“Do you three already have your outfits picked out?” Amaryllis asked, once they arrived at the hotel they were staying at and where heading for the rooms.
“Yeah,” Veronica said, laughing. “We’ll tell you about them later.”
“Good. You can give me some ideas. I have no clue on what to wear.”
“Hey, what’s your favorite color?” Alice asked.
“Pink, why?”
“Oh, we so have to go shopping,” Veronica said. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you decide what to wear.”
“Ok. When do you want to go?”
“When the guys are out of the rooms,” Alissa said. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.”
“Lance, when are you guys gonna be gone?” Amaryllis asked.
“Tomorrow afternoon,” Lance told her.
“Good. We’ll go then.”
“Ok,” Veronica said. “I’ll kick Joey out later, and we can tell you what we’re wearing.”
“That’s such a cute idea,” Amaryllis said, once they told her what they were wearing. “WE have red, pink, blue, and green. And if we get Dani in this, we’ll have purple.” Amaryllis picked up the phone and dialed Danielle Johnson’s cell phone number. “Dani, do you know what you’re wearing to the VMA’s?”
“No, not yet, why?” Dani asked.
“Well, Joey, Justin, and JC’s girlfriends are all wearing the same thing, except their tops are different colors. I thought it was a cute idea, and want to go along with it. And I thought I’d ask you.”
“What are the four of you wearing?”
“Long black skirts, black boots, tube tops of different colors, belly chains, necklaces, rings, and earrings. Oh, and we’re all wearing our hair down.”
“Do the guys know about this?”
“No. It’s a surprise.”
Dani laughed. “Sure, I’ll go along. When are you guys going shopping?”
“Tomorrow.” Dani was already in LA, visiting a few friends, so it was no problem for her to meet them at the mall.
“I can’t believe this,” Justin complained, looking from the door that had just been shut in his face to the clothes he was holding. “Lis, open this door.”
“Go away, Justin,” Alissa told him. “We’re using this room to get ready.”
“But where am I supposed to get ready at?” Justin whined.
“Go use JC’s room,” Alissa replied.
“But, I don’t want to.”
“Justin, you’re annoying,” Dani said. “Go away.”
“Women,” he muttered, walking away. He knocked on JC’s door. “Jace, I need to use your room to get ready.”
“Why?” JC asked, opening the door.
“The girls kicked me out of my room.”
“Then go demand it back.”
“You think I didn’t do that? You try demanding something from them. You wouldn’t have any better luck than me. It’s like asking for something from the sun.”
JC laughed and let him in.
Veronica was the first one out of the room, followed by Alice, Amaryllis, Alissa, and Dani.
“Are they wearing the same things?” Joey inquired, looking at the five girls.
“No, of course not, Joey. It’s just your imagination,” Veronica told him.
“Haha, very funny, Ronnie. Cute idea. Who’s was it?” Joey asked.
“Ronnie’s, of course,” Alissa said. “Like the rest of us would think up something like this.”
“That’s why I’m kept around,” Veronica commented. “To toss up creative ideas every now and then.”
Making their way to the elevators, everyone laughed.
After the VMA’s, they went to one of the dozen parties thrown by the people who had attended.
“Ain’t this party wonderful?” Veronica asked Alissa, as they walked to the bar to get something to drink.
“Yeah, it is, Ronnie,” Alissa replied, looking at her curiously, wondering why she was all of a sudden so happy to be there. Like Alice, they’d been to the VMA’s since they were 16. And every time, Ronnie had complained about attending.
“I know you think I’m strange for saying it, but it’s true. For once, we’re here as normal people, just your average girl dating a few superstars.”
“True,” Alissa murmured.
“I agree with Ronnie,” Alice said from Veronica’s other side. “This is different.”
They got their drinks, and headed back over to where the guys and other girls had gathered.
“Hey, Ronnie, Lis, Ali, I want to introduce you to some people,” JC said, when they got back to the guys. “Girls, this is Connor and Marianne Jordan, Clayton and Mikayla McKenzie, and Michael and Sarah Khanauri. Connor, Mari, Clayton, Mikayla, Michael, Sarah, these are our girlfriends, Alice, Veronica, and Alissa Cameron.”
“Nice to meet you,” Alissa said automatically. Inwardly, she was screaming. This was the worst possible thing in the world. To stand there, and be introduced to her parents and her godparents and the parents of one of her best friends. And to see them looking so terrible. It was heartbreaking
“You look familiar,” Marianne said, looking at Alissa’s face. “You remind me of... my daughter,” she moaned, breaking down into tears.
Connor put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Forgive her. She’s still upset at the disappearance of our daughter.”
“It’s quite all right,” Alissa said. “We heard about your daughter’s disappearance. Didn’t all three girls disappear?”
“Yes,” Clayton said. “It was quite upsetting to all of us.”
“I can imagine,” Veronica murmured. “I hope the girls are found soon.”
“So do we.”
Veronica looked around. “Um, I’m not feeling all that well. Can we leave now?”
“Sure,” Joey said.
“Nice to meet you,” Alice said to the older couples. “I hope everything turns out ok.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said. “I would swear I’ve met you before. But I couldn’t have, could I? It’s just the passing fancy of a desperate woman.” She shook her head and turned to leave.
Everyone paused in what they were doing to watch the three couples walk away.
“Oh god, what are we going to do?” Veronica asked, pacing the room. It was four in the morning, and they were in a small deserted room off the lobby of the hotel. She looked at Alissa, who was staring out the window. “Well?”
“Don’t ask me,” Alissa said. “I don’t know. For once in my life, I don’t know what to do, how to go about handling this.”
The tears evident in her voice broke the gates on Veronica’s tears. Tears flowed down her cheeks. “This is messed up. Why did we do this?”
“Because we had to,” Alice told her.
“No, we didn’t,” Alissa said. “We could have stayed trapped in our world, where we knew the rules, how the game was played, and what to do. We could have stayed where we were safe, sheltered, cared for. Instead, we chose to come here, to see what it’s like to live. We escaped our hothouses for the garden.” She paused. “And now, winter is falling. And we don’t know how to survive.”
That was bothering Alissa. For most of her life, she’d always known what to do, how to handle things, how to survive. And now she didn’t.
“They won’t accept our explanations now, will they?” Alice asked. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind about who “they” were. “They” could only be three certain people: Joey, Justin, and JC.
“Probably not,” Alissa said.
“We never know,” Veronica told them.
“Oh yeah, Ronnie, they can understand how we were able to look our parents in the eye, be introduced to them, and then say ‘I hope everything turns out ok’ and other stuff like that.” Alissa laughed. “That’s really possible. I don’t even know if I understand it myself.”
“Look, you two, we can’t back out of this now. Give us until October, like we agreed. I need this.” Veronica’s eyes pleaded with her best friend. She’d removed her contacts, like Alice and Alissa, and her eyes were her normal shade of green. “I need this time with Joey, so I know what love is. I just can’t leave now. I need one more month.”
“Do you think we don’t, too?” Alissa asked. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when Justin looks at me in hate. I wasn’t even going to suggest going back now. I don’t think I can.”
“But we can’t stay any longer than that,” Alice said.
“I agree,” Veronica said. “To do so will be extremely stupid.” She smiled bitterly. “Wait, let me rephrase that. It’ll be the stupidest thing in an entire line of stupid things.”
“No more stupid ideas,” Alissa said. “Are we agreed? None of us will talk about stupid ideas anymore. No more rebelling, no more wondering about ‘what-if’. and we’ll never talk about this again, after we’re home.”
“Agreed,” Veronica said.
“Agreed.” Alice nodded her head.
“Good. Now, don’t forget to put on your contacts, and let's go back up to the rooms.”
“Hey, Ronnie, Lis, Ali, you guys want to go shopping with me and my best friend, Bethany?” Amaryllis asked on the flight back to Florida. “We’re gonna go tomorrow, so we have time to recover from the flight and everything.”
“That would be great,” Veronica said, after glancing at Alissa and Alice to make sure they were agreed. “and we can have that girls day out like you were talking about.”
“Wonderful. We’ll meet at the mall at ten, spend the day shopping and stuff, then go back to Bethany’s house and spend the entire night talking.”
“Sounds good,” Alice said.
At ten the next day, Alice, Veronica, and Alissa met Amaryllis at the mall. She introduced them to her best friend, Bethany Kaine.
They spent the day shopping, went to the movies, and then went and rented a dozen movies and picked up some fast food and munchies for the night, before heading to Bethany’s house.
“I think it’s great that you three are dating the guys,” Amaryllis said suddenly, during a pause in the conversation. “You’re all so normal, so unlike most of the girls they know. Justin and Britney had dated for a few months, but it didn’t work out. I think it’s really good that he’s dating such a normal person.” She smiled at Alissa
Oh my god, Alissa’s mind screamed. No, this can’t be happening.
Amaryllis looked at Veronica and Alissa. “And then there’s JC and Joey. You two aren’t like hanging all over them, or using them for their money or anything. You’re just what they need.”
“Thanks,” Veronica said, forcing a smile onto her face.
“I feel like we’re becoming good friends, and I just wanted to tell you guys that. Hopefully everything’s good between all of you and the guys.”