The Beautiful Truth

// 158

"So it's official," I announced, walking into Alex and Micki's house and tossing their official Sundance passes on the kitchen bar. "We're opening at Sundance."

Alex Love turned around from the stove and Micki Love leaned over the counter to examine what I'd just thrown down.

"Holy! Yessssss!!!" Micki jumped down to hug me.

I laughed as she jumped up and down while I indulged her and half-heartedly did the same.

"Right on!" Alex exclaimed. "I can't wait!"

"Seth! Get your ass in here, we're celebrating!" Micki yelled to their sometimes-housemate.

Seth had been floating between Santa Cruz and Berkeley for the last four or five months. Alex and Micki had pretty much lived with him before they were married, so as he was around so sporadically, they'd never told him they wanted the house to themselves. He was either oblivious to the fact that they were newly-weds or he secretly really enjoyed their company, despite his constant complaining that they were 'being gross.' I had suspected the latter long before anyone's last name had changed.

"What are we celebrating?" he asked, shuffling into the room wearing sweatpants and a hoodie.

"Our girl's come full-circle," Alex explained. "We're going back to Sundance to see the opening of her film."

He reached out and theatrically posted up for a high-five in front of me.

I obliged. "So can we stay at your place?"

Micki and Alex laughed.

"You know that's the only reason she's inviting you, right?" Micki teased.

"Oh, whatever, little Love," Seth brushed her off. "SF loves me, too. She just has a funny way of showing it."

I grinned. "Maybe."

Alex turned his attention back to the dinner he was cooking for the four of us. Micki was still looking at me and Seth.

"No really," I deadpanned. "Can we stay at your place?"

Everybody laughed this time.

"Well obviously," Seth conceded.

It was just after Thanksgiving. I'd only been back to campus for a few hours before coming over to Alex and Micki's house for dinner. Those invitations had been overnighted to me in Oklahoma by Summitt.

I saw the rough cut of the film just after Labor Day. It still needed to be edited a little, but it moved me to tears. Probably more so because I was overwhelmed that it actually existed, but also because it was just that good. Hadley, Charlie and Jordan were amazing—nothing short of otherworldly, actually.

And the scene at the end of the credits—wow. Even though I complained that you could see me and Julian on the sidelines (I was mostly complaining about me, I didn't want to be on camera. Ever.), it was perfect.

"You know, I think that's my favorite part, too?" Julian beamed next to me when it was over. "I'm just mad I didn't think of it first."

So now, after many rounds of edits and a couple re-shoots on a soundstage, we were set to debut The Truth of It All at Sundance in January. All of my friends were going to be there—Alex, Micki, Seth and Chase (and Travis, if the Vikings weren't in the playoffs) were my guests. Dr. Bovich was even planning to make the trip for the opening in Park City. And in addition to the cast and crew, of course, Talyn was coming with Hadley.

Talyn and Hadley were happily together. They were that golden couple—two people who somehow made each other shine even more brightly. Yes, it had still taken me a while to get used to them, but in the end, I couldn't have imagined a better fit for Talyn. She brought out the best in him. He adored her. As much as I'd been in LA over the past four months, I saw them often.

The only person who wouldn't be there, of course, was Barton. I hadn't heard from him very often since that day I cried all the way home from SFO. I felt like it was best to leave him alone until he could handle talking again. I knew he was slowly mending his relationship with Alex and Seth, though—Micki confessed that the three of them talked on Skype every now and then, and Alex seemed to think Barton was doing better. That is, he wasn't a self-involved asshole, like he had been on the tour. That's all I really knew, though. He did send me flowers on my birthday last week.

I wanted to ask him to come to Sundance, but I'd checked his show dates—he was set to play in North Carolina the night the film opened. Yes, Barton was touring some small venues on the east coast.

Oh, right. And my dad and Amy weren't going to be there, either. Right now, Amy was in Oklahoma with Kerry. I think they had spent only a handful of days apart since their reunion in July. Amy had taken a leave of absence from Cal. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned up married the next time I saw them.

Speaking of, I'd asked Micki once, not long after she and Alex had finally resurfaced in Berkeley just before classes began, how they got there—how they realized it was time to get married, even though Micki was only twenty years old. Not that I didn't know they belonged together. It just hadn't occurred to me that they were thinking about getting married now.

Micki had just smiled and shook her head. "I was joking around one night, less than a week before we were set to fly home, and he was making me laugh, like usual. You know."

I did know. I loved the way they laughed together.

"I said 'Alex, we should get married.'"

"So you asked him?"

"No," she laughed. "I didn't ask him. I told him we should get married. And I laughed it off. I was just being silly. But he got this look in his eye and was like 'You know what? We should.' And a few days later, I didn't know this until afterwards of course, he called my parents--who, honestly, I'm still surprised they're so supportive...but I think after they met him and saw how good he was with me through all my issues last year, they couldn't find any reason not to be. So he and Seth went out and bought a ring. And then he came back and we went walking down the beach. That's where he asked me to marry him. Life's too short to wait, he said."

He had subsequently changed their flight, leaving Barton to fly home alone from Australia, and me to pick him up, rather than them.

"Eh, we were gonna find a way to make that happen anyway," she winked. "But getting married in Las Vegas was a pretty good excuse, no?"

It suited them. Being married came natural to them. I had to admit, seeing the people I cared about the most live in genuine love was changing the way I saw it. Love wasn't all about hurt and pain and dependency. It was about lifting each other up, and reflecting each other's best qualities, and being, again, singularly whole, but so much more than that when together.

"Hey, Alex," I began after we were finished with dinner and sitting around on the back patio near the fire pit with various drinks in hand. "I have a favor to ask."

Alex looked up from his glass of whiskey and cocked his head. "Sure, what can I do for you?"

"I need a song for the movie," I said. "I want you to write it."

Alex wrinkled his forehead. "Well—"

"You'd get to see it before Sundance," I tried to sweeten the deal before he could say no.

He smiled, then looked at Micki and Seth before turning his eyes back to me. "What I was going to say was, I can definitely do that for you, and I'm honored that you asked...but I think I speak for all of us when I tell you that the person you really need to ask...is Barton."

I bit my lower lip and sighed. I knew he was going to say that.

"You knew he was going to tell you that, didn't you?" Micki said, lazily sitting in her chair across the flames with her steaming mug of tea.

I smiled reluctantly. "Yeah. But I was hoping he'd surprise me."