CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"i'm starting with the man in the mirror, i'm asking him to change his ways..."

☆☆☆

"So, is he..." I trailed off as a smirk appeared on Kassidy's face. "Cute?" she continued for me since I was too embarrassed to ask her that. "Yes, he's cute. He kind of looks like George Harrison. Quite ironic since his name is Harrison.". And that was all I needed to hear. He was cute.

"I'm kinda nervous, y'know. I haven't been in a date in forever." "It has been a long time, hasn't it? Well, I can assure you there's nothing to be nervous about. Harrison is a very pleasant guy to talk to and he's very polite. Don't stress yourself for no reason." she said as she rubbed my back to calm me down.

It was the night that all of us would go out with our partners. Of course, Slash, Izzy and I didn't have any of that and Kassidy thought it'd be a great idea for her to find me a date.

I don't even know why I agreed.

"Hey, at least you're going to be there. That's not something I get in every date." I smiled and so did Kassidy.

"Besides, you're not even the only one going on a blind date today. Duff made me set Izzy up with a co-worker of mine. Part time model." she said.

Great, I'm definitely not feeling insecure right now.

"That was exactly what I needed to hear..." I sighed. "I tried convincing Duff to make Izzy ask you instead but he said that Izzy just wouldn't. He could barely believe you got a date." "You have such a talent in making things worse!" I said and her eyes widened.

"Oh man, that sounded so much better in my head. Let me explain, Izzy was in denial, he didn't actually believe you'd go through with the blind date. Kind of took you for granted." "Did he really? Well, what did he expect, all of you guys to come with dates but not me?" "Yeah, probably." "What a dick!"

"Oh, look! There's Harrison!" Kassidy excitedly exclaimed and I turned my head to the direction she was discreetly pointing at.

Oh, damn. He is cute.

Harrison was walking towards our direction, constantly looking in between of Kassidy and I but mainly me.

Which, by the way, made me turn all shades of pink.

"Motorcycle, huh?" "I only pick the best for you." Kassidy said and we chuckled. "He also knows you are not looking for a relationship so you're covered." she added

"Hey there." Kassidy said as soon as Harrison reached us. "Ladies," Harrison said with the most charming smile. "Harrison, this is Juliette. Juliette, this is Harrison." Kassidy introduced and I extended my hand. "It's very nice to meet you." I said with a smile on my face. "Pleasure's all mine." Harrison replied with a smirk.

"I'm terribly sorry I'm late, my dog threw up right when I was about to exit my apartment." he apologised. "Oh, don't worry about it. No one's even here yet. Expect for us and Duff. Which reminds me... I have to go tell him something." Kassidy said as an evil smirk krept upon her face and I winked at her to thank her since she was leaving to give us some alone time.

"So you have a dog?" I excitedly asked because I loved dogs just a little too much. "Yeah, I do actually. She's still a little puppy so you know, she doesn't exactly know we don't vomit on the carpet yet." he chuckled and I joined him. "She sounds adorable! What's her name?" "It's Daisy."

"You look amazing by the way." Harrison said just when Izzy came next to us. "Thank you. You don't look bad yourself." I blushed.

"Hi, I'm Izzy. I don't think we've met before." Izzy said as he extended his hand and Harrison shook it. "We haven't actually. I only know Kassidy and Duff so, from what I've heard, I'm going to have to memorise quite a lot of names tonight." Harrison said and I chuckled.  Izzy just gave him a small smile that he didn't even mean and went to his date.

I stared at him for a bit. No matter how attractive Harrison was with his dirty blonde luscious locks, Izzy had a way to make him seem decent looking.

"What kind of instrument does he play?" Harrison asked. "Rhythm guitar and backing vocals." I replied with a smile. "I see." he nodded.

"Shall we go where the others are?" I asked and Harrison nodded. "We shall." he said and we went over to the rest of the group.

I looked over at Izzy and the gorgeous redhead he had by his side.

Fuck, she's stunning!

"Hi, I'm Juliette." I said and she smiled. "Rebecca." she replied and shook my hand. She then introduced herself to Harrison and we talked for a bit, waiting for the rest of the guys to come with their dates.

While in the topic of bands, we learnt that Rebecca was actually a bassist and a vocalist in her all girl rockband which really impressed the guys.

Especially Izzy, he seemed really impressed by that.

She was also half Italian.

And I  was totally jealous.

After some time, Axl, Steven and Slash finally came and pretty much saved me since I seriously was close to saying something mean to Rebecca for no reason.

Except for jealousy, that could be a reason, I guess.

"Everyone, this is Erin." Axl announced with a proud smile as he watched his girl introduce herself to his friends. She was undeniably beautiful and looked very different than the other girls Axl dated which made me incredibly happy.

Maybe he's going to keep his one.

"It's really nice to finally meet you, Erin. I'm Juliette." I said as I shook her hand. "I'm Adriana." Steven's girlfriend introduced herself to me. "Juliette, it's very nice to meet you." "And I'm Lucy, it's very nice to meet you." Slash's date said with a smile. "It's very nice to meet you, Lucy. I assume you heard my name already." I chuckled and Lucy smiled again.

"Well, now that everyone knows everyone, we may head inside and sit." Axl said and we all started walking inside in pairs.

The restaurant was full of people but there was this long table, that was actually two tables placed in a way to make one long table, empty and ready to be filled with us since we had reserved it.

The moment that Harrison and I sat down, Izzy sat down next to me, as if he wanted to make sure that nothing would happen between Harrison and I.

Which made me smirk.

That's right, his attention is on me and not Rebecca, suck on that!

I would like to apologise for that remark, as it was childish and totally immature.

Moving on-

"So, Harrison. Do you play any instruments?" Izzy asked as soon as we sat down. "Yeah, actually. I play the guitar. Juliette told me you play it too?" "Yeah, I do. I also play the bass and the drums tho" Izzy bragged about his skills which made me chuckle.

Guess I'm not the only one who's jealous.

"You play the guitar, huh? That's actually really attractive." I flirted and Harrison grinned at that.

On the other hand, Izzy rolled his eyes at that.

"Where are you from?" Izzy asked Harrison before I could open my mouth and say anything. "Uh, I'm American." he awkwardly replied since he clearly wanted to speak to me instead of him. "Are you British? I'm not saying to be rude, you just sort of have an accent." "Yeah, I am actually." I replied with a small shy smile. "That's nice. I really like accents." he winked.

Izzy went to open his mouth again but I stopped him by saying "Izzy, how about you stop asking Harrison questions and focus on your date?". Izzy looked at Rebecca, who seemed really awkward, in embarrassment.

Although Harrison and I were hitting it off, I couldn't help but stare at Izzy every so often. Even tho I really wanted to, I couldn't fully ignore him because he looked amazing, just like every night.

So, I stared. A LOT.

I'm only human.

~

Time went by and it was, unfortunately, time to order. Ordering was the part I hated most when it came to going out since it simply made me way too anxious.

I started toying my necklace like crazy as I intensely stared at the menu, thinking about the way I could order without having to speak or seem rude.

Unfortunately for me, now way came to mind.

Izzy seemed to noticed that since he raised an eyebrow at me. I quickly avoided looking at him as this was embarrassing enough.

"Do you want me to order for you?" Izzy softly asked and I nodded "Yes, please." I said. "There's no need to get nervous next time, I'm here. Anything you need, just ask me and I'll order it for you." he gently explained and I looked down. "Okay, thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate it." I said and he smiled. "Don't even mention it." he replied. "Give me one moment." he said and leaned towards Rebecca, explaining the situation.

If I was embarrassed before you can imagine how embarrassed I was now.

"Alright," he came a little closer, placing his arm around my shoulders.
"show me what you want." he said as I felt shivers run all the way down my spine. "Uhh, I actually haven't decided yet..." I gulped and Izzy side smiled. "I've been here before so I could help you." he said. "Sure, it'd like that." I softly replied.

I looked up and noticed Kassidy was looking between Izzy and I with a smirk on her face.

I softly widened my eyes and then pointed at Izzy with them as I bit my lip. Kassidy laughed because she understood exactly what I was saying...

Izzy was doing things to me.

She put her hand over her mouth to fight back the urge to laugh even harder at my situation.

Bitch.

Izzy then looked up and looked between Kassidy and I. "So what are you gonna have?" he asked and I awkwardly chuckled. "Oh, um... You know, the thing you said is really good..." I said since I hadn't been listening to a single word he was saying. "Mhm... You haven't been listening, have you?" he said and I sighed. "Yeah, mind repeating?" I said and he smiled. "Of course, pay attention this time tho." he pointed a finger at me.

Currently fighting the urge to pull him in and kiss him in front of everyone.

Maybe a small fuck too.

God, why is he so fucking hot?

"Sounds good, I'll have that." I smiled and he nodded. "Anything to drink?" "Yeah, a beer would be nice." "Got it." he removed his hand from around my shoulders

"Uh, Izzy?" "Yeah?" "Thank you again... " I said and flashed him a small smile. "Anytime, doll." he said and smiled at me too.

~

"Do you have any exciting life plans?" Harrison asked since he was talking about his "life plan".

It wasn't actually his life plan but it was very amusing to hear.

"Not as exciting as yours but I do have one. Find someone, travel around the world with him in a van, tragically die in a car accident at the age of twenty-seven. Little did everyone know I was six weeks pregnant..." I joked and Harrison laughed. "Extra points if he's a musician and writes songs about me!" I said and Harrison laughed again. "I like that plan." "Yeah, me too but the mysterious musician is nowhere to be found. He better hurry up, we have five years left." I said and we both laughed. "I'm sure he'll come around." Harrison said

Harrison looked between Kassidy and I and said "I saw you two understood eachother by talking with your eyes. You have a great communication. I didn't understand Jesus." he said and I giggled

It was true, Kassidy and I really did understand eachother by talking with our eyes and not only. We had been friends for so long, since we were babies so that'd be about twenty years of friendship concidering we met when we were two, that we understood eachother perfectly without any words.

I feel very lucky to have her in my life.

"We do, we really do. Kassidy's something else." I said and he smiled. "You seem to hit it off with everyone." he said. "Yeah, I haven't been in America for that long so to come and immediately find friends who soon felt like family, that's rather lucky." I said and smiled.

I looked over at Izzy, who was already looking at me with a slightly annoyed expression.

And they say girls have extreme mood swings.

Then the workers there brought us bottles of water and I grabbed one because I was thirsty. I filled Harrison's glass, then mine and then I went to fill Izzy's but he rudely stopped me by saying "I didn't ask for water." "Right, I forgot water's your worst enemy." I sarcastically replied and then looked at Rebecca. "Rebecca? Would you like some water?" "Yes, please!" she replied so I filled her cup as Izzy stared at me intensely since I had leaned in front of him to fill Becca's glass.

As time went on, food arrived and each couple told the story of how they met.

Of course, Harrison and I had the best story, considering we met like two hours ago.

"Excuse me, I have to use the restroom." I flashed a small smile at Harrison. "Uh, I'll come with, if you don't mind. I need to use it too." Izzy quickly said and got up. I just nodded and we made our way over to the restroom.

When I was washing my hands, I saw Izzy's reflection on the mirror and raised my eyebrow at him.

"So you brought a date." Izzy said and I sensed a hint of jealousy in his tone. "Yeah, I did and so did you." I said as I was drying my hands with a paper towel.

He then came closer and smirked as I carefully watched his every move in the mirror.

The minute I threw the paper towel in the trash, Izzy was behind me and gave me a heart attack.

My breathing had quickened. A lot.

Izzy seemed to notice that because by the smirk on his face, you could understand that he felt quite satisfied with his actions.

I slowly turned around to face him and when I did, he put a strand of my hair behind my ear. His hand travelled down my arm, sending shivers down my spine.

It was funny, actually. He could do the simplest thing and make me melt. He knew that and loved the kind of power he had over me.

Once his hand reached the counter where the sink was, which I was pinned against by the way, he put his other hand on the other side, trapping me between his arms.

You could imagine how fast my breathing was by then, I felt like I had ran two damn marathons.

All I could do was stare at him and wonder,

why the fuck is he doing this?

does he not care about his date?

is he just horny?

am I just a sex toy to him?

"W-what are you d-doing?" I stuttered and Izzy's evil smirk appeared on his face again."Shh..." he said and crashed his lips against mine. "I've been wanting to do that all night long..." he said in between of kisses.

The kisses had turned a little too passionate, to the point where I was... Sort of moaning against his lips.

His hands travelled down to my ass and he gave it a good squeeze.

Something clicked in my mind tho.

we had dates.

"Izzy, stop." I said and broke the kiss. "Oh, don't stop now, not when I'm on the go." he whined as he kissed my neck. "Izzy, we're in a public restroom!" "You're right. Let's get out of here, you and me." he smirked and kissed my lips again.

Even tho that option was tempting, so very temping, I just couldn't do it.

"No, Izzy. We came with our date and we're leaving with our dates!" I lectured him and he rolled his eyes. "Your date's an asshole anyway." he argued and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "How exactly is Harrison an asshole?" "He has this stupid attitude, like he's better than everyone else." Izzy explained and it was my turn to roll my eyes. "You're just jealous." I said, acting like I was confident about saying that.

Fake it till you make it.

Something I don't usually have to go with Izzy...

Uhh, anyway-

"Jealous? Of him? I get to fuck you, Juliette." he said with a cocky smile on his face. "You can see that I'm into him and it's making you so jealous." I said and chuckled at his face.

Which, let me tell you, he did NOT appreciate.

"Oh, so you actually like him now?" Izzy bitterly said. "He's a nice guy." I defended and he looked at me with an upset look.

"Date him then." he challenged, moving even closer, as if that were possible. "Why would I do that, I don't even want a relationship." I stated the obvious and Izzy raised his eyebrow at me. "Yet here you are, on a date with him. Couldn't you have come alone?"

The audacity of this bitch.

"So, let me get this straight. You expected me" I pointed a finger at me "to come alone at a couples date night" I put extra emphasis on "couples date night" "just because you" I angrily poked his chest with my finger. "aren't okay with the idea of watching me with another man." I finished and laughed in disbelief. "You are an asshole. A complete asshole! You brought a date too, for God's sake!" I said but he rolled his eyes again.

"Yeah but you should have come alone. I don't like thinking anyone else can have you." he flirted, or so he thought I'd be remotely flattered by that statement.

I was not.

"Oh, you don't like to think that anyone else can have me?" I mocked him in a childish voice. "Well, bite me then because I can literally fuck whoever I want and also bring whoever I want on a date night for damn couples!!" I said as he stared at me with an angry expression yet so full of lust.

"And how many men have you fucked, besides me, since this whole deal started?" he confidently said, catching me off guard.

Okay, I was not prepared for that.

"That's what I thought..." he smirked, making me more mad.

I want to wipe that stupid smirk