So this chapter is a bit of a filler chapter but there is a lot of cute stuff with James and Lauren so maybe you won't find it boring. I might just find it boring because I've read it so many times. Like always, enjoy and please review!

Chapter 12:

"So L-dog, my boss Griffin called yesterday to tell me what he wants for your next song," my uncle says as soon as he sees me enter the studio. "So he wants a song that's about partying and it has the word Friday in it."

I raise an eyebrow at him as I drop my purse on the couch and sit down. "And I'm guessing you already have a song written?"

Kelly passes a pile of music to me as my uncle crosses his arms. "We're going to run through this song a couple times until it is perfect so get in the studio."

As I walk over to the recording booth, I can't help but question what my uncle was thinking when he wrote it. I mean, who thinks that a song with lyrics like 'It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday' is going to be a hit song? But I don't say anything as I enter the booth and put on headphones, knowing it would be a bad idea since my uncle gets so offended when anyone says something bad about his song.

Gustavo starts playing the music and I can't help but cringe a little as I start singing. "Seven A.M. waking up in the morning. Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs." As I continue singing this terrible song, I notice my uncle's expression turning to one of pain and he stops the song before I even get halfway through it.

I raise my eyebrows at him as I cross my arms. "That is one of the worst songs you have ever written."

"I know that!" he shouts at me and I raise my hands defensively at his outburst. "So help me write a good song! Sparks Fly was a great song and everyone has loved it so help me write this song for Griffin!"

I sigh as I take my headphones off and walk over to him. I lean against the wall as I cross my arms, knowing this is going to be a long and tiring process working with him. "So what do you think about when you hear Friday?"

"Nothing, it's just another day off the week," he says and as I raise an eyebrow at him he starts getting confused. "Am I supposed to think about something else?"

"Yes! This is why you can't write a good song about partying with the word Friday in it." I shake my head at him, wondering how he has had any good songs when he never goes out and does anything. "When I think about Friday," I start saying as I think back to what happened this past Friday and how much fun it was. "I think about having fun and going out partying with my friends. And also how you sometimes want to have those parties where you can't remember what happens because it's a blacked-out blur, but you're pretty sure the party was still awesome."

"What else happens at parties?" he asks as he grabs a pad of paper and starts writing things down. He pauses writing to look up at me confused. "And how do you know all this?"

"Personal experience," I respond and when I see him starting to get protective of me drinking underage, I point a finger at him and he gets shocked. "And don't you dare tell my parents about this or I will never write a song for you again." My uncle raises his hands up and shrugs, telling me that he won't mention it to them. "Now about parties. Basically they're about just having a good time, doing some crazy things, maybe kissing someone you wouldn't normally. And even if the last party is crazy, you still can't help but look forward to the next time you party."

My uncle stares off at the wall before he turns back to me, his face lit up in excitement as he jumps up. "I've got the song! It'll be called 'Last Friday Night'. Now let's get this song written."

As I leave Rocque Records, I can't help but smile in happiness over the song that my uncle and I just got done writing and recording. It's super catchy and I'm sure it can become a hit. As I hop in my car and start it to head back to the Palmwoods, I get a text from James and I smile as I read it, excited to be able to go on my first date with him now. Meet me at the Palmwoods Park when you get back.

I send him a quick text in response that I would before turning on the radio and I scream a bit in excitement when I hear Sparks Fly playing. I immediately roll down my windows and turn the volume all the way up as I start singing along, wanting people to be able to hear it as I drive back the short distance to the Palmwoods. When I park, I stay in my car to finish listening to the song. After it's over, I'm about to turn off the car but stop when I hear Ryan Seacrest talking about the song. "Alright so what you just heard is Sparks Fly by upcoming artist Lauren Rocque. She's starting to make a name for herself in the music business as well as the acting world. I saw her perform last week when she opened for Big Time Rush and let me just say, she's going to be one to watch."

The next song starts playing and I turn off my car, smiling at what I just heard on the radio. I skip happily into the lobby and Bitters glares at me but I ignore it as I head out towards the pool and to the park. Once there, I start looking around for James and find him around the same secluded area that we had taken Kendall to set him up with Lucy. He has a blanket set up with a picnic and I can't help but smile as I walk up to him. "Is this our date?"

He smiles as he wraps his arms around my waist. "Part of it," he replies before kissing me.

I smile up at him as he pulls away. "Then let's enjoy this nice picnic," I say as I sit down with him. He keeps one arm around my waist as he starts pulling food out of the basket and hands me a sandwich. I take a bite before leaning against his shoulder, feeling happy and content next to him.

"So how was everything at the studio?" James ask once he has his own sandwich.

"Good," I reply before taking another bite of my sandwich. "I helped my uncle write a song since he couldn't write a song for Griffin about partying and with the word Friday."

James laughs at this and I can feel his shoulder shake. He leans back on the arm not wrapped around me. "That's not the first time that has happened to him." We sit in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes while we eat our food. I can't help but be glad that we feel comfortable enough around each other that we don't feel the need to constantly be talking. "You know, I really like your friends from the movie that were at the party."

"Yeah they're all great," I say as I start thinking about filming the movie and all of the memories we made. "We're on big happy family."

"Jack actually told me that he thinks of you as a sister."

He leans back and pulls me with him so that I'm lying next to him on the blanket and I curl up next to him. "I forgot that you were talking to him. He didn't tell you any embarrassing stories, did he?"

"No," he says and I lift my head up to look at him and see him trying to hide a smile. "Okay just a couple. Like the one time people stole your clothes while in the shower and you chased after them through the hotel wearing only a towel." I groan at the memory of that time and James starts laughing at my reaction. It was one of the very rare times that I was actually angry with my friends. "But, he also told me about how badass you were when you were filming the fight scenes."

"Yeah that's right," I say as I poke him in the stomach. "So don't you dare mess with me."

He grabs my hand that was poking him as he laughs at this. "I wouldn't dream of it," he says as I stare at him while he's looking up at the trees. I run my other hand along the side of his face and hold it there, briefly mesmerized at how attractive he is. He looks over at me at this action before running a hand through my hair and pulling me towards him and kissing me. I smile against his lips as he moves back, smiling up at me. "So do you like your date so far?"

As I lay my head down on his chest, I pull him closer to me and he tightens his arms around me. "I would be happy with any date as long as it was with you." We stay like that for a while and I'm happy just to be in his arms. I start thinking about everything that's coming up lately and pick up my head to look at him. "So the premiere for The Hunger Games is in just over a month. Would you like to go with me as my date?"

"I would love to," he responds right away. "There's no way I would missing seeing you on the big screen." James kisses the top of my head before sitting up, pulling me up with him as I give him a confused look. "Time for part two of your date."

I help him pack up the stuff for the picnic, wondering what he could have planned for us next. We start slowly making our way back to the hotel while holding hands and I decide to ask and see if maybe he'll tell me. "So do I get to know what this next part of our date is?"

He glances over at me and smirks as we enter the lobby. "Nope, it's a surprise. But I can tell you that you're going back to your place and Rachel is allowed to give you selective details while you are getting ready."

I smile up at him as we wait for the elevator. "I can live with that." I pause as we step onto the elevator and he presses the buttons for our floors. "You're lucky I like surprises."

"I'm more than lucky for just that reason," he smirks at me as the door opens on his floor and he kisses me quickly before leaving and turning around to look at me. "I'll see you in a little bit."

"Bye James," I say as the doors close in front of him. As the elevator moves up to my floor, I can't help but smile as the doors open and I make my way over to my apartment.

As soon as I open my door, Rachel runs up to me and starts dragging me by my arm into room. "Finally you're back. We have a lot to do before you leave."

We walk in my room and I see on my bed is the new dress that Carlos bought for my birthday. I raise an eyebrow at it since it's a bit fancier and it makes me question even more what James has planned for later. "Am I wearing that dress later?"

"Yes, you are," she replies as she pushes me towards my bed before she starts heading towards my bathroom. "Get changed while I start getting your makeup ready for you."

I quickly change out of my clothes and carefully put on the delicate lavender, satin dress. I look at it in the mirror and I can't help but be obsessed with the high-low hemline and the gems around the higher neckline. Rachel peaks her head out of the bathroom and sighs before walking over to me and once again grabbing my arm. "Did I not tell you that we have a lot to get done? Let's go," she says as she pulls me into my bathroom and points at the chair. "Sit."

I sigh at her actions but listen to her, sitting in the chair and letting her curl my hair. She's silent for a little while and I can tell that something is up but I wait for her to bring it up because I know she will. "So on Friday I have to fly to New York for fashion week and to do some things for Victoria's Secret."

I start frowning at this even though I knew eventually she was going to have to leave. But I was not prepared for how upset it would make me. "I'm going to miss you. I've had so much fun with you being here and I don't want you to leave yet." As I sit there with her finishing my hair, I think about all of the fun times I've had with her and the guys over the past couple of weeks. I don't want them to end yet. "Hey Rachel, I have an idea."

She looks at me confused as she puts hair spray on my finished hair. "What is it?"

"Well why don't you just stay with me when you get back? You were going to be looking for a new place anyways and there's more than enough room for you to live here with me." I start smiling as I think about the idea of having her always be my roommate since it was something we always talked about when we were younger but our careers are different enough that it hadn't happened yet. "You can just leave whenever you have a modeling job in New York or wherever they want to fly you to around the world."

Her face lights up with a huge smile. "Really? You'd let me stay here with you?"

"Of course, you're my best friend," I say as she gives me a huge hug.

"Lauren, thank you so much!" When she lets go of me, I can see that she is in a much better mood now that she doesn't have to worry about leaving me for who knows how long. She starts putting makeup on me and her happy mood definitely affects me and I'm smiling as she gets me ready. When she finishes, she checks her phone and chuckles. "Oh I finished just in time."

"Just in time for-" I start to ask as we walk out of my room but I hear a knock on the door. Rachel hands me a purse already packed before she runs into her room, laughing in excitement over my date with James as I walk over to the apartment door. I open it and see James standing there with his hands tucked in the pockets of his dress pants. He's dressed up in a shirt and tie and has a jacket hanging over his arm.

James takes in my appearance and starts smiling before reaching out and taking my hand and spinning me around in a circle. "You look so beautiful."

He pulls me towards him then and kisses me. As we pull apart, I laugh in happiness, having been waiting for cute moments like this between us for a couple months now. "You don't look too bad yourself."

I close the apartment door behind me and we start walking towards the elevators. He takes my hand as we wait. "Please, I don't compare to you," he says as we enter the elevator. I raise my eyebrows at this, partially in disbelief that James Diamond just said he wasn't as good looking as someone else and also because of him indirectly complimenting me.

The doors open at the lobby and we make our way through and we pass Logan and Camille who both smile at us, Camille in particular looking excited about us being together. I look up at James as we enter the parking lot. "So based on what we're wearing, I'm going to guess that we're going out to eat somewhere nice."

"That would be a pretty good guess," he replies as we get to his fancy red car. He holds the door open for me and as I get in, he quickly walks around to his side and gets in. James starts driving to our mystery date location and holds onto my hand while I stare over at him and smile at how handsome he is.

James doesn't say much during the drive until he stops in one of the nicer areas of LA that isn't a tourist trap. I look around for a restaurant but don't see any nearby and I give James a confused look as he opens my door for me and holds a hand to me. "I figured we could walk for a little bit to the restaurant since it's so nice out," he says as I take his hand and let him pull me out of the car.

We start slowly making our way down the street and I take in the sun setting. I swing James' hand in mine and I discreetly take in how amazing he looks in the sun with his hair turning almost copper in color. I see him start smirking and I know he caught me looking at him like he always seems to do. "This is already a great first date."

He smiles down happily at me. "Well I planned it, so of course it's going to be fantastic," he says sarcastically.

I chuckle a little at this and shake my head slightly at him. As we continue walking, I look around at all the many advertisements hanging around us, a lot of them for movies and TV shows. I spot a collection of posters across the street that makes me stop right in my tracks.

James continues walking and gets pulled back by my tight grip on his hand. He looks at me confused, "What's wrong, Lauren?"

I point across the street at the large posters of characters in The Hunger Games, including one of myself, before I take off running through the crosswalk to the other side and drag him along with me. James is laughing at my reaction as I stop next to the poster of myself and jump a bit in excitement. I turn around towards him and point at the poster behind me. "Look, it's me, on a poster!"

James wraps an arm around me as I turn back towards the poster and look at it. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and I look over at him, a huge grin on my face. "Come on, let's take a picture of you with it."

"Okay," I agree as he moves back a little so he can get the whole poster in the picture. I point at it and smile for the picture before he walks back over and I loop my arm through his before we continue walking. I'm still thrilled about seeing the poster as we walk and don't notice him still on his phone for a minute. He's smiling at it and I get curious. "Whatcha doing?"

James glances up at me and smiles mischievously at me. "Oh nothing," he says before finishing typing and putting his phone away. He stops us in front of an Italian restaurant named Amici's. "Alright, we're here."

He holds the door open for me and we walk in. The woman working at the front smiles when she sees us walk in and asks if we have a reservation. James is quick to respond to her, "Yes, two for Diamond please."

She checks her list before grabbing two menus and leading us to a secluded table in the back of the restaurant. James holds the chair out for me and after sitting down I glance over at the menu. I raise my eyebrows at the very high prices and start feeling bad if he wants to pay for everything. "James."

"Hmm?" he responds with an eyebrow raised, still looking down at the menu.

"These prices are really expensive," I say right to the point, wanting him to acknowledge the fact that he took me to an expensive restaurant.

He looks up at me after I say this and smiles before grabbing my hand from across the table. "I know, Lauren," he says as he squeezes my hand. "It is not a big deal so order anything you want."

"Are you sure?" I ask him hesitantly because I always feel bad when people spend a lot of money on me. But he just gives me a look saying it is okay before turning back to his menu.

"Okay then," I say as I shrug before deciding what to order. After the waiter takes our order, I lean forward and take both of James' hands and smile at him. "Thank you for this date, James."

"You're welcome, Lauren," he says as he takes one of my hands and kisses the back of it. "Expect plenty of dates like this in the future because I plan on showering you with love."

I feel my cheeks starting to heat up as I lean towards him and kiss him lightly. His comment is making me so happy that we are dating. As we pull apart, I hear my phone go off in my purse and I frown before grabbing it quickly. "I am so sorry, I thought I had the sound turned off."

I see I have a text from Rachel and I figure it must be important since she knows I'm on a date with James. Go check twitter now.

I look up at James confused before opening twitter. "Why is Rachel telling me to go check twitter?"

"What? I have no idea what she is talking about," he says and it's obvious that he's trying to cover something up.

I shake my head at him as I check my mentions and see there is way more than usual there. Many of them are just asking me the same thing: 'Are you and James dating?' I raise my eyebrows at this before looking up at James who is trying not to smile at me. "What did you do and why are all of these people asking me if we're dating?"

James just laughs at this and refuses to say anything. I stare him down for a minute and eventually he cracks and tells me. "Well, I sort of might have, maybe tweeted that picture I took of you next to the poster of you."

"Well that's not too bad," I say before going to his twitter account to look at what he tweet. But I'm surprised when I see what he tweeted and I read it out loud. "'Can't wait to see my girl laurenrocque in The Hunger Games next month!'" I pause to see him smirking at me, seeming so proud of what he's done. So I decide to try and mess with him by pretending to be serious and upset. "You tweeted that I'm 'your girl' without even asking me?"

James believes that I'm upset about this and almost makes me start laughing but luckily I'm a good enough actress that I can keep it together. He grabs my free hand as he frowns. "Hey, is that a problem? Because I can go delete that tweet if you want me to."

I start at him for a minute, enjoying the fact that I have him fooled. But I soon start smiling and he realizes it was a joke and shakes his head at me but he can't help but laugh a little. "Of course it isn't a problem, James. Actually, I kind of like the sound of that."

"What, you being my girl?" He asks somewhat seriously and I can tell he's wanting to know exactly what makes me happy.

"Exactly that," I respond before leaning across the table and kissing him. We pull apart and I smile a little at him. "How did I end up getting so lucky to have you as my boyfriend?"

"I ask myself that too," he pauses as I start laughing. "Well, how lucky I got to have you as my girlfriend." He starts laughing lightly at this as the waiter brings over our food and sets the plates down in front of us. James picks up his fork to start eating and takes a huge bite as I start tweeting something. "What are you doing now?"

"Just tweeting that yes, you are my boyfriend so that people stop spamming my mentions asking that," I say as I hit send and put my phone away. I look up at him and smile. "Now, let's enjoy this delicious food, shall we?"

I clutch my stomach as we walk into my apartment, feeling like my stomach is going to explode. "Ugh, I hate way too much food," I groan as I sit down on the couch.

I stretch out on the couch as James walks over and lies down next to me. He wraps his arms around me and I place my head on his shoulder. "I tried telling you that you didn't have to eat everything and we could have brought home leftovers. But you didn't want to listen to me."

"But it was so good that I couldn't leave any, even if it was going home with us." I cuddle up closer to him and smile. "It's all better now."

"And why is that?" He asks and I can hear the smile in his voice as he starts running his hand through my hair. I sigh in contentment at this, loving the feeling of having physical contact with someone.

"Because I'm lying next to probably the sweetest boyfriend ever," I say before I tilt up my head to smile at him. He leans in the short distance between us and kisses me lightly and with no rush.

"Aww, you two are so adorable," I hear Rachel say.

I pull away from James to look over her, annoyed at her interrupting us. "Rachel, can't you leave or something?"

She laughs at my reaction as she grabs her purse from the counter. "I was actually just getting ready to leave to go hang out with Carlos."

"Hey, don't go stealing my best friend!" I jokingly say as I pull myself up to look over the back of the couch at her. I glance over the clock and raise my eyebrows when I see what time it is. "Why are you going to hang out with Carlos at almost 10 at night?"

I can see the faintest hint of pink on her cheeks as she looks down smiling and I start questioning if maybe she's developing feelings towards him. "Well, him and the other guys are bored since you and James are too busy being all adorable and happy together. So they invited me over."

"Okay, well, have fun," I say as she walks over to the door and waves bye over her shoulder at me. I turn back to James and lay down on his chest, briefly wondering if anything is happening between Rachel and Carlos. But I forget about it since she would tell me about it. I listen to James' heart beating and feel the rising of his chest. The steady beat and the feeling of him rubbing his hand through my hair starts to lull me to sleep.

"Hey Lauren?" James asks quietly after a while.

"Hmm," I say, having almost been asleep.

"Do you want me to take you to your bed so you can go to sleep?" He asks me quietly and tries not to disturb me.

I shake my head and hold on to him tighter. "No, right here is comfy. Can't you just stay the night?"

James kisses the top of my head before slowly sitting up and lifting me up in his arms. I look up at him confused as he starts walking towards my room. "Of course I'll stay over but we're not sleeping on your couch." He gently sets me down on my bed before grabbing my shoes and taking them off, throwing them on to my floor.

"What are you doing James?" I ask him as he takes off his own shoes and starts undoing his belt. His actions have me wide awake and I have no idea what he's doing.

James just chuckles at this. "I'm not sleeping in my dress clothes. Now, do you still have some of my shorts and t-shirts here?" I nod and point over to one of my dressers. He grabs the clothes as I sit up and realize I should also get changed so I don't ruin the dress Carlos bought for me.

I walk over to the dresser and grab pajamas and when I turn around, James is only in his boxers. My eyes widen as I look over his bare chest and I know my face is probably bright red. I look at his face and see he's smirking at me before I take off running into my bathroom, not prepared at all to see him shirtless. Closing the door behind me, I try to take a deep breath and calm down over the sight of him shirtless. I've seen him shirtless before but this time was different because then I couldn't do anything. But now that I'm dating him, it's hard to resist the toned muscles that he has and not kiss him right then and there.

I take a deep breath before changing out of my dress and putting my pajamas on. Then I slowly open the bathroom door, hoping that he won't still be mostly naked. When I see him on the bed, fully clothed, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and open the door all the way before walking out to him. He's trying not to laugh as he smirks while I walk over to him and crawl into bed next to him.

James wraps his arms around me and pulls me close to him. I put my head on his chest and I can hear the rumble of him finally laughing at me. "So want to explain what all of that was about?"

I try to think about how to respond to him for a minute. "Basically, I was not expecting you to be shirtless and I had to try to control myself from jumping you."

I'm suddenly flipped over and James is hovering over me, pressing some of his weight on me. His face is only a couple inches above of mine and as I stare up at him, I can see desire in his eyes. My face heats up as I want him to kiss me and take control. He slowly leans down and very lightly presses his lips to mine and lingers there before rolling back over and laughing.

As I look at him, flustered by his actions I start getting a little annoyed at how he affected me so much and then didn't even keep kissing me. "What was that for?"

James just laughs as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me back towards him. "Oh nothing, just giving you a little taste of what you missed out on because you ran into the bathroom instead of just making out with me."

I shake my head at him as I put my arms around him, still feeling a little flustered about him being on top of me. I'm sure he's aware of the affect that he has on me. As I try to fall asleep, I can't help but be caught up in thoughts of James shirtless and taking control. If I didn't learn how to control myself around him soon, it is going to end up being very emotionally challenging dating James.