Helplessly; j.g.

Six

Rome coughed as she walked around Santa Monica Pier. With the week that they had off from work, she decided she could use a small vacation away from L.A. 

She'd considered asking Jack to come, but figured he would want to be with Johnson as much as he could. Her brows furrowed together as she remembered her conversation with Johnson.

She wanted to meet this Kayla person and get her to go to the hospital so Johnson could ask her out. Rome had been texting Johnson earlier in the day, when he was able to be on his phone, and asked what she looked like.

Brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin. Kayla sounded like Rome herself, now that she thought about it. Johnson had also told her that Kayla liked to go to the Santa Monica Pier every once in a while to look at the ocean and to get some space. 

Rome's eyes searched the almost empty wooden pier, trying to find anyone who could possibly be Kayla. 

Her eyes finally caught a girl sitting on a green bench, near the railing, looking at the ocean as the sun started to go down in the sky. Rome stopped walking, looking at the girl. Brown hair, brown eyes, tan. Could this be Kayla?

She slowly made her way to the bench and sat down on the opposing side of the girl. 

"We live in a gorgeous world, don't we?" Rome asked after a few seconds.

The girl's eyes glanced over to Rome before going back to the ocean. "We do. I like to come here and watch the sun set. It's one of the most gorgeous things in the world. To me at least," she replied with a small laugh.

This had to be Kayla. 

"I'm Rome," Rome introduced, holding her hand out to the girl.

She turned and shook Rome's hand. "Kayla."

Rome's eyebrows raised: she was right. "Kayla? As in Kayla, the girl who Jack Johnson..." she trailed off, seeing if Kayla would react in any way.

"You know Jack Johnson? Not the singer from Hawaii, but the cute nerdy one?" she asked.

Rome chuckled, nodding her head. "Yeah. I was actually looking for you, so I could take you to the hospital. Jack said that you come here every so often. I must've gotten lucky being here the same night as you."

"Why do you need to take me to the hospital?" Kayla's eyes widened at Rome. "Is he okay?"

"Yes, yes, yes, he's fine. Sorry, I made it seem like something bad happened to him. He's fine, but I just wanted to see if you wanted to come to the hospital with me. Jack G is already there," Rome offered. 

Kayla studied Rome, seeing if she was some sort of con person. Rome seemed nice enough, and certainly wasn't faking her personality. She was really like this. 

"How do I know you're not a murderer or a psychopath?" Kayla asked.

"You don't. But, as far as I know, we could both be murderers or psychopaths," Rome shrugged. "But I like to believe in people." Kayla nodded cautiously. "And I'm not a murderer or psychopath, by the way."

Kayla laughed and watched as Rome stood. 

"Shall we go?" Rome asked, gesturing to the entrance/exit area of the pier.

"We shall," Kayla nodded, walking with Rome to their cars.

An hour later, they pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and went inside, checking themselves in as visitors for Jack Johnson. 

Kayla watched Rome's movements carefully, still slightly unsure of her. She did seem like a genuine person, so she let her guard down a little. 

They walked to Johnson's room, Rome opening the door and stepping in.

"Jack, is Johnson awake yet?" she asked, seeing Jack sitting on the bed that was beside Johnson's, him facing Johnson.

Jack turned his head to the girl, his eyes lighting up instantly. "Um, no. He just got done with some therapy stuff or something," he mumbled, standing as Rome walked over to him.

"Well, I brought him a special visitor," she said, gesturing to Kayla, who was standing in the doorway. 

"Kayla, hey," Jack said, walking over to her and giving her a small hug. 

Kayla hugged him back, then broke from it and walked to the chair by Johnson's bed. Rome saw Johnson move a little and knew he was awake.

"We should give them some privacy," Rome whispered to Jack as Johnson's eyes slowly blinked open.

Jack nodded in agreement and followed her out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

"How did you find her?" Jack asked when the door fully shut. 

"Johnson mentioned her liking to go to the Santa Monica Pier, so I went there and took a chance and now I'm here with her," Rome said, smiling.

Jack ran a hand through his dark hair, letting out a long breath. Rome looked at him as she leaned against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. 

Her eyes followed Jack as he started to pace a little, mumbling some things to himself as he paced and looked at the ground. He really was a beautiful person, inside and out, Rome thought to herself. His perfect dark brows were pulled slightly together and his hands were now stuffed into his pants pockets.

Jack's eyes moved up from the floor to meet Rome's. She blushed and turned her head to the left, trying to make it seem like she wasn't checking him out.

"Look, Rome, babe, I know I'm attractive. You don't need to hide the fact that you think so too," Jack joked. 

Rome looked back at him and there was a small smile on his face. "You're smiling!" she exclaimed excitedly, pushing herself off the wall and walking to be standing in front of him. 

Jack rolled his eyes at her. "Not really, but sure, for you, I'm smiling."

"Why are you being so romantic towards me?" Rome asked, looking at him with concern. "Are you sick? Are you dead? Injured? Did someone inject you with some marijuana or something?"

Jack's smile widened at her questions. "No, but nice try with that last one. I quit drugs and smoking when Johnson got diagnosed. Decided I didn't want to go down the same road. To answer your first, and only reasonable, question: I don't know. You're making me feel some type of way, and I like it."

Rome looked at him, slightly shocked. "First, good for you with the whole drugs and smoking and whatnot. Second, glad I'm making you feel something other than depressed."

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word count // 1075 

crappy and dumb chapter. sorry lol.

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