California Love? •ON HOLD•

Well, Hello There Gorgeous Pt. 1

It was already the middle of the evening when Jesse decided to barge into my room... again. He literally just left like an hour ago.

"Jess what are you doing in here again?"

"It's just that, I remembered something when I saw todays date."

"And what's that?"

"It's your birthday."

"What? No it's not. My birthday's August 20th."

"Yeah, Dems, check your calendar cause today's date is the 20th."

I reached over to grab my phone (it was a simple Samsung Messenger Touch) to check the date and yes, it was the 20th. How could I forget my own birthday.

"Oh shit. You're right. I guess with all the drama with mom leaving, us leaving Jordan and Jacob, and all the talk of us moving in with Emilio I lost track of time and forgot."

"Well, Happy Birthday Dems. You're officially 18." Said my brother when he came over to give me a hug.

"Thanks. Do you happen to know what time it is? Maria came in earlier and said dinner was at 6:00pm."

"It's actually 6:10pm already." Responded my brother.

"Shit. We're 10 minutes late. Oh well. Lets go Jess."

As we make our way to the dining room, (that we happened to find on our own) we heard laughing. Great, I hope they don't have guests over. I really don't feel like pretending to be happy in front of people that probably didn't or maybe still don't know of my existence.

As we entered the room their laughter died down and Emilio said, "Demi, Jesse. I wasn't sure if you guys were going to come down and eat with us."

"You actually remembered my name this time." Jesse snapped at him. But I didn't pay much attention to that, I was too busy looking at the man sitting next to Cara. Well, hello there gorgeous.

"Come take a seat," said Emilio interrupting me from ogling the man. He then continued to say, "I'll have Maria bring in your plates."

"It's fine. We have hands, we can get it ourselves. We weren't raised with people serving us." I said back to him. I don't want him to think that we're on okay terms now. We haven't talked anything through and I don't want him to think that we're going to pretend that everything is fine when we all know it's not.

When we came back in with full plates on our hands I noticed Cara's glare directed at me. I gave her back a confused look basically saying 'what have I done now?'

Since no one was going to introduce me to the handsome man next to Cara I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and do it myself.

"Hello stranger, I'm Demi." I said to him.

"Hello, I'm Harry." He greeted back with a smile.

We continued smiling at each other when suddenly Cara jumped in and said, "He's my boyfriend." She said with a defensive tone. Was she warning me or something? That'd be funny if she was, what does she think I would do? Go fuck him in the bathroom. Jeez I do have self respect.

"That's great Cara. Here I was thinking you were a lesbian and that this hottie was all mine." I sassily replied while rolling my eyes. Jess and Harry started laughing and Emilio looked as if he was holding his in. But Cara, just like her mother, were giving me such a dirty look. Then Cara shifted her glare towards Harry and he stopped laughing. We were awkwardly eating there in silence for a while until Emilio spoke up and asked Cara's guest, "So Harry, where do you work?" Ohh so this is going to be one of those interrogations dads usually do to their daughters boyfriend.

"I work at California Records. I'm the uh CEO actually." He responded. To say Emilio looked impressed would be an understatement. I'm even impressed. I love music. I hope to become a singer/songwriter someday even though it's a long shot.

"Wow. That's amazing. You're so young and already so successful."

"Yeah, took lots of hard work go get to where I am, but it was all worth it." Harry replied smiling.

I decided to speak up since I was curious to what his age actually was. "Sorry if I'm interrupting but how old are you?" I asked him.

"No it's fine," he responded, "I'm 24."

"Wow you are young. What's it like working in the music business? It must be incredible." I said continuing the conversation.

"Yeah, it is actually. I get to do what I love while helping others have a chance to do what they love. It feels amazing when you make someones dreams come true."

"I bet. Do you like, actually listen to the songs that some of the artists signed to your label make?"

"Yeah. I love being a part of that process. Y'know recording the tracks and stuff, but I don't always get to since I'm mostly busy. I even help write some songs though. I that's my favorite part. Songwriting is a bit of a hobby of mine."

"Really? Same here." I happily told him.

"You write?" He asked me curiously.

"Yeah, since I was like 10 or something." I said back with a smile. He seems to be a great guy. Wonder how Cara managed to get him. Speaking of Cara, I'm surprised she hasn't said anything.

"You any go-" He stopped halfway through since Jesse interrupted him by saying, "She's amazing. She sings too. I'm surprised she hasn't tried getting a record deal. But we should stop talking about music since she can go on and on about it. We'd be here for days before she finally decided to stop." Jesse ended with a laugh. Harry laughed along with him. I only smiled at my brother since he was somewhat right.

Us three, (me, jess and harry) kept talking about music throughout dinner until finally Cara was fed up with it then said, "Okay that's enough. Dessert should be ready. Do you want any, babe? If not you can always have some later." She said it with what I'm guessing to be a seductive smirk but instead looked like she had to take a shit. Harry just looked uncomfortable. Probably not for her suggestion, but probably for her suggesting it in front of her parents.

"You know what Cara. You just made me lose my appetite so I'm just gonna head up to my room. I was having such a good day, until you started with your little comments and your rude staring. Didn't your mother ever teach you staring was rude. Oh wait, she was doing the exact same thing!" I got up quickly, making the chair screech. Then I sarcastically said, "No dessert. Happy Birthday to me, yipee."

"That's fine. You need to lose wait anyway. You look s little fat." And whether she knew it or not, Cara got me where it hurt. My weight was my biggest insecurity. I've always struggled with it. I wanted to run out of the room, but before I could Emilio stood up and blocked my path. He then asked, "Wait. It's your birthday?" Wow. His daughter just insulted me and all he could ask was that?

"No, I was lying. Of course it's my birthday! On this day 18 years ago your ex wife or girlfriend or whatever the fuck she was to you gave birth to me, your third child. How nice of you to remember, dad." I was speaking out of anger and I didn't care if a guest was over or not. They should know that this man standing in front of me is no father, just a great disappointment. I then ran to my room.

Jesse ended up running after me. He caught the bedroom door before it was able to slam shut. He knows how much I struggled and still struggle with my body image. He's young, but he knows. I ended up crying into his shoulder for a good 10 minutes until I finally spoke up and said, "Today might be my birthday, but it also marks 3 years since you saved me from myself."

Before I could continue talking there was a knock on the door causing me and Jesse to break apart. I had no idea who was knocking so I decided to just tell them to come in. It ended up being the person who I least suspected.

I'M SORRY THIS IS LATE... AGAIN. AND SORRY FOR THE CLIFFHANGER. I HATE THOSE, BUT I DIDN'T WANT THIS CHAPTER TO DRAG ON AND BE EXTREMELY LONG. I'LL PROOF READ THIS LATER. BUT ANYWAYS THANK YOU FOR READING AND I HOPE YOU LIKED IT. :)
(Hope you guys had a good new years xx)