wow! I can't believe it's been over a week since I last updated! I just finished my first midterm and I don't have another midterm until sometime next week. After that, I have my first midterm break that I get to spend at home (since I've gone to Friendship Games with my college API club these past 2 years). I have to admit that I'm really mad that Friendship Games this year is the week AFTER our midterm break.
I also have to admit that I'm still working on this story. I'm now working on chapter 6 and I'm not sure how long I want this story to be. I'm just writing and seeing where it takes me.
Like always, I don't own anything except this story.
Chapter 4: Our Future
A few hours later, I woke up, feeling a bit more refreshed. The last few days, I hadn't gotten much sleep, often due to late night conversations with Parker and last minute packing. What does one take to a Mars BioDome in Bolivia for a whole school year? I looked beside me and saw that Parker was watching a movie with his headphones. He must had detected my movement, as his eyes left the screen in front of him and took out one earbud. "Oh, Val. You're awake."
I nodded, slowly rubbing my eyes. "Yeah, I am."
"Sleep well?"
I smiled. He was always so concerned about my well being and health. It was adorable. "Much."
"That's good." His eyes flickered back to his screen in front of him. His eyes lit up with an idea. "Hey, I found that movie you've always wanted to see in the movie library. I'm watching it now. I haven't gotten far. Wanna join me? I can start from the beginning."
Before I could think about it, I managed a "sure" before he handed me his other earbud so we could watch and listen to the movie together on his screen. I gladly accepted the earbud and placed it inside my ear. I saw him tap the screen a few times before I heard sounds from the earbud. He stole a glance at me before returning his attention to the movie. We were silent to each other for the next couple hours, often stealing glances at one another.
When the movie ended, it was getting closer to dinner. Parker and I decided to make small talk instead of watching another movie. Before long, I saw the same woman who offered me a drink earlier come down the aisle with her cart. I noticed as she was getting closer to our seats, her cart no longer had plastic cups and cartons and bottles of drinks, like it did earlier. Instead it had black trays with plastic wrap covering the trays. So good for the environment. Hear the sarcasm in my voice? She hands me a tray and I accept it, handing the tray to Parker. She hands me a second tray and I take it to be polite. I tear the plastic covering halfway of the tray. I take a whiff and it smells pretty good. To the right was a little bowl of mixed, more likely steamed, vegetables. Next to it was a bread roll with a pack of butter. My eyes move to the main course, chicken. Great. Exactly what a vegetarian eats. I guess I'll have to eat the vegetables and bread. Hopefully, the vegetables taste okay. Too bad I don't have my blender and frozen fruit to make a smoothie. (This refers to Chloe's vlog "WHAT REALLY HAPPENS ON THE LIV AND MADDIE SET…" where Chloe makes a smoothie in the beginning of the vlog). Oh well. I'll survive. I remove the plastic wrap from the plastic utensils, ugh so much plastic, and pick up the fork to start eating the vegetables. They taste fine, just undercooked. They're crunchy and sitting in a bed of vegetable water. Not the worst thing but I've had better. I look at Parker, and he is happily chewing on the chicken. I made the decision of becoming a vegetarian during freshman year. It's been almost 2 years since I've eaten meat. When I finish the vegetables, I pick up the bread roll and start pulling it apart. So good for having vegetarian options.
After finishing my dinner, except for the chicken, which Parker was more than happy to eat mine, we went back to watching another movie. We had another 8 hours left on the flight. We weren't even halfway there! It definitely is the longest flight I've ever been on. We searched through the listings to see what movies we should watch. Nothing sounded that appealing so Parker had this random idea to look up "Liv Rooney" in the search bar, and sure enough, Skyvolt, Sing It Loud, Sing It Louder, Space Werewolves, and Bits and Pieces came up as the results. I had to laugh at that one. Internationally, Liv Rooney was popular. I feel lucky that I KNOW her and her family. I feel especially lucky that I'm dating her youngest brother.
Parker pointed to the screen in front of him. "I'm surprised that Sing It Louder is already on here. It only premiered this year and only finished the first season. The second season will start filming when Liv get back from Broadway." I was surprised with this fact. She definitely is a busy girl.
"Wow, that's really fast. Does it take a long time to put together a Broadway show and perform it?" I was curious.
"Well, she's doing the show for three months and then she's coming back for the second season." I jerked up in my seat and my eyes widened in surprise.
"Three months?" Honestly, three months didn't sound like very long, then something occurred to me. I leaned back into my chair. "Parker, we were supposed to leave for the BioDome in three months. I still can't grasp onto the fact that we didn't develop our relationship until a week ago. If we had all summer, we would have developed it more. Somehow our relationship now feels rushed." I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to look at Parker's reaction. Instead I felt his hand squeeze mine.
"Val, it doesn't matter if it has been one week or three months. How I feel about you now doesn't change how I would feel about you one week ago or in three months. Maybe I feel something stronger between us than I did last week or I want our relationship to be more than just stolen glances, reassuring squeezes, and light kisses on the forehead and cheeks. I really like you, Val. I really do but I want our relationship to become something more. I know we are both still new to this whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing but I want this to work. I want us to work." He sighed and closed his eyes to take a breath before continuing.
"Whenever someone would ask me about my future, I would tell them I see lab coats, Chemistry goggles, and my own lab. Over the time we've known each other, that idea changed. Now I mostly see you. I see us sharing an office at some university. I see early mornings and late nights of us trying to get a project done by the due date. I see us working together on a solution to a problem. I see us moving into our own place, an apartment in LA. I see you walking down an aisle, looking beautiful as ever. I see you almost breaking my hand after another contraction in the delivery room. I see us juggling to raise a little toddler and working as scientists. I see us crying at graduations and weddings. I see us living on Mars for a few years and then coming back to California to live out the rest of our days. I see us sitting together, reminiscing of all of our memories. I see us growing old together, with your hair becoming grey and hopefully I'll still have hair." I had to let out a soft chuckle at that. He took my hands into his and started stroking the back of my hands with his thumbs. "Val, no matter how far I look into the future, you're always there. You don't know how much you've made me happy this past year. I am so glad that you agreed to go out with me and be my girlfriend." (Okay, I admit. I kinda-sorta stole this part from a Ryelsi story I read a while back, though I cannot remember which story it was. I'll let you guys know if I come across it again.)
It took me a while to take in all that he said. When I finally realized what he said, I was so touched by his words that I started crying. I felt the same way. I wanted our relationship to work, no matter where we were. I remember Parker once told me that Liv and her current boyfriend, Holden, got together in Wisconsin but broke up sometime later, only to reunite in LA. They've been inseparable ever since. It kind of made me think of if the same thing would happen between Parker and I. Would we break up suddenly over something stupid? Honestly, I didn't want that. Parker Rooney was my first crush and my first boyfriend, but he was one of my closest friends over everything else. Sure, we started off as science rivals (and we still are very competitive with each other) but then a friendship developed. Then a friendship turned into a crush. Then a crush turned into a much bigger crush. Then a much bigger crush turned me into a stressful mess of whether or not the guy I like likes me back. In the end, he felt the same as I did and that only made us closer. Eventually, we saw each other almost on the daily and talked almost every night that I wanted us to become something more than just a "he-likes-her-she-likes-him-but-they-aren't-a-couple" relationship but neither of us were doing anything about it. It bothered me that we had that sort of relationship, I guess each of us was too shy to talk to the other about the possibility of becoming something more than friends. I admit that I was really shy when it came to my feelings towards Parker.
I was brought back to reality when a gentle kiss was placed on my forehead. I remembered I was on a 13 hour flight to Bolivia with my boyfriend of one week to live in a Mars BioDome for a whole school year. I heard his gentle words continue. "You mean so much to me and I can't imagine my life without you. You are an essential part of my life and I want us to work. I really like you, Val, and nothing can change that." Cue the tears.
"Oh, Parker." I sniffled. "You have no idea how much that means to me. You are an amazing friend and an even more amazing boyfriend. I couldn't have asked for anyone else. Heaven forbid that I'd get someone like Skeeter or something." The thought made me laugh. Not only did everyone thought I would end up with Skeeter, but him and Parker have become close friends, which is odd because a year ago, they were sworn enemies. Sound familiar?
I heard a chuckle coming from beside me. I looked up and saw a smile on my boyfriend's face as he tried his best to keep as quiet as he could. "I could imagine how you would have felt. What if you liked someone else?"
"Exactly my point. And besides, I did like someone else, though I was afraid he wouldn't like me back so I kept my crush on him a secret."
"And who, may I ask, is this 'someone else' that you liked?" He raised an eyebrow. Ugh. Boys can be so oblivious sometimes. I decided to play with him for a little bit.
"Well," I took his hand into mine, "I'll give you a hint. He's competitive, plays soccer, enjoys watching Lakers games with me, an amazing Chemistry partner. He really sweet and kind. He's got these mesmerizing brown eyes that I get lost in and a hand that fits perfectly into mine. He always knows the right things to say. He's one of my best friends and I honestly can't see a life without him by my side." I gave him a knowing look and his hand a squeeze.
"Well, he sounds like the perfect guy for you."
"He honestly is the best around. I'm so glad that he's like that. I'm hoping he likes me back," a smile growing on my lips.
"I'll let you in on a little secret." He turned his body so he was facing me. "Come closer." He gestured for me lean in closer to him, I obeyed. Our faces were inches apart. "I've had this crush on this girl for a while but I've been afraid to tell her. The worst thing is that she's one of my friends. I'm not sure if she likes me the way I like her." My eyebrows shot up and I let out a small gasp in shock as I leaned back and my hand made it to my chest, for dramatic effect. I looked around, remembering we were in an airplane, and quickly composed myself.
"Can you describe her so I can make sure you don't be left heartbroken?"
"Well," he paused, "she loves Chemistry like me. She's also really competitive like me. I get lost in her bright blue eyes and her brown hair frames her face perfectly. Of course, she gets confused between apple juice and fox urine," I giggled at this. He just had to bring that up, "but it's difficult to tell her I like her because I think she likes someone else and I'm afraid that they were meant to be instead of her and me. I know it sounds silly but that's just how I am."
I thought about his words for a second before telling him what was on my mind. "That does sound hard but I can assure you that she only has eyes for one guy and one guy only." I gave him a knowing look, my eyes twinkling. "And that guy," I paused for dramatic effect but taking his hands in mine and staring into the chocolate brown eyes I've been accustomed to, "is you." A smile grew on Parker's face as he leaned forward and closed his eyes. Before I knew it, his lips were on mine for a few brief seconds before he pulled away. My eyes flickered open to see his grin still there. I gave him a shy smile; I still wasn't used to the guy I liked for a year to like me back.
Yay! Finally a kiss! The second part was kind of inspired by a conversation between Kelsi and Ryan during "Love Profound" by fallinrain. It's from chapter 24. I let a lot of my inspiration from Ryelsi stories I read. THEY ARE JUST SO ADORABLE!
