Missing Hoodie

Darren awoke with a shiver. It was freezing in here! He thought to himself as he reached for his duffle bag from underneath his bunk and began to fish for his old U of M hoodie but could not seem to find it. Darren slowly got up to go search the lost sweater and noticed that all of the windows where open on the bus. So that's why it's so damn cold he concluded, as he silently closed a couple of them making sure not to wake his snoring friends. Then he remembered that earlier he was playing his guitar on the couch chatting with Lauren beside him who had his hoodie on. He said he was going to bed and she said she would too shortly. She must have forgotten to give it back he concluded. Darren quietly crept over to Lauren's bunk but noticed it was vacant. Maybe she was still on the couch?

He opened the sliding door and the sight he saw stopped him in his tracks and took his breath away. Lauren laid there on the couch peacefully asleep, wrapped up in his hoodie so calm and tranquil. He felt the butterflies fill his stomach as they always did when he saw her beautiful face. Truth is told he got butterflies whenever she did anything, when he heard her lovely voice, her beautiful laugh and when he got lost in her big chocolate brown eyes. Yes he loved her, more than anything and he always had. He hated to wake her sleeping form so he made the decision to let her have his sweater, he knew it was in good hands and he would rather her have it than him. And besides he would just steal Joey's blanket if he was still cold.

Then all of a sudden her eyes fluttered open and when she saw who was standing in front of her she smiled.

"Hey you" she said softly still half asleep.

"Hey" he said just as quietly so they didn't wake someone. She sat up slowly and ran her fingers through her long dark chestnut hair.

"Where you just leaving?" she asked and Darren noticed a faint look of sadness in her eyes but she covered it up quickly just not quickly enough for him. He noticed everything about her and nothing got passed him when it came to Lo.

"Yeah I came looking for my sweater but I found you asleep so I decided to just leave and go back to bed." She was again touched by how sweet he was, he never failed to make her heart swell and get tingles in her stomach.

"Wait no don't go yet" she blurted out stopping him. "I mean I'm up now and you know I wouldn't mind some company." She smiled timidly and he returned it with his signature big goofy grin while sitting down beside her. She snuggled up to him immediately and that was no surprise to him because Lauren was the biggest snuggler and they were snuggle buddies till the end of time. So he laid them both down and wrapped his arms around her so she could rest her head on his chest.

"I'm glad you're on tour with us" she mumbled into his chest.

"Yeah, I miss all you guys, especially you Laure" he confessed silently.

"I miss you too, all the time" her voice was so soft that if Darren hadn't of been right beside her he wouldn't have heard it. "It's not the same anymore, we talk all the time but I miss this, I miss us." She continued and he could feel a tear roll down her cheek.

"Hey now" he whispered "look at me" when she did he could see just how much pain she really was in and the anguish in her eyes broke him.

"You're always leaving Darr and you don't realize how hard it is on me, you're my best friend." Her voice was so broken that she couldn't finish.

"Lauren I am never going to leave you, not ever" he said fiercely, trying to show just how much he loved her. "Yes I do have to go to L.A. for G.L.E.E and yes it kills me to be away from you but nothing on this earth will ever take me away from you because you are always with me where ever I am in the world and I am not about to let you go." Their faces were centimeters away from each other he could see that she was still registering what he had said.

Before she could answer his lips were on hers. At first she was shocked that they were actually kissing but she quickly responded and kissed him back with just as much built up passion. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. She gasped at how incredible it felt, she had always had feelings for Darren but never thought he reciprocate them.

He couldn't believe what was going on, he was holding and kissing the women he loved more than life itself. Darren didn't take it any further even though they both wanted to. Instead he ended it and gave her one feather like peck.

"Darren?" Lauren whispered after they both got there breathing under control as she laid her head back on his chest.

"Yeah?"

"I'm tired." He let out a laugh, wrapped his arms protectively around her and smiled down at her. "That's ok"

"You're going to stay right?"

"Yeah no worries I'm right here."

"Promise?" She asked already half way to dream land.

"Yeah" he whispered as he pulled the blanket off the arm of the couch and wrapped them up in it. "I promise, forever and always." They both fell asleep in each other's arms dreaming of the kiss, each other and what the future had in store for the both of them now that they knew how the other felt. All they knew was that they would always be together no matter what.