HONEY HONEY, john ambrose mcclaren ✓

( eight )

“That’s what real love looks like Ambrose.” She commented, standing from her spot as she tucked the letter away in its envelope. 

“What would you know?” 

Carly scoffed as a playful grin grew on John Ambrose’s face. “Okay, Ambrose is getting mean, alright then. How vast is your knowledge on romance?” 

“Excuse me.” He pointed to his Juliet, who was fleeing the room with her love letter in her hands. 

“Please” She scoffed. “You’ve said three words to her since you’ve arrived and so far from what I see, I see two friends bonding over an old love letter. You and I are in the same boat, my friend.” She patted his shoulder as she stated the cold, hard truth. 

Carly attempted to walk past him, but John Ambrose spun around, forming a new argument in his favour. “Well, I see it a little differently. You see, Lara Jean is gonna read that letter and remember all the feelings she had for me in sixth grade. So, I think my love life is advancing much faster than yours.”

Carly rolled her eyes in defeat. In all honesty, he wasn’t wrong. Compared to her, he was the romance aficionado. John Ambrose’s eyes lit up as an idea popped in his head. “Oh my god, you need a boyfriend!”

Carly made a face of disgust and confusion. “What?” 

“It’s perfect. I’ll have Lara Jean and then when you get a boyfriend, we can double date. It’ll be great.”

“I don’t think so. I’m not...I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”

“Why not?” He asked dumbfounded. It was his new dream to have a double date with the girl of his dreams and his best friend. Unfortunately, however nice Lara Jean may be, Carly didn’t really wanna spend time with her. There was a feeling that stirred in Carly’s stomach when Lara Jean was near and wanted to avoid that feeling as much as possible.  

“Because all the guys in our school are either jerks or taken and even then, I’m a lot to handle.” 

John scoffed this time. “Please, you're smart, pretty, nice on occasion, you’re what every guy wants.”

“If that was so true, I wouldn’t be spending my Saturday nights rewatching Encino man.”

“You just wait and see, Carly Roth. I will find you the guy of your dreams.” He promised before sprinting out of the room. Carly could imagine the lengths, John Ambrose would go through for this. She could see the bar graphs, highlighted statistics, and lengthy exam papers about every man in the area. Over the course of the next few days, John Ambrose sent numerous pictures of different men from either their school or surrounding area. All the options he had sent were replied to with a solid thumbs down. It wasn’t as if any of them weren’t attractive, they just weren’t what she was looking for. Carly didn’t know if she had a type of not but when she looked at the jocks and the motorcyclists, and the band geeks, and the drama dorks, she just wasn’t interested. 

Carly wandered around Belleview in search of her grandmother. In times like this, she felt like Berndette was the best to talk to. However, no matter where she went, she couldn’t find her beloved grandmother. Carly wandered upstairs, towards the bedrooms, to see if her grandmother had decided to take a nap. From the top of the stairs, she could her giggling. The brunette walked towards the noise and found Stormy’s door open. Inside was Lara Jean Covey, sitting on Stormy’s turquoise chaise lounge. Carly felt a twist in her stomach. Similar to the ones she felt when before around Lara Jean. Honestly, Carly was jealous. She had been coming to Belleview for years and Stormy had never spoken a word to her. Now, Lara Jean had been in her company for a week and they were best friends. Carly retreated from the door on the hunt for her grandmother. She eventually found her in the kitchen, teaching one of the chefs how to make proper buttercream icing. 

“I think they know what they’re doing, Nana.” Carly declared as she walked in. 

“Nonsense. When I was eleven years old, this icing won me my very first baking competition. It’s what made me fall in love with baking. I wanted to open my own bakery but you know, rights back then made things quite difficult. Nonetheless, if I had, I know I would’ve run the entire town out of business. Nothing like it.” Both Carly and the chefs chuckled at Bernadette’s enthusiasm. As she finished one batch, she allowed the chefs to attempt on their own. Bernadette finally looked her granddaughter in the eyes. “What’s that face?”

“What face?” Carly asked as her grandmother grabbed her chin, examining her face closer. 

“Don’t tell me it’s that Ambrose boy.”

“It’s not. I just...I released how different I am from most girls.”

“Different how?” 

“There are two different types of girl. The mean, popular type and the sweet, friendly type. I am neither.” Carly shrugged. She didn’t want to be the former but the latter was ideal. It seemed like the Lara Jean’s of the world had the best lives. She could bet that Lara Jean had the best grades. She was already beautiful and had great fashion sense. She was kind, friendly, and a general good person. No one was not compatible with Lara Jean. And for maybe even five seconds of that day, Carly wished she was like that.

“Kids nowadays” Bernadette sighed. “If you look around once in a while, you’d see that everyone is different. Count yourself lucky, in my day, we didn’t have freedom to be who or what we wanted. There are more different people now more than ever. Embrace it, sweetheart.”