How Do You Do?

23: Cool It, El Macho, No Need to Gripe

Too Many People -Palaye Royale

When I wake up, I'm on the couch from backstage, my head in someone's lap and they're playing with my hair while another person is screaming.
   "--nd do not think I'm kidding, buddy! I'll go all El Mach on you!" Someone snaps, and I can't help but burst out laughing. Reina.
  "You're up," Remington says, and I look up to see Remington, peering down at me.
I blush, thinking of my dream. He smirks down at me.
"W-What happened?" I asks shyly, turning my head to look at a fuming Reina. She glares at Remington.
"After that skank riled you up, this idiot let her kiss him in front of tons of people with cameras, as well as rock magazine photographers. And--"
I bolt up, completely mortified. "Oh my GOD!" I cry out, covering my face with my hands. "That actually was real!"
Remington snickers. "This is totally not real!" He mocks me, and I sock him in the arm.
   "Can it, Lover Boy," I smirk, and his cheeks tint to pink. I bite my lip to try and tame my smile, but it's not helping in the slightest. He suddenly wraps both arms around my mouth, pulling me so that I'm sitting on the couch between his legs, my head resting against his chest. My hands immediately lock onto his arms and tug them down so I can freely talk and breathe. I don't mind that they're around me though. Like, at all.
   My focus goes back to Reina. "Cool it, El Macho, no need to gripe." She huffs and crosses her arms, and Vienna just hands her some candy.
  "Hey, can we stay at your place? We're beat and you house is the closest," Vienna asks me, and I nod, tossing them my keys.
  "Tell Greyson to drop the rascals back at home and watch them for a bit for me?" I ask, and the nod, walking out the door towards the cheers and screams. Remington suddenly scoops me up into his arms, making me squeal. "What're you doing?!" I exclaim, clinging to him. He's friggin tall.
   "Taking you to somewhere," he answers vaguely, and leads me out the back exit. I'm grateful, considering the scene we'd caused earlier. He leads me to a familiar black car, and I sigh in relief.
   "Thank god, no death trap," I mutter under my breath, and he laughs in response. Opening the passenger seat, he plops me in comfortably before getting into the drivers side. We both buckle in before he drives us off to wherever.

•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

  We pull up to a little diner, the red, yellow, and black and white checkered color scheme, and I laugh. Totally cliché.
   "Up for a milk shake?" He asks me, and I nod, my stomach ready for the sugary deliciousness.
  "Always."
   We go in and order a Nutella shake each, he gets a burger and fries while I get a vegetarian order of large chili cheese fries, which Remington teases me about, since we are in a burger joint. I just stick my tongue out at him while we wait for our food, and he winks at me. Once we get our food, he leads me to the window stools by the corner.
   "I figured we should probably talk," he says, playing with his hair once we're situated. I notice that he does this when he's nervous.
   "About what?" I grin, plopping two chilli covered fries in my mouth. His lip quirks up, not fully a smirk but not just a smile either.
  "Us," he answers, leaning over and taking a bite out of the food that was on my fork. My jaw drops, forgetting the subject of "us" for a quick minute so I could mourn my fries.
  "My fries!" I complain, taking one of his so that we're even. He laughs.
   "I just wanted to say that I know that today was full of drama, and that wasn't exactly the way I wanted you to find out that I love you." His pinks tint to pink at those words, and I grin like an idiot. "And I want to explain why I brought Tawnie to your house that day." My smile fades a bit, but I nod at him, plopping more fries in my mouth. "She was outside my house when I was leaving to go see you when you broke the mirror, and she said some stuff to me. I've never been good at relationships, and....and I got scared I guess. You're different, not a girl to just be friends with benefits with, which is what Tawnie and I were a long time ago, but I ended that way before I even met you. I love you and it scares me, because I don't want to hurt you or screw up, and I felt like I would. So I was going to try and end the one good relationship I've ever had because I didn't feel like I deserved it.
I felt like I didn't deserve you. But when Tawnie and I were going to see you, I realized that I didn't want to do that to myself. I'm kind of selfish," he says with a smirk, earning him a giggle from me. "So I wanted you to meet a friend, because believe it or not, Tawnie was once one of my closest friends. I trust her with my life, or I did before she started her sh*t. But I didn't know you knew the other side of her. I wouldn't have brought her had I knew. I promise you, my intentions were just to introduce you to a friend. I didn't and still don't have the heart to end this, Stevie," he says, motioning to us. I bite my lip, scared to ask my question, but I know I've got to, or I'll never know.
    "Remington?" I start, nervous of his answer. "what are we?" Remington is quiet for a few minutes, and sighs.
"I don't want to be anything more than this, Stevie."
     My eyes start to sting from the harshness of his words, and I nod, not trusting that my voice will work.
   Remington sighs, and reaches for me. "Stevie--"
   "It's fine," I start when I know my voice will be steady. I plaster on a fake smile. "If you don't want to be more than what we are now, that's perfectly okay. I'm not mad about it, I understand." I'm lying through my teeth. I don't understand. I don't understand anything at all. Why is he always so confusing?! He says he doesn't want to hurt me, but it seems like that's all he's been doing lately. 
     I take his hand, and continue my lie. "I'm okay with just being friends, Remington, that's okay."
   Remington opens his mouth to say something, but suddenly I look out the window, and see my mother, Eve.

Scratch that.

I see a very pregnant Eve.