A Summer Musical

🎶 Chapter 4 - Leaving 🎶

Howie's POV

Kourtney had been sitting with Ashlyn and Nini for awhile, and I caught myself looking at her a few times during my shift. She eventually noticed and came over.

"Want to talk, or?" She asked, leaning against the counter.

"Can I not look at my girlfriend?"

"You look like you need to talk, Howard." She said, adding emphasis on my real name to annoy me.

"I'm going out of town for... quite a lot of the summer." I told her, wiping off the counter which made her move her arms.

"Wait, when?"

"Tomorrow." I admitted.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I stuck at communication."

"Kind of an important thing to say." She pointed out.

"I was joking." I smiled at her. "Well, I do, but I only found out yesterday."

"How... how does that even work? You just randomly find out two days before you leave you're going out of town for... how long?"

"I'll be in town occasionally, just leaving town a lot. Tomorrow I'll be gone for about a week and a half before back here for the weekend." I explained. "Anyways, we weren't sure we were going, but plans lined up, so we are."

"Yeah, guess that makes sense. Where are you going?"

"Right now, to my cousins in Maine. Later just a few states and stuff, um... Michigan, Tennessee, Kansas."

"Okay, well... are you working tomorrow?" She asked.

"No, leaving in the morning." I told her.

"Keep in touch." She smiled.

"I will." I smiled back, leaning over the counter.

"Kourt, we've got an idea." Nini and Ashlyn dragged her away. So much for an attempt at a first kiss, but it was fine. I barely cared how fast we moved as long as we were dating right now.

Kourtney's POV

Ashlyn and Nini had left. Nini had gone to help her moms with something, Ashlyn leaving to say goodbye to her parents who were going on a business trip. I stayed to finish up our pizza, but I was enjoying the moment, regardless of the fact I had just my boyfriend was about to be out of town for most of the summer.

"What's up Kourt?" Big Red came over with a pitcher of water. "Water?"

"Yes." I nodded. "And not much is happening."

"You, Ash, and Nini looked super happy, what was going on there?" He asked curiously. "If I can know."

"Oh, we were just talking about doing a musical with Miss Jenn this summer for a bit of fun."

"That actually sounds cool." He poured my water. "I'll be right back, I'm off my shift in about 5 minutes." He walked off to continue working. Minutes later, he came back. "Okay, tell me more."

"There honestly wasn't much more, since Miss Jenn doesn't even know this idea exists." I explained. "But it sounds pretty cool, yeah."

"Then we should mention it to her, I think we'd all like it."

"Yeah." I agreed, taking a sip of water. "Now, be honest, did you only notice how happy we were because Ashlyn was over here?"

"I would've noticed it either way, but... I probably ended up looking over here more than I would have otherwise."

"You love her so much." I laughed.

"You and Howie do the same thing."

"We haven't even kissed, we aren't in love." I defended.

"Well, I do love Ash, regardless of if you love Howie."

"Um... yeah, that's not connected. It would be pretty weird if it wasn't."

"Okay, I'm not great with words sometimes." He laughed lightly.

"Ashlyn knows you love her, right?"

"Oh, yeah, no, definitely. She knows." He nodded.

"I wonder if Howie and I will even be together that long."

"It's only been about 5 or 6 months with Ash, and you guys have been dating for a few months now. I'm sure you will. He really seems to like you."

"Yep." I smiled.

"For the record, I called your relationship happening before it did."

"You've mentioned this before." I laughed, rolling my eyes. "Like, a lot."

"Just let me win for once."

"Fine."

"So the musical thing, we should mention it to the others?"

"Sounds good." I nodded.