Oh dear. This is it!

I couldn’t breathe right. After starting rehearsals with Niall and Demi yesterday on my song, and starting the girls’ song rehearsals this morning—it was originally supposed to be at one, but due to my plans, they moved it to sooner—I had no time to freak out and calm myself down.

That had to be done now, while I was sitting here in this stupid dress with my stupid shoes.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. When Kiley and Madi got their song picked out, they were very quick to come in and start helping. Before I knew it, they were all arguing over which one was best, which shoes to wear, and how to wear my hair. It got so bad that even Brinley felt bad for me, so she came to help out herself. The commotion when she got involved only got Demi involved, and I really didn’t want that.

Still, before I knew it, every single person in that house was going through all the clothes I had, arguing over what would look best. I eventually got to the point where I decided that nothing would be good enough, so I just started grabbing random things—a random dress, a random jacket, a random pair of shoes. Niall noticed and actually got everyone to pay attention to what I was doing, and when they saw what I just randomly picked, it was a unanimous decision.

I had picked it.

So, I was in a pink and white lace dress with tank top straps. It was a bit short for my tastes, but they all loved it.

For a jacket, I had my charcoal leather jacket. Then, to match the jacket, I had on a pair of charcoal hidden wedge sneakers with the sides lined in charcoal spikes.

We all woke up early this morning, and before rehearsals, Kiley painted my nails silver. Down the middle of each nail, she put a charcoal glitter line. To the right, she put a sapphire line. To the left, she put a magenta line. Really, it was neat looking.


I had little diamond earrings in all of my earring holes, except the bottom one, which had a slightly bigger pearl earring. That’s how both ears looked. Then, of course, Madi did my hair.
How? I can’t even describe it. It was a side ponytail, but in the back, it was twisted around in some special way that made it look really awesome. Almost braided even, but just twisted.

So, before even going to practice, my makeup—bronze glitter eye shadow, thin line of black eyeliner, black mascara—my hair, and my nails were all done. We weren’t performing yet, only working on the song. By the time we were done, we had a basic sketch of the song. I was really happy that it was, in fact, Adam’s help for the week teaching us the song and not Niall’s.

I just couldn’t bring myself to like her yet.

Anyways, when we got back, Niall didn’t even get to see me come in. I ran right up the stairs and into my room to freshen up and change. It wasn’t until I was leaving that he saw what it looked like on me.

If everyone hadn’t been in the room, he probably would’ve said something. But instead he just watched with a hidden pain and longing in his eyes as I hugged each of them, even Brinley, and quickly and disappeared out the door.

While I sat here and waited on Chris to arrive, I kept trying to dissect that look. Of course, he told me plainly that he was jealous. Yet he looked sad to watch me go. It wasn’t like this was a real date or anything.

At least I hoped not.

And of course, I began freaking myself out again. What if it was?! What had I gotten myself into?!

Someone very coolly cleared their throat behind me, and I immediately turned to see Chris Evans, in person, standing there dressed so casually in a pair of dark jeans, Vans, and a Metallica t-shirt.

I smiled sheepishly at him, having to do everything I possibly could to remain calm and normal.
“Hi.”

“Hi to you,” he greeted, letting out a quiet laugh to ease some tension. “I feel slightly underdressed. You look beautiful.”

“Well thank you,” I said, but I felt breathless. “You look great yourself. Uh, I didn’t really get a choice on what to wear.”

“It’s very nice,” he complimented, but as my cheeks started heating up, he changed the subject. “You know, this is a little odd for me. I’ve never really done anything like this before. I’ve read all kinds of different things on the internet about your age, so first I’m gonna just ask. How old are you?”

I smiled a little. “I’m gonna be eighteen soon. Like, in two weeks.”

“Well happy early birthday,” he said with a smile. “I hope you like eating because I love it, and I hear this place has awesome food. I don’t really know. Never actually been here, but I hear the lobster grilled cheese is incredible.”

I made a face at the dish he mentioned, a face he laughed at. “I actually hate lobster. Fish of any kind, really. I don’t know what it is, but it’s never settled well with me. But, if they have a good burger, I’ll eat here forever.”

He laughed again. “I can agree with that.”

So, we ordered. The place was so crowded, and we were lucky to get in and out without people noticing him. Or maybe they did, but as I said, it’s LA.

We got our food and left, which kind of excited me. I wasn’t a huge fan of crowded places with no room to breathe, so getting to explore LA some more made me happy.

It was, to be honest, exactly how I always pictured my first date would be. You know, we just hung out. Got to know each other. There was no awkward sexual tension or anything because, as gorgeous as he may be, there were many reasons we would never actually date. For one, he’s thirty-one. For another, the most important reason, I’m sort of, in a weird and messed up kind of way, in a relationship already. So, getting in another one would be just . . . wrong.

When talking, he was saying my name but missed the “Ev” part and just said, “Rit.” So, from there, he begged me to let him call me Ritty. I kind of liked that, so I let him.

The burger was fantastic. The seasoned fries were so good. I even got an excellent strawberry and banana smoothie. So, I would definitely be taking everyone else here.

We actually went ice skating. Or at least tried to.

When we walked into the big room with the ice rink, I was surprised to find no one here.
Literally.

My eyebrows furrowed. “You’d think there’d be someone here.”

He shrugged. “People have work, rehearsals, things of that nature. It’s one in the afternoon. Honestly, it’ll probably get busy about the time we leave.”

“True,” I agreed.

“In order for this friendship to work,” he said the moment my words settled, something that both relieved and surprised me. “You have to have two traits. One, the most important one, is you have to love dogs, and I mean really love dogs. Two, you have to be open minded and willing to try new things. Are you these things?”

“Completely,” I smiled. “I have a dog who’s actually back at the house right now. I couldn’t leave him in Alabama.”

“You don’t sound like you come from Alabama,” he informed me. “Sounds more like Ireland or Scotland.”

“I was born in Ireland, moved to America after getting citizenship here,” I said. “I’ve lived in Ireland most of my life, though.”

He nodded and began carefully leading me over to the ice. Walking in the skates was nearly impossible, but it was something I managed. I didn’t know what to expect in the rink, but from the way he just jumped in and took off, I figured it was probably really hard.

As he did a lap around the ice, he noticed my hesitation and grinned at me. “What? Never ice skated before?”

I shook my head, smiling sheepishly as I carefully stepped down on the ice. “I’m not exactly what you would call coordinated. Plus no one ever asked me to go.”

“You’ve really never been ice skating before?” he asked with a small laugh. “I thought that was, like, one of the basics of dating!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Never been on a date before.”

“And that I find impossible to believe,” he protested, and the surprise was obvious in his eyes. “You’re a lot of fun, especially for a seventeen year old girl who came from a small town in Alabama. I mean, not to be arrogant or anything, but I’m Captain America, for crying out loud, and you act like I’m just Chris.”

“Because you are,” I said. “I thought that I would have a complete and total fan girl moment when I met you, but then I met you, and I realize you’re just a person, just like the rest of us. I’ve started realizing that all this publicity and gossip about everyone isn’t who they are or what their lives are like. There are real people hiding behind the public figures, and that’s who I wanted to meet today. And I have.”

He smiled. “I’m glad I decided to do this, Ritty. You’re something special.”

“Me too,” I agreed, smiling brightly before putting my other foot on the ice and holding my arms out a little to help balance myself. “So . . . is this like walking, or what?”

He laughed and slid over behind me, carefully placing his hands on my shoulders as not to make things awkward. “Well, sorta. You just gotta push yourself off and then move like you’re walking. Just push.” And he gave me a little nudge forward.

Once I started sliding, my legs wobbled, but I somehow stood tall. Like he said, I put one foot in front of the other, followed by putting the other in front, and suddenly, I was skating. Just like that. From what I had read online, what I had heard from people who had done it, ice skating was impossible. Girls would always say they fell on their butts, and their sweet dates would help them up and help them skate. Maybe that was for that reason, but it wasn’t hard. At all.

So, for an hour, we skated around, and I actually got to the point where I was doing some tricks. He was impressed, and for fun, we started playing tag on ice. He had a really hard time catching me, and I wasn’t even using any unnatural things. Just being flexible helped me get away sometimes.

People started coming in, like he said, once we started heading out. Some recognized us and actually asked us both for our autographs. He was polite and signed a few, and I did the same, but we didn’t stick around long. Instead, we jumped into his really cozy looking white Lexus parked outside of the LA Café, and he just took us somewhere new.

I began laughing suddenly. “Is something gonna come of this?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Like, people twist everything,” I pointed out. “Are they gonna make it out like we’re dating or something?”

“Probably,” he snorted. “You done rehearsing today?”

“Probably not,” I murmured. “Why?”

He let out a strange laugh/scoff hybrid. “Well, doesn’t matter. I forget you’re only seventeen, soon to be eighteen. You don’t act like it. You’re more mature than I thought you would be.”

I shrugged a little. “I mean, I guess I had to grow up fast as a little kid.” In order to quickly change the subject, I did it myself. “I should probably be getting back. Not that this hasn’t been fun!”

He was laughing again, something that made me smile. You know, I wasn’t crushing, but I definitely liked him in the sense of a friend. Him laughing made me smile because of this.

“It has been fun,” he agreed. “We should do this again. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find Mr. Right sometime and we can double.”

I did my best to fight my smile, but when it came to Niall . . . I couldn’t, you know? He was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and he was still happening to me. I couldn’t just hide that and pretend that it wasn’t happening. Maybe I could lie and say it was just my feelings for him, and I could always deny that something had gone on.

I couldn’t hide this, though, at least not from him for whatever reason.

His eyes widened a little as he started laughing in pure delight. “You have! Who is he? Anyone back home? Someone famous you met here in LA?”

My cheeks were burning a little as I smiled coyly. “I can’t say. I mean, he doesn’t share feelings, and it’s not even right for me to have feelings for him.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean not right? Love is always right, Ritty, even if it comes at the wrong time.”

“It has,” I sighed. “I mean, I love him, and it’s bad timing. I met him before all of this, but I met him again when I auditioned for the show.”

“I’m guessing it’s your coach,” he said, and as he stopped at the red light, he looked over to me for confirmation. “That’s not wrong, Ritty. A relationship isn’t wrong if he’s able to put it all behind him. I think you should tell him.”

“He knows,” I said, smiling a bit sheepishly when his eyebrows rose. “One of the girls still there makes sure to bring it up all the time.”

He nodded slowly, letting out a small scoff. “Is she a friend, or does she do it to make you uncomfortable?”

“Definitely to make me uncomfortable,” I snorted. “You know, I can’t say I hate her, especially with her random moments where she’s actually pretty cool and okay to be around. But some of the stuff she does to me just . . . makes me wanna punch her right in her face. Does that make me a bad person?”

“What does she do?” he asked.

I began twiddling my thumbs. “She’s hated me from the beginning. I don’t really know why, but she has. Still does. The first day there, back before the battle rounds, we all went swimming to have some fun. Well, we were playing chicken, and Niall tackled me into the water. My top came off, and she actually came in and took it. Then she sabotaged my battle round outfit I was gonna wear. Joke’s on her on both accounts. She did the first thing to make me look like a whore in front of Niall, but I was actually holding onto him in the pool while another friend got me a t-shirt. Then I got a better one picked out for my battle round performance. After that, she’s just kinda said all kinds of mean stuff to me. She hasn’t messed with me since then, other than to make jabs here and there about how I’m a whore, how I don’t deserve to be in the competition. Then she constantly flirts with Niall just to piss me off, or wears little clothing to try and turn him on or something. Things of that nature. It doesn’t really bother me, and I’m not holding grudges. Just wanna punch her.”

He laughed. “I understand. I would’ve punched her.”

And unfortunately, we were arriving back at the house a couple of minutes after that. I say unfortunately because I had to look at Niall and not tell him all the details of how excited I was. I couldn’t kiss him like I wanted, and then there was another problem.

Demi.

I let out a deep sigh as he put the car in park. “You wanna come in and meet everyone?
They’re used to famous people too. Last week, all five of the guys in One Direction were here. Now Demi Lovato’s in there.”

He nodded and smiled. “Sounds like fun. I wanna meet your dog. What kind is he?”

I first climbed out of the car and shut the door behind me, laughing as he quickly did the same. “An apricot miniature poodle. So adorable and sweet.”

I was a little surprised to find the door unlocked, but I didn’t question it as I opened the door and popped my head in, checking to see if the living room was clear. When I saw that it was, I gestured him in and called out, “Harley!”

Sure enough, a moment later, I heard the jingling of his dog tags as he ran out of someone’s room, yelping in excitement. Even when he saw Chris standing behind me, he just happily jumped up in my arms and began trying to lick my face.

Chris laughed, which freaked him out a bit. “Hey there, Harley.”

Harley, to my surprise, began reaching for him, and with a laugh, Chris took him from him and began petting the side of his face while Harley eagerly tried to lick him.

I smiled sheepishly. “He usually doesn’t like new people, men especially.”

Noah rushed down the stairs with a bright grin. “You’re back, Ev! And you’re here. Hi, Chris. I’m Noah.”

Chris smiled and shook his hand with the free hand that wasn’t holding Harley. “I’m Chris, as you already stated.”

“So, Ev, did you tell him what you told me?” Noah asked, which horrified me beyond belief.

“No,” I groaned, and my eyes started to tighten. “Go away, Noah. Shoo.”

Niall came in the room right about then, very closely followed by Demi. That just made my eyes tighten more, but I pretended to ignore them both and continued trying to get Noah away.

Noah laughed as I started pushing him out of the room before he said it, but of course, I could never catch a break. “She loves your butt, man.”

I scowled and started pushing harder. “Go away! Madi, come control your boyfriend!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” she yelled down at me. “He’s your problem now!”

Chris was still laughing about the butt thing, but when I looked to him, he smirked a little. “Well, I could say the same for you.”

My cheeks were on fire as Noah busted out laughing, something that made Harley bark. When he did, he jumped out of Chris’s arms and over to Noah, where he actually sat down and looked up at him. Not asking him to pick him up or anything. Just looking at him.

Noah calmed down and stuck his tongue out at him. “Fine, fine, Mr. Bossy Pants. I’ll be quiet.”

I laughed and smirked. “That’s what you get.”

“Oh my gosh!” Madi yelped from the top of the stairs, her eyes wide. “Okay. That entrance would’ve been a lot better with some warning next time?”

I shrugged nonchalantly and made a face at her. “I’ve got other problems to deal with.”

She just stuck her tongue out at me and hurried down the stairs. Kiley was, of course, following after her, and the two were standing in the crowd of people quickly.

“Hi,” Madi said rather calmly with a bright smile. “I’m Madi.”

“And I’m Kiley,” she informed him, voice very chipper. “I hope our Everit was good. Hate to have to put her in timeout.”

Chris laughed at that. “She was good. I’m not entirely sure where she puts all the food she eats, but she was good. It was a lot of fun.”

Kiley smirked at me. “I’m thinking the boob or ass region is where it all must go.”

I noticed Niall actually tighten his eyes a little, but not in anger. This time, it was try to stop himself from letting all of his emotions come out—like desire?

So, with bright red cheeks, I looked to Chris. “It was a lotta fun. I’m gonna go hide under my bed for a few weeks.”

“Ritty, you can’t do that,” he protested. “I told you. We gotta go on a double date.”

“I told you, that’s not happening,” I reminded him, and I stuck my tongue out at him. “No boys for me for a good while. Too busy. Boys have cooties.”

He just rolled his eyes and nodded, giving me an all knowing smirk that actually made my eyes widen. “Uh huh. We’ll see about that. I gotta go, though. It was nice meeting all of you. Ritty, I’m serious. We have to hang out again. That was a lot of fun.”

Niall laughed. “She’s quite the character.”

I made a face at him and began rocking back and forth on my feet while Chris laughed, too. “Agreed, though you’ve probably seen more than I have of that. Text me, okay?”

“Will do,” I promised, and I surprised everyone when I danced over and gave him a tight hug. “Bye, Chris. Thank you for lunch. It was awesome.”

“That it was.”

Notes

Lyrics are from Good Day by Nappy Roots. Literally have never heard the song, but I was like, "Eh. Why not?" x3

Everit's outfit can be seen here. :)

Now, as I said, I'll try to update some more before I go to work tomorrow, but it's not like I left you with a horrible cliff hanger or anything. :3 So if I don't update before work, I will for sure update after.

Once again, thank you guys for being so awesome! Really, makes me happy. :) Please continue to enjoy this series, and let me know what you think!



Here's, ya know, Chris Evans seeing a baby in the crowd and getting adorably excited about it <3 My little sister showed me this, and I've watched it far too many times. x3

...wow. Just started looking for a Jeremy Renner gif and wasted an hour. But, on the positive note, I found a website that I'll visit far too often. x3

Sorry. I get delirious when I'm tired. Just...ignore my Avengers rambling, enjoy this chapter, and enjoy the Chris Evans gif. :D