Ross’s POV
When Renee saw Ratliff her face lit up, “Ratliff!” he saw her and yelled, “Renee!” They ran to each other and shared a big hug. Kelly walked over to me, “Do they know each other?” I said, “I would assume so.” We went over to them, they were talking, Ratliff looked behind him mid-sentence saying how big the theatre was. Renee’s smile disappeared. I used sign language to tell her what he said. She smiled and signed back, “Thank you.”
After rehearsal we let the crowds in and started the VIP and then the show. I gave Renee an R5 pass so she could go wherever she wanted to go. She sat by one of the speakers and had her hands on them throughout the concert. After the concert, we were playing around on the instruments; Renee was still at the speaker. I started shredding on my guitar so Renee could feel it pounding on the speaker. Riker ran behind her and picked her up from under her arms and dragged her away. He brought her to the stage, she stood up confused.
He yelled at me, “Are you insane! She was sitting by the speaker!” Renee said, “Oh, no Riker I’m fine. She moved her hair aside revealing ear plugs in her ears. Riker said, “She still could have lost her hearing from that.” I said, “Yeah, that would be bad.” Renee started laughing, Riker turned to her, “What’s funny about that?” She stopped, “Oh, nothing. Sorry. I just wanted to see what it felt like.” She walked away.
He turned to me, “Ok, so, it’s been four months since we moved in. Are you guys together or just friends?” I said, “Just friends.” He said, “That’s a shame, you guys’d be cute together, I saw you with your little hand signs.” He was talking about the sign language. “Haha, um, yeah. When’d you see that?” He said, “When you guys were talking with Ratliff and Kelly. Hey, if you do plan on asking her out, make your move now, Rocky’s been checking her out all night.” I looked over at Rocky, he was flirting with Renee.
I called out Renee’s name, obviously she didn’t hear me, but it made Rocky walk away. She turned around, and I motioned her over. “Hey, so after concerts we usually go for dinner, you wanna join us?” She nodded, “Sure.” Our parents went home and everybody drove in the van, Kelly drove with Ratliff, and Renee got in my car.
Renee’s POV
Ross and I drove in his car to The Grill. I think he heard a song he liked on the radio, because he was singing along. He definitely wasn’t talking. He started laughing, then he looked over at me, smiling at him. He said, “Oh, sorry.” I said, “No, it’s funny.” He kept an eye on the road but he kept looking at me while he spoke. “So, how did you like the concert?” I said, “The fans were super cool, the lights were awesome too. I just wish I could have heard it.”
My phone lit up, I checked it, “Hah, some of my friends saw me at your concert. She saw me stay after, and she’s jealous.” He said, “Take a picture and send it to her, tell her we’re going to dinner.” I took the picture of me and Ross and sent it to her. She answered back so I read it out loud. “OMG! How do you know them???” I read the last part in my head, “are you guys dating?” I didn’t say it out loud. Ross laughed, I missed that, more than music. I loved hearing people laugh, everyone had a different laugh, and I loved how happy it sounded.
He said, “Hey, what do you think about Rocky?” I said, “What do you mean?” he said, “Like, would you ever go out with him?” I said, “Oh, I know what this is about, I saw him checking me out too. Don’t worry, he doesn’t like me. He checked out a bunch of fans, I’m just another body.” He said, “No way Renee. You have really great qualities.” She made a face and said, “I don’t like him like that though. I tend to not have crushes. Guys sometimes see me, but then something prettier walks by. So, I gave up with it. I mean, if someone decent asks me out, I’d probably say yes, but I’d need someone I really like to start a relationship with. I don’t know, that probably sounded really stupid.” He said, “No not at all.”
I said, “I’m just so sick of being a second choice.” I looked out the window. He tapped me on the shoulder, “Don’t say that, you’re definitely a first choice.” I laughed, “To who?” I shut my eyes, I didn’t want an answer. I didn’t want to see him pause to think about it. When we got there about five minutes later. He tapped my shoulder, I opened my eyes, “That’s not fair, you can’t just close your eyes when you don’t want an answer.” I said, “Well it worked pretty well.” We got out of the car, he said, “If you’re considering the surgery, I want to be there with you.” He came around to my side of the car and hugged me. I smiled and we walked in with his arm atill around my shoulder.
Riker’s POV
We had a long table outside on the patio of the restaurant, we were just waiting for Ross and Renee. I saved two seats to my right for them, when they showed up Renee took the seat next to me, and Ross took the second empty seat. Rydel said, “Yay! Everyone’s here!” She asked a waiter to take all of our picture. She said, “I’m gonna post it to instagram and twitter.”
Ross said, “How do we explain who Renee is?” Rydel said, “R5’s mystery girl.” Ross said, “Wait, take another picture.” Rydel gave the phone back to the waiter, Ross put his arm around Renee’s shoulder. The waiter took another picture. I asked Ross, “Why’d you do that?” Ross said, “Mystery.” After dinner we walked around the city for a while. Then Rydel and Kelly dragged us into a store.
Ross’s POV
I was just walking around with Renee in the store, when she yanked me into a dressing room. I signed, “What are you doing?” She signed, “Is he still out there?” I peeked out of the curtain, “Cameron Shiff?”I signed. She said, “Yeah.” I nodded. He was out there looking through a rack of clothes. I’ve known Cameron since I was fourteen, his parents got divorced a while ago and he moved, I guess he moved back.
I signed, “You know him? Are you trying to avoid him?” She nodded, I signed, “I’ll talk to him, you get to Riker.” I walked out of the changing room and walked over to Cameron, “Cameron? Hey, how’ve you been man?” He said, “Oh, hey, it’s been a while!” I saw Renee duck and run from the dressing room. She popped up when she got to Riker, he saw her and smiled, then he looked back at me and put his arm around her shoulder and they left the store. Everyone else followed.
I turned to Cameron, “I gotta go, but we should catch up some time.” He nodded, “Sure thing. Great seeing you again.” I caught up to Renee and Riker he moved his arm from Renee and said, “I’m gonna go walk with Rocky.” I nodded, and Renee and I fell back a bit. I signed, “What happened back there?” She signed, “It’s nothing, I just didn’t want him to see me.” I signed, “Why? Was he like your boyfriend or something?” She signed, “What?” I signed, “Did you guys like, break up or something, and you didn’t want to talk to him?” She said, “What? No, Ross, I’ve never had a boyfriend.” I said, “What? You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
She said, “Is that surprising?” I said, “Yeah. How is that possible?” She said, “Well, I’ve been asked out before, I’ve always said no though.” A car went by and it sounded close so I looked away, “Why?” She said, “Huh?” I looked back at her, “What?” She said, “I’m sorry, you looked away, I couldn’t read you.” I said, “Oh, sorry. I asked, why?” She said, “I just haven’t found someone I liked like that.” She looked down at the ground, “I’m sorry, it must be aggravating trying to talk to me. This would have been so much easier if you didn’t have to look at me when talking to me.” I said, “No, no, I like looking at you. Uh, that came out wrong.”
She gave a little laugh, “It’s okay, I know what you meant, I think.” I said, “So, do you like someone now?” She said, “Believe it or not, I do. But, they don’t like me back.” I said, “I highly doubt that. Who is he?” She said, “Um, what time is it?” I said, “Ten thirty.” She said, “I gotta go, I’ll see you tomorrow.” And she ran off. I would have offered her a ride, but I could tell she didn’t actually have anywhere to go, she just didn’t want to talk to me. I ran over to Riker, “Can you take my keys and follow Renee, offer her a ride? I think I made her uncomfeterable so she'd say no if I offered.” He took the keys and chased after her.
