If We Were a Movie

by Kelly Oram

  Ignoring Sophie’s soft gasp, I shook Professor Alfaro’s hand again. Her grin morphed into a look of satisfaction. “Good. I’ll be waiting for your visit. And hopefully I’ll see you in at least one of my classes next year. For now, I’ve got a couple of friends who’d like to meet you.”

  The two strangers who’d been waiting patiently to speak to me stepped forward, greeting me with smiles and business cards. I wanted to play it cool, but my eyes bulged. “You’re with NuSound Records?” NuSound was only the biggest record label in the industry.

  They nodded. “Nate, we loved ‘31 Flavors of You,’” the woman said. “We’d love to meet with you sometime and discuss the possibility of producing an album with you.”

  Behind me, both of my brothers gasped.

  My knees went weak and my stomach flipped so hard it felt as if it had dropped into my feet. NuSound was interested in me? I couldn’t even process the idea. It was too insane.

  Where was Jordan? She should be here witnessing this horribly cliché fairy-tale ending. She lived for those. Right now I was Step Up, Save the Last Dance, Pitch Perfect, and every other cheesy dance/music competition movie Jordan had made me watch this semester.

  “I don’t know what to say.” I finally breathed, once my brain started working again.

  “Say yes,” the woman prompted.

  “I—”

  “He’ll think about it.” Mr. Treager cut me off before I could say another word, slipping between us almost protectively. He shot me a wink as he grinned at the label people. “He’s got a whole room full of people to meet still. You aren’t the only fish in the sea, Lillian.”

  He was teasing her, and she playfully pretended to be hurt. “But we’re the best, Will. You know that.”

  “Maybe.” Mr. Treager’s smile turned coy. “He’ll call you once he has proper representation.”

  The woman sighed. “Call us first,” she said, then sent me a parting smile as she and her partner wandered off to mingle with other people.

  I stared at the business cards I held until a hand came down on my shoulder, startling me from my daze. Mr. Treager was grinning at me like a proud mentor. “Overwhelming, isn’t it? Don’t worry. I’ll help you find a great manager, and you can come to me with questions anytime.”

  I swallowed. It was a dream. This was a dream. It couldn’t be real. I waited for the bad news to hit, because all of this was too perfect. But no bad news seemed to be coming.

  “Congratulations, Nate,” Mr. Hendricks said. “But don’t think this means you can quit school. You’d better be back in class after winter break.”

  I blinked at him. “Of course I’ll be back, sir. This has been the best semester of my life.”

  Mr. Treager, Mr. Hendricks, and Professor Alfaro all chuckled, and with one last round of congratulations, left me with my brothers and Sophie to enjoy the rest of my night. As they left, I fell into another shocked trance, once again staring at the business cards in my hand. “I did it,” I muttered. “I really did it.”

  “Hell yeah, you did!” Ty slapped my back so hard it stung.

  “Dude,” was all Chris could manage.

  “Dude,” I agreed.

  A high, unhappy voice broke our revelry. “What does this mean, Nate? You told that woman you wanted an internship this summer, but you promised me you would come home.”

  Moment of bliss: over. I blinked back to reality and met Sophie’s angry frown with a sigh. “Sorry, Soph. I can’t give this up.”

  “WHAT?” she shouted.

  I dragged her out of the room. There were enough people mingling in the hallways that I walked her all the way down to the lobby of the building. “I can’t give this up,” I told her again. “You saw what just happened. This isn’t a pipe dream for me. This is my gift. This is what I have to do. I’m not quitting NYU. I’m not quitting music. It’s never going to happen. I’m not leaving my apartment, either.”

  I glanced apologetically at my brothers, but surprisingly they seemed supportive. Their approval gave me the courage to continue. “I’m not letting Jordan go.”

  Sophie gasped. “You’re choosing her? But I’m going to be the mother of your child.”

  Before I could say another word, Colin crashed through the front doors of the school, gasping for breath. “She’s gone, Nate.”

  “What?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what he meant. His devastation explained everything.

  “I tried to stop her.” He swallowed hard as he stepped forward, resting his hands on my shoulders. He looked into my eyes, as if pleading for help. “I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen for anything. She said she couldn’t say good-bye to you.” He shook his head and his jaw started quivering. “She said she wouldn’t survive it.”

  My heart stopped. I knew this night had been too perfect. “She’s already gone?” I asked, fighting the panic bubbling up from my stomach. The room started to spin again.

  Colin sniffled and pulled a small rectangular Christmas gift from his coat pocket. “She made me promise not to tell you until she’d left, and said to give this to you.”

  I took the gift—the exact size of a CD case—and fell heavily onto a nearby bench. I didn’t have the strength to stand anymore. Jordan was gone. She’d left without even saying good-bye. Actually, that’s not true. She’d kissed me before my performance, knowing that she was leaving, and planned to never see me again. That kiss had been her good-bye.

  Numbly, I opened the small greeting tag on the front of the gift. All it said was I found my favorite song. One guess which one.

  I was nearly about to vomit, but suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I had to know. I tore the wrapping from the CD case, cursing when the small ribbon tied around it refused to come off right away.

  I barked out a semi-hysterical laugh when I saw the cover. “Hannah Montana?”

  My following groan ended up turning to a laugh. As I flipped the case over and immediately began scanning the track titles, I worried that I would have to listen to the whole thing to figure it out. But then there it was, track number five, staring me in the face. If We Were A Movie.

  I laughed again. Only Jordan could find a song that related life to a movie. I didn’t know the song, but I suspected it was the ultimate romantic comedy of love songs. The Sleepless in Seattle, as Jordan would say. She’d have this proud, defiant grin on her face, and I knew the exact inflection her voice would have when she said, “You are such a music snob, Nate. That is the Sleepless in Seattle of love songs.”

  Pain lanced my heart as her laugh echoed in my mind. I shut my eyes. My chest hurt so bad I no longer cared about my showcase. My conversation with the representatives from NuSound didn’t matter. What was a career in music worth without my muse? I couldn’t do it without her. I didn’t want to.

  I glanced up at Colin. “We have to stop her.”

  “How? We left after your song, and she was already packed. I put her in a cab almost two hours ago. I don’t know the flight number or what airline. I don’t even know which airport she went to!” He was as panicked as I was.

  I instantly dialed her phone. It went to voice mail. I tried again three more times, feeling more and more frantic each time her voice told me to leave a message. But I knew she wouldn’t pick up. I wondered if she’d ever pick up for me again. “Have you tried?” I asked Colin.

  He nodded, tears spilling from his eyes.

  When I let out another hissed curse and slammed my fist against the back of the bench I sat on, Chris sat down beside me. “We’ll split up. You and Colin go to LaGuardia, Ty and I will check JFK. Once we’re inside, we can check all the airlines. There can only be so many flights going to LA.”

  Sophie huffed. “You’d have to buy tickets to get inside, idiot.”

  Chris glared at her, but she had a point.

  “So what?” Tyler said. “We have emergency credit cards.” He looked down at me in all seriousness. “This is an emergency. Dad will understand.”

/>   Chris nodded, and he and Tyler waited for me to agree. I was touched that they’d be so willing to help me, but then, they loved Jordan, too. She’d become part of the family over Thanksgiving, and the Anderson family looked out for each other. Jordan belonged with us. We couldn’t let her leave. I nodded. “Okay, let’s do it. Hopefully she hasn’t left yet.”

  “She hasn’t left yet.”

  We all whirled around at the new voice.

  My brothers stared at the woman, and then glanced at me. Chris arched a brow. “Friend of yours, Nate?”

  My lips twitched as I met Pearl’s sparkling eyes. They were filled with mischief. “You could say that. What are you doing here, Pearl?”

  “My job,” she said stubbornly. She shook her head. “You two kids have really given me quite the trouble.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Ty asked. He sounded slightly scared of the little Chinese stranger.

  I smirked. “Pearl’s my matchmaker.”

  Pearl frowned at the sarcasm in my voice. “And lucky for you, Nathan, otherwise you wouldn’t know that Jordan is flying American Airlines out of LaGuardia.”

  Colin gasped. “Are you sure? How do you know?”

  “I used my magical matchmaker powers,” she said flatly.

  She was being sarcastic, but a tiny voice in the back of my mind couldn’t help wondering if maybe she was telling the truth. Her gaze slid back to mine and she cracked a smile as if she knew what I was thinking. “If you hurry, you might still be able to catch her.”

  “But it’s been hours,” Colin whined. “She had to have left by now.”

  Pearl shrugged. “You know airports around the holidays. There are always delays. Especially when the weather’s bad.”

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. There was nothing wrong with the weather. We’d had an unusually mild fall. It had been cold, but we hadn’t even had our first snowfall yet. Colin glanced out the front doors and his frown grew. “The weather’s just fine.”

  Pearl flashed him a full-blown evil grin. “Is it?”

  As if the old woman had conjured a blizzard out of thin air, a gust of wind rattled the front doors to the school and snow began to fall. Everyone gasped, but somehow I wasn’t surprised. Pearl met my suspicious look with a proud smile. I laughed. “You frighten me, Pearl.”

  “Don’t question fate, Nathan. Just hurry and go get your girl before she leaves.”

  My heart stuttered when Pearl called Jordan mine. She wasn’t mine yet, but she would be soon even if I had to fly to California and drag her back.

  Colin clapped and squealed with delight. “Nate, this is perfect! It’s the old running-through-the-airport-to-stop-the-girl-from-leaving ending! Jordan loves that ending!”

  I laughed. Jordan did love that ending. She’d given me the cliché-is-okay-as-long-as-it’s-done-right lecture a number of times. The airport ending was always one of her prime examples. Somehow, it felt like the perfect ending for our movie.

  Relieved, I pulled Pearl into my arms. “Thank you.”

  She chuckled and groaned. “Easy on the old bones, Nate.”

  I laughed as I reluctantly let her go. “I mean it. Thanks, Pearl. For everything.”

  Her eyes did that twinkly thing again. “It’s been my pleasure, dear boy. Now, go.”

  When I started to leave, Sophie shrieked. “Are you kidding me?”

  I turned around, eyeing her with confusion. “What?”

  “You can’t leave me, Nate!” she exclaimed. “I’m having your baby. I need you. If you go after her, then what about us?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, but the watery gaze didn’t stop me from losing my temper. “There is no us!” Now I understood why Jordan was constantly kicking people. I really wanted to kick something. How could Sophie still not understand? “It’s over, Sophie. Baby or no baby, you and I are not together. I can’t be with you that way. I don’t love you!” I sucked in a breath and lowered my voice when she flinched. “I’m sorry. I’ll still help you with the baby as much as I can. We’ll work something out. I want to be a part of my baby’s life, but—”

  Sophie clenched her hands into fists and stomped her foot as she lifted her face to the ceiling and let out a monstrous scream. “Aggghhh! There is no baby!”

  I froze, trying to make sense of what she’d just said. We all silently waited for an explanation, too shocked to get the question out.

  “That was my friend’s test!” Sophie ranted. “I wasn’t going to use it, but then I saw you kissing her, and I had no other choice!”

  I got lightheaded and plunked down onto the floor right where I’d stood. “You lied?” Chris gasped while I tried not to vomit. “You made up a pregnancy?”

  “What the HELL!” Tyler roared.

  “I had no other choice!” Sophie screamed. She looked down at me and burst into tears. “Nate…I’m sorry.”

  The apology made me sick.

  “I thought if I could just get you away from her, if you just had a good reason to get back with me, we could make it work.”

  “Don’t you think I would have figured it out eventually?”

  She shook her head, swiping at the tears on her cheeks. “I would have told you I lost it in a few months. I just needed enough time for you to leave that apartment and remember you loved me.”

  Just long enough to ruin my life. The ill feeling in my stomach vanished and rage took over. “How could you do that to me?” I shot to my feet, shaking from anger. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through in the last month? How much you’ve screwed with me? You almost destroyed my life. And you may have succeeded in ruining Jordan’s. I broke her heart because of you! Damn it, Sophie, if I don’t get to her in time…”

  “I don’t care about her!” Sophie screamed. “I hate her! She stole you from me! She ruined my life! What about me, Nate? What about ME?”

  I couldn’t deal with this anymore. I couldn’t feel guilty—I’d never done anything wrong. I’d never been unfaithful to her. We’d been broken up for a month before I kissed Jordan. I couldn’t feel sorry for her anymore, either. I used to, but not after what she’d done. It was despicable. “What about you, Sophie?” I asked, all the emotion gone from my voice. “What do I care anymore?” I laughed a harsh laugh. “You know? In a way I’m almost glad you did this, because now I don’t feel bad anymore. I’m over it. Over you. Completely.”

  Sophie started weeping, but her tears had no effect on me. I shook my head, marveling at how free I suddenly felt. “If you really want to go back to Syracuse, then you should. Go home and start over. Or stay, I don’t care, but leave me alone. I don’t want to know you anymore.”

  She stood there staring at me, trembling while tears ran down her face, and I shrugged. I had nothing else to say to her. Turning to my stunned brothers, I sucked in a breath and raked my hand through my hair. “Explain to Dad if I don’t make it home for Christmas.”

  They nodded, and Chris smirked. “You’d better both be back for New Year’s. We’re not taking down all those decorations without you.”

  Laughing, I finally whirled around and raced out the door. Colin held it open for me, grinning and crying and laughing all at the same time. “Go get her, tiger.”

  I shook my head. “That’s your worst nickname yet.”

  Outside, there was already a cab idling on the curb, ready to take me to the airport. I looked at Pearl in surprise. “Your doing?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  I didn’t buy her innocent look for one second. “Sure you don’t.”

  Pearl laughed. “Go already, Nathan, before I freeze to death out here.”

  Whether out of gratitude or insanity, I leaned forward and kissed the old woman on the cheek. “Thanks, Pearl. I owe you a cup of tea when I get home.”

  Her laughter followed me as I climbed into the back of the waiting cab.

  . . . . .

  The snow was really falling now, making traffic horrible.
I thought the drive was going to kill me, so I started thinking of movies to keep me occupied. The more I thought about it, the more I realized they always ended happily. Happy ending after happy ending. EuroTrip, Clueless, Step Up, Jordan’s personal favorite, The Princess Bride? Even Die Hard had a happy ending. Okay, Shakespeare in Love’s ending was bittersweet. I still thought it was an appropriate ending, but now I could see Jordan’s side of the argument. Yeah, it was a good ending, but it could have been so much better. My ending would be better.

  Tonight, Jordan and I were not Shakespeare in Love. Jordan was right. Why would we want an appropriate ending when we could have the fairy tale? What did it matter if it was cheesy and cliché? All that mattered was that I got the girl. So which movie was playing now? Of all the happy endings in the world, there had to be one that matched mine.

  As the cab made its way through the city, I stared out the window at the falling snow—the first snow New York City had seen this year—and laughed at the irony. It always rains at the end of the movie. Okay, so it was snow and not rain, but this was December in New York City, and snow had every bit the dramatic effect that rain did; it just gave it a Christmas feel. And that’s when I knew. I was in a Christmas movie, and I knew exactly which one.

  Love, Actually. The title says it all.

  There were a million different story lines in that movie, and a million different endings. You could take your pick, because most of them reminded me of me. There was Hugh Grant, chasing after the woman he’d forced out of his life. There was Colin Firth, ditching his family over the holiday, because he finally realized what a good thing he let get away. And then there was the little boy. I forget his name, but that little girl was his muse, and it was the music that finally inspired him to go for it. Not to mention, he ended up running through the airport for the chance to tell her how he felt before she disappeared from his life forever.

  It was the smile on that little boy’s face that kept my energy up as I waited through the endless ticket lines. And I had to laugh when I couldn’t seem to get through the metal detector without shedding pretty much everything but my underwear. I wanted to follow the kid’s example and just make a run for it, but I think LaGuardia has dogs, and I’m pretty sure they would have caught up to me before I got to the gate.