After Kristen and I had an amusing moment struggling to get my bikini on, the three of us made our way out to the backyard where Kristen's pool was.
It was amazing, of course. The entire area was wrapped with a large fence so no one could see in and there was furniture surrounding the entirety of the pool for people to lounge on.
We all picked our spots and got settled in after Rob turned on some music in the house which played outside thanks to the surround sound system. The choice for the day was The Runaways which Kristen and I both approved of.
The both of us had decided on simple black bikinis. Kristen's top tied at the back of her neck and mine was strapless. Robert was wearing a pair of dark blue swim shorts and nothing else which I was enjoying thoroughly. I was thankful for the sunglasses I was wearing because he couldn't see me watching him from across the pool.
He would've been next to us but he had several interviews to do for the radio by phone because of the recent release of his movie Water for Elephants.
I took advantage of mine and Kristen's silence to think about everything I'd been avoiding thinking about that morning.
Rob and I had admitted that we had feelings for each other. I didn't know what to do with that. There were so many unanswered questions. I knew we weren't an official couple or anything. But, what were we? Friends with benefits who had feelings for each other? That was basically it at the moment.
I wished so much at that moment that he was normal. Of course, he was normal but I mean normal in the sense that he wasn't an incredibly famous person with an insane schedule that kept him from settling down in one place for more than a month or so.
When I'd told him that morning that it couldn't work, I wasn't lying. In my eyes there was no way for it to. It just seemed like an impossible situation.
"Whatcha thinkin about over there?," Kristen asked and I turned to look at her. She wasn't looking at me but I kept looking at her anyway.
I waited for a second before answering her, not sure if I should even say anything about it aloud.
Noticing my hesitation, she turned to look at me. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright," I told her quickly. "It's just," I sighed. "Rob told me this morning that he has feelings for me," I informed her in a lower voice, not wanting him to hear.
"He what?," she asked, her mouth hanging open after she said it.
I laughed and nodded. "Yeah. I was shocked too."
"Oh my God," I whispered, looking over in his direction then back at me. "What did you say?"
"I told him I had feelings for him too."
She grinned and tipped her sunglasses down to look at me over them. "I knew this would happen."
I laughed and turned away to lay back on the chair again. "Kristen, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing though. How would we make this work?"
"Easy. I mean, you have cell phones and laptops. Anytime you're apart technology can bridge the gap. If anything it makes your time together even more special."
She did have a point there. "I'm probably jumping the gun anyway. I mean, he didn't say anything about a relationship."
"Rob isn't going to tell you he has feelings for you if he doesn't want something from it," she told me as she rolled over so that she was on her stomach and she laid her head down facing me. "Don't stress over it. Just be happy and let it flow."
That was much easier said than done.
"Look, Michael and I have been dealing with this for years and we're still together. Of course, we fight sometimes like last night but we fix it. Everything is already fine with me and him."
"Did you talk to him last night?," I asked, turning to look at her again.
She laughed. "Hell no. I was way too drunk. I talked to him this morning. He apologized. I apologized. Everything is good," she paused. "Look, I just don't want you to give up on something before it even has the chance to begin. Nothing is impossible."
She was right. I was being so pessimistic, I was ending the relationship before it even began and she and Michael had been working through the distance issues for years but were still together. Why couldn't Rob and I do that?
"You should be a therapist," I laughed and she did too.
"I'll remember that if my acting career goes to shit."
"Talking about me?," Rob asked as he sat down on the chair next to mine and we both looked over at him and laughed.
"Nope," Kristen said as she reached down for her pack of cigarettes. "How'd the interviews go?," she asked as she pulled one of them out and put it in her mouth.
"The usual," he said as he put his arms behind his head and crossed his ankles. "They asked about the movie for about 2 minutes and then tried to get information about you and I for the remaining 8."
Kristen laughed as she blew smoke out of her mouth. "I'm not shocked at all."
"So, when are you two going to start this photo project that has taken over the living room?," he asked, looking over at me.
"Whenever Christy wants to," Kristen replied, looking at me as well.
"I'm ready whenever you are," I replied.
"I think we should start today," she nodded.
"I just want to see all those photos of you when you were younger," Rob laughed, looking over at Kristen.
"Oh God, I might have to kick you out for this," she said as she rolled over onto her back again.
"It's only fair," he laughed. "You looked at all of those of me."
"You were cute though."
"Aww, you were cute," I told her and she laughed.
"Thank you," she smiled at me.
"Oh my God," Rob leaned up, looking over at us with an incredibly excited expression. "In and Out burger."
Kristen started laughing and hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Seriously? You're obsessed."
"What the fuck is In and Out burger?," I asked, totally confused.
Both of them leaned up and looked over at me like I was suddenly growing an arm from my forehead.
"You've never had In and Out burger?," Rob asked, looking seriously concerned by this fact.
I looked at him like he was insane. "Um, no?"
"Oh, we're going," Kristen said as she suddenly stood up and Rob did too.
"Wait, what?," I laughed, looking up at the both of them as Rob offered his hand to pull me up from the chair. "We can't just go out. Can we?"
"We won't be getting out of the car. It's fine. Come on," Rob said as he leaned down and grabbed my right hand to pull me up.
A few minutes later, we were in Kristen's car. I sat in front with her and Rob was sitting in the middle of the back seat, leaned up between us so we could talk. Rob had thrown on a t-shirt and Kristen and I had put on some shorts, not caring what we looked like since we weren't getting out anywhere.
Most of the drive there was spent with us singing annoyingly loudly along to a Kings of Leon cd.
It was odd to be in a car with the both of them. So much of our new friendship had been spent indoors sort of hiding away since the paparazzi made it nearly impossible for them to go out and do much without being stalked.
We arrived at In and Out burger in about 20 minutes and of course, the line was very long.
"It'll take one person walking by and seeing us then posting it on twitter for someone to show up and start taking photos," Kristen said before taking a drag of her cigarette and adjusting her sunglasses. "I would shit myself from complete shock if we get out of here without it happening."
"It's worth it," Rob replied.
Kristen laughed and looked over at me. "He likes these burgers a little bit."
"I noticed," I laughed and looked over at him. He smiled at me and I was about to say something but the sound of a man saying Kristen's name made me look out her window.
"Are you fucking kidding me?," Kristen said as she pressed the buttons on her door to let both of our windows up. I heard the car doors lock seconds after that.
Suddenly the car was surrounded by paparazzi and there were flashes going off at every window. I looked around in disbelief. I'd seen this in videos and in photos but being right in the middle of it was just crazy.
"Welcome to our world," Rob said softly right behind my head and I turned around to see him with his chin leaned on the back of my seat. I gave him a sympathetic smile and looked over at Kristen who just looked livid.
Finally the line moved up and Kristen inched forward as soon as she was able to. The photographers followed, staying along the sides of the car as she pulled up to order.
"Who's your friend?," one of the photogs asked as soon as Kristen's window was down. He was talking about me.
"Dude, let me order my food, okay?," Kristen replied and I could tell she was trying quite hard not to sound like a complete bitch.
As Kristen ordered, the photographers were snapping pictures still, trying to look into the car to get photos of Rob. He didn't seem like he cared too much. He was still leaned up with his chin leaned on my seat. He told Kristen what he wanted her to order after I told her what I wanted and as we pulled up to pay, he leaned over Kristen with his debit card in his hand.
"Rob, you could've given it to me," she laughed as she leaned back against her seat, trying to give him room.
I quickly reached over and pulled his swim trunks up because half of his ass was hanging out. I hoped I got to him before the photographers managed to snap a picture.
"Nice ass," I laughed as he moved back to sit down and he grinned at me, not thinking anything of it.
Thankfully, after that the line moved quite quickly and we were able to get our food and head back to Kristen's house.
"I think she did pretty well," Kristen spoke up a couple of minutes after we'd left.
"Mmhm," Rob nodded after throwing a french fry into his mouth.
I turned to look at both of them, totally confused. "What?"
Kristen laughed. "We wondered how you'd handle an experience with the paparazzi."
"Oh." I shrugged. "I mean, it wasn't pleasant but I feel bad for yall more than anything."
"You don't care if your picture is all over the internet in 20 minutes?," Rob asked, looking over at me.
I shook my head. "No, not really. You guys have to deal with it. I can handle it. Did yall think I'd freak out and run away the first time a bunch of photographers surrounded us?"
"Pretty much," Kristen laughed. "Well, actually, I figured you wouldn't but I was scared that you might. If that makes sense."
"I get you," I nodded, understanding where she was coming from.
From what I understood, they didn't let 'normal' people into their little circle of friends very often for obvious reasons so I was as new to them as they were to me. We were all wary of each other regardless of how much we'd already bonded.
By the time we got to Kristen's house, Rob had already finished one of his 2 cheeseburgers as well as his fries. Kristen and I made our way straight to the living room and sat down on the couch to have our lunch since we didn't eat in the car on the way there.
Rob sat between us, bringing Kristen's laptop with him when he came to sit down. None of us bothered changing clothes and I didn't mind that at all because seeing Rob in those shorts was becoming one of my new favorite things.
Hell, who was I kidding? Just seeing him was becoming one of my new favorite things.
"Please tell me you're not going to try to find those pictures they just took," Kristen said after she took a sip of her drink.
Rob laughed. "Yep. I want to see."
She rolled her eyes and looked over at me. "He googles himself way too often."
"Oh shut up, you do it just as much as I do," he said as he typed in the address on the laptop.
I couldn't help but start laughing because I'd wondered before if they ever went to google and typed their own names the same way I'd typed them before.
"Here we go," Rob said, pointing at the screen. It was one of those horrible celebrity gossip blogs that posted awful pictures of celebrities with equally awful, usually untrue, stories about the celebrities they were posting pictures of.
"You've got be kidding me," Kristen said as she leaned over to look at the photo Rob had opened.
I leaned over to look as well and sure enough, there was a picture one of the photographers managed to get of all of us in the car. Kristen looked pissed. Rob was looking at me and I was looking at him smiling.
"What's funny is that it's a pretty good picture," I laughed and Rob did too.
"I was thinking the same thing. I'm gonna save this one," he said as he clicked on the photo to save it.
Kristen just shook her head and went back to eating her food. "They just piss me off so bad. I should probably put on a fake smile so people will stop thinking i'm such a bitch because I look so mad in all of those pictures but they really do make me mad so I can't just pretend."
"I don't think you should pretend to be okay with it when you're not. Fuck what people think," I told her. "They're invading your space, dude," I said as I used my hands to draw an invisible bubble around myself. "They're in your bubble."
Kristen laughed when I did that. "That's how I feel about it."
"I'd probably punch someone in the face so I think you're doing pretty well," I said, sighing as I put a french fry in my mouth.
Rob was busy emailing the photo of us to himself.
"You know what," Kristen spoke up again, using her fingertips to wipe the corner of her mouth. "I need some pictures of me and you for the wall," she said with a smile as she pointing towards the blank wall ahead of us that would end up being our canvas for all of the photos.
I hoped I didn't look as happy as I was to hear that. I couldn't believe she wanted photos of me to hang up in her house.
"I could take some of you guys," Rob said, looking up at the wall as well and then he continued to click through the photos of us that were being put on that website.
"We'll have to do that later," Kristen told me before throwing a french fry at me.
Rob saw it fly past his face and he looked over at me and laughed before he reached over and pulled it out of my hair which is where it had landed. Without hesitating, he popped it into his mouth. I made a disgusted face at him and he laughed.
"What? It's not like your hair is dirty. I'm the one who washed it," he winked.
I couldn't help but grin at the thought and I shrugged. "Okay, you win."
He leaned over and kissed my cheek unexpectedly and that grin I had from before couldn't have been slapped off of my face.
Kristen glanced over at me and smiled, taking great amusement in the sight of that.
Rob turned his attention back to the computer and I saw him lean in a little closer to the screen and then lean back with a strange expression on his face.
"What?," I asked, wondering what that was all about.
"Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were just spotted at In and Out Burger in Los Angeles. It appears the rumored couple had been swimming before stopping by the fast food restaurant because of their lack of clothing. As you can see, an unknown female was a passenger in the car as well and from the looks of these pictures, she and the Twilight hunk seem to be quite amused by each other. Especially since she seems to be close enough to Rpattz to help him keep up his swim shorts."
We all sat silent for a few seconds after Rob read the article out loud. I wasn't really sure of how to feel about it. I couldn't lie and say it didn't bother me because it did a little bit. I felt like they'd invaded my privacy as well even though it was nothing compared to what Rob and Kristen went through on a daily basis.
Honestly, they could've posted my contact information on the site and it wouldn't have stopped me from continuing to be friends with the two of them. Regardless of how short our new friendships were, I would have never turned my back on either of them so quickly.
"Sorry about that," Kristen finally spoke up, looking over at me with a sympathetic expression. "It kinda comes along with the territory with us two."
I shrugged my shoulders. "It doesn't really bother me," I laughed.
"It will," Rob said as he closed the laptop. "That could set off a 'Does Rob have a new girlfriend?' media frenzy and you'll be in the middle of it."
I hadn't thought about that yet but Rob was right. Just from a photo of me and him smiling at each other and a photo of me pulling up his shirts for him, whoever wrote that article already said that we seemed quite amused by each other and it didn't take a genius to figure out the meaning behind that. There was no telling what was going to happen when more people saw them.
When fans saw them.
"I don't think yall give me enough credit with this," I laughed. "It takes a lot to really phase me. I run a bar in New Orleans, people. I can handle crazy shit."
They both laughed as Rob leaned forward to sit the laptop onto the table. "We just worry, that's all," he said.
"I know," I replied as I pulled my hamburger from my bag of food. "And it's understandable but I can promise yall that I won't be running off over stupid paparazzi and internet gossip."
"Okay, okay," Kristen sighed. "We'll try to stop acting like parents," she laughed and I did too.
"I'm going to go get the camera," Rob said, a little too excitedly as he got up from the couch.
"Dude, you're not taking pictures of us stuffing our faces," Kristen yelled over her shoulder as Rob ran up the stairs.
"Ha!," he said loudly and it echoed through out the house.
"You bring out the fun side in him," she told me before taking a bite of her hamburger.
That made me smile but I had to wonder what she meant by it. Had he not been fun lately? Had something been wrong?
Of course, I was always over analyzing everything everyone said.
I heard Rob's loud foot steps coming down the stairs again and Kristen and I both looked towards them, expecting flashes to start going off as soon as we came into view.
Instead, Rob was walking down the stairs staring at the camera like it was some sort of foreign object he'd never seen before.
"How the hell do you work this thing?," he asked as he walked back into the living room. I noticed immediately that the camera was exactly like mine.
"This is the same camera I have," I told Kristen as I wiped my hands off on a napkin. I reached up for it and Rob handed it to me as he sat on the couch.
"I know. I saw yours in your room," Kristen smiled, remembering the time she took a photo of me and Rob while we were sleeping. A photo I still didn't even know existed.
"Okay," I said as I leaned towards Rob, holding the camera so that he could see. "You turn it on like this," I flipped the switch for him. "And since you don't know what all of these settings are," I told him as I pointed to the little dial on top of the camera that moved to different settings. "You can just leave it on auto," I clicked it to the spot and handed him the camera. "And you press that button to take a picture," I informed him, putting my finger on the button when I did.
"Oh! Cool," he said, looking as amused as a little kid on Christmas as he brought the camera up to his face and adjusted the lens to zoom in and out.
"Okay, I'm full," I said as I stood up with my bag to go throw it away. I stepped over Rob's legs and stood in front of Kristen. "You done?," I asked, holding my hand out for her bag.
I knew when she gave me the evil grin that something was about to happen and I was right because instead of handing me her bag, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me down so that I fell onto her lap.
"What the hell are you doing?," I asked, laughing as I tried to sit up but she wrapped her arms around my midsection and held me there.
I looked up right about the time Rob turned around with the camera, laughing as well when he saw it and he started taking pictures.
"Noo," I protested, laughing as I managed to sit up a bit and push my hair out of my face. "We have to at least look semi cute," I said as I moved my arm behind Kristen's head so I could hug her back since she was basically hugging me with her arms wrapped around me like that.
Rob snapped a few photos of us sitting like that and I finally managed to wiggle out of Kristen's grasp to stand up.
"You are a strong little thing," I laughed, taking her bag off the couch quickly before I got attacked again.
"Damn straight," she chuckled, leaning over to look at the camera. "I wanna see!"
"This looks like the beginning of a porn," Rob said as he turned the camera for her to see the picture.
"Oh God," I laughed as I walked into the kitchen, hearing what Rob said.
I'd just thrown the bags into the trash can under the sink when my phone started ringing on the kitchen counter a few feet away. I walked over to look at it, expecting it to be Antonio but I recognized that number immediately as someone else's. It was Jared.
I stared at it, taking a deep breath as I did.
At some point, I would have to face this because it seemed as though he wasn't about to back off.
My hand moved to the phone and I was about to pick it up from the counter when Kristen came walking into the kitchen with the camera in her hand.
"Look how cute this one turned out!," she said excitedly, stepping close to my side to show me the picture.
She was right. It did look really cute. I looked very happy. Happier than I ever remembered seeing myself look.
I couldn't help but think of how bizarre it was to see myself in a photo with her even though I'd been staying in her house for a few days now.
"It did turn out really cute," I told her as I looked at it. "I want a copy of that for sure."
My phone stopped ringing and I looked down to see the 'missed call' notification pop up on the screen.
There was no way I was about to let my past interfere with my present and possibly my future.
