Chapter 15

"I just don't understand you, Lauren." Marcus carried on. "You don't need to." "You act like he's nothing to you. Then you defend him. Then you kiss me and now you're dating him?!" "You kissed me." I stated. "You kissed back. I didn't make you do that." "I didn't say you made me do anything. I am my own person and I can be with whoever I want to be with." I said.

"Why him though? Surely you broke up for a reason." "Yes. There was a reason." "What happened to that?" "Things change. People change. We're working through it." "People don't change. I don't believe that." "I do. If you were my friend, you'd be happy that I'm happy." "I want you to be happy, just not with him." "With who then?" I whipped my head to face him.

"Me?" "Well I'm happy with him. There's nothing you can do about it." I got up from the desk and put some ripped paper in the trash. I sat down again and started to draw in my notebook. "He's just going to mess up the way he did before." "I thought you were my friend." I looked at him side-eyed. He sighed loudly and went back to facing the front.

After school was over Cody was parked in the parking lot outside like he said he was going to be. "Wait up!" I heard Marcus' voice behind me. I rolled my eyes and turned around. "What?" "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been selfish, I just- I want you for myself. I know I can't have you so I'm sorry for everything I've said today. Please, forgive me?" "When you can get over the fact we're not going to be together, I will." I said and walked towards Cody's car.

"What was that about?" He asked as I closed the door. I kissed his cheek quickly and then got comfortable in my chair. "He was annoyed that we were dating again so I got mad. I told him that until he could accept that you are who I want, I don't want to be friends." I shrugged. "My good girl." Cody smiled. "Just drive." I tapped the steering wheel.

"You wanna stop for ice cream?" "Nah." I watched out the window. "What's happened to your appetite?" "I just don't fancy ice cream." "And you didn't want dinner last night. You didn't eat all of your lunch yesterday either. What did you have for breakfast today?" "Pop tarts." "How many?" "Two packets." I grinned. Cody laughed at me.

"What about lunch?" "I didn't have time to eat. Paul asked me to come to practice with him so I watched that." "That's not healthy, Lauren." "Alright, Doc." I looked at him with a smile. Cody looked at me and then looked back at the road with a smile too. "Let me buy you some food?" "Cake!" "No. You're having something real." "Cake's a real food." "I'll stop at starbucks and get you come coffee and a sandwich." "Fiiiiine." I kicked off my shoes and put my feet on the dash.

"Yo! Get them off there. The rules haven't changed." "You won't buy me cake." "I bought you a massive cake the other day." "You mean like two weeks ago?" "A week." "Whatever." "Get your feet down." "No." I crossed my arms. Cody finally gave up and let me get away with it.

When we finally got home the two of us went inside. "I'm just saying that you know I would beat you at climbing a tree any day." I laughed. "Shut up!" "Cody, please." "You have no muscle, I'd win and you know it." "Fine. Take me back to that woodland area and I'll prove to you that I can climb trees better than you." I went into the kitchen.

"Believe her, Cody. She was beating me by the time she was four." Trey said. "I'll need some proof." "I hope you feel manly when your sixteen-year-old girlfriend beats you to the top of the tree." Trey laughed. "How's your baby momma?" I slid myself onto the counter. "She's working." "How long until she stops working?" "It's only 12 weeks, Lauren." Cody laughed.

"I'm excited to be an aunt." "She said she wants to work for as long as she can unless it gets too stressful or when she's too big." "She won't get that big because she's skinny." "She wants to leave at around eight months." "That's ages!" I maoned. "It's not that long. 12 weeks is three months in itself." "So that's five more months." I grinned.

"What are you gonna call the baby?" "Lauren, chill." He calmed me down. "But I'm so excited!" "Me too but take a breather." "Cody and I are going to Europe so I'm going to miss a month of the pregnancy." I pouted. "She might be showing when you get back." "I'm so excited!" I squieled. "Calm down!" Both the boys shouted at me.

"Let's go to my room." I jumped off the counter and took Cody'd hand. "Not gonna say no to that." He let me lead him out of the room. "I don't want to be an uncle!" Trey shouted after us. I laughed and ran up the stairs.

"Baby, when do I get to put this ring on your finger?" He picked up my promise ring. "I told you." "Your finger looks so plain without it." He pulled me into him. "I'm sorry." I placed one arm around his neck with the other hand placed on his chest. "Can I put it on you?" He held my hand and played with my fingers. "I'm not sure, Cody." I pulled my hand away. "I'm all for you." He locked our fingers together.

"I don't have eyes for anyone else, just my baby." He put our foreheads together. "I love you, Lauren Ella Miller. That's never changing." "I love you too and I believe you." Cody placed the ring on the right finger and slid it down. "There you go. This ring adds to your beauty." He placed a kiss on my lips. I deepened the kiss and wrapped both my hands around his neck, he held my waist tightly.

I felt Cody's tongue ask me for entrance which I granted. He lifted my legs and sat me on the dresser. His lips trailed from mind to my neck. Cody pulled my sleeve off my shoulder and kissed that too. "Stop." I pushed his head away. "Why?" "You're getting too into it." "I don't care." "I do." "Baby, you drive me crazy." "I don't care." I smiled.

"You're so pretty." He held my chin. "Behave." I slapped his hand away. "So so soooo pretty." I pushed him away and jumped off the dresser. "Matt spoke to you about the tour, yeah?" "Mhmm. You up for it?" Cody asked. "Yeah! He said we can start rehearsals for me tomorrow after school and have them for the rest of the week. Scooter's taking care of me while Matt takes care of you." I told him.

"Sounds good. This is going to be fun, like last time I went on tour." "But we won't be performing together." I pointed out. "We can perform our single." "Maybe." I smiled. "What time do your parents get home?" "Late probably." I sighed. "So you never see them anymore?" "Hardly ever. I probably see Brad and Angie more than Mom and Dad." "It's gonna be okay, Lon." He kissed my head.

That night I struggled to sleep. I felt bad for what I'd said to Marcus and I was starting to stress about choreo for the shows too. I had a week to choreograph and learn a half hour set. I picked up my phone and started scrolling through twitter, I answered to some fans and messed around for a while. I then noticed a tweet from Marcus about not being able to sleep so I texted him.

Lauren: You can't sleep?x

Marcus: Nah, how come you're up? And how come you're texting me? I thought we weren't friends x

Lauren: I still care and I can't sleep either x

Marcus: You wanna chill?x

Lauren: At three in the morning?x

Marcus: Why not?x

Lauren: Meet me at the beach near my house in ten minutes x

Marcus: See you there x

I got out of bed and changed into some shorts and then tucked Cody's shirt into them before creeping out of the house. As soon as I was succesfully out of the house I walked along the side walk slowly and made my way to the beach. I noticed Marcus on the beach already when I got there.

"I thought you didn't wanna know about me?" Marcus greeted me with a hug. "I was mad. I'm not very good at being told what to do." "What's this?" He caught my hand and looked at my ring. "That's my promise ring." I pulled my hand away. "After a few days he's given you a promise ring?" "He gave it to me after months." I stated.

"But you put it back on after a few days." "Look. If you're gonna be like this I'll go back home. I'm trying so you gotta try too." "I'm sorry. I just see you guys together and I hate it." "Why?" "I didn't even get a chance." He looked at the sand as he kicked it.

"You never told me you wanted a chance." I took a step closer to him. "I thought that when I kissed you I'd made it obvious." "I'm sorry. I can't help that I'm in love with him." "I know you can't. He was there long before I was and you have to keep your guard up because of the fame but I really care about you." "I care about you too." I smiled which made him smile.

We started walking along the sand with ocean covering our feet slightly. "What happened to Dan?" He asked. I whipped my head in his direction. "Who mentioned him to you?" "I was speaking to Paul." "What'd he say?" "Why are you so protective?" "What did he say?!" I raised my voice. "Damn." He laughed a little.

"Marus!" "We were talking and he mentioned Dan and I asked about him. Paul said that he was your best friend who was secretly in love with you and then when he told you it got weird between the two of you and you haven't spoken since." "He moved away." "Why?" "How would I know? He stopped speaking to me." "Okay, less of the attitude." "He was my best friend!" "I'm sorry." "And I didn't have anyone to fall back on because Cody was gone." I explained.

"So you fell back on Paul?" "Yes but it wasn't the same." "You ever spoken about how it felt?" "I wrote about it. In lyrics. I wrote songs." I said. "Can I hear?" "No." "Right." He looked out at the ocean. It fell silent again. "I felt lonely. I had so many people to talk to, yet, I felt so alone and isolated. The more people I spent time with or spoke to, the lonelier and lonelier I felt, so I gave up trying. Paul said I'd lost myself and I'm starting to see what he meant. I'm beginning to be me again. So don't take Cody away from me? He's everything." I admitted.

"As long as he keeps you smiling I won't say a word. But the second he messes up I'm going to be right there for you." "Thank you." "So where's loverboy tonight?" "I sent him home." "You sent him home?" "Mhmm. I like to have my space when it comes to bed time." "You don't sleep together then?" "We do most nights but sometimes I like to have space." "Lucky." I heard him say under his breath.

"Lucky?" I looked over at him. Marcus looked at me too. "You're cute. I wanna hold you while you're sleeping." "Friends cuddle." I smiled. "We need a sleepover." I laughed at him. "You're cute." I squeezed his cheeks. "Can I have one last kiss?" He pulled me towards him by my waist. "No. Boyfriend's the only one who gets those." I tapped his nose.

"That girl I was talking to the other day?" "Abby?" "Yes. What's her deal with you?" "What do you mean?" "She's obsessed." "Really?" "Lauren Miller thinks she's the shit.. Lauren Miller needs to calm the hell down.. She thinks she's the queen.. She can't even sing.. She's not even pretty.." He mimicked her voice. "We were friends from kindergarden until I started dating Cody. Her and my other ex-friend, Jess, stopped talking to me."

"She's so needy too. Look at these messages." He got out his phone and passed it to me. I read through some of their conversation and passed the phone back. "She's always got all the boys. Ever since we were younger, the boys wanted to be friends with her. When we got a bit older she was the 'hot' one because she had a thigh gap and her bones showed." I said.

"Have you not looked in the mirror? Your body i-" "I wouldn't go into that." "But it's amazing." "I work really hard to stay in shape. I dance and perform and do things to keep fit, she doesn't have to try." "Well you don't even gotta try to get guy's attention." "Because I'm famous." I stated blankly. "I couldn't care less about your fame. Your personality is the best thing about you and I'm sure every guy you know would agree with me." "Thanks." I said.

"Believe me." He said. "Okay." We walked in silence again. "Are you hungry?" "It's four am." He stated. "McDonalds is open 24/7." I said and headed towards the sidewalk again. "You do know we have school tomorrow, yeah?" "Yes." "You really couldn't care less, could you?" "If you wanna go home then run along, little baby." I shooed him.

"I'm up for food." "20 chicken nuggets each, yeah?" "What the fu-" "I can eat." I grinned. "I like a girl who can eat." "I like a guy who can eat." I said. Marcus smirked. "Don't be so dirty." I nudged him. "I like a guy who can eat." He mocked me. "I'll remember that." "Please don't." I giggled and covered my face.

"You know we're being followed?" "Huh?" I moved closer to him and looked around. "Over there." He pointed to a guy with a camera. "Why is there paparazzi at four in the morning?!" I got annoyed. "Do you get followed a lot?" "Not at night." I watched the man who was watching us through his camera.

"Come on." I pulled Marcus into McDonalds. "Can we have two 20 McNuggets, please?" I asked the woman behind the counter. "Sure." She smiled. I watched Marcus who was looking around the empty retaurant. "Here's your food, that'll be ten dollars." "Here." I got the money out of my pocket and passed it to her. I handed Marcus his food and sat down.

"I'm getting ketchup." I got up again and went to the counter with all the things on it. We sat at the table together and tucked in. "So was Cody your first love?" Marcus asked. My heart jumped as I thought about my answer. Do I trust him enough to talk about Josh? Can I bring myself to do that? Is that pap in hearing distance?

"Lauren..?" Marcus nudged my leg with his foot. "Uh- Yeah." I nodded and looked at my food. "What are you hiding?" He noticed. "Nothing." I shook my head. "No, what are you not telling me? Was there someone before Cody?" He dug deeper. I threw up every wall I could find.

"I'm getting real tired. Can you walk me home?" I got up. "We have ou-" "We can eat and walk." I stated. Marcus sighed and got up from the table. "Come on then." He opened the door for me. I walked out and he followed.