That night I removed all of my personal belongings from my desk. You see, after about two hours of pleading and around a thousand puppy dog faces later, I was now quitting my job at Universal and re-joining the guys but this time as a roadie… full-time.
I was still worried about how Matt was going to react but they guys had promised me that they would handle him for me.
So there I was, arriving at the arena the next evening. As I got out of the car I was met by Brian, Zacky, Johnny and some other random guy.
“Hey Natalie.”
“Yo what up Brian?”
“You got your suitcase with you?”
“My name’s not Johnny, I can remember my suitcase.”
“That was ONE time okay?”
I giggled and gave Johnny a hug.
“Aw, Mr. Gnome feeling embarrassed in front of the new roadie kid?”
The guys bust up laughing when I said this for some reason. It wasn’t until I really looked at the other guy that I realized my mistake.
“Oh crap, sorry. You must be Arin Ilejay.”
“Yeah, and you are?”
“Natalie Hunter.”
“This is Sneakers?”
The guys nodded at him and I blushed, great, just what I needed, another reminder of my past.
“The one and only.”
“I like her, I don’t get what Matt’s problem is?”
I felt my cheeks burning up and I bit down on my lip hard to stop from crying. That confirmed my suspicions, I had hurt Matt and now he hated me.
“Arin, too far man, too far.”
“Sorry Natalie.”
“It’s cool Arin, by the way, you gotta have a nickname if you’re part of the family.”
“I’m scared.”
“So you should be man.” Zacky told him, patting him on the back.
Everyone was almost leaning in to hear what I would come up with but then I noticed his hair for the first time, how I missed it I don’t know, and I made my decision.
“Goldilocks!”
All four of them winced as soon as the painfully loud yell left my lips.
“Sorry.” That one was in a whisper.
“You’re good Sneakers and I like it, Arin, from now on you shall be known as Goldilocks.”
“Ah, come on! Everyone else has cool names, Goldilocks is NOT cool guys.”
“You’ll get over it… Goldilocks.”
