“Ha ha … you suck!” Alex said, laughing at Justin.
After lunch the guys had invited Alex onto their bus for the
rest of the ride, saying they wanted to get to know Alex better.
At first she had been a little wary but now two hours had gone
by and she was pretty relaxed.
Earlier, they had gotten out the Playstation II and they
were now playing it. Alex, who had never played a game before, had luckily won
every game she’d played so far.
She laughed again as Justin pouted and threw down his
control. They were playing NBA Street, the game that he was apparently
the “master” of. But she was kicking his ass.
“Wimp!” Chris said as Justin flopped down beside him on the
couch.
“The guy is an animal,” Justin mumbled.
Alex hearing him, laughed again. “Dude, you are such
a sore loser. But I can’t say that I blame you considering I’ve kicked your ass
three times in a game that you’re supposed to rule at and I’ve just
learned.” Alex grinned widely when Justin flipped her the bird and threw a pillow
at her. But even with these actions, she could see that he was holding back a
grin of his own.
She couldn’t stop smiling. She liked them all a lot. She’d
never been friends with guys, never been allowed around them actually. But
these guys were so easy to get along with that they dispelled any nervousness
that she would have felt in any other case. They were her friends and it felt
good – to have friends.
Not that she didn’t love Becca and Kat but they had been the
only friends she’d ever really had.
Chris got up and rubbed his hands together. “It’s my turn,
little one. And this time you’ll have some competition.”
Fifty minutes later Chris groaned aloud as Alex beat him for
the third time.
“That’s it. I can’t take this losing. I’m going to take a nap.”
He got up and walked to the back of the bus.
By this time, Justin and Joey were already sleeping in their
bunks and Lance was working on his laptop. JC was lounging on a side couch and
was scribbling something down in a notebook.
She glanced over at him. He seemed so intensely into his
writing. She wondered what it was. A song? A poem? A journal entry? Suddenly
his head came up and his eyes aligned with hers and she felt a shock go through
her. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart started beating rapidly
against her chest and she wondered what it would be like to kiss him.
She stilled.
She had never felt that way about anyone before. Never even
really thought about kissing. She’d never been on a date, had never had a boyfriend
and had definitely never been kissed.
She saw that he was still looking at her and she mentally
cleared her head and tried to get her thoughts together.
She smiled at him, hoping that it wasn’t the pained grimace
that seemed to want to come out. “Yeah?”
JC shrugged. “I just noticed that you were all alone. Come
keep me company!” He patted the seat beside him.
As soon as she settled herself on the couch, he closed the
book and turned to her. “So, like, what’s your story?” he asked a slight smile
on his face.
Alex shrugged. “Oh you know. Grew up in a small town.
Finished school. Wanted to get a job. Found you guys. End story.” And that
wasn’t a lie…not really.
JC knew Alex wasn’t going to say anymore. He seemed like a
pretty secretive guy. But JC was curious about him. He didn’t know why he felt
so drawn to the kid – he just was.
“So, did any of the guys tell you about what to expect?”
Alex shook her head.
He grinned and went on to tell her about the crowds and the
screaming fans but he said it with such humour and self deprecation that he
made it sound fun, instead of frightening as she would have originally thought.
He was funny and often times really sharp and Alex found
herself wondering why she had freaked out before. He was the nice guy that she
had met at the hotel. Nothing more. She wasn’t into him like that, thank God.
That would have caused too many problems for her.
JC glanced at his watch. “Hey man, we’re going to be there
in an hour. I’m going to get some sleep. You should too, it’s going to be a
long day.”
She nodded as he got up and walked to the bunks.
She moved over and looked out the window. She was a little
tired but wasn’t about to sleep anywhere near the other guys. Sleeping meant being
off guard – being off guard wasn’t good in any context.
Instead she watched the scenery outside and listening to the
rapid clicking of Lance’s fingers on the keyboard, she waited to get to their
destination.
…
Everyone was up by the time they got to the hotel.
Alex’s bags were still on the other bus, so after the
security check she bounded off and ran to the bands bus. All the guys were
already inside the hotel getting checked in. She grabbed her guitar and her bag
and turned to leave. Cole was waiting for her when she got off the bus.
“Hey Alex, I wanted to give this to you earlier but you had
run off to the boys’ bus. This is yours. Charlie bought it.” He handed her a
guitar case that he had been holding. She put her bags down and took it cautiously.
She rested the case on the bus sideways and opened it to find a beautiful,
expensive looking, acoustic electric guitar. It was wonderful.
She looked up. “This is great, really nice, but do I have to
get rid of my guitar?” It was her mother’s and Alex would never get rid of it.
He shook his head. “No that’s for you to use during the
tour, soundchecks, rehearsals. You don’t have to get rid of yours.”
She beamed. “This is cool, man. Thank you!”
Cole shrugged. “Heh. You’re in a first class production. So
you have to own a first class guitar. Get one of the guys to load it up with
the rest of the instruments. Here’s your key. You’re in room 602.” He patted
Alex on the back and walked inside the hotel.
As soon as she got it loaded up, she ambled inside the hotel
and made her way to the elevator. When she walked inside her hotel room, she
noticed Leo lounging on one of the beds and talking on his cellphone.
She stifled a groan. Was she going to be sharing with him
for the whole tour?
He hung up and as if reading her mind he said, “We’re going
to be sharing rooms from now on. Everyone else is set up with a partner. And I
thought since we’ve already been sharing, we might as well stick together.”
She forced herself to smile. “Ok. Yeah, that’s cool.”
“Don’t get too comfy,” he said when she was about to lie
down on the bed. “We’ll be leaving for sound check in half an hour.”
Oh, right. Richard had told her about soundcheck. It was a
new thing the guys were doing. They basically had a rehearsal in front of a group
of fans and the fans got to ask them questions. It sounded interesting.
The trucks with all the equipment had been hours ahead of
their buses and were already at the venue. Everything was being set up.
Suddenly Richard burst into the room, a stylish redhead
following behind. “Alex, we have to set up your wardrobe. I thought we had
covered everything but we didn’t do that. You can’t very well go on stage in
jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Jamie here is going to go buy some clothes for
you to wear on stage. What’s your size?”
Alex blinked. Only one thing really registered. Her size.
What was her size? She was relatively thin, but she always wore baggy clothing,
two times larger than her actual size. “Er…Medium?”
“What is your exact clothing size? In numbers.” Jamie asked.
“Er…Well I…uh…I don’t shop much. I usually just get whatever
fits.”
Richard waved his hand, like the whole conversation was
inconsequential. “We don’t have time to sit here and go through this. Measure
his waist and chest size so that we can do this,” he said to Jamie.
Jamie who had the measuring tape around her neck walked
purposefully towards Alex. “Take off your shirt!”
Alex paused again. “Excuse me?”
“Your shirt. Take it off. I can’t measure you when you’re
wearing that sweatshirt.”
“I’m not taking it off!” Alex said adamantly. She only had a
thin shirt underneath and that didn’t exactly hide the bandages, so there was
no way in hell they were going to make her take off the sweatshirt.
Jamie saw the look on Alex’s face and sighed. “Fine just
lift your shirt a little so I can get your waist size, then I’ll see what I can
do.”
Alex tentatively lifted the shirt making sure that they
didn’t see too much skin. Jamie put the measuring tape around and when done
looked at Alex in amazement. “Whoa. You’re smaller than I am. You have such a small
waist.”
Alex let go of the end of the shirt and let it fall back
down. “Yeah, well…” she shrugged.
“That’s fine. We’re done,” Richard interrupted. “Alex, you’ll
get the clothes before the concert. They’ll be in the dressing room.”
He motioned at Jamie to follow him and they both walked out.
Leo, who had been watching it all quietly, looked at Alex
speculatively. “You shy?”
Alex inclined her head. “Not really…well a little...about
taking my clothes off.”
“Don’t worry, man. I used to be skinny like that too, but I
started working out and eating right and now look at me.” Leo flexed his bicep.
“I know what we can do,” he continued. “We’ll go work out one day. We’ll get
you pumped in no time.”
Alex didn’t like the sound of that.
Leo jumped off the bed. “We might as well go down and wait
for the guys.”
He grabbed the key and headed towards the door and Alex had
no other choice but to follow him out.