It was 6:30 AM on Wednesday morning at the end of March. The streets of Wilmington were pretty quiet. Some people were driving off to work, but aside from those cars there was not much movement. There were only two people on the sidewalk.
The left one was wearing a dark blue sweater with the logo of the Tree Hill Ravens on the back, on top of a blue bleeched jeans and a pair of black vans. Her dark brown curls reached the bottom of her ears and her makeup was very natural, just a bit of lipgloss and some mascara.
The right one was wairing a bright red T-shirt, covered with a grey Fall Out Boy hoodie, a dark blue jeans and a pair of red converse and she carried a darkred backpack. Her straight dark brown hair was coming out of the hood she pulled over her head and fell down to where her breasts started. Her make up was pretty natural as well, but she had brought her eyes out with some mascara, eyeliner and grey eyeshadow.
The right one, that would be me. The left one is my friend Saskia. You might wonder what we are doing out at this hour of the day ? Well, we came here from Europe to visit the town where our favorite tv drama, One Tree Hill, is filmed. This morning, Saskia had decided to take an early walk to Battleship Parc,the place better know to us as the famous River Court on the show.
We went there yesterday to see a bit of the filming, but she wanted to take another trip there, so she could make some photos on the court. And because she wanted to take her time to do it right, she decided to go out early, to be sure no one else would be there to bother her.
Being the good friend I am or try to be and being a fan of the show as well, I had no problem going there with her. Untill I felt the cold March air on my face when exiting our hotel, that is.
"Saskia, we must be crazy. My fingers are freezing off !" I complained while crossing a street.
"Don't be such a pussy Lore! We will probably be in Wilmington only one time in our lifes, so we have to take advantage of it as much as we can." Saskia told me.
"I know, you're probably right." I answered with a sigh.
"Off course I am!" She grinned.
I couldn't help but smile at the enthousiasm of my friend. So we walked in silence for about fifteen minutes, each probably drifting off into our own world. When we reached the River Court, I took place on one of the benches that was placed aside from the basket field and took off my backpack.
"Great! Now smile ! Take a cute pose !" Saskia yelled at me while grabbing her digital camera from the backpack.
I smiled again at her enthousiasm and took a few crazy poses. She took a couple of pictures and then turned towards the court and started taking pictures of the rings and stuff. I watched her go totally crazy for a moment and then grabbed Love in the time of cholera out of the backpack.
"I am going to sit under that tree over there !" I yelled at Saskia while pointing at the tree I was walking to.
"Okay ! I'll be taking some more pictures !" She yelled back.
You might wonder why I wasn't as enthousiastic as her about the River Court. Well, don't get me wrong, I am loving every moment I am spending in Wilmington. But a basketball court just stays a basketball court to me, no matter in how much tv shows it stars. So I liked to take a look at it, while remembering all the great moments that had played there, but that was about it. Saskia, being four years younger than me, clearly didn't share that opinion. So I walked over to an oak tree that was about twenty meters from the court and sat down. I took off my hood and opened my book.
"Love in the time of cholera. I didn't think there were other people who liked that book." A voice said to me when I had been reading for about ten minutes.
I looked up and got suprised by the most beautiful greenish blue eyes I had ever seen. James Lafferty stood there staring at me. He was wearing a dark training suit and was a little sweaty, but he still looked more hot than the last time I checked on tv. I felt my cheeks turn a shade of pink. I may not be that enthousiastic about a basket court, but looking at one of the stars of the show I adore, got me a little starstruck.
So I suprised myself by somehow getting out "I just started. But I like it so far."
He smiled when he noticed me blush, which made my cheeks go from pink to dark red. "James Lafferty." He simply said while offering me his hand.
"L..Lore Delbroek" I answered still a little stuttering when shaking his hand.
"You're not from around here, are you?" He asked while sitting down next to me and taking a sip of the water bottle he had been carrying.
"No, I'm from Europe. Belgium. We.."I said while pointing my head at Saskia, who at this point was taking pictures of herself lying in the middle of the court. ".. came here because we are huge fans of One Tree Hill."
James smiled again. "Yeah, I kinda figured that, since you are out here at 7 in the morning taking pictures. Plus I already noticed you at filming yesterday." He told me.
"You noticed me?" I asked totally suprised. I had been trying not to attract the attention yesterday. Unlike Saskia, I didn't went to ask for an autgraph, but just watched the filming from a distance.
James grinned at my suprise. "Yes, I did. So she is like your younger sister or something ?" He said changing the subject while nodding his head towards Saskia.
Now it was my turn to smile. "She's a friend. We actually became friends thanks to the show. She lives in the Netherlands and we met online. After a while we noticed we both love the show and we started chatting about it regularly and chatting turned into a nice friendship."
"That's a nice story." He answered. "It's always nice to hear how the show brings people together. It gives me the feeling we are contributing to something."
There fell a little silence between us, but somehow it didn't feel akward. I realised I wasn't starstruck or nervous anymore, even though there was only an inch of space between James and myself. I didn't know why, but I felt totally comfortable in his presence. He somehow was able to give me the feeling that he was just James, not James Lafferty, the tv star.
I looked over to Saskia, who now was talking to four girls on the other side of the River Court. There were three other girls walking in their direction and I noticed a guy and a girl coming from the other side of the court. James noticed them too.
"Looks like the crowd is waking up. I better get going, if I want to make it to the studios in time and not be busy giving out autographs all morning. It was nice talking to you, Lore."
"You probably should." I smiled and watched him get up. "And it was nice talking to you too."
He locked eyes with me for a moment and then smiled and turned around. He took about five steps and then stopped again. It looked like he hesitated for a moment and then he turned around again.
"Hey Lore, I was wondering if you would like to get some coffee together sometimes... Like well, tonight for example ?" he asked looking more to the ground at his feet than at my face.
"What ?" I asked, totally suprised by his question.
"Well.." He said still looking at the grass. "You are a pretty girl, you sound like a great person and I would love to get to know you a little better. So if you like, we could grab a coffee or something tonight. Just the two of us. I know you are here with Saskia, but there is filming here tonight and since she clearly is making new friends, I'm sure she wouldn't mind that you're not around." He said, almost in one breath.
He just looked so cute standing there being nervous, and with him being the one blushing now, I couldn't resist the urgue.
"Now I get why the other cast always tells you are the shy one." I smiled when he finally looked at me again. "But I would love to grab some coffee with you tonight."
His face broke into a big smile. I told him the name of our hotel and we agreed he would be picking me up at 8 o'clock tonight in the lobby. Then he turned around once again and started jogging away.
"Was that James Lafferty ?" I heard Saskia ask from behind me.
I turned towards her, just smiled for a moment and then told her what just happened.
By 7:30 PM I was sitting in the lobby with Saskia. My make up was still the same, I just added a little more lipgloss, but I totally changed my outfit. I now was wearing a strapless white dress that I had actually bought for summer, but I thought the occasion was right to put it on now. I finished my outfit with red heels, red nailpolish and a pair of little red earrings. My hear was done in a simple knot.
"I still can't believe you are going on a date with James Lafferty !" Saskia squeeled before taking a sipe of her virgin daquiri.
I noticed some people giving us strange looks, so I hissed "Keep it down a little bit Sas!" And then I added in a normal tone "And besides, it's not even a date, we are just going out for coffee."
"Yeah, if you want to believe that, then it's not a date." She grinned.
We sat there in silence for a minute before she jumped up and waved towards some people at the entrance. I looked over at the entrance and saw the same four girls that she had been talking to this morning walk over to us.
"Hey girls ! I would like to introduce you to my crazy-gotten-lucky friend Lore. Lore, this are Samia, Petra, Lara and Mel, who you might know from othforums.com." She said while pointing to all of us when saying our names.
When hearing the names, some bells started ringing. Both Saskia and I spend quite some time on othforums.com, probably the biggest One Tree Hill community online. And hearing those names, I finally was able to put faces on some of the people we met there. So we exchanged heys and hugs.
"But girls, we have to be going now if we don't want to miss the filming." Saskia said before turning to me.
"Don't you mind waiting alone for your date ?"
I smiled and said "No Sas, I don't mind."
"Okay, then we are going now. But oh, I first have to grab my camera from our room. Let's go girls !" She said while turning and walking with towards the elevator with the other four girls.
I heard one of them ask something and I heard Saskia answer something which involved date and James Lafferty. I shook my head and smiled as I watched them walk off.
"You look beautiful." I heard a voice from behind me say.
I turned around to see James who had apperantly just walked in. He was wearing a regular jeans, white adidas, a blue shirt - which, I might add, did his figure a lot of good -and a nice black leather jacket.
"You're not looking too bad yourself!" I said while smiling at him.
"So are you ready to go, milady ?" He asked with a smile while offering me his arm.
"I'm totally ready, dear sir !" I answered while standing up and linking arms with him.
We walked to the entrance and he opened me the door of his Mustang convertible before getting behind the wheel himself.
We drove off and started talking about everything and nothing really. It was amazing how good and at ease I felt in his presence. He told a couple of silly stories which totally made me crack up and before I realised it, he was parking the car. Being the gentleman he was, he got out again to open my door. I smiled and got out while taking a look at the bar he had taken me too. It looked like a Starbucks, but more of a local and low key thing. There were not many people in there and James guided me to a table in a corner.
"So, what are you drinking ?" he asked me while looking at the menu card.
I took a look at the card, which had a lot of delicious things on there.
"I think I am going for the Lazy Noon." I said to him.
"Expresso, hot chocolate and whipped cream. Nice choice. But if I would have guessed, I would have taken you for an Amarenno girl." He said pointing the second page of the menu.
I looked to my card again and smiled. An amarenno was a cup two thirth coffee and one thirth Baileys.
"I would love to, but I'm no legal drinker yet." I said while watching his face for his reaction.
As I expected, his eyes snapped from the menu to me.
"What ? I thought you were 22 or so." He said while looking a little worried.
I couldn't help but grin at his reaction.
"Relax. I'm not 16 anymore. It's just that I turn 21 in June, so that doesn't make it legal for me to drink alcohol here in the Stated yet." I smirked at him.
James let out a relieved sigh.
"God, I thought for a minute you were really were only barely 18 or so. Don't tease me like that ever again!" He said while getting up to order our coffees.
I watched him go up to the counter and while he was ordering, I couldn't help but notice how good his butt looked in that jeans. 'God, Lore, snap out of it girl' I thought to myself as he walked back over to me. When he handed me my coffee, he touched my hand and I felt a shiver running down my spine.
He sat down again and for a moment we both were silent and enjoyed our coffee. Then he asked me to tell him more about myself, so I told him about being in college, my family and he told me about his family and his love of basketball and the conversation slowly drifted off to casual things like other sports and music. James told a story that involved him, a friend and a snack bar that made my laugh so hard I had tears running down my face. When we had both finished our coffee we decided to drive back to my hotel, park his car around there somewhere and take a walk.
When we were a few streets from the hotel, I somehow realised how cold it was getting and I shivered. James noticed this and immediately put his jacket around my shoulders. I just had to smile once again, for like the billionth time that evening. I couldn't help myself, James was just so sweet and caring, I was having an incredible time with him. Around 11:30 PM we decided to walk back towards the hotel.
We were almost back at the hotel and we both were silent for a while when he suddenly grabbed my arm. I turned to face him. He looked in my eyes, put his free arm on my waist and gently pushed me backwards until I felt a wall in my back.
"I'm really glad you wanted to spend the night with me Lore. You are a really sweet and pretty girl." He whispered in my ear, sending shivers through my spine.
Although I had felt comfortable all evening, now I felt the blush creep back onto my cheekes and I felt incredibly nervous.
"t-Thank you... I-I liked spending my time with you." I managed to stutter out while avoiding his eyes and looking at the building on the other side of the street that suddenly looked very interesting.
My eyes snapped back at his when I felt a hand touching my cheek. And before I realised what happened, I felt his warm and soft lips on my own. My eyes grew wide in suprise and for a moment I didn't know what to do. But I soon realised I was enjoying his kiss and I started kissing him back. I felt his hand going from my arm to my back and slowly going lower and his other hand was resting on the side of my hips while I lifted up my arms. I rested on hand on his shoulder while the other one rubbed through his hair. Then I felt him lick my bottom lip with his tongue. I smiled into the kiss, but decided to tease him a little, so I kept my mouth closed. He changed his strategy and started kissing my neck. When he hit my collar bone, I couldn't help but let out a little moan. He smirked and went back to my lips, taking the oppurtunity to enter my mouth with his tongue. Our tongues started a little battle over dominance, but he quickly won that one.
'So much for being the shy guy.' I thought to myself.
We stood there making out for a couple of minutes when we suddenly heard a voice from a distance say "Oh my God, is that James Lafferty ?", which made us break apart. We both looked in the direction the voice came from and saw a couple of girls look at us and then start to walk in our direction.
James looked over at his car like he was estimating if he could make it there in time to not have to talk to the girls. Then he looked back over to me.
"I'm sorry to have to leave you like this, but I really don't feel like talking to them right now. I hope you understand" He said quickly before kissing me on the cheek and turning around.
"Okay, but.." I said thinking of something to say. I had an amazing evening with James and I don't want it to end like this. I felt kinda bad that he stood me up like this.
"Oh,before I forget." He said while turning to face me again and walking backwards to his car. "I'm gonna want that jacket back. I'll be shooting at the Screen Gems Studios all day tomorrow." He added while winking and smiling at me before turning back around and getting in the car.
A huge grin appeared on my face when I got his hint and I watched him drive away for a moment before facing the group of girls that was now standing with me.
"So, was Sophie right ? Was that James Lafferty you were making out with ?" One of them asked bluntly.
I raised my eybrows at her.
"James Lafferty ? Yeah right.. I wish it was, but I'll have to disappoint you girls. The boy you just watched drive away was my boyfriend Michael. Now if you will excuse me, I am picking up a friend at the hotel over there and I'm already terribly late." I said trying to sound as honest as possible.
Before they had a chance to say anything else, I walked past them and headed to the entrance of the hotel. I could feel there eyes burning in my neck and another blush came to my cheeks.
'God, I'm such a terrible liar.' I thought to myself as I entered the lobby of the hotel and breathing out again, relieved that they didn't follow me to ask more questions. I picked up the key card to our room and walked to the elevators while I felt my smile coming back. This was definitely one of the best nights in my life.
A week later, I woke up from the sound of a cell phone ringing and a voice answering it.
"Hey Sophia, what's up ? ... No, we went to the opening of that new bar last night and it got kinda late... Lee said that ? Well, let's just say we didn't go to bed immediately. But to change the subject, why are you calling ?... No, off course I didn't forget about Danneels party. I agreed with Chad that he will be picking us up, I think Lee will be calling you to see if he has to pick you up... Okay, I'll see you at 7:30 tonight. Bye Sophia!"
James hung up, put his cell phone back on the bedside cupboard and looked down at me lying on his chest.
"Good morning sunshine. Did you sleep well ?" he asked while brushing a string of hair out of my face.
I smiled at him. "I slept great, it was just a short night. But I must admit I liked the time before going to sleep more." I said with a smirk.
He grinned before pushing me off his chest. I landed on my back and before I could move, he was hovering above me. He started kissing my neck and then my cellphone went off. I grabbed him from the cupboard on my side.
"Hey Saskia !" I said while pushing James off of me.
"Hello sleepyhead !" She answered and I pictured her with a huge smile on her face.
"What makes you think I'm still in bed ?" I asked her, trying to sound innocent.
"Well, the fact that you aren't here yet while you said last night you would be back at 10:30 AM at the lastest, makes me think you weren't awake yet." She grinned.
I felt guilty immediately. "Is it that late already ? Sas, I'm sorry ! We.." Even though she couldn't see me, I felt my cheeks turn pink. "Well, we were having so much fun last night I forgot to set the alarm clock on my cell. But I'm getting up right now and I'll be there as soon as possible." I ensured her.
"It's fine, take your time. And say hi to James from me." She said laughing before hanging up.
I put my phone back on the bedside cupboard and got out off bed.
"Saskia says hi. Now where did I leave my bra ?" I said more to myself than to James while scanning the room.
"She's an amazing friend. I know I wouldn't be as understanding as she is if I was on a trip with a friend and that friend would be spending half of the time with a girl he just met. And it's hanging at the doorknob of the bathroom door." He said while watching me put on my jeans.
I walked over to grab my bra from the doorknob and my babydoll shirt from an armchair in the corner of the room and put both on before answering.
"I know. She's truely amazing. I mean, it's not like we didn't spend time together, we went out and visited all the filming locations and had fun. And she didn't have to spend her time alone, Lara, Petra, Samia and Mel have been around most of the time. But still, I get what you mean." I said. Then I paused for a moment and added "And I'm really thankful she's this great and gave me a chance to spend all the time with you that I could get."
"God, don't say it like that, you make me feel like you used me like some boytoy." He smiled while sitting up on the bed and pulling me onto his lap.
"I didn't mean to make it sound like that." I shrugged while leaning against his chest. "It's just... Well, I had an amazing week with you, probably the best of my entire life. But I'm getting back to Belgium tomorrow and you're staying here. So it makes me wonder where that leaves us."
Every song ends..
But is that a reason not to enjoy the music?
> Rest in results <
I had finally reached the topic I had been thinking about since yesterday afternoon, when I realised today was my last day in Wilmington. My classes in college were starting again on Monday and Saskia started school again as well, so we had to go home. I had one last night to spend in Wilmington and our plane would be leaving the next day at noon.
James was silent for a moment and then said "I know you have to go, but I honestly don't want you to. You aren't the only one having the time of your life, you know. I have never felt this good with a girl before. The thought of you makes me wake up with a smile every morning. You are such amazing girl and you have this awesome personality. You can make me laugh anytime and just watching you smile makes me feel like I'm on cloud nine. And on top of that you're also beautiful. I.. I think I love you Lore."
I felt goosebumps appear over my entire body. "What? Are you serious?" I asked while sitting up and looking at his face to search for a sign that he was kidding. But he just looked back at me, dead serious.
"Yes, I am serious. I know it probably sounds stupid, because we only know eachother a week. But like I said, you make me feel like nothing I ever felt before. I already miss you, knowing that I'll have to let you go tomorrow. But I'm not going to give up on us like that. I know we can make this work.." He rambled and then paused a moment. "I mean it. You can come over anytime you want and when I'm not filming, I can come over to Belgium and.."
I interrupted him by putting my indexfinger on his lips.
"Sshh.. I didn't mean to make you feel like that, I was just scared you didn't feel the same way. But you are right, we are going to make this work. Because I love you too." I said before replacing my finger with my lips.
I felt him smile into the kiss and then he pulled me back onto the bed, so I fell on top of him. Before I knew it, my babydoll was lying on the floor again.
When I walked towards the hotel about 45 minutes later, I was humming U2's It's a beautiful day. Some people I passed gave me a weird look, but I just didn't care. To me, this really was a beautiful day. Because today I officially became James Lafferty's girlfriend. And it didn't matter we would soon be half a world apart, I just knew we were going to make this work.
'Because sometimes, all you need is one.' I thought to myself grinning before walking into the lobby where Saskia was waiting at me.
That's it. If only it was true lol..
Hope you enjoyed it.
Review = <3
