend your childhood watching Aladdin on repeat and shit,” he continued, beginning to grumble, though in a light-hearted way.
“Hey!” Alex began to splutter in the same way as I had done only moments before, acting like Jack was spilling some sort of huge secret.
“Darling, we’ve all seen the pictures,” Marissa laughed. Alex scowled, throwing the box under the table and I noticed he was done with his task already, while I was stood dumbly with a shirt in my hands since Jack’s nonchalant discussion of the day’s plans.
“Who broke my girlfriend?” I heard John ask from somewhere behind Jack and Marissa. “Earth to Holly, are you there?” The others chuckled and I jumped as I felt John’s hand on my waist, having walked straight past Alex to immediately hold on to me.
“Jack did it,” Marissa told him quickly, at the same time as Jack accused her. I rolled my eyes, John having brought me back to reality enough to actually control my muscles.
“You both did it you assholes,” I snapped playfully. “Who the hell do you think you are, going to Disney and not inviting me?”
“You are invited,” Jack scoffed. “Stop being an asshole, asshole.” I raised an eyebrow at him, folding my arms, completely ignoring the fact that I was scrunching the shirt I had been in the middle of refolding.
“You’re ruining my merch,” John laughed. “And, sorry, I meant to tell you, but we only really decided last night and, well, you were out cold.” I scowled at him, both for pointing out the mess I was making with the shirt in my hands and how utterly I turned into a rock when I slept, while ignoring how happy it made me that all three of them were talking enough to make plans without my knowing.
“Give it here,” Alex laughed, grabbing the shirt from me and attempting to undo all the damage I had done. “I suppose it’s the least I can do since you guys are all busy today.” I grinned at him, ignoring the silence on John’s part, knowing it was enough that he wasn’t snapping back.
“So, when are we going?” I asked, glancing at my watch to see that it was still only about 10:30 and suddenly beyond confused about why everyone was up and so chirpy already.
“I was coming over to ask the same thing,” John shrugged, looking over at Jack and Marissa for their input. Of course, he got no response. Marissa seemed to have picked up a number of Jack’s flaws over the last two years, namely that she didn’t make decisions anymore unless forced to.
“If you’re done with your shit, just go now,” Alex said to John after a few moments of silence. He had apparently taken the hint that Jack and Marissa weren’t going to be answering anytime soon, a hint that John didn’t know them well enough to get. “I’ll pick up Hol’s slack and you guys can get going.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, a small pang of guilt at the thought of leaving him with my work while I went off to enjoy myself without him. “I mean, I know there’s not much left or anything, but—”
“I’m sure. That’s why I offered. Go have fun.” He shot a grin at me and I relaxed a little further into John, knowing Alex had made up his mind.
I honestly believe Jack and I are the most unbearable people in existence.
We took Marissa’s car to the park (which had all the signs of Jack having slept in it at least once this week) and from the moment Jack and I sat in the backseat (having been told, much like Vegas, that our driving was awful and we weren’t welcome as either driver or navigator), we basically became children. We bickered about where to go for breakfast, which rides we were going on first, whether or not I was allowed Minnie Mouse ears and how much Jack wishes they did Disney Prince makeovers like they did Princess makeovers for little girls.
Honestly, it felt like we were finally friends again.
Marissa, of course, tried not to grin and scolded us into shutting up more than once and all John could do was laugh, quite possibly never having seen this side of me. I hadn’t been this stupidly, unconditionally happy since before I’d left Maryland. Up until now, even when John and I had been having fun, I still had a burning sense of apprehension that Alex might call and ruin my day, or that I’d catch him on the radio and it’d spoil my entire day. I supposed that was on me, allowing him to take over like that, but the point still stood: I was honestly, completely happy, for the first time in years.
Of course, Jack and I bounced out of the car upon arrival and straight to the ticket stands, where we then stood grumpily at the wait until we were finally unleashed upon the park and our bickering began again.
“It’s nearly time for lunch,” I whined at him, as he insisted we go ride Space Mountain first. “I’ll be beyond hungry if we have to queue for that first.”
“It’s not nearly time for lunch. It’s time for Space Mountain.”
“No, she’s right,” Marissa told him. “It’s nearly time for lunch.”
“I’m willing to miss a meal for this.”
“No,” I whined again. “I’m hungry, butthole.”
“Your insults are always so appetising when you discuss food,” John laughed, shaking his head. I rolled my eyes, but grinned up at him nonetheless. He’d been smiling almost as much as me already and I loved that he loved this day like I did.
“Okay,” Jack relented, though probably due to the start of rumblings in his stomach more than our protestations. “Food first, but then we have to go on Space Mountain straight after.”
“I think I can live with that,” I shrugged. Jack grinned at me, pulling me into an unexpected hug.
“I missed you, Jase,” he said quietly, though still sounded happy. “Who the fuck else is gonna argue with me like a child for 2 hours straight?” I laughed at him, knowing that was the entire reason we had become friends all those years ago, before returning his hug and stepping back toward John.
It took a surprisingly little amount of time for us to settle on a restaurant and make our way there (especially when considering the amount Jack and I were bickering today). I just felt so relaxed now, so happy to have half a day away from the confines of the tour and with these people, without any bullshit bickering (aside from Jack and I’s joking bickering) or any of the normal day-to-day of the tour. It felt a lot like sitting at home in John’s back yard, but with added Disney, so much so that I felt myself leaning against him as we waited for our food.
Now that I thought about it, I could see why everyone had been so on our backs for years about this. I mean, I might not have realised how I felt about John until a handful of days ago, but even on a subconscious level, I wasn’t subtle when I had feelings for someone. And, I mean, John wasn’t entirely innocent: girlfriend or no, you could find us curled up in corners ignoring everyone else.
I grinned up at him as he talked to Jack about something, catching him off guard with a small kiss on his cheek as I felt the surge of affection I had thinking about him and all the things we always managed to get up to back home. I wouldn’t for a second say I fell fast, but I was beginning to think that I was a lot closer to loving John than I had allowed myself to think.
“So, when are we all coming back and doing this properly then?” Marissa asked, taking a sip of her drink through the straw she’d been playing with while the boys had been chit chatting.
“What’s properly?” I laughed.
“Like, a week here. A day in every park and up to Universal,” she shrugged.
“As soon as humanly possible,” I said immediately, realising I could have an entire week just enjoying myself with all my favourite people. Besides, we all needed a vacation. Taking a break from reality and our own sense of normality, meaning travelling for the sake of it and not leaving for another town each day.
“Do you really wanna rush it when they’re building a Harry Potter park in the next couple years, or are we coming straight back as soon as it opens?” She chuckled. I sat up straight, moving away from John and stared at my best friend, wide-eyed.
“Excuse me?!” I shrieked. “What do you mean they’re making a Harry Potter theme park?”
“Christ, Jasey, I thought you would know,” Marissa laughed, taken a little off guard by my reaction. It was fair, in all honesty. Two years ago, it would have been me bounding into her room with the news as soon as it broke and planning our trip.
“What’s this all about?” John chuckled.
“You don’t know?” He shook his head as Marissa raised an eyebrow. I shrugged. So I’d tried to be the cool girl and didn’t tell everybody about my obsession with Harry Potter. And by ‘didn’t tell everybody’, I mean I told nobody.
“So, uh, you know when the last book came out and we sat outside Barnes and Noble just mocking all the kids who were outside at midday waiting for the midnight release?” I asked. He nodded and I grinned sheepishly. “Well, the reason I didn’t go to your house that night was because, well, uh, I stayed there and waited ‘til like 1am to get a copy.”
“Wait, how did you not tell him this?” Jack laughed from next to Marissa. “I think everybody in high school knew you had this geeky side.”
“It didn’t come up! And then when it did, it had already been like a year and people thought I was much cooler than that.”
“You told Alex after, like, a month.”
“Um, 1) The Goblet of Fire was coming out. 2) He was getting a little big for his britches and I needed to tease him about Tom Felton.”
“You have a thing for Draco Malfoy?” John chuckled, his eyebrows raised. I grinned as he immediately knew who I was talking about, realising I probably didn’t need to hide my obsession from him for so long.
“Well, duh. I’m a Slytherin. Of course I have a thing for Draco.”
“If anything, I’m a Gryffindor, so we should probably keep that quiet.” I pulled a disgusted looking face as I glanced over at my friends, both of whom were laughing quietly to themselves.
“Gross. Why are they always Gryffindors?” John raised his eyebrows again and I shook my head, maintaining my disgusted look.
“When she told Alex that she was a Slytherin, he immediately told her he was a Gryffindor too,” Marissa explained. “Apparently, she has a thing for the wrong house.”
“We’re getting off track,” I responded, waving off the discussion before we got too deep into Alex and I. “I need to know more about this theme park.”
“That’s all I know,” Marissa told me. “Universal in the next couple of years.”
“Sweetheart,” I cooed up to John. “Can we come back and go to the Harry Potter park?” He nodded, smiling at me as if he found my obsession cute. I couldn’t help but see the small hint of something else in his eye, which I knew was related back to the small discussion of Alex, but I chose to ignore it. I figured it was best to let it lie this time.
“Okay, but, for real, when are we coming back?” Marissa asked.
“Well, clearly we’re coming back next year when you guys finally get a break,” I glanced between John and Jack as I said this, “and then back literally the day this Harry Potter park opens.”

Notes

Okay, hi, uh, it's been a while.
I honestly don't even know how to explain my extended absence. Some family stuff happened with my boyfriend's family and it basically took all of the motivation out of me.
Well, I say that, it didn't. It took the motivation to write nice things out of me. I've been doing a lot of awful things to characters you haven't met instead of the nice things I wanted to do to characters you know. So, basically, it's taken me two months to write a chapter that has been at least half written for forever.
I've had a clear out of my brain (I hope) and found a bit of motivation and really wanted this out for you. I also did a bit of a username change, because I'm trying to keep my socials/gaming/writing accounts all separate and it was just way too easy for people to find me.
So, enjoy the brief respite from my extended nasty puppeteering of Holly's life and hope it lasts, basically.