"Amanda. Hi. I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Come in." She said stepping aside and letting me into the room.

"I’m not planning on staying very long. I just wanted to let you know that there are no hard feelings. I mean, you and Jake have always been together and in some ways I half expected something like this to happen. He never has been able to stay away from you. I don’t know exactly where I stand with him right now. Hopefully we’ll be friends again someday, but right now it just hurts too much. However, I still want to be friends with you and that’s really all I came down here for."

"Ok. Well, once you get back to San Diego we should go shopping."

"OH! Jake didn’t tell you? I moved to Orlando. I guess it’s a bit ironic when you think about it. I moved to Orlando to be with him and now we aren’t even together."

"Ok, well then I guess we’ll have to go shopping or have lunch sometime while I’m still here."

"Definitely. Well, I’ll talk to you later. Bye Janie." I said waving as I walked out the door. I took the elevator down to lobby and walked out to my car. Ashley and I were going out to lunch and then to see a movie so I headed in the direction of the guys’ house. When I got there I entered the numbers to the security code and the gate opened. I drove up their driveway and parked the car. I got out of my car and walked up to the door. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. A few seconds later the door swung open to reveal a beaming Erik. He picked me up in a huge bear hug and swung me around before setting me back down. Then he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen where he was making himself a sandwich.

"So, how it’d go?" He asked concern evident in his voice and eyes.

"It went surprisingly well. I don’t think that this will really affect our friendship. I mean, in some ways I sort of expected something like this to happen. Jacob has never been able to resist her. I mean she was part of the reason we broke up the first time. He called and e-mailed her more often than he did me and it eventually got to the point where I was like ok why don’t you just marry her and get it over with. It was so obvious that they wanted to be together so I was just like fine I give up. So I broke up with him." Erik nodded in understanding and then cocked his head to the side and had a look of amusement on his face.

"Isn’t that what Jacob did to you?"

"Yeah, except that I didn’t run and sleep with Ashley to break up with him. I just told him that it was over." Again he just nodded. Ashley came waltzing into the kitchen a few seconds later.

"How long have you been here?" He asked wrapping his arms around my waist from behind.

" A few minutes." I said turning around to face him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a hug.

"You ready to go?" I asked as I pulled back from our hug. He nodded and took my hand leading me towards the front door. I waved to Erik and then turned around to follow Ashley out the door. We got into my car and headed towards IHOP where we were having lunch. That must sound odd, but that’s Ashley and me for you. When I lived in Redding we used to eat lunch at IHOP every Saturday. There was one close to where we lived so we would walk down there and get lunch. We got to IHOP ten minutes later. The waitress gave us a table in the back corner so that there would be less of a chance of Ashley being recognized.

"So what were you and Erik talking about?"

"I went to see Janie this morning. I told her that there were no hard feelings."

"What about Jacob? Are you still mad at him?"

"Yes. Hopefully we can be friends again one day but right now I just need to not be with him." He nodded his head and opened his menu. I cocked my head to the side a bit and looked thoughtfully at Ashley.

I felt someone staring at me so I looked up from my menu. I saw Amanda staring at me with a thoughtful look on her face. I couldn’t quite read her expression and it was making me nervous.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, no longer able to stand her staring.

"I was just thinking."

"About what?" I asked, my curiosity now piqued.

"About how I don’t think I’m going to be able to just be friends with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, I don’t think I’m going to be able to control myself around you."

"Well, until you’re completely over Jacob, you’re just going to have to." In response she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Don’t stick it out unless you’re gonna use it." I replied looking back down at my menu, trying to decide what to have for lunch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her lean back in her chair and cross her arms.

" Who says I’m not?" She said with a smirk on her face. I swallowed hard and decided to get what I normally got. She was right this was going to be extremely hard.

" Who says I’m not?" I answered with a smirk on my face. I saw him gulp and smiled in satisfaction he was going to have as hard of a time just being friends as I was. I decided to get what I normally got and closed the menu that lay open infront of me. The waitress came a few moments later to take our orders.

After lunch Ashley and I headed over to the movie theater.

"So what movie do you want to see?" I asked taking Ashley’s hand as we walked up to the front of the theater to buy our tickets.

"How about a scary movie."

"Ok. Which one."

"Wanna see ‘Jack The Ripper’?"

" Sure." Ashley bought our tickets and then we headed inside.

"You go get seats and I’ll get the popcorn ok?"

"Alright. I’ll be where we normally sit ok?"

"Ok." After I got a large tub of popcorn and a large coke I went over to the theater the movie was playing in. I walked in and walked towards the back left corner. For whatever reason Ashley and I always sat in the far left corner. That’d been the place we sat for as long as I could remember. It was just where we sat. It was convenient when we started dating because we could make out and pretty much no one would bug us. Jake and I always used to sit in the very front in the middle. It was his favorite place in the entire theater to sit. I don’t know why but it was. I walked over next to Ashley and sat down. I handed him the popcorn and put the drink in the cup holder on my right side. Then I lifted up the armrest that was between Ashley and me and snuggled up next to him. He looked down and smiled at me. He wrapped his arm around me and then focused his attention back at the screen as the lights dimmed and the previews started.

"So do I get to hurt you now for making me watch that movie? It’s going to give me nightmares." I said punching Ashley in the arm playfully.

"I didn’t know it was going to scare you that much. It’s not my fault that you’re a jumpy person.

"Well yeah, but... and.....hmph." I said finally giving in. He laughed at me and took my hand in his as we headed back out to my car.

It was around one and all of the other guys had gone out so I decided to invite Janie over. I was setting up the living room with blankets and pillows, stuff like that; we were going to watch a movie, when I heard the doorbell ring. I went over and answered the door. I pulled Janie into a huge hug and then closed the door. I kissed her on the cheek and then took her hand and led her over to the living room.

"So what movie are we watching?" she asked making herself comfortable on the couch.

"Well, I was thinking ‘What Lies Beneath’ but we can watch something else if you want to."

"’What Lies Beneath’ sounds great." I put the movie in and then joined Janie on the couch.

"Amanda came by today." She said as the previews started.

"What’d she say?"

"That there were no hard feelings."

"Oh." I didn’t really know how to respond to that. I missed being friends with Amanda. I know that it’s only been a day but I still miss having her as a friend.

"I’m sure everything will work out between you two. You’ll be friends again in no time. I’m sure of it." I didn’t say anything I just nodded and turned my attention towards the TV signaling that I wanted to end the conversation.

After we got back to Amanda’s apartment we just hung around and talked for awhile. She asked if I wanted to stay for dinner and I said that I did so that brings us to her kitchen where she is currently making Grilled Chicken Pasta.

"So when do you guys finish the album?" She asked while cutting the chicken. I was sitting on a barstool and she was behind the counter on the other side.

"I think by August or something like that. It depends on how long it takes us to get all of the vocals right, which hopefully, will be soon and then we can put the finishing touches on it." She nodded and continued cutting the chicken.

"Are you guys going on tour?"

"Not right after the Album comes out. I don’t think we’re even releasing it until the end of September. After it’s released we’ll probably spend a lot of time in LA and New York promoting it on TRL and stuff. I think we’re making a video in August after the album is done."

"Do you know what your first single is going to be?" I shook my head ‘no’ and stoke a piece of the chicken she was cutting. She smacked my hand away and gave me a dirty look.

"If you eat it all now then I won’t have any to put in the pasta." She said scolding me. I couldn’t help but be amused by her. She was a great cook but she couldn’t stand it when people told her how to cook something or stole bites while she was trying to cook. After that she went back to cooking dinner.

"So since you don’t know what it’s going to be, let me ask you this. What do you want it to be?"

"I’m not really sure. I think I want it to be ‘In The Night’. I’m not sure. You’ve heard the songs. Which song do you think would make a good single?"

"Hmm..." She said stopping what she was doing to think. "Probably either ‘In the Night’ or ‘If Things Were Different’ I like both of those a lot." She responded. I nodded my head and she went back to adding the croutons .

"Dinner’s ready." She announced bringing the bowl of Grilled Chicken Pasta over to the table. We sat down at the table and ate dinner.

Chapter 11- All For Love

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