How Could This Be Real?

16. I Need To Stop

"Hey, congrats," I said to Stampy when we finally found them.

He grinned, "That was a lot of fun, I can't believe we won."

"You deserved it."

"Hey, what about me?" an all too familiar voice said, poking his head around Stamps.

I shrugged, "Eh, you could have done better." David rolled his eyes and I smirked. I glanced around, noticing we were missing someone. "Where's Ash?"

Squid scratched his ear, "He said he was gonna hang out with Dan and ChooChoo and some other guys today."

"Why?"

"He's not very happy with me right now," he said with a nervous chuckle.

I frowned, "He seemed fine on stage."

"He's pretty good at acting."

I wanted to ask him about their conversation I had overheard but there were too many people around and I wasn't sure I should ask anyway. I mean I had been eavesdropping, but I could tell it was bothering him and I didn't want to keep things from him.

So I took a step closer and lowered my voice a bit, "When we get a minute, there's something I want to ask you about." He lifted an eyebrow quizzically but everyone started walking off so we followed after them.

"Where are we going?" Squid wondered.

Stampy shrugged, "Just walking around to see if anything catches our eye."

"You got anything else scheduled for today?" I asked Stampy.

"Just another meet and greet but I'm sure there'll be people coming up to us with stuff to do."

I turned to Squid, "How about you?"

"Ash and I have an interview in about an hour, otherwise nothing really."

All of a sudden, a bunch of kids ran over to our group, asking for autographs. I tried to sneak off so I wouldn't get noticed, but Squid tried to follow me.

I scowled at him, "What are you doing?"

"Where are you going?" he countered.

I waved him off, "I don't know, I just don't want people to ask questions." I turned around and started walking again, but I heard him still following me. "Stop it! Go sign stuff, we had this conversation yesterday."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll see them all later. You said you wanted to ask me something."

"It can wait."

"My curious mind just can't wait that long."

"You know curiosity killed the cat, right?"

"Well then it's a good thing I'm not Stamps." I rolled my eyes and glanced back to everyone. No one had seen us yet.

Finally, I sighed, "Fine, come over here." We went to one of the doors that lead to the passages and stopped a little ways down the hall.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned back and forth on his heels casually. "So, lay it on me. What do you want to know?"

I still wasn't sure if I should ask but here we were. No turning back now. "I... heard you talking with Ash earlier," I said apprehensively.

He stopped rocking. "When?"

"This morning when he said he had to talk to you."

His usual grin fizzled out and he actually looked worried. "How much did you hear?"