Kisses

"How do I look?" Julie asked her assistant for the day, Mitchell.

"For the seventeenth time, you look beautiful Julie" As he spoke Mitchell rolled his eyes and hoped that Julie was done asking.

"They should be here any minute" Julie paced the room nervously.

"Can you please sit down? For the love of God" Julie could tell that Mitchell was annoyed but there was no way she would be able to sit down and remain seated.

"Nope. Can't. Not right now at least"

Mitchell gave Julie a confused look but shrugged it off, not bothering to question any more of Julie's actions.

"The band is here. They'll be in shortly,” a large bearded man announced as he stuck his head through the door.

"Okay. Thank you" Julie smiled and finally took her seat.

While she was waiting Julie tried her best not to fidget. She had to force her leg to stop shaking, her palms to stop sweating and her fingers from pulling on the hem of her skirt. She thought about how she would greet the band. Usually Julie hugged everyone she met, it made them feel comfortable and made interviews go a lot easier. She wanted this interview to be as smooth as possible.

Do I hug them? What if Vic doesn't want a hug? But this is an interview; I should treat it like all my other interviews. Oh, I can't. I'm interviewing the first person that I really loved.

The knocking on the door snapped Julie out of her thoughts and back into reality. Mitchell opened the door and introduced himself before pointing them over to the couch and the chair across from it. Julie stood up, smoothed out her dress and smiled. Jaime was the first one to greet Julie.

"Hey, you must be Julie. I'm Jaime" Julie didn't have time to think about hugging them when Jaime opened up his arms and grabbed Julie into his embrace.

"Nice to meet you" she smiled politely and turned around expecting to see another face but was only met with a man's chest. "You must be Mike" Julie laughed as she looked up.

"Good to know you're still short" he laughed as he hugged her.

"Great to know that you got even taller" she laughed, thankful that Mike wasn't going to make this awkward. Julie turned around, not relaxed enough to meet the next band memeber

"Hello, I'm Tony." A heavily tattooed man with a beautiful smile said and hugged Julie.

"Nice to meet you" Julie smiled back. She could feel her cheeks getting red and she wasn't sure if it was because she found Tony extremely attractive or because she knew the only person left to meet was Vic.

"You too. Vic will be here in a second,” Tony said, smiling again and this time Julie knew why she was blushing. "And here he is now"

As soon as Vic walked into the room Julie stopped breathing. She knew that seeing Vic would make her nervous but she didn't anticipate the amount of anxiety she would get seeing him.

It surprised Julie at how much Vic hadn’t changed. His skin was still beautiful and dark; Julie had always been jealous of his complexion. His eyes still melted her heat. She remembered how the butterflies in her stomach would get worse when he looked her in the eyes. That feeling hadn’t changed. With Vic looking at Julie in these few seconds the butterflies and nerves got worse. Julie wondered if anyone else in the room could tell. The only that Julie didn’t recognize about Vic was his hair. Although it was pulled back into a ponytail Julie could still see that he had grown it out.

He looks like a rock star Julie thought.

Julie smiled and stood up straight. She tried to relax her muscles, noticing how tense she had become. After she relaxed she realized that she still felt tense. Then she realized that it wasn’t just her that was tense; the entire room was. She could feel everyone in the room staring at her and Vic, waiting to see what would happen. Julie’s eyes flickered to Mitchell, who was standing with his camera hanging his neck and fingernails in his mouth. The tension only made Julie more nervous. She decided that she had to be the one to relax and ease the tension because no one else was going to.

"Hello Victor" Julie's voice was soft and controlled. She smiled widely at Vic, hoping to send him the message that she, in fact, was happy to see him.

Julie stepped towards Vic and hugged him. She was hesitant at first but once Vic wrapped his arms around her waist all her worries went away.

"Nice to see you again" he whispered in her ear.

Julie closed her eyes and inhaled, immediately remembering Vic’s scent. Vic always smelt the same, no matter how much Axe he sprayed, Vic always smelled like Vic. Julie always tried to describe his scent but she could never find the right words. She once described it as a masculine, floral scent, which of course made no sense, but somehow seemed to make sense once Vic walked past.

Julie remembered many hugs about Vic; she loved being in his arms.

“AGAIN, LADIES. We need to get this down tonight!” Miss Heran, Julie’s dance instructor yelled at the dancers on stage.

Julie rolled her eyes at her fellow dancer, Katherine and walked back off stage. She glanced at the screen on her phone.

New Txt MSG: Victor

She sighed and stretched her legs out a bit more. The music started up again and she danced out onto the stage. She made sure to ignore the hollow feeling growing in her chest from seeing the notification. She prepared herself for the turn, placing her feet in the right position and trying to center her body. The count was nearing but Julie wasn’t ready. She went for the turn anyway, and fell straight to the ground in a loud ‘thump’ – making sure that everyone heard her fall.

“Are you serious!” Miss Heran yelled in frustration.

Katherine walked to Julie’s side and helped her up. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice filled with worry and concern.

“I’m fine Kat. Just lost my center” Julie smiled weakly and walked back off stage. She opened her phone and read Vic’s message.

‘Jules, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I would never hurt you. I love you’

The hollow feeling building up in her chest exploded and she felt tears push their way from behind her eyes. She knew that being mad at Vic wasn’t the right thing to do; he didn’t do her any harm but she still felt hurt.

The night prior Vic and Julie were walking on their usual path by the water. The sun was setting and the air was crisp – the moment was perfect. The couple were walking, holding hand and laughing with each other. Julie thought that there was nothing that could ruin that could ruin her evening; she had her boy, the water, the forest and the setting sun.

She stole Vic’s fitted cap and an ahead of him, laughing and smiling as she did so. Vic chased after her screaming her name and laughing. Julie giggled once Vic caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him. Vic rested his head on Julie’s shoulder and gave her sweet gentle kisses on her lower neck.

“Gimme me hat back, thief” Vic whispered as he reached his left arm in front of Julie’s face and grabbed his hat.

Julie giggled again and grabbed onto Vic’s arm and lifting the sleeves of his hoodie. She pressed her lips to his forearm. She ran her thumb on the skin where her lips couldn’t reach and noticed that there were parts of his skin that were raised. She flipped his arm over, exposing Vic’s scars. She instantly dropped his arm and turned around to face him.

“Vic…” her voice broke as she spoke.

“It was just too hard…” Vic said, breaking his gaze with Julie and looking at his muddy all back converse.

“I’m sorry” Julie said, taking a step closer to Vic and lifting his face with her finger to meet her gaze. She pressed her lips against his, tasting the salty tears that managed to fall from not only her face but also his. She knew that she had caused his pain. She knew that suggesting a break from each other would hurt him

“I am too,” Vic whispered as he pulled away from the kiss.

Later, in Vic’s basement, they talked about Vic’s self-harm and how hurt he had to be to hurt himself.

“I’m so sorry. I knew that it would hurt for you to think about losing me…. I just never knew how much” Julie said, kissing one of Vic’s scars.

He winced but knew that she did it out of love. “It is your fault so I’m glad that you’re sorry”

With that, Julie and Vic got into an argument, which ended with Vic slamming the door in Julie’s face as she left his house. Now here, in the auditorium, Julie was looking at her phone with tears burning her eyes.

‘I’m in practice. Come see me, please…’

She hit send and closed her phone. She told Miss Heran that she needed some water and she needed to walk off the pain from her fall. As soon as she stepped off the stage she heard the doors open. Her head shot up and was met with the sight of Vic, his eyes red and puffy.

The hollow feeling that Julie had, instantly vanished as she saw Vic walk through those doors. Her heart began to race and the tears she had been holding back this whole time pushed forward. Julie ran towards Vic, not sure of when or how she was going to slow down. Vic opened his arms, welcoming Julie them. As she crashed into Vic’s chest her arms wrapped around his body and held him tightly. Julie didn’t care who was in the room with them. All that mattered in those few moments was that Vic was alive and he was holding her.

“I love you so much Victor Fuentes”

“I love you even more Julie Portilla” Vic said, kissing the top of Julie’s head and allowing a tear drop to land there as well.

Julie was back to reality once her memory ended. A wide, toothy smile was spread across her face and she chuckled as she pulled away from the hug with Vic.

“You look good Vic” Julie said with her smile still on her face.

“You look beautiful, as always” Vic said, trailing his fingertips down Julie’s arms and grabbing onto her hands. “Anyway,” He continued after a moment of him looking at – admiring – Julie. “Is this the part where you ask us questions and we answer them?”

“Well Señor Fuentes, I do believe that it is” Julie laughed, feeling like her old self with old Vic again.

Notes

Sorry this took so long to update, it was really hard to write for some reason.

The memory the Julie had while hugging Vic is actually my memory. That event actually happened, and I am aware that it is cheesy. The whole running across the room thing...cheesy!

Sorry about ti being so long, but I am finally happy with this chapter.

Love yourself, love each other, love this band.
xoxo