Skipping Stones (Book I: Smoke + Mirrors)

5 | I Dont Know Why | Niki

      People all around us start filing out of the sections and pit. The security guards who were standing in front of the stage before are following the back of the crowd. I start to follow the crowd when Zoey grabs my arm. "What is it?" I turn around to face her. "There's no more guards up there!" Zoey points to the stage, and where the guys walked off. "So?" I stare at her confused. "So we could go backstage! What if we ran into Platz? Or Wayne?"

      I ponder this for a moment. "What if we get caught? Or sent to jail!" Zoey rolls her eyes and before I know it she's halfway up the stage. What am I supposed to do? Let her get caught alone? I think not. I climb up after her and we turn to face the pavilion. "Are you sure about th-" I turn and she's gone. "Zoey?" Cautiously I walk towards a open door and peek in. It leads down a hall with another open door at the end, I can see the outdoors from here. There's a crash and I jump a little.

"Zoey!'

      "Hey, Wait for me!" I start running after her as she runs down the hallway. We're almost outside when shouts come from the stage. "Hey! You two!" I assume that it's us who's being yelled at and somehow run ahead of Zoey. "We have to get out, now!" I turn my head and smack right into someone. "Ouch!"

      I take a few steps backwards, my head hurts and there'll probably be a bruise there later. "Oh my god, Niki!" Zoey gasps and I turn around. Daniel Coulter Reynolds himself stands right in front of us.

  'Just my luck.'

      I can't tell weather he's mad or not, and the feeling of butterflies in my stomach fills me again. "Niki are you al-"

       Thud!

      I hit my head on the ground hard, and the last thing I see before blacking out is Dan and Zoey standing on either side of me.

                        >>>|<<<

      "Zoey?" I open my eyes and look around. This isn't where we were before. "Anyone?" I sit up and realize that I'm on a couch, in a small room. The door is cracked open and I can hear voices outside. "Hello?" This time the voices stop and I can hear footsteps coming towards the doorway. "Dan, Zoey? She's up."

     'Is that Platz's voice? There's no way....I'm probably just dreaming. Maybe I'll  wake up back in my bed if I think hard enough.'

      Zoey comes into the room first and sits down on the couch beside me. "What happened and where the he-" Dan walks in and shuts the door. "What happened?" I ask again. "Well, after you blacked out on the ground Dan and I had to move you somewhere." Zoey starts, and she exchanges a glance with Dan. I exhale slowly. "Might I ask where I am now?" I keep my eyes fixed on Zoey.

      "You're in our tour bus, on our couch." Dan answers and a glance at him, feeling my face getting all red again. "Oh." Is all I say and turn to Ben Platz and Wayne as they walk in. I can feel the anxiety coming back and Zoey must realize because she grabs my hand.

      "So this is the girl that you knocked out?" Ben laughs and sits down on the other side of me. Dan glares at him, but we can all see the way he's trying to not laugh. Platz sits on the floor near Zoey, and Wayne stands beside Dan. "That's not exactly what happened." Dan grins and glances at me. "So then what did happen?" Ben asks while looking between me and Zoey.

      "We were uh....looking for an exit...? And then we heard people coming, so Niki took off in front of me and ran headfirst into Dan before I could tell her to stop. Then she fainted." Platz and Ben immediately burst into laughter after that. Dan was clearly embarrassed and I glared at Zoey half-heartedly.

      "So you did make her black out!" Ben laughed and shook his head. "How did you even get me here?" I turn to Zoey again and she smiles. "Dan carried you."