{Calli}
That night I lay in bed thinking of my day with Austin. I scroll through the pictures on my phone. I can't help but smile at all the ones of him. We had the best day together. I stay awake longer than I should, my mind wandering back to Austin.
The next morning we load up the buses and head out to the next show. We spend the next month going up the east coast before we make it to New York. Austin sold out Madison Square Garden in ten minutes. Everyone's pumped for this show. I'm just growing more and more nervous the closer it gets.
Austin and I spend pretty much every minute we're not rehearsing together. My wall I built to keep him out continues to fall down each day. It scares me too, I'm afraid I'll get too close and get hurt.
The day before the concert at MSG we have a day off. Austin and I walk around New York City. We're waking down the street when he stops all of a sudden.
"What's wrong?" I ask turning back to him.
"Nothing." He says with a smile on his face. "I have a surprise for you."
"What? I told you not to get me anyth-"
Austin puts his hand on my mouth to shut me up. "You've been annoying the crap out of me about this so I had too. Plus I won it. I didn't have to pay for it."
"What are you talking about?" I mumble over his hand.
He moves his hand and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out two tickets to see Rent on broadway. Rent is one of my favorite musicals and I've always dreamed of seeing it live in New York.
"We're going to see Rent tonight." Austin says with a smile in his face.
"Oh my god! Are you serious?" I squeal.
Austin nods his head and I lunge at him, throwing my arms around his neck. His arms are around my waist. I hear him chuckle as I bury my face in his neck.
"So I take it you're excited?" He says laughing at me.
I pull away smiling like an idiot. "Yeah I'm excited! When does it start?"
"Now." Austin says. He steps back and I see we're right in front of the Nokia Theater. He holds out his arm and I loop my arm through his.
The show is everything I've ever hoped it would be. Austin and I walk out after, raving about the show. On the walk back it starts snowing. I've never seen snow before so I start freaking out. I dance around and spin in circles enjoying the beautiful white snow.
Austin joins me, putting one hand on my waist while taking my hand in his.
"What are you doing?" I ask surprised by his actions.
"I've been practicing since Nashville. I think I've gotten better." He replies with a shy smile.
"There's no music." I say giggling.
As if on cue, from a cliche love story a slow Christmas song starts playing. I throw my head back and laugh at the irony.
"May I have this dance?" Austin asks looking down on me.
"You may." I say smiling up at him.
We dance on the sidewalk getting closer to each other with every step we take. I rest my head on his chest, he puts his head on top of mine. We stay like that for a moment before we both pull back. We stare into each other's eyes, just enjoying this moment.
"I never noticed how green your eyes were." Austin says. "I always thought they were more brown."
"They're hazel." I say. "They can change colors sometimes."
"No way!" He exclaims. "Mine are too!"
We laugh at the randomness of the conversation as we continue dancing.
"I'm really glad you joined the tour." Austin whispers after a long silence.
"I'm really glad you ruined my audition piece." I whisper back to him.
I feel him smile against my head. "I didn't mean to. I was watching you with my disguise and I got carried away."
I smile. "How'd that happen?"
"Your dancing was so amazing I wanted to get a better look."
I look up surprised at him. I spent a long time hating him because I thought he intentionally ruined my piece. Austin looks back down at me and smiles. Slowly we start to lean our heads toward each other. I close my eyes waiting for his lips to touch mine. He's so close I can almost feel it. He's about to kiss me, when all of a sudden his phone goes off scaring the both of us.
He turns away to talk on his phone, before coming back to me. "That's was my mom." He says. "She was wondering how Rent was."
"In other words, she was checking up on you?" I ask laughing.
He laughs. "Yeah pretty much. So we should probably start heading back."
On the walk back Austin and I stand really close to each other. Occasionally our arms bump and our fingers brush, but every time Austin smiles down at me. We're about half a block away and I start shivering. I tried to hide it, but Austin notices and takes off his jacket wrapping it over my shoulders.
"You don't need it?" I ask holding it tightly against me.
"No I'm fine." He says. "Plus you're the dummy that forgot a jacket in New York, in December."
"Well if someone had told me we'd be seeing a musical and getting out so late, maybe I would've." I say in my best sarcastic tone.
Austin laughs and wraps an arm around my shoulder as we walk. I lean in and feel the warm that's radiating off his body.
"Why are you so hot?" I ask leaning closer into him.
"I don't know." He says. "I guess I was just born this attractive."
I glance up at him and give him a look. "You're an idiot." I mumble.
"What was that?" He asks moving his hands to my waist.
"Nothing!" I squeal, waiting for him to start tickling me.
He slowly starts to tickle my sides. I'm trying to contain my laughing.
"Stop! Stop!" I squeal again.
"Tell me I'm hot." He says over my laughing. "And I'm not an idiot!"
"Ok, ok!" I yell. "You're hot!"
"And?" He says still tickling me.
"You're not an idiot!" My eyes are watering from laughing so hard. "Now stop it!"
Finally he stops, and his arm moves to back around my shoulder. "Thank you."
We make it back to the hotel and go up to our rooms. When we say goodnight outside my door, Austin gets nervous again. I wrap my arms around his waist, squeezing him closer to me. His arms around my neck, his head resting on mine. We stay like that for a moment before we both pull our heads back. He look down at me and runs his fingers through my hair, pushing it behind my ear. His hand stops at the base of my neck his thumb behind my ear. Slowly we lean towards each other. I stand on my tippy toes to reach him. We're just about to kiss when, this time, my phone goes off.
I groan and pull away. He laughs and pushes my forehead. "Goodnight weirdo." He says turning away.
"Goodnight idiot." I yell down the hallway. I close the door behind me and pull out my phone to see Beth calling me.
"Hey Beth!" I say answering the phone.
"Calli!" She squeals. "You're on speaker. Demi and Scott are here."
"Hey Cal!" They both say in unison.
"Hey guys. I miss y'all! How's everything going?" I ask.
"Everything's great!" Scott says.
"We just miss you like crazy." Demi says.
"How's the tour going?" Beth asks.
"How's New York?" Demi says right after.
"Both are great!" I say honestly. "I'm having the best time."
"Yeah we saw that." Scott says.
I hesitate. "Scott? What are you talking about?"
"There's a picture of what looks like you on twitter." Demi says in her sassiest voice.
"It's Austin hugging a girl, and Scott is sure it's you." Beth says as I'm fishing for my computer.
"Where is it?" I ask as I log in to my twitter.
Before they even answer I see it.
Sure enough it's me hugging Austin outside the Nokia theater. The caption: "Austin's new lady"
"Shit." I mumble under my breath.
"Calli?" Demi says.
"What's wrong?" Beth asks.
"Scott's right." I say. "That is me."
"Since when are you friends with Austin?" Beth asks.
"You couldn't stand him before you left!" Demi says.
"I know, but we got to know each other better, and we've been getting a lot closer to each other." I say trying to defend myself.
"So are y'all dating?" Scott asks.
I laugh. "No we're not." I look around and make sure my door is closed. "But we've almost kissed."
"What?" Demi and Beth both yell. "When?"
"Which one?" I ask laughing.
"There have been more than one?" They yell again.
"Yeah." I say shyly. "Once back in Nashville, and twice tonight."
For the next twenty minutes I get yelled at by my two best friends. Every now and then I can hear Scott in the background, laughing at them torturing me. After we say goodnight it's almost midnight here, so I crawl into my bed and fall fast asleep.
The next morning we start rehearsing for tonight. I don't bring up the picture to Austin. Maybe he hasn't seen it yet. I log on to my twitter about an hour until show time and see there's more than that one picture. There's some of us from Nashville, when we were dancing in the restaurant, dancing in the snow last night, and when we leaned in trying to kiss each other.
I stare at my phone unsure of what to do. There's a knock at my door and Austin pops his head in.
"Hey you got a minute?" He asks.
"Yeah what's up?" I say turning my phone off.
"Have you seen the pictures on twitter?" He asks siting down next to me.
I nod my head. "Yeah. I saw one last night, but now there's more." I look in his eyes. "I didn't post them, if that's what you're thinking."
"How could you?" He says smiling at me. "You were in them with me."
I smile back at him. "So you're not mad?"
"Why would I be?" He asks leaning back, throwing his arm around me. "Because apparently I got myself a lady."
I laugh and lean next to him, laying my head on his chest. "In your dreams loser."
I pull out my phone again and check twitter. I laugh when I see one of the top trends. "Looks like I'm famous now." I say showing him the trends.
"We're trending?" He asks. "Austin and Calli. Calli Ownens. Call the Slut. Man Stealer." He reads off the trends.
"Apparently your Mahomies don't like me very much." I say laughing it off.
"They shouldn't say anything like that to you. It's not right." Austin says looking at me.
"Austin. I don't care. It doesn't affect me." I stare into his eyes so he understands. "They can say whatever they want. It won't hurt me."
"You're positive?" He checks.
"Positive." I say smiling back at him. "Now come on. You have a show to do." I say taking his hand.
We walk out and perform the show as normal. Towards the end Austin answers questions that the fans ask on twitter before concerts. They're randomly pulled and shown on the big screen.
"What would you do if pizza wasn't a food anymore?"
Austin gets serious. "Not even a question. I can't survive without pizza."
It goes on for a little bit longer.
"Alright last question." He looks up at the screen.
"Why date a girl who's got a retard for a brother?" Austin reads out loud, his voice slowly fading out.
I'm standing on stage staring at the screen. The entire arena goes silent right before I'm sprayed with something wet and sticky. Urine.
"Seriously!" I squeal.
Maddi and Monica laugh. Everyone else on stage stares at me as security reprimands the person that sprayed me.
"You're lucky it wasn't shit!" They yell. "Cause that's all you're worth!"
I thought I could handle what the fans said, but when they bring in Grey, and embarrass me in front of hundreds of people, I can't.
I run off the stage to the back dressing rooms. Michelle follows me to mine. I sit in the makeup chair and start sobbing. I wreak of urine.
"Calli, come here sweetie." Michelle's soft voice says. "Let's get you cleaned up."
I look up and she's holding out her hand to me. Hesitantly I take it an follow her to the showers.
"Wash up real quick while I find you clean clothes ok?" She says.
I nod my head then jump in the shower. I wash my body at least three times trying to get the smell of pee off me. I grab the towel Michelle left for me and reach for the new clothes. It's a pair of sweatpants and a tank top from my practice bag.
By the time I'm done the concert's over, and everyone makes their way backstage. We quickly load everything up and get on the buses to go back to our hotels. I never found Austin the entire time we were doing this.
On the bus I try to ignore everyone, but I can hear Maddi and Monica giggling in the seat next to me. I look over and they're watching something on Maddi's phone.
"Oh hey Pissy." Maddi says. "You want to see?"
She shows me the video. It of me, having the urine splashed all over me.
"Yellow suits you." Monica says.
Maddi leans really close to me and whispers quietly so no one else can hear."Just remember slut. Stay away from Austin, or this just might happen again."
My eyes widen at her. "You did this?" I whisper.
She smirks at me before turning back to face forward.