Summer Rain

[15] Daylight

Dedicated to hunnybearluvscupcake, your comment really made me laugh. Thank you<3 :)

Raine's outfit on the side --->

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(Unedited)

I never wanted to stop,

Because I don't wanna start all over,

Start all over.

I was afraid of the dark,

But now it's all that I want.

~Daylight- Maroon 5

     "Holy shit, you got someone pregnant?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. "Um, sorry," I muttered when Jared stared at me with wide eyes.

     "Uh." He coughed and pocketed his wallet, then rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

     "Don't answer that," I interrupted before he could actually reply. "But I do want to know... Who? And when?" The girl looked about four, give or take, so I would say it was probably while he was away. I mean, as far as I knew, there hasn't been anyone around our age that had been pregnant in my town at the town.

     He sighed. "There was a girl, in Philly."

     "Like Philadelphia?" I cut in. Wow, new record, one sentence in and I'm already somewhat confused.

     "Yeah that's where we went after...." He trailed off and let the sentence hand for a moment. "We dated for a bit and uh-"

     I interrupted again before he could say it. "I know the process, don't have to explain," I said, keeping my voice light.

     He chuckled before continuing. "We weren't exactly careful so..." Another pause. "We broke up a while after and I left before she really started, uh, showing?"

     "Are you with her, like, now?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

     Jared shook his head.

     "Did she ever tell you?" I asked, eyes wide. They widened further when I realized how stupid the question was. Of course she told him, how else would he have a picture and know it's his daughter. "I mean, like, how'd you find out?"

     This time he laughed and nodded a little. "After the lawsuit, I went back to Philly. She told me, and asked me to watch Melissa for a little bit. She never came back to pick her up," he told me, his voice a little bitter, but at the same time relieved.

     My jaw dropped. "She just left her?" That... That's just... I mean I get that it's scary and stuff being a teen mom, but just leaving your child.

     He sighed and nodded. "I couldn't find her after. But I'll admit I didn't try too hard. She was a bitch."

     I winced. The poor child. I mean, growing up without a mom? That's gotta suck. I have my ups and downs with my parents but I can't imagine what it would've been like growing up without one of them.

     "Besides, I found someone better," Jared said, almost as if reading my mind. "She's also part of the reason I'm here."

     I looked up curiously, eyebrow raised. I resisted the urge to gape at his expression. Not the Jared's that cruel or anything, he just... I've never seen him like that. Ever. He looked unbelievably, crazily, straight-out-of-a-fairytale, glowing-eyes-and-huge-smile happy.

     "Her name's Hayley," he told me. It was crazy. Just thinking about her seemed to make his mood do a complete 180. Why does that name sound so familiar? Well, other than the fact that a million people probably have it.

     "Do I know her?" It was a long shot, but you know, the world's proving out to be pretty small. I mean, Blake being Shawn's roommate? Me running into Jared at the supermarket?

     He half nodded, half shrugged, almost as if he couldn't decide which one to do. "Maybe. She went to school with you and lived in the same town. Her last name's Wright."

     It clicked. "Long blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin?" I asked.

     He nodded.

     I leaned back in my seat, processing what I had just learned. Well, our town's not that big, so I guess it's not that weird. Still, out of the, what? Hundred or so girls around our age, it was Hayley? I hadn't talked to her for a while, I hadn't really talked to her after the Iced Caps fight, period. We hasn't really been close when I left. I had known her through Kit's Corner and with what had happened with Jared, I had stopped visiting Kit's Corner.

     Wait. That's probably how they met. Okay, things are looking significantly less weird now. At least, on the coincidences side. Him coming here, wanting to apologize and talk, was still pretty strange.

     "Why are you really here?" I asked after a couple moments of silence.

     He sighed and there were couple more moments of silence before he answered. "Closure." Closure. Yeah, I wanted that too, I guess. To let go of everything that had happened. But even after three years, I didn't exactly want to talk about it. And it's kinda hard to move past something like his without talking.

     "I don't know what to think. I don't think I can really talk about this right now," I admitted hesitantly. "I think I need more time."

     He smiled wryly. "I figured that much," he said. He grabbed a napkin and pulled out a pen. He scribble something down, then handed it to me. "I'm here for the next week. Call me if you want to talk." Then he stood up and left.

     I blinked. Whoa. Okay then. I sighed and closed my eyes. Well, at least that went better than I thought it would. When I opened my eyes, Kaden was sitting in front of me.

     "What was that?" he asked, his eyes trained over my shoulder, watching Jared leave.

     I shrugged.

     "Did he want you back or something?"

     I shook my head. "Not even close," I told him, thinking about how happy he looked and the way his eyes shone when he talked about Hayley.

     "You didn't forgive him or anything, right?"

     I sighed. "It's complicated."

***

     I found out Kallie still liked waking people up way to early. Twelve hours ago, at six in the morning, she had called to tell me my evening plans. So now my date with my blanket, popcorn and stack of movies was gone, and in its place was a date and a movie premiere. Kallie had said I had to attend the premiere for Kaden's last movie, but before that, we had to go on a 'date'. In public. I know right? It's gonna be awesome. Feel free to note the heavy sarcasm.

     A dress by a designer I didn't really know had been sent to me along with a hair and makeup team.

     It was weird.

     My hair and makeup were done pretty much every day for Call Me Cupid but I don't think I'll ever get used to the feeling of people poking at my face or random products being slathered on my cheeks. Luckily, it only took about half an hour. They had said something about going natural, so they could use longer lasting products, but I hadn't really been paying attention since it was all sort of like a foreign language to me.

     It was quarter to seven when they finally finished and let me look in the mirror.

     The first thing I noticed was the dress. It was a mini-dress, sort of metallic-y, but comfortable. The right side was dark blue, then mixed into a dark turquoise-y colour. It looked like someone had taken the fabric and kind of crumpled it, or made it bunch together. There was a sort... Tail, almost, on the left side of the dress, below my waist. It was made of the same materiel and hung down a little past the length of the dress. Which was just a little bit too short for my liking, but it wasn't unbearable, so I didn't complain.

     My hair had been curled and pulled into a ponytail, with a sort of bump thing at the top. Like they had said, my makeup was pretty simple, the most was on my eyes.

     Whoa. I actually looked Hollywood-Worthy. Yeah, this is the totally cliché moment where I stare in the mirror and wonder whose look back at me. I think I'm allowed though, since professionals were the ones who did all of it.

     "Thank you!" I impulsively hugged them. They looked at me strangely. Whoops, my stylists think I'm insane. They were still shooting me weird looks when they left. I turned to look at the shoes they had instructed me to wear tonight. Ivory heels. That looked around three inches tall. Oh no.

     Okay, so the question is should I put them on right before whoever's coming to get me gets here so I don't have to experience the pain sooner than I have to, or do I put them on and practice so I don't fall flat on my face in public? I didn't get the chance to decide.

     A knock sounded on the door and I quickly scrambled over to the box and slipped them on.

     I have worn heels before. Drama productions sometimes called for it. Still, most of them had been shorter than these. Plus, I would probably never get used to walking around in heels. Yeah, I prefer flats and converse. Carefully, I wobbled over to the door and opened it.

     Kaden stood there, eye glued to his phone. He was dressed in a black button up shirt and a dark tie that sort of matched the material on my dress. A dark brown leather jacket was slung over one arm. He was also wearing light wash blue jeans, which in my opinion was totally not fair. He looked pretty casual and decently normal and I had this chunk of fabric on my left side. I mean, how is it fair that guys can just go in a suit or jeans while girls have to wear these dresses.

     I was so busy mentally ranting about the unfairness of Hollywood dress code that I didn't notice Kaden had looked up. "Take a pictu-"

     "If you finish that line, your tie might just spontaneously strangle you with some help from me," I cut in.

     He laughed. "Hello to you too."

     "You can't pull that one on me," I told him, shaking my head, causing curls of my hair to hit the side of my face. "You're the one who start with 'take a picture'," I finished, trying to impersonate him by lowering my voice.

     Kaden laughed again. "Two things, one, I don't sound like that. Two, you look nice," he said after taking a quick moment to look me up and down.

     I blinked, surprised by the sudden change in subject. "Thanks, you too."

     "Ready to go?"

     "Depends. Is it cold out?" I asked, glancing at his jacket, then trying to see through the window down the hall.

     He looked over my dress again. "You might want to grab a jacket. Didn't they leave one for you?"

     "If they did, I don't know where they put it," I said, stepping back. I swayed slightly before managing to regain my balance. "Here come in, hopefully this doesn't take longer than five minutes." Okay, if I were a Hollywood stylist, where would I leave a bag containing a jacket?

     "Raine?" I turned around to see Kaden by the hallway closet, holding a bag with a fancy black logo on it.

     I took it from him and looked inside to find a folded up trench coat like jacket. "How?" I asked, looking up at him. As far as I know, Kaden's never been inside this apartment.

     He smirked. "I know where Hollywood people put things."

     I rolled my eyes and pulled out the jacket, then grabbed my keys and wallet, hoping that would be all I needed. "You say it like Hollywood's some kind of foreign country."

     "It might as well be with everything that goes on," he told me as he watched me lock the door. "Where's Bells?"

     I shrugged. "Out."

     "With Clark?"

     I shrugged again, focusing mostly on keeping upright as we walked down the hallway. Well, at least it's getting somewhat easier. "I don't know, is she?"

     "If she is, that would explain why he's not returning or picking up any of my calls," he told me, pushing the down button for the elevator. It wasn't until we got off the elevator on the ground floor that he spoke again. "Raine, what's going on with Bells and Blake?"

     I sighed. "It's complicated."

     "Are you going to answer that for every question?" he asked as we walked across the parking lot to his white Audi.

     I shook my head even though he couldn't see me since he was on the other side of the car. "Just questions that actually do have awkward answers," I told him once we were both in the car.

     "So do you know the plan?" he asked, pulling out of the parking lot.

     "Go somewhere for a 'date' then go to your premiere?" I said questioningly. It wasn't exactly rocket science.

     "There's more to it. The paparazzi have been tipped off on where we're going."

     I winced. "So there's going to be camera flashing all throughout dinner?"

     "We're going to show up there, act surprised by all the paparazzi, then leave. But go slowly enough to make sure at least one of them can catch up. Then we go do something romantic until the premiere," he explained with a grin.

     "Can I ask why we're doing all that?"

     He shrugged. "Gotta make it seem real. The restaurant's coming up. Act surprised."

     I didn't need to.

     The amount of people there was mind-blowing. As soon as we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, cameras started flashing. I ducked my head down slightly to avoid getting blinded.

     "How are we supposed to get out of this?" I asked, slightly louder than usual since it sounded like there were also screaming fan girls behind the paparazzi.

     "Hold on," Kaden told me.

     "Wha-" I didn't have time to finish before he slammed the car into reverse and backed out of the parking lot. "Well, as fun as that was, I never wanna do that again," I told him once we were back on a somewhat calmer road.

     He chuckled and checked the rear-view mirror. "I think we've for two following us." He nodded. "We can work with that."

     "So what do we do now?" I asked.

     "Well, there's something I've wanted to try for a while," he replied, a mischievous grin on his face.

     "You look Kallie when she has one of her evil plans," I told him. "What are you doing?" I asked when he took one hand off the wheel to start loosening his tie.

     "It'll be fine. I just didn't exactly come prepared." When he pulled up a stop light, he turned to me. "Turn that way." I slowly turned so my back was to him. A couple second later, warm fabric covered my eyes.

     "Kade, if this is some murder or kidnap ploy, you should've left out the paparazzi," I said, as he tied the makeshift blindfold behind my head. It was weird, not being able to see. It made me a lot more aware of all the other senses since I had lost the one I relied on the most.

     "Now, right, left or straight?" Kaden asked.

     "Really? We're doing that?" Our 'date' is going to be documented for the world to see and we're playing 'let the temporarily blinded person give directions'?

     "Pick one, Raine, people are getting impatient." As if on cue, a horn sounded from behind his.

     "Straight," I said quickly. "What if I get us lost?"

     "I have a GPS. Plus we have our phones."

     "What if where we end up is nowhere close to civilization of a restaurant?"

     "Then we find a McDonald's and go through the Drive-Thru." Right turn.

     "With the paparazzi tailing us?" I asked, snickering.

     "We'll tell them we appreciate old fashioned American food." Straight.

     "What if-"

     "Raine, don't you trust me?" The question was supposed to be light, casual, I could tell by the tone of his voice, but it still made me hesitate. I didn't know. I didn't know if I really trusted him. There was a time where I would've said 'yes', immediately, but it had been three years since that time.

     My hesitation turned it into a serious question. I chose my next words carefully. "I trust you not to harm me," I said softly.

     My answer was met by silence.

     And we're back in the 'Awkward' Mood. I wonder if he notices these things. Then, my mouth, being the little traitor it was, decided to voice that question before my brain could tell it not to. "Kaden, you know how sometimes, it's harder to talk than others?"

     A couple more moments of silence and a right turn before he answered. "Yeah."

     "Why do you think that happens?" My question barely came out above a whisper. I felt like I was always doing this, just asking questions that made everything awkward.

     He sighed.

     Another red light.

     A left, this time.

     "I guess it's because every time something happens, it's like we're starting over."

     Another silence, then. This one wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't pleasant, either. It was more like we were both thinking about other things. I know I was, I was thinking about what he had said. It was kind of sad, how true they were.

     "Raine?"

  I turned to look at him, even though I couldn't see him.

     "You know how I said you look nice?"

  I nodded.

     "I take that back."

I raised an eyebrow.

     "You look beautiful."

-READ ME-

Vote, if Jared surprised you.
Comment, if you think Raiden should just get back together for real.
Fan, if you kinda want to know what's going on in Kaden's head.

Teaser: "Kaden!" A girl exclaimed, launching herself into his arms. It wasn't until she pulled away that I realized who she was. Jillian King.
Update: Aiming for Wednesday. Latest Sunday.
Question: Does Kaden love Raine more, or does Raine love Kaden more, or is it equal?

~JJ :)