Chapter 14 Taking Small Steps

Randy

Back at home I was immediately greeted by my brothers, both eagerly waiting for my story.

'Well? What did she say?'

'It took some gentle persuasion, but she told me everything. Apparently it was all Lauren's idea. She convinced Britney that I was no good and that she had to break us up. So she did. Now she knows that Lauren lied to her, too and she's going to explain everything to Lisa tomorrow.' I smile proudly.

'Wow, that's great. Wait, what do you mean by gentle persuasion?' I smile innocently, with a devious glint in my eyes.

'Oh, nothing. Let's just say, I think Lauren will be hearing from Britney soon.' They both smirk and Brad high-fives me, while we go inside and celebrate with a good movie and some popcorn.

Next day...

I haven't been able to sleep all night. I couldn't stop thinking about what might happen today. How will she react to Britney's story? Will Britney even show up? And what if she comes to talk to me? What am I supposed to say?

Now, it's after noon and I'm still sitting on the couch, wide awake, thanks to the five cups of coffee. Yeah, I never used to drink coffee, but I don't have a choice since I've been having trouble sleeping.

I started watching Tool Time out of boredom, but had to zap away quickly. No matter how many cups of coffee I drink, I still fall asleep after five seconds of watching that.

So now I'm watching Oprah. So interesting.. I'm starting to fall asleep again, but as my head almost hits the pillow, a loud knock on the back door, wakes me up. I look up and I'm surprised to see Lisa staring at me, with determination and.. guilt? I get up slowly and open the door.

'Uh, hi..'

'Hi, Lisa. What are you doing here?'

'Uh, I need to talk to you..' She seems a little nervous.

'About what?'

'Oh, come on, Randy, you know about what. I know you talked to Britney.'

'Yeah, I did. Come on, let's sit down.' We sit down on the bench of the gazebo (A/N sorry, not sure what it's called anymore) and everything is quiet for a minute.

'Look, Randy, I.. I'm sorry...' She says in a soft voice. I breath deeply in and out. 'I know that's not going to solve everything, but I really am sorry.'

'I know. How could you just believe her like that? Why couldn't you at least try to contact me and just ask me about it? I thought you trusted me?'

'I did.. I don't know, okay.. I didn't believe it at first, but then Britney made me realize that it could easily be true. I mean, what did we really know about each other? We hardly told each other anything about our families. I didn't even know your last name!'

'Why does that matter? We agreed that all that mattered was that we loved each other and we could get to know each other based on us, not on our backgrounds.'

'I know that. But/... Oh, I don't know.. I guess it was just easier to believe her, since you still hadn't contacted me. I was looking for an answer and even though it really hurt, I guess it was better than no answer at all.'

'So you just accept her explanation without asking any questions? She told me the same things about you. But I didn't believe her. I tried to get in contact with you anyway, just to find out the truth. And you know why? Because I love you and I trust you. I did everything I could to prove that it wasn't true, while you get one phone call and you immediately throw our relationship out the window. I'm not sure what that means, but it seems like maybe Britney wasn't lying to me after all. Maybe you really didn't care about me.' I'm angry and hurt, but still feel slight guilt as I see her eyes tearing up.

'How can you say that! If I didn't care, why would I be heartbroken for three months after Britney told me those stupid lies about you. Yeah, it was stupid to believe it, but you have no idea how much pain I've gone through because I was convinced you didn't care. I told you during our last conversation how hurt I was. Why do you think I wanted to forget about us?'

'That's just it. You'd rather pretend "we" never happened than actually confront the problems and talk to me about it. That is just so unfair. You never even gave me a chance to explain or to defend myself. If I hadn't gone and talked to Britney, you would have kept up your little act and you would have been mad every time you saw me. You would have never talked about it, would you?' She doesn't respond.

'Exactly. You'd rather run away from your problems than try to solve them, no matter who gets hurt in the process.'

'I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...' She's quietly sobbing now, which brings out my sensitive side. She knows me too well..

'Oh, please don't cry, Lisa.. Come here.' I take her in my arms and she sobs on my shoulder. When she quiets down after I soothe her for a while, she looks at me with tear struck face.

'I know I made a mistake.. I am so sorry.. I never meant to hurt you, I should have known better. I should have trusted you...' She puts her head back on my shoulder.

'Yeah, you should have.'

'What's going to happen to us now?'

'I don't know, Lisa. This isn't something we can just step over like it didn't happen. It's going to take some time..'

'I know. Do you think maybe we can start over?'

'We can't just start over. I'd love to leave behind these three months, but I really don't want to forget about those four months we spent together in Costa Rica.' We both smile at remembering them.

'I know.. I tried everything to try and forget about them. But even though I thought you didn't love me then, I still couldn't help but smile somewhat at the memories. Of course it only hurt that much more because of what I thought, but still. I know it's going to take time for both of us, but at least now that we live next door to each other, we'll have enough time to really get to know each other, right?'

'Yeah. And who knows what'll happen. I mean, we'll probably become friends again. Even though that's going to take time, too. I mean after that, you never know what might happen. I only know that I'm looking forward to getting to know you better.'

'Me too. I really like your family. They've kind of adopted me already.' I smile.

'Yeah, I know. Brad and Mark say you're like a sister to them.' She gasps a little.

'They don't know, do they?'

'Actually they do. They found the picture you tore up and then they accidentally saw my tattoo and put two and two together. I guess they're smarter than I thought.' She playfully smacks me in the arm.

'Watch it, that's my brothers you're talking about.' We both look confused for a minute, before we both pull a disgusted. 'Okay, maybe I shouldn't think of them like that. Cause if they're my brothers, then you...' We both shudder at the thought of it. 'So, did you know we like the same food?'

'Huh?'

'We both like small pancakes.'

'You like those, too?'

'Oh, absolutely. Have you ever tried them with chocolate sauce?'

'No, I haven't actually.'

'Oh, wow. You have so much to learn.' We both smile as we continue to talk.

We are so engaged in our conversation, we don't notice the two pairs of eyes staring at us through the blinds as Brad and Mark smile.

Yeah, they'll be just fine...

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A/N Sorry if it didn't turn out the way you hoped, but maybe in the future, who knows? Btw, I'll be adding Lauren's pov in the next chapter. Thanks for the idea, I like it!

Hope you like this chapter and please R&R for another update, thanks!

Love, Baxxie