Someone grabbed my shoulder, and I whirled around, and pushed Joey away. "Leave me alone," I hissed, pushing my hair out of my face. I turned back around, and started walking again.
"Meredith! Wait!" I heard someone call. I hesitated, and looked behind me. I recognized the woman running after me, as Lance’s mom. I stopped. "What’s going on?" she asked, as she came up to me.
"I wake up, and my friend is in the back room, telling everybody what my problems are!" I yelled. "What kind of friend is that?" I asked, lowering my voice. The wind swept my hair around, and I grabbed at it, frustrated.
"I don’t know," she said, truthfully. "But listen. Come, ride our bus. You don’t have to ride the boys’ bus, if you feel uncomfortable doing so." She sighed, as I nodded my head yes, and we started back toward the buses.
"Hold on," I said, looking at the other bus. "I need to get something." Diane said okay, and I got on the other bus. "I’m not staying on this bus," I told James, so that he wouldn’t take off. "I’m just getting something." I wakled swiftly to my bunk, and grabbed my bag. "Okay," I whispered, making sure I had everything. I went back to the front, and started to get off the bus.
"Where are you going?" I heard. I twisted my head around, to see Justin staring at me.
"I can’t stay on this bus. I’m going to go ride with your mom. At least she doesn’t need to know my past." Justin’s face dropped.
"We just wanted to know what was going on with you!" he called after me.
I looked back at him, as I held onto the door. "Yeah. Well, now you do. Where do you think knowing about my past is going to get you? Nowhere. Aren’t you happy that you divulged my secrets, and now I’m not talking to any of you? Huh? Aren’t you just pleased?" I slammed the door shut.
***
"Meredith," Lynn said. "I know that you’re mad at them, but you do have to do your job. Now, please, they have a photo shoot. Go make sure they don’t look like they normally do." She smiled.
"You mean, like losers?" I bitterly asked.
"Well, yeah." She sighed.
I left her standing there, without saying bye, and immediately felt bad. Lynn hadn’t done anything wrong to me. I turned back around to say bye, but she wasn’t there. I sullenly stalked into the other room, to see the guys sitting around.
"Okay. Get up. I need to do my job," I snapped. They stood up, immediately. I gazed over their outfits. "What is this? Let’s all wear red and white?" I groaned. "You do not make my job easy."
I saw Lance give Justin a look. Justin rolled his eyes. "Justin," I said. "You look okay. Your hair, I mean. Joey . . . please, cut your hair soon. Lance, it’s fine, but I’m just hoping that the ‘just dyed’ look grows out soon. Chris, please wear a bandanna over your hair. It’s doing this weird, funky looking thing. And JC." I sighed. "Put on a hat, too. I don’t know what with your hair. Did you sleep with it wet? Because it’s going everywhere."
They all looked at each other, and started to move. JC sat still, staring at me. I looked away, and left the room.
***
"What’s with her?" Joey asked, annoyed.
"She’s peeved at the fact that we know," Justin said. "The day that she switched buses, she said, something like, ‘Are you glad that you know my past, and now I don’t want to talk to you guys?’. Or something like that. But that’s the drift I got."
Susie looked at the floor. "I’m sorry," she whispered. "It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said anything. She wouldn’t have gotten mad, if we had just left her alone, like she wanted."
JC got up, and silently left the room, and bumped into Lynn. "Sorry," he said.
"It’s okay, JC," she told him. "What’s the matter?"
"Well, it’s just . . . I hate to see her like this." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I don’t know what to do."
"Honey, things will return to normal soon. I’m sure of it." She smiled. "Now, we need to head out to the shoot. I was just about to get ya’ll." She went forward, and entered the room, leaving JC in the hallway.
***
"I shouldn’t have gotten Susie to tell," JC whispered. I looked down at my hands. I slowly pushed my pride aside, and stepped out into his view. "Meredith?"
My inside turned. Why couldn’t he just call me ‘Mere’? "I’m sorry," I told him, after a long pause. He showed a small smile on his face.
"Really?" he asked. I nodded, staring at the floor. He stepped up to me, and I was about to hug him, until we heard a shrill shriek. We both swirled around, to see a girl about 12, standing at the end of the corridor. "Oh geez," JC groaned. He gave me an apologetic smile.
The girl ran up to us. "Oh my God, you’re JC!" she said, excited. He nodded his head. He backed up a few feet, to where he was against the door, and knocked on it, three times, then once, then twice. That happened to be their code to stay in the room, when a crazy fan was on the loose.
"What’s your name?" he asked her.
I looked at him, then backed away. I didn’t feel like dealing with any star-struck little girls at the moment. "I’ll see you at the shoot" I mouthed. He nodded his head. I rounded the corner, and bumped into Laura. "Hey," I said quietly.
She looked behind her. "You’re talking to me now?" she asked.
"Yeah. Sorry about . . . all . . . that." I looked around me. "I don’t know what to say, I think." Laura laughed, which eased my tension. I smiled. "You going to the photo crap thing?"
She shook her head. "I was thinking about walking around. I don’t feel like being near all that." She shrugged. "Susie’s coming with me. You want to?"
I shook my head no. "I’m going to spend some time with JC. To make up for the time I was being a -"
"Bitch?" Laura put in.
"Yeah, pretty much." I agreed. I looked at my watch. "I better go. The guys are probably waiting. Unless they decided that they should leave without me. I wouldn’t be surprised."
"Nah. JC would make ‘em wait." Laura grinned. "I’ll see you later. Oh, we’re all going clubbing tonight," she mentioned. "We hadn’t planned on telling you, but I don’t see why now. You should go."
I could understand why they hadn’t planned on inviting me, as I nodded. "I’ll see you there." I walked away, to the front of the hotel, and saw the guys watching for me.
"There she is," he told everyone. "Let’s go."
