A/N: So yes, it has been 2 weeks and 2 days since I finished If Only. And yall began threatening me. o.o So I'm not totally evil. I did have this planned when I ended it. And You're Welcome. The story of If Only, is over. But, that doesn't mean the plot won't continue! Yes, here it is. The sequel to If Only. Love you guys, and don't kill me. Oh, and credit to Noel for the name which I think is totally awesome and very witty. Mainly because I know the back story of it all. Kay, enjoy!(:
Joey’s POV
Emptiness. That’s all I felt as I sat in the back of the cab staring out the window. How could I have been so stupid? Why did I decide to throw everything away that I had with her? Why did I give up on the girl of my dreams for the city where my career lived? Could it be that I was scared? I had told her I loved her. She had said it back. Never had I ever told a girl I loved them and had them tell me the same. They had always run away and broken up with me leaving me in pieces. But that’s exactly what I just did to her. To the perfect girl. My little princess. Lauren.
“Are you getting out? We’re here,” the cab driver said snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Right, right. Sorry sir.” I handed him my credit card and paid for the ride. When I got my card back, I stepped out of the cab, grabbed my bag, and walked into the airport. Standing in line to check my bag, I let my thoughts wander again. I thought back to the days when I met her in college. Her, at the time, short blonde hair framing her face in just the right places. Her piercing brown eyes scanning the class for anybody she knew. Her small hands typing quickly on her phone as she sat waiting for the professor. I knew she was perfect from the moment I first laid eyes on her. I knew we were meant to at least be best friends.
“Next!” I heard harsh voice of the lady behind the desk say.
“Hey buddy, that’s you,” a man behind me said nudging me in the back.
“Oh, sorry.” I walked up to the counter and put my bag down on the scale.
“Name?” the woman’s monotone voice gave me the impression that she obviously didn’t want to be there.
“Joseph Richter”
“ID please.” I handed her my drivers’ license and she checked it over. Handing it back to me, she typed something into the computer. My hands shook as I held my boarding passes in one hand and my phone in the other. She took the printed tag, stuck it around the handle, and hoisted the bag onto the belt for it to be whisked away. “Thank you sir. Have a nice day.”
I nodded and walked away, my backpack suddenly seeming extremely heavy on my back. It was like all of my guilt had been taken from my body and put into the backpack. I trudged on and made my way through the dreaded security. Luckily at practically one in the morning, nobody was there. I had booked the first flight out of Chicago, but that of course meant a layover in Dallas before I could get to LA. And a long layover at that. What had I really been planning to do? Yeah I was leaving in the middle of the night and yeah it was a stupid move, but what was I actually going to tell her when she woke up? I couldn’t tell her the real reason I left. It would crush her.
The wait to board the plane was short. As I sat down in my assigned seat next to a window, I could only imagine Lo’s silly faces she would make when sitting next to me on flights like these. Or how she would be half asleep in a matter of minutes. As the other passengers filed in, I imagined Lauren telling me a background story of each one who looked interesting to pass the time before she could plug in her headphones and fall asleep. I had waited for what seemed like ever before we were finally in the air and I did exactly what she would do; I put in headphones and fell asleep, my mind throbbing from the sorrow and regret that pulsed through it.
Lauren’s POV
“Lauren you have to eat something. You can’t just sit here for the rest of your life.” I had been sitting on the couch with my knees to my chest not saying a word since he had left. Julia had been trying to get me to eat something for the past hour. I shook my head slightly as she tried to put a banana under my nose. How could he have done something to me like that? One moment he is saying he loves me and the next he is leaving in the middle of the night! It’s just not something Joey would do. It was very out of character from him and this worried me.
“Lo, it’s almost 10:30 in the morning. You have to get up and eat,” Denise said as she came to sit down next to me. Both Denise and Meredith had rushed right over after Jaime texted them when he walked out. I silently shook my head again and kept staring forward. He didn’t even have the nerve to call. And then everything hit me.
“I should have known,” I said in barely a whisper, not moving my eyes from the blank TV that sat straight in front of me.
“What did you say Lo?” Mere said from my other side. Jaime and Julia ran over to squat in front of me.
“I said, I should have known,” I told them in a slightly louder voice. “Everything in my life was going perfectly. I should have known something bad would happen soon.”
The girls looked at each other with worry. My eyes flicked towards the door, down to my phone on the coffee table, and back to the TV. There was emptiness inside of me. Like every last energy molecule had been drained from my body and the rest of me had just given up. There was no hope left anywhere. Nothing could fill the hole in me. Nothing except him. I was just about ready to give up completely and finally fall back to sleep when my phone lit up and it began to ring.
“It’s Joey. Do you really want to talk to him?” Jaime whispered as she picked it up. I looked at her and shook my head.
“Not really. But please, put it on speaker. You all can yell at him. I just want to hear his voice.” Jaime nodded and pressed the ‘accept’ button.
“Lauren? Oh gosh I’m so sorry. I screwed up! I’m such an idiot and I’m so so so sorry for running away from you like that!” he said quickly.
“Richter why are you such an idiot?” Jaime’s tone grew harsher with every word. I could feel fresh tears behind my eyes. I swallowed hard and pushed them back.
“Huh?” came the confused voice. It was nice to hear him again, even if I was mad at him.
“How could you just leave like that? Do you even realize how much you have hurt Lauren?” Julia practically screamed at the phone.
“No, I don’t. Because I’m stupid enough to have walked out. But I know similar to how she feels. You don’t think I know I made the biggest mistake of my life?” the voice snapped from the other side.
“She has been sitting in the same spot staring straight forward for about the last seven hours since we finally calmed her down. She won’t eat anything,” Denise told him, her voice rising with every sentence.
“I’m sorry okay? Is she there? Can she hear me?” I nodded at the girls. He had the right to know I was listening to all of this.
“Yeah, she’s next to us on the couch. You’re on speaker,” Meredith spoke up. Even with her usually soft demeanor, her tone had certain harshness to it.
“Thanks Mere. Okay listen. Lauren, honey, I know I was wrong to leave you. I know I’m an idiot and you will probably hate me for the rest of time, but you can’t just waste your life away on the couch. You need to eat something okay? Please at least give me that. And just know that, I never planned for things to go like this. I want to tell you the reason I left but just not now. Not while everyone can hear.” I nodded even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Okay,” was all I could manage to croak out.
“Good. And Lauren?” I heard come through the phone.
“Yes Joey?” I asked quietly, silent tears beginning to fall.
“I still love you.”
