Three: Leave It Up To Me
Why is it that when a girl breaks up with you, it’s never really over? I mean, Kels was the one who broke up with me. So logically, shouldn’t I be the one calling her every hour, pinging for her and begging for her to take me back? Apparently not. Apparently, it’s her job to call me all the time, and beg for me to take her back. But she ended it! This makes no sense.
And let me tell you, it’s fucking annoying.
The next day we were hanging around in the stadium (damned if I could tell you which city I was in… go to Kevin if you want that kind of information.) waiting for soundcheck to start. The dancers didn’t usually have to come to soundcheck, so that’s why I was pretty surprised when I saw Danica bounce through the door.
I’m not even joking with you, she really bounced through the door. Well, not literally, but she had an undeniable giddiness to her. That was Danica for you, you could tell exactly how she was feeling just by watching her. It was pretty clear that she was in a good mood that afternoon as she walked towards me, a huge grin on her face.
“What’s up, Dani?” I asked lightly, taking a swig from my water bottle. I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket, but ignored it. What was the point? I knew it was just going to be Kels again. I really should get my number changed.
But Danica just grinned and put her hands on my shoulders. “Come with me.” She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me away from the others. I reluctantly followed her, wondering what she could possibly want that couldn’t be said in front of everyone else. I swear, she was such a teenage girl sometimes.
“Okay.” She said, still smiling as she pulled me a reasonable distance away from everyone else. “I have the best plan ever.”
I gave her a strange look. “What are you talking about?”
She continued to beam as she told me her idea. Her incredibly crazy idea, I might add. “The greatest plan ever. To get AJ off my back.” She said, and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, which took me by complete surprise. “Darling.”
I stared at her, completely confused. “What?”
“You and I are going to pretend to be going out.” She finished, with a little too much enthusiasm. Remember what I told you about her being a teenage girl? This was straight out of something like Dawson’s Creek.
I can’t even begin to tell you what I thought when she said that to me. First of all, Dani and I are friends, that’s all! Second of all, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of in my life. Pretending to date someone just to get someone else off your back? How immature and petty. And of course, it would be incredibly awkward having to do coupley things with her like holding hands and whispering sweet things to each other. Just…no. “Dani, that’s ridiculous.” I said flatly.
Her expression totally changed. I think she really thought I was going to be just as excited about this as she was. “What? Why not?”
“Because!” I exclaimed, not really sure how to explain it to her. “You and I are friends, can you imagine how awkward that would be?” I said, grabbing her hand and lacing her fingers with mine, to prove my point. She looked down and bit her lip, and quickly glanced back up at me, pulling her hand away. “See?” I asked. “It’s fucking weird!”
“But Nick.” She pleaded. “It’s such a good plan! And it would be so fun.”
I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I hated to upset her, especially since she’d been so excited about this, but there was just no way I could do it. “Dani, it’s just too awkward. You and I are way too close of friends for this to ever work, and to even be believable.”
She crossed her arms and glared at me. “I need to get AJ off my back, and this is the only way I know how!” She said.
I shook my head. “Why don’t you just tell him the truth instead of playing stupid games?” I asked her. Okay, that came out a little more bitter than I’d intended, but it still made sense. All this would do would make AJ angry with me for taking his “woman”.
“You don’t think I’ve tried?” She shot back, angrily. It was pretty clear she was getting annoyed with me dismissing her “brilliant plan”. Dani doesn’t much like it when things don’t go her way. “He just won’t stop!”
I really did want to help her, and I had to admit, it did sound like fun… but with Dani? No, that would just be way too weird. “I can’t.” I said dumbly, and she just pouted. “It’s just too weird!”
But Dani persisted. “And what better way to get rid of Kels?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
Okay, I have to admit that was a good point. But still not good enough for me to risk any drama happening with AJ, and it still didn’t change the fact that pretending to date Dani would be way too strange. “You know what’s a good way to get rid of Kels that doesn’t involve scheming?” I asked, and Dani just stood there waiting for my response. “This.” I said, taking my phone out of my pocket and turning it to silent. “Ignoring her phone calls also works.”
“Fine.” She said, admitting defeat. “But you have to admit, it would have been fun.”
“No, it would have been weird.” I corrected her.
“Just think about it, okay?” She asked, and glanced over at the others. She grinned a little when she noticed AJ was watching us. “And let me know.” With that, she kissed me on the cheek once again and walked off with a smirk on her face.
What the hell? Did she actually just do that, did she just put her plan into action without my consent? I shook my head and walked back to my seat, but before I could ignore the questions by listening to my discman, AJ was already asking them.
“What was that all about?” He prodded, and I took in a deep breath. I really wasn’t sure what to do or say.
“Nothing.” I said, giving him a fake smile. “Don’t worry about it.” And with that, I slipped my earphones on and tried to forget about Dani’s insane plan.
The concert went on without incident. Dani doesn’t dance with me, she dances with Brian but every so often I’d catch her eye and she’d grin or wink at me. I have got to tell you, it is fucking weird to see your best friend making passes at you like that. Yeah, Dani’s a chick and all, but still! She’s my friend, it’s weird as hell.
After the show, we ran straight to the tour busses as usual. Hanging around backstage was never an option, we were running for the busses before the band had even stopped playing. By the time the lights came on in the stadium, we were already back at the hotel. I have to hand it to management, they were pretty good at keeping us safe from the crazy fans.
Of course once we were back at the hotel, that was a different stop all together. We always had a floor to ourselves, but they didn’t do the greatest job of keeping people off of it. They usually announced a different hotel than we were going to be at, which worked for keeping fans away. It didn’t work quite so well for other people.
Like crazy ex girlfriends, for example.
I was the first one off the bus and into the hotel, once again, that was a common occurrence. I hated being on the bus, and since I was the most popular (not that I like to brag or anything… okay, well actually I do.) I took priority.
Stepping off the elevator, I walked towards my room and came face to face with the exact person I didn’t want to see.
Kels.
“Nick!” She exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck. I rolled my eyes. What the hell was with her? Was she never going to give up? “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Of course I’m here.” I said, pushing her off me. “It’s my God damn hotel room, Kels!”
She giggled and twirled a piece of hair around her finger. God, kill me now. Could she be trying any harder to seduce me? No way in hell that was going to happen! “I know that. I’ve missed you, Nicky.”
I just shook my head. “Kels, you need to go.” I said sternly.
But she didn’t budge. This was getting way out of hand. “I’m not going anywhere until you take me back.” She said, with just as much stubbornness.
“No.” I said, starting to get angry. “There is no way that is ever going to happen. You and I are over. Done.” I surprised even myself a little with that. I mean, as much of a crazy bitch that Kels is, she’s still hot as hell. And she was beginning to make it hard for me to resist.
She put her hands on her hips, and flipped her bleached blonde hair over her shoulder. “Give me one good reason.” She said, narrowing her eyes at me.
There were a million good reasons. She was a psychotic untrusting bitch, for starters. We fought all the time, we didn’t have anything in common except for music, and even that didn’t count because her career was a complete joke. Sure, there were a million things I could have said, but damned if I could think of one at that moment as she looked at me, waiting for an answer. Ignoring my phone only worked, well, when she was calling me. But here she was, standing right in front of me, begging for me to take her back. I sucked at situations like this.
I don’t know why, maybe it was fate, or maybe it was just really good timing. But at that exact moment, Danica stepped off the elevator and started walking towards us. She had a questioning look on her face, and I could tell she was just as (if not more) surprised to see Kels as I had been.
And at that moment, the only thing I could think of that would get Kels away from me popped in to my head.
“Because.” I said, wrapping my arm around Danica’s shoulders and giving her a kiss on the forehead. “I’m with Dani now.”
