Silver Screen Romance (Book 3)

58. Stop Looking, Start Seeing

Benji's POV

I walked into Joel's house to see him packing up Robin's lunch and she was running down the stairs with her backpack.

"You're taking her today?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Well good morning to you too, Benj."

"Sorry, bro. Frankie just called and we have to go to the airport." I said.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "For what?"

"Kells is in town."

"You're joking?" He smiled.

"Nope. He decided to come to town last minute and apparently he's going to crash on my couch."

He pulled out his phone and dialed quickly, after a few seconds he was talking. "Hey babe, you mind coming to take Robin to school, I have to go with Benj to the airport. – Alright, thank you, see you in a few."

After about 10 minutes Julia was walking through the door. Joel quickly kissed her and we ran out to my truck.

"I can't wait to see this fucker. It's about time for a change around here." Joel said.

"Yeah. He's definitely going to cause some shit." I agreed.

We drove to the airport and he was sitting outside of the terminal with just a backpack slung over his shoulder.

Joel barely let me park before he jumped out.

"Kells! What are you doing here?!"

We hugged and hopped back into the car because people were already staring at us like we were insane.

Mandy's POV

Tal quickly hung up the phone and turned to me. "What the hell do we do now?"

I put my head down and groaned.

"Fuck, Tal! Why do you always have to get us in these situations!" I yelled.

"I can't control how I feel Mandy! And obviously you can't either or you wouldn't be sitting here right now!"

She shook her head. "You think I'm sitting here because I'm still in love with you?! Are you insane?"

I couldn't say that her words didn't hurt, but from experience I knew this was hard for her too.

I tried to shrug it off and not show her everything that I was feeling.

"Tal, I came to you because you are one of my best friends, because you have always been there when I needed you and right now I really needed my best friend. I thought that we had gotten passed all this bullshit. I already lost Matt, I didn't want to lose you too, but if you still feel this way—"

I cut her off. "No. You're right. I have to put all this aside. I'm with Spencer and I need to go make sure she's okay. This was just a lapse in judgement." I lied, but she believed me, or at least she pretended to.

"Okay, so we're going to forget this ever happened and you are going to go home and make things right with your fiancé." She clarified and I agreed.

She sighed.

"We really can't do this anymore Tal, my love for Brian hasn't gone anywhere and that's why I came to you today, I needed someone that knew absolutely everything, the good, the bad, the ugly, and wouldn't judge me. Why did you have to go and make this complicated again?"

I knew it.

We weren't going to be able to sweep things under the rug this time. It was impossible.

"Can we just go back to before? Please. I really don't know what I was thinking, I'm happy with Spencer, I truly am, it's just when I see you in a vulnerable state, I want to be able to protect you, and that was my way of doing that. Loving you intensely with no grasp of reality, because I have always wanted you to have the world, Mandy, and if I could give it to you, well that-that would make life a whole lot easier, but I know that I am not the one that is meant to give you the world, and if I'm being honest, I don't think that Brian is either." I opened my heart to her once again and this time I meant what I said, I loved Spencer, but Mandy, our history, would always be a part of my heart. Nothing would ever change that. I just had to realize that I couldn't have it all with her, her story would end differently and I wouldn't be a part of it.

She sat and listened intently. She knew that this is what was meant to happen and that we had to have a new normal, us reaching for each other every time something was a bit difficult was only blurring the lines more and more and eventually if we kept up this pattern they would be erased completely and we would be back to where this story started.

"We probably shouldn't see each other for a while. You need to go fix things with Spencer and I'll be heading back to Florida soon. We'll figure out how to be around each other again eventually and when we do, this will all have been worth it. I promise."

I hugged her, not as a goodbye, but a see you later. Maybe this is how our chapter ended and we could finally move on with our lives, well I hoped that I could.

Benji's POV

"Just ready to live out the dream, man. I think it's about that time." Kells said.

We talked for a while and stopped to grab a quick bite.

"Does Tal know you're in town?" Joel asked.

He shook his head.

"Nah man, I told Frankie not to say anything, I wanted to surprise you guys too, but Frank's not in town so someone had to pick me up." He laughed.

We pulled into the In-N-Out and noticed a very familiar Jeep and truck in the parking lot.

I pointed and Joel shook his head. "Not again."

Kells was now on his phone and not paying attention to what we had just seen.

Mandy jumped out of the jeep and was about to get in her truck when she noticed us.

She waved us over and we went to park next to her.

"Hey bro, want to meet my sister in law?" Joel asked.

We got out of the truck and Tal immediately came over to us too.

"Machine Gun Kelly! What the hell are you doing here?!" Tal hugged him and Mandy stood to the side just watching the interaction.

Mandy immediately caught Kells' eye. "And who is this?" He eyed her up and down, pulling away from Tal.

She walked up to him and put her hand out. "This would be Mandy Sawyer." She stated. "And you are Machine?" She smirked, obviously mocking his name.

He bit his lip and smiled. "Ok. Ok. I see. My name is actually Colson Baker, but my friends call me Kells."

"Well nice to meet you, Colson Baker. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around." She turned around and walked back to her truck.

"I'll see you guys later." She waved, hopped in her truck and drove off.

Kells took a step back. "She's a dream."

"And definitely out of your league." Tal spoke angrily.

Kells smirked. "We'll see about that.