The Shirt (A Hayes Grier Fan Fiction)

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

My eyes slowly opened.

I only saw the light of day at first, but soon my eyes readjusted and I saw shapes.

I saw the normal things you'd see in a hotel room, a desk, a TV, a dresser, and a chair.

I looked to my left. Aaliyah wasn't there.

I checked my phone, it was 9 A.M.

There was a white note on the dresser that stood out like a red glove left behind in the snow on a cold winter day.

It read, "Dear Abby, we are all in room 432 again! -Aaliyah"

I got changed, preparing in my mind that I was going to be pranked.

I reached to open up the door, but I looked up for a bucket with water or something else in it.

There was nothing above the door.

"I must be paranoid" I told myself.

I tried to loosen up, but as I walked down the hallway any noise made me turn my head.

I reached room 432 and I heard silence.

The door was propped open, so I didn't bother knocking, but I did look up for a bucket.

I walked in the room and I didn't get pranked.

I walked over to Aaliyah who was on the outside of a circle of people. Taylor, Shawn, Nash, Cam, Jack J, Matt, Aaron, Carter and Hayes were all around Jack G who was on his phone, and they were watching a video.

"Hey" I said in a voice that didn't sound like mine to Aaliyah.

A weird silence hung over the room, and it was very gloomy.

Aaliyah turned her head, saw me, grabbed my wrist, and took me out of the room.

No one noticed us leave.

Aaliyah looked very upset.

"What's wrong?" I said as she dragged me to our hotel room.

"You need to be told something."

"What?" I said in that unfamiliar voice.

"It's about MAGCON." Aaliyah said silently.

"Go on?"

"So most of the boys don't have girlfriends, you know that right?" Aaliyah said in a soft voice.

"Yeah."

"Have you ever wondered why?" Aaliyah said pausing for an answer, but right when I opened my mouth she began talking again, "Never mind, don't answer that, I'll tell you why I think they don't. One thing is they have a lot of fans that would get jealous, but you know that. But another thing is if they stayed private about it, no one would know they have a girlfriend."

"Wait, are you saying that they have girlfriends?" I said shocked that they could possibly hide a secret like that from fans.

"Well, yes and no," Aaliyah said, "See, I know most of them don't, but there's no way to know for sure. What I'm really trying to say is that there could be a lot of secrets."

"A lot of secrets about what, besides girlfriends?" I said my voice soft with a touch of sadness.

"Well that's the thing, you never can be sure."

Before she could say anything else, I asked her what has been bothering me since I first saw her this morning, "What was going on in the room today when I walked in."

"I'm not sure," Aaliyah said, "They were just watching funny Vines, but they seemed sad. I asked Shawn and Mahogany what was wrong but they both didn't answer. That's the real thing I've been trying to tell you. Hayes might not tell you important things, and if I was dating him that'd bother me."

We both sat in silence while that sunk in.

I thought about it, it made sense.

He never talked about MAGCON really. He mentioned it, but he never really went into detail.

The tour is such a big part of his life, I should've noticed that he never talked about it.

Two main things in my life right now are soccer and just recently moving.

I never shut up about those two either.

It doesn't make sense, but it does.

The next time I saw Hayes was an hour or so after Aaliyah had that conversation.

I walked into room 432 where only Hayes, Shawn, Aaron, Nash, Cam, and Matt were there laughing.

I passed Mahogany, Bart, Aaliyah, Jack J, Jack G, Carter, and Taylor as I walked out of my room.

Hayes was the only one to look at me when I walked in.

He forced a smile and waved me to come over to him.

Anyone would look at him and think he was happy, but I knew he wasn't.

His hazel brown hair that was usually bouncing everywhere as he shook with laughter looked dull and fell close to his forehead.

His stunning sapphire blue eyes with hints of green may have looked happy but I saw that they looked glassy.

Only I could seen him shedding invisible tears.

Only I could see that he wasn't my Hayes who climbed the tree with me or the one who held my hand as we walked down the beach.

He wasn't my Hayes, but I still put my arms out and hugged him.

I knew he needed it.