In The Lights

Chapter 2

.~.~.~.~. 

"And did you hear that song he was singing to?" My parents babbled on about the recording session we walked in on earlier in the day and they haven't shut up about it since we left the studio. I was barely even listening. 

I looked over at Talia who was fixing her lipgloss. Seriously? At 7 o'clock at night?  

"You guys have been talking about this all afternoon.. Can we just drop it?" I finally spat. They looked at me with shock. I cleared my throat and excused myself from the table and hurried up to my room. I tied my hair up in a messy bun and slid on some boy shorts and a button-up shirt before climbing into bed and drifting off to the sounds of Green Day. 

.~.~.~.~. 

Usually I would complain if I was waken up at 7 a.m. on a weekend. But today I'm not complaining because my Dad is taking me down to the studio to get a better look around. 

We pulled up and I stepped out, walking quicker than my Dad inside of the tall building. 

"Slow down Hayden!" My Dad laughed and I skipped back inside, bumping into two tall guys and almost falling to the ground. 

"Oops, sorry!" I giggled, looking up at the two men. Maybe I had a little too much coffee this morning. 

They laughed and I recognized one of them. 

"Colson?" He smiled. 

"What are you doing here?" I pointed at my Dad who stopped outside to take a call. 

His friend was looking back and forth at us, confused. 

"Dubo, this is Hayden. She's the one whose ringtone went off at the banquet." They laughed as he came to realization. 

"And ever since then I haven't been able to get your music out of my head." I smirked. Dubo wiggled his eyebrows as he backed away and we laughed. 

"Nice shirt." He tugged at the hem of my shirt. It was a simple Aerosmith crop top, one of my old one's, too. 

"You know anything about Aerosmith?" He nodded and fixed his snapback. 

"There's this diner down on the boardwalk that always plays their music.. If that's any good." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. I stood on my tip-toes and laughed. My 5'8" was nothing compared to his 6'3" and we both knew it. 

There was an awkward silence before he brought up the diner again. 

"So the diner.." I bit my lip. 

"Colson, are you asking me out on a date?" I teased. He half-smiled down at me before shaking his head. 

"No, I'm just asking for a ride so I can get some food." He teased back. We traded numbers, and just in time, because my Dad walked in and glared over at us. 

"Hayden!" He exclaimed. 

"I'll text you." I whispered before going back to my Dad and re-directing his attention to the lobbyist. 

.~.~.~.~. 

"So, it's a date." Piper argued. I groaned. 

"It's not a date." I argued as I threw a pair of black shorts onto my bed. 

"Those are the shortest shorts I have ever seen, Hay." Gwen laughed as she came out of my bathroom. 

"You guys are no help."  

"You never even told us who you were going out with." 

"Since you guys think it's a date I'm not gonna tell you. Not until I know it's serious." I joked. My ringtone blared and I lunged for it before Piper could grab it. 

"I'll meet you at the diner at 7? -Colson." 

I smiled and pulled on my shorts over my bikini and then tucked my phone in my back pocket. 

"Do you plan on keeping that bikini on or taking it off tonight?" Piper bursted into laughter, causing her to fall off the bed. 

"That's what you get!" I smiled, beginning to fix my make-up. 

.~.~.~.~. 

I walked into Rudy's Diner and pushed my sunglasses to the top of my head and smiled as Colson walked over to me.  

"You certainly dressed for the occasion." He smiled. I looked at him, wearing his baggy camo pants, a red DMX shirt, Black Converse and his "Obey" Snapback. I giggled as we sat down at a two-person booth and started talking. 

He solemnly pointed out toward the windows at the small group of paparazzi's gathering outside. 

"I don't think they're here for me." He smiled.  

"God they're so irritating." He nodded in agreement. "Maybe we should get out of here before more start to gather." 

"But I'm hungry!" He whisper-yelled in argument. I held out my hand and smiled. 

"We'll go by Carl's Jr. and get you a burger!" He hesitated but took my hand and pulled up his hood as we quickly walked out of the diner and toward my car. The paparazzi snapped pictures like crazy and I tried to hide my face as best as possible. 

We quickly drove off and made our way through the Carl's Jr. drive-through.  

He crunched down on the fried onions and slurped down his soda. I giggled over at him. 

"What?" He grumbled with a full mouth. I shrugged. 

"You seem to be enjoying that burger." He swallowed and burped. We both laughed. 

"My bad." He rolled down the window to air out the car. 

There was a calming silence for awhile as Aerosmith and The Beatles played on my iPod soundtrack. 

"So, what's in like?" He asked as I parked the car in an empty parking lot and turned to face him in my seat and fixed my hair. 

"Huh?" 

"What's in like being the daughter of one of Hollywood's Power Couples?" He turned to face me and smiled as well. 

I shrugged. 

"It's actually annoying.. I can't go out to get a burger without people with cameras swarming me and everything I do gets critisized." He slurped his soda again. 

"And you? What is it like being able to do anything you want? Not having to listen to anyone or caring what they say about you?" He smirked. 

"Exactly what you said.." He thought for a moment. "I'm basically a grown ass kid." We laughed. The song on the stereo changed, Fantasy - MGK lit up the screen on my iPod and I bit my lip, knowing he was looking at me. 

"You like this song?" He pointed toward the stereo. I nodded. "Wanna know why I wrote it?" 

I nodded eagerly. He chuckled. 

"Things were going great for me. I stopped doing drugs and everything was just perfect. And I even went on tour that Summer." 

"So what happened?" I asked after a moment of silence. 

"I had a relapse.." He looked down at his lap. His voice was starting to crack. 

I climbed over the middle of the car and squeezed onto the seat with him, causing him to laugh in confusion. 

"What?" He asked, looking up at me. 

"I can't see the sunset from my side." I pointed out at the horizon as the sky changed into a light red and yellow color. 

"It's beautiful." I smiled as I looked back at him. He nodded and locked his eyes with mine. 

Before I knew it there was a pair of warm lips gently being pressed against mine. And then a pair of hands on either side of my waist. And then the exact pair of lips that kissed me formed into a smile. 

.~.~.~.~.