Categories > Original > Romance > You and I Both
After Tonight- Justin Nozuka
“Hello again, and thanks for sticking with E! News. I am Ryan Seacrest. It’s day two of what people are calling the ‘Jonas Spectacle’. At a press conference yesterday the very loving new couple explained this from how they met, to where they were planning on living. Also, it was confirmed that the new Mrs. Jonas is not pregnant. Although this wedding might be something of bliss for the couple and their families it has got fans reeling. Let’s take a look.”
“None of this is real” A frantic looking girl, who appeared to be about twelve, squeaked angrily into the camera. “I mean, she’s probably blackmailing him or something. Kevin is such a nice guy, and his family is just as wonderful. They don’t deserve that. She’s just a slut who wants attention.”
The interior of the plane was spacious with a few rows of seats, some couches, a fridge, and a large flat screen television. Small little Mickey Mouse heads were embroidered on all the seats, making it obvious who really owned this plane. Nick, who I had a nice conversation with earlier, assured me that they usually preferred to fly on commercial airlines, but that under the circumstances, Disney thought it would be better to take a private plane.
We had been in the air about eight hours when the boredom started to kick in. Because of some sort of satellite risk, and lack of service, I couldn’t use my cell phone to call any of my family or friends. The boys were good company, but were easily distracted. I could hear the bombs exploding from the video game that Joe and Nick had been playing for the last four hours.
Kevin was lounged out on the couch opposite me with a book in hand. I had never seen anyone read as seriously as he did. It had been almost an hour and he hadn’t looked from his novel once, even when the other two boys got in a small physical squabble because Joe thought Nick was cheating. Kevin was like this unmoving pillar of reading, and my scatter brained mine was immediately green with envy.
Unlike Kevin, I was epically bored. After two movies, three magazines, and six pages of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I found myself trying to sleep uncomfortably on what seemed like the lumpiest couch in the world. You would think Disney would shell out some good money to make sure their stars are comfortable. Judging by this couch they obviously didn’t.
After about the third time I turned over, and after my fourth wistful sigh, Kevin finally looked up from his book to me.
“Are you alright?” He asked scrunching up his face in concern. It was sweet, and I couldn’t help but feel oddly attached to him at the moment. I propped myself on my side, with my head propped up on one of my hands.
“I’m just really bored.” I sighed. I usually hated to play the whining girl, but I had seriously reached a new level of ennui. (This was a word I learned from reading Jane Austen.) He quirked an eyebrow at me, and spent a moment surveying me.
“I’m… sorry?” The uncertainty in his voice was laughable, and it put me at ease. We were silent for a moment, and I could see his eye straying back towards his book. A sudden rush to speak engulfed me. Talking to him now, even if it was brief, had been the most entertaining thing I had done in an hour.
“Can I ask you something?” I said suddenly without thinking. He looked up again in surprise, but nodded his head. Shit. Out of everything I could have said, I had to ask a question. I searched the content of my mind for something, anything. “Are we crazy?” I ended up saying.
“For what, getting married?” he asked, putting his book down completely. I congratulated myself on a job well done, before I realized now that I had gotten his attention, I actually had to keep it.
“No, we were obviously very… incapacitated at that time.” I saw a smile appear on his lips, and I couldn’t help but smile to. “I mean this whole trying to make a marriage work, pretending to be in love, thing. Everything has just happened so quickly, we haven’t had any real time to sit down an really think about the ramifications.”
“What about our talk earlier?” he asked, with a frown on his face.
“A few hours aren’t enough time to decide whether or not to spend your life with someone.” I said seriously. He considered me for a moment. He looked at me like he did at his book: with utter concentration.
“That is the whole point of this whole point, though.” He finally said in a low understanding voice. “That’s why we’re spending time together, to see if we can work. If we can’t then… we can’t.” For someone who was only two years older than me, he sure seemed to be on a maturity level that other boys his age couldn’t even dream of. I sighed in envious frustration.
“I know you’re right.” I said bowing my head in defeat. I glanced towards him expecting to see a look of superiority but instead just got one of concern. “I just wish there was a book out there. No, scratch that, I could never read a whole book. I wish there was a movie out there: ‘How to fall in love with your husband, and make a marriage work.’” I huffed. Kevin let out a laugh, and I glared at him.
“That is an AWFUL movie title.” He choked out in between laughs. I continued to glare for a moment, but then gave up and joined in on the laughter.
“Sorry that my movie title skills aren’t up to their usual standards, but it’s hard to really concentrate on anything on this monstrosity of a couch.” I shifted around slightly for affect, and I could see a small smile begin to cover his face.
“Uncomfortable?”
“That’s an understatement.” I snorted shifting around some more to no avail. It seemed that the more I moved, the lumpier the couch got. It was frustrating to no end.
“Why don’t you come lay on this one?” Kevin said, playfully smiling over at me. Something was up with that boy, but at the moment his true intentions were the least of my worries.
“You would switch me couches?” I said innocently, trying to pull off a look of hopefulness. He shook his head and I let the face drop immediately.
“From the way you talk about it, I wouldn’t even subject Joe to that kind of pain.” A loud crash emanated from the video game, followed closely by a ‘BOO YAH’ from Joe. Kevin rolled his eyes. “Ok, so maybe I would. I was thinking of taking a nap anyways, and this couch is big enough. We can just sleep together.” It was my turn to raise my eyebrows while he realized what he had said. “I don’t mean SLEEP together. No, that would be… inappropriate. I just meant we could just sleep sleep together. You know catch some zzz’s. Whatever you want to call it. I didn’t mean…” I laughed at Kevin’s distress as his face reddened considerably.
“Kevin, I know what you meant to say.” And then I stopped to think about it. I had two choices. I could stay here and try to get some restless sleep on the couch from hell, or I could get some comfortable ones on the couch with Kevin. The choice seemed obvious, but a little something held me back. “Ok, I mean I guess we have done worse things. This will just be…sleeping.”
I got up slowly, stretching my sore limbs out. I felt uncomfortable with his attentive eye watching my every move. He had moved over on the couch and was now laying with his back against the back of the couch. I felt a little of my nerves disappear when I saw how much room there actually was on the couch. I lowered myself on the couch, my back pressing lightly against his body. It was so intimate that it felt wrong.
“You know how why I think this will work?” His hot breath tingled against my ear, and I shivered slightly. I hoped that it hadn’t been enough for him to notice.
“Why?”
“We connect. I don’t know how, but I’ve known you a total of one day and I can already feel it. We can be good, we just have to try.” His voice said again. I felt my eyes drooping sleepily, as for the first time in the last two days I actually felt comfortable.
“Hello again, and thanks for sticking with E! News. I am Ryan Seacrest. It’s day two of what people are calling the ‘Jonas Spectacle’. At a press conference yesterday the very loving new couple explained this from how they met, to where they were planning on living. Also, it was confirmed that the new Mrs. Jonas is not pregnant. Although this wedding might be something of bliss for the couple and their families it has got fans reeling. Let’s take a look.”
“None of this is real” A frantic looking girl, who appeared to be about twelve, squeaked angrily into the camera. “I mean, she’s probably blackmailing him or something. Kevin is such a nice guy, and his family is just as wonderful. They don’t deserve that. She’s just a slut who wants attention.”
The interior of the plane was spacious with a few rows of seats, some couches, a fridge, and a large flat screen television. Small little Mickey Mouse heads were embroidered on all the seats, making it obvious who really owned this plane. Nick, who I had a nice conversation with earlier, assured me that they usually preferred to fly on commercial airlines, but that under the circumstances, Disney thought it would be better to take a private plane.
We had been in the air about eight hours when the boredom started to kick in. Because of some sort of satellite risk, and lack of service, I couldn’t use my cell phone to call any of my family or friends. The boys were good company, but were easily distracted. I could hear the bombs exploding from the video game that Joe and Nick had been playing for the last four hours.
Kevin was lounged out on the couch opposite me with a book in hand. I had never seen anyone read as seriously as he did. It had been almost an hour and he hadn’t looked from his novel once, even when the other two boys got in a small physical squabble because Joe thought Nick was cheating. Kevin was like this unmoving pillar of reading, and my scatter brained mine was immediately green with envy.
Unlike Kevin, I was epically bored. After two movies, three magazines, and six pages of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I found myself trying to sleep uncomfortably on what seemed like the lumpiest couch in the world. You would think Disney would shell out some good money to make sure their stars are comfortable. Judging by this couch they obviously didn’t.
After about the third time I turned over, and after my fourth wistful sigh, Kevin finally looked up from his book to me.
“Are you alright?” He asked scrunching up his face in concern. It was sweet, and I couldn’t help but feel oddly attached to him at the moment. I propped myself on my side, with my head propped up on one of my hands.
“I’m just really bored.” I sighed. I usually hated to play the whining girl, but I had seriously reached a new level of ennui. (This was a word I learned from reading Jane Austen.) He quirked an eyebrow at me, and spent a moment surveying me.
“I’m… sorry?” The uncertainty in his voice was laughable, and it put me at ease. We were silent for a moment, and I could see his eye straying back towards his book. A sudden rush to speak engulfed me. Talking to him now, even if it was brief, had been the most entertaining thing I had done in an hour.
“Can I ask you something?” I said suddenly without thinking. He looked up again in surprise, but nodded his head. Shit. Out of everything I could have said, I had to ask a question. I searched the content of my mind for something, anything. “Are we crazy?” I ended up saying.
“For what, getting married?” he asked, putting his book down completely. I congratulated myself on a job well done, before I realized now that I had gotten his attention, I actually had to keep it.
“No, we were obviously very… incapacitated at that time.” I saw a smile appear on his lips, and I couldn’t help but smile to. “I mean this whole trying to make a marriage work, pretending to be in love, thing. Everything has just happened so quickly, we haven’t had any real time to sit down an really think about the ramifications.”
“What about our talk earlier?” he asked, with a frown on his face.
“A few hours aren’t enough time to decide whether or not to spend your life with someone.” I said seriously. He considered me for a moment. He looked at me like he did at his book: with utter concentration.
“That is the whole point of this whole point, though.” He finally said in a low understanding voice. “That’s why we’re spending time together, to see if we can work. If we can’t then… we can’t.” For someone who was only two years older than me, he sure seemed to be on a maturity level that other boys his age couldn’t even dream of. I sighed in envious frustration.
“I know you’re right.” I said bowing my head in defeat. I glanced towards him expecting to see a look of superiority but instead just got one of concern. “I just wish there was a book out there. No, scratch that, I could never read a whole book. I wish there was a movie out there: ‘How to fall in love with your husband, and make a marriage work.’” I huffed. Kevin let out a laugh, and I glared at him.
“That is an AWFUL movie title.” He choked out in between laughs. I continued to glare for a moment, but then gave up and joined in on the laughter.
“Sorry that my movie title skills aren’t up to their usual standards, but it’s hard to really concentrate on anything on this monstrosity of a couch.” I shifted around slightly for affect, and I could see a small smile begin to cover his face.
“Uncomfortable?”
“That’s an understatement.” I snorted shifting around some more to no avail. It seemed that the more I moved, the lumpier the couch got. It was frustrating to no end.
“Why don’t you come lay on this one?” Kevin said, playfully smiling over at me. Something was up with that boy, but at the moment his true intentions were the least of my worries.
“You would switch me couches?” I said innocently, trying to pull off a look of hopefulness. He shook his head and I let the face drop immediately.
“From the way you talk about it, I wouldn’t even subject Joe to that kind of pain.” A loud crash emanated from the video game, followed closely by a ‘BOO YAH’ from Joe. Kevin rolled his eyes. “Ok, so maybe I would. I was thinking of taking a nap anyways, and this couch is big enough. We can just sleep together.” It was my turn to raise my eyebrows while he realized what he had said. “I don’t mean SLEEP together. No, that would be… inappropriate. I just meant we could just sleep sleep together. You know catch some zzz’s. Whatever you want to call it. I didn’t mean…” I laughed at Kevin’s distress as his face reddened considerably.
“Kevin, I know what you meant to say.” And then I stopped to think about it. I had two choices. I could stay here and try to get some restless sleep on the couch from hell, or I could get some comfortable ones on the couch with Kevin. The choice seemed obvious, but a little something held me back. “Ok, I mean I guess we have done worse things. This will just be…sleeping.”
I got up slowly, stretching my sore limbs out. I felt uncomfortable with his attentive eye watching my every move. He had moved over on the couch and was now laying with his back against the back of the couch. I felt a little of my nerves disappear when I saw how much room there actually was on the couch. I lowered myself on the couch, my back pressing lightly against his body. It was so intimate that it felt wrong.
“You know how why I think this will work?” His hot breath tingled against my ear, and I shivered slightly. I hoped that it hadn’t been enough for him to notice.
“Why?”
“We connect. I don’t know how, but I’ve known you a total of one day and I can already feel it. We can be good, we just have to try.” His voice said again. I felt my eyes drooping sleepily, as for the first time in the last two days I actually felt comfortable.
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