Chapter Ten

"I'm so sorry Mariah. If I'da known and hadn't been so stupid, I would have went down there." John said to me.
"It's okay. Her second husband fell for the same trick." I answered quietly, out of breath. I smiled a bit to prove it was really okay.
"Poor baby. You look exhausted. Come sit in a chair and wait for her to leave. Then you can lie down." Diana said.
"You can sleep on my bed for a while." John offered.
"Hey! Your first real bed!" Zac shouted enthusiastically.
"Yeah." I smiled. Tay helped me over to the lawn chair my mom had vacated.
"So where's she gonna stay?" Ike asked no one in particular.
"With me, if she wants." John supplied. "We can fix the guest room. Does that sound okay?" They all turned to look at me, but I was fast asleep.
"I'll go check on Lisa." John said.

********************

"Wake her up Tay." Zac pushed. "She's gone."
"Okay. Maaariiiiahhh. Wake up." He called softly, shaking me.
"Wha-? Oh. Hi Tay."
"I'm here too!"
"Hello Zac. I'm sorry."
"You can go into the house now. She's gone." Zac told me.
"Thanks."
"We didn't want to wake you, but we wanted to say good bye. We're leaving. Going home." Tay added.
"Already?" I yawned.
"It's been a few hours. Besides. We can visit eachother. We're only a couple blocks away."
"Really?"
"Yeah. How 'bout we'll come over and visit tomorrow."
"Great. You know what? We never finished talking about your music."
"That'll give us something to talk about tomorrow then." Tay smiled down at me. I pushed myself up so I was standing. Tay placed a hand on my shoulder to steady me. I wrapped an arm around his neck and called Zac over and put my other arm around his neck.
"Thank you so much for helping me. And Zac, if it wasn't for that curious mind of yours, I'd still be in the basement starving." I kissed him on his cheek. he grinned at Tay. "And if you hadn't been there to help me up the stairs, brush my hair and stuff, I'm not sure I'd be this happy." I kissed his cheek. He grinned at Zac. They both looked at me.
"You're welcome." They each kissed one of my cheeks. "We'll be back tomorrow to see how you're doing." Tay said.
"Great. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow."
"Zac! Tay! Bye and good luck Mariah!" Diana called. They let me go, and I braced myself by holding on to a nearby table.
"Bye guys."
"Bye Mariah."
"Bye Diana!" I called. John came out and helped me walk inside to the guest room.
"Hungary?"
"Starving!"
"Climb into this bed here and I'll bring you any food you want." He helped me get under the covers. "Here's the remote for the t.v." he handed it to me. "So what do you want to eat?"
"How 'bout a cheese pizza?"
"Coming right up. Anything else?"
"I think that'll be enough for now, thanks." He ordered in cheese pizza and went into the livingroom to wait. I turned on the t.v. and flipped through the channels. I came across M.T.V. I watched Matchbox 20's '3 a.m.' video. When it ended, I decided to head to the bathroom during the couple of commercials. I pushed back the covers and swung my legs over the side. I slowly stood up. The next video started. 'They sound really young.' i said to myself. I looked over at the t.v. 'It couldn't be.' Ilooked closer and listened to the lyrics of the song.
"Sittin' on the side, waitin' for a sign, hopin' that my luck'll change..." It was! or was I imagining it? Were Zac, Tay and Ike really on t.v.?
"When you live in a cookie cutter world, if you're different you can't win- so you don't stand out, and you don't fit it. Weird." I sat back down on the bed. 'Is that really them?' The video ended, and I read the little title thing. "Weird. Hanson. Middle of Nowhere. Mercury Records." They look like them and have the same last name- it had to be them. Didn't they say they were musicians? I didn't know thay were that professional. Wow. I deffinitely have to research this tomorrow. I actually made it to the bathroom this time. I made my way back to the bed. A couple minutes later, John brought in the pizza. We ate and watched M.T.V. together. I must have fallen asleep while eating, because the next thing I knew, the sun was shining high in the sky and the t.v. was off, and our mess from dinner had been cleared from the bed.
"Good morning Mariah! So? How does it feel to sleep in a bed?"
"Wonderful. It's so soft and warm. I love it." I pulled the covers up to my chin and smiled.
"I heard you're having a visitor today."
"How did you hear?"
"He called about ten minutes ago to see if you were up yet."
"So? What'd you tell them?"
"Half an hour."
"So I have twenty minutes to get ready."
"How much ready do you plan on getting? You're staying in bed until you've gained some weight."
"Fine." I sighed. I looked out the window. I sat up, leaning against the headboard and reached for my messy braid. I pulled out the rubber band and shook out my hair. I quickly did it into a neat French braid.
"How'd you do that?"
"Plenty of practice."
"I see. Well, call if you need anything. If I would have known you were down there, I would have helped you."
"I know John. You've helped me already." He left my room, so I sat back and watched t.v. Fifteen minutes later, Tay appeared in my doorway.
"How're you doing?" He asked.
"As good as ever. I have t.v., food, light, a bed, attention, everything I've ever dreamed of." "Honestly, you're doing okay?"
"Yeah. i would have gotten dressed, but John said I had to stay in bed until I gained some weight."
"You should listen to him. He's right."

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