paper rings (l.h.)

30

"We've got the evening to ourselves," Luke says as we stand at the edge of the pavement, at a concrete oasis covered in puddles of rainbow oil and bodies rushing past us. He pulls out his phone, I stand closely beside him while my eyes still try to get used to the sunshine. "Tanner should be here any minute now."

"Tanner?" I ask, exhausted from a long flight, coming from a few time zones away seems to wear me out. I rest my head on his shoulder, his arm wrapping around me as I glance around at the sheer amount of people waiting here with us. I notice how they look away when I glance at them, and how Luke doesn't seem to notice anymore. I saw a few phones raise in our direction, a flash here and there. I quickly turn back around, to pretend like I didn't care just as Luke does. Instead, I watch as a black SUV just like the one we had back home pulls up in front of us. Just without all the dust on the sides.

"Tanner," Luke grins happily as he reaches through the open passenger side window. "How are you?"

"Oh my god," I hear a voice say excitedly back. "God, you look so healthy, boss."

"It's so weird when you say that," Luke laughs, stepping away from the passenger side door and watching how Tanner steps out to assist Luke with our bags. "Tanner, this is my girlfriend, Mary."

"Mary," he nods, taking a quickly glance at me as I lean against the car. I wasn't half as dressed up as everyone walking past me was, Tanner himself had a pair of dark sunglasses with the unmistakeable 'G' written in gold on the side. I suddenly felt underdressed, but I was too tired to care. "You're very lucky. Luke is the bomb, and one time he let me crash on his couch for like a month when my roommate set my house on fire."

I nod as I listen, my eyebrows raising as I am forced to process all the information at once. Luke shakes his head as he and Tanner stack the bags on top of each other in the trunk. "I met Tanner on tour with One Direction," Luke laughs, Tanner closing the trunk for him as Luke walks over to open my door for me. I felt my jaw drop, feeling butterflies fill my stomach realizing that my days in anonymity might be over now. "He and I used to share lines in the tour bus bathroom after everyone else had gone to sleep."

I slide in, watching as the two of them follow closely behind. We had grown quite a following, and although they weren't close enough to hear our conversation I still hoped and prayed no one else did.

"I'm 11 months sober," Tanner looks back at me as he turns his blinker on to begin the long way back to his apartment. I was nervous, I missed my Mom and Grandma already. But I felt Luke's hand grab mine, and I felt okay. "And counting."

"Congratulations," I say genuinely, sending him a kind smile through the rear view mirror. I sit in the middle, Luke far too tall for that seat, I must have been leaning my whole body into Luke's my eyes suddenly found itself taking in my surroundings.

It seemed cleaner on TV. There was trash in every corner, and it was loud with car horns and some new song that I was much too old to know. Luke laughed as he wrapped his arm around my waist. "What would you like for dinner this evening?" He asks, reaching up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Anywhere you'd like."

"I don't care. Anything," I say, mostly because I don't know what LA has to offer. Maybe I should have researched it a lot more than I did, but I came with a blank idea of what LA is other than millionaires, celebrities, and Big Birds trying to get you to take a photo with them just to charge whatever pocket change you had. I leaned into Luke, exhausted from the flight and the anxiety that had followed me here from home. I wanted him to myself tonight, to hide away in his apartment and stay tucked away just as we had been the past few months. But that's over, at least it is this week, and I should learn to share him. I don't really want to, though.