“Now why would I go to some boring recording sessions when I could be here with you. Lets just say I got out of it last minute. You board your flight in fifteen minutes right?”
“Just about.”
“That’s just enough time to chat before you have to leave.”
“I wonder if JC’s surprise worked,” Justin wondered aloud as he jumped on the couch next to Madelyn.
“Me too,” Madelyn responded.
Justin and Madelyn both sat thinking about the many ways JC could have pulled off his surprise. “Do you wanna do something today?” Justin asked.
“Yeah, but what could we do?”
Both sat thinking about something to do for the rest of the day when Justin got an idea. “I have an idea. But you’ve got to promise to trust me no matter what,” Justin said with a smirk on his face.
Now boarding Flight 176 to New York City
“That’s me,” Abbey said as she stood up.
“Yeah,” JC said standing up in front of Abbey as she put her backpack on.
Both stood in silence before the little boy, Jack, had ran over to Abbey and was pulling her arm. “It’s time Abbey! It’s time!”
Abbey nodded her head and smiled at him. He then ran back over to his mother and Abbey said, “Kids are so wonderful. They just bring a smile out of everything.”
“I can’t wait until I have my own,” JC responded.
“Yeah, I can’t wait until we have our own too.. I mean we as in you have yours and I have mine,” Abbey paused, “Well, I had better get on the plane. Thanks again for letting Maddie and I stay with you guys,” JC nodded to her. “Sorry I have to leave so soon. I wish I could stay longer but you know.. work.”
“Abbey, are you done rambling yet?”
“Sorry.”
“Good,” he said as he looked deep into Abbey’s eyes and she stared back. He leaned closer to her, putting his hand across her cheek rubbing his thumb lightly across it. Abbey knew at that moment there was no stopping JC from kissing her. She closed her eyes anticipating JC to touch her lips. His lips meet hers and she finally let herself relax around him.
Justin sped along the freeway driving in circles so Madelyn wouldn’t figure out where he was taking her. “So where are we going?” Madelyn asked.
“It’s a secret.”
Madelyn sighed as Justin turned off an exit only to make a u-turn exiting out onto the freeway in the opposite direction again. Madelyn propped her elbow on the door and set her head on her hand. The wind blew through her hair and Justin laid his hand in hers. She looked to him and smiled and he smiled back.
He pulled off and exit but didn’t turn around this time. Madelyn wasn’t paying attention to the signs or if Justin had turned around. When they stopped at a red light, Madelyn looked to the left where he was turning and she saw a sign that read “Welcome to Universal Studios and Universal Studios: Islands of Adventures.”
The light turned green and Justin started to turn left. “Oh God. Justin no! Please no! Turn around please,” Madelyn begged. “I can’t! No! Oh boy! I’m not going in there!”
“Madelyn trust me,” he said with a smirk on his face.
Abbey and JC pulled away from each other and again there was silence. Abbey started to walk around the chairs with JC next to her leading her to the terminal gate.
At the gate the stewardess asked Abbey, “Boarding pass please.” Abbey jumped out of her silence and fumbled around in her backpack for her ticket and driver’s license. She looked up at JC as she handed her information and ticket to the stewardess. They looked back at each other and JC leaned forward and lightly kissed her on the lips.
“Here is your ticket and driver’s license back, Miss Carlton. Thank you for choosing us and have a safe flight.” Abbey took her things back from the stewardess and stepped aside from the line. Her and JC stood for a few moments and with nothing said Abbey started to walk away. What was she suppose to say? How could she even speak after what happened.
JC grabbed her hand before she got far and turned her back around, “Call me.” With those two words he let go of her hand and she turned back and walked away from him. JC stood near the gate and watched her walk down the hallway connecting to the plane. When he could no longer see her, he walked over to where they were sitting before.
He sat down and waited for Abbey’s plane to pull away. He finally saw the plane being pushed away from the terminal and he walked over to the window. It was pushed out all the way and now starting to pull away toward the airstrip. JC put his hand on the glass and whispered to himself. “I love you,” he said as the plane pulled out of his vision.
“Madelyn just pull down your shoulder brace. You’ll be ok. I promise. Just trust me.”
“I can’t do this, I can’t do this!”
“Yes, you can. It’s too late now,” Justin said as he pulled down Madelyn’s shoulder brace. “You’re going on this ride.” Madelyn took a deep breath and the ride started. The cars cranked around and then up the steep hill.
“Oh boy, oh boy…” Madelyn said breathing harder now.
“Madelyn, it’ll be ok. You’ll be fine,” he assured her holding her hand.
Madelyn and Justin were in the front row of the first car. They came to the top of the hill and began to fall forward. They didn’t go down the hill right away because of the cars in back still coming over the hill, so they hung over the top. Madelyn squeezed Justin’s hand and started screaming as they plummeted down the hill of the roller coaster.
Abbey sat in her first class seat JC bought with the bouquet of roses sitting in her lap. She had been on the plane for about a half an hour now and she hadn’t thought about anything but JC.
The stewardess walked up to her and asked, “Would you like anything to drink miss?”
“I’ll just have a bottle of water please,” Abbey answered as the stewardess walked to the person behind Abbey.
When she came back with Abbey’s bottle of water she carried an envelope with her that read Passenger Abbey A. Carlton occupying seat 1 A, “Here is your water and this was left for you at the desk before we took off.”
“Thank you,” Abbey said smiling at the envelope. She opened it, pulled out a light blue piece of stationary, and began to read the note inside. Line by line her hands began to shake until she was finally covering her mouth.
“Love always, Nick,” she said to herself dropping the paper and envelope on the floor.
The cars suddenly jerked to a stop at the station. The shoulder braces popped up and Madelyn was still sitting in her seat. Justin stood up and waited for her to move, but she was stiff. “Maddie, it’s over. You can get off now.”
Madelyn stood up slowly not talking as Justin followed her down the exit pathway. She stopped at one point and looked at Justin wearing his sunglasses and hat that shadowed his face.
“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” she paused. “I want to do it again!”
Justin laughed at her and grabbed her hand as they ran the rest of the way to the back of the line in the entrance. When they got to the front after waiting about five minutes, Madelyn began to repeat, “Oh boy! I can’t believe I’m doing this again. Oh jeez!”
Justin looked at her, “I thought you wanted to ride this again?”
“I do, I’m just scared to death!”
“Girls!” Justin said as the gate opened for them to get into the cars. They sat down once again and pulled down their shoulder braces. The cars jerked forward and started up the steep hill. Madelyn grabbed Justin’s hand and squeezed it tight the whole way up the track. “I love this!”
Abbey’s plane arrived at the airport and she was able to get off. Trying not to think about the letter she had received, she headed toward baggage claim. When she arrived, she looked for her bag on the conveyor belt. She didn’t see it, but figured they were still taking them off the baggage cart from the plane. She watched as more bags rolled by. Seeing the same bag go by four times she began to wonder where hers was.
She looked closely at all the bags that passed thinking she overlooked it when she heard someone call her name, “ Abbey, over here!” She looked around for a familiar face. She finally spotted the person and they had her bag.
Abbey walked over to the person and crossed her arms standing in front of them. “What are you doing here?” Abbey asked.
“I’m here for you. To be here with you, Abbey.”
“Can I have my bag please?” she asked.
“I want to talk to you.”
“No, I don’t want to talk to you. Now give me my bag,” she asked again.
“No, I want to talk to you! Until I do, I’m not giving you your bag.”
“Fine!” Abbey said huffing. “Nick, you can keep my bag for all I care!”
“I’m exhausted,” Madelyn said as she entered the house.
“You’re exhausted? I’m the one who had to keep up with you through the whole park!”
Madelyn took Justin’s hand and they walked toward Justin’s car in silence. When they finally got to the car, Justin hit the unlock button and opened the door for Madelyn.
Holding his hand forward he said, “Your chariot, my love.”
Madelyn smiled, “Thank you sir,” she said as she got in the car. Justin shut the door and walked to the driver’s side. He got in and started to back out.
“Do you think Abbey got home yet?”
“I’m sure she has already landed in New York,” Justin assured Madelyn.
“Maybe she called JC.”
“Is she all you think about?”
“She’s my best friend, someone has to be concerned about her. She’s not the only one I think about!”
“Yes.. she is..”
“Oh come on, that’s not true!”
“Yeah, besides me,” Justin said with a smirk on his face.
Abbey walked away from Nick and he followed her through the airport. “Abbey, you can’t leave without your bag. Just listen to me, I need to talk to you,” he yelled to her. Abbey kept walking and Nick jogged up directly next to her. Abbey just walked faster and Nick stayed behind in her path. “Abbey, you eventually have to talk to me. You can’t ignore me the whole way home.”
Abbey walked out to the parking lot and looked for the section where she had parked her car. “It’s over there,” Nick told her. Abbey gave him a dirty look and walked toward her car.
Nick followed her as she opened the car door. Abbey threw her backpack on the passenger side seat and started the car. She rolled down the window, “Look Nick, you can keep my bag for all I care! Make a shrine with it, burn it, do whatever you want!” She put her car in reverse but didn’t back out yet.
“I don’t understand why you won’t talk to me. Just give me ten minutes to talk to you,” Nick pleaded.
“No.. because of your letter..” Abbey sighed, “You’ve ruined probably the best day of my life.”
“Talk to me, you can’t run away from me, you can’t avoid this!”
“Watch me!” Abbey said as she pulled her car out of the parking space and sped away. Nick watched as she pulled away and began running toward his car.
He got to his car and threw Abbey’s bag in the backseat and drove toward Abbey’s apartment.
Back at Justin and JC’s house
Justin and Madelyn walked in the door and knew JC was home because his car was in the driveway. “JC, ya home?” Justin called.
“I’m in here,” JC responded from their game room. JC was playing pool by himself when Justin and Madelyn entered the room. “Hey guys! What’s up?”
“Nothing much. I finally got Maddie on a coaster,” Justin explained.
“Wow! Maddie is finally moving up from baby rides!” JC joked as Madelyn stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m just kidding. I’m proud that you have overcome your fear of coasters.”
“Thanks.. hey did Abbey call?”
“Oh boy, Here she goes again! Thinking about Abbey for the hundredth time today,” Justin said as he threw his hands in the air.
“Shut it! So did she call you JC?” Madelyn told Justin.
“No, not yet, but I told her to call me when she got home.”
“So how did your surprise go JC? Did she know it was you?” Justin asked.
“Let’s just say it went extremely well. It was really romantic. I think things are going to finally work out between us. I just can’t wait until she calls.”
Just then Madelyn’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Maddie?” Abbey asked.
“Hey! What’s up?”
“Where are you?” Abbey wondered.
“At the house with JC and Justin, why?”
“Leave the room. I don’t want JC to find out about what I am going to tell you.”
“Ok,” Madelyn said as she stood up. “I’ll be back in a bit you guys, girl talk.” Madelyn walked out of the room and informed Abbey that she was in the backyard.
Abbey sighed on the other end and began, “Ok, I got on the plane after JC had met me and stuff, that story you will find out more about later, and I get this letter. Guess who it was from? Nick!”
“What?”
“Listen. It said all this stuff and then I tried to forget about it but it ruined my good mood that I was in from JC. I get off the plane in New York and go to get my bag and someone calls my name. I look and it’s Nick! He’s got my bag and I was pissed off. In a nutshell, I walked away as fast as I could and blew him off. And he still has my bag.”
“Oh my,” Madelyn said as she sighed.
“I know. Please don’t tell JC, he might get mad. When I left things were perfect, and Nick ruined the whole thing! I just don’t want to let JC know that my ex crushed his romantic day.”
“I’m going to kill Nick. What is he thinking? Obviously it’s something important if he is basically stalking you and has your bag. Where are you right now?”
“At the apartment,” Abbey answered.
“Well hopefully he didn’t..”
Abbey cut off Madelyn. “Oh no! No! Why must it be in my bag?”
“What’s in your bag?” Madelyn wondered.
“JC’s jacket. If Nick sees that he is going to rip it apart. Please don’t let him go through my bag!”
“Don’t worry. He won’t go through it, hopefully,” Madelyn told Abbey.
“Yeah, hopefully,” Abbey said as someone knocked on the door. “Crap, I think he’s here. What do I do? Should I talk to him?” Abbey worried.
“Yes, that’s the only way you are gonna get your bag back. And if he tries anything funny slap him.”
“Hey, I’m gonna go and try to get him out as quick as possible. Don’t tell JC, and if you tell Justin make sure he doesn’t tell JC or it’ll crush him,” Abbey explained.
“Ok, bye,” Madelyn said turning off her cell phone.
Abbey turned off her phone and tossed it on the couch. She walked slowly over to the door and hesitated to open it. She pulled open the door, anticipating Nick on the other side. Sure enough he was standing there with her bag.
“Hey, can I please talk to you,” Nick asked.
Abbey nodded and walked away from the door leaving it open. Nick walked in and closed the door behind him. He set Abbey’s bag next to the couch and sat down on it. Abbey walked over and sat across from him. She sat with her feet under her and waited for Nick to begin talking.
“I just want to explain what was in that letter. First off the reason I wrote the letter is because I want to tell you that I did make a big mistake by cheating on you and I do apologize as much as I can, even if you won’t accept it. I hope you accept my apology because I truly mean it and I want to be with you. I have never felt anything like the love I have for you.”
“So you think that you coming back and pleading will suddenly make things better? And I will just write off what you did?”
“I’m not saying that. I just want you to try to forgive me or at least accept my apology even if you don’t forgive me. I made a mistake and I am admitting it. I know that I can never change what I did. All I can do is hope that you will love me again someday. I still want to be with you, Abbey.”
“Nick, you can’t do this. Nothing is going to change what you did. I don’t want to be with you. You hurt me and I.. I just can’t let myself back into a situation like that again,” Abbey said as her eyes watered up.
“I promise it won’t be like that. I want what we had and I don’t want to hurt you again. I promise you,” Nick pleaded as he reached for something in his jacket pocket.
“No Nick. Don’t do this too me. Don’t make promises that you know you can’t keep. You cheated on me once, so what’s going to stop you from doing it again,” Abbey said trying to keep her tears back.
“This will,” he said as he walked over to her and kneeled down. “Abigail,” he said as he opened the box he had pulled out of his pocket, “You loved me once and I know that deep in your heart you still love me. Please forgive me. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Abbey just sat and stared at the ring inside the box. A tear rolled down her face and she got up and walked away from Nick. “Nick, get out of my house. Please get out. Now.”
“Ok,” he said pausing, “Just think about it Abbey, please. I love you.”
