Chapter Sixteen

“Ugh, lo?” Larson answered her phone,

“L? Is that you?” JC asked knowing it was her.

“Ugh, I think it is. Hold on, let me check.” The phone was put down for a few moments before she came back on the phone, “Yeah, unfortunately it is. Hi Jace.” She said and flopped back into her bed.

JC smiled at her little joke, “How you feeling sunshine?”

“Like I just woke up.” She muttered and looked at her clock, “Shit it’s like one.”

“Yeah, I thought it would be safe to call you now.” He said teasingly but he really meant that he hoped that Jason was gone from her place. “Didn’t know you would just be waking up.”

“I was taking a nap, I was worn out from last night. Me and Jay had a few rounds before I got any sleep.” She yawned, as JC inwardly groaned not wanting to hear about Larson and ANY guy.

“Uh, L? TMI.”

“TMI? Huh?” Larson said completely confused. Lack sleep always made her brain processes drop to zero.

“I don’t need to know about you and Jason and whatever you did last night.” He said trying to sound like he was teasing her.

Larson finally got what he was talking about, “Oh my God! No, no, I would never do that! Oh God! No! I meant that we had a pretty big argument after we got home.” She clarified and JC let out a silent sigh of relief.

“Oh, okay.” JC paused, “Is…are you okay?”

Larson let out a deep breath, “I guess, I don’t know. He just gets these crazy ideas in his head and I don’t know. I love him to death, but he literately drives me insane, you know?”

“No, but if you need to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

Larson smiled to herself, “Thanks, I really appreciate that. I’m really sorry about how Jason acted last night-”

“L, don’t. You weren’t the one being rude, you shouldn’t apologize. We’re used to people saying things like that to us, it’s water off our backs.” JC soothed her and she let out another deep breath,

“Okay.” The were both silent for a few moments before Larson broke it, “So, were you calling to make sure that I was okay from last night? Or did you have another reason?”

“Oh yeah!” JC exclaimed suddenly remembering why he had called her, “I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place, I have a surprise for you.”

JC’s sudden change of mood, instantly changed her mood, “What is it?” She said giggling excitably.

“You’ll just have to come over and find out what it is.” He said evasively.

“No hint?” She pleaded,

“Nope.” He said and chuckled, “Get yourself together and get your butt over here so that you can know what it is.” He was trying to hold in his excitement as much as possible. He couldn’t wait to see her face when he showed her what he got her.

“Okay! I’ll be over in like a half an hour, okay?”

“Totally, see you then!”

“Bye!” Larson hung up the phone and hopped out of her bed to get ready. It was just like JC to lift her spirits when she was feeling like crap. Truthfully, last night she wished that she could’ve just hung out with JC. He was at least being normal. Jason turned into a jealous prick for no good reason. They had a pretty good fight last night, lasting into the wee hours of the morning. Things were still unsettled between them when Jason left to catch his flight back to New York. Distance was a good thing for the both of them right now.

A half an hour later Larson arrived at JC’s house. He hopped out of the doorway to greet her at her car.

“Hi Jace.” She waved, “Where’s my surprise?” She asked clapping her hands together like a little kid.

He smiled mischievously, “It’s inside the house.”

“Then let’s go!” She cheered grabbing his hand and dragging him towards his house.

JC let her drag him up to his door where he stopped her, “Hold up.”

Larson turned, “What?”

He chuckled and pulled a blindfold out of his pocket, “If you want your surprise, you have to put this on.”

Larson gave him a skeptic look, “A blindfold? Why?”

JC rolled his eyes at her reluctance, “Just do it, you won’t get your surprise otherwise.”

Larson let out a deep breath, “Fine, blindfold me.” She said turning her back to him. JC blindfold Larson and than began to lead her through the house.

“Are we there yet?” Larson asked after being led through what seemed like his entire house.

“Hold on.”

“Come on JC! I want to know my surprise!” She exclaimed happily as he led her blind folded through more of his house.

“We’re almost there.” He said as he guided her around objects in his house, “Take a few more steps, watch out for the chair.” He coached and then stopped her, “Okay hold on, stay right there.”

“Where the hell do you want me to go? I’m blindfolded.” She retorted,

“I know that.” He rolled his eyes at her even though she couldn’t see him. “Okay, you can take off the blindfold!”

Larson whipped off the blindfold and found herself in JC’s game room. He was proudly standing by a large arcade game, “Convoy”.

“What’s this?” She asked walking over to him and looking over the game. There was a large bench seat and two steering wheels to replicate driving a Mac truck.

“Do you like it?” JC asked excitably.

“What is it?” She asked again,

“It’s CONVOY!” He exclaimed excitably, “So you can practice for your next career!” He said and ushered her into the seat.

“What?” She laughed at his excitement.

“Well, you can’t just hop into a Mac truck and start driving, can you? I figured that you could practice on this till you can go get your license.” He said grinning from ear to ear.

“It’s like a Mac Truck?” She inquired placing her hands on the wheel and looking over the controls.

“You’ve never seen this?”

“No, but it looks awesome!” She tested out the wheel, turning it back and forth and pressing the pedals. JC hopped up into the seat with her.

“You have to test it out. IT KICKS ASS.”

“This is what you’ve been doing all day, haven’t you?” She teased,

“Well I did just get it today.” JC said sheepishly, “I had to figure out how to play it so that I could teach you.” He reasoned,

“You’re insane.” She laughed, “I want to play! Turn it on.” Larson said hopping in her seat a little.

“You’re on!” JC said starting up the game for them both to play, “I have it rigged so that we don’t have to use coins to play.”

“This is the coolest game I’ve ever played.” Larson said hopping in her seat. She leaned over and kissed JC on the cheek, “You’re the best, thank you. This was exactly what I needed today.”

JC gave Larson a genuine smile, “My pleasure L.”

After playing the game for a couple hours, they decided to get some take out for dinner because they were starving. Chinese was on the menu for the both of them as they sat at his coffee table eating right out of the boxes.

“So I was thinking-” JC started out before Larson interrupted,

“Did you hurt yourself?” She teased,

JC rolled his eyes at her remark, “Ha, ha funny, Miss Smith.” He shook his head as he scooped more food into his mouth and chewed it.

“So? You were thinking?” She prodded him,

“Well, I was wondering if you had some time to take off from work.”

“Why?”

JC shrugged, “No biggie, I have to go to Miami for a couple of days and wanted to know if you wanted to go with me.”

She frowned, “Why do you want me to go?”

“Because I hate going on a trip alone and knew we’d have a lot of fun together.” He reasoned with a shrug.

Larson took a deep breath, “I probably shouldn’t because I just took a week off and I need to play catch up and I’ve got school functions to run and speak at. I would love to go, but I should stay home for a while.” She said trying to soften the blow of refusing a free trip to Miami.

JC smiled warmly, “No biggie L, just throwing it out there, you know?”

She nodded, “Okay, I really appreciate the offer though.” She laughed and shook her head, “Only I would turn down a trip to Miami.”

JC chuckled with her, “L, you have responsibilities and I understand that. Most people would say to hell with work and go, but you don’t because you care about your job. I admire you for that.”

“Thanks.” She replied and they sat there eating silently for a few minutes.

“So, not to pry or anything, but how are things with Jason?”

Larson rolled her eyes at the mention of Jason, “I don’t know. He had to catch his flight before we could really finish our discussion.” She put down her food container, “He pretty much proposed marriage to me last night.”

JC’s eyes went wide with shock, “Are you kidding me? After you guys got home from the club?”

“Yep, he told me that he had been thinking about it for a while and that it was just right for us to get married. You know because our lives fit together.” She blew out a deep breath, “I couldn’t believe him! I mean, yeah we talk, but we haven’t really spent any time together in like two years and he wanted me to up and marry him? And all because it LOOKS right for me to be with him, you know, not because he loves me and can see spending the rest of his life with me.” She huffed, “He seriously had our whole lives planned out for us, you know how many kids we were going to have and where we were going to live and, ugh, everything! And then to top it all off, he was completely smashed when he did this. Tell me that’s not every girl’s fairy tale proposal.” She shook her head in disgust and then blushed when she realized what she had just did. “Sorry, guess I really needed to get that off of my chest.”

JC gave her a warm smile to let her know that it was okay, “That sounds like quite a night, L. It’s no wonder why you were so upset.”

Larson shook her head again, “Yeah, well he couldn’t understand why I was so upset. He was bewildered with the fact that I didn’t jump at the offer to marry him.” She rolled her eyes in disgust, “I mean I explain it to you and you completely understand.” She sighed, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would rather marry you after only knowing you for a couple of months than marry Jason, who I’ve known for years.”

JC laughed, “Honey, I know lots of girls who have the same opinion.”

Larson started giggling at JC’s reference to his fans, knowing that he was only teasing. “Yeah, I bet you do.” She shook her head before smiling at him, “I know I’ve said it before and I’ve said it today, but, thank you so much, for everything. I don’t think you know how much I appreciate the fact that I have you as a friend.”

JC nodded, knowing exactly what Larson was talking about, “Me too L.”

Home

Back

Next