The Boy Next Door (R5 fanfic)

Chapter 30

About thirty minutes later we drove through the gate and entered what is known as “the happiest place on Earth”.  The three of us have been to Disney World more than once so we were very interested to see if there were any differences between the two amusement parks.  Once we park the car, the girls and I walk the short distance to the entrance of the park, entering Main Street with the iconic castle standing tall at the end of the road. 

“Is it just me, or does this park seem…smaller?” Nicole questions, opening up the map we grabbed at the entrance.

“Oh, it is smaller,” Mary answers, explaining how Disneyland doesn’t have quite as large of an assortment of parks within the park, like Disney World does.

“So no Epcot?  No Animal Kingdom?  No water park?” Nicole pouts, fanning herself with the map, placing emphasis on her last question as the sun beats down on us.

No, none of that.  But there are lots of rides here that aren’t in Florida,” I reassure her.  “Like the Cars ride!  I so want to go on that!” I exclaim, continuing to walk, forcing my friends to follow me.  

We spend the day wandering the park, waiting in lines and enjoying each and every ride we go on.  Mary even drags us into line to take a picture with Rapunzel and Eugene, although I don’t do much complaining considering “Tangled” is my favorite Disney princess movie.  Just as the sun is reaching its hottest point of the day in the afternoon, we stop to buy some ice cream and relax in the shade. 

“I don’t care how old I get, I will always love these Mikey Mouse shaped ice cream bars,” Nicole exclaims as she licks a drop of vanilla ice cream off her hand.

“Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more,” Laura says as she takes a seat under the umbrella-covered picnic table.

“Hey!  What are you doing here?” I ask as I wrap my arm around her shoulders in an awkward half-hug.

"Probably the same reason you guys are here!  I just woke up this morning and felt like spending my day here so that’s exactly what I did!  I’m glad I ran into you guys though.  This way I can be your own personal tour guide, showing you the things most tourists underestimate at this park.”

We finish off our ice cream as Laura introduces us to her sister Vanessa and then we are on our way.  While waiting in line for a ride that we hadn’t gone on yet, we all hear what I had known would be coming as a group of four young teenagers rush toward Laura, yelling her name.

“Can we pretty please get a picture with you, Laura?” the shortest girl asks.

“Of course!” the bubbly actress responds.  The girls crowd around Laura, handing their phones to us, asking to take the picture for them. 

“I can’t believe we actually met you!  This is perfect!” one of the girls say after I hand her back her phone.  “Um, but if you don’t mind me asking, who are you guys?” the girl asks, looking at Mary, Nicole and I. 

“Oh, we’re just friends of Laura’s,” Nicole says.

“You guys are so lucky!  Wait, so if you know Laura, does that mean you also know Ross Lynch?  I have the hugest celebrity crush on him!” the girl gushes. 

“Yeah, we know the Lynch’s as well,” I say to try and cover up the awkward pause that was left after the girl’s question.  The last thing we need is for them to get suspicious by us not saying anything. 

“Oh, looks like the line’s moving!  Come on guys,” Vanessa announces and disappears into the building that the line led up to, secluding us from the busy traffic in the rest of the park.

“It was great meeting you girls,” Laura says with a wave and follows her sister with us close on her tail. 

“Bye,” they chorus as we round the corner. 

We spend the rest of the day enjoying all of the fun that Disneyland has to offer, only getting stopped two more times by curious fans of Laura’s.  My favorite part of the day was when the sun set, finally relieving us of the heat, and the park came to life as everything lit up in an explosion of colors.  After watching the nightly firework show, we say our good-byes to the Marano girls and head back to the car. 

Once we finally arrive back at Rachel’s house, the exhaustion finally hit me as I stumble to my room and lay down on the bed.  One day closer to Ross coming back home, I think as I roll over and grab my phone that I had barely looked at all day.  Speak of the devil…I wonder as I open up the five text messages I had gotten from him earlier in the evening, all asking if I were okay and if I would please call him when I can.

I hesitate before calling Ross, wondering if he would still be awake considering the time difference.  After the first ring I hear his wonderful voice.  “Hey, I’m so glad you called.”

“Hey to you, too!  What’s up?  Your texts seemed pretty urgent,” I say, picking at the nail polish on my nails. 

“You went to Disneyland today,” he states, not questioned my whereabouts at all.  “And you went with Laura.  It’s all over the Internet!  Pictures of you, I mean.”

“What?” I exclaim, putting my phone on speaker and grabbing my laptop to see for myself. 

“Yeah, I have been getting tweets all afternoon asking me if the girl in the pictures with Laura was my girlfriend.  Obviously people have made the connection between today’s pictures and the one of us from the other day.”

I log onto twitter and sure enough, there are a few pictures of me, although I was never looking at the camera or aware of what was really going on.  The first picture I recognized right away.  It was taken by the first group of girls who stopped us, asking Laura for a picture.  It must have been taken before they walked up to us because all you could see were Laura and I talking while in line. 

I continued scrolling through the newsfeed to find a total of four different pictures that had been taken throughout the day, all in which mine and Laura’s face were clearly distinctive.  Apparently the fans have made the connection and are inferring that the girl hanging out with Ross’s co-star must also be the one who was holding his hand.

“So, what do we do now?” I ask, hoping Ross will finally tell me what he really thinks about going public regarding his relationship status.

“I don’t think we should officially announce anything, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to deny it if someone asks.”  A smile breaks out across my face as Ross says exactly what I was hoping for.  “What I mean is, I’m not going to post something saying ‘I have a girlfriend’ but that doesn’t mean I won’t post a picture of the two of us or tell interviewers that I’m single or anything.”

“You always know the right thing to say.”  I close my laptop and lay back down on my bed, just enjoying the sound of Ross’s voice as we continue to talk about absolutely nothing for another hour.  After a while he hangs up, having to get up in a few hours for their performance on Kelly & Michael tomorrow morning. 

“I’ll see you in two days,” Ross says before wishing me good night.  My fingers itch to go back onto social media and see what else people have to say about me but I reluctantly turn off my phone, knowing that it isn’t worth it to read everyone’s assumptions about me.  They’ll meet the real me soon enough, I think before allowing the exhaustion from the busy day to envelope me in a deep sleep.