I Won't Let You Close Enough to Hurt Me

Chapter 19

     At 10:00, Brooke and Nick walked upstairs. They walked passed the kitchen and saw Kelly sitting at the table.

     "Hey you two, what have you been doing down there?" Kelly asked.

     "Oh you know, just watching TV," Brooke lied. Instantly, her face started turning red, which made Nick laugh.

     "Uh-huh," Kelly said sarcastically.

     "Well Nick's mom's here, so I'm going to walk him out," Brooke said as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the front door. They stepped out on the patio, and she shut the door behind them.

     "I'm really glad you came over tonight," Brooke whispered as she wrapped her arms around Nick tightly.

     "Me too," Nick said. He loosened Brooke's grip on him, tipped her chin up, and kissed her goodnight. "I'll see you tomorrow on the bus."

     Brooke nodded. When Nick walked to his mom's car, she went inside and sat by her mom.

     "So, what did you two really do tonight?" Kelly smirked.

     Brooke rolled her eyes to imply that she didn't want to talk about this with her mom.

     Randy came into the kitchen when he heard Kelly and Brooke talking. "I'm actually pretty interested in that as well."

     "You guys are so embarrassing," she whined. "Is Paige home yet?"

     "Yes, she got home about 20 minutes ago. I think she's in her room. Don't stay up too late, I want to leave by 9:00 tomorrow," Kelly told her.

     Brooke immediately ran up the stairs to talk to Paige. She barged through the door without even knocking. "How was your date?!"

     "Really fun," Paige giggled. "We saw 'Finding Nemo' in 3D and we held hands the entire time. He even kissed me on the cheek when he dropped me off. It was perfect."

     "I'm so happy for you. Are you guys going to go out again?" Brooke asked.

     "I hope so," Paige said. "How was your night?"

     "Fine," Brooke said with a smile. Paige laughed and shook her head.

     "I know what that means," Paige said as she started to make kissing noises.

     Brooke started to blush. "Don't tell anyone this time!" she warned. "I'm going to go to bed now, and you should too. We're leaving at 9:00 tomorrow morning."

     "Okay!" Paige chirped.

     Brooke went to the bathroom to take off her make-up, wash her face, and brush her teeth. When she was done, she went back into her room, changed into her pajamas, and jumped onto her bed.

     Before she went to sleep, she checked her phone and saw a message from Nick.

Nick: Goodnight beautiful, see you in the morning :)

Brooke: I'll save you a seat on the bus!

     After turning off the light on her bedside table, Brooke crawled under the covers. She was so exhausted from the week she had, she fell into a deep sleep right when her head hit the pillow.

*******

     The next morning, Brooke woke up at 8:30. For the first time all week, she had actually gotten a good night's sleep. She took a quick shower, straightened her hair, threw it up into a ponytail, and put on a little bit of make-up. She picked out an over-sized t-shirt from 'Pink" and a pair of yoga pants.

     When she walked downstairs to grab a quick breakfast before they left, Paige was staring at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Brooke asked.

     "Well you're hair is straightened, you're wearing make-up, and you've got a cute outfit on... Trying to impress somebody?" Paige laughed.

     Brooke didn't want to admit it, but she was dressing up for Nick. Normally when they went to a dance competition, she wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt, but she didn't want Nick to think that she looked ugly.

     "Time to go!" Kelly shouted.

     Brooke and Paige each grabbed a banana and hopped in the car. After a short 20 minute car ride, they arrived at the studio. They sprung from the car and left Kelly to deal with the luggage as they ran to find seats on the bus. When they walked on, they noticed that Abby had already taken her usual seat in the front. "Hello girls," Abby greeted.

     "Hi Abby," they sang.

     Brooke walked to the very back two seats of the bus and sprawled her legs out across both of them. Paige smiled. "So I take it you don't want me to sit with you?"

     "Sorry, this seat's taken," Brooke said with a grin. Paige sat a few seats up with Nia, and Maddie and Chloe sat across the aisle from them. Brandon was the next one to arrive, and he walked straight to the back and sat on top of Brooke's legs.

     "Ouch!" Brooke cried. "Get off of me."

     Brandon smirked. "Aw, and I thought you were saving this seat for me." Brooke slithered her legs out from under him, and kicked him as hard as she could. When he fell into the aisle, she extended her legs to cover the empty seat.

     "Fine, I guess I'll just go sit by the other girls. Don't miss me too much!" Brandon joked.

     A few seconds later, Brooke saw Kendall get on the bus and take the spot next to Brandon. She took out her phone to text Nick and ask where he was, but as she glanced out the window, she saw him getting out of his car.

     Nick and his mom were the last to get on the bus. Nick made his way to the back and sat down next to Brooke. Before they could even say hello, Abby started talking.

     "I'm glad to see that you all made it here on time. Now, to make the process at the airport go as fast as possible, I'm going to give you your seat numbers for the plane ride now," Abby yelled. She announced that she would be sitting in row 24 with Brandon and Nick's mother's, they rest of the moms would be in row 25, and all of the girls except Brooke would be in row 26. "Nick, you're in seat 27A, and Brooke is in seat 27B."

     Nick grabbed Brooke's hand and gave it a squeeze. She was so happy that Abby had assigned her to sit next to Nick on the flight. "And in seat 27C," Abby continued, "is Brandon."