Chapter Seven

Finn's POV

Driving from Boston to Los Angeles had taken all of three days, with stops along the way to grab another energy drink and some cheap McDonald's combo of the day before hitting the road again. I had to get away, I couldn't stay cooped up in that house anymore watching them. I couldn't look her in the eye anymore, I couldn't stand the thought of them together and everytime I closed my eyes I saw them naked on Evan's bed. I had had to get away.

"Hey man you want a toke?" My buddy Steve Menard asked as he offered me a joint. I shrugged and took a hit, nothing in my life could get any worse at this point. "So why'd you decide to split town? Not that I blame you, Boston is soul crushing."

"I-" I didn't know how to explain myself without sounding like a pre-pubescent teen who'd learned her older sister had nabbed the pizza guy I was drooling over. Meagan had been right, I'd been distant ever since she'd gotten back but when I'd thought she'd left my feelings were scary. I feared losing her again and didn't want to risk it on some stupid relationship, I'd rather hang back and just relish in the fact that she was still there and she hadn't left again. And then Evan happened. Of course Evan wasn't scared of what mom or dad would say, he was Evan he told you what he was going to do and then didn't wait for your approval, instead he expected it.

"Girls got you all screwed up?" Steve Menard asked as he sat like a wise yoga instructor on a lime green padded mat in the middle of his crowded art studio apartment. I'd always admired not only his artistic talent, but how he much paved his own way in the world. He'd estranged himself from his accountant parents, and had been put in the Boston foster-care program at fourteen only to escape it at sixteen. With legal emancipation in hand, he'd loaded up his beat up VW van and driven all across the states working odd-ball jobs until he got bored and then just packed up and moved onto the next state.

Now at age twenty-one he was a successful Los Angeles artist with shows, sponsors, and a beach front apartment. I'd kept in contact with him ever since his three month stint at our house, and had always looked forward to hearing of his many adventures.

"Girl singular has me screwed up."

"Wait is it that military brat staying with you?" I nodded, and laughed a little at Meagan being called an army brat. "So, what happened?"

"Evan." I was glad Steve had had the time to experience Evan for himself, so I didn't need to launch into a brief life bio of Evan McGowan.

"Oh, he got your girl then? And doesn't even know you care?"

"Yup."

"What's wrong with you man?" Steve demanded incredulously. "Carpe Diem, Carpe Army Brat Babe!" I laughed again and rolled my eyes.

"Anyways, when are you going to show me around L.A? I didn't drive here just for your gorgeous face." I joked and Steve laughed as he took a drag off a cigarette he held in between his paint stained fingers.

"Tonight let's go out, we'll find girls ten times hotter than army brat babe!"

"Her name's Meagan." I corrected. He rolled his eyes and stood up throwing open his wood slatted blinds to reveal the busy beach below.

"Let's go surfing and then I'll show you the real L.A not the stupid media's tv equivalent." I nodded and changed into my swim trunks, grabbing one of the many surfboards Steve had lining his walls.

"What do you think? Fucking epic right?" Steve yelled over the loud bass booming in the underground club.

"Amazing!" I replied as I took a sip from the Jack and Coke Steve had got at the crowded bar. All around me were scantily clad bikini wearing waitresses circulating in the cramped club, and similar dressed local girls who Steve described as 'easy'.

Everywhere I looked I saw the same wavy haired brunette, but within a blink of an eye she was gone again and I missed her. I missed waking up every morning and seeing her in her room, playing with Ian and Caleb, going for jogs, hanging out with Miller, and breaking through Sean's stoic silence with some new motorcycle magazine. I missed the way she used to look at me through her eyelashes, blushing slightly as she tried to hide her face but I noticed. I missed Meagan.

I stumbled out of the club and onto the street earning a few 'hey watch its' from angry club-goers who I'd bumped into. I had to hear her voice if only for a few minutes, I had to tell her how I felt. I dialled the number with shaky fingers and listened to it ring.

"Hello-Evan Evan stop! It could be my mom!" Meagan squealed and my confidence evaporated. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Goodbye Meagan."

"Wait- Finn? Finn?" I hung up ending Meagan's sputtering on the other end. I stumbled back into the club, eager to find a distraction. The distraction I found was a girl visiting from Tennessee, who was short, blonde, and dainty the polar opposite of Meagan.