I was sitting in my room, staring up at the ceiling, when Simon came in. I tilted my head when I saw the grin on his face and his hand behind his back.
It had been a few days, and JJ and I still weren't on the best terms. When we ran into each other, we'd just nod and walk away. It was obvious we were avoiding each other, but at least we hadn't had another screaming match. I felt like he was avoiding me purely so we wouldn't fight again, so I just left it.
"What's with the face?" I smiled at him.
"JJ has a press conference in Los Angeles for his fight," Simon started. I bit my lip at the mention of his name, but didn't say anything. He continued. "Have you been to LA?"
I laughed nervously. "No. I hear it's sunny."
"Well, pack your bags and grab your passport," He pulled his hand away from his bag to reveal a plane ticket and I widened my eyes.
"Oh my God, really?" I stood and ran over to him, wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him in a hug. "Thank you! As soon I get a job I'll pay you back and—"
"It wasn't me," He said. "It's JJ's apology gift."
I bit my lip. "We were supposed to get one of those? I hate to break it to him, but I don't do 'apology gifts.'"
He chuckled. "No, there's no need. But get ready, we're leaving in a few hours."
"A few hours?" I stepped back and hit his arm. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"You were hiding away in your room," He countered with a grin. It was true. I'd been sitting in my room and reading for the past few days, and I only left the house when Vik offered to take me to the library. A part of me wanted to think it was just because of mine and JJ's argument, but I knew it was partly because Sam had broken up with me.
"Give me a few minutes and I'll be out," I stated. "I should change, too."
He nodded and walked out of the room, and I couldn't contain my excitement as I rushed to pack all of my summer clothes in my suitcase. I then barreled down the stairs and crashed into Harry, who picked me up and spun me around.
"Cassie!" Harry squeezed all of the breath out of me. "It's been ages. Vik told us what happened with your boyfriend, sorry to hear it. None of us really liked the bastard anyway."
I giggled and bit my lip as he pulled away from him. He never failed to lift my mood.
My smile faded slightly when I caught JJ staring at us, but I shook my head and left it.
"Ready?"
*****
I couldn't stop bouncing my leg once we landed in LA. It was beautiful, and even though it was dark when we got there, it was still warm. I wanted nothing more than to change into shorts and go for a walk.
"I can't believe it's this warm in November," I giggled as Harry wrapped his arm around my shoulder. We were all walking in the airport, towards the cars, and I breathed in the warm air once we made it outside. "Look! A palm tree! I've never seen one before."
"Really?" Tobi came over to Harry and I. "Never?"
I shook my head, but my grin grew wider. "So, what's the plan? Go for a walk on the boardwalk? Go out for drinks?"
"The plan is to get settled at the hotel and go to sleep," Josh said from behind us. "We've got a long day tomorrow and we need the rest."
I sighed. "Fine. Be boring. By long day, I hope you mean a fun-filled one."
He just chuckled and we all rode to the hotel. I stayed quiet for the car ride, since Vik, Simon, and Harry were all vlogging. Harry would constantly pan the camera to me and I'd smile awkwardly.
Once we got to the hotel, Josh handed out everyone's keys. I was very excited to have my own hotel room, and it was on one of the highest floors.
I stayed down in the lobby for another hour or so with Harry, Ethan, and Tobi, catching up since we hadn't seen each other in so long. Eventually, they got tired, so we all went our separate ways and to our rooms.
I dragged my suitcase to the room number on my key, and when I opened the door, I sighed wistfully at how big it was. For some reason, they gave me the suite.
It was beautiful. The bed was huge, and there was a large glass door that led out to a very large patio.
"What are you doing in here?"
I jumped and whirled around, but I widened my eyes at the sight.
JJ was standing there, nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist, and I quickly brought a hand up to shield my eyes. No matter how badly I wanted to stare at his abs, I didn't.
"I, uh, my key—"
My key was taken from my hand, and he cursed. "Take your hand away from your eyes. We're adults, we can handle this. I'm sure they just gave you the wrong key."
I brought my hand away, but couldn't stop staring at his abs. He didn't seem to notice, since he was dialing a number in his phone. I looked away as he put the phone up to his ear, and nervously sat down on the bed in there.
"Josh, I think you gave Cassie the wrong key," He said. He was quiet for a minute. "What? Why?"
He went quiet again. "We already apologized. Josh—hello? Damnit."
He pocketed his phone and glanced over at me. I bit my lip.
"Josh says they did it on purpose. They think we're avoiding each other."
I looked down at my lap. "Oh."
He shrugged it off like it wasn't a big deal before going back into the bathroom. He closed the door and I sighed, going over to the large couch in there and setting my suitcase on the floor next to it. I changed into black athletic shorts and a t-shirt before laying down on the couch and staring up at the ceiling. I wasn't exactly tired.
JJ came back out in shorts, but he still wasn't wearing a shirt. I rolled my eyes.
"Will you put on a shirt? No one wants to see your tits."
"Hey, you're lucky I'm wearing shorts," He stated. He climbed into the very large bed after turning off the lights and immediately turned to face away from me. "Go to bed."
I rolled my eyes again. Goodnight to you, too.
After a while of sitting in silence, he started snoring softly, and I sighed. Why did they force us to share a room? It's not like the snoring bothered me, and if I was being honest it was pretty cute. You would think someone like him would be a loud, obnoxious snorer. But he wasn't.
What bothered me was the atmosphere. It was clear he didn't want to be around me, so it was a very awkward situation.
I sighed and slowly stood to my feet, wrapping a light cardigan around my shoulders and padding my way over to the patio door. The floor creaked, and immediately JJ stopped snoring. I cursed.
"Where are you going?" His voice was deep and scratchy from having just woken up, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was sexy.
It's not like I liked him or anything.
"I just, uh, need some air."
"They told me to make sure you didn't run off on your own," He stated. I looked over at him, and he was still laying on the bed. He was facing me, though.
"I'm not going anywhere," I said softly. "Go back to sleep. I'll just be on the patio."
He groaned. "They'll give me crap if I don't follow you."
"Well I'll give you crap if you do. I'm not going anywhere, relax. Besides, even if I was—"
I trailed off when he started lightly snoring again, so I sighed and made my way outside. The air was warm, and the stars lit up the sky.
I sat down on one of the chairs out there and leaned back, staring up at the stars and getting lost in the beauty of it all. As I looked over the city, I wanted to do nothing more than explore. I never did travel much. All of my traveling had been through reading, when I'd go places in my mind. It wasn't the same.
I rarely wore shorts. I know the guys had never seen me in them. I never touched any dresses or shorts, not just because it was winter and it was cold but because I never did like showing off my legs that much. It's not like I wasn't proud of my body, but it wasn't something I enjoyed showing off all the time.
So I made a deal with myself to wear shorts the entire time we were there.
I sighed again, staring out at the city for a while and feeling a feeling of sadness weigh on my chest. Even though we had our differences, I hated that JJ and I were on rough terms. Luckily, we hadn't argued yet, but it was still hard to be in the same room as him.
As I went back inside, I bit my lip. The couch was extremely uncomfortable.
But it would have to do for the night. I'd convince Josh to let me stay in a different room in the morning.
So yeah, I guess there are some unsolved issues between the two, that clearly the others saw...what do you think?