Chapter 39: Walk all over

“I love this party, Wes. Your family rocks!” Janet said.

Janet was having a great time. Wes, with his arm securely around her waist at all times, had introduced her to far more people than she could possibly keep straight in her head, but she liked them all. Odd thing was, they seemed thoroughly charmed by her.

“Of course they like you,” Wes told her, when she expressed this shocking discovery. “You’re adorable.”

She laughed. “You’re just saying that cuz I’m your girlfriend,” she said, wrinkling her nose at him.

“Yeah,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. “Don’t forget it.”

“Wes,” she said looking around for his father while pushing at his chest. “You’re dad’s gonna get mad at us or me. He’ll blame me for your bad behavior.”

“Since when is kissing my girlfriend bad behavior?” he countered, thoroughly annoyed.

“Your dad obviously thinks it is when you do it in public. Please, Wes. If he doesn’t like me I’ll have a horrible time being a good yenta for him, okay?”  She went up on tiptoes and lightly kissed him before slipping out of his arms and heading toward Alana.

Alana, Janet had noticed, looked totally ill at ease if she wasn’t glued to Luke’s side. This didn’t sit well with her. Janet knew she was painfully shy, but this was ridiculous!

“Hi, Alana, do you mind if I sit with you?” Janet said, sitting down before she got an answer.

“Um, sure,” Alana said, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Must be tough having such a popular boyfriend, huh?”

Alana’s green eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s practically a rock star,” Janet said, pointing to Luke across the room surrounded by several girls.  “Betcha he’s got a bunch of groupies on his tail all the time now and…Uh, but I’m sure he doesn’t do anything …like, uh…real rock stars.”

Alana smiled, though it seemed a bit forced. “Nothing I can do if he did,” she replied with a shrug.

Janet frowned. “I know you like him, a lot, but you can’t let him get away with anything. You can’t let him walk all over you. No guy is worth that. Not even a rock star…especially rock stars with huge egos,” she said with obvious contempt.

Alana shook her head. “Luke’s not like that at all. He’s remarkably humble. Even though he’s so talented, he never… you know…looks for praise. He kinda hates it actually. Really.”

Janet looked at Luke and saw him pretend to listen to one girl while he kept staring at Alana. He smiled sheepishly when he caught Janet watching at him. “Yeah, I kinda saw that, too, at the ice cream shop. You know him better than me, so… That explains why he totally ignored the counter girl who was flirting with him,” she shrugged and laughed. “He seems like a nice guy. I just hate it when girls get so wrapped up in a guy that they get lost in them.”

Alana frowned. “Get lost in them?”

“You know,” Janet said waving her hand around in agitation. “Like girls that know the guy goes around cheating on them and still they hang on to him. What the heck good is that? Have they no self respect?”

“Oh, like Rebecca, you mean,” Alana said, but as soon as the words left her mouth she blushed scarlet, shook her head and in a rushed whisper added, “Please, don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“You mean…Danny’s like that? The guy she’s gonna marry?” Janet asked in dismay.

Alana shook her head. “Please, please, don’t tell anyone. They’ll hate me!”

“Me and secrets are best friends, Alana. Don’t worry,” Janet said, glaring at Danny who at present had his arms around Rebecca while she talked to a rather tall, lovely girl with long black hair and the most exotic looking gray eyes she’d ever seen. She made a face. “Gees, you never can tell, can you? He doesn’t look like he doesn’t care for her. He really looks in love.”

“Well, I think so, too. To look at them together, who would say they weren’t totally into each other?” Alana whispered. “But Luke doesn’t trust him. He told me Danny always had a string of girls he never really cared about and he’d just dump them for no reason and go onto the next without a blink. He thinks he'll do the same with Rebecca.”

“Really?” Janet said, incredulous. “And how does Luke know this?”

“Oh, he’s known them all his life. He’s good friends with Rebecca, but he and Danny never really got along. I don’t quite know why,” Alana said. “Rebecca had a long time boyfriend in high school and in college. Luke hated that guy! Said he was such a jerk. She just transferred out after she broke up with him, because she caught him kissing another girl…probably having sex actually…for the tenth time or something.”

“Seriously?” Janet said, gaping.

Alana nodded her eyes as wide as they would go.

Janet felt nauseous. “They can’t get married! They’ll be doomed to misery. He’s a cheater and she allows men to cheat on her. How wonderful... not! They shouldn’t get married,” she said.

“It’s too late they…” Alana stopped, bit her bottom lip and turned crimson.

“What?” Janet said. “Oh…I get it. They have to get married. She’s pregnant. Oh, that sucks.”

Alana shook her head. “No, it’s not that. You have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“Who would listen to me?” Janet retorted.

“They already are married. They eloped,” Alana said so quietly, Janet had to lean in to hear her.

“What the…why the secret?”

“Their parents were already freaking out when they announced after one day that they were getting married.”

“One day!” Janet shouted.

“Shhh!” Alana said. “They met up at Marc’s brother’s engagement party a few weeks back and that was it. They fell in love.”

“But why hide the marriage?”

“They promised their parents they would wait a few months before actually getting married, just to make sure,” Alana said.

"To make sure what? That they’re nuts? They’re insane. Totally bonkers,” Janet mumbled. 

Alana looked over at the couple in question. “I know it may seem like it, but love’s like that. It makes you a bit crazy. You must understand how it is. You and Wes look so in love and happy together, like me and Luke. You look like you like Wes as much as I like Luke and you know how that feels. Dizzy and scary and magic and fireworks all at once,” she said smiling.

Janet’s heart jumped into her throat.  Isn’t that how she described how it felt to kiss Wes? It took a minute to get her voice back. “That may be, but I won’t lose myself. I’m not letting anyone walk all over me. Never!”

To her surprise, Alana laughed. “That won’t happen to you just cuz Wes adores you. He’s been watching you the entire time you’ve been talking to me.  Seems to me he’s the one that would allow you to walk all over him and thank you for the chance.”

Janet looked around and sure enough there stood Wes pretending to listen to his aunt and uncle’s conversation while he stared at her. He smiled when she caught his eye and her heart took a tumble.

“Alana,” Luke said sitting down next to her and grabbing her hand. “Sorry I left you for so long. Thanks for keeping her company, Janet.”

“Huh?” Janet said, snatching her eyes away from Wes. “Oh, uh, no problem. Someone had to since you were too busy with your groupies.”

Luke grimaced. “Please, don’t call them that. Gees,” he whined. 

“I see what you mean,” Janet whispered to Alana. 

“I wanted to kill Billy. He told me it’s part of the job to smooze with my fans. He actually used the word smooze just like a sleazy agent! You’d think he came straight outta Hollywood,” he grumbled.

Janet and Alana dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"It's not funny!" he said.

“Yeah, it is. Well, Luke, you don’t gotta worry about me drooling all over you and asking for your autograph,” Janet said standing up and placing her hands on her hips. “I’m not the groupie type.”

“See? I told you I liked her for a reason,” Luke said to Alana.

“I’ll leave the two lovebirds alone and I’ll try to keep the groupies away from you,” Janet said.

“Wow, I’d really like her if she could do that,” Luke said, as Janet walked away.

“Me too,” Alana said.

Wes broke away from his aunt and uncle just as Janet made a bee-line to him. “Hey,” Wes said, grabbing her hands.

“Hey yourself,” Janet said.

They stared at each other for a full minute in complete silence.

“I don’t wanna walk all over you,” she blurted.

“Uh... okay,” he said, utterly confused.

“And I won’t let you walk all over me,” she insisted.

“I wouldn’t want you to,” he replied, frowning slightly. “I was hoping we could just walk together side by side, if that’s okay.”

She smiled, stepped into his arms and hugged him. “Okay.”