24 Hours with You

"Will you come in with me?" We had just arrived at my apartment and I was still afraid that Michael would make another appearance, so I didn't want to go in alone. I think James would have gone in with me even if I didn't ask, because whether he would admit it or not, he was just as nervous about me going in there by myself as I was.

"Of course Cass." We got out of his car and started our walk up to my apartment. Thankfully, when we reached it there was no sign of Michael.

It only took me a few minutes to change out of James' clothes and put on a little bit of make up to make myself look a little bit more presentable. I walked out of my room, slipped into my converse and we were on our way back to the car.

"You look nice." James said smiling at me. I looked down at my outfit of an unbuttoned plaid shirt with a cami underneath and faded jeans.

"Uh thanks, I just kind of threw it on without paying much attention." I shrugged.

"So we are we going?" I asked once we made it back to his car.

"You'll just have to wait and see." He said and pulled out of the parking lot for my building. I wondered where in the world he was going to take me but I always liked surprises so I didn't ask again.

On our way to our destination, one of my favourite songs came on the radio and I couldn't help but sing.

"There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard, no song that I could sing but I can try for your heart..." I trailed off when I noticed James staring at me in awe.

"What? It's one of my favourites." I said shrugging my shoulders and then returned to singing.

"Mine too." He said with a smile and joined me just before the chorus.

"I'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together. Mmm, it's always better when we're together. Yeah, we'll look at them stars and we're together. Well, it's always better when we're together. Yeah, it's always better when we're together." We sang. We weren't very good but it didn't matter, we just had fun together. That, was all that mattered.

It reminded me of that night three weeks earlier when we were dancing together in the living room and singing along to Yellow. We'd been through so much since that point, it was amazing to think how far we'd come but not much had changed at all. Even after the fighting we did and the times when I ignored him. After everything, we were still so comfortable around each other like we always were. It was never awkward, we just fell right back to each other like nothing had even happened.

Not long after the song changed, he pulled into a parking spot in front of a bowling alley.

"We're going bowling?" I said whining slightly, it was more of a statement than a question.

"Hey, you said you wouldn't argue which also means no complaining!" He said before getting out of the car and I followed suit.

"Fine but I'm not very good at it." I said following him in.

"That's alright, I'm not either." He said with a wink.

Luckily the only other person there was the owner. I guess that because it was just before 11 o'clock on a Friday morning when we got there. Thankfully, he didn't pay too much attention to the fact that James was there, only asking for an autograph when we came in and that was it.

We thanked him once we paid for our lane, then James typed our names into the computer and got the game started. His first shot was a strike and I immediately sent him a death glare.

"Not good either huh? Liar." He just smirked as he sat down next to me.

"Fucker." I mumbled under my breath when I got up to take my turn.

"What was that?" I looked back at him and he leaned forward pretending he didn't hear me.

"Nothing." I smiled sweetly and turned back around to take my turn. Okay, you can do this, it's just bowling. It can't be as hard as you remember, I thought to myself. But when it came down to it and I threw the first ball down the lane, it went right into the gutter. Of course. Second shot, gutter again. There's no way I'll even come close to winning at this rate, I thought. I looked back at James who was stifling a laugh as I picked up my third ball. I got better with that shot, but not by much, I only hit one pin.

"Shut up." I said when I turned around to see James smiling like a butcher's dog.

"Geeze you weren't lying." He said when he passed me by to take his turn.

"Whatever, next time I'll pick something I'm good at so I can win." I huffed.

"I'll probably still win." He said with a grin and turned around bowling ball in hand and threw another strike. He then strolled back to his seat with another shit eating grin on his face and I couldn't explain with words how badly I wanted to slap it right off. I got up again without a word and hoped to do better than my last throw but knew it was more than likely not going to happen.
Right off the bat I threw another gutter ball and I was already set to go back home. I was always very competitive so when I found a sport or activity that I wasn't good at, I tried to avoid it. I was doing a good job of it too until James decided to take me there.

"Do you want me to help you?" He asked, but I obviously wasn't ready to accept the offer, I had too much pride.

"Okay whatever you say." He said smirking and waited for me to throw again. Gutter ball.

"Please let me help you. I want to have at least a little bit of competition." After only 5 shots I was sick of sucking so I caved.

"Okay well the best thing for you to do right now is to stop throwing with one hand because clearly you aren't getting anywhere with that. Just try throwing through your legs with both hands." I tried it and got two pins on the end. As soon as they fell I high-fived James excitedly and tried again. I got a strike the next time and I was jumping with joy until I realized that the throw before was my last one and I had just gotten James his third strike in a row.

"Thanks Cass!" He laughed at my expense and returned to his seat.

"Whatever I'll do it again, this time for me." But when I threw that time, only 2 pins again.

"Oh for fuck sakes." I groaned then picked up my next ball. I managed to hit 4 pins in my second shot then I knocked down 1 more on my third shot.

"Atta girl! I told you it would help." James said when I walked back to where he was seated. He got up again and got a spare, whatever. I figured he was going to win that game either way so I just tried my best to practice for the next game in hopes I could win that one.
I got up to take my next shot and when I bent over to throw it, I looked back at James and noticed he was staring.

"So that's why you helped me. It all makes sense now!" I exclaimed joking around with him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He said playing dumb.

"You were just staring at my bum." I said, and crossed my arms.

"So maybe it was a little bit for me but hey, you're doing better aren't you?" He smirked and I had to roll my eyes at that.

"Guys can be such pigs." I said and he just laughed. I turned back around to shoot and I ended up getting a spare that time, but there was no way I would ever catch up to James.
The game continued on with us just joking around with each other, me still losing, and James got a few more strikes before it ended. He ended up winning (of course) with an insane score and I was lucky enough to get 80 points. We took a little break between games and bought some pizza slices and drinks then sat down in one of those uncomfortable tables with the seats attached, near our lane to eat it. When we were done we sat for a bit just talking to let our pizza settle before we played another game.

"Remind me, how long are you going to be gone for?" I asked, after remembering that he had to be at the airport in a little less than two hours.

"6 days." He said with a slight frown.

"Good, I'll be glad to get rid of you." I tried to be as serious as I could.

"Hey! You better not mean that." He pouted.

"Obviously not Jamie." I said smiling.

"Jamie? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know, but I like it. It's about time I find a nickname for you, you've been calling me Cass pretty much ever since we met." I said, taking a sip of my water.

"Yeah I think I like it too." A moment of silence followed and I suddenly got the urge to apologize for ignoring him. I realized that I never got the chance to say anything about it and he really did deserve an apology so I decided to do it.

"Hey James?"

"Yeah?" He sat up and leaned forward across the table, interested in what I had to say.

"I'm sorry for avoiding you, I shouldn't have done that. It was stupid." I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye as I was saying it so I stared down at my hands in my lap. He lifted my chin before he spoke, and made me look him straight in the eye.

"It's okay now." He said and we both smiled.

"But could you please explain to me what happened because it's been on my mind ever since. Did I do something? If I did I'm really sorry." He said with a worried look on his face.

"No no no, it wasn't your fault at all. I was just being stupid. You were being kind of a dick to me the night of the organisation's party and then you went home with Amber or you took her home or whatever, so I thought I should probably get try to get over you. On top of that, the next day when me and Josie went to Macy's we ran into Amber working there. She had a talk with me and she said that she didn't want me to talk to you any more because she could tell how much I like you and she didn't want me to interfere with you two. She also said that if I didn't comply, that she would tell you how I felt and I did not want that to happen. At first I wasn't going to listen to her but then I thought about it and I figured it would probably help me get over you, so I went through with it. I thought you would eventually just forget about me after being with her for so long. I really didn't think it would hurt you so I really am sorry. I shouldn't have done it." I finally took a breath after laying it all out there and waited for his response.

"Cass. I'm really sorry about that night. To be honest, that was the night I decided to try and get over you because I thought I didn't stand a chance. You looked so beautiful in that dress and I was so afraid of never getting a shot at it with you that I tried to use Amber to get over you. You can see how well that worked out. When it came down to it and you stopped talking to me I couldn't stand it. I knew it should have helped me get over you but it just made me wonder what you were doing or where you were or why you wouldn't answer me. It made me even crazier for you and I hated not being able to talk to you. I missed seeing you or hearing from you at least once a day. Then when I saw you so unexpectedly when you showed up for lunch with us, all I wanted to do was fix things and you were so cold to me. I was so worried I did something wrong that I wouldn't get the chance to fix and I was going to lose you forever. That's what made me decide that I had to tell you how I felt. Even if it turned out badly at least I'd know." After that confession I immediately got up out of my seat, walked around the table and wrapped my arms around him.

"I'm so glad you did tell me, if you didn't I probably would've gone crazy too." I said, as we broke apart. I sat back down, but next to him this time.

"I'm glad too." He said with a cheesy smile plastered on his face. We sat there for a minute, just looking at each other intently until James broke the silence between us.

"I guess we were both idiots then, eh?" He laughed and I realized how true it was. We both tried to ignore our feelings and that didn't get either of us very far.

"Yeah I guess so. But if we weren't, we probably would've just gone on like normal and we most likely still wouldn't know how the other one felt. So I guess it was a good thing we fucked up, it brought us to this point."

"To a bowling alley confessing how stupid we were?" He laughed.

"You know what I mean." I said and gave him a light punch on the arm.

"Yeah I know, and you're probably right." He said and put his arm around the back of my chair. We sat there in a comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's company until an alarm went off on James' phone.

"It's time to leave isn't it?" I looked up at him.

"Yeah." He said with a sad smile.

"Awe we didn't get to play another game so I could beat you!" I frowned, I was really hoping to get good enough to actually beat him.

"We can come back here when I get home from the road trip." He joked.

"Yeah let's not." We got up from our seats and made our way to the door. Before we left we thanked the owner once again then we walked out to the car.

"I have to go back home first to grab my suitcase. Then will you drive me to the airport?" He asked once we were in the car.

"How will I get home after? I don't really want to pay to get a cab back, that shit's expensive. I don't like you that much." I loved teasing him, it was so easy.

"Hey! All the low blows can really hurt the ego you know." He pouted

"That's the idea, Jamie. Yours is too big already, I'm just trying to help knock it down a bit." I ruffled his hair when I said that and he immediately threw his hands up to fix it.

"Whatever, but you could have my car while I'm gone, as long as you pick me up when I get home of course."

"What if I crash it?" I was honestly pretty worried that that would actually happen, I wasn't exactly the luckiest person around that time.

"You won't. I'd just rather you driving my car than your old beat up one, anything could happen with that. What if you broke down in the middle of the night driving home from work and couldn't get a hold of anyone? That's when bad things happen Cass, and I don't want anything to happen to you while I'm gone." He said sincerely. How could I say no, he just wanted to make sure I was safe. It warmed my heart to know how much he really cared.

"Okay fine."

An hour later, it was 2 o'clock and we were at the airport saying our goodbyes. I was a little bit upset, I didn't want him to go just after we'd finally (sort of) figured things out. We just laid it all on the line and then he was leaving. We had to spend another week apart after just being apart because of my stupidity.

"That's me." He said when flight 892 was called for boarding.

"I'm gonna miss you Cass, that's for sure." He gave me a big hug and a squeeze when he said it.

"You too." We pulled away after that and I smiled one last time before he turned his back and walked away.

It was going to be a long 6 days.

Notes

Glad to get this up! As always, comment so I know how you're feeling about it :)))))