bradie’s POV
Someone was screaming, I sat up and looked around; I tried to tell myself it was nothing but I knew something was wrong. Shuddering I went back to sleep. I woke up just after 11 and looked to see if anyone else was awake but they were all asleep, my breath caught when I saw imogen asleep next to jumpnow; when did that happen? First Shaun now jumpnow how did they do it? How could they fall for someone so fast, sleep next to someone they had known for so little time? Especially Shaun, that girl Ashley had big secrets. She was different. I decided to sneak out and get a coffee before anyone else woke up and wanted one as well. I walked into some random cafe smiling at the pretty girl who was smiling at me. I swear I knew her. I waited for my coffee to be made ‘Bradie?’ the pretty girl from outside was standing behind me ‘Hey.’ I smiled again not remembering her at all. Where had I seen her before? ‘Bradie its Rachael. From last night?’ I started to remember, Andy had invited her to hang around with us last night, she had connected with me better than anyone. I took out my phone, her number was clearly there under RACHAEL :)
She smiled. I smiled. She was really pretty ‘Want to have breakfast?’ I didn’t think about fans or photos or everyone who was back at the hotel. When we finished she took me to some amusement park with rides and games. Including a roller coaster. I hate rides. And heights but I agreed to go on the roller coaster with her, it made me dizzy and when we got off I threw up into the bin, attractive. I didn’t mean to but Rachael got me water and didn’t seem to mind; a camera flashed near my face just what I needed some fan to get a photo of me spewing into a bin with some random girl sitting next to me. If this got out… after I finished I felt better so we got lollies and made our way back to the hotel, I couldn’t ditch her now after she was so sweet and I was starting to like her a bit more than I planned… By the time I pushed the door open to the big room, everyone was awake, watching TV, Shaun was playing guitar and writing things down in the corner with Ashley, Jumpnow and Imogen. I went over to Andy ‘This is Rachael, I want her to come with us.’ he just shrugged and went back to what he was watching. I told Shaun who just nodded without even looking up at us ‘It’s sorted Rachael. Come with us for a while.’ she agreed so we went to her house to convince her mum and pack clothes.When her mum answered the door, she just bluntly said ‘Mum I’m going away for a while.’ Before going towards her room. ‘I promise to take care of her.’ I begged her mum who was silent for a minute ‘I guess so. Rachael needs time after ——‘before she could finish Rachael interrupted her ‘BRADIE, help!’ I found her room and walked in; she wasn’t kidding when she said she never heard of short stack, her walls were covered in photos and cd cases, one piece of paper stuck to the door caught my eye, it was a homemade flyer used for small gigs.
The band it was advertising was CarryMeHome ‘Who’s that?’ I asked her, she went all stiff ‘The band I was in, we broke up.’ she looked away and finished packing. She hugged her mum and we went back to the hotel, I introduced her to everyone in the room before we left for the airport. When we were waiting I introduced her to Ashley and Shaun; Ashley looked up and tried to smile but failed so she just lent back against Shaun and waved. Shaun was playing with her hair and looking totally spaced out, I knew it was Ashley who screamed last night. But why? By the time we landed in Sydney it was dark and stormy, so we just crashed at sonny’s for the night. The next day we drove back up the coast, we had nearly a week off before the last couple of shows. I took Rachael to my house, because we were watching Chris while my parents were out. Chris loved Rachael instantly choosing to go to her instead of me; we took him to a park and she pushed him on the swing. The back of her shirt lifted a bit showing her lower back, written in black was ZACH; was she cheating on him for me? I didn’t want to ask so I just left it and went back to mucking around.
andy’s POV Hours after we got to Shaun’s Imogen and Bella crashed through the door fully decked out in costumes carrying lollies and glow sticks. Bella smiled at me, we had been getting closer despite the age gap of 5 years. She was like a pixie with her blonde hair and hazel eyes, which was what she was dressed as now. She had stripy tights, spike heeled boots, a tutu, a singlet and sparkly hair and makeup; she came over to me and handed me a bag ‘Andy! Come on. It’s Halloween, were going to have fun.’ she smiled before leaving the room. In the bag was my bat man costume from awhile ago, who knows where she got her hands on it but she was too cute to spoil her fun by asking. An hour later we were walking up the road in one big group, drinks in hand and dressed like crazy people. Which we probably looked like to anybody who saw us; Bella’s hand was warm in mine, nobody even noticed we were holding hands at all. We ended up at Jumpnow’s for some reason; hyped up on sugar and alcohol scaring the shit out of the kids who knocked on the door; Bella caught me looking at her
‘Andy come dance!’ she yelled over the thumping bass ‘I am the best dancer you will EVER see.’ I yelled back. She came over ‘We’ll see about that.’ she laughed in my ear before pulling me in front of the stereo; I watched her dance. She dance like nobody was watching, laughing she grabbed my wrists and I joined in. After a couple of songs we gave up and walked outside, collapsing on the grass looking up at the stars. Bella’s breath was warm on my neck and her hand was warm in mine, my head spun as we watched the stars, lyrics crossed my mind “I fall in love but no never in grace. So young so wrong, were counting the stars.” she was so young how could I love her when anything could break her? It was wrong. A star shot across above our heads and I thought about wishing on it but Bella interrupted me ‘This is such a cliché, how many girls dream of lying under the stars with your lyrics in their minds Andy? I can’t be that girl.’ It hit me like a slap, she didn’t even want me, I breathed in heavily and stood up; Bella jumped up and hugged me. I pushed her away ‘Damn it Bella. I can’t help that i’ve fallen for you. Stop leading me on!’ I tried to walk away but she grabbed my arm again ‘Andy I’ve fallen for you. Hard. Don’t do this.’ confused I frowned at her ‘You don’t want to kiss me? You don’t want to lie around with me?’ she frowned and hugged me ‘I love you. If this turns into anything I don’t want it to be cliché.’ relieved, I smiled and hugged her tighter.
An idea flashed through the drunken haze in my head and I pulled her upstairs to the bathroom, shutting the door behind us I turned on the shower and pulled her in under the warm spray. Holding her closer I kissed her neck before finding her mouth and kissing her softly. She kissed me back. Someone banged on the door. I shut off the water and we ran back downstairs and out the door past Jumpnow; costumes dripping wet and into the backyard. Laughing the whole way.
