A/N: This is my first Cougar Town fic. Read, fave, review, follow, enjoy!
-addicted
Summary: Travis is in a bad mood.
Don't Brood on Me
"What's going on with Travis?"
Jules stares at an utterly clueless Laurie who is typing a quick message on her phone. She shrugs in response, a small frown on her face.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Jules asks, incredulous. "It is your job as Travis' girlfriend to know things I don't know about him and tell them to me."
"First of all; no it isn't," she begins. "Secondly, we haven't really been talking too much lately. He's been kind of distant."
"Well find out what's wrong with him."
"Jules, you cannot pressure a man into sharing his feelings. When he wants to talk I'll be there, until then . . ."
"Until then what; you're gonna let him be miserable? I don't think that's a really good approach, Laurie—"
"With all due respect, Jules, whatever way I decide to 'approach' my relationship with Travis is my business," she snaps grabbing her phone and purse. "I don't need you or anyone else telling me how to be a good girlfriend."
With that, Laurie storms out of Jules' house and straight to her car.
Honestly, as nonchalant as she seems where Travis' behavior is concerned—not counting her little tiff with Jules a few seconds ago—it does bother her that she doesn't know what's wrong with him. And the fact that he's been unwilling to talk to her about it only adds fuel to the fire. As friends they pretty much talked about everything, but now, 6 months into their relationship, it's like they've both put up some kind of wall or something. They still laugh and joke and have serious conversations, but their rapport is so different now, not in a bad way . . . but, in a different way. She definitely knows why and not only that, but she can tell that the honeymoon phase is coming to an end.
Aggravated, Laurie calls Travis only to be sent straight to voicemail, which irritates her more. She opts out of leaving him a long, thorough message about it being one of her pet peeves and slams the phone down into the passenger seat. Out of the corner of her eye she spots Ellie walking up with a smug smile playing on her lips and there's nothing she wants to do more than slap it off her face. Instead, she quickly turns on her car and drives off toward Travis' place. She's decided that he doesn't have to talk, but he will damn sure listen.
-L-L-L-
Travis plops down on his bed sweeping off a pair of sweat pants with one wave of his hand. He lies back against the headboard, and stares off into space. His brain hurts and he's physically and mentally exhausted. He needs a break; a break from life, from his relationship, from school—mostly from school.
"Travis!" he hears from downstairs. "Garrett, where's Travis? Travis?!"
He groans. It's not that he doesn't want Laurie around, but right now, he doesn't want Laurie around. By the pissed-off, aggravated, infuriated lilt to her voice, he can tell that she has taken all that she can. And if he knows Laurie like he thinks he knows Laurie—which he does—he knows she's about to burst at the seams.
As if on cue, Laurie storms into his room like a raging tornado. Her face is etched in aggravation, exasperation, a little concern, and hurt—he's getting really good at reading her—and there is no way she's leaving the room without getting the explanation he knows she's after.
"What the hell is going on with you Travis?" she asks wasting no time. "And please don't tell me 'nothing' like you always do when you don't want to talk about what's on your mind. We're talking, I'm not leaving until we do. You're not gonna just brush me off again—"
"LAURIE!" he exclaims.
"Don't yell at me!"
"I don't feel like talking."
Hands on her hips and eyebrow raised, Laurie gives him a look that clearly says that that is a completely unacceptable answer . . . and that he's full of shit.
"Well I do, so you'll listen," she says choosing to kind of respect his wishes—but not for long. "This morning your mom asked me what was wrong with you, Travis, and I didn't know. Do you know how much that bothers me? I am not the kind of girl that sits around and waits for her boyfriend to tell her there's a problem when I already know that there's a problem, but in an attempt to give him 'time' and 'space', just takes his crap. That's bullshit."
". . . Can we talk about this later?"
"Uh, no! I told you I'm not leaving until you tell me what's got your panties in a bunch."
"I want to be alone for a little while."
"You've been alone for 2 weeks; probably sulking in this room and complaining to your friends about a problem I don't know about."
"Because it's none of your business," he mutters burying his head in one of his pillows.
"Excuse me?"
"It's my problem, Laurie, not yours."
Seething, Laurie grabs the pillow on top of Travis' head and throws it to the floor. "When we started this relationship, I thought you were mature enough to handle it! Now I know; you're still a kid."
Laurie turns around and storms out the way she came in.
-T-T-T-
"Well look at what the cat 'den drug in," Bobby says in his barely intelligible, extremely southern accent. "It's been a while."
"Yea," Laurie answers. "Sorry, I've been . . . busy."
Bobby nods knowingly. "So how's m'boy treatin ya?"
Laurie drops down onto one of Bobby's new lawn chairs. Her elbow on the armrest, she leans her head against it, giving off a sullen attitude.
"Not good I see," he answers his own question.
She sighs. ". . . Bobby, can I talk to you? I mean, as a friend, not as my boyfriend's father—if he's still my boyfriend."
"Sure."
"I'd talk to Jules about it, but . . . you know how she gets about Travis. And Grayson will probably go back and tell Jules, so he's out—"
"Laurie, you can talk to me."
She gives him a taut smile. ". . . I just . . . I'm at a loss. I've tried talking to him about what's going on with him, but he keeps shutting me out. He told me that it was 'none of my business.' Can you believe that? That is completely ridiculous! If he's that down about something, that affects me, and our relationship . . . I mean, in a relationship, you share."
Laurie looks at Bobby who looks unsure.
"Bobby."
"Weeeelllll—"
"Go ahead."
"Travis is a twenty-two year old man who's tryin to figure out how to be your boyfriend and be in college—"
"Well, maybe he's not ready—"
"That's not what I'm sayin."
"Then what are you saying?"
". . . Listen, me and Travis? We talk, a lot. There's just some stuff that he can't talk to you about. You're not friends no more, you're a couple—"
"And? I don't keep things from Travis. If something's bothering me, I tell him."
"Ya sure about that?"
Laurie considers what he's saying for a while.
". . . Well . . ."
"Exactly," Bobby declares taking a sip of his beer. "I'm not sayin he'll never share it with ya, I'm sayin you gotta give him space so he can figure it out. He loves ya, Laurie, there's nothin to worry about."
"So what do I do, just let him mope around and keep on making himself and me miserable?"
"No. Get him out of his funk! You know Travis better than anybody in this crew, you know what to do to take his mind offa stuff."
She shrugs. "I guess."
"I know! You got this girl!"
Laurie chuckles. "You got another one of those?"
"I surely do!" he exclaims digging in the cooler beside his chair.
He tosses it to her and she opens it.
". . . Thank you, Bobby."
"Glad ta help."
-L-L-L-
Ding Dong!
Laurie looks up from stirring her batter of red velvet cake batter with a grimace on her face. She's been baking since she got back from Bobby's almost 3 ½ hours ago. It's been slowly helping her relax, at a snail's pace nonetheless, but it semi-got the job done.
Ding Dong!
"Just a second!" she calls, slightly annoyed.
She rubs her hands down her light pink apron as she makes her way to the front door. As she opens it, she's surprised to find Travis there looking like she feels.
"Hey," he says.
"Hey."
They stand at the door for a while, looking at eachother. Not angry or anything, just staring.
"Can I come in?" Travis asks indicating the inside of her home.
"Yea," she replies opening the door a bit wider.
As Travis walks in, he gets a strong whiff of his favorite vanilla bean cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies he loves her to make. A small smile covers his face as he turns to face her.
"You're baking."
Laurie shrugs. "I bake a lot when I have stuff on my mind."
"Yea," he says, "I'm sorry about that."
She says nothing, just continues to look at him.
"I shouldn't have said it was none of your business; it is your business, Laurie. But I'm not ready to talk to you about it."
"So you're just gonna be in a crappy mood until you are?"
"No. I want you to know that it has nothing to do with us."
"Of course it does, Travis! If something is bothering you this much, it affects us as a couple. And I know it's something pretty big because this is what you do when you come to a life-changing situation; you sulk and brood and you're just pathetic . . . I understand that you're a 'man' and men do things different then women, so I'll let you complain about it for a little while longer. But I'm a pretty happy person, Travis, so I need you to know that I want take this for too long. Eventually, meaning soon, we're gonna sit down and sort this out like two people do when they're in an adult relationship."
". . . Okay."
Her face softens significantly as she's said what she's had to say. She walks up closer to him and grabs his hand. "I love you Trav, and even though we're together, I need you to know that that doesn't change the fact that you're still my best friend and that we can talk about whatever. You know me, I'm not an emotional woman, I'd like to think that I can be reasonable."
Travis smiles. "You can be . . . sometimes."
She smiles back at him and gives him a chaste kiss on the lips.
"Is there some kind of time table for my ability to sulk or something?" he asks after she pulls away.
"I'm giving you two more weeks. I think a month is more than enough time to be all broody. See? More than reasonable."
He chuckles.
"And after this, your gloomy days are over, buddy. We're gonna have to come up with some kind of other way for you to handle these kinds of problems. A way that I can handle."
"If you insist."
"I do . . . Come on. Help me finish baking and maybe we can do something a lot more fun afterwards, if you know what I mean," she says suggestively.
Travis' eyes light up at her suggestion.
"You're such a man."
Travis laughs as she leads him to the kitchen
End
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