I wipe a tear from my face as I cheer with the rest of the audience.
The play was amazing. Lilly was incredible and so were the others, but her, damn. No wonder everyone is standing as she's receiving an ovation.
I knew she was talented and I've seen the rehearsals, but she gave all of her soul on that stage and I couldn't be prouder of her.
She didn't let anything stop her, not even the drama that happened before.
As the curtain closes, I rush to the stage, jumping on her as I give her a big hug.
"Oh my God, you were so amazing!" She hugs me back and I don't need to look at her to know she's smiling from ear to ear. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you two."
I'm aware she was about to celebrate with Harris, but this is my best friend and we've been talking about this for years, so as much as I like Harris, I don't really care right now.
"It felt so good to be there, like that's where I belong, you know?" She says and I nod vigorously.
"Maybe it is indeed." Harris' voice is soft and he looks at his girlfriend with such admiration, that my mind immediately goes to Bennett.
"Harris thinks I should go to acting school." I nod again, this time in agreement.
"Well, you would rock for sure. Just please don't forget me when you win an Oscar. Or a Grammy or Tony, I mean, just don't forget me when you're famous, period."
She laughs out loud and pulls me in for another hug.
"And don't dump me to date a hot actor." Harris adds and we both laugh.
"You're the hot actor, babe." She winks at him.
"Oook, I think I should go now and leave you two lovebirds." I definitely don't want to be in the middle of their celebration after this. "I'll go find our parents and we'll meet you later?"
She nods, but even before I leave, the stage is full with people wanting to congratulate them and I take it as my cue to go.
I see Mrs. Bergman going their direction as well and the woman has too many tears, so this will be emotional for sure. I've never seen her cry in any of the plays, so this is huge, I guess.
Going back to the backstage, I look around to see if I find Bennett, but there's no sign of him, so I take a deep breath before I make my way to the fuzzy audience.
If Dylan is still there, I'm not sure what could happen. Will he call me out in front of our parents or will he pretend nothing happened?
I really have no clue.
I see our parents from a distance and they are now not only with Lilly's folks, but also with a woman that I assume to be Harris' mom, because Harris looks exactly like her, only with short hair and well, male version.
"There you are!" My mom pulls me in for a hug. "The play was amazing, honey. And Lilly? Oh my God, she was phenomenal!"
I inflate my chest like I was the one on the stage instead of Lilly. Her success is my success, so I do feel happy to hear this.
"She was, wasn't she?" I turn to Lilly's parents "Mr and Mrs. Jansen, your daughter is seriously the most talented person I know."
"Thank you Alex, we think so too." Lilly's dad says while her mom is still crying and I can't help but think that I'll miss them when we go to college. They've always been nice to me and I did spend a lot of time with them over the years.
"We're all going to have dinner together to celebrate." My mom says and I look around to see if I find Dylan, but he's not here, so hopefully this is a sign that he left.
"What do you mean, together? Like, all of us?" I point at the Wests and Lilly's parents who are now talking to each other. "Uhn, is Dylan coming?"
I had to bluntly ask, there's no other way of asking this.
"Yeah, why wouldn't he go?" Well, how do I answer to that?
"Right, of course." I playfully hit my head, like I want to say 'what was I thinking, phew.'
"He went to the bathroom, I guess. We're obviously waiting for the stars of the night and Janet invited Harris' family to go as well."
She wasn't kidding when she said all of us. Full house? Oh great, I really hope we don't ruin everyone's night.
.........................
It took us another good forty minutes to be able to leave. Between Lilly and Harris manage to be congratulated by every single person in the auditorium, plus Bennett showing up because he was helping organize a few things - which I should be doing too - time went by fast and I was tired by the time we got to the restaurant.
At least I spent time with Audrey, so it wasn't a total waste. She is indeed really cool and I'm glad we get along, as well as Lilly, because it would suck not to have a good relationship with your boyfriend's sibling.
Trust me, I've been there, so I know.
Anyways, as it's a large group, there's a big table waiting for us with a 'reserved' sign, another thing I'm grateful for. I'm starving, so if we had to wait for a table, I'd probably become hangry, you know hungry and angry, which is not a good combination.
I turn into some sort of ferocious animal when I don't eat, like Hulk, but it's not my fault. It's the hormones.
Adults sit on one side, kids on the other and as they chat excitedly, the mood on our side of the table is a bit sour.
Bennett is sitting next to me, making my heart beat fast. We haven't talked since the play started, since he pecked me on the lips, so I'm not sure where his head is at. He's too quiet, like he's going back to his shell and I just hope he doesn't shut me out after what happened.
I don't know if it's a coincidence he sat next to me, but I can't help but think that this is a change from what we usually do. I always sit next to Dylan so this is new.
Dylan is sitting across from Bennett and I swear that if looks could kill, Bennett would be six feet under already. His parents asked what was going on with him, but he told them to leave him alone and I guess they did.
Lilly and Harris are sitting next to Dylan and Audrey is sitting next to me. The six of us stay silent, probably all of us thinking that this is awkward. Apart from Audrey, we were all there when shit happened.
"So, why is everyone so quiet?" Audrey asks and that tells me that she really is clueless.
"Maybe you should ask Bennett." Dylan's eyes are back to his brother.
"I didn't do anything, if much, it was you being an asshole as usual." Bennett is sharp and glares back at Dylan.
"Right, we're here for Lilly and Harris, so can you please not fight?" I ask, looking at Lilly before I glance at both of the West's brothers.
I see the confusion in Audrey's face and I lean closer to her to whisper in her ear. "I'll tell you later." She nods and thankfully lets this go.
"Oh god, why do you all look like you're at a funeral?" My mom is the one asking this very impertinent question and we all look at her.
"Ask Benn--" Dylan starts again, but I cut him off.
"We're ok, we're just hungry." She looks at me suspicious, but doesn't push, for now at least. I know she'll ask me a bunch of questions later.
"Ok, well, we've ordered some starters already. You have the menus, so tell us what you'd like." I nod gracefully, with a total fake smile and I know she noticed.
Each of us grab a menu and look at it quietly. Although Lilly is quiet and apart from the messy situation we're in, I can tell she's happy and I smile at her. She looks at me too and it's like we're silently talking and saying "we f-ing did it!"
We finally order our food and as the starters arrive, things become less awkward. I mean, I'm ignoring Dylan's mood, so maybe it's still awkward, but we're focusing on the food.
"So Audrey, I meant to ask you this before, but why didn't you join the play?" I ask, trying to make small talk.
"It's not really my scene. That has always been Harris' thing, I wanted to focus on my real passion. I want to become a chef."
"Wow, that's amazing, I can't even fry an egg." I say and she giggles. Audrey is seriously cool. I hope we can stay friends.
"I want to go back to Europe to study at Le Cordon Bleu. It's a top cooking school."
"I'm sure you'll nail it." Which reminds me I still don't know what I want to do with my life.
''I'll start next semester though, I'll take a few months to travel around.''
"Speaking of college, how are your plans of moving to California, Bennett?" Dylan asks and I know what he wants. He didn't mention Bennett is going to Stanford, he said California on purpose, to make even more clear than already is that he's going all the way across the country.
My heart tights in my chest and I frown looking at my plate.
"It's a couple months away, so I'm not going to worry about this now." I feel his eyes on me, but I don't want to look.
We still haven't talked after what happened and I truly don't know where we stand.
"Right, but it's a bit far away, isn't it? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but damn, it's hard to keep your hometown friends when you're so far away. You'll have a new life, new friends, so, so far away." Dylan takes his hand to his heart in a dramatic gesture and it pisses me off what he's trying to do.
He's not wrong though and I start to feel anxious. What if Bennett doesn't want to be with me because of this? Or hell, because of whatever reason he finds? It's not like he's even looking at me, so maybe he regrets what happened earlier.
Before he answers though, I feel him grab my hand under the table and rest it on my thigh as he intertwines our fingers.
My eyes dart to him, but he's still looking ahead and that my friends might have been the sexiest thing he could have done.
Sexy is not the word I'm trying to find, but the shivers I felt as he held my hand where no one can see, like it's our thing, is not something you experience everyday.
I don't know what the future holds for us, but damn, if I know one thing is that I want for us to find a way.
Apparently, he wants that too.
We can be together even if we'll be on opposite sides of the country.
"Well, you're supposed to be gone and you're still around us all the time, so you never know, right?" Lilly's ironic comment gets a smirk out of Bennett's face and I try not to laugh.
"Oh Lilly, it's always nice being around you. I hope I'm still around when you fail. Where are you going again? NYU? We will definitely bump into each other in manhattan."
"God, I hope not." She rolls her eyes and I can't hold the laugh. Not the best time, the tension is heavy.
"You think this is funny?" Dylan asks and I stop laughing.
"Dylan, I don't want us to fight, not tonight. We're here for Lilly and Harris."
"I don't give a fuck about Lilly and Harris." I hate so much when he acts like this.
"Then leave." Bennett finally says. "No one wants you here, anyway."
"Oh really?" Dylan's voice is loud enough, so all the parents are now looking at us.
I let go of Bennett's hand, because this is not something I want them to see, even if we're holding hands under the table.
"Can anyone tell us what is going on? Why do you look like you all want to rip each other's heads?" Denise asks and we all look around the table.
"Ask your son." Dylan points at his brother. "It's all his fault."
"My fault? You're the one who punched me."
"You punched your brother?" George is ready to lose his shit with them, but Denise is wiser and takes a deep breath not to tell then to fuck off.
"When did this happen? Is this why your lips are cut?" Bennett nods and I look at his lips as an instinct to check the cut.
"He stole my girlfriend, so what did you expect me to do? Yeah, I punched him and I'd do it again." I take my hand to my face.
I feel so embarrassed right now, this is not how I wanted anyone to know about whatever is going on.
I haven't told my parents yet that I broke up with Dylan, although my mom knows this is what I intended to do.
"I think we all need to chill and talk." Once again, Denise's soft voice tries to make things better.
"Right, because that works every time. The nerd is good with words, which is funny considering he barely talks like a normal person, but maybe that's what made her fall into his bullshit." Dylan replies.
"Enough, Dylan."
"I mean, it's not like it's hard to fool her, because--"
Dylan can't finish his sentence, because Bennett is already flying on his neck over the table to make him stop talking.
"You don't open your mouth to talk about her, do you understand?" Bennett's tone is threatening and I feel bad for thinking this is actually quite hot.
George and my dad are on their feet in seconds to pull them apart.
"See? He attacked me!"
"You two, outside. NOW." Dylan and Bennett are being dragged to a more reserved area by our fathers, while the rest of us remain seated, completely confused.
"I'm sorry..." I start saying, but tears are already on my face as I start sobbing. "I... didn't mean... to ruin... dinner."
Lilly stands up and rounds the table to hug me.
"It's not your fault."
"Oh honey." Denise also stands and pats me on the back, as Lilly lets me go.
She pulls me in for a hug as well and I bury my face on her chest.
"Can we go outside to talk?" I nod and she takes the lead to the back side of the restaurant.
Thankfully, it's one of those big restaurants, so there's space for all of us to have conversations and fight.
Not the best time to joke, I know.
"What about the boys?" I look in the opposite direction where we're going, exactly where the four of them left a few minutes ago.
"If I know my husband and you dad, and I do know them pretty well, my kids are getting their asses scolded, so don't worry." I nod.
"Are you going to scold me too?" She shakes her head, smiles and takes a strand of my hair from my face.
We're sitting at the winter garden of the restaurant, something I alway loved about this place. They have this small fountain, those tiny lights and it makes it romantic.
"I always loved you like a daughter, you know that right?" I smile and nod. "So, tell me what happened."
I start telling her what went down between me and each of her sons. Not the details, god no, but the basics.
How Dylan and I started dating, how spending time with Bennett was amazing, how I realized I liked Bennett more than a friend and so on.
I left out the part that I cheated in Dylan, broke up with him, then had sex to realize I actually love Bennett.
She doesn't need to know all that.
"I'm sorry they are fighting because of me. I didn't mean any of this to happen."
"Oh honey, this is far from being your fault. It was long overdue." I look at her. "It actually surprises me it didn't happen sooner. I love both my sons, but they are very different. They've been picking on each other since they were babies, I guess."
Thinking about it, that's very true.
"I feel bad anyway."
"I don't want this to sound bad, but you were just the pretext for them to fight. This would have happened eventually. Maybe it's my fault, you know? I'm their mom." I feel for her.
It must be hard having your two sons not getting along.
I take her hand in mine and give it a little squeeze, I smile, just to receive a smile back from her.
"Well, all that being said, you and Bennett, uhn? I have to say that I'm not surprised. I know how much Bennett adores you and although he is a closed book, it's always been quite obvious."
I want to facepalm myself. So it was really just me who never noticed.
"He is amazing. I just... I wish I realized this sooner, now that we're going to college might be too late."
"It's never too late, honey. You two look great together and I'm sure you'll be happy. We just need to deal with the mess that it's going on with them and you'll both be fine."
"Thank you." I honestly say.
"Let's go back there, shall we?"
The moment we're back, I kind of want to laugh.
Lilly is biting her nails, like she desperately wants to know what Denise and I talked about. My mom looks the same, except that she's not biting her nails, but well, I'm sure Denise will tell her what happened. It's not like she was super surprised with what I told her, so knowing my mom, she already spilled the tea.
Dylan and Bennett are both sitting again in their chairs, looking down and our fathers have a pleased look on their faces.
"So, don't you two have something to say?" My dad said, crossing his arm.
"We're sorry." They both speak at the same time.
I'm not sure if everything Denise said was right, but one thing I know.
They did get scolded.
.......................
Hello Lovely Readers,
I know I haven't been posting frequently lately and I do hope that you're still excited with the story. I can't appreciate enough you sticking around.
I'm particularly happy with this chapter, I think it came out really nicely, but maybe that's just me, so PLEASE let me know what you think!!
Bennett holding Alex's hand under the table, reassuring her is good for her anxiety haha, not kidding. Even if she doesn't know where they stand, because he's back to being quiet, this gesture is a good sign!
What do you think will happen next? We're almost at the end and I think it's time for them to finally talk.
Love always,
Me