Castaways
Written by Laura Yates
Prologue
Chapter
1
Chapter
2
Chapter
3
Chapter
4
Chapter
5
Chapter
6
Chapter
7
Chapter
8
Chapter
9
Chapter
10
Chapter
11
Chapter 12
Chapter
13
Chapter
14
Chapter
15
Chapter
16
Chapter
17
Chapter
18
Chapter
19
Chapter
20
Chapter
21
Chapter
22
Chapter
23
Chapter
24
Chapter
25
Chapter
26
Chapter
27
Chapter
28
Chapter
29
Chapter
30
Chapter
31
Chapter
32
Chapter
33
Chapter
34
Chapter
35
Chapter
36
Chapter
37
Chapter
38
Chapter
39
Chapter
40
Chapter
41
Chapter
42
Chapter
43
Chapter
44
Chapter
45
Chapter
46
Chapter
47
Chapter
48
Chapter
49
Chapter
50
Chapter
51
Chapter
52
Back
Prologue
*Laura*
“We’re going on a holiday, holiday.” I sung, running into my roommate’s
room. “What?” She asked.
“It was my birthday present from my parents. It’s a holiday.”
“To where?”
“To anywhere we want.”
“We?”
“Hey, you’re my best friend, you’re coming with me.” She smiled.
“We’re going on a holiday, holiday.” She started singing. I laughed at
her before joining in.
*Howie*
“You guys, are you sure our trip will be over before Sarah’s baby is
due?” I asked. Sarah was my best friend. I had promised to be there for
the birth of her baby.
“Howie, she’s not even due for over a month. We’ll be back before she’s
even close.” Kevin said, calmly to me.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“If not, you can always catch an earlier flight home.” Brian said.
“Oh yeah, I can. So when do we leave?”
*Brian*
“Sami!! Sami!!” I yelled, running straight into her house.
“Brian?” She asked.
“Yeah.” I yelled back. She came out of the kitchen to find me running
around like an idiot.
“Guess what I have for you?” I teased her.
“What?” She asked.
“You have to guess.”
“I don’t know… Um… A pink hippo.”
“Nope guess again.”
“Umm… I don’t know Brian. Please just tell me.” I pulled a ticket out
from behind my back. She grabbed it from me.
“You’re going to the Bahamas? You are so lucky.” She yelled
“Correction. We are so lucky. You’re coming.”
“Me? In the Bahamas? Brian, this is so great.” I smiled as she hugged
me. I loved it when I made her day.
“I know. All of the guys will be there. AJ’s girlfriend… um… what’s her
name… oh yeah Kayla will be there. It will be great.”
“Will Kevin be there?” She asked shyly. I tried not to laugh at her.
She had had a crush on my older cousin for like forever.
“Yeah Sami. He will.”
*Megs*
“Hey Jess. Any messages?” I asked my assistant as I walked into the
office.
“Anyone important?” I asked.
“There’s a couple of numbers on your desk. You need to call them back.
The reason for the call is on the message.”
“What would I do without you?” I asked, heading for my office.
“Mr Evans called as well.” She said after me. I stopped in my tracks.
The big boss called me why?
“And?…” I prompted.
“There’s a property he needs checking out. He wants you to do it.”
“Man, why does he always end me to do the crappy jobs?”
“I wouldn’t be complaining, it’s in the Bahamas.” I smiled. A couple of
weeks in the Bahamas on company time, that didn’t sound that bad after
all.
“Ask him to send me the details and I’ll see if I can fit it into my
schedule.” She nodded and I headed into my office. “I’m going to the
Bahamas.” I said softly to myself.
*Meghan*
“It’s all organised?” Sarah asked.
“Yes.” I told her for like the 50th time. “I’ll meet you at your gate
when your plane lands. If I’m not there, then just hang around. I’ll be
there as soon as I can.” She was such a worrier. I mean, it was only a
vacation. The problem was the two of us were coming from different
states.
“Ok then. I’ll see you in a day.”
“You will. Now I gotta go pack. I’ll see ya then.”
“Ok bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone. Yeah, in one day I’ll be sitting on the
beach with my best friend I haven’t seen in almost a year! I ran
upstairs and went to start packing.
*Nick*
“Nick, do you have to go?” My little brother complained again.
“Azza, you know I have to. It’s work, remember?”
“I know, but I never get to see you.”
“Az, after this trip is over I’m home for two months. I’ll spend all
the time in the world with you then.”
“YAY!!” He screamed. I smiled. Angel, Aaron’s twin, then came running
down the stairs at god’s knows what pace.
“Nick!!” She wrapped herself around me.
“Angel. I gotta be going. The plane’s going to leave without me
otherwise.” She untangled herself from me. I picked her up.
“Don’t go Nicky.” She pleaded.
“I have to Angel. I “I’ll be back before you even notice.” I told her.
She sorta smiled.
“Ok.” I put her down.
“Nick, we’re going now.” My dad yelled.
“Ok, I’m coming.” I hugged both the twins as well as my other sisters
one more time, before following my dad out the door.
*Sami*
“Brian, are you sure I don’t need anything else?” I asked.
“Sami, you’ve pretty much taken your whole wardrobe, what else could
you need?” Brian replied.
“I don’t know. Something.” I ran up to my room and looked around it
again. I knew I had forgotten something.
“Sami, we’ve really gotta be going.” He yelled up to me. I looked at my
watch.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” I ran back downstairs.
“Ok, I’m ready.” I said. I took a deep breath.
“Sami, its two weeks.”
“I’m not as accustomed to travelling as you. Be quiet boy.” I hit him.
He ducked and dropped all of my bags. I laughed.
“Remind me never to invite you on holiday with me again.”
“I’m your best friend, you have to invite me.”
“And, I have to give my cousin a chance to get to know you better.” I
blushed as he said that.
“Yeah Bri.” I said, softly.
*Tina*
“Laura, come on already. We’re going to miss the flight!!” I yelled.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” She stumbled down the stairs with her stuff. I
smiled at her.
“You laughing at me? You’ve got ten times the stuff I have.” She told
me. I looked at my stuff then at hers.
“True I do.” We both grabbed our stuff and headed outside to where the
cab was waiting. The driver threw our stuff in the back and we got in.
“Where to?” he asked.
“The Airport.” I replied.
“You knew what I heard?” I said to Laura, as we started moving.
“What?” She asked.
“The Backstreet Boys are going to the Bahamas as well.”
“Yeah, keep dreaming girl.”
“Hey, I’m dreaming.”
*Kevin*
I paced up and down and up and down at our meeting point. Where were
they? At the moment, we were missing Nick, Brian Sami, AJ and Kayla.
They were late. Why were they always late?
“Sorry, I’m late Kev.” Nick said, running up behind me.
“That’s OK, you’re not the last one.” Nick sat down and waited with me
and D for the others. AJ turned up next.
“Man, sorry, I got caught in traffic.” He explained. He sat down with
the others. Finally 15 minutes late, Brian showed up.
“Brian, where the hell have you been?” I asked.
“Sorry, we got caught in traffic.” He said.
“We?” AJ asked.
“Yeah, you guys remember Sami right?” He asked. He brought a girl out
from behind him. I thought I remembered Sami but I’m thinking I
remembered wrong.
“Yeah, hey Sami.” I managed to get out.
“Hey Kevin.” She said shyly. She sorta looked at her feet as well.
“Heya Sami.” All the other guys chorused. She smiled and ‘hi’ed them
back.
“Hey AJ, when did you tell Kayla to get here?” I asked him.
“About 20 minutes ago. Maybe I should call her.”
“Maybe you should.” He grabbed his cell phone out and moved away to
ring his girlfriend.
*AJ*
‘Ring, ring’
“Hello.” She answered.
“Hey Babe. Where are ya?” I asked.
“AJ, hi.” She sounded really uncomfortable.
“You ok Kay?”
“Yeah, umm… J. I’m not coming with you.”
“You’re what?” I tried to stay calm.
“I’m not coming.”
“Why not?” Maybe she has to work. Maybe her mother died.
“AJ, there’s someone else.”
“Some one else? How is there someone else?”
“There just is J.”
“Ok, couldn’t you have sprung this on me more than 20 minutes before
I’m going to leave the country.”
“I’m really sorry J.”
“Sorry my ass.” I hung up the phone. I took a deep breath. Ok, compose
yourself J. She’s only a girl. You’ve only been going out a year. It’s
not the end of the world. I pulled myself together before heading back
to guys. If I hadn’t I knew I would have hit someone.
“Where is she J?” Nick asked.
“She’s not coming. Come on let’s go.” I began to walk towards the gate.
“She’s what?” I heard Nick ask Brian quietly. I chose to ignore it.
Back
Chapter 1
***
Attention passengers. We have been experiencing troubles due to the
storm and a malfunction in one of the engines. We may have to execute
an emergency landing. Please put on your life jackets and listen to
your flight attendants.” The pilot cut off from the speaker.
“How are you going to land the plane in this weather?” The co-pilot
asked.
“I’m not going to be able to.” The pilot sighed as the left engine cut
out completely.
***
*Kayla*
“Hello.” I answered the phone.
“Kayla, is that you?”
“Denise?”
“I thought you were going away with my son.”
“We… um…” I didn’t know how to tell her. I mean, I think she was sorta
planning our wedding.
“It doesn’t matter. Have you heard anything from AJ?”
“No, why?”
“Their plane went down. The search parties are beginning to look for
them but yeah…” I knew she was really worried.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Only let us know if you here from any of the guys.”
“I will.”
“Thanks Kayla. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone. “Oh my god.” I said pretty much to no one.
*Nick*
“Nick, Nick please wake up.” Ice cold water landed on my face.
“Hey Mom, leave me alone.” I muttered. I opened my eyes and looked
around. “You’re not Mom.” I said to the girl standing over me.
“No, I’m Sharon. You saved my life.”
“I did?”
“Yeah, when the plane crashed. Remember?” Slowly the crash came back to
me.
“Have you seen anyone else yet?” I asked.
“No sorry. Can you sit up?” I nodded and sat up slowly.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around.
“I don’t know. Not where we’re supposed to be. I know that.” I nodded,
trying to ignore the pain coming from my left leg.
“Are you OK Nick?” She asked.
“I think I hurt my leg.” She leant down and looked at it.
“I think it’s broken. Can you move it?” I tried but only to have pain
shot up my leg. I shook my head. She touched it. “Does this hurt?” I
nodded, trying to stop myself from screaming. “I’m pretty sure it’s
broken. Stay still, I’ll get something to make a splint with.” She ran
off.
‘Well this is good.’ I though sarcastically to myself.
*Megs*
“Hello. Anyone there?” I heard someone yell. I was so glad. I had been
walking for what seemed like hours and I hadn’t seen a soul I was
starting to wonder if I was the only one alive.
“Hello. Over here.” I yelled.
“Where’s over here.” He yelled. I looked around.
“I have no idea.” I started laughing. He started laughing as well.
“Just keep talking then.
“Well see, that’s not quite as easy as it seems…” I saw a person coming
through the bushes. “Oh my god!! Tell me you’re here and alive.” I
asked.
“I’m here and alive. Are you?” I nodded.
“Thanks god.” He walked closer.
“I’m Brian.”
“Megs.” He held his hand out and I shook it.
“Well, Meg, what do you say we find our way out of this jungle thingy.”
“I’m joining you on that one.”
“Which way?” I looked around.
“That way.” I pointed in a direction.
“Why that way?”
“I don’t know. It looks good.”
“Ok. Let’s go.” He grabbed my hand and we started moving through the
bush.
Back
Chapter 2
*Sami*
“Hello!! Anyone? Hello!!” Ok, so I had been yelling for about two
hours. It wasn’t like someone was just suddenly going to answer.
“Hello.” Someone yelled back.
“Hello.” I yelled.
“Stay still. We’re coming.” I stayed in the exact same spot. Someone
finally appeared.
“BRIAN!!!” I yelled. I ran over and hugged him.
“Sami!! Are you Ok? Are you hurt at all?” He pulled me back to looked
at me.
“Yeah, I’m fine Bri. A bit sore but fine.”
“Thank god.”
“What about you Bri? You OK?”
“Yeah, just tired.”
“Me too.” I looked over and saw another girl standing, walking our
reunion.
“I’m Sami.” I held my hand to her.
“Megs. I’m betting you were glad to see people.”
“So glad.”
“The bugs were driving me crazy when I ran into Brian.”
“I’m fine with the bugs. It was the thought of being the only person on
this island that was had me.”
“Island?” The other two asked together.
“Yeah, It’s only jungle inland. Walk an hour that way and you’ve got
beach.” I told them.
“Wow.”
*Howie*
I collapsed exhausted on the beach. I’d been walking for hours and I
hadn’t seen anyone yet. Was I the only one who ended up here? Or did
everyone else… I hook myself out of thought. Nope, can’t be thinking
about that. They’ve got to be alive. They have to be. I have to find
them. I slowly picked myself up off the sand and started walking again.
Soon, I was going to find someone. Someone else was alive on this
island. I began to sing. If anything could keep my sprits high, it was
singing. ‘Think of it this way D,’ I began to think to myself. ‘At
least now you get to sing lead…’ I stopped in my tracks.. How could I
even be thinking that? My best friends could all be dead and I’m
thinking about who sings lead. They have to be alive. They have to be.
I took a deep breath before continuing.
Back
Chapter 3
*Tina*
“Laura!! Laura!!” I picked up Scott and ran to the body I saw lying on
the beach. ‘Please be alive. Please be alive.’ I prayed. I reached for
her wrist. I couldn’t find a pulse. Why couldn’t I find a pulse? I
moved my fingers around some more. Finally I found a steady pulse. I
let go of the breath I had been holding. “:Laura, Laura, girl, wake
up.” I said to her. I put Scott down and ran down to the water. I
cupped some of the cold water in my hands, ran back up the beach and
threw it on Laura’s face. Slowly she woke up.
“Oh my god, Laura. Thanks god. You’re awake. I thought you were dead.”
I hugged her.
“Where are we?” She said.
“I don’t know exactly. The plane crashed and…”
“Plane?” She asked.
“You don’t remember.”
“Nope, I don’t remember anything.”
“Ok, well, we were heading to the Bahamas for a holiday and…”
“Wait, can we go back further?”
“How much further?” I asked, confused.
“Like back to the beginning?”
“Yeah Ok. Well, for your birthday your parents give us…”
“No, I mean, right at the beginning. Starting with maybe my name.” I
just sorta looked at her. ‘Oh no.’ I thought.
*Kevin*
Footsteps, I see footsteps in the sand. Someone else is alive out there.
“HELLO!!!” I yelled as loud as I could. There was no response. I looked
at the footprints. There were two sets of them. Two people were alive?
“HELLO!!” I tried again.
“HELLO!!” Someone yelled back. “STAY WHERE YOU ARE! WE’RE COMING!!” I
stayed where I was. I saw my cousin, his best friend and another girl,
appear out of the bushes.
“’Rok!!” I yelled, running over to him.
“Kev!!” He yelled back. I hugged him.
“Sami!!” I yelled, hugged her as well. I pulled back, very embarrassed
that I’d done that but hey, I was glad to see her.
“How did you know we were here?” Brian asked.
“Your footprints.” I pointed to them
“They aren’t ours.” I looked at him.
“Who’s are they then?” I asked.
“I don’t know but I’m voting we follow then. They have to lead to
someone.” Sami said. All of us nodded and started walking.
Back
Chapter 4
*AJ*
I looked across at the girl “Are you alive?” I asked.
“I think so.” She replied.
“Good.” I looked around the cavey thing we were in.
“How did we get here?” I asked.
“The water must have pushed us here. We need to get out.” She said. I
continued to look around.
“There’s a spot there. I’ll help you.” Slowly the two of us got up.
“Hello.” Some one yelled.
“Hello.” I yelled back.
“J!! Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“It’s Howie. Where are you?”
“Howie!! We’re in a cavey thing. We need to get out.”
“We?”
“Yeah, me and …” I looked at the girl for her name.
“Meghan.” She yelled.
“Hi Meghan. I’m Howie.”
“Heya Howie.”
“Now, we’re all introduced, can you help us get out of here already?” I
yelled.
“Yeah sure.” About ½ an hour later, the two of us were out of
the cave. I looked around.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“I have no idea. I’m just glad someone else is alive.” Howie replied.
“Now I don’t have to sing lead no more.”
“What D?” I was starting to think my best friend had spent a bit too
long walking around here on his own.
“Nothing J. Don’t worry.
*Brian*
“Do you guys hear singing?” Kevin asked. I listened.
“I do!!” I exclaimed.
“AJ!! D!!” Kevin yelled.
“Kevin!!” AJ yelled back.
“Over here.” WE all started yelled. AJ, Howie and another girl came
into sight. They ran over to us and hugs went all round.
“Man, it’s good to see you.” I said to D.
“You too.” He replied. I looked around the group.
“Has anyone seen Nick?” I asked. They all slowly shook their heads.
“Brian, it’ll be OK. He’ll turn up.” Megs said. I tried to smiled but I
was worried about my best friend.
Back
Chapter 5
*Laura*
“Ok, so I’m Laura and you’re Tina. The kid there is Scott. He doesn’t
belong to either of us but he was sitting next to us on the plane. We
were on the plane because we were going to the Bahamas from where we
live in Orlando for a holiday. My parents gave us the tickets for my
birthday present.” I tried to repeat everything Tina had been telling
me.
“Exactly.” She smiled.
“How old am I?” I asked. Her smiled faded. I guess she thought I was
making progress. “21. You just turned it.”
“Ok, I’m 21 years old and I was born…?”
“In Perth, Western Australia on the 22nd of August 1980.”
“Australia?”
“Yeah, it’s a big island on the other side of the world to where you
are now.”
“Oh, got that. Why do I live in Orlando then?”
“You wanted to get away from Perth. It’s a long story.”
“Oh.” I was really confused.
“Tina, I’m hungry.” Scott said.
“Me too Scott. What do you say we go and see if we can find any food
hey.” Scott nodded. We got up and began walking.
“Tina?” I said.
“Yeah.”
“I think I broke my arm.” She just looked at me.
“We’ll look at it in a second.” I nodded and we continued walking.
I jumped about five metres when I heard other people’s voiced.”
“HELLO!!” I yelled. Tina looked at me like I was crazy.
“I heard people.” I explained.
“HELLO!!!” Someone yelled back. We started walking in the direction of
the voices. Two people came into view.
“Hey.” The guy said.
“Hey. We were starting to think we were the only people on this
island.” Tina said.
“We were too.” He replied.
“I’m Tina, by the way.” Tina said.
“I’m Nick and this is Sharon.” Nick said. Everyone looked over at me.
“I’m Laura, I think.” I said.
“You think?” Nick asked.
*Meghan*
“Does anyone else think we should relax for the night?” AJ asked.
“Come on J. One more hour.” Brian said.
“Bri, we know you’re worried about Nick but we need to rest.” Kevin
said. Brian sighed.
“Yeah OK.” We found a flat spot of land and sat down. I swear I could
hear voices faintly in the background.
“Everyone shut up.” I said. Everyone feel silent.
“Hello!! Nick!! You there man?” Brian yelled. I guess he heard them too.
“B?” That you?” A voice yelled back.
“Nick!!” Brian jumped up and ran towards the people approaching us.
There were five people in all. The guys all gathered around Nick while
two of the girls and the kid walked towards us.
You guys want something to eat?” One of the girls asked. We nodded.
“Come on.” We all got up and followed the girls, glad to be getting
something to eat before nightfall.
Back
Chapter 6
*Nick*
I woke up in the middle of the night, My leg was killing me. Geez, I
could do with some painkillers about now. I sat up and looked around.
Someone else was siting on a log. I slowly stood up and grabbed the
crutches Sharon had made for me. I headed over to her.
“Laura?” I asked.
“Hey. It’s Nick right?” I nodded, almost glad she didn’t recognise who
I was. It was nice not to be recognised for once.
“You OK?” I asked. She looked like she’d been crying. She tried to
smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Yeah and I’m the Pope.”
“Who’s the Pope?”
“He’s… never mind. I just meant that you don’t look like your fine.”
“I guess I’m not. I don’t know…. It’s just… It’s really scary not
knowing who you are.”
“It would be. Can you remember anything?” she shook her head.
“I didn’t even know my name.”
“Wow.” I looked at her. She looked so confused. She seemed so much like
me. Lost and didn’t know how to handle it. I wished I could find a way
to make it all go away for her. “Can we not talk about me? Tell me
about you.”
“About me?”
“Yeah, the real you. You have this front on that no one else sees but
that’s not you.” I looked at her. How did she know that? “I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean to intrude. You just seem like me. Lost.” I smiled.
“It’s OK.” I looked at her again. Feeling I could trust her, I began
talking.
*Megs*
I woke up as soon as the sun came up over the horizon. I looked at my
watch. 6:37. Thank god for waterproof watches hey. I decided to get up
and try and get something for breakfast. I quietly walked out of the
sleeping area we had set up and headed down to the beach. When I
reached it, I found bags and bags of stuff. The beach was covered in
the stuff we'd ditched off the plane to try and keep it in the air.
“It’s amazing.” A voice said from behind me. I jumped about five meters.
“What is?” I asked Brian.
“The fact that it ended up here. Come on. Let’s see if there’s anything
we can use. Who knows how long we’re going to be here. He grabbed my
hand and pulled me towards the stuff. He went to open a bag.
“Brian, I don’t feel right about this. It’s someone else’s stuff.” I
said.
“Come one Megs. They probably don’t need this stuff. WE do.” He said.
“I don’t know.”
“Look, how about we just look. If there’s anything we can use, we’ll
take it and I’ll pay them back. is that cool?” I thought about it.
“That’s cool.”
“Ok.” He opened the first bag.
Back
Chapter 7
*Sami*
Day 1
I looked around as I woke up, yesterday was a dream, actually a
nightmare. It wasn’t. I was still here. Still stuck on an island in the
middle of nowhere. I got up and tried to walk out of the camping area
without stepping on anyone. I didn’t succeed. I stepped on Kevin’s hand.
“Ouch!!” He exclaimed.
“Sorry Kevin. I didn’t mean to.” I said. He opened his eyes and
squinted at the sun.
“Sami?”
“That’s Ok, I guess. We’ll need to get some stuff for breakfast soon
anyway.”
“Already taken care of.” Brian said, from behind us. I turned around to
see him and Megs holding like 10 fish.
“How did you?” Kevin asked.
“It’s amazing what people bring on holiday.” He held up a fishing rod
and a net.
“Don’t ask me how we caught anything but we did so yeah. We’ve got fish
for breakfast.” Meg said.
“Now the problem would be cooking it.” I said.
“Already taken care of.” Brian held up a lighter. “Plus I did
boy-scouts. I can build fires.”
“Well then, since you guys caught breakfast, how’s about we get some
wood for the fire?” Kevin said, looking at me. I nodded. “Ok let’s go.”
*Howie*
Day 1
“D… D… Can you wake up?’ I slowly opened my eyes.
“What?” I asked Brian.
“You reckon you could cook us breakfast.” He asked. At the mention of
food my stomach rumbled.
“What is it?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t say fruit.
“Fish. Megs and I caught them this morning.”
“How am I cooking it?”
“Kev and Sami are making a fire not. None of us can cook though.”
“See what happens when you live on take-out.”
“Please D.” I sighed. I didn’t really have a choice. Cook or don’t eat.
I slowly sat up, allowing my stomach to get the better of me.
“Yeah ok. I made my way over to Sami and Kev.
“I hear I’m coking.” I said.
“That would be great if you could.” Kev said.
“Well, I might as well now. But I ain’t every morning.” I said. I
stopped. ‘Every morning D? You’re going to be outta here and back home
soon so it won’t matter.’ I told myself.
Back
Chapter 8
*Tina*
Day 1
I woke up to the smell of fish cooking. ‘What the hell?’ I thought. I
opened my eyes. Sure enough, Howie was cooking fish on an open fire. He
looked over at me as I sat up.
“It’s almost ready.” He said. I nodded and stood up.
“Can you wake the others?” He asked. I nodded again. I looked to the
spot Laura had been sleeping. It was empty. I scanned the ‘sleeping
area’ til I found her. She was curled up in Nick’s arms. I took a step
towards them.
“Don’t wake them yet.” A voice said from behind me. I turned around.
“What?” I asked AJ.
“They were up most of the night talking. Let them sleep a bit more.” He
replied.
“How do you know?”
“I was sleeping closest to them. Laura woke me up when Nick was
tickling her.”
“Oh.” I looked at my best friend. ‘I hope she knows what she’s doing.’
I thought.
“He’ll help her you know.” AJ said.
“What?”
“He’ll help her find herself again. He knows what it’s like to not know
who you are.”
“What do you mean?”
“Growing up in the spotlight, he never had time to figure himself out.
He still doesn’t really know who he is.”
“How’s he going to help her then?”
“They’ll help each other. Maybe he can help her find herself and she
can help him find himself. They’ll be good for each other.” I looked at
AJ. There was so much more to him than the magazines seemed to say. He
was deep and sensitive. I smiled and nodded.
“Come on. Let’s eat.” I nodded and followed him over to Howie.
*Kevin*
Day 7
“Ok guys, I think we need to have a meeting.” Howie said. We all headed
over and sat in a circle.
“Ok, we’ve been here a week.” Howie started. “The chances of people
finding us are getting slimmer and slimmer. I think we need to think
about making this a bit more permanent.”
“What do you mean, permanent?” Sami asked.
“I mean, setting up a proper camp, using the clothes and stuff from the
bags as bedding, finding shelter, camping closer to water. You know all
of that.”
We all just looked at him. “Come on. You can’t say none of you have
thought about the chance that we mightn’t be rescued.” We all went
silent.
“I’ve thought about it.” Megs said, softly. I had to admit, I had
thought about it. The fact that we might be stuck on this island
forever.
“They are going to find us.” AJ said.
“Don’t you think they would have by now?” Brian asked.
“No, there’s so much space to cover.” AJ said.
“And there’s a lot of places we could be. Maybe they just haven’t
gotten to checking this area yet.” Sami added.
“Or maybe they think we’re dead.” Megs said.
“They won’t give up on us.”
“Yes, they will. What happens if we when too far off course. They won’t
know where to look.” Howie said. Everyone fell silent. We all knew we
had gone off course during the storm but no one knew how much or if
anyone knew about it.
“They’ll keep looking. We’re the Backstreet Boys.” AJ said. I decided
it was time to step in her.
“AJ, shut up. We might be famous but they aren’t going to keep looking
for us forever. We might never be found.” I almost yelled. Everyone
fell silent again and looked at me.
“I vote we go with Howie’s idea until someone finds us.” Nick said,
softly. Slowly everyone nodded. Except AJ.
“Good.” Howie said.
“How’s about Brian and Kevin, you guys go and get some wood for the
fire. AJ, Megs and Meghan, you go and bring some of the bags up here
for us to go through. Sami, Howie and Sharon, you guys go get some
water and Nick, Laura and me will start making dinner.” Tina said.
Everyone nodded and headed off in their own directions.
“They will find us.” I heard AJ mutter as he headed off.
Back
Chapter 9
*AJ*
Day 7
Everyone ate their dinner quietly. The conversation from before had
upset everyone. I knew it was my fault but I couldn’t give up on the
possibility of being found. I mean, geez, Scott was only five. He
doesn’t deserve to live his life on an island. He deserves to grow up
with other kids his age. Go to school. Have a normal life. Be with his
mother. I looked around at everyone. No one deserved to be here. We all
deserved to be back at home, having a normal life. I stood up and
walked down to the beach. I sat down, just watching the waves move in
and out.
“We’re going to get home J.” D said from behind me. I turned around,
confused.
“But you said…” I started.
“I said we had to prepare, just in case. I was just trying to be
logical. I mean, we might be stuck here forever, or we might get home
tomorrow, who knows, but at least we need to prepare for the worst.” I
nodded. I guess I understood where he was coming from. “But then, it’s
different for me J. I don’t have anyone back home. I have no one to
worry about never seeing again, except my family. I’m not like you J.”
For the first time in almost a week, I thought about Kayla.
“No D I don’t.”
“But Kayla…” He started.
“Just happened to be cheating on me.”
“Wow. J, I’m sorry.”
“I guess I knew it was coming. She thought she could handle me being
away and all. I guess she couldn’t. That’s how it goes I guess.”
“Yeah, it does.” We sat there in silence, watching the waves, thinking
about how many relationships had failed because we were never around.
God, between the five of us, I don’t think I could even count them.
“We haven’t had much success have we?” D asked. I laughed and shook my
head.
“Hey, it could work in the middle of nowhere.” I said, almost jokingly
but half-serious. D just sorta looked at the ground. Ok, I wasn’t being
that serious. Was there something I was missing there?
*Brian*
Day 7
“Hey guy, what ya talking about?” I asked, seeing D and AJ. I sat down
next to them.
“D’s got a crush on Meghan.” J said in a sing-song voice. I looked at
him and smiled.
“You’d make a really cute couple.” I told him.
“Alright already. That’s enough. I get the idea.” D said.
“Speaking of cute couples, what’s happening with you and Megs?” AJ
asked, looking at me.
“Me and Megs?” I asked.
“We know you like her. It’s so obvious.” D said.
“I’ve known her a week.”
“You’re point being?” AJ asked.
“Man, I thought it was girls that did all the gossiping.” I told them.
“We’ve grown up in the entertainment industry, we have to gossip.” AJ
said. I smiled, not saying anything.
“Ok, tell us about Kevin and Sami then.”
“Geez, do you guys ever mind your own business?”
“Hmm… nope.” AJ said.
“I’m leaving.” I said, getting up.
“Come on. You like her don’t you?” Howie asked.
“And I’m walking away.” I began to walk away.
“I told ya so D.” AJ said. I just continues walking, shaking my head at
them.
Back
Chapter 10
*Laura*
Day 23
“Nick catch.” I threw the imaginary ball. He bounced it towards the
imaginary ring then swung around and threw it back to me.
“And she’s open for the three.” He yelled. I shot it. Nick threw his
hands up in the air.
“And she wins the game for the Bulls again.” I laughed at Nick. He was
into it. I found it cute. Over the last three weeks, he’d taught me the
skills of basketball. Since both of us were injured, we couldn’t go out
with the others, so we had time to waste. We used an imaginary ball so
I could play with a broken arm and Nick with a broken leg. Sharon , who
was a nurse had made splints for us so yeah. We could almost do as much
as the others, if they’d let us that is.
“Guys, it’s your turn to do Scott’s schooling.” Kevin said to us. We
nodded.
“Scoot, school time.” Nick yelled. Scott ran over to us.
“What are we doing today?” He asked. Nick and I looked at each other.
“We’re supposed to be doing Math but how’s about we do some drawing
instead.” Nick whispered to him. Scott nodded.
“You’re a bad influence on him. I said, hitting Nick.
“I got us out of doing Math didn’t I?”
“I like Math.” I said. Nick looked at me.
“What?”
“I like Math. It was always easy to me.” I repeated, making sure it was
actually what I thought.
“You remember?” He asked. I nodded. Nick hugged me. “This is so great.”
He smiled at me. I smiled back
*Meghan*
Day 27
“Hey D. Check it out over here. I think I hear water.” I yelled. Me and
D were on water patrol. You’d think in 27 days (we were keeping count)
we would have found a plentiful water supply, but we hadn’t yet. He
came over and we headed in the direction. We stopped as we got to a
cliff. We looked over the edge. Underneath was a huge lake. The cliff
dropped straight down at the front and slanted at the sides.
“Man, would you check it out. The whole time we’ve been looking on the
wrong side of the island.” I just looked down at all the water.
“Feel like a swim D?” I asked. He smiled and nodded. I grabbed his hand
and we ran down one of the sloped sides of the cliff. We got down to
the water’s edge and I pushed him in.
“Hey!!” He yelled as he surfaced. I just laughed and dived over his
head.
“You are so dead.” He said.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, teasing him.
“Yeah.” He replied.
“You know, Nick and Brian are supposed to be the immature one.” I said.
“Oh yeah. I’ll be good now.” He gave me an innocent grin.
“Why do I still not trust you?” I asked as he came closer.
“Because of this.” He said, pushing me under the water. I surfaced and
glared at him.
“If you weren’t so cute, I’d kill you.” I said.
“You think I’m cute?” He asked. I began to blush.
“Well… us… yeah.” I said, slowly. He smiled. He then leaned forward and
kissed me. I pulled back, surprised. He looked hurt.
“I’m sorry.” He said. I tried to regain my speech.
“No D, it’s Ok. You just surprised me that’s all.”
“It’s really Ok?” I felt like saying, ‘no, I hated the fact that a
really sweet, gorgeous guy kissed me.’ But I didn’t. He might take me
seriously.
“I’m sure. Now come on.” I took his hand and began swimming towards the
shore.
“Where are we going?” He asked.
“To the shore.”
“Why?”
“Because then I can kiss you without drowning.” He just smiled.
Back
Chapter 11
*Kayla*
Day 39
“Kayla?” Denise asked when I answered the phone. She sounded really
upset.
“Denise, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“They’ve call of the search," She said, flatly.
“But...” I started.
They said, they would have found them by now if they were going to.” I
didn’t know what to say. What could I say? “We’re organizing funerals,
would you be able to speak at AJ’s?” I gulped.
“Yeah, sure. I’d love to.”
“Good. He would have wanted that.”
“Is there anything I can do.
“No, just take care.”
“I will Denise.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you about the details later. I have some more
family to ring.”
“Ok, bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone and broke into tears. I felt so bad. I
should have been on that plane. If only I’d known how to handle him
being away all the time. Or even if I’d waited to tell him. I hated the
fact that the last conversation I will ever have with him consisted of,
‘AJ… there’s someone else.’
*Nick*
Day
72
“Hey Nick. Come here. I’ll take your splint off. You’ll be all healed
now.” Sharon said. I nodded and walked over to her. She tested my leg a
bit before taking the splint off.
“You know, you won’t be able to use it for awhile. You’ll need to do to
work it slowly. Only use it a bit each day and work it up.” She told me.
“You’ll be here to help me though right?” I asked.
“Yeah Nick.” She said it as if she was just saying what I wanted to
hear.
“You Ok Shaz?” I asked. She nodded.
“I’ve got something do to before dinner. See ya.” She walked off. I
watched her concerned. Something was going on in that’s girl’s head.
“Heya Nicky. Look. No splint.” Laura said, sitting in my lap. She held
up her hand. “Me either.” I showed her my leg.
“Congratulations.” She said.
“You too.”
“Now, what are Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber doing?” Brian asked,
siting down next to us.
“Comparing healed wounds.” I replied, ignoring the nicknames he had for
us.
“Ahh, now you guys can actually around camp.” He replied.
“No, see, I’ve got to stay off it some more. You know gotta work it up.
I’m sure Laura has to do the same thing.” I replied. “Right Laws?”
“Nick, stop trying to get out of the work.” She said, hitting me.
“But that means no more basketball.” I pouted. She smiled.
“I’m sure we’ll time for basketball some.” She said.
“Yeah alright already.”
“I’m going to see what the gals are doing. Bye.” She jumped off my lap
and ran off. Both Brian and me watched her.
“You guys aren’t…?” Brian started. I looked at him, surprised.
“Together? Nope.” I replied. ‘Unfortunately.’ I added in my heart.
“But you like her don’t you?” Brian asked.
“Nope.” I lied.
“Liar.” He said, getting up and walking off.
*Megs*
‘Stupid cliff.’ I thought, walking up it. I’m on fruit collection duty
again. I swear every time we need to be getting the fruits from the top
of the cliff, it always seems to be my turn.
“Hey Megs, wanna hand?” Brian yelled from the bottom of the cliff.
“That would be great.
“Keep going. I’ll meet you up there.”
“Ok.” I turned around and kept walking. I finally reached the top.
“Thanks god.” I said. I looked around.
“Hey Sharon.” I said, questionably. I didn’t know she was up here. She
didn’t turn around. I looked at her again. She was standing really
close to the edge.
“Hey Shaz, you wanna move take a step back, you’re scaring me.” I said.
She turned around and looked at me.
“I’m sorry.” She turned back around.
“For what?” I asked as she jumped. I just screamed, not knowing what
else to do.
Back
Chapter 12
*Sami*
Day 72
I was cooking the fish when Brian and Megs came back. She was
crying and he was trying to comfort her. Everyone gathered around them.
“Megs, what’s wrong?” Kevin asked.
“Sharon, she… she…” Megs couldn’t get it out. I looked at Brian. He was
trying to keep himself together as well.
“Sharon what?” Howie asked.
“Jumped.” Megs made some hand actions, showing someone up high then
coming down.
“Oh my god.” I managed to get out. Me and her had been getting along
really well.
“I’ll need someone to give me a hand tomorrow with the… with her.”
Brian said, holding back tears. Everyone nodded.
Day 74
“What are we going to tell her parents?” I asked. We’d just had a
mini-funeral for Sharon. Now, we were standing around her grave. Brian
came over and put his arm around me.
“How could she? I saved her life. I shouldn’t have bothered.” As you
could tell, Nick was kinda upset. He stormed off.
“I got him.” Laura said, before any of the guys could move.
“We should have known.” Megs said. I nodded, knowing she was right.
*Howie*
Day 127
‘I don’t know What he does To make you cry.’ Nick sung. We were trying
to keep our voices in shape, so if we ever got back we could still
sing. That is, if we still have careers. We finished the song and the
girls and Scott cheered. Us guys bowed mockingly. We went and sat down
with the girls. Megs came and sat in my lap. I noticed that Megs and
Brian were pretty much a couple as well. It’s funny how things develop
in the middle of nowhere. It’s like you spend 24 hours a day with the
girls and you get to know them really well. I think Kevin and Sami will
be next. that is if they ever wake up to the fact that they like each
other and Tina and J after that. I’m not sure about Laura and Nick. I
mean, they are pretty much a couple, but they just don’t know it yet. I
think Laura’s so wrapped up in finding herself and Nick’s so involved
in helping her, they haven’t realised just how close they have actually
gotten.
“Anyone up for a game of ball?” Laura asked.
“You’ve turned her into a fanatic, Nick.” Brian moaned.
“Ignore them. I’m in.” Nick said to her.
“Anyone else?” She looked around. “Well then, I guess it’s just you and
me and the bulls, hey Nicky?” She said taking his hand and leading him
off.
“Those two are crazy.” AJ said.
“And you’re not?” Tina asked.
“Yeah alright.”
“You know, one of these days, we should play guys on girls.” Brian said.
“What? With an imaginary ball and ring? The girls will cheat.” I said.
“We will not.” Tina protested.
“We won’t need to.” Meghan said.
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re on.” I said. AJ laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“D, you’re playing basketball?” He continued laughing. Brian and Kevin
started laughing as well.
“What? It’s with an imaginary ball and ring.”
“`Didn’t you know, they found a ball in one of the bags. It was
deflated but it had a pump with it. I guess some people are like us.
They can’t live without a basketball.” Brian said. “And they made a
ring and put it up.” AJ added.
“Come one D. Let’s play.” Meghan pulled me up.
“But…” I started to protest as everyone began to drag me towards our
‘basketball court.’
Back
Chapter 13
*Tina*
Day 164
Man, I’m going crazy in here. We’ve been in this stupid cave for two
day. Can’t the rain just stop.
“Can’t we do something?” AJ asked. He was pretty much climbing the
walls.
“Like what?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know… Cards?” He produce a deck of cards. I’m not even going
to ask who’s luggage he went through to get those.
“Ok, what should we play?” I asked. I watched the guys exchange a
glance.
“Why do I not like the look of that?” I asked Laura quietly.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it either.”
“How’s about strip poker?” AJ asked.
“No way. No way in hell.” Laura said. I looked at her surprised.
“You know what it is?” I asked.
“Yeah I do.” She seemed to fall into thought. She was remembering
things in bits and pieces.
“Come on.” Nick pleaded. She shook her head.
“I like my clothes where they are thanks.” She told him.
“But if everyone else is playing..” He pleaded.
“Hey, I ain’t playing yet.” Megs protested.
“Come on.” Brian pleaded. He gave her the puppy dog eyes.
“Alright. I’ll play.”
“I’m in.” Meghan said.
“I guess I will.” Sami said, not too confidently, mind you. The guys
looked at me and Laura.
“Alright, I’ll play.” I said. They all looked at Laura. She still shook
her head.
“How’s about we make it, if you don’t wanna take off the clothes off,
you just have to kiss the person of out choice.” AJ said to her. Slowly
she nodded.
“Yes!! Come on Kev, deal the cards.” Nick said.
“I win!! I win!!” AJ said, after the first round.
“So who is the first victim?” Kevin asked. AJ looked at me.
“Don’t you even be thinking about that boy.” I said, glaring at him.
He smiled, evilly. “Tina.” I glared at him.
*Kevin*
Day
164
“Sami.” Brian said, after winning.
“Come on Brian. I am not taking me shirt off.”
“Sorry Sam, you have to, unless you wanna kiss my cousin here.” I
looked at Brian. He was joking right?
“Brian.” Sami complained.
“Come on. Make your choice, the shirt or my cousin.” Sami looked at me.
“Do you mind Kev?” She asked. ‘Hell no.’ I thought.
“Nah, I’m cool with it.” I answered.
“I choose Kev.” She replied. I tried to stop myself from smiling.
“Ok, go ahead.” AJ said.
“Can we at least have some privacy?” I asked.
“How do we know you’ll do it?” Brian asked.
“I feel like I’m 12 and at a party. You guys need to grow up. We’re
going to do it.” Sami said.
“Yeah Ok. Choose where you wanna go.” AJ said. I stood up and held my
hand out to Sami. She took it and stood up. Everyone cheered. I led her
into the shadows.
“Well, this is awkward.” She said, breaking the silence that seemed
like it was like 10 years long.
“Yeah, it is.” I replied.
“Brian did this on purpose. He knew I wouldn’t take my shirt off..”
“Please ignore my cousin. He’s had this thing for you and me the whole
time we’ve been on this stupid island.” I told her.
“I know. I sorta let it slip that I…” She trailed off.
“You what?” I asked. I really wanted to know the end of that sentence.
“Shit, did I say that out loud?” She asked. I nodded. “It was so meant
to just stay in my head.” I looked at her. Should I take the chance
that she was going to say what I hoped she was going to? ‘Ok Kevin,
that was too confusing, you just have to tell her and take the risk.’
“You know, I think it could also be because he knows I’ve had a crush
on you since the airport.” I told her.
“You have?” She asked. I nodded. “I’m have a crush on you for like
ever.” She said softly.
“You have?” I asked. She nodded. We just looked at each other.
“Guys. we do wanna finish this game sometime this century.” AJ yelled.
“How’s about we get the awkwardness of the first kiss over and done
with and take it from there.” I suggested. She nodded and I kissed her.
Back
Chapter 14
*AJ*
Day 167
“Ok, this is a question for all of the girls.” Brian said. They nodded.
“Before you met us, who was your favourite?” He asked. I smiled. I
wanted to know the answer to this question as well. We were still stuck
in the stupid cave and we were sick of strip poker so we moved onto
Truth, Dare, Torture.
“Come on Bri, that’s not fair.” Tina protested.
“You said we could ask anything.” He told her. “Besides it’s not like
we’re going to hold it against you or anything.”
“But Brian…” Sami protested some more.
“Hey, I’m hoping I was your favorite.” Kevin said, putting his arms
around her. “You were, but that’s totally beside the point.”
“One down, four to go.” Brian said, looking at the rest of girls I
looked at Tina. I didn’t care about the rest of the answers, just hers.
All the girls looked at each other.
“Mine was Brian.” Megs said.
“Mine was Howie.” Meghan said. I looked at Tina.
“Mine was AJ.” She said, softly.
“I was?” I asked.
“Yeah, you were.” My face broke into a grin.
“If you even think about giving me shit for it…” She started.
“I wasn’t even thinking about it.”
“What about you Laura?” Nick asked. There was a hint of eagerness in
his voice. Did our little Nicky have a crush?
“I don’t remember.” She replied.
“You don’t?” Nick asked. She looked at him.
“No.”
“Hey Tina, was I really your favorite?” I asked her later that night.
“Yeah, and I told you if you…”
“I’m not going to give ya shit for it.”
“Then why are you bringing it up?” She asked, suspiciously.
“I just wanted to know if I still am. You know after you’ve met me and
all.”
“Why do ya wanna know?” She asked.
“Because I wanna know if it’s worth telling you that I’m falling for
you.” She smiled.
“It’s worth telling me.”
“I think I’m falling for you.” I said, as I leaned in and kissed her.
*Brian*
Day
237
“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.” The guys and girls
sung. For guys who were famous for their singing, they were really
awful.
“Happy birthday dear Brian. Happy birthday to you.” As you can tell, it
was my birthday. My 25th birthday. Megs stood up.
“Well Brian, we wanted to give you the world, but stuck on this island
we sorta had a bit of a problem with that.” I laughed. “But anyway,
babe, happy birthday.” She walked over to me and handed me a rock and
sat down next to me. I looked at the rock. It had been flattened on one
side and the flat side had this amazing drawing on it. I looked around
at everyone amazed.
“Nick and me did the drawing and the others worked on the rest of it.”
Megs said. “I helped too.” Scott added.
“I’m sure you did. Thanks everyone. This is the best present ever.”
They all smiled. “Hey, it’s party time now. And B, especially for your
birthday, we organized a gourmet meal. The main course is fresh fish
cooked on an open fire, while for dessert we have fresh fruit. Sorry,
we are fresh out of ice cream for tonight, maybe next time.” Nick said.
I hit him.
“You are so not funny boy.” I said. He laughed.
Back
Chapter 15
*Laura*
Day 298
“So Scott, what’s 3+4?” Nick asked.
“7.” Scott answered. It had taken us almost 10 months but Nick had
finally agreed to teach Scott something important, rather than drawing
or basketball. I was sitting back, watching them talk.
“Hey girl.” Tina said, sitting down next to me.
“Hey, whatcha doing?” I asked.
“Coming to talk to my best friend. See how things are going.”
“Yeah, they’re Ok. I wish I could remember some more though. I mean, I
remember everything expect the important stuff, like my family.”
“Nick helping you?”
“Man, he’s the greatest. If every guy in the world was like him, I
think every girl would be happy.” I continued to watch Scott and Nick.
“You know he’s like me. He’s being trying to figure out who he is but
he’s always been focused on me. Most guys wouldn’t do that, you know.
But Nick, he just wants to help, even if that means putting me ahead of
him. I don’t know what I would have done without him.” I looked from
Nick to Tina. She smiled.
“You’re falling in love with him aren’t you?” She asked.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, I don’t wanna lose him.”
*Meghan*
Day
373
“It’s so beautiful out here.” I said, resting my head on Howie’s
shoulder.
“I know.” he replied. I watched the ocean go in and out. There was what
looked like a light near the horizon. And it was moving towards us.
“Howie?” I asked.
“Mmm?” He replied, almost asleep.
“I think there’s a ship out there.” I said. He sat up, almost my head
hit the ground in the process.
“What?”
“Out there.” I pointed. The light was still moving closer. They should
be close enough to see us now, if it is a ship.
“Oh my god.” He said, after a couple of seconds of watching. He got up
and ran to our signal fire. He grabbed the shirt that we planned to use
as a flag at a time like this. He began to run up and down the beach
with it. I continued to watch the light. It was slowly becoming a ship.
The light on the ship began flashing.
“Howie, Howie, look.” I said.
“Do you think they saw us?” He asked. I just kept watching the ship. It
was still moving towards the shore. Slowly I nodded my head.
Back
Chapter 16
*Kayla*
“Good afternoon, Kayla speaking.” I answered the phone. I hated
answering the phone like that but it was what Simon wanted.
“Kayla? It’s Denise McLean.”
“Denise? How are you?” I asked. I hadn’t spoken to her in like ages.
“Alright. I have some good news.”
“Good news?”
“Yes, they have found AJ.”
*Nick*
Day 374
“Mr. Carter, Miss Yates, are you comfortable?” The stewardess asked. I
nodded for both of us. I looked around the plane. Although I hated the
idea of being on a plane, it was nice to have had a shower and used
soap. To have been able to put clean clothes on. I looked across at
Laura, she was staring out the window.
“Laws, you Ok?” She looked back at me.
“I’m scared Nicky.” She replied.
“We’re going home, it’s ok.”
“But I don’t remember these people. How can I tell them that even
though they would have been worried about me, maybe even mourning for
me for the past year, and I don’t even remember them.” I looked into
her eyes. They looked almost as lost as when I first met her. I pulled
her in for a hug.
“It’ll be Ok. I’ll be there with you the whole of the way.” I told her,
pushing her hair back off her face.
“Thanks Nicky. I couldn’t have done this without you.” She curled up in
my arms and she was beginning to fall asleep. I watched her, playing
with her long, messy hair. ‘Now that we’re going home, will I still be
able to see her as much?’ I wondered. I didn’t know. All I knew was if
I didn’t it was going to kill me.
*Megs*
Day
374
“Would any of you like anything?” A stewardess asked. I nodded.
“Any real food. Anything other than fish or fruit.” I said to her.
Brian laughed.
“We’re about to land, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.” She walked off.
“Real food.” I said, smiling.
“I know, if I never, ever, ever eat fish again for the rest of my life,
it’ll be too soon.” Brian said. I laughed and nodded.
“Megs, what’s going to happen to us when we get back?” He asked. I went
serious and feel into thought.
“I’m thinking we’re going to have to wait and see.” I replied. He
wrapped his arms around me and nodded. I just moved closer to him and
listened to the announcement that the plane was about to land.
Back
Chapter 17
*Sami*
I clutched Kevin’s hand as we walked out of the plane.
“It’s going to be alright.” He whispered. I nodded. It was great to be
home.
“Your family and friends are waiting in a special VIP section we have
set up.” This security dude told us.
“Why?” Brian asked.
“Your fans have taken over the airport.” The guy replied. All the guys
faces lit up. “Fans” AJ asked.
“Yeah, you guys have very much been missed.”
“We were missed, we were missed.” Nick started singing and dancing. We
all just laughed at him. Laura just hit him and he shut up. We headed
down a corridor and into the VIP section.
“MOM!!” I yelled, dropping Kevin’s hand and running over to her.
“Sami!” She said. “We were so worried about you.” There were tears
running down her cheeks. I turned to my Dad. He was the same. I hugged
them both. It was so great to be home. I looked around at everyone
else. They were all with their families. I caught Kevin’s eye and he
smiled and gestured for me to go over. I nodded.
“Mom, Dad, there’s some people I have to meet.” I told them. They
looked over in the direction I was looking in.
“As long as you bring him over to met us.” Mom replied. I nodded and
made my way over to Kev and his family. As I did, I scanned everyone to
make sure everything was going OK. Sorta the motherly instinct I’d
picked up on the island. Nick, fine. Brian, fine. Scott, fine. Kevin,
fine. AJ fine. Howie, fine. Ok, that was the guys, now the girls. Tina,
fine. Megs, fine. Meghan, fine. Laura…. Ok, I lost Laura. I continued
scanning the room for Laura. I found her in a sitting corner, trying to
make herself as unnoticeable as possible. I caught Kevin’s eye and
gestured to Laura. He nodded across and then nodded. I headed over to
her. As I reached her, she looked up at me.
“I remember them.” She said, softly. I sat down next to her.
“Who? Your parents?” I asked. She nodded.
“I remembered them and they didn’t even come. They probably had a
dinner party back home or something.” She had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sure they had a good reason.”
“Yeah right. Just like the good reasons they had when I was a kid. They
didn’t come to my high school graduation, or my scholarship dinner, why
should me coming back after being missing for a year be any different?”
I didn’t know what to say. “I wish I didn’t remember them.” She added.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes I do. At least that way I had parents who actually cared.”
“There’s so many other people that care about you Laws.” A voice said.
I looked up. Nick was standing behind her.
“No there’s not. I mean, everyone else has people here to met them and
who do I have, no one.”
“You have us. We all care so much about you.” She looked from me to
Nick.
“You do?” She asked. I nodded. I looked at Nick. There was so much love
in his eyes. Why the hell didn’t I notice that earlier?
“Yeah we do. Come on, my parents wanna meet my basketball buddy.”
Slowly she stood up and wiped her eyes.
“Ok.” She said. Nick took her hand and led her off. I watched them as
she was introduced to the whole of his family.
“She Ok?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah, her parents didn’t show up and she remembers them.”
“That’s harsh. Will she be Ok?” Kevin had sorta gotten into the father
role.
“She’ll be right. She’s got all of us to help her out.” I watched her
some more. She leant sown as Aaron told her something. She laughed.
Nick pushed her so she fell to the ground. I laughed. “And she’s got
Nick.” I added.
“Yeah, he really cares about her.” Kevin said.
“He does. Now, where’s these parents I need to meet. You have to meet
mine as well.” I told him. He nodded and took my hand.
“Come on.” He said.
*Howie*
“Oh my god!! Sarah, what’s his name?” I asked. I looked at the baby. He
was adorable.
“Samuel.”
“Hey Samuel. I’m Howie.” I said to him.
“Hi Howie.” He answered. I just smiled. He was so cute.
“Um... I hate to break up the reunions but we need to clear the fans
out of the airport and that ain’t going to be happening unless you guys
leave.” The security said.
“Can we get out?” Kevin asked.
“Yes, I’ll take you out in three groups. The family and friends,
followed by the girls, followed by you guys.” He answered. All of us
guys nodded.
“Can we move the families and friends now?” He asked. I looked at Mom,
Dad, Pollyanna, Sarah and Samuel.
“Can I meet up with you guys later?” I asked. They all nodded, hugged
me and they slowly headed to the door. As they left, the room went
quiet. Meghan walked over to me the 10 of us automatically moved into
our spots in the circle. When you slept and eat in the same spot for a
year, it pretty much becomes automatically. We all just looked at each
other.
“It’s going to be strange hey?” AJ said, saying what everybody else was
thinking. We all nodded.
“We’ll keep in touch though right?” Megs asked. We all nodded again. We
all sorta looked at each other, not knowing what to say. I didn’t even
know hat to say to Meghan. “Guys?” A security guy said, breaking our
silence. We all looked at him.
“We need the girls.” He said. We nodded. I let go of Meghan’s hand. We
all knew the minute they stepped out of this room, everything was going
to change.
“Email addresses… I need email addresses.” Nick said.
“Email addresses? I don’t even know where I’m living let alone if I can
get on the net.” Megs said.
“Does anyone even have a phone number?” Kevin asked. All the girls
shook their heads.
“None of you even have a place to stay?” Nick asked.
“Except with my parents.” Sami said. I looked at Meghan
“My parents sold our place.” Tina answered, speaking for her and Laura.
“We really need the girls.” The guys said again.
“Do you guys need a place to stay?” I asked, choosing my words
carefully.
“Now.” The guy said.
“CAN YOU GIVE US A SEC?” Kevin yelled. The guys backed off. Everyone
looked at him.
“Sorry. How’s about we talk about this later?” He said.
“Like when Kev? When we leave this room, we mightn’t see each other
again.” Sami said.
“Do not say that.” He replied.
“How’s about we meet up after we get out?” AJ suggested. Everyone
nodded.
“Mickey D’s? You know the big one in the middle of all of those shops?”
Nick said. Surprisingly, even with his vague description, we all knew
where he was talking about.
“At about 2:30? That gives us an hour.” I said. They all nodded. Us
guys hugged all of the girls and they left.
Back
Chapter 18
*Tina*
I headed outside through the crowds of screaming girls. It was scary to
think that why are all here for the guys. It seemed really wrong. I
mean, I knew things about those guys, I think even those girls wouldn’t
want to know. after a year, you really forget that they are famous. It
doesn’t really cross your mind. If we were here it would have been
different, but we weren’t. I looked back inside. The guys had come out
and were busy signing autographs. I knew they felt like shit but they
still did it. AJ looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back then turned
back to my Mom.
“When do you leave?” I asked her.
“In about two hours. I wanted to stay longer but…”
“It’s Ok Mom. I understand.”
“Are you sure you won’t come back with me?”
“I’m sure Mom. I couldn’t leave these guys.” Mom just nodded.
“Here’s all your bank account details and stuff. Everything’s in there,
including the money we got from the sale of your house. We had to
believe that you were coming back.” She handed me an envelope. She then
handed me another one. “This one’s Laura’s. Her parents wanted to give
it to her. You both have full access to them. They’ll keep you afloat
‘til you get jobs again.”
“My furniture and stuff?” I asked.
“All in storage. The key and address is in there as well.” I smiled and
nodded.
“Thanks Mom.”
“It’s no problem. I’m just glad you’re back.”
“Me too.”
“Hey Tina, we’re gunna do some shopping before we meet the guys. Wanna
come?” Megs yelled. I looked at Mom. She nodded.
“I have a plane to catch anyway.” I hugged her.
“Thanks for coming.”
“I’m glad you’re Ok.”
“I am too.” I hugged her again and headed over to the other girls. We
all got into the car the airport supplied us with.
*Kevin*
We finally made it to Mickey D’s. The girls were already there.
“We were thinking you weren’t going to make it.” Sami said.
“So were we. I so thought that crowd was going to kill us.” AJ said.
“I can see it now ‘Backstreet Boys Return How From Year Long Ordeal:
Killed In Airport Riot.” Laura joked.
“Speaking of fans, would you guys mind doing a press conference with us
tomorrow.” I asked.
“Nah, it’s cool.” Sami answered for the girls.
“Anyway, enough boring stuff. I really need some new clothes.” AJ said.
“AJ, you always been new clothes.” Nick said.
“I’ve been on an island for a year. I need to shop.”
“Food first.” Nick said.
“No way.” AJ said.
“Yes way.” Nick said.
“No way.”
“Why don’t we split up. We’ll meet back here later.” I suggested.
“About 4?” Howie said. Everyone nodded. I took Sami’s hand.
“What do you wanna do?” I asked her.
“Whatever you want to do. I don’t mind.”
“How’s about we get some clothes and then get some food?” I suggested.
“Hey Sam.” I asked.
“Yeah.” She replied, looking up at me from the clothes racks.
“If you need a place to stay, you can always crash at my place. My
parents still have it, I checked.” She smiled.
“As in move in with you or just crash there.” She asked.
“Well, I’d love it if you’d move in with me but I don’t know if you’d
want to.” I replied.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ve survived a year on an island with you, I’m sure I can move
in with you.” I just smiled and held her hand tighter.
Back
Chapter 19
*AJ*
Man, my first night home in two months. I was actually going to get to
see Tina. I’d barely seen her since we got back. I looked around the
kitchen, making sure it was just right before heading upstairs. I swear
I had the fastest shower I have ever had in my life. I threw my clothes
on, ran my fingers through my hair and headed downstairs. I almost
walked straight into Tina.
“Hey, you’re home?” I said.
“Yeah, so are you.”
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“Ready?”
“Yeah remember? I promised tonight would be special.”
“You also promised you’d be home every night for the last two months
but you haven’t been.” She just looked at me. I looked at the ground.
Ok, she had a point. The guys and me have been so busy with the new
album, I haven’t had time. “You know, I’ve spoken to your answering
machine more than I’ve spoken to you since we got back. You know, I
knew this would happen. I can’t believe I even let myself fall in love
with you. I can’t believe I did that to myself. I guess you had me
convinced that you actually cared.”
“I do care.”
“Oh really? Why is it then that when the other guys have made time for
their girlfriends, you haven’t?” I didn’t say anything. What could I
say? She was right. Totally right. I had been the worst boyfriend a
girl could ask for.
“I know, you deserve so much better than me You deserve a boyfriend
that’s around. A boyfriend who you have a relationship with him not his
answering machine. You deserve so much better than me.” I looked at the
ground again. It was true. I didn’t deserve her.
“AJ, it’s not that I mind any of that. I just need to know that you
care. I don’t mind having a relationship with your answering machine,
if you return my calls. Since we got back, I feel like anything you
ever felt for me is gone.”
“Tina, everything changed since we got back. Except one thing. My
feelings for you. I love you more than you can imagine.
“You do?” She asked. I nodded. I took her hand.
“I gotta a surprise for you. Come on.” I led her into the kitchen.
“Oh my god.” She said, looking around. I’d spent like forever getting
it right. The whole room was lit up with candles.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry.” I said, as she turned around and kissed me.
“I love you.” She said.
“I love too.” I replied.
*Brian*
“Merry Christmas!!” I yelled, walking into Kevin’s cabin. It was in the
middle of nowhere. Perfect for our Christmas.
“BRIAN!!” Laura yelled, running over to me. She hugged me. It had been
awhile since we’d seen each other.
“MEGS!!!” She hugged Megs too. I think someone has had a bit too sugar
today. Megs and I threw our stuff onto the ground.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Setting up the Christmas tree. I told them to wait for you guys but…”
“Man, I could kill those guys sometimes.”
“Come on. This place is so great. God damn freezing but great. Would
you believe that this may be my first White Christmas?”
“Why’s that?” Mags asked.
“I grew up in Australia.” She answered like it explained everything.
“And?” I asked.
“And it’s about 40 degrees C over there at the moment.”
“Oh yeah. Summer.”
“Yes idiot, summer. Now come on already. If you hurry, we might be able
to help with the rest of the tree.”
Back
Chapter 20
*Laura*
“Look who I found.” I said, leading Brian and Megs into the lounge room.
“Merry Christmas.” Everyone yelled, almost in perfect unison.
“Nice of you to get here.” Nick said, giving Brian a hug.
“Sorry we got caught in the snow.”
“It’s snowing?!?” I asked. I had never seen snow in my life.
“Yeah, it’s snowing.” Brian replied.
“Ooh, can I go play, please, please, please?” I asked.
“Well considering us girls were about to go and cook dinner, and we
know who you’re like in the kitchen… go on.” Tina said. I cheered.
“Nicky, can you come? Please Nicky?” I begged. Everyone looked at me
like I was crazy. “Man, I haven’t even had any red cordial today.”
“Any what?” Kevin asked.
“Man, I forgot I’m with Americans.” I sighed and shook my head. “Red
cordial is like this stuff you put into your water and the effect is
worse than coffee.” I tried to explain.
“Is it legal?” AJ asked. I started laughing.
“What?” He asked.
“It’s kinda like buying fruit juice and watering it down but it’s full
of sugar. You buy it in a supermarket. Of course it’s legal.” I tried
to stop laughing but unsuccessfully.
“How’s about we take you outside? Wear you out a little.” Nick
suggested.
“Actually Nick, you’d be needing the bedroom for that.” AJ said. Nick
and I both turned around and looked at AJ.
“You wanna take your mind out of the gutter?” Tina said, hitting him.
He nodded.
*Meghan*
We watched Nick and Laura walk out of the door. AJ waited until the
door shut before he started laughing.
“Did you see the look on your faces?” He managed to get out.
“AJ, you know the more than friends thing is a forbidden topic with
them.” Brian said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because they like each other but neither knows how to say anything.”
Tina explained.
“Oh.”
“So how’s everything between you and D?” Tina asked. ‘Just great.’ I
thought sarcastically.
“Yeah pretty good. It’s nice to be able to see him for a week.” ‘Yeah,
I might actually get the chance to tell him about…’ Everyone agreed. We
were all in the kitchen, making dinner. We, being all of the girls,
besides Laura.
“Things are so different now, aren’t they?” Megs asked.
“Definitely. I feel like I know Kevin’s answering machine more than
him.” Sami said.
“I get that too. I started to feel like I has having an affair.” Tina
said. We laughed.
“Are you guys going on tour?” Megs asked. We looked at her.
“I might go.” Tina said.
“I don’t know. Sami said. They all looked at me. I guess they were
going to find out sometime. And I sorta needed a test run before I told
Howie.
“I can’t.” I said. Now the look on their faces turned to confused.
“D asked you right?” Tina asked. I nodded.
“But I can’t.” I said again. I was playing avoid the question.
“Why not?” Sami asked.
“Because I won’t be able to fly.” I replied, still avoiding the
question.
“Oh my god. Does Howie know?” Megs asked. I guess she figured it out.
Back
Chapter 21
*Nick*
I sat down and just watched her. She was so adorable. She ran around
like a complete idiot. Damn AJ for making that comment. I had stopped
myself from thinking about us and now… Now he had me thinking about it
all over again. The thing is, I saw her face, she looked like she’d
never even think about her and me. I was her best friend and that’s it.
If only I could convince her otherwise.
“Nicky, Nicky, help me build a snowman.” Laura yelled. I got up and
headed over to her. She walked closer to me. I looked at her
suspiciously. She then pulled the front of my shirt out and threw a
clump of snow down it.
“You die now!” I yelled. I grabbed some now and began to chase her. She
laughed as she fell over. I laughed as I pt the cold snow into her
hair. She screamed at the cold, pulling me down so I was sitting in the
snow next to her. I looked into her eyes and had this incredible urge
to kiss her. I leaned in closer to her. She sorta looked at me and
moved a bit closer as well. I moved closer again. About two seconds
before our lips were about to meet, I pulled back. I jumped up quickly.
“I gotta go.” I muttered before I headed inside. I slammed the door and
headed up to the rooms I was staying in. ‘Damn it Carter. You can’t
just leaver her as your friend, can you?’ I lay down on the bed and
closed my eyes. Why couldn’t the feelings just go away?
*Megs*
“Come on. Does Howie know?” I asked again. Meghan just shook her head.
“How long?”
“They say I’m at least four months.”
“That would make it…”
“On the island, I know.”
“Hello people, confused here. What doesn’t D know?” Sami asked. Meghan
looked at me, asking me with her eyes to tell them.
“Meghan’s pregnant.” I said, softly.
“Pregnant?” Tina asked. Meghan nodded.
“And D doesn’t know?” Sami asked.
“I’ve tried to tell him, really I have. But every time I the nerve up,
he’s busy or something. I can never get him at the right moment.”
“Meghan, if you’re four months, you’re going to start showing soon. I’m
surprised you haven’t already.”
“I know. I want to do it ASAP. I know I have to. I just don’t wanna
ruin his Christmas.”
“Ruin it? You could make it.”
“I don’t know about that. It’s not like we’ve talked about kids or even
marriage. I’m scared, that’s all.”
“He’ll take it better than you think.” I told her.
“I hope so.” She replied.
Back
Chapter 22
*Sami*
“Come on already.” Kevin yelled. He was waiting at the door for the
rest of us. “Yeah alright already.” AJ yelled back. I headed out of my
room and downstairs. “Finally.” Kevin said. You would think the world
would end by the way was acting. I started laughing.
“What?” He asked.
“You sound like Daddy, rounding the kids up for church.” I told him.
“I am.” He said. “If you guys don’t hurry up…” He yelled again.
“You’d make a good father.” I said. He looked at me. “Not anytime soon
though.” I added.
“Oh.” He said. “Guys come on.” I looked at Kevin. He dropped the topic
pretty quickly. I wondered if something was going on. He wrapped his
arms around me, as everyone headed down stairs.
“Good. Can we go already?” Kevin asked. We nodded as he ushered us
outside.
“Can we do presents? Can we do presents?” Brian asked, jumping up and
down. We’d just gotten back from church.
“You can’t open presents until Christmas day.” Laura said.
“No way, you open them Christmas Eve.” Brian said.
“No way.” She said.
“How’s about we open half of the presents tonight and half of them
tomorrow.” Kevin said. “That way everyone is happy.” Kevin’s voice took
up that fatherly tone again.
“Yes Daddy.” Howie said. Everyone laughed.
“Come on already.” Brian said.
“Alright already.”
*Howie*
I looked over at Meghan. She was avoiding me again. Everyone looked so
happy except us. Well, and Laura and Nick but they were just playing
their avoid game. Meghan was actually avoiding me.
“Anyone want hot chocolate?” Tina asked. Everyone cheered. We were all
still pretty hyped up from opening our presents.
“Kev, you mind?” Tina asked.
“Nah, go ahead.” He answered. She grabbed AJ’s hand and they headed
into the kitchen. “Don’t expect your hot chocolate for awhile.” Sami
joked. Everyone sat there making small talk as we waited. I just
watched Meghan. Surprisingly enough, a couple of minutes later, our hot
chocolates arrived. I waited until everyone had one and AJ and Tina had
rejoined us and raised my mug.
“I wanna thank Kev for letting us use his house for this week.” I said.
Everyone cheered again.
“I wanna thank that storm, otherwise I never would have met any of
you.” Megs said, moving closer to Brian. Meghan looked over at me. She
then got up and headed over and sat in my lap. I kissed the back of her
head and wrapped my arms around her. This is about as good as it gets.
It was Christmas Eve and I had my girl siting in my lap. Everything was
so perfect.
Back
Chapter 23
*Tina*
“Present time!! Present time!!” Brian said. Man, he was too hyperactive
for this time of the morning.
“Brian, calm down a bit.” Meghan said.
“But, it’s present time.” He said. Man, sometimes I wonder how old that
guy really is.
“Yeah, alright Brian. We’ll open the presents.” Kevin said.
“YAY!!” Brian yelled. AJ got up from next to me, headed to the tree,
grabbed a present, headed back to me and placed it in front of me.
“For me?” I asked.
“No, it’s for Nicky, but I thought it would look good in front of you.”
He said, sarcastically.
“Well sorry.”
“Just open your present.” He said. I slowly undid the ribbon, knowing
he’d hate the fact that I was opening it so slowly. I slowly took the
ribbon off. He looked like he was about to go crazy. I laughed as I
lifted the lid off the box. It was full of clothes.
“My favorite’s at the bottom.” He said. I pulled out like 50 different
pieces of clothing, until I came to the bottom. It was a dress I could
tell that. I pulled it out.
“Oh my god. J, it’s beautiful.” I said.
“I thought you might wanna wear it to the Grammy’s.”
“The Grammy’s? You mean…”
“Yeah, we got nominated for the live album they put out when we weren’t
here.” I hugged him.
“That’s great.” I said. He smiled.
“I’ve had to keep that to myself for like ages. But I wanted it to be a
surprise for today.” He smiled. He knew I was happy for him.
*Kevin*
I looked around at our happy ‘family.’ Everyone looked so happy. I
looked over at Laura and Nick. Even they seemed happy. For once. Laura
was playing with the puppy Nick had given her and he was just watching
her.”
“He went to kiss her yesterday.” Sami said, when she noticed me
watching them. I almost choked.
“He pulled back and walked away. That’s why they were avoiding each
other last night.” “How come you know this and I don’t?”
“Because, it’s always easier to talk to Mom than Dad.” She laughed.
“What do ya reckon’s going to happen with them.”
“Nick having a hard time keeping it as just friends and I think he’s
going to start avoiding her soon.” She said, logically.
“Start? He’s been avoiding her pretty much since we got back. Well
avoiding her as much as he can anyway.” I told her
“See Daddy knows some things Mommy doesn’t.” She said. I nodded. I
reach into my pocket and felt my real present to her. Maybe I should
have given it to her, rather than my chicken present. ‘There’s always
new years.’ I told myself. ‘Start the New Year right.’
Back
Chapter 24
*AJ*
“Are you sure we have enough alcohol?” I asked again. It was New Year’s
Eve. We had to have enough alcohol.
“AJ, there’s only 10 of us. How much are you planning on drinking?”
Howie asked.
“Yeah, alright. Do we have everything?” I asked, looking into the boot.
“AJ, stop stressing. I’m sure we have everything.”
“It’s just I’m used to the supermarket being up the street, not like
four hours away.”
“It’s only an hour away and we survived on an island for a year with
nothing, I’m sure we can survive tonight with this. Actually I’m sure
an Army could survive a year with what we have.”
“Yeah, alright already. Let’s get back.” D started the car and began
driving back to Kevin’s. For some strange reason, Kevin didn’t trust me
to drive his car. Just because I’d failed my driver’s test three times…
“So J, what’s happening with you and Tina?”
“We’re going great. I love her so much, although one day I’m sure so
sure, she’s going to wake up and realize she deserves so much better
than me.”
“I feel exactly the same way with Meghan. Especially in the last like
two months. I feel like she’s pushing me away.”
“Is it because you’re not around as much.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. It’s like there’s something wrong and
she won’t tell me.”
“Have you tried talking to her about it?” I asked him.
“No, I don’t know how.”
“D, if you wanna keep her, you gotta talk to her. Let her know that if
there’s something going on, you’ll be there for her no matter what.” D
looked at me.
“Since when did you get so smart J?”
“Since I got a girl, I’d do anything in the world not to lose.”
*Brian*
“Hey B, can I talk to you for a second?” Kevin asked. I nodded and
followed him up to his room.
“What’s up Kev?” I asked.
“You know Sami better than anyone in the world right?” He asked.
“She’s my best friend, if that’s what you mean.” I answered, confused.
“But you know what she likes and doesn’t like right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“If I ask you something, do you swear and I mean swear not to tell a
sole and that includes Megs.” I nodded.
“I swear.” I answered, knowing this must be really big. Kevin reached
into his pocket and pulled out a box. He opened it and showed me a ring.
“Do you think she’ll like it.” He asked, nervously. My jaw dropped to
the ground.
“Is that what I think it is Kev?” I asked. He nodded.
“I was going to ask her on Christmas but I lost my nerve. I couldn’t
take it if she said no.”
“She won’t say no Kev. She loves you so much.”
“She does really?”
“Yeah she does.” I smiled. “My cousin’s getting married.” I exclaimed
softly.
“She still has to say yes yet.”
“She will say yes. How could she say no to a guy like you?” I asked.
Kevin closed the box and stuck it in his pocket.
“She’s going to say no.” he said.
“Kevin just ask her. Trust me, she’s going to say yes.” He looked at me.
“I’ll find out tonight hey?” I just smiled
Back
Chapter 25
*Laura*
“PARTY!!!” AJ yelled, heading inside with the drinks.
“Who wants a drink?” He asked. I looked down at the Coke in my hands. I
would just stick to that.
“Laura, wanna drink?” AJ asked. I looked down at my coke again.
“Nah, I don’t drink.” I replied. He walked over to me carrying a bottle
of I don’t know what but the alcohol content of it looked deadly.
“Oh, come on, why not?” He asked.
“Because if I started drinking, I won’t stop. And trust me I ain’t a
pretty site drunk.”
“Just one drink. Come on, for me.” He handed me the bottle. I looked at
it. I knew as soon as I had one drink I’d be gone. I could never just
have one drink. I looked over at Nick. I knew when I drunk, I could
talk more openly with guys. Maybe one drink won’t hurt. I mean, at
least I might be able to talk to him about how I feel. I opened the
bottle and swallowed as much as I could. AJ just stared at me.
“I thought you didn’t drink.” He said.
“I don’t normally.” I replied. I put the bottle to my mouth again and
again swallowed as much as I could.
“Do you just wanna keep the bottle? I got heaps. Just help yaself.” I
looked at the bottle. It was already half-empty. Considering I hadn’t
touched alcohol since I was…. 16 I think it was. I looked over at Nick
again.
“You say you’ve got more? Can I just grab another bottle when I
finished this one.” I asked. AJ nodded.
“Yeah sure. Help yourself.” I smiled as I tried to finish off the rest
of the bottle. I didn’t succeed but got pretty close. I looked at the
bottle again. Man, I was going to be sick tomorrow.
*Meghan*
“Hey Meg, can I talk to you?” D asked. I looked at him. I knew I had to
tell him. I’d been avoiding him for two months and if I kept doing that
I was going to lose him. Not that he was going to stick around when I
told him. But I might as well get it over and done with.
“Sure. There’s something I need to talk to you about as well.” He took
my hand and led me to a quiet part of the house. We sat down on the
couch. I looked at D.
“Ok, well… I don’t know quite how to say this but yeah. It’s just for
the last couple of months, I feel like you’re avoiding me. I know I’m
not around much but when I am, it’s like you’re not. Well, you are but
you’re not. Did that make any sense?” I nodded. I knew what he meant
and he was right. “It’s just you’re the first girl, I’ve ever been
scared to lose and I feel like I’m losing you at the moment. And the
longer I leave things, the more you move away. I know something’s
wrong. Please tell me. I just wanna be able to be there for you.” I
looked into his eyes, hoping he’s be so understanding when I told him
my news.
“You really wanna know?” I asked. He nodded.
“I’m pregnant.” I closed me eyes, waiting for his reaction.
Back
Chapter 26
*Nick*
I looked around my room. Ok, I think I’d had a bit too much to drink.
But hey, it’s called drowning your sorrows. I’d headed up to my room
awhile a ago and I had already finished god-know how many bottles of
beer. I finished off what was left of the one I had in my hand and
piled it up with the others. I couldn’t go downstairs now. I’d probably
make a move on her. I mean, I wasn’t at the stage where I was
completely gone but still… I didn’t trust myself. And making a move on
her was what I’d been trying to stop myself from doing for the past
week. Actually never mind the past week, it’s more like the past year.
There was a knock at my room. I kicked the empty bottles under my bed,
incase it was Brian coming to lecture me.
“Come in.” I called. Laura poked her head around the doorframe.
“Can I come in?” She asked. I nodded. I knew I should have said no but
I wanted to say yes. And with the alcohol in my system, the want was
starting to over power the common sense. She walked into m into room
and sat down next to me. And when I say next to me, I meant next to me.
It was doing wonders for me trying to ignore my wants. I felt the
alcohol in my system begin to hit my brain. This wasn’t going to be
good. She moved closer to me still. I could tell she’d been drinking,
but then again, so have I. I moved my hand closer to her back.
“So Nick, whatcha doing up here all alone?” She asked. I moved my hand
so it was resting on her back.
“Not much you know?” I answered. My hand found the hem of her shirt and
I moved it underneath.
“Oh really?” She asked. I started moving my hand up her back.
“Yes really.” I was about to move my hand towards the front of her
shirt when she caught it. I pulled it back quickly, thinking I’d gone
too far.
“You know, you should probably kiss me before you do that.” She said. I
looked at her, surprised. What happened to the shy girl I knew?
Actually, I didn’t really care. I leant forward and kissed her. As I
continued kissing her, I moved further onto the bed, pulling her with
me. She worked on getting my shirt off. As soon as it was on the floor,
I began to move from her lips down to her neck until I hit her shirt
line. I began moving back up again. She laughed.
“What?” I mumbled, still kissing her.
“You might as well take it off. It’s going to come off at some stage.”
She said, as she rolled on top of me. I just nodded as I pulled her
shirt up.
*Megs*
“Come on.” Brian said, grabbing my hand.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To be alone for midnight.” He dragged me outside and out to the porch.
We sat there and watched the stars
“This reminds me of where we met.” He said softly.
“I know. The first time you kissed me was on a night just like this.” I
looked at him and smiled.
“Except 20 degrees warmer.” He said. I laughed.
“It was. But it was so beautiful.”
“Nowhere as beautiful as you.” I looked at him and smiled.
“I love you, you know that right?” He asked. I nodded. “And no matter
how many times it might seem like you come second, you don’t Ok? You’re
always going to come first. You got that?” I nodded again and leant in
and kissed him.
“I love you too Bri.” I said. He smiled I leant against him and he
started singing.
‘I promise you, from the bottom of my heart.’ He was so perfect.
Back
Chapter 27
*Sami*
“You’ve got to be kidding me Kev.” I said as he brought two horses out
of the stables. “Nope, I have a surprise for you.” He said “We won’t
make it on foot..”
“Ok, yeah I guess.” I mounted the smaller house and followed Kevin. The
Kentucky countryside was so beautiful. I could live her forever. After
about 10 minutes of riding, Kevin stopped. I pulled my horse to a stop
too.
“We’re here.” He said. I looked out. it was so beautiful. The moon was
reflecting on the huge lake that was in the middle of all of these
paddocks.
“It’s beautiful.” I said as I dismounted.
“I know.” He took the reins out of my hands and tied both of the horses
up to a tree. He pulled a blanket out of his bag and laid it out. He
sat down and gestured for me to do the same.
“I wanted this to be so special, you know. I wanted it to be so
perfect. But then I realized it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter where I
did it, when I did it, or even how I did it. All that matters is what
your answer is.” I looked at him. He was talking in riddles.
“Kevin, what are you talking about?” I asked. Kevin took a deep breathe
and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a box. ‘Is that what I think
it is?’ I asked silently.
“I know we haven’t even been together a yeah but I’ve lived with you
for long enough to know that I can’t live without you.” He got up on
one knee and opened the box.
“Will you marry me?” He asked.
*Howie*
“You’re what?” I managed to get out.
“Pregnant.” She repeated. I stood up and began pacing.
“But how? We were so careful…” I tried to think back. “Oh my god… On
the island.” I realized.
“Yeah. About a week before we got rescued.” I tried to stay calm. The
last thing Meghan needed at the moment was me freaking. I did the sums
in my head before I stopped pacing.
“How long have you known?” I asked. She looked down.
“Two months.” I just looked at her. She knew for two months and didn’t
tell me? Did she consider me so unimportant that she didn’t feel it was
necessary to let me know I was going to be a father. She slowly lifted
her head.
“I am so sorry.” She said. I knelt down in front of her and looked into
her eyes. She looked so scared.
“It’s Ok. I should have been around so you could have told me.” I
pulled her close and hugged her.
“I’m keeping her.” She whispered.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I replied.
Back
Chapter 28
*Tina*
“There you are.” AJ said, wrapping his arms around me. I turned around
and kissed him.
“Happy New Year.” I said.
“Nope, we’ve still got…” He looked at his watch. “Seven minutes left.”
I looked at him.
“How come you’re still standing.” I asked. “I thought you had enough
alcohol to incapacitate and army.”
“I did. Well until Laura got into it.”
“Laura… drinking?”
“Yeah she said she didn’t drink. That is, until she polished off a
bottle of JD and started on her second.”
“She is so going to be sick tomorrow. I guess she was trying to take
her mind off Nick.
Where is she?” I asked.
“Last I saw her, she was finishing off her second bottle and was
heading upstairs to Nick’s…” He trailed off. We looked at each other.
“No way. She’s way too conservative for that.” I said. AJ nodded. He
kissed me again.
“Only two minutes left.” He said..
“Come on.” I grabbed his hand and lead him to the couch. I turned the
TV on for the countdown. They were showing the huge party in Time
Square.
“I bet you wish you were there.” I said.
“I want to be wherever you are.” He replied. I smiled and leaned back
into him to wait for the count down.
*Kevin*
Sami just sorta stared at me.
“Will I what?” She asked. She began to give me that ‘are you completely
crazy?’ look. She always gave me that look when she thought what I had
suggested was totally insane.
“Marry me.” I mumbled. I shoved the ring back in my pocket and sat down
again. I knew that look on her face. I knew she wouldn’t say ‘yes.’ She
just continued staring at me.
“Kevin…” She started.
“Look,” I interrupted. “Just forget I asked Ok?” I snapped. I reached
up to wipe the tears away from my eyes but she beat me to it. I grabbed
her hand and pulled it away.
“Don’t.” I said.
“Kevin, it’s not that I don’t want to…” She started.
“You don’t have to explain.” I interrupted.
“I want to explain so shut up and let me talk ok?” I nodded. “it’s not
that I don’t want to marry you, it’s just I don’t know why you want to
marry me.” I looked at her.
“Why would I not want to marry you?” I asked.
“It’s just… you could have like any girl in the world, why would you
want me?” She asked.
“Sami, you’re crazy. Even if I could have any girl in the world, I
wouldn’t care because I have you. I love you.”
“You really mean that?” She asked. I nodded.
“You are my everything. No-one cept you can fill the place of my
everything.” I told her.
“Ask me again.” She said.
“What?” I asked.
“Ask me again. I want you to ask me again.” I got up on one knee.
“Sami, will you marry me?” I asked again.
“Yes, I will.” She replied as she kissed me.
Back
Chapter 29
*AJ*
“5... 4… 3… 2… 1… happy New Year!!” Everyone on the TV yelled. I
looked at Tina.
“Happy New Year.” I said, kissing her.
“Happy New Year.” She replied.
“You know what?” I asked.
“What?” She replied.
“This year is going to be one of the best years of my life. You know
why?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sharing it with me.” she smiled.
“I love you.” She said.
“I love you to. We continued to watch the celebration for a bit before
Brian and Megs walked into the room.
“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!” They yelled.
“Happy New Year.” We replied. They sat down in the other couch.
“Ok, guys, New Year resolutions.” Megs said.
“Ok, whose first?” I asked.
“’I will.” Brian said. We all looked at him. "I vow to spend as much
time as I can with my girl.” Megs smiled at him.
“Megs, you’re next.” AJ said.
“Ok, I resolve not to get worried or upset if Brian can’t spend time
with me.” Brian looked at her.
“You get worried and upset?” He asked. She nodded.
“For awhile I began to feel like you didn’t want to spend time with me
but now, I know you have to work.” He nodded.
“Tina’s next.” Megs said.
“Ok… um… I vow to help out as much as I can on tour and not get in the
way.” She said.
“You won’t get…” I stopped when I realized what she said. “On tour?” I
asked. She smiled.
“I decided two days ago that I wouldn’t survive without you so I’m
coming.” I hugged her.
“This is so great.” I said.
“I know. Your turn.” She looked at me.
“Ok, I resolve to do anything and everything to make my girl happy.
Since she’s made me the happiest man alive, she deserve that and more.”
I said.
“Awww.” Brian and Megs said together. I blushed.
“Alright. Shut up.” I said. They all laughed.
*Brian*
I woke up as soon as the sun hit my face. I looked across at Megs. She
was sleeping against me in the chair. I slowly got up and headed to the
kitchen. Kevin was already up.
“Hey Kev.” I said. He turned around.
“Hey Bri.” He replied.
“Are congratulations in order?” I asked. His face broke into a grin.
“She said yes.” I hugged him.
“Congratulations.” I said.
“Thanks. Will you be my best man?”
“Of course I will man.”
“I have no idea when it’s going to be but hey.”
“That’s cool.” We stopped talking as Howie walked into the kitchen.
“Hey guys. What’s up?” He said. Pouring himself a coffee.
“I’m getting married. You D?” Kevin said. It was kinda a challenge.
‘See if you can beat my news.’
“Meghan’s pregnant.” He replied. I dropped the cup I was holding. Thank
god it was plastic. Howie looked at me.
“Sorry, it was kinda a shock.” I said.
“I know.” He replied.
“You ok with it?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s scary to think that I’m going to be a father.” I
looked to Kevin.
“You might lose you father position.” I joked.
“Nah, it’s cool Kev. I think one kid will be enough for me.” Howie
joked back. I knew then that he was ok with it.
“Gee thanks.” Kevin replied, sarcastically.
“So Kev, since when are you getting married?” Howie asked.
Back
Chapter 30
*Laura*
I woke up as I felt an arm go around me. I slowly opened my
eyes. Nick was looking at me.
“Nick?” I asked.
“Hey.” He said softly. I looked around the room.
“What the hell?” I said, jumping up and throwing some clothes back on.
I was trying to make some sense of all of the thoughts that were going
through my head at one time. “I knew you shouldn’t of had anything to
drink. Every time you drink, something bad happens. Girl, you should
have realized that by now. Are you really that stupid as to drink
again? I guess you are otherwise you wouldn’t be in this situation
would you?” I said to myself. It was a bad habit I’d gotten in to. When
I was confused and upset at the same time I talked to myself. And I
guess the hangover wasn’t helping much. Nick looked at me like I was
crazy.
“Look Nick, I am so sorry. I can’t remember what happened but…” I was
cut off by Nick leaning up and kissing me. I pulled back.
“Nick, I’m thinking you’re still drunk..” I said. He shook his head.
“Nope.” He replied. “Wait… maybe a bit but that doesn’t mean I don’t
know what I feel. It’s just giving me the chance to tell you.”
“Nick, what are you talking about?” I asked him.
“I can’t believe you don’t know.” He laid back down on the bed.
“Know what?” I asked. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.
All I knew what I wanted him to finish what he was trying to say so I
could get out of here and not embarrass myself more than I already had.
“That I’ve like been in love with you from the day we met.” I looked at
him and almost choked. He had to be messing with my head. Or this was a
dream. It never happened that the guy I liked, liked me as well. That
never ever ever happened. And if it seemed to the guy just messed with
my head.
“Nick, you’re still drunk. You don’t know what you’re saying.” I told
him.
“I do know what I’m saying. I’m saying I love you.”
“Nick…”
“Don’t Nick me, just tell me how you feel about me.” I looked at Nick,
wondering whether to walk out the door or tell him.
*Meghan*
“Heya Meghan, congratulations.” Everyone said, as I walked into the
kitchen. I looked at Howie.
“Sorry, I was excited. I had to tell them.” He said. I smiled and
nodded.
“That’s Ok.” I looked around the kitchen. Everyone was up except for
Nick and Laura.
“Anyone know where Nick and Laura are?” I asked. I saw a look exchanged
between Tina and AJ and a look come over Brian’s face.
“Ok, what did I miss?” I asked.
“Whatever you missed, I missed as well.” Howie said, pulling me into
his lap.
“I went Nick’s room this morning to see if he wanted to play some
ball…” Brian started.
“Oh my god, B you didn’t?” AJ interrupted.
“How was I supposed to know?” Brian asked him.
“I don’t know, assume.”
“Assume? How was I supposed to assume… It was probably the last thing I
expected.”
“Hello, someone wanna fill us in?” Kevin asked.
“Well…” Brian started.
“See...” AJ continued.
“Guys, it’s not their business.” Tina said.
“As soon as you started talking about it in front of us, it became our
business.” Sami said. AJ looked at Tina.
“Yeah ok tell them.” She said. “Well, Laura and Nick both had a bit too
much to drink last night.” He said.
“And…?” Kevin asked.
“Let’s put it this way Kev, I went see if Nick wanted to play some ball
and found Laura as well.” Brian said. I swear all of us choked.
“What?” Kevin asked.
Back
Chapter 31
*Nick*
“Nick, I’m just going to go downstairs and let you sober up
hey.” She said, starting to move out of the room.
“I’m not drunk.” I said after her. She turned around again.
“Yeah you are. You have to be.”
“And why’s that?” I asked.
“Because why else would you be telling me you love me?”
“Because I do.”
“But you can’t.” Ok, this girl did not make any sense. It all went
straight over my head.
“Why can’t I?” I asked.
“Because I’m me and you’re you.” Is she trying to confuse me or what?
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked.
“It’s got everything to do with anything. You’re just going to mess
around with my head aren’t you?”
“I’m what?” I asked.
“Look, a guy like you, he’d never like a girl like me. I know that and
I’ve accepted that so please don’t mess around with my head by telling
me that you love me.”
“But I do love you.”
“You can’t. You can’t love a girl like me.”
“What do you mean a girl like you?”
“I mean, you can’t like me for exactly the same reason no other guys
has ever liked me. I know that I’m not pretty. I know that I have this
personality that guys hate. I know all of these things so I’m asking
again, don’t mess with my head.”
“What are you talking about girl? These other guys you’re talking
about. They must have been insane. Of course you’re pretty and you have
this really great personality…” She put her hands over her ears.
“No, don’t say that. I can’t let me hear that.”
“Ok, you’re really starting me make me think that you are crazy.” I
told her. She took her hands off her ears.
“I’m not crazy. I just don’t wanna get hurt.”
“I am so confused.”
“Nick, I like you see. And more than a friend like you… don’t ask me
where I got the courage up to say that… but anyway, I can’t afford to
get my heart broken. Not again.” “I’m not going to break it. I swear
it.”
“You’re not just messing with my mind?”
“Laura, you’re one of my best friends, would I do that to you?” She
shook her head. “Now, may I kiss you again?” I asked. She nodded and
headed back towards the bed. I leaned up and kissed her.
*Megs*
Laura and Nick walked into the kitchen holding hands.
“Alright, what’s going on?” AJ asked, without even staying good
morning. Tina hit him again.
“Leave them alone.” She said.
“Why? I wanna know.” He said.
“And I deserve to know.” Brian said.
“What guys?” Nick asked.
“You and Laura?” AJ asked.
“What about us?” Laura asked.
“You guys… you’re holding hands, you slept together…” AJ started
“Wait, how the hell do you guys know that?” Nick cut him off.
“It was logical last night. The last time I saw Laura for the night,
she was heading up to your room.” AJ smiled at him. “Besides, B wanted
to see if you wanted to play some ball this morning.” Nick looked at
Brian.
“You should really lock the door.” Brian said to him.
“You should really knock.” Nick returned.
“I didn’t expect Laura to be in your bed.”
“Neither did I but it happened.”
“Thank god.” Kevin said. Everyone turned to look at him. Sami smiled.
“What do you mean Kevin?” Laura asked.
“We’ve only been trying to get you two together for…. How long do ya
reckon it’s been Kev?” Sami asked.
“I don’t know… since we first noticed Nick liked her…. A long time
ago.” He replied.
Brian and I sat down on the porch watching the sun set.
“It’s weird isn’t it?” He asked.
“What is?” I asked back.
“Everyone. Everything’s changed.” I nodded. He pulled me in close.
“Nothing’s changed between us right?” He asked. I shook my head.
“Nope, I still love you and only you.”
“Good. I’m glad.” He kissed me.
“When does your tour start?” I asked.
“Soon.”
“How soon is soon?”
“Around the 21st I think.”
“3 weeks?” I asked. He nodded.
“You can still come.” I thought about that. I tried to think of my life
without Brian there. I came up blank.
“Ok.” I said.
“What?”
“Ok, I’ll come on tour. For awhile at least. I wanna be around to help
Meghan out though.” He nodded and smiled.
“I love you.” He replied.
“You’d better.” He pulled me closer still and we fell into silence to
continue watching the sunset.
Back
Chapter 32
*Sami*
“Bye guys, have a great trip home.” Kevin and me yelled as everyone
pulled out of the driveway. Finally we were alone.
“A week to ourselves.” Kevin said, putting his arms around me.
“I know. A week not to have to worry about any of their problems.” I
said, Kevin laughed.
“At the moment, no one seems to be having any.”
“Just wait and see. When we go back for rehearsals I’m betting one of
them has a problem.”
“You’re on.”
“What do I win?”
“You get to choose everything for the wedding.”
“What if I lose?”
“I get to choose everything.” A cheeky grin came over his face. God
knows what he’d do if he were in charge of our wedding.
“You’re on.” I told him. We shook hands. He pulled me in and kissed me.
He then led me to the couch.
“How’s about we decide on a date now though?” He said.
“A date?” I asked.
“For the wedding. That way I can organize the tour around it.”
“Um… November 28th?” I asked.
“Any significance to anything?” He asked. I shook my head.
“Nope, I just liked the date.”
“Ok then. November 28th it is.” I smiled.
“Will your tour be over by then?”
“It should be depending on a couple of things.”
“Like what?”
“Like where we decide to go after America.”
“You better go to Australia otherwise Laura will kill you.”
“Yeah I know but that adds at least another week to our tour.”
“Then we’ll move the wedding back a week. I value you a lot more live
than I do dead.” He laughed.
“I value me now alive too.”
“So November 29th it is then.”
“Yep. That would make it…. 10 months and 28 days til we are married.”
“Are you going to start counting down the days on me? You’re beginning
to sound like Laura and Howie when they are counting down to their
birthday.” Kevin laughed again.
“Man, if ever get that bad, please warn me.”
“I will don’t worry. I couldn’t stand that. That would just be hell and
someone would mostly likely kill you and we already agreed that you are
better alive.” He continued laughed.
“Yeah, we need some sanity in our group hey?” I nodded and laughed.
“You know I love you right?” I told him.
“What me? With all my sanity?” Kevin said, mockingly.
“Yes, you with all your sanity.” I leaned up and kissed him. “You know,
you better stay planning our wedding.” I teased him.
“Nope, everyone’s happy. I’ll win.”
“No way Mr.” I said. I screamed as he began tickling. I jumped up off
the couch and ran around the house screaming as he chased me. Ok maybe
we weren’t quite sane.
*Howie*
We finally got back to Orlando.
“Hey Meghan, I’m gong out for awhile, ok?” I yelled.
“Yeah sure. You gonna be back for dinner?” She yelled back.
“Of course. We’re going to go out Ok?”
“Out?” She asked.
“Yeah, out.” I yelled. She headed into the kitchen where I was grabbing
my stuff.
“Out where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Ok.” Howie kissed her before heading outside. He grabbed his cell and
rung AJ.
“Hey J.” He said as AJ picked up.
“D, you know I just spend a week straight with you right?” AJ asked.
“Yeah, but I missed you already.” I said, back jokingly.
“Ok D, you rung for a reason?” AJ asked.”
“Yeah I did, feel like coming shopping?”
“Shopping why?”
“Because I need to buy an engagement ring.”
“A what D?”
“An engagement ring.”
“For Meghan?”
“No, for my other girlfriend, what do you think?” I replied,
sarcastically “Well sorry. But don’t you think she’s going to take it
the wrong way?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she might see it as you’re only doing it because she’s
pregnant.”
“But I’m not.”
“Yeah you are.”
“Ok, maybe I am but I wanted to do it before.”
“You did?”
“Yeah I did.”
“She’s not going to believe that.”
“Yeah she will.”
“Ok D, your choice.”
“Are you coming or what?”
“Yeah where should I meet you?”
“The usual stop at the mall?”
“Yeah cool. When?”
“Half an hour.”
“Yeah sure. Can I bring Tina?”
“Yeah sure, we might need a female opinion.”
“Cool, see ya there.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone. Meghan would like it right?
Back
Chapter 33
*Tina*
“Why are we going shopping again?” I asked AJ as we drove to the mall.
“Howie’s gotta buy Meghan an engagement ring.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s pregnant.”
“So…?”
“So he feels they should get married.”
“That ain’t a good reason to be getting married. Meghan won’t go for
it.”
“I know but Howie has too many morals for his own good. But I don’t
know. I think he might have been thinking about proposing before.”
“Meghan ain’t going to believe that.”
“That’s what I told him but hey. His choice.”
“True it is.”
“D, what about this one?” I asked him. He shook his head, just like he
had at the other 50 million we had shown him.
“It’s not right. I need it to be perfect.” He said.
“You ain’t going to find one that’s totally perfect.” I told him. “I am
too.” He replied. I sighed as we kept looking. At this rate we were
going to be here for hours.
“AJ?” A voice asked from behind us. We all turned around.
“Kayla?” AJ asked. Why did that name ring a bell? I knew the name. “How
are you?” He asked.
“Yeah pretty good. It’s been awhile hey?”
“Yeah, the last time I talked to you was…” AJ trailed off as I figured
out who she was. His ex.
“Yeah, at the airport. J, I am so sorry for that.”
“It was over a year and a half ago Kayla.”
“I know but I had a year to feel so awful that that was the last thing
I ever said to you.”
“You know what, I don’t care.”
“AJ…” She started.
“Kayla, there’s someone I want you to meet.” He said, pulling me
forward. Kayla looked at me and smiled.
“You must be the new girl?” She said. I tried to figure out if that
would be a good thing or a bad thing.
“Yeah, that would be me.”
*Kevin*
“Hey Kev, what was that?” Sami asked.
“What was what?” I replied, almost asleep.
“That noise downstairs.”
“What noise downstairs?” I listened and heard a crash. Sami jumped
about a mile. “That noise.” She whispered.
“I have no idea, but I’m about to find out.” I jumped up and slowly
headed slowly downstairs. Sami was right behind me. We reached the
bottom of the stairs and looked around.
“Oh my god.” Sami said. I looked around at what was a neat lounge room.
It was now covered in junk.
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
“You think I know?” Sami replied.
“No, but I had to ask anyway.” I walked through the room, trying not to
step on anything on the way through. I looked out the front door, which
was open. I got this really weird feeling that someone was watching me.
I closed it quickly before heading back inside to call the cops.
Back
Chapter 34
*AJ*
I looked from Tina to Kayla. I don’t think they quite liked each other.
“So what are you guys shopping for?” Kayla asked.
“For D’s… hang on, where is D?” I asked looking around. Just as I said
that he came running over.
“My god guys, I found it. I found the perfect ring.” Howie said.
“Let’s see.” Tina said. Her and D walked off, leaving me and Kayla
together.
“D’s buying an engagement ring, he’s kinda excited.”
“D’s getting engaged?”
“Yeah Kevin got engaged yesterday.”
“Wow, I’ve missed a lot hey?”
“That wasn’t my choice Kay.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. If you’d not told me, you would have been on that island too,
either that or dead, but either way I wouldn’t have ended up with Tina.”
“She makes you happy?” I nodded. “I’m glad, you deserve it.”
“Ok, who are you and what did you do with Kayla?” I asked, jokingly.
“I’ve learnt a lot over the last year.”
“Me too.”
*Brian*
I picked up my phone that was ringing.
“Hello.” I answered.
“Bri?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah Kev, it’s me. What’s up?”
“Someone broke into the house.”
“Wow are you Ok?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re fine.”
“Did they take anything?”
“No, that’s the strange thing. They left everything. It was like they
were looking for something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know and neither do the cops. They did ask if anyone had seen
anyone around though.” I thought back.
“I saw this girl… three days ago I think it was. She was watching us.
All of us…” I told him.
“Thanks B.”
“She didn’t look dangerous or anything.”
“Yeah, it was probably nothing. But yeah, I gotta go. I wanna make sure
Sami’s Ok. She’s kinda freaked.”
“Yeah sure. Let me know if the cops find anything.”
“Will do.” And he hung up. I put the phone down.
“Who was that?” Megs asked.
“Kevin. Someone broke into the house.”
“Out there? They are in the middle of nowhere.”
“I know. It’s kinda odd ain’t it?” She nodded.
“What did they take?”
“Nothing. That’s what makes it even stranger.”
“It doesn’t sound like a normal thief.”
“I don’t think it was.”
Back
Chapter 35
*Laura*
“There you go puppy, home sweet home.” I said, putting puppy down in my
house. “You know you’re really going to have to call him something
other than puppy.” Nick said from behind me.
“Why?” I asked.
“He ain’t going to be a puppy forever.”
“You’re point being…?”
“You can’t call him puppy when he’s not a puppy.”
“Why not?” Nick looked at me exasperated.
“You just can’t.”
“Yeah, I can. You didn’t tell me I couldn’t name him puppy when you
gave him to me.”
“But it’s not logical to…”
“Haven’t you learnt by now that I have Aussie logic?”
“Aussie logic?”
“Stupid Americans again. It means it makes absolutely no sense.” He
just shook his head. I loved teasing him with the Aussie and American
stuff. It confused the hell out of him.
“Anyway, where do you want your stuff?” He asked.
“Um... there’s cool. I’ll deal with it later. Thanks for bringing it in
for me.”
“No problem.” I looked up at him.
“Hey, um Nick, I think we need to talk.” I said.
“Why do I not like the sound of this?” He asked.
“I just wanted to know where we stand and stuff.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what am I to you? Your girlfriend, a girl you go out with
every now and then, just your best friend? I just sorta need to know.”
Do not ask me where the hell I got the nerve to ask him that. I guess
the fact that I driven all the way home trying to ask him, could have a
bit easier. Nick just sorta looked at me.
“Where do I stand with you?”
“I asked you first.”
“See, I’d love for you to be my girlfriend but…”
“But what?”
“But I don’t know how to ask you.”
“Nick you just did.”
“Oh… and you say…?” He looked really nervous.
“Yes?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” His face broke into his grin.
“I love you.” He said, kissing me.
“I love you too.” I replied.
*Meghan*
“Howie, is that you?” I asked as the door opened.
“No it’s the man in the moon, who do you think it is?” He yelled back
up to me.
“Just checking. Where are we going tonight?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Well, what do I wear?”
“Get dressed up.”
“How dressed up?”
“Pretty dressed up.”
“Ok then.” I turned to my wardrobe trying to find something to wear.
“Oh my god, this is beautiful.” I said, as we sat down at the table.
“I was hoping you’d like it.” He smiled sweetly at me.
“I love it.”
“The meal was beautiful D. Thanks.” I said as we walked along.
“It’s Ok. I wanted to let you know I care.”
“I know that already idiot.” I said, jokingly.
“Yeah, I just wanted tonight to be special.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because…” He pulled me over to a seat and knelt down in front of me.
Is he doing what I think he’s doing?
“Meghan, I love you so much and I want our daughter to have a mother
and a father that are married, so will you marry me?” I asked. My mouth
dropped to the ground and I just looked at him.
Back
Chapter 36
*Nick*
“Hey Laura…” I started after dinner.
“Yeah.” She replied.
“Can you come on tour with me?” I asked, nervously.
“What?” She asked.
“Tour? I leave in three weeks. I want you to come.” She looked up at me.
“I’d love to.”
“Really?”
“Yeah really.”
“Great.”
*Megs*
“Hey Bri, do you think there was something going on Kev’s?” I asked
after he was quiet for like three hours.
“I don’t know. I just have this feeling that there was something else
going on.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. But what typa thief breaks into a house and doesn’t take
anything.”
“One who’s not looking for the stuff.”
“That’s what I thought but what else could they be looking for?”
“I don’t know. They could be after Kevin.” I said, jokingly. Brian
stopped short and looked at me.
“They what?” He asked.
“You don’t think?” I asked him.
“I don’t know but I don’t wanna take the chance.” He said, picking up
the phone.
Back
Chapter 37
*Sami*
Kevin hung up the phone.
“Brian thinks it wasn’t a thief that was here.” He said. He came over
and sat down next to me.
“What else could it have been?” He had a worried look on his face.
“They don’t know, but they think it could have been someone after me.”
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, fans can do some strange things.”
“You think its fans?”
“Who else could it be?” I shrugged my shoulders. My mind slowly drifted
back to about two years ago. That was a long time ago. Man, nobody even
knew about it. Not even Kevin. I had put it in the past and left it
there. And I had hoped it would stay there. I’m just freaking about
nothing.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” Kevin asked. I looked over at him.
“Nothing babe. Nothing.” I said, trying to shake my past back into my
past.
*Howie*
“Howie do you really mean that?” She asked. I looked at her and nodded.
“You’re not just saying it?”
“Meghan, I love you. I want to marry you.” I said, honestly.
“I want to marry you as well.” She replied. I took her hand and placed
the ring on it. I then kissed her.
“I’m going to miss you on tour.” She said.
“I’m going to miss you. I don’t have to go you know.”
“Howie, of course you have to go. You can’t not go.”
“But I wanna be with you and our baby.”
“And I want you to be on tour. As long as you’re here for the birth.”
“There is no way in hell I am going to miss that day. I’ll be back here
like 4 weeks before it’s due.”
“No way. You’re going to be on that tour. And that’s an order mister.”
I nodded and kissed her. We were interrupted as my mobile rung.
“Hello.” I answered it, annoyed to be interrupted.
“Hey D. Are you out?” Brian asked.
“Yeah me and Meghan are out.”
“You need to get home.”
“Why?”
“Because, Kevin and Sami had someone in their house and they are scared
about security now.”
“Yeah, cool. Thanks B.”
“No problem. I’m sorry to ruin your date.”
“Nothing could ruin my date at the moment.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone and looked at Meghan.
“We gotta get home to the security.” I said, mockingly.
“What’s up?”
“I don’t know. Something about Kevin but hey. We’ll just do as we are
told hey.”
“Good idea. Besides, I don’t mind getting home anyway, I’m kinda tired.”
“You ok?” I asked, worriedly.
“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
“You sure?”
“Yes I’m sure. Now come on.” She grabbed my hand and we got up.
“Sorry. Tonight was supposed to be special.” I told her.
“Don’t worry. It has been.” She said, kissing me.
Back
Chapter 38
*Tina*
“Don’t you think they are getting worked up over nothing?” I
asked AJ. He shrugged his shoulders.
“I dunno. These fans can be crazy.” He said.
“By crazy you mean?”
“I mean, crazy… insane, mentally unstable. God knows what they will do.”
“They wouldn’t hurt you guys would they?”
“No they are more likely to hurt one of you girls.”
“Us? Why us?” I asked him.
“Because you’re with us and they are not.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I told you they were crazy.”
“That’s not crazy. Laura is crazy. That’s very much insane.”
“And you’re supposed to be her best friend.”
“Yeah, and she’ll be the first to admit she’s crazy.”
“Yeah that’s true. I mean she likes Nick she’d have to be crazy.” I
laughed.
“And there’s how many thousands of girls that would disagree with you
there.”
“And how many thousand that would agree.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
He stuck his out back.
“You know you’re mean!!” I told him.
“I am not. I’m just right.”
“Oh get over yourself boy.” I said hitting him.
“Ooohh someone feels like going for a swim!!!” He looked at me.
“You wouldn’t.” I said, as he picked me up.
“Why not?”
“It’s like snowing outside.”
“Girl, this is Florida, it don’t snow.”
“Still it’s cold enough to.”
“It is not. Besides the pool is heated.”
“Oh yeah.” He carried me into the pool area thing. “AJ put me down. I
ain’t going in there.” I said.
“You wanna bet?” He asked, throwing me in. I surfaced and looked at
him. He was just laughing.
“One of these days, it’ll be you in the pool and me laughing.” He just
continued laughing.
*Kevin*
“Sami, you Ok?” I asked. She looked at me and nodded.
“Kev, don’t you guys think you’re over-reacting?” She asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s better that we over-react and we’re safe
than not doing anything you know.” She nodded.
“Yeah I guess.” She went back into this dream world that she had been
in since I’d mentioned it mightn’t have been thieves in here. The phone
rang and she jumped about a mile.
“I’ll get it.” She said, running to the phone. I watched her as she
picked it up. I couldn’t here anything but I watched as her face turned
white. She slowly put the phone down and headed over to me.
“Baby, who was that?” I asked her.
“No one, it was a wrong number.” I looked at her, wondering why she was
lying to me. I knew it was more than that but why wasn’t she telling
me? I thought we shared everything. Maybe she didn’t want me to get
more upset.
“Hey babe. I’m tired. I’m going back to bed ok?” She said. I watched
her as she went up the stairs. Ok, I really missed something.
Back
Chapter 39
*AJ*
I looked over at Tina as she slept. I was so in love with her. She was
my everything. But the thing was that scared me. It scared me so much.
I had never felt about anyone like this before. I just sat there,
looking at her. I could watch her sleep for hours at a time. Slowly she
opened her eyes and looked at me. She pushed her wet hair out her face
and smiled when she saw me.
“How long have been watching me?”
“Not long enough.” I replied. She blushed and kissed me. “Can you make
me a really big promise?” I asked her.
“Depends on what it is?” She replied, jokingly.
“Don’t ever ever leave me.” She looked at me.
“I wasn’t planning on it.” I nodded.
“I couldn’t handle that, you know. But then thing is, we’ve had it easy
while we’ve been together.” She laughed.
“You call being stuck on a desert island easy?” She asked. I had to
laugh as well.
“Ok that ain’t easy but it’s easy compared to what it’s going to like
when we go on tour.” She nodded.
“I know. I really do know.”
“Really? You think you’ll be able to handle it? Coz if you’re not,
you’re going to have to tell me now because I couldn’t handle it
later.” She nodded.
“I can handle it. If I can’t, I’m just going to have to learn to
because I love you so much.” I nodded.
“Thank you. It’s just seeing Kayla today, made me realise how hard it
was for her to handle it and yeah. I just know how hard that was for me
and with you it’d be ten times worse so yeah. I had to know.”
“We’ll handle it J. We have to.” She sat up and wrapped my arms around
her. I smiled and kissed her head.
*Brian*
I opened the door to let Howie and Meghan in.
“Congratulations.” Megs said, hugging Meghan.
“Thanks.” She said back. I turned to Howie.
“Are you and Kevin trying to set a tend hey?” I asked him. He laughed.
“Nope. I just did what I wanted to do.” He wrapped his arms around
Meghan.
“Now are you guys gunna let us in or what?” Meghan said. We moved aside
and they headed in.
“Hey B, you reckon what’s going on with Kev is serious?” Howie asked.
“I don’t know. I think he was thinking about heading back down here.
You know, so they aren’t stuck in the middle of nowhere just in case.”
I replied. D nodded.
“I’d feel better if he wasn’t up there.” He said. I nodded.
“Definitely.”
“Does that mean we have to stay inside?” Megs asked. Howie and me
looked at each other.
“No one knows who you guys are so it should be cool.” I said.
“YAY!! We’re going shopping.” Meghan said. The two of them kissed us
and then headed out the door.
“You happy D?”I asked him. He nodded.
“Ecstatic.” He replied.
Back
Chapter 40
*Laura*
Nick and I walked inside my house after grocery shopping. We
threw the stuff down (well maybe not quite threw it but yeah) in the
kitchen and started to put it all away. About halfway through the phone
rang. I just kept putting the stuff away.
“Ain’t you going to get that?” Nick asked. I shook my head.
“It won’t be anyone important.” I replied, still putting the stuff away.
“I’ll get it them.” He sighed and headed over to the phone.
“Yallo.” He answered it. “Yeah, that’s here…. I’ll just get her for ya…
Can I ask whose calling?… Oh, I’ll just get her.” He turned to look at
me.
“Tell them I’m not here.” I said.
“It’s your mother.” He said, looking at me.
“What the hell is she doing calling?” I asked.
“I dunno. But she wasn’t happy that I answered the phone.”
“I bet she wasn’t.” I sighed and then took the phone off Nick. I hadn’t
talked to either of my parents since like before I left Australia and
that was like 3 years ago.
“Hi Mum. I said into the phone.
“Laura?” She asked.
“Yeah Mum, it’s me.” I replied.
“How are you?” She asked.
“Yeah, I’m ok. How are you and dad?” I asked her.
“Yeah we’re good. Who was the guy who picked up the phone?” I tried to
stay calm. How did I know that question was coming?
“That was Nick.” I replied.
“Why is he answering your phone?”
“Because him and me were grocery shopping and I was still putting the
stuff away.”
“He lives with you?”
“No mother he doesn’t live with me. Besides, it’s not any of your
business. I’m 22 years old. And it wouldn’t really matter if Nick lived
with me or not because we spent over a year stuck on an island
together, or did you not know that?” I said, sarcastically.
“So Nick was one of the people on the island with you?” She asked.
“Yes, Nick was. Now see if you’d come to the airport to see me you
would have known that.”
“Your father and I couldn’t make it.”
“I know. I was told.”
“Are you busy tonight?” She asked suddenly. I thought about it.
“Actually Nick and me have plans.” I said. Nick looked at me
questionably.
“Why don’t you both have dinner with us?”
“Aren’t you in Australia?”
“Nope, we’re in Florida for a week or so. For business you know.”
“Yeah of course. I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with Nick, hold up.”
I covered the phone up.
“You’re busy tonight aren’t you?” I asked him softly.
“No why?”
“Just say you’re busy.”
“But I’m not.”
“Well then. Do you want to have dinner with my parents?” I asked him,
trying to smile.
“Sure. I’d love to meet them.” I sighed.
“Ok.” I uncovered the phone. “We’ll be there Mum. Where do you want us?”
“How about you meet us at the hotel and we’ll go from there?” She said.
“Yeah ok.” I listened as she gave me the details to the hotel. I looked
over at Nick. This was not going to be good. I knew they were going to
hate him. They always hated everything about me.
*Meghan*
“So where to next?” I asked Megs. She looked around the mall.
“I think we pretty much have it covered.” She replied.
“We can’t have it covered. I only have…” I looked down at the bags in
my hands. “7 bags” I finished. She laughed.
“Well then we’ll just have to do them again then, don’t we?” She said.
I laughed and then nodded.
“Hey girl, you and D? You happy about that?” She asked. I looked at her
as headed inside a CD store.
“Why wouldn’t I be? He loves me and I love him. That’s all that
matters.” She looked at me and smiled.
“Good. You guys deserve it” I nodded.
“So what about Laura and Nick?” I said, changing the subject.
“It’s a bit weird but I’m happy for them.”
“Yeah me too. Do you reckon she’ll go on tour now?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“I was thinking that maybe she was going to hang around with me here.”
I said, sadly.
“Yeah, you’ll be the only one here, won’t ya?” I nodded.
“I’ll be right though.”
“If you want, I’ll hang around here with you.” She offered. I shook my
head
“Nah, I don’t want you to do that.”
“I already told B that I would have to be around for you.”
“But I don’t wanna spoil your fun.”
“How’s about I got for a month and then I come back for you?”
“You’d do that for me?”
“Hey, you’re family. Of course I would.”
“Family?” I asked her.
“Hey, we learnt to be. We spent a year on an island together.” I smiled
at her.
“Sami and Kev make a pretty good mom and dad hey?” I said. She laughed
and nodded.
“And Laura and Nick the youngest brats.” I joined in laughing with her.
“Thanks Megs.” I said, hugging her.
“For what?” She asked.
“For being there for me. I know I have D but having someone else is
great.”
“Hey whenever you need a shoulder, I’m here.” I smiled.
“Thanks.”
“And I know the other girls are too. We’re family. You remember that.”
I nodded. I looked inside the window of the clothes shop.
“Man, I can’t believe I missed that shirt.” I said, dragging Megs
inside.
Back
Chapter 41
*Nick*
“Nick, are you really going to wear that?” Laura asked me,
looking me up and down. I looked down at my clothes.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I asked. She paced the room, just
like she’d paced the kitchen and the games room and her own room since
her parents had called.
“You can’t wear that.” She muttered and headed to my wardrobe. Man, I
should have just left her at her house and then picked her up on the
way to the hotel. It might have been a lot easier. I walked up behind
her as she pulled out a black silk shirt and a black tie. She handed
them to me.
“Are you this sure they are going to hate me?” I asked her, taking them
from her. I didn’t want to wear them but if made her happy…
“Yes I am.” I dropped my eyes and started unbuttoning the shirt I was
wearing. “Nicky, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just my parents just
hate me and everything associated with me, so they are going to hate
you.” She tried to explain.
“Why do you think your parents hate you?” I asked her, wondering what
it would feel like to feel like your parents hated you.
“I just know it, ya know. When I was a kid all they wanted me to do was
look pretty and see I didn’t play the part well because I wasn’t into
pink frilly dresses or anything so yeah. We’ve never really even had a
relationship.” I looked at her. We’d never really talked about her
family before. I mean, on the island she couldn’t remember them so we
couldn’t talk then and after that I guess we never really got around to
it.
“Is that why you left Australia?” I asked her softly. She nodded.
“I loved Australia but I couldn’t stand being there with them any
more.” She looked up and me and smiled. She then took the clothes she’d
handed me out of my hand. “Wear what you wanna wear. It’s not going to
make any difference. I don’t want them to like you because you’re
trying to impress them. And you know what, I don’t even care what they
think. I love you and that’s all that matters.” I looked at the clothes
in her hand. I took them back. Now she had me worried. I wanted her
parents to like me and I was going to do whatever I could to make sure
that happened.
*Megs*
Meghan and me walked back into the house after our long shopping trip.
“Hello.” I called. The two guys walked into the foyer.
“My god, did you buy the whole mall or just half of it?” Brian asked us.
“Only half of it. There was that skirt I didn’t get to buy.” Meghan
joked. Howie looked at all the bags on our hands and just shook his
head.
“Remind me never ever ever to give either of you my credit card.” He
said. We all laughed.
“Us?” Me and Meghan both said innocently together.
“Don’t play innocent. We know what you’re really like.” Brian said.
“Hey I’m innocent.” I exclaimed.
“Yeah… right.” He said sarcastically. I pulled a face at him. He pulled
a face back.
“You know how not funny you are?” I asked him. He laughed and nodded.
“Anyway, what’s everyone’s plans for tonight?” Howie asked. Brian and
me looked at each other.
“Nothing much, what about you guys?” I asked.
“Nothing. Wanna do some thing together?” Meghan asked. I looked at the
guys.
“Think we can make it out the house before this mysterious stalker gets
us?” I asked them, jokingly.
“Nope, but we can do better.” Brian said.
“What’s that?” Meghan asked suspiciously.
“We’ve got bodyguards.” Brian said, in a sing-song voice. Meghan and I
exchanged a glance. ‘Bodyguards?’ We asked each other silently. And
they thought that was better. I guess it was better than having some
stupid stalker getting them and us so yeah.
“So what should we do?” I asked.
Back
Chapter 42
*Sami*
I tossed around in the bed. There was no way I was going to sleep. Not
after that phone call. I mean, it could have been nothing but I got the
feeling that it wasn’t. that somehow my past had caught up with me. I
looked across at Kevin next to me. He was fast asleep. ‘How the hell
did he sleep when we could have had this strange person in our house
that wanted to kill him?’ I asked myself. I got up out of bed and
headed downstairs into the kitchen. I grabbed a glass of water and
headed to the front door to make sure it was locked again. It was only
like the 50th time I had done that tonight. As I reached it, I noticed
an envelope on the floor. I felt a sense of dread as soon as I saw it.
I slowly leant down and looked at it. ‘Please god. Don’t let this be
what I think it is.’ I prayed. I took a deep breath before slowly
opening the envelope. I pulled out two pieces of paper that were
inside. I closed my eyes before looking. I already knew what they were
but I thought somehow if I closed my eyes and wished they would go away
they would. I opened them slowly. They were the backs of photos, I
could tell that. I slowly turned one of them around. It was a photo of
me and Kevin. Well it was a photo of me and Kevin. Before Kevin had
been burned out of it. I took another deep breath before turning the
other picture around. It was a picture of the 10 of us. The photo
pretty much no one had. This one was mine and Kevin’s. I could tell by
the mark across the middle of it. It was one of our favorites pictures
but now… somehow I don’t think it would be. I looked at the picture
with dread. Each of the faces had been crossed out. I slowly turned the
card over, knowing what would be on the back. ‘So, who should it be
first?’ Was all I got to read before running upstairs.
“Kevin!!!” I yelled, hoping he would wake up and we could get outta
here.
*Howie*
“How’s about we see if anyone else wants to come and we can all do
something?” Bri suggested. We all nodded. “I’ll call them, you guys
decide.” He said, walking outta the room. I looked at the girls.
“Any suggestions?” I asked them. They looked at each other.
“Can we just do a video and pizza night?” Meghan asked. I looked at her.
“Are you alright?” I asked, worried.
“Geez boy, I’m fine. I’m just tired that’s all.”
“You’re tired lots. Is it normal?” I asked.
“D, I’m pregnant. I’m supposed to be tired.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive. Now would you stop worrying ok?” I nodded.
“Good, now pizza and videos sound good?” She asked. She looked at Megs.
“Sounds great to me.” Megs replied. Brian walked back into the room.
“AJ and Tina are on their way and Laura and Nick are coming over after
Nick meets her parents.” Brian said.
“Laura’s parents?” Megs asked. Brian nodded.
“They are over here for some reason or another and Laura and Nick are
going out to dinner with them.” I started laughing.
“The poor guy. You know how Laura always talks about her parents. I
really do pity him.” I said. Brian nodded.
“He seemed pretty calm but she was freaking out.” We all laughed.
“So what are we doing?” Brian asked.
“Vids and a pizza.” I replied.
“Sounds great to. How’s about me and Megs get the pizza and vids while
you guys wait here for AJ and Tina.” Brian suggested. We all nodded.
Brian grabbed his keys and him and Megs headed outta the door.
Back
Chapter 43
*Tina*
AJ pulled the car into Brian’s driveway.
“Shouldn’t you park in the street? I mean, Brian’s cars not here.” I
said to him.
“No way. That’s his problem.”
“J, it’s his driveway.”
“Yeah it is. But my car’s parked here.” I shook my head at him before I
got out. We headed up and knocked on Brian’s door.
“Coming.” Howie said and a couple of seconds later the door flew open.
“You do know there’s a chance there’s this psycho stalker out there and
you’re throwing the door open to everyone.” AJ joked.
“I knew it would be you.” He replied, letting us in.
“I think that’s a compliment.” AJ said.
“No I heard the screech of the tires as you swung into the driveway.”
Howie told him. I laughed.
“I don’t drive that bad.” AJ protested.
“Yes yes you do.” I said him. He hit me.
“You’re supposed to be on my side.” He said. I pulled a face at him. He
pulled one back.
“So what we doing tonight?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Just watching some videos and hanging out. Is that Ok with you guys?”
Howie replied.
“And here I was all ready to go out to a club.” AJ said, jokingly.
“You can go all ya want but I got a pregnant fiance.” Howie told him.
“Yeah we’re staying.” AJ said. He grabbed my hand and dragged me over
to the couch.
“So what’s for dinner?” He asked.
*Kevin*
I woke up to Sami yelling my name frantically. I opened my eyes and
looked at her.
“Sami what is it?” I asked, trying to calm her down.
“We have to go. Get out of here.” She said. She jumped off the bed and
pulled a suitcase out. She began throwing her clothes into it. I just
lay there looking at her. She looked back at me.
“Kevin!! Now!!!” She yelled. I just kept looking at her. “Look, do you
wanna get yourself killed?” I just kept looking at her but shook my
head. “Then get up and pack. NOW!! I’ll explain when we get outta here
alright.” She seemed so panicked that I didn’t know what else to do
other than get up and grab my stuff. We packed in silence. Curiosity
got the better of me.
“Sami, what’s going on?” I asked.
“I can’t explain now. Just please trust me. We have to get out of
here.” I shut up and threw everything from the last drawer into my
suitcase. I looked at Sami. She was looking at me.
“You done?” She asked. I nodded. She grabbed my hand and dragged me
downstairs. “Get your keys.” She commanded. I grabbed my keys and
pretty much ran outside. We threw our stuff into the car and headed off.
“Sami, what’s going on?” I finally asked after about 10 minutes. She
looked over at me.
“You know how we thought there was someone after you?” She asked. I
nodded. “They aren’t after you. They are after me.” She told me.
Back
Chapter 44
*Brian*
“We bring food!!” I yelled walking into the house. Everyone ran out of
the lounge room. “Pizza?” AJ asked. I nodded.
“But there ain’t none for you.” I told him.
“Why not?” He asked.
“You parked in my spot.”
“It was an accident.” He replied, reaching for the pizza box. I pulled
it away. “Give me the pizza.” He said. I lifted it above my head. Megs
pulled my arm down and grabbed the box. “Hey.” I exclaimed.
“Sorry, I’m hungry.” She said, kissing me then opening the box and
grabbing a piece.
“You’re no fair.” I said to her, grabbing some pizza too.
“What movies did you get?” Howie asked.
“Special for you D… Parenthood.” I teased him.
“You’re kidding right?” He asked. I laughed and then nodded.
“You know how great it is going to be to show that movie to your kids.”
I told him. Howie hit me on the arm.
“Under no circumstances will my kids ever ever ever see that movie.” He
told us.
“But Howie… they’ll love it.” AJ teased him.
“They can watch up until the end.” Howie returned.
“Come on, admit it, you love that movie.” I told him. He shook his
head. He then reached over and grabbed the movies.
“Star Wars?” He asked. I nodded.
“It’s a good movie!!!” I said. Howie just shook his head and grabbed
the video. He led everyone into the lounge room and put the video in.
*AJ*
“That is like the greatest movie of all time.” Brian said, as the
credits rolled. I nodded in agreement.
“Males, they just like the fighting stuff.” Meghan said. Brian and me
both nodded. Brian stood up and grabbed a mop and threw me a broom.
Don’t ask me why the hell they were in Brian’s lounge room but hey…
this is Brian we are talking about. We started fighting each other with
them.
“Males…” Tina muttered. I ran over to her and kissed her, still
fighting Brian. “You know you love me.” I told her. She nodded.
“Unfortunately I do.” She replied., ducking the mop Brian swung at me
and missed. “Hey, that’s my girl.” I exclaimed. I then grabbed Megs and
pretended to hold her hostage. Brian put his mop down.
“Alright, I surrender, just please, let my girlfriend go.” He said,
mockingly. I laughed and let go of Megs. She was shaking her head at me.
“You guys know life around you is never boring.” I smiled and nodded.
“That’s what we’re here for babe.” I replied.
Back
Chapter 45
*Laura*
Nick stopped in front of the hotel my parents were staying at. Everyone
said their goodbyes and finally my parents left.
“That went well.” Nick sad, as he started to drive off. “I thought they
would be so much worse.”
“That’s only because they liked you.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” He asked. I looked at him and tried to smile.
“Yeah it is.” I said.
“Why do you not sound like it then?” He asked. I thought about that. I
knew I wasn’t happy about it but I didn’t really know why. I fell
silent thinking about it. “Hello, you still with me?” He asked. I
looked at him again.
“Yeah, I’m still here. I was thinking.”
“That’s what that clang clang noise was hey?”
“You are so not funny.”
“Yeah I am. Anyway, seriously, what were you thinking?”
“I was trying to figure out why I didn’t like the fact that you and my
parents got on so well.”
“And…?”
“And I’ve figured out that it’s because I’m been trying to get them to
like me for 21 years and you walk in and they like you in two minutes.
I think the fact that you’re the kid they always wanted bugs me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t care what they think of me any more but I mean, in
there, they were treating you more like their son than they treated me
like their daughter. It just gets to me hey.” I tried to explain.
“I don’t know why you think that. They were treating you like their
daughter.” He told me. I laughed.
“No way. We barely said three words to me the whole night and
everything they did say was negative.”
“That’s not true.” Nick said.
“Ok, tell me one thing they said to me that was nice.” He fell into
thought.
“They said you chose well in me.”
“That doesn’t count. They also added that they didn’t know what a guy
like you was doing with a guy like me.” I told him.
“Oh yeah.” He fell into thought again. “You know that doesn’t matter.
You have another family now.” Nick said. I nodded.
“I know”
“You know, speaking of family, we going to Bri’s?” He asked. I nodded.
“Sounds cool.” He nodded.
*Meghan*
I ran to answer the door. After checking to see who it was, I threw the
door open. “Hey guys.” I said.
“Hey, we’re not too late are we?” Nick asked. I shook my head.
“Nope but you missed AJ and Brian’s Star Wars .impersonation.” I told
them.
“Man, and that’s the only reason I came.” Laura said. We all laughed.
“Come on in. If I stand with the door open, someone is likely to yell
at me.
“Because of this stalker thing?” Nick asked. I nodded. They headed
inside and we joined everyone in the lounge room.
About three hours later, I noticed Laura has been slightly quieter than
she usually was. Well actually a lot quieter than she usually was.
“Hey Laws, I need some air, keep me company.” I said. She looked over
at me and nodded and the two of us headed outside.
“So what is it?” I asked, as soon as we sat down.
“What’s what?” She asked.
“The reason you’re quiet.”
“I’m quiet?”
“Yeah, now spill.” She sorta just looked at me. “I know I ain’t as good
at this as Sami but hey, I’m trying coz she’s not here.” Laura smiled.
“Nick met my parents tonight.” She said.
“And…? I’m thinking they didn’t like him.”
“No the opposite. They loved him.” Ok, sometimes I really didn’t
understand this girl.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked. She laughed.
“That’s exactly what Nick said.”
“Nut isn’t it?”
“Yes… no… I don’t know. They have never liked anything to do with
anything in my life and when they do…”
“You feel like there’s gotta be something wrong?” I was now starting to
understand this girl. She nodded.
“I love Nick, I really do but why do my parents have to like him too?”
I laughed. She was stressing about nothing.
“Trust me, I’m sure they’ll hate him once they actually get to know
him.” I told her. She laughed.
“Yeah true. He has that effect on people hey?” She said.
“Yeah. You better now?”
“Yeah thanks. You do do almost as well as Sami.” She reached over and
hugged me.
“It’s no problem sis.” I replied.
“We’re going to miss you on tour.” She said.
“Yeah, I’m going to miss you guys.”
“I’ll stay with you if you want to.” I shook my head.
“I’ll be right. But thanks for the offer.”
“No prob. What are sisters for hey?”
Back
Chapter 46
*Nick*
“Hey guys, what do ya wanna do now?” Brian asked as the second movie
finished. “Let’s just sit around and talk. You know like we were back
on the island.” Laura suggested.
“Everything was all so much easier on the island.” She said. Everyone
nodded in agreement.
“We didn’t have to worry about anything important.” AJ said.
“Except maybe where our next meal was coming from.” Meghan joked.
“Hey, I wasn’t the cook, I didn’t have to worry.” AJ replied.
“I know you got away with the easy job.” Meghan replied to him.
“You call building a hut an easy job. Girl that wasn’t easy.” Brian
told her.
“Have you tried finding food for 11 people for a year?” Megs asked him.
“It was 12 at the beginning.” I said softly. Everyone turned to look at
me.
“Oh yeah.” They all muttered.
“Kevin talked to her parents you know.” AJ said. I looked at him.
“He did?” I asked. He nodded.
“What did he tell them?”
“That she died trying to save our lives.” He replied. I nodded.
“That’s good. I wouldn’t want them to actually know…” I trailed off.
Laura put her arm around me.
“There’s nothing you could of done.” She said to me.
“I feel like I should have done something.” I said. I couldn’t believe
this was still bothering me. I mean, it had been over a year ago.
“We all feel like that Nick. But she didn’t want our help. You can’t
help someone who doesn’t want help.” AJ said. I nodded. A silence fell
across the room. I knew everyone well enough to know we were all
thinking the same thoughts. We were all thinking about the island.
“Everything was so much easier there, wasn’t it?” Tina asked. I nodded.
“Sometimes I wish I was back there you know. With all of you guys.” I
confessed.
“Me too. I felt so safe there in a weird way.” Brian added. I nodded in
agreement.
“The little things didn’t matter there. Things like hate and jealousy
and all of that. It didn’t exist there. It couldn’t, you know. We all
had to work together to survive the day.” Laura said.
“Exactly. People here don’t understand that and I feel like because I
do, I’m different from everyone else. Take Sarah for example, she was
my best friend, now we just don’t relate.” Howie said.
“I know what you mean. I’m like that with all of my friends. They just
don’t understand.” Meghan added. Everyone nodded.
*Megs*
I looked around the group of people in front of me. We were all so
different but for some strange unknown reason, they eight of us had
ended up on a desert island, pulling us together for life. Letting us
know something that no one else knows. Letting us form this bond that
will never be broken. I mean, we fight and everything but we’ll never
let something get in the way of our friendship.
“We have each other though.” Brian said, putting his arm around me.
“Definitely. And we will forever.” AJ added.
“And ever.” Nick added.
“I am so going to miss you guys on tour.” Meghan said.
“You know it’ll be the first real time we’ll be apart for almost two
years?” We all looked around. She was right. I mean, there were patches
where we hadn’t seen each other for awhile but nothing like going on
tour. It wouldn’t be the same.
“Are you coming at all?” Howie asked her. She shook her head.
“I can’t. The doctor said it would be bad for the baby.”
“Even if we don’t go on the plane, if we ride the buses the whole
time?” He asked. She looked at him surprised.
“I never thought of that.” She replied.
“So you might be able to come?” He asked. She nodded thoughtfully.
“Yeah!!” He yelled, kissing her.
“Hey, it’s not official yet.” She told him.
“I know but still… There’s a chance.” He said, kissing her again. I
looked around our group again. If someone asked me to explain what it
was like… I couldn’t. It was like this feeling of support and family
when I was with them. Something, unless you were in the position, you
just wouldn’t be able to understand.
Back
Chapter 47
*Sami*
“What do you mean, they are after you?” He asked me. I tried to
find the right to tell him this. Find the right way to explain why I
hadn’t told him.
“They are after me. It’s really hard to explain Kev. I am so sorry I
never told you… I was just scared and I was hoping that my past would
just stay in my past.” I tried to explain. “What past?” He asked. He
sounded kinda hurt that I hadn’t told him everything. I took a deep
breath. I couldn’t avoid it no more. I have to tell him. I have to tell
him about her. “If I tell you this, you have to promise to hear me out
ok?” I asked him.
“I promise.” He said. I think he realised that this story wasn’t going
to be easy for me to tell.
“Ok, it all started about three years ago. I fell in love with this
guy. His name was Greg. Me and him went out a couple of times. Little
did I know he had a girlfriend. A very jealous girlfriend at that.
Anyway, she caught the two of us together and she went psycho. Man, I
felt so bad. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. He never told me.
Anyway, a week later, I started to get these weird phone calls and then
these photos started appearing at my doorstep.” I was trying hard not
to cry as I remembered it.
“Photos?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah photos. Like of my friends and stuff, expect my friends had been
burnt out and stuff. They were really scaring. I tried to ignore them
and I put them all in a box and pretended they were there. That my best
friends weren’t being threatened. That is, until my best friend got
murdered. She’d killed her. All because of me. I don’t know what I did
to make her so psycho. I guess finding me and Greg together sent her
over the edge you know. Anyway, I tried to ignore the notes that were
coming in. I couldn’t do anything about them. I was trying to pretend
like these notes had nothing to do with Natalie’s death ya know. After
about four months, I guess she figured I had suffered enough and this
time she came after me. She would have killed me ya know, if my mother
hadn’t decided that day was a good day to visit me. She had the knife
to my throat and everything.” Now I couldn’t stop the tears. I could
still see the knife.
“What happened after that?” Kevin asked softly. I think he was kinda
stunned.
“She disappeared and I figured that would be the end of it. That was
just before we got lost though. I think now she’s back for revenge and
this time I think she’s not just going to stop at my best friend. She’s
going to want to kill all of us.” I said, honestly. Kevin pulled the
car over to the side of the road. I quickly wiped my tears away.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” He asked.
“I never knew how I guess. I never even told Brian. Thank god the girl
never knew he existed.” I replied.
“But now she does right?” I nodded.
“She’s know about all of us. And she was telling me she was trying to
figure out who she should kill first. And knowing her, she won’t wait
long. That’s what tonight’s phone call was for. It was to let me know
what she was going to do.” I tried to explain it but I wasn’t sure if
he understood how scary this girl was. I know from the story, she
didn’t seem that scary, but trust me she was.
“We have to tell the others.” Kevin said. I nodded and he grabbed his
cell. Maybe he had understood.
*Howie*
I got up to answer the phone.
“Hello, D speaking.” I answered it.
“D? It’s Kev.” The voice replied.
“Hey Kev…” I started.
“Look do you guys have the security on?” He asked.
“No, why?” I asked him.
“Just turn it on. Trust me. From what Sami just told me, you might be
needing it. Do you know where the others are?” He asked.
“Yeah they are here.” I replied.
“Look, don’t let them leave. You’ll be better off together.”
“Kev, what’s going on?” I asked, very confused.
“D, just trust me. If you want to stay alive. I don’t think you should
leave the house.”
“Yeah ok Kev, are you guys coming back?” I asked him.
“Yeah, we’re on our way now.” He said.
“I’ll let you drive then.”
“Just don’t leave. Please D.” I could hear the stress in his voice.
“We won’t.” I replied. And he hung up. I turned around and looked at
everyone. Laura and Nick were putting their coats on. “You guys can’t
leave.” I told them, heading to the front door to put the security on.
“Why not?” Nick asked coming up behind me. I turned around and looked
at him.
“Truthfully. I don’t actually know. But that was Kevin on the phone and
he said if you wanted to stay alive, the we had to stay together.” I
replied.
“What?” He asked.
“I don’t know. But Kevin doesn’t joke around about things like this.” I
reminded him. He just nodded and we headed back to the lounge room.
Back
Chapter 48
*Tina*
“I’ll get it.” I yelled running to the door as the doorbell rung. I
threw the door open. I ended up looking into the eyes of a girl I had
never seen before.
“Hey…” I started to yell to get Brian but the girl held a gun up to my
head.
“You yell and I pulled this trigger.” She said. I shut up pretty
quickly.
“Hey Tina…” Howie said, coming out. He stopped short when he saw me.
“Don’t answer the door.” He muttered, as the girl moved the gun further
into my head.
“Get inside.” She said, harshly. I moved as she shoved me. I looked
over at Howie. He went to run off.
“You move, she’s gone. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for your
best friend’s girlfriend’s death would you?” She asked. Howie shook his
head and stayed put.
“Where is everyone?” She asked.
“In lounge room.” Howie replied.
“Ok, let’s go pay them a visit ok.” The girl shoved me forward some
more. With that gun to my head, I didn’t have much choice but to go
along. We made it into the lounge room. “Is this everyone?” She asked
me before anyone noticed us. I looked around at the 4 other people in
the room and then nodded. AJ looked across.
“Oh my god.” He said, standing up.
“The only place you’re going is into the basement, unless you wanna see
you’re girlfriend’s brain all over the floor.” She said to him. AJ just
stopped moving completely. Everyone looked across.
“Everyone get up.” She yelled. Slowly everyone stood up.
“Now, get down the to basement now.” She yelled. Everyone moved in a
single line down to Brian’s basement. I followed the other five people
down there.
“Is this everyone? Are you sure?” She asked as she got us in the
basement and looked the door from the inside. I looked around at Brian,
Megs, Howie, Meghan and AJ and then nodded. Everyone else nodded. She
then let go of me and threw me across the room to where everyone else
was gathered. AJ wrapped his arms around me quickly. I looked up at the
door. ‘Please Laura, Nick…. Figure out what is going on…’ I prayed
silently, hoping she wouldn’t notice.
*Kevin*
“Kevin, something’s happening.” Sami said to me. I looked over at her.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know but I know something’s wrong.” She sounded really worried.
“With the others?” I asked her. She nodded.
“I just know something’s wrong. Don’t ask me how. Kevin, can you go any
faster?” She asked. I put my foot down on the accelerator some more. It
would still take us like three more hours to get back but hey. If I
sped we might get back quicker.
“Please let them be ok. Please let them be ok.” Sami repeated over and
over again. I didn’t want to say anything to her but I felt that
something was wrong to. Something bad was happening to everyone else.
Back
Chapter 49
“Look Miss. I don’t know what we did to you but really we didn’t mean
to.” Howie said to her. She moved the gun so it was facing him.
“I don’t wanna hear you.” She said.
“But really. Why don’t you just tell us what’s wrong and maybe we can
help.” He tried again.
“Are you deaf, dumb or stupid? I thought I told you to shut up.” She
said. “Or do you need a demonstration?” She said, holding the gun to
Meghan’s head.
“Please no. I’ll be quiet.” Howie said, quickly. She removed the gun
slowly.
“Maybe you aren’t stupid.” She said to Howie. She then took a couple of
steps back and looked around at us.
“Which of you is Brian?” She said. I looked at her.
“Why do you wanna know?” I asked. She grinned evilly at me.
“Guess you didn’t see this coming did you?” She asked. I had no idea
what she was talking about.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“Did the two of you really think that I was just going to let her get
away with what she did?”
“Who? What are you talking about?” I asked. I racked my brain, trying
to figure out who she could of been talking about.
“Oh my god. She didn’t tell you about me did she?” I just looked at her.
“Brian, what is she talking about?” Megs asked. I shook my head.
“I have no idea.” I replied.
“Man, you must be a bad best friend you know. She didn’t even think she
could trust you enough to tell you about me. It’s probably because you
were never around. That’s why I couldn’t kill you last time. I wanted
to, really I did but I could never get to you. You always had all these
bodyguards around you so I just couldn’t. I thought if I killed her
other closest friend, you might come running to help her out but you
didn’t. Any good best friend would of but you didn’t. Too caught up in
your own things to come back.” I slowly began putting the pieces
together. My best friend… Sami. One of her best friends died about two
years ago. I wanted to come back to make sure she was ok but she
wouldn’t let me. She said if I got on that plane, she would never speak
to me again. “You killed Sami’s friend?” I asked her.
“Ooh the boy is catching on.” She said. All the others looked at me.
“Why though?” I asked. She just shook her head.
“That’s for me to know and for you to find out.” She said, laughing.
*AJ*
I sat impatiently on the ground. Couldn’t she just kill us already?
What the hell was she waiting for? I hated waiting. I was so impatient.
Everything should happen now and you should have to wait for anything.
That was my motto. Even when I’m siting here with a girl who’s holding
us hostage, I still want everything to happen now. How screwed up is
that? I looked across at everyone else. As my eyes fell on Tina, I knew
that I didn’t want us to die. I wanted us to live and get married and
have kids. I didn’t want us to die here and even if I had to stay still
in this exact spot for days, I didn’t want to die before I got to do
all of those things. I looked across at the girl again. She was facing
another direction. I looked back at Tina again. She was trying to catch
my eyes. I looked at her, trying to figure out what she was trying to
indicate to me. She held up eight fingers and then changed them to six
and then indicted around the room. I looked around and tried to figure
out what the six meant. I counted the people in the room. Six. I looked
back at Tina. She pointed up to the door and then held up eight
fingers. I slowly counted the people that were upstairs in my head. Me,
Tina, Brian, Megs, Laura, Nick, Howie and Meghan. That made eight. How
come there was only six here? I looked around again. Nick and Laura
were missing. I played the last few minutes before this all happened in
my head.
~~~
Tina had just gone to answer the door
as Nick and Laura walked back in. “Aren’t you guys going?” I asked.
“Nah, D said Kevin said we have to
stay.” Nick replied.
“Did the doorbell ring?” Laura asked.
I nodded. The two exchanged a look.
“Tina’s gone to get it.”
“Hey Tina.” Howie yelled from the
kitchen.
“He’ll handle it I guess.” Nick said.
“Since, we’re stuck here, let’s go and get a drink.” Nick said, taking
Laura’s hand and leading her into the kitchen.
~~~
I looked at Tina again and she nodded. I looked at her and smiled.
Maybe there was hope for us after all. At that moment, the girl stopped
and looked over at me and Tina. I quickly wiped the grin off my face.
She just glared at the both of us, thankfully not noticing my grin.
Back
Chapter 50
*Laura*
Nick and I looked around the corner of the lounge room. No one was
there.
“Ok, did I just see what I think I saw?” I asked Nick, slowly.
“If you saw a girl holding a gun to Tina’s head, I saw it too.” He
said. I looked at him.
“Where did they go?” I asked.
“She took them into the basement.” He replied.
“Ok, so what do we do?” Nick grabbed the phone that was next to him.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
“Kevin, he seems to know what might be going on.”
“Shouldn’t you call the cops?”
“What? And have them come in here doing their whole ‘we have the place
surrounded’ routine and get everyone down there killed, I don’t think
so. Kevin knows why she is here and that might help us to figure out
how the hell to help them.” He explained. I grabbed my necklace around
my neck and started playing with it. I always did that when I was
nervous. God, if I was nervous, what the hell would they be feeling
down there? Fear?… terror?… It would be torture sitting down there with
a gun held to your head. Man, I hope Meghan’s ok. If she gets stressed,
it’s really not good for the baby. Nick began to dial the numbers. I
held his hand, stopping him.
“You’re just going to worry him.” I said. “He’ll speed the whole way
here and probably smash the car up in the process.” I explained.
“He has to know!!” Nick said.
“He doesn’t.”
“What else should we do?” He asked. I grinned evilly. I had a plan.
*Meghan*
I sat there holding Howie’s hand. I knew I couldn’t get worked up. I
just couldn’t. Someone was going to find us. Even if we had to wait for
Kevin and Sami to get here, but someone would. I mean, Laura and Nick
were up there but that didn’t mean nothing. I mean, the two of them
probably hadn’t even noticed that we were missing. They were too caught
up in their own world. Even if they had they wouldn’t know what to do.
I mean, the two of them weren’t exactly the smartest people in the
world. Suddenly there was a big crash from upstairs. Every single one
of us jumped, wondering what the hell that was. The girl waved the gun
around at us.
“I thought you said there was no one else upstairs?” She asked us. I
thought quickly.
“There wasn’t. It’s probably just Brian’s dog.” I said. Brian nodded.
“Yeah, he was outside when you got here but about now he always come in
for sleep.” Brian added, looking at his watch for effect. She looked
around at each of us.
“I’m going to check. If you guys are lying…” She started. All of us
looked at each other as she turned around. Hopefully Nick and Laura
were outta the way if she decided on going up there.
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Chapter 51
*Nick*
Laura and I looked at each other. She was coming up the stairs. We both
could hear that. I counted the footsteps out to Laura. She reached the
top step and I lifted the mop that I was supposed to use to knock her
out. The door opened and as if she knew I was standing there, she
slammed it into my face. I fell the ground, closing my eyes with the
pain for a second. I opened them to see the girl standing in front of
me holding the gun to Laura’s head. I slowly started to stand up,
trying to figure out what the hell to do. This was not supposed to
happen. Our perfectly planned out plan was not going as planned. Ok,
way too many plans in that sentence.
“Kid, I have a gun to your girlfriend’s head, do you really think it’s
a wise idea to move?” She asked, sarcastically. I slid back down the
wall to the floor. There was no way I was putting Laura’s life at risk.
She stood there for awhile, trying to figure out what the hell to do
with us, I guess. I let her stand there and ponder but I couldn’t sit
here and watch her hold a gun to Laura’s head, I had to look away. I
turned my head and my eyes fell on Brian’s dog, Tyke. He did not look
happy to have people he didn’t know inside his house. I stopped myself
from smiling as he slowly headed over to the girl.
“Hey!!” The girl screamed as Tyke decided to take a chunk outta her
leg. She dropped the gun slightly, giving Laura enough time to grab it
and twist it around so it was pointing at the girl’s head now instead.
“Hey” She exclaimed again.
“You know, I wouldn’t be making too much noise about now since my
girlfriend is holding a gun to your head.” I said, sarcastically to
her. She just glared at me.
“Hey Nicky, you wanna take this gun and I’ll go and call the cops hey?”
Laura suggested. I looked at her. She looked so awkward holding a gun
in her hand. She definitely wasn’t used to them. I started laughing.
“What? I’m an Australian, I didn’t grow up with guns at all.” She said.
I tried to calm down and I got up slowly.
“Wow, pain.” I said to myself as I headed over and took the gun out of
her hand.
“You call the cops and then tell the others it’s ok.” I said to her.
She nodded and headed off into the other room to the phone.
“Sit down.” I said to the girl. She slowly moved over to the couch and
sat down. I sat down on the chair opposite, keeping the gun on her.
*Megs*
“Ok, what’s going on up there?” I asked, as everything fell silent.
“I dunno.” Howie replied. I looked around at everyone.
“Is anyone else thinking it’s scary to leave our lives in the hands of
Nick and Laura?” AJ asked.
“I am.” I replied.
“Hey, you guys better be nice to us. We just saved your butts.” Laura
said, coming down the stairs. I looked around behind her.
“Where’s…” Brian started.
“Nick’s got a gun to her head at this exact moment.” She replied.
“You mean…?” AJ asked.
“I mean, you guys are outta here and the cops are on the way.” We all
stood up and ran over to her, hugging her. “You know, being able to
breathe here would probably be good.” She said, from under us. We all
laughed and pulled back a bit. “Thank you. You know, I save your life
and all you guys do is strangle me.” She said. Everyone laughed.
“Now come on, you guys have gotta thank Nick too.” She slipped out from
our arms and headed upstairs.
“Man, it’s gunna be good to get outta here.” AJ said.
“We weren’t in there for long AJ.” Tina teased him.
“I know, but I was starting to go crazy.” He replied. Everyone laughed,
half outta relief and the other half due to AJ’s impatient ness.
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Chapter 52
*Sami*
We pulled into Brian’s driveway, wondering about all the cop cars
parked out the front. Kevin and I looked at each other and sprinted to
the door. Kevin went to open it but was stopped by a cop.
“Sorry, crime scene.” He said.
“But those are my friends in there.” Kevin protested, trying to push
through. My brain went into over time. What could have happened? Could
someone have been hurt? Every possible negative scenario ran through my
head.
“Are they all ok?” Kevin asked. The guy nodded.
“They are a bit shaken up but they are all ok.” He replied. Both of us
sighed with relief.
“Thank god.” Kevin said. I was thinking the exact same thing.
“Kev, man, how is ya?” Nick asked, nodding at the guy at the door. He
moved aside to let Nick pass.
“Ok, what the hell happened?” Kevin asked. Nick looked over at me.
“Seems like Sami made some enemies that decided to pay us a visit.” I
knew Nick was only teasing me but I felt so guilty. Whatever happened
was all my fault.
“Nick, shut up. She feels guilt enough.” Kevin said. Nick looked over
at me.
“Sam, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to. I was just joking. You know
me. Speaking before thinking. That’s how I always am.” He said. I tried
to smile to let him know it was ok.
“But everyone’s ok anyway. Thanks for Tyke.”
“Tyke?” Kevin asked.
“Really long story. Come inside and when all the coppers have finished
with us, we’ll fill you in.” Nick said. We both nodded and followed him
inside. This time the cop let us in. I guess it was because we were
with Nick.
*Howie*
“Ok, let me get this straight… Laura and Nick saved you?” Kevin asked.
Everyone laughed at the disbelief in his voice.
“Hey, that’s the last time I’m saving you.” Nick said to all of us.
“It’s the only time you’re ever going to need to.” AJ replied. Nick
stuck his tongue out at AJ. AJ stuck his out back.
“And you guys need to be growing up sometime this millennium.” Kevin
said.
“Hey we haven’t had you around to keep us in line.” Nick replied.
“It’s been… what a couple of days.” Kevin asked them.
“Yeah true but hey. It’s best to blame you hey.” AJ replied. Kevin then
turned to Sami.
“So who won?” He asked.
“Won?” She asked him.
“The bet.” He replied.
“What bet?” All of us asked at once.
“I think we drew.” Sami replied.
“Yeah. I mean everyone is sorta happy but they we’re and they did have
problems.” Kevin replied.
“So, we’re both organizing?” Kevin asked. Sami nodded.
“Ok… hold up… what did you guys bet on?” Laura asked.
“You guys.” Sami replied.
“Hey!!” All of us exclaimed together. Both of them laughed.
“You die now.” AJ said, as he lunged for Sami and Kevin with a pillow
from the couch. Soon everyone was involved in the fight. I just sat
back and laughed. ‘THUD!’ I got hit on the head. I turned around.
“AJ!!”I yelled, grabbing a pillow and getting myself involved.
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