“God, I am SO bored!” I whine throwing myself down on the couch in the games room at the latest arena. We’re now in Seattle and Jade has been gone almost two weeks. I really miss having her around to hang out with. Nick and Brian are playing on the X-box and pretty much ignore me. “GUYS?!” I yell.
“We heard,” says Nick without even looking at me.
“You’re bored,” says Brian. “Ow! Killer kick dude! How’d ya do that?!”
“I’m good,” Nick smirks as his game character delivers another roundhouse kick to Brian’s.
“Don’t you even CARE?!” I try again.
“What do you want me to do?” asks Nick. “I gotta be here cos of the conference in twenty.”
“I know that! I’m just BORED.”
“Go do something then,” suggests Brian.
“Yeah, go shopping or somethin’,” adds Nick and I groan.
“Oh yeah, REAL fun shopping alone. I miss Jade.”
“I do too,” says Brian.
“But it’s ok for YOU! You have stuff to do,” I whine.
“Not at night I don’t,” he mutters.
“Go take some more photos,” Nick says.
“I already took ‘em all.”
“I don’t know then!” Nick gets frustrated. “God Ali, just FIND something instead of whining about it.”
“Gee, thanks for the support,” I say dryly.
“You say the same when I whine,” he mutters. “Not that I WHINE…”
“You whine,” Brian and I say at the same time and then bust up laughing.
My cell rings and I answer it quickly. Jade’s number comes up on caller ID.
“Hello, thank you for saving me. I was about to DIE of BOREDOM,” I say dramatically and she laughs.
“Hey Ali. Don’t say my name or let Brian know it’s me.”
“Uh, ok… Why?”
“I wanna ask you a favour. Ya know the AMAs are next week?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Ok, I’m gonna tell Brian I can’t go…”
“You can’t?! That SUCKS!” I interrupt. “Tell Bi… uh, HER to go to hell and that you’re coming!”
“We done?” she asks amusedly. “Let me finish Ali! I’m gonna be there but I wanna surprise him.”
“Oh, ok,” I say a little embarrassed. “So what?”
“I need you to let me know what seats you guys have so I can arrange to be by Brian.”
“Ah, ok!” I giggle. “Cool idea. I think I have it noted in my diary,” I pull out my bag from under the couch and find the information. “Uh, how do I say this without…”
“Without them guessing? Uh, use code.”
“Like what?”
“Like…uh… I know, it’s alphabetical rows right?”
“Uh huh.”
“And numbered seats?”
“Yup.”
“Ok, gimme Brian’s seat by saying two words – the first word is the alphabetical and…”
“I get it. Uh, lemme see…” I think hard. “Coffee nine.”
“C9?”
“Yup.”
“Cool. Thanks Ali!”
“No worries. I’m still bored though,” I add with a whine.
“Sorry, can’t help there,” she giggles and hangs up.
“Thanks,” I mutter and put the phone away.
“Who was that?” asks Nick.
“Uh, it was… My mom, yeah,” I think quickly.
“Oh ok,” Nick says. “You’re still bored huh?”
“Yup.”
“You KISSED Farrah?!” Nick exclaims.
“Shush!” Brian mutters. “Ali CANNOT hear about this.”
“She won’t, I promise,” Nick swears. “What happened?”
“We were just talking and she said she missed me and then she kissed me.”
“But you’re still with Jade right?”
“Jade’s not here Nick,” Brian says. “Farrah is.”
“I thought you LOVED Jade?!”
“I do but I don’t know that she loves me.”
“She does!”
“I’m just scared of her turnin’ around and telling me she’s leaving.”
“Jade wouldn’t do that! Don’t ya think she woulda done it already if she was gonna?” Nick reasons.
“Maybe but… Farrah’s asked me if we could get together again,” Brian confesses and Nick stares at him. “Relax bro, I said no. But… It made me think a little about Jade. Maybe I should let her go.”
“Jade doesn’t want to be let go,” Nick says. “What brought this on?”
“I dunno. I guess cos she left the tour…”
“She’s comin’ back,” Nick interrupts.
“God, I don’t know!” Brian exclaims. “Just seein’ Farrah again, it stirred up old stuff. Stuff I thought I’d gotten over.”
“You’re not seein’ her again?” asks Nick warily.
“Well, uh…” Brian looks guilty.
“What have you done?”
“Uh, she’s comin’ to the AMAs with us…”
“WHAT?!” Nick explodes and Brian flinches.
“Relax dude! She wants to get some contacts for her modelling career and… Well, Jade’s not goin’ so I offered her my spare ticket.”
“You better pray Jade don’t find out,” Nick warns.
“How would she?”