Alex looked out the bus window as it rolled through miles
and miles of road. It was the day after they had packed the buses and they were
on their way to the next city where the guys would be performing. It would be
the first concert that Alex would be doing. She shuddered thinking about it. It
honestly freaked the hell out of her.
She knew the tour was big. She had heard enough talk from
the other guys to gather that much. But she didn’t really know what that
entailed. Big like hundreds of people or big like thousands? Her heart dropped
at the thought of playing for crowds of people.
She decided not to think about it. She would cross that
bridge when she got there. She sank into the seat more comfortably and straightened
her glasses on her nose. At first they had been annoying but now she had gotten
used to having them on her face.
“Hey Alex!” She turned around to see Juice calling her.
“Yeah?”
“Interested in a friendly little game of poker?” He quirked
his brow and grinned devilishly at her.
She smiled. The guys in the band had been really nice to
her, making sure they got her involved in whatever they were doing. She was
even starting to feel like she belonged.
“Sorry to disappoint but I don’t know how to play poker.”
Juice made a face. “Man, you’ve had a shoddy education if
you can’t even play poker. Look, we’re setting up a game at the table. Come on and
I’ll show you how.”
Alex shrugged and got up, following him to the front of the
bus.
Two of the other guys, Paul and Leo were setting up the
game. Cole wasn’t around. He was probably sleeping as usual.
Leo smiled at her. “So are you gonna join the game, man?”
Alex shook her head. “Nah. I don’t know how to play. I’ll
just watch you guys instead.”
They all sat down to play, kidding and joking with each
other. Juice explained certain aspects of the game for Alex with the other guys
throwing in a few comments now and then.
Alex relaxed and watched them play for a little while before
she realized that she was being watched. She turned her head and caught Leo’s
gaze. He winked at her. Okay, Leo was starting to freak her out.
Alex had been getting these strange vibes from him for the
last few days. He kept giving her these intense looks and he was always finding
ways to randomly touch her and it was all just starting to weird her out. Not
that she didn’t appreciate the fact that he was trying to be her friend and get
her involved but he was making her uncomfortable.
She glanced around and saw that the buses were exiting into
a centre, where a diner, a gas station and a convenient store were situated. A
row of trucks and cars were parked at the side.
She grinned happily. She wasn’t used to being cooped up on a
bus and needed to get some fresh air. When the bus stopped, she bounded off it
but didn’t know where to go. She barely had ten dollars in her pocket and she
didn’t plan on spending the little money she had at the moment on things she
didn’t really need.
She turned around and watched as the guys got off their bus.
Chris smiled at her and waved her over. “Alex, we're going to have some grub.
Come join us!” He shouted.
She grinned and jogged over to them. She didn’t have any
money for food but at least she would be able to hang out with the guys.
They entered the diner with a bodyguard in front and another
tagging behind them. Eyes followed them as they moved to the back of the
restaurant and shoved two tables together so they could all sit together.
Alex found herself in the middle of Lance and Joey. A
waitress with curly brown hair piled on top of her head came over to them. She
handed them their menus and took her notepad out of her apron.
She eyed the two bodyguards with a speculatively look before
she spoke. “What kin I be gettin’ fer you folks?” she asked in a raspy drawl.
The men didn’t even look at the menus, each just shouted out
a list of food items they wanted. Alex chuckled at the bewilderment on the
waitress’ face as she scribbled down the orders.
Lance turned to Alex. “Hey, what do you want?”
Alex suppressed a blush as a couple of the other guys waited
for her response. “Actually I uh…I’m not really that hungry.” She didn’t want them
to know that she was broke … unfortunately at that exact moment her stomach chose
to disagree with her. It growled loudly and it was loud enough for both Lance
and Joey to hear. They turned to her laughing.
“Get him a basket of fries, a cheeseburger and a coke,” Joey
said to the waitress and she was off before Alex could say anything.
Alex turned to Joey and said in a low voice. “Look Joey, I
don’t really have any money at the moment so I can’t afford to order food.”
Joey raised a brow. “Well then it’s a good thing I ordered
it for you. Don’t worry about it, Al. I’ll pay for it.”
She frowned. “No Joey. I don’t want you paying for my
stuff.”
Joey shrugged. “Chill, bro. You can pay me back when you get paid in a couple
weeks.” He turned his back on her and started chatting with one of the
bodyguards.
Alex rolled her eyes in annoyance; she had a feeling that
Joey wasn’t going to accept her money when she had it.
She looked up and caught JC’s gaze. He smiled at her and she
smiled back. “Look Alex, if you need any money–” She cut him off before he
could say more. “Nah! It’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
JC shrugged and turned to watch Chris and Justin badger each
other.
What was with these guys and offering money to people they
didn’t really know?
She felt a vibration in the pocket of her sweatshirt. The
cell phone. She glanced around at the guys who were too busy goofing around to
notice her. She got up and walked quickly to the back of the restaurant. As
soon as she got there, she flipped open the phone.
“Hello.”
“Alexandria, I am going to kill you!”
It was Kat.
“Becca told me what happened and gave me the number. Are you
out of your mind?”
Alex snorted. “I didn’t have much choice, Kat. I had to get
out of there.”
“You could have waited. I could have sent you more money in
a month.”
Alex sighed. “I couldn’t have waited that long.” She went on
to tell her sister about what happened after they had spoken last.
After Alex told the story Kat was still worried but
understood why she had left.
“Where are you? When are you getting here? How’s that job
you got? Becca told me about it.”
Alex recalled the lie she had told Becca and grimaced. “I’m
not actually working there anymore. I found a better job. With a band
actually.”
Kat didn’t know if she liked the sound of that. “A band?
Doing what?”
“What else? Playing guitar.”
“What kind of band?” Kat still sounded wary.
“It’s actually this group. They’re like these singers and
they have a backup band that play at their concerts. We’re travelling to a city
right now to set up a concert.”
Kat gasped. “Travelling? Concerts? What do you mean concerts? Who are they?”
“Uh…” Alex didn’t want to say anything. She wanted to keep
everything quiet. The less people knew the better for her. “Just this group. No
big deal.” And as far as she knew, it really wasn’t.
“How many girls are in the band?”
Uh oh. “Well, a couple,” she lied. “There are more men
but...”
“You mean you’re travelling with a group of men and only a
couple of girls? I don’t like this, Alex. Not at all. It’s not safe for a girl
like you to be travelling with strange men.”
Apparently Becca hadn't told Kat everything, thank God. She
knew Kat would freak even more if she knew she was masquerading as a guy and
carrying a fake ID around. “Look Kat, it’s fine. I promise. I’ll be there in no
time. Look, I’ll give you a call in a couple of days. Okay?”
Kat sighed in frustration. “Fine. I have the number. I’ll
give you a call. Be safe, Alex!”
“I promise. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
And Alex hung up.
She turned and walked back to the table and saw that the food
was already there. It had taken less than ten minutes.
Justin looked at her when she sat down. “Where did you go?”
“Phone call,” she said picking up a few fries and stuffing
them into her mouth.
“Who was it?” he asked nosily.
“My sister.” She took a sip from her drink.
Joey perked up beside her. “Is she cute?”
Alex laughed. In the little time she’d known Joey, she’d
found out how much he loved women.
“We look a lot alike actually. People used to comment on
that when we were younger cause my mom used to dress us alike. She’s older than
me.”
When she heard no other questions, she looked up to see the
guys looking at her oddly. Alex thought about what she had said and almost
groaned aloud. She was so stupid. “I mean we look alike you know but uh,
obviously with the male, female differences. And I meant my mom used to dress
us in the umm, same style. You know jeans and uh, t-shirts and umm … stuff.”
She stuffed more fries in her mouth as the guys looked at her with different
looks of amusement.
Suddenly Chris started laughing. “You’re hysterical, dude.”
He looked at the other guys. “This guy’s a riot,” he declared. After that, they
all laughed and soon went back to talking.
Alex silently thanked Chris for getting her out of that
mess.
They all ate and talked for the next half hour and Alex was really
enjoying herself. It was getting easier to talk and act like a guy…and it was
kind of fun. As long as she stayed away from talking about her family or like
girlfriends, it was pretty cool.
After they ate and paid their bill, they walked out to go to
the convenient store to stock up on some junk food. JC stopped her before they
went in.
“Alex if you need money, I’ll be glad to help you out. Okay?”
“JC, it’s all right. I don’t want to owe you any money,” she
said adamantly but then grinned at him, making sure that he knew she
appreciated his suggestion.
“Fine, fine,” he said, chucking her underneath her chin.
She turned to walk inside the store, so she didn’t notice JC
run to her bus. And while she was casually walking down the store aisle, she
definitely didn’t know that he was shoving a hundred dollar bill in the side
pocket of her bag.