"Jules!" Dave hollers from across the hotel lobby as you walk in. He immediately runs over to you and pulls you close to him, causing a scene but neither of you cares.
You laugh and kiss him softly as he takes your hand in his. He was so sweet and enthusiastic, like a little kid, one of the things you adored about him.
"Hi baby" You respond, kissing the tip of his nose, "How was Japan?" You ask curiously as he picks up your bag and throws it over his shoulder, still not letting go of your hand.
It had been two months since you'd last seen Dave. After San Francisco you had to go back to DC to return to school and he had stayed with you for a few weeks before he had to go back on tour in Australia and Japan.
You'd barely been able to talk since you'd were so busy getting acclimated to Georgetown again and you were both in completely opposite time zones but you had tried your best. Before he even left for tour you had organized a sort of late Valentines Day celebration for when he was on tour in Hawaii for the final show of the tour.
"Unimportant right now...I have a lot to tell you" He says as he brings you up to his room.
"What's going on?" You ask curiously, noticing the seriousness of his tone.
"Courtney's pregnant" He begins and your jaw actually drops in shock.
"What—" You practically yell and he holds up his hand to stop you.
"That's not even all, they're getting married...tomorrow" He says and you gasp.
"Are you fucking kidding me" You whisper in disbelief and he shakes his head.
"You're invited by the way." He adds nonchalantly, "Please fucking come. Krist and Shelli are like boycotting or something and I can't handle it by myself."
"Of course I'm going are you fucking kidding me, I couldn't miss this—its gonna be a shit show" You deadpan and he can't help but laugh.
"Please don't even start with it" He moans.
"How's school been?" He asks suddenly and you can tell he wants to change the subject badly.
"Its so stressful right now. Its not like second semester senior year of high school—senior year of college is seriously so intense. I've got so much to do at all times" You whine and he sits down next to you and puts his arms around you.
"Well I mean I wouldn't know but I'm sorry you're so stressed. You're almost done though, no more school forever" He says with a big smile and you wish you could have his constant optimism.
"Sort of" You sigh at the fact that Dave never seems to acknowledge your plans for after college, "I have been doing so much studying for the LSATs, they're going to actually kill me"
"Wait ok, you mention these all the time but I'm afraid to ask what they are—are they like finals or something?" He asks and you smirk at him.
"I wish they were. They're the exams for getting into Law School, if I want to get into any of the top schools I need to do really well." You explain.
"Oh I didn't know you were really serious about that" He says and you nod through your gritted teeth so you don't say anything rude, you know he doesn't mean to be dismissive but he's acting like it.
"Since when do you want to be a lawyer?" He asks and you shrug.
"I don't know, since I was a kid. My dad was a lawyer and I used to love going to the courthouse with him or meeting his law school friends. It just seemed the most 'grown up' job I could imagine when I was little and I just fixated on it" You reply.
"Have you looked at any schools near Seattle?" He asks and you shake your head.
"I looked into it but not really many peaked my interest." You say and he frowns.
"Well what are you looking for? What is your criteria?" He asks.
"Well I've actually been in contact with a few of my dad's old friends, one of them actually is the dean of the law school at Columbia which would be a great opportunity—I talked to my adviser about other options though and she did give me a lot of places on the west coast, mostly in California which isn't super far. A lot of it will come down to money" You say, attempting to throw him a bone but you felt disingenuous while doing it.
Sure you were applying to USC and Stanford and some UC's, but you really had your sights set on Columbia right now. Your advisor had made it sound as though you had a really good chance of getting into a top school, just as long as you did well on the LSATs. You didn't want to hurt Dave's feelings and tell him you'd probably be on the east coast a lot longer than he might've thought.
"Come on though Jules, I'm willing to make sacrifices for you, can't you just do one thing for me?" He says and once again you answer him through gritted teeth.
"Dave, it wouldn't just be one thing, how can you not get that? This is my whole career—I can't make sacrifices at this point; I need to take the best opportunities that come to me. You get this, I mean you didn't exactly want to move to Seattle but you had to because Nirvana was there and they were the best opportunity for you! Yale, Columbia, Stanford—those are my Nirvana, my Seattle." You try to explain but you can tell by the look on his face that he still doesn't understand.
"Well maybe if we were together at the time I wouldn't have moved to Seattle at all, maybe I would've chosen to be with you" He says and at this point you're annoyed because he's simply being argumentative.
"Come on Dave don't do this to me, don't speak to me in fucking hypotheticals to try to guilt me into giving up my dream." You growl back, hoping your tone will get him to back off.
"I would have done it for you if we were together" He replies, raising his voice at you for the first time you can remember.
"Well we aren't even fucking together now!" You yell back, by this point at the end of your rope.
This does stop him in his tracks; he seems completely taken aback and hurt by your words.
You felt bad about saying it but it was the elephant in the room, you technically weren't anything, you'd been talking and sleeping together and spending time together but it wasn't really a relationship—however by the same token you also weren't just friends. You were walking the line between the two extremes and you weren't going to let him try to talk you into giving up going to a good law school to move to a place he would only be a few months of the year anyway.
"Well if we're not fucking together why don't you go to school in California—meet up with 'Ed' for old times sake, huh? If he's such a great fucking guy he won't want to make you do anything that could hurt your career, god forbid you ever fucking do something for someone else Julia"
You rub your temples in frustration, "I knew you weren't over that" You sigh.
"Don't turn this around on me princess" He says harshly. The malice in his tone when he uses the familiar nickname completely changes the connotation for you, pushing you to your breaking point.
"Why don't you grow the fuck up Dave, I know you're a big rock star and you've had your big break and you've reached the fucking pinnacle of your career but some of us are still trying to get our shit together in ours." You scream and his eyes get wide, he hadn't seen you this angry, ever. Normally you just cried and were frustrated during fights, but you never screamed at him, not in the way you were right now.
"So just get your head out of your ass and think about someone besides yourself for a little bit, try to picture what life might look like if things don't go exactly the way you fucking want them to" You scream before walking out of the hotel room and slamming the door behind you.
Dave's POV (2 hours later)
The minute Jules slammed the door in your face you knew you were in trouble, she was livid and you understood why.
You were being a total dick to her, only thinking of yourself and using shitty excuses to justify what you were doing.
You knew some of the things you said to her weren't true, when you were in Scream you would've given anything and gone anywhere to be part of a band you believed in, regardless of who you were leaving behind. It was selfish of you to try to convince her you'd do anything different when that simply wasn't the case.
You also hated yourself for what you'd said to her about Eddie. You knew she had told you about him in the hope that you would be mature about it but all you had done was prove a million times over that you could not handle any topic that didn't fit your narrative of how things should go.
Still, she hurt you when she said you weren't anything and it wasn't exactly her fault. Sure, you had hoped she had just assumed you two were something, it made your stomach churn to imagine her back in DC, not acting as though she was in a relationship. You pushed any thoughts and images out of your mind, you were acting like a child once again.
You could tell by the way she'd been acting she didn't think she was single, she liked you and she just wanted you to make the move to define the relationship, which you would do for her.
With a new plan in mind you had a surge of energy and immediately left your room, you were pretty sure you knew exactly where she would be.
Sure enough when you got to the hotel's back patio, you found Jules sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette.
"Hi" She says as you tentatively make your way over to her.
"Hi" You reply, sitting across from her with your back to the sunset.
"I'm sorry" You say and she just nods in response, not changing her facial expression. You have to work to suppress a smile. Its just that she is so rarely upset seeing her this way for some reason makes you want to laugh but you know that isn't productive right now.
"I was being selfish, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said all that stuff to you and you were right, if the tables were turned I would do whatever I could for my career and I want you to do whatever you need. We're stronger than a little separation messing us up and I was wrong to think that would be a problem." You say and she looks a little past your face into the ocean, staring at it pensively.
"Its ok" She says, surprising you by getting up and sitting next to you on the chair, "I love you"
"I love you too" You whisper, kissing her forehead as she curls up in your lap.
"Thank you for inviting me to be here with you" She whispers into your chest, "I missed you"
"I missed you too, every day, I always wish you were with me, seeing it all. Its amazing being on tour like this, I've never lived like this before. To be honest its a tour fit for a princess" You say and for the first time since you found her she cracks a smile and rolls her eyes.
"I wish I could be with you too" She says, sitting up again and facing you. Your heart breaks a little at the thought that you two wouldn't always be able to be like this, that she was going back to the east coast in only a couple days. You try not to let yourself think about that, instead focusing on the present.
"This is perfect" You sigh, as you feel the warmth of the sun on the back of your neck and listen to the waves crashing on the shore behind you.
She nods and looks out at the waves behind you, turning so the sun hits her face in such a way she literally looks like she's glowing. She looks truly like a goddess, completely perfect. You know in that moment no matter how much you fight or are separated or are working too hard to talk, you're perfect together and she is the girl for you, forever.
