**RYDEL'S POV**
Ratliff carried me back to the tour bus, no longer spewing gas or smoke. But something was different, I wasn't sure what. But then I saw them.
A row of 4 brown eyes, each covered with blonde hair, or in Rocky's case, brown, from a crevice in the window. When I saw them, all the eyes dissapeared before I could point it out to Ratliff.
"Ra-oh wait, they're gone." I tried.
"I saw them too Del." He laughed and then I got off his back. We walked onto the bus, and it wasn't any longer than 4 seconds before we got bombarded by my brothers, mostly Rocky.
"So...how was your McDonalds date?" Rocky asked. Date? Whoever said that? I mean it was kind of true...but still!
"It was good, we met 5 little girl fans. They asked for Ross." Ratliff covered it up with a smile.
That smile makes me melt like a freezer pop on the Fourth of July.
That smile could end wars.
That smile is beautiful. I smile when I see him smile. Rocky was still suspicious, but he got off my back.
Until later that day. We were home then, and I was just about to get into bed. When we didn't get home until around 10 PM, Ratliff just decided to sleep over. He was supposed to be sleeping on a couch downstairs. It was 1 AM, and I got really hungry. My thoughts were keeping me up, especially those thoughts about Ratliff. I went downstairs to find a snack, and when I closed the fridge, someone was standing there.
Ellington.
"What are you doing up this late?" He asked me.
"The question is more like, what are YOU doing up this late?" I smiled and shut the fridge, grabbing a yellow apple.
"I can't stop thinking about...never mind." He stopped mid-sentence.
"About what?" I got curious, he was up for the same reason I was.
**RATLIFF'S POV**
"About what?" She said.
Should I tell her? Nah, I'll just keep it a secret. I almost slipped it at first. I mean...I was thinking about her anyway, and that's weird. She doesn't think of me like that...does she? No way, I'm her best friend. Ratliff, that's weird. Stop it.
"Oh, nothing. Just random stuff about tour." Was that a good cover-up?
"Rydel, Ratliff was thinking about you!" I hear Rocky clammer down the stairs.
"No...no I wasn't!" I shouted back, almost agreeing with him.
"Go to bed, you're being too loud!" He went back upstairs, slamming his door.
By the time Rocky was upstairs, Rydel was gone. I suspected she went upstairs, but that was wrong. When I went back to the pullout couch where my bed was set up, the TV was on Home Shopping Network, and hair tinsel was shining in the TV light. Rydel was under a Spiderman comforter the Lynch's gave me, and it was cute.
"Rydel, what are you doing?" I got into the bed too, not to be weird.
"I'm still wide awake, and I'm bored. You're wide awake, and you seem bored. Let's hang out." She was obviously tired, and I honestly thought it was kinda funny. She started looking through the TV guide, and turned on "The Notebook," which was on one of those 24 hour movie channels.
As we watched it together, we started inching towards each other, and she eventually fell asleep on my chest.
One of the best 2 AM's of my life.
