Somebody to Love - A Joe Mazzello FanFiction

Chapter 20 - Checking In

"What are you doing here?" I snapped back to reality and realized where I was.

"Oh, it's my birthday tomorrow. So, I came out here to celebrate." She raised her eyebrow at me, then both of them.

"I didn't know you were a partier." She seemed proud that she knew this fact.

"Oh, I'm not. Not in the slightest. But, I like the sights and all the things you can do here." There was a small pause like I had let her down. I mean, what did she expect from a YouTuber. The name practically screams introvert. An extrovert wouldn't spend hours and hours in their house making videos for strangers to see. They would be out partying. That wasn't me.

"Do you mind if I got a picture with you?" She asked, holding up her phone and trying to end the awkwardness of the situation.

"Yeah, sure. Let's do it." She got next to me and put her arm around me. She raised her phone up and took a selfie with me. I put up a peace sign as she took the picture. When she was finished, she pulled away from me and reached out her hand for me to shake.

"I'm Paige, by the way." I took her hand and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you, Paige."

"If you need anything while you're here, like advice on where to go or what to see or anything. Like, I live in the area so I would be glad to help." She seemed very genuine and I liked that about her. "I'll tag you in this on Twitter so you'll have my handle." She pointed to her phone as she spoke.

"Ok, thank you. That's very nice." I replied, nodding my head. She looked around and noticed that her friends were nowhere in sight. She looked back at me frightened like she didn't know what to do. I felt Joe come up behind me and put his arm across my shoulder. I pointed to the door for Paige. "I think I saw them go that way," I answered. Paige's face lowered into a smile as she realized that Joe was with me. She looked at me and I put my finger up to my lips, shushing her. Her face became frightened again and she waved to me before she ran off to find her friends.

"And who was that?" Joe asked.

"A fan. You're not the only one with fans, you know," I tapped the brim of his hat making it fall into his eyes a bit more. He fixed it and then quickly grabbed my waist, trying to tickle it in retaliation. I pushed his hands away. "What floor are we on?" I asked through my giggling.

"24th." He answered holding up the room keys. I clapped quietly and we made our way to the elevator to go up to our floor. We ended up getting into an elevator with a family. A couple and 2 kids. They seemed like a sweet family and we said hello and smiled at them and exchanged pleasantries. They pressed the button for the 17thfloor and we pressed ours. We waited in the elevator, listening to the music playing softly from a speaker above us.

I was looking at the kids who were playing with each other. They couldn't have been more than ten. They were adorable. I had always wanted kids. Maybe even with Joe, but it was way too early to bring it up to him in my mind. I could feel the doors open next to me. And I watched the parents wrangle the kids to leave the elevator. I never took my eyes off the adorable children, until I heard Joe speak.

"You've got to be kidding me." I look up at him and he's looking past the elevator doors.

"What is it?" I asked before looking to see what he was looking at. My face turned into a smile. "Oh," I squeaked, slapping my hand over my mouth and putting my other hand on Joe's bicep. Right in front of the opening of the elevator doors was a movie still hanging in a picture frame. It was from Jurassic Park. More specifically, it was the scene where Joe and the two archeologists were surrounding a sick triceratops. I looked up a Joe with a huge smile on my face. "Life finds a way?" I shrugged and he threw his head back as he sighed.