Run Away

Chapter 17

"Time to explore New York!" Robbie's voice wakes me up.

I laugh and look over at my clock, "It's eleven o' clock that's way too early.

"That's not early!" he laughs.

"Well it's early for me." I playfully roll my eyes and smile.

"I'm just excited!" his eyes light up like a little kid.

My lips curve into a smile, "okay give me twenty minutes and we can leave."

I slowly get out of bed and get dressed and ready to start the day. Twenty minutes go by and I see Robbie standing there with a picnic basket.

"I thought we could go to Central Park for lunch."

"Sounds great!"

We walk to Central Park as his hands are locked with mine. Swinging back and forth in a synchronized beat. He finds a perfect place to have our little picnic.

"This is so sweet." I smile as I open the basket seeing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some chocolate covered strawberries.

"Well, let's eat I'm hungry." he says.

I take a tiny bite of my sandwich and stop and freeze.

"Is everything all right, love?"

"Yeah." I gulp, "It's just something I remembered."

"What's that?" he gives me a puzzled look.

"I forgot we have the rehearsal dinner tonight." I sigh, "I just don't know how I can face them all."

"Don't focus on that right now. Just live in the now."

"I know I'm sorry I'm trying to ruin this because what you did was so amazing and cute. I just am so nervous. And I shouldn't care what they think but I do." I ramble on.

"It will be okay. Trust me."

I nod my head, "Okay." a smile grows back on my face.

"Look at that cloud." he lays down on the blanket and points up at the sky.

I lay next to him resting my head on his chest, "It looks like a heart. Well sort of. If you turn your head a certain way." I laugh.

"Whaat? Looks more like a fish!" he lets out a laugh.

I squint my eyes and turn my head to look at it in a new way, "hm... I sort of see it but it looks more like a heart that fish." I look at him and stare into his emerald eyes. "What are we?"

"What do you mean, love?" Robbie sits up and gives me a look.

"Relationship wise? Is this going to go anywhere? Are we just going to be friends? What are we?"

"I hope this goes somewhere. I really like you. Why are you thinking about this?"

"I was just wondering. If you had to label us. What would you label us as?"

"Dating." he smiles, "are you happy with that?"

"Just as long as you didn't label us as friends because we're way past that." I laugh.

"I really don't care about labels that much. If I'm with you I'm happy." he says.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at clouds and exploring the park. Everything we did was so cliché and I didn't mind it.

__________

I take a deep breathe and Robbie grabs my hand.

"You'll be fine. Just smile along."

I nod, "You're right. I can do this." My stomachs in knots as I walk into the venue. As soon as I step inside I feel like all eyes were on me and that you could practically see the tension.

Grace walks up to me, "Hi Serena! Glad you could make it." she hugs me and everything seems to go back to normal.

"Yeah me too." I give an awkward smile.

"The buffets over there." she points, "and you can find your seating placement over there." She turns to Robbie, "You must be Robbie! Serena told me about you. It's nice to see you in person."

"Nice to see you too." he smiles.

Grace leaves and makes her way over to Luke and she whispers something to him. His eyes glare directly at me. He starts walking towards my direction.

"Luke's heading over here. What do I do?" I whisper to Robbie.

"Just breathe and smile. I'm right here." he assures me.

"Serena. Who's your friend?" Luke asks.

"This is my date Robbie. Robbie this is Luke."

"Date? Good luck Robbie. Run while you have the chance." Luke laughs.

I can see that Robbie wants to punch him so bad, "I understand now why she left you at the alter." he spats.

"Whatever, just wanted to see how bad Serena's life has been since she left me." he laughs and leaves.

"What a jerk." Robbie says.

"I know. To think I could have married him. What was I thinking?"

"Serena?" someone calls out my name.

"Oh hi Mr. and Mrs. Rover." I wave.

"We were so happy when Grace called us saying you were coming. After she told us you went to London we thought you'd never come back." Mrs. Rover says.

"It would've been nice, but I had to come back sometime."

"Oh well it must've been wonderful." she says.

"Yeah it was." I smile.

"Oh I didn't see you there." she turns to Robbie.

"This is my date Robbie, we met in London." I introduce her, "Robbie this is Mrs. Rover. Grace's mom."

"Pleasure to meet you." he smiles.

"Pleasure to meet you too." she beams.

"Dinner's starting!" Grace announces. The dinner goes smoothly. Not a snobby remark from Luke and no dirty looks from anyone. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to cone here, but I definitely wish I could spend more time with Robbie having fun than being here.

"That wasn't so bad right?" Robbie asks me as we leave the venue.

"It wasn't bad. Minus the Luke part, but other than that it was alright." I shrug, "I'm really just tired and not looking forward to doing that all again tomorrow except longer hours." I laugh.

"It will be fun. Well the reception part. The dancing, food, music, the cake." he says.

"That's true. I do love cake at weddings. I'm just ready to go home."

He picks me up bridal style and smiles as I wrap my arms around him, "then let's go home." he says.