Chapter Three

Chapter Three

for a moment your eyes open

and you know

all the things i ever wanted you to know

Blessedly, the girls were able to sleep the next day. They spent all day wandering around the hotel, hanging out and talking to random people they met. For a couple of hours in the afternoon, they were relaxing by the pool, keeping an eye on a couple of kids they’d agreed to watch while the parents went to dinner. They weren’t doing anything else, and the boys were good kids. They hadn’t heard from Michael and Aaron, either. They’d thought about going to one of the parks but decided to take the day to relax.

“Thank you girls so much,” said one of the little boys’ mothers when they returned. “We had a lot of fun. Thank you for keeping an eye on Patrick.”

“And on Nicholas,” the other boy’s mom added.

Adriana and Taegan stood up. “It was no problem. They’re sweet boys, and they were very well-behaved.”

“Good, good,” said Patrick’s father. “Here. Have yourselves a good time.” He handed each girl a fifty, and before the girls could protest, Nicholas’s father did the same and the two families walked away. Adriana and Taegan looked at each other.

“Downtown Disney?” Adriana asked with a grin.

“Definitely.”

They picked up their things and went back to their room to change and get ready to go out. They took a shuttle bus to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the House of Blues before heading to the club area.

They went into a club called Motion, and Adriana grabbed Taegan’s arm in excitement. “There’s a video screen!” she cried.

“I know. And maybe we can pick up some hot guys,” Taegan said, rather uncharacteristically as they went in a little further.

Adriana frowned. It wasn’t like Taegan to want to talk to other people very much, and she wasn’t one to want to ‘pick up guys.’ Truth be told, Adriana didn’t want to do that tonight, either. Usually she’d be all for it, but not tonight. She wouldn’t admit this to anyone, not even Taegan, but she’d been hoping that Aaron would call. She’d discovered that she enjoyed his company the day before. A lot more than she thought she would.

Taegan nudged her. “Look at him,” she said, pointing at a cute guy across the club. Adriana nodded in appreciation and continued to look around. Her jaw dropped when she looked at the bar. Then she laughed. “Taeg, look,” she said.

Taegan turned to where she was pointing and laughed. They headed over to the bar. “Fany meeting you here,” Taegan called over the music.

The guy she was talking to jumped and turned. He grinned. “Hey,” he said.

“How was your day, Michael?” she asked.

“Better now.”

Taegan raised and eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. “That a line?” she asked. “Hey, Aaron.” He glanced up from his greeting with Adriana and smiled at her.

Michael chuckled embarrassedly. “No. Unless it worked.”

Taegan shook her head. “Nope. But I’ll let you buy me a drink anyway,” she told him, hopping on a stood next to him.

“Ok...what do you want?”

“Not alcohol. You can’t buy alcohol anyway. I was thinking more along the lines of a Diet Pepsi.”

Michael laughed. “Sounds good,” he told her and called the bartender.

“Hey,” Adriana said, touching Aaron on the shoulder. He turned and grinned at her.

“Hi,” he said. He stood and kissed her cheek. She blushed and sat next to him. “Did you guys have fun today?”

She nodded. “We didn’t do a thing. I think our most strenuous activity before dinner was making sure a couple of cute little boys didn’t drown in the hotel pool. And all we did was lounge in the sun.”

“Not a bad deal.” He turned briefly to say hello to Taegan.

“Nope.” Adriana laughed. “And we made a hundred bucks.”

Aaron nodded in appreciation. He grinned when he saw that she kept glancing at the dance floor and was bobbing to the beat. He held out a hand. She looked at him quizzically. “Wanna dance?” he asked. She grinned and jumped off her stool, taking his hand and letting him lead her to the dance floor.

Taegan watched Michael out of the corner of her eye. She got the impression that, even though he was there, he was happier at the bar watching people than actually out in the middle of things.

It suited her just fine, as she was pretty much the same way, but eventually she’d get sick of just sitting around and she’d want to get up and dance a little. She smiled when Aaron and Adriana migrated to the dance floor. Adriana was a very social person. Taegan wasn’t sure how her best friend put up with her anti-social tendencies. She was getting better the older she got and the more she was dragged out, but she was still kind of uncomfortable in crowds.

“Hey,” Michael spoke up, interrupting her thoughts. She looked at him. He nodded at Adriana and Aaron dancing. “Look at those two.”

She did. They were close to each other, somehow touching with every move. Taegan saw that a few girls had recognized Aaron and were trying to get him to dance with them. He, however, didn’t notice at all. He was paying attention to Adriana. Taegan grinned and then sighed. “They’re adorable.”

Michael nodded. “I thought she didn’t like him?”

Taegan smiled softly and shook her head. “She’s had a crush on him for a while now. She likes him more than she’ll admit.”

“I think he likes her too,” Michael replied. “He was unusually quiet on our way back to the hotel last night.” Taegan watched them dance for a few more minutes, a smile on her face, until the song changed. She laughed and jumped off the stool. She grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him out to the floor. “I don’t want to dance,” he protested.

“I don’t care. This is one of my favorite songs.” She grinned at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and began to dance. “Reminds me of you, actually,” she said. He gave her a puzzled look. The words hadn’t started yet, but when they did, she sang the first two lines loudly. “This is where I’ll be, so heavenly, so come and dance with me Michael.”

He laughed and relaxed, putting his hands on her waist and moving with her.

All four of them ended up staying out all night. It was nearly three-thirty in the morning by the time they trudged down the hall to the girls’ hotel room. The girls were wiped out, but the boys had had a full day of interviews and photo shoots with Lenny and the Ians. The latter three had hopped on a plane home afterwards, but Michael and Aaron decided to go clubbing to maybe let off some steam.

Taegan nudged Adriana and nodded at the guys, who were slumped against the wall and didn’t look like they had enough energy to take one more step. “Should we ask them to stay?” she whispered.

“I dunno. Where would they sleep? Where would we sleep?”

“Addy, I feel horrible making them go all the way back. Plus we have huge beds. If they’re not too weirded out, maybe we can share one and they can share one.”

Adriana thought for a second and conceded. She went over to Aaron and put a hand on his arm. His eyes opened – he’d been dozing – and he smiled tiredly at her. “Night,” he mumbled groggily.

“Um, we were wondering if you guys wanted to crash here? We don’t want you to have to try to make it all the way back to your hotel.”

Aaron leaned forward and pecked her on the lips. “You. Are an angel,” he said. She blushed and glanced at Taegan, who shrugged. Taegan had an arm around a half-asleep Michael. The girls led the way into the room where Aaron and Michael promptly flopped onto separate beds and fell asleep. Taegan and Adriana exchanged a look.

“You up for sharing a bed with a guy?” Taegan asked quietly.

Adriana looked at Aaron’s sleeping form and then at Michael’s. “I’ll take Aaron,” she said. Taegan agreed and they changed and climbed carefully into bed.