AN: Woah, I totally lost track of time and forgot to update sooner. I'm sorry about that! Anyways here's the new part and as always, I hope you like it! Thank you for your reviews, they're very motivating and it's awesome to receive them! I thought I'd say that I really like this part of the story and the following chapters, just because what happens and what you learn. Leave a review if you want, I'd love to read it! Have a good day or night! And thank you for still reading, it means so much to me, honestly.
"The thing is that I'm staying with him so he might expect me to come home.." I trail off from trying to explain it to her and she gives me a warm smile.
"Go ahead and ring him, love. I couldn't tell you if it's the right thing or if it will only do bad, 'cause that's all up to you."
I get up from the comfy couch without a word and I tuck my hair behind my ear as I walk into the kitchen where I find the black phone and I pick it up. I nervously dial in their number and I tap my foot as my heart races while the phone rings.
"Hello?" a voice answers and I feel relief at it not being Paul's voice, but yet I still wanted to hear his that has always been so comforting as well as reassuring to me.
"Hi, George. It's me Courtney."
"Hey, love. Where are you calling from?" he replies in his thick accent.
"Um just a friend's house. Is Paul there?"
"Yeah he is, but he's upstairs doing something or other. He's been up there since he came home a few minutes ago. We were all surprised to not find you with him, but he said that you two had a row back at the restaurant where you were going to have dinner. Do you want me to get him for you?"
"No, no thanks. I just thought I'd call to tell him that I'm going to be staying at this friend of mine's house for the night, but I don't want to speak to him. If he asks though, will you tell him?" I answer the friendly guy's question as I twirl the curling cord around my finger slowly.
"Sure I will. I'm sorry about you lot's fight. Sometimes he can be a bit rough and he doesn't know it."
"Thanks, George. I'll talk to you soon then, okay?" I answer after he replies and I glance to the tiled counter that looks squeaky clean.
"Alright, love. Stay safe and I'll see ya soon."
I hear him hang up and I set the phone back on the hook and turn to look at Izzy whose brown eyes are set on the television screen as I can see her profile. Man I wish I was as beautiful as her. I take a breath and walk over to her to sit beside her and she flashes me a comforting smile and I look to the television as I bend forward to pick up my hot chocolate. I see a black and white tv show playing, and I realize that it's the old show 'My Favorite Martian'. I remember watching it once or twice on tv early in the morning when I couldn't fall back asleep and how there was a Disney movie with the same title that I really liked to watch.
"Popcorn or no? I could make it buttery if you like and salty too." Izzy suggests and I look to my left to see her looking at me with a questioning look.
"I'd love some."
"Great! Now how do you like yours? I love it to be extra buttery and kind of salty." she asks and I purse my lips at the thought. I haven't had popcorn in what seems like such a long time, even though it hasn't been hardly a week.
"I like it that way just fine." I respond and I follow her into the kitchen with my warm hot cocoa that I can finally drink without burning my tongue and I hop up onto the counter as she finds a black circle that has a wire handle and I immediately recognize it from when my dad used to make it for him and I. You gotta have the Jiffy-Pop experience.
She digs out a cast iron skillet to set in on the stove and then I watch her get out a plastic bowl and a dish of butter from the pantry. My parents always used to keep it there too so it'd be room temperature and you wouldn't have to worry about waiting cold butter to get soft enough. I fold my hands on my lap and click my heels together and she removes the colorful Jiffy-Pop paper cover to reveal the tin foil as the voices of the Beach Boys play in my head as I know the black record spins around and around too far for my eyes to see.
"You know, we're kind of strangers to each other.." I state after that came to me, but I've never really let that get to me when meeting new people.
"That is true, love. What would you like to know about me?" Izzy responds and she glances to me as the dim glow of the kitchen's light shines on her dark hair. I one time almost dyed my bright hair black because I got so tired of it and people's comments.
"I don't know... Like how old you are, what your favorite food is, your favorite color; those types of things little girls ask in elementary school." I reply with a smile and she looks to me with a friendly grin and then she bites on her lip while her manicured hand moves the popcorn back and forth on the heated pan's bottom.
"Isn't that how it always goes?" she jokes and our laughs mix with each other's and I soon hear the crackling of the cooking popcorn. This was always my favorite part; listening to it with the anticipation of getting to eat it.
"I guess so, Iz." I respond and then she goes on to tell me that she's 19 just like me, has one older brother, lost her mom in a car crash when she was eight, has always been pretty crazy about boys and just got out of a serious relationship around a month ago.
"I reckon that I've missed him so much - Ray - that I've been looking for company in other men. I know it's not right, but none of my attempts have turned out good. Just about each of 'em wanted to sleep with me, and just that. What hurt me most was realizing that they didn't even care about me as a person, truly, but instead just saw me as a body. Some men are sick." she mumbles to me as the corn kernels continue to burst open and the tin foil grows and grows into a big almost hump.
"What um ever happened with you and Ray? Y-you don't have to answer if you don't want since I know it's kinda personal." I ask and after a moment I realize what I was saying. I bet Paul felt the same way that moment when we met and he was wondering why I was sobbing on the side of the street, sitting on my butt and more confused than ever.
"No, I'm fine with telling you, doll. I know that you won't tell a soul, not that it's a secret what happened. Things had started to go bad for us a few months before we split and we just couldn't work 'em out, is what I've been telling people. The truth is that he was a lazy ass who didn't want much commitment and I wasn't okay with him sleeping with other birds behind my back."
"That's good for you. Us girls shouldn't let men control us or treat us like that, I think." I congratulate her and she gives me a small grin with her seemingly stained red lips while the popcorn pops and the window above the sink peers out into the darkness of London.
"I've been trying to tell myself that, love, but it was hard letting him go 'cause I loved him. I at one time foolishly thought I was going to marry him one day. Oh how dumb I was." she replies while shaking her head as her long eyes look down into the pan where the popcorn is almost done.
"You're not dumb. Sometimes it's what we think will happen and also because we want it. There's nothing we can do about what we want; we can't change it or our feelings. Two people have to be working at it if you want it to be a healthy relationship."
"You sound so smart, you know. Do you have a lot of experience with this dating business, sweetie?" Izzy turns her head to smile at me as I sip from the chocolatey goodness brimming in the dark mug.
"Not as much as I wish I did."
"What's that mean, darling?" she questions the meaning of my odd words.
"I was always the girl in high school who watched all those pretty girls land the cute guys. I never got asked to those formals or got roses on Valentines Day-."
"You always wished you could be loved by a guy, am I right, love?" she finishes my boring and sappy sounding explanation for me and I nod my head.
"Yeah, you're right. I dated this really awesome guy senior year of high school, but he moved and long distance didn't work since he moved to the other side of the world. Then I met this incredibly handsome man who could totally be a model," I stop to take in Izzy's laugh as I find myself grinning as the warm mug sits on my legs. "That lasted about a month until I found out he had cheated on me and ever since I haven't really had the most trust in men."
"I don't blame you, honey pie. There's never a sure way to know which one to trust and which one to blow off, except for taking the risk of letting them dig their way into your heart. But you know what I keep telling myself when I come home sad from a failed date with a bloke my friend set me up with?" she comments and shuts off the stove as the buttery smell of popcorn fills the air that already has music coursing through it.
"Hmm?"
"As hard as it is to have hope that's what I have 'cause one day I'll find a man who won't cheat or want to get up my skirt on the first date and who won't make vulgar remarks at me 'cause I'm a woman. You'll meet that guy too, even though you might not know it when you meet him and even though you two might argue a bunch at first and not be sure if you being together is the right thing. Every girl eventually one day gets the fairytale ending, sugar." she tells me and in a way installs into me this hope she speaks almost passionately about, this small hope. It's the kind that almost breaks you because it's hard to hope, and it hurts too.
I hop off of the counter and she cuts open the tin foil to release all of the steam and she serves the popcorn with melted butter and a few shakes of salt.
"About this man of yours, what's he like? I did tell you my story, darling, so now it's time for you to tell me yours." Izzy questions as we return to our spots on the velvet couch and she places the bowl in the middle of us. I groan with a laugh and she chuckles too.
"Just spill it."
"Fine. Well he's an older one, and he's extremely handsome. He has these eyes the color of caramel that are so easy to fall in love with."
"Aren't those ones always the best? The tall and dark ones are the hardest to pull yourselves away from though, 'cause they're so damn charming." she comments and I nod my head with my eyebrows raised like I know what she means.
"He is tall, dark and handsome with his black hair and he is mighty charming. I've only just met him though so things have kind of escalated, you could say. And that fact scares me," my amused smile switches to a small frown at remembering him and this thing we have going on, one that isn't working. "I really like him, more than I think I've ever wanted to be with a guy. Yeah, even more than my third grade crush who took me awhile to get over finally."
We both laugh and I sigh and pick at a button on the narrow cuff of the sleeve before I glance back go Izzy, "That isn't the only problem, is it, dear?"
"No, not really. He's a musician and because of that he's working a lot. His best friend doesn't exactly want us together, and I'm not sure if he honestly disagrees with what his friend has to say," I exhale a shaky, nervous breath. "Like I told you back at the restaurant: girls want him, and I mean a lot of girls. It's hard to compete with them and how much they adore him, and consider him theirs."
"He doesn't sound like he's theirs to me, Courtie, but more like yours. I can't imagine how tough it must be with him being a musician like you say, but he is a same old guy like the rest of 'em, you must remember. Wait, you aren't talking about Mick Jagger, are you? 'Cause I want that fine piece of ass to myself." she answers with her grinning lips and a laugh as we look at each other and I chew some of the hot popcorn. I swear things taste much better back in this time, somehow and I know it sounds odd.
"No, no, no, it's not him. I promise. You can have Jagger all to yourself, Iz." I respond with a laugh and she winks at me with her smiling red lips and I sigh. I feel like I haven't felt so light in some time.
"Good, 'cause that hunk is mine and only mine," she comments with her unique laugh ending her sentence and I giggle along with her. "But anyways you can't let the other girls get to you and you most definitely can't let them take him away from you. Sure they might always consider him to be theirs, but them keeping you two from being a couple is what they actually want, darling."
"I understand, that does make a lot of sense." I respond and she smiles proudly.
"I'm intelligent too, you know."
"I know, I know," I respond before my glad lips fall. I miss him. "I think he doesn't trust me all that much because I've been unsure of if we should be together and I think he's getting sick of it."
"He's human like the rest of us, and having to hear a girl you like say that to you is never easy. It's never something that any of us take lightly. But what you have to do, Courtie, is to show him that he can trust you and also that you want to be with him. That's only if you do want that, and if you don't then be brave and tell him straight up. Prolonging things always makes 'em worse, sweet cheeks." she comments and all I can think is 'I thought so'.
I don't reply and instead drink from my hot chocolate and let my head fall back to the couch and I sigh, "But what if it isn't right?" I ask her and I cock my head to find her small face munching on popcorn.
"The only thing that matters is that it feels right. Either it does, sugar pie, or it doesn't." she answers and I groan and run a hand through my hair.