3000 Miles (A Wesley Stromberg/Emblem3 Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten

It took a few thrown punches and a whole lot of reasoning to get Keaton and Wesley to actually sit down and talk, but when they did, their relationship mended in a heartbeat. There we were a week later, Wesley and I were crammed onto one couch cushion while Tyler and Keaton tried their hand at the most recent Just Dance. No one at work believed that I'd obtained a boyfriend, much less a known musician, but he'd made sure to surprise me a few times leaving my coworkers stunned.

Like he'd promised me against my wishes, Emblem3 was taking a break. They'd taken to recording and posting covers of songs online and sticking to their endorsement deals until they were certain bandlife wouldn't wreck them like it had. I was perfectly content being the off-camera girlfriend waiting with open arms for a photoshoot to end or a cover video to wrap up. I'd really only been back to my apartment twice since we'd returned from our little fiasco of a trip, purposely leaving things behind so I'd have more reason to come back in the morning.

"You guys are really bad at this," Wesley yawned, bringing his hand down on my knee. "Wanna take the dogs to the beach?"

"I thought we were going to test out my new camera!" I whined, holding up the beautiful DSLR that was hanging from my neck.

"You can test it at the beach," he insisted, setting his newest addition to his growing puppy collection on the ground and climbing the stairs two at a time.

"Can't you guys wait like two seconds?" Keaton called after him.

"Focus, Keat!" Tyler barked. "Arm up, arm up, FLICK THE WRIST!"

"Nope!" I laughed, scampering up the stairs after him with the dogs at my heels.

We leashed the dogs and made our way down the driveway past my new car, another 2002 Camry Solara courtesy of my apologetic boyfriend, and walked the two miles to the sandy shore. Once we were there, I brought the camera to my face, marveling at the crisp pictures it took.

Wesley removed the sunglasses from the top of my head and put them on with a sassy expression. "Get my good side,"

I laughed, snapping picture after picture while he picked up both dogs and held them to his face while he pouted. He snatched the camera from me, trading leash for lens, and began using up my memory on pictures of me with my hands in front of my face.

"You can't do that!" he said, moving closer to me as I turned my back. "You can't hide that beauty from the world, sunshine!"

"I can if I want!" I said into my hands.

"Fine I'm done," I heard him say.

Turning around to accept my camera, he took one last photo of me and put the device back in my hands. Out of nowhere, a pair of dainty hands put themselves in front of Wesley's eyes accompanied by a squeaky "Guess who!"

He whirled around, exposing a blonde who was slightly taller than me. She was all smiles and he was all wide eyes. The girl paid no attention to me, pulling Wesley to her level for a big hug.

"I missed you so much, Wesley Bear!" she cooed.

"Oh shit..." he groaned, trying to shake his head at me. "Hannah... it's good to see you!"

"I've been trying to call you ever since you left me that voicemail," she said.

The rest, I couldn't hear. I had turned to walk away, but he managed to grab my wrist and pull me close enough to hold my waist. "This is Malena, my girlfriend."

She looked me over, gesturing a manicured finger at me but addressing him. "When did we break up?"

"Back when I knew I was bound to fall hard for this girl," he said, moving his hand to the small of my back and beginning to urge me in the opposite direction.

"So that's it," she said with an attitude. "You're going to take a five year on-off relationship with me and toss it away for some girl you hardly know?"

"Oh trust me, I know her." Wesley said over his shoulder before throwing up a peace sign and leading us on our merry way.

"So you had a girlfriend when we met?" I asked, going through and deleting the pictures of me from the camera.

"Truthfully, yes. But I never missed her on tour. I dodged half of her calls and I may or may not have completely forgotten her birthday."

"That's awful!" I said, swatting his chest and carrying on deleting photos.

"No, no, not that one!" he said, quickly wrenching the camera from my grip and bringing my neck with it. "send that one to me."

"My eyes are closed!" I pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. You're so cute!" He kissed the top of my head and we walked on with his arm around my shoulder.

"So you realized that you were going to fall hard somewhere along the way?"

"Back when you ditched me in Florida," he answered with a shrug. "I called her from the convenience store and left a voicemail basically explaining how you were the type of girl I needed in my life--not the shallow hottie that she is."

"So I'm no hottie?" I joked, putting my free arm around his waist.

"You're more than that." he said with a chuckle.

I heard the laughs before I felt the ice cold water pelt my back. On skateboards, Keaton and Tyler sped past us with water guns and their tongues out. Equally soaked, Wesley handed me the dog leashes and sprinted after the cackling pair. I stayed where I was, taking pictures of the shenanigans and wondering what I'd done to end up where I was. With Wesley and the boys, I could tell I was going somewhere. Maybe I'd go from California to Chicago to Nashville. Maybe we'd pick up and fly to Japan and Switzerland. It didn't matter. I was with people who were on my timeline.