Wonderwall

You're the Only Person I Know

Everyone left to go food shopping leaving Pete and I alone in the house. "Here, I'll show you around," he said after things had gotten quiet. I followed him back to the staircase where he open a door I hadn't noticed before. It led to a huge finished basement spanning the entire length of the house. "I'm planning to make part of this into a home theater like I had in my old house. And I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest. This would be a great room for watching the game with friends, you know, if I was a real man who watched sports," he laughed pointing out the built in wet bar in the corner. "Oh, and that's the laundry room. But I don't do laundry either, really." We went back upstairs and round to the front of the staircase. "One of these is going to be a sitting room and the other is Hemingway's room right now," he said pointing to the room on the right side of the front door.

"Where is Hemmy," I asked as I followed him up the large staircase.

"At the groomer's." He stayed to the left of the stairs and went all the way to the end of the large hallway. "Sorry it's a mess, but this is my room," he said opening the door. There wasn't much in the way of furniture just a bed, nightstand, tv stand and chest of drawers. The bed was unmade and littered with papers and books. The floor was covered in clothes, cds, dvds, toys, posters, and there were still a lot of boxes that hadn't been unpacked. Pete got distracted by something on his bed and began fiddling with it. "You can come in," he said smiling noticing that I hadn't left the doorway.

I walked in carefully maneuvering my way through the mess. I walked over to the window, pulled back the sheer white curtains to peer out at the beautiful L.A. landscape. Under different circumstances I would have been ecstatic at the opportunity to live here. But Miami was beautiful too. My mother was beautiful...I took a deep breath willing myself not to cry again. I moved back around the perimeter of the room and decided to take a peek inside the large walk-in closet. It was mostly full of jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies. There was an array of Vans and Chuck Taylor's around the top of the closet with an occasional jacket, suit, and dress shoe. I looked to my right and noticed a small section of clothes that didn't belong with he rest...women's clothes...Ashlee. I hadn't thought about her. For some reason she seemed out of place among Pete and his life and his things but she was his girlfriend and I hadn't considered that she lived here too. "Um..Pete why exactly did you move? I though your old house was nice, at least what I saw of it on Cribs," I added.

He laughed, "It was a good house but Ashlee spends so much time with me I just figured we could use some more space."

I nodded, "She is ok with me staying here right?"

He looked up at me almost startle and took a minute to think of what to say. "Ashlee...doesn't exactly know yet. She was on a flight to Japan all last night and I haven't gotten a chance to call her today. But I'm sure it'll be fine," he said sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than me. "Come on I'll show you the guest room." I followed him back past the staircase to the complete opposite side of the house. "There are other rooms but I figured this one is the biggest and it has the most privacy. So it's yours if you want it." I stepped into the large empty room. It was only slightly smaller than Pete's massive bedroom and it looked even larger because it was completely empty. It looked to be bigger than my entire apartment back home. "I know it's empty so you can sleep in my bed tonight, I'll take the couch and we'll get some furniture tomorrow. You just might be the kick in the pants I need to get this house finished."

"Pete, really, I can sleep on the couch, you've done so much for me already. I'm just thankful that you're letting me stay here and for sending someone to look for my mom...I just don't know what to say." My eyes filled with tears again. Pete pulled me into him and hugged me tightly without saying a word.