Lessons Learned
Catching Up
"Wow," Miley said, pulling away after about a minute.
"Yeah."
"So, where do we go from here?" she asked.
"I was thinking…your apartment," he said. Miley rolled her eyes.
"No, I meant, we need to talk in a more private place."
"Oh, ok, then, my apartment it is. Should we call a cab, I don't have my car," Miley said.
"No need, I have a chauffer," Jake said. Miley burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"
"It's just, I haven't had a chauffer in so long, that just sounds weird to me," Miley said.
"But, you're still famous," Jake said.
"Yeah, but, I usually get a cab or take my own car, hey, I'm a New Yorker," she said. "But I wish I wasn't," she mumbled just loud enough for Jake to hear.
"What do you mean by that?" Jake asked as she took off her wig.
"Jake, to tell the truth…I wish I had never left."
"If it makes you feel better, so do I," he said, causing her to laugh slightly. "Now, come on!" He grabs her hand and they head out of the building and into the parking lot where his limo is parked. They got in and gave the driver the address.
"Ok," the driver said. "With traffic and the distance, that should take about a half hour." They nodded, as the limo started. Miley was sitting next to Jake.
"Should this be awkward?" Jake asked. "Because…surprisingly…it isn't."
"Yeah, I know, you'd think after ten years it would be, but, it's not."
"Yeah," Jake said. "10 years, that just seems so crazy now."
Miley sighed. "Sometimes I wish I could just go back in time and redo everything, you know, been a better girlfriend."
"Hey, hey, look at me," Jake told her, lifting up her chin so she was looking at him. "I never want you to say that again. You made an understandable mistake. That by no means made you a bad girlfriend. Got that?" Miley nods.
"Also, we all wish we could go back in time, but, we can't rewrite the past, no matter how hard we try. We can never change the fact that you left, no matter how much we all want to."
"I want to so bad," Miley says, once again on the verge of tears. Jake puts his arm around Miley and pulls her close to him, whispering soothing words in her ear. He couldn't imagine what she was going through. I mean, sure he was broken too, but, at least he knew the whole truth. She had just found out about this and he couldn't imagine being in the position of realizing that the last ten unhappy years of your life could have been avoided.
"What do I do now?" Miley asked him.
"Your family was worried to death when you left Miley, they still are," he told her.
"You're saying I need to go back to Malibu? Fix my past mistakes the best I can."
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"God, I haven't been there in ten years, how's everybody doing?" Miley asked him.
"Well, about three years ago, your dad married this girl, Kim something, Jackson married Becca Weller…"
"Becca Weller? I did miss a lot."
"They have a six year old named Grace. Lily and Oliver got married about two years after you left. They have eight year old twins named Kelly and Christina and a three year old named Brian."
"Wow, I never really pictured Lily as the mother type. Do you live in Malibu?"
"Nah, I live in L.A., but I go down there every couple of weeks to visit everybody."
"Do they…umm…ever…" she trailed off, but Jake knew what she was asking.
"Yes, they talk about you all the time, good times, bad times, whatever,"Jake said.
"Do they hate me?"
"No, they miss you too much to even think about hating you, they all blame themselves," he answered.
"Well, they shouldn't, it was by stupid fault."
"Yeah, but, they still do."
Miley sighed. "Do you think they'll hear about the Hannah comeback?"
"No, with you and me part of this little 'family' we have here, they don't watch the news shows or read the tabloids, and The New York Music Festival isn't like the Oscars, I doubt they'll hear about it."
"Oh," Miley said. "I hope they can forgive me." Before Jake could say anything comforting to her, she asked a question that had been on her mind. "Do you forgive me?"
Jake thinks for a second. "Yeah," he said. "I do. I can understand what you were going through and how hurt you were." Miley lightly kisses him on the lips, without thinking. Wait, they had already kissed, but, could she do that?
"Jake, I'm sorr-," but he cut her off by kissing her, again.
"No need to be sorry," he tells her.
"Hey, you two, cut the kissing out!" the limo driver calls jokingly.
Miley busted up laughing. "What's so funny?" Jake asked.
"It's just," Miley said. "10 years later, and we're still getting caught by the PDA (public display of affection) patrol." Jake laughs too, then, out of the blue, he says:
"I love you."
"I love you too," Miley says without needing to think about it.
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