~* Chapter Six *~
"Pssst." I rolled over. It's just a dream. "Hey, Rosie." Just a dream. "Rosie." Not a dream.
"Ugh, what the hell do you want?" I asked, turning towards Drew. He was beaming at me.
"How'd you like the show?" He asked, giddy like a little kid. I groaned loudly.
"Seriously? You woke me up to ask me that."
"Well, yeah." He replied sheepishly, with a stupid grin on his face. I groaned again and rubbed my eyes.
"You are a horrible human being."
"Yeah? You too. Now, come on, did you love it?"
"You suck." I grumbled at him. He frowned. "You were amazing. Video Girl was awesome."
"Really?! Thanks Rosie." He responded, trying to give me a hug. I sat up so he could, then I laid back down. "Work on that choreography again tomorrow?"
"It's already tomorrow." I groaned making no effort to cover up the yawn I let out. "But yeah, we can."
"Thank you." He said as he kissed the top of my head and ruffled my hair, then started to get up off my bunk. "I'll see you later!" He chuckled as I shut the curtains to my bunk and closed my eyes.
~*~*~*~
I woke up and got dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a loose, thin, gray v-neck sweater over a black tank top, and my favorite gray Vans. After that, I walked into the arena, then on to where Drew's dressing room was and grabbed myself a mug and poured a cup of coffee. Drew walked in not long after and smiled at me. I returned it as he got some coffee for himself.
"What's the agenda for today?" I asked him. He took a sip, swallowed, then answered.
"I just got back from a radio interview. Now I'm working choreography from ten until eleven thirty with Chris, stage time from noon to two, lunch, then I'm doing a press conference at three."
"And the show starts at eight?" I asked as I took another sip. He nodded. I grabbed the box of Frosted Flakes I saw on the counter and migrated over to the sitting area. Drew followed.
"Tommy wants to talk about closing the show differently. He doesn't like ending on Live to Party. He says it's not exciting enough."
"I'll say." I replied quietly. His eyes widened.
"You really think so?!" I nodded. "Why didn't you say something?"
"Everyone was so stressed about getting the tour off the ground that I didn't want to get in the way or screw anything up." I replied, shrugging.
"What do you think we should do?" He asked, settling into the couch. I slipped my shoes off and sat criss-cross-applesauce on my chair.
"What makes you think I have an idea?" I asked, smiling at him teasingly.
"You're you." He deadpanned. We both looked at each other for a second and then laughed. I tossed a small handful of cereal at him, and then we sobered up.
"Well, what if you ended with Not Your Birthday?" I suggested. I always say I hate pop songs with no real meaning behind them like Big Night. I mean, it's about nothing. Nothing! Hearing it god knows how many hundreds of times on the radio got me to realize that. Anyways, this song is the same way, but it's just so much fun that I can ignore the meaning, or lack there of.
"That's an awesome idea!" Drew agreed, smiling. He got this look of deep thought on his face as he munched on the cereal I had thrown at him. "Hey, what if we had Ash do the rap or some part of the song?"
"Maybe you two sing some of the versus, alternate choruses, and then maybe one of the other guys can rap." I suggested. I can't believe Drew just called him Ash like they were good friends. Like Jesus fuck, my brother is best friends with maybe the coolest person ever. Well, best friends might be a stretch, but they're on a nickname basis. Drew made a 'mind-blown' gesture with his hands.
"You're so right. That'd be perfect." He acknowledged. I smirked smugly.
"Drew, I'm always right." Just as I said that, his watch beeped. He looked down at it and sighed.
"Time for choreography. I'll see you later, Rosie." Drew said, walking over and kissing my forehead. "I'll mention our idea to Chris, see what he thinks."
"Cool. Bye, Drew."
I hung around the dressing room for a while, then at two o'clock on the dot, I heard over the speakers 'Rosie Daily report to stage.' I followed the orders and walked on to the stage. I picked the wrong door probably five times, so I was a little late getting there. Upon my arrival, I found Drew and Chris sitting on the stage eating pizza. I came and sat down next to Drew and grabbed a piece of pizza before we started talking about what would happen with Not Your Birthday.
After we figured out a potential arrangement for the song, I was sent off to find out if any of the members of Throw Down could rap, and then get all of the members on to the stage to talk with Chris.
This is why at three-thirty, I was walking up to Throw Down's dressing room. Okay, it was more like 3:45 because I got a little lost...again. I'm really good at getting lost. I knocked on the door and smiled when Jase opened it. He let me in and I noticed he was the only one in here. Hm, I wonder where the rest of them are.
"Hey, Rosie. How's it going?" He asked, following me back in. I thought about it for a second.
"How are people supposed to answer that question? I mean, saying 'it's going good,' sounds stupid, and you can only say 'it's going,' or 'along,' so many times before you start to sound repetitive or like your life is dull. But then saying 'I'm good, how are you?' is wrong too, because then you're not really answering the question; you're telling them how you are, not how it's going." I babbled, not actually trying to rant, but just thinking aloud.
"You know, now that you mention it, you're right. There's no good way to answer that. How about we stick to 'how are you?' or 'what's up?'" He asked with a teasing smile. I stuck my tongue out at him. "How are you, Rosie?"
"I'm good, thanks. You?"
"I'm alright. Better now that you're here. I was getting lonely." Jase confessed, still teasing me. He was such a flirt.
"I'm glad I can fill that empty space in your heart, at least for the time being." I teased back. He winked at me.
"Anyways, what can I do for you?" He inquired, getting a little more serious, but not much. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a can of Arizona iced tea. He motioned towards me, asking if I'd like one, but I said no. Not that I don't like them, but I'm just not in the mood.
"Can any of you rap?" I asked. He chuckled like he was laughing at an inside joke. "Oh come on, you can't laugh at an inside joke by yourself. It just makes you look like a sociopath who's hearing one of the voices in your head tell you a joke."
"Seriously? What the hell goes on in that head of yours?" He asked, laughing hysterically.
"A lot of things."
"Uh-huh. Anyways, I can rap and Aaron thinks he can, but if I'm being honest, the dude just has no rhythm when he tries to. It's actually really funny; he's always a word behind." He replied chuckling. "That's what I was laughing about when you called me a sociopath."
"Hm, well, I'm supposed to tell you that you and the rest of the band are needed on the stage."
"Oh. I'll give them a call then." He said. Just as he was pulling out his phone the door opened and Aaron, Max, and Asher all walked in. The three of them were being loud and joking around and when they saw me, Aaron and Max just waved and said hi before carrying on. Asher stopped to talk to me.
"Hi Rosie." He said, stopping by where Jase had been. Jase followed Aaron and Max over to the couch where they all started talking.
"Hi Asher." I responded, smiling shyly. He leaned a little closer to me and when he did I could smell a light waft of mint in the air around him.
"So, I was thinking about our conversation last night and I got inspired." Asher said, a devious smirk on his face. I quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Oh?"
"I started thinking that it would be fun to pull something on my brothers. I have it all planned out but I need some help." He explained slowly and quietly so that Aaron, Max, and Jase, who were taking turns showing each other funny pictures on their phones, wouldn't hear him "What do you say? You in?"
"At your service." I answered, giving him a mock salute. He grinned at me with an excited glint in his eyes. We shook on it before I remembered that I actually came here for a reason. I got all four of them together and brought them up to the stage to discuss the whole Not Your Birthday thing.
~*~*~*~
"Hey, Rosie, come here." Drew called from the living room of our hotel suit. I'd just gotten out of the shower and when I walked through the door I found him sitting there holding the notebook I'd had in my purse on my flight to Colorado with my purse sitting in his lap. I cocked my head at him in confusion.
"Whatcha doing?" I asked curiously as I stood in front of him holding my towel to my chest.
"Well, I was going to replace all the tampons in your purse with tootsie rolls to get back at you for the glitter attack, but when I was looking through your purse I found this. Did you write it?" He asked me, showing me the page I'd written that little poem I wrote on the flight on. I looked on the table in front of him and found five tootsie rolls just like he'd said.
"No, Drew. That was someone else with the writing ability of a six year old." I answered dryly, giving him an unimpressed look.
"It's really good." He said, looking up from the notebook. I furrowed my eyebrows at him. Not only am I confused, but I'm pissed off too. First he goes and snoops in my bag with the intention of messing with my, ahem, feminine products, and then he starts messing with my stuff. My personal stuff. Trust me, Drew and I are closer than just about any two people you know, but everybody knows better than to go through a woman's purse without permission, and beyond that everybody knows that doing anything vindictive involving a woman's period means you have a death wish.
"What are you talking about?" I asked tiredly, running a hand through my wet hair. Drews' eyes widened at me.
"This song!" He exclaimed, pointing at the page in the notebook.
"It's not a song." I said with a blase shrug.
"Yes it is! Look, first verse, chorus, second verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. It's a song and it's a really good one. I didn't even know you wrote." He pointed out, showing me what he was talking about.
"I just needed to find some way to deal with the whole Luke thing and I was sick of crying." I explained, frowning at the memory.
"We can set it to music and then you could perform it for my record label and maybe they'd sign you. We could go on tour together, you could never have to go back to school and never have to see that fucking asshole ever again." Drew started rambling, the tone of his voice escalating from excited to angry by the end. I cleared my throat and brought him out of his little trance.
"I don't want to get signed." Lie. I really want that. After seeing Drew perform the last three nights has been so incredible. He's been having the time of his life and I guess during the shows I've been living vicariously through him. Right before he comes on stage and the crowd is screaming if I close my eyes, it almost feels like they're screaming for me. I get to pretend that it's me that's touring and living the life of my dreams. Then Drew walks on stage or appears there some other way and starts singing and my little fantasy is over.
"Well at least let me help you set it to music. Just for fun" Drew bargained. I considered it and while more than anything I wanted to say yes, I was afraid of what could come from it. What if mom and dad found out? They're angry enough that I distracted them from their lives and Drew's career when I was struggling through school. They resent me for taking up attention they could've put towards Drew then and I can only imagine how much they'd hate me for it now.
"Drew...I'm going to go put some clothes on. We should leave in half an hour if you want to be on time for your first meet and greet today." I said, a tired and disappointed look on my face despite my effort to hide it. And Drew saw it too.
"At least think about it." He told me. I sighed and nodded slightly. I turned around and took a couple steps toward the bedroom before I stopped. I turned back around again and walked back to him. I leaned over and grabbed a tootsie roll off the couch. I thwacked him on the forehead with it and smirked. "Oh, and fuck you." I teased, sticking my tongue out at him before walking to the bedroom and closing the door to get dressed.
~*~*~*~
Asher and I have been hard at work setting up all kinds of little evil things to do to his brothers all day long. After Drew's idea yesterday I've been trying hard to distract myself from thinking about it so I wouldn't get myself excited about something that was never going to happen. Anyways, when Asher and I met up yesterday to discuss what to do to his brothers, he said that he liked the idea of setting up a series of things that would fuck with them all day like the glitter thing did to Drew.
Now it was time to put all of our devious plans into action. I glanced around the room making sure it was all set and ready to go. The Oreos with toothpaste filling were where they should be, the caramel apples made with onions, not apples, were laid out, the air horn was taped to the wall where the door would hit it upon opening, there was a layer of clear nail polish painted on the bar of soap in the bathroom, the Purell had been replaced with K Y Yours & Mine lubricant, there was a box of cream doughnuts filled with mayonnaise instead, a box of Pringles with the flavor licked off of each chip was on top of the fridge, and there were a few bottles of diet coke in the fridge with Mentos in the lids that would be released upon opening the bottle. It was like Disneyland for assholes in here.
"I'm so excited about this." Asher commented as he stared at our handy-work. I had to convince him that putting a trip wire halfway through the room was a bad idea. I guess the quiet, mature, mysterious, and extremely desirable bachelor in Throw Down isn't so mature after all.
"It's a little immature, don't you think?" I asked him, a small smile stretching slightly across my lips at how happy he looked.
"Of course it is. That's why it's fun." He answered with a clever smirk. "I'm the oldest so I'm always the responsible one. It's kinda fun being able to turn the tables a bit."
"Fair enough. Drew always thinks he has to look after me. It gets a little suffocating." I replied as I thought about how little time Drew and I spent apart before I went to college. Otherwise he was always toting me around and protecting me from the lions, tigers, and bears of the world. It was nice 80% of the time but the other 20% made me want to scream.
"You and Aaron definitely share some common ground there. Only he has three older brothers." Asher said with a light chuckle. I let out a laugh in return. We both left the Throw Down dressing room and then in the end went our separate ways. He had to go do soundcheck and I was going to go give Drew a caramel onion.
~*~*~*~
"I don't know what's going on, but someone's fucking with our dressing room." Aaron said, coming to sit next to me while I watched Drew do soundcheck down on the stage. Throw Down had already done soundcheck, so until pre-show meet and greets they didn't have anything to do as far as I could tell. Asher was behind Aaron when they walked in and shuffled in front of us to sit on my other side.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, trying not to smile even though it was nearly killing me.
"Well, the Pringles in our room were stale or something, the Oreos were filled with toothpaste, and the Purell was definitely...not Purell. Oh, and there were caramel onions in there." He explained, scratching the back of his head in confusion. I could feel the energy radiating off Asher and I knew he found this all even more amusing than he was expecting to. The fact that he was enjoying this so much made doing it all the more worthwhile.
"Did you say caramel onions?" I asked in pretend confusion. Aaron's eyebrows skyrocketed.
"Yes! Like a caramel apple, but instead of an apple it was an onion!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms around wildly. I snorted slightly while trying to suppress a giggle. I think he was too caught up in the whole caramel onion thing to notice.
"Who would do that?" I asked in fake shock. He held his arms out to the side in an 'not-a-clue' gesture.
"I don't know!" Aaron cried exasperatedly. Asher finally cracked with that one. He started laughing, but it was the kind of laugh you do when you don't really make much noise beyond the occasional gasp for air. He was literally bent over and howling. I was totally holding it together, but after one glance at Asher I was a goner too. We were both laughing hysterically and then Aaron seemed to catch on.
"It was you!" He accused, wearing a wide-eyed expression and pointing a finger at me.
"You're half right." I replied, sobering up slightly, though my face was still flushed from laughing. Asher only laughed harder, which for Aaron was a dead give-away.
"You two together! I've been ganged up on!" Aaron cried jokingly. The three of us all started laughing before we were silenced.
"Hey, idiots, shut up." Drew called over his mic from on stage. We all got quiet for a second before all three of us doubled over laughing. Asher and I shared a fist bump before we headed out into the hallway to avoid bugging Drew anymore. Mexico would've been great, but this is pretty damn cool too.
Hi! I hope y'all had a happy Thanksgiving Weekend and ate a bunch. My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is watching the National Dog Show on tv. Let me know what you think of the chapter or the story, or if you did something fun for the holiday. Happy reading : )