ONCE IN A LIFETIME ≫ h.g

Chapter 6

BROOKE'S P.O.V:

"You are just the sweetest!" Mahogany smiled at me. We talked in the kitchen and I had just told her a joke about Nash. OMGAHAHAHWHSHGDGDHSJAKAKKAKAKAKAK. Calm down Brooke. "And don't forget to mention pretty," Jacob said. Wowchhh. I was just called pretty by THE Jacob Whitesides. Was this a dream? Was this some sort of alternative reality? I couldn't believe this was my life. "I'm hungry, let's go to Taco Bell!" Matt practically screamed into my ear. I had to stop for a second to observe and let the scene sink in. I was surrounded by probably the greatest people I had ever met. Life was amazing. I had to smile. They were so much fun to be around. All of them. Bundles of joy and laughter.

"Uhm, Brooke?" Carter said from behind me. "Yes, Carter?" I asked and flashed my ugliest smile. It was important to show my ugly side to them as well. "Nash wants to talk to you", he said, patting my back, and I got the sense of something serious. A pat on the back? I nodded and went over to Nash. "What's up?" I asked him. Nash was looking at his phone, but when he heard my voice, he looked up. His face expressed sadness and worry. "Are you doing okay, Brooke?" he asked. His voice was raspy. It reminded me of his morning voice and I usually loved his voice when it was like that. Not today, though, today it was filled with a sadness, reserved just for me, and it frightened me. I was confused when I answered him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I-..." Oh. Nash was on my Twitter account. He had read through all the comments I had gotten. All the hate comments. And there was a lot of them. 'Give us our boys back you tramp!' and 'You should kill yourself, you deserve to be in hell!' were just two out of ten thousands.

"Well, you've got yourself a very protective fanbase", I tried to joke but Nash didn't take it. He gave me a 'please be serious' look, which I had gotten from him way too many times before. I knew I had a bad habit of messing around when things got serious. I took a deep breath. My honest moments were rare, as I tried to always be fun and enjoyable around others. It was hard to let myself be vulnerable around someone, but I knew I could trust Nash. He had shown me that many times. "Yes, Nash, I'm doing fine. Getting hate is always hard, but you already know all about that. Having you as my best friend is totally worth getting a few nasty comments from here and there. You know, they're just jealous of me and the fact that I get to be friends with the best human on earth. So I'm rising above the comments. I don't let them or they define me".

Nash shook his head and pulled me into a hug. "Yeah, I have to handle a lot of hate", he started, and his voice was trembling. He really took this serious. "But the difference is that I chose it. You have to go through all this because you're my friend. It is just not fair. I don't want you to experience it just because of me. Perhaps we should go a little easy on the picture posting now. Let's not give them anything to hate on". I nodded. "It's whatever, but if you feel like it will ease your guilt, which you don't need to feel by the way, we can ease up on the pictures. I just wanna spend time with you". We embraced each other in another hug. Nash's friendship was probably the thing I was most appreciative of in my life right now. It was so nice to have something so consistent, pure, real and good in my life. We let go and I ran over to the other guys that waited by a thousand cars.

NASH'S P.O.V:

I smiled to myself as I watched Brooke run towards all the cars that were lined up. She sure grew up fast. I was happy that she said she was happy, but I knew I needed to keep an eye on her. She was so strong on the outside but not really as strong as she pretended to be. I had witnessed her break down completely a few times the last year. It was heartbreaking. Still, she had changed so much in a year, and grown so much stronger. She was about to become independent. 

Hayes walked down the stairs. "Yo", he said when he came up next to me, like he tried to be cool. "Not cool, man", I chuckled. "You're not cool". Hayes grabbed my phone out of my hand. And then he ran away and got into a car that started driving away. Guess he wanted to play a game where I had to do something to get it back. It didn't really matter to me. It was just a phone, and as long as Hayes wasn't somewhere I couldn't see him and it, it would be fine. I didn't need it now anyway, I was looking forward to socializing with my friends.

HAYES' P.O.V:

The discussion of what do after we had eaten took around thirty minutes By the time Aaron came with his suggestion, we were all so sick of arguing that he could've suggested that we'd go to prison, and I don't think anyone would've protested. Really. "You know, we could go to the Ferris wheel right across the street", he suggested and everyone agreed in the flash of a second. There had been some crazy suggestions before Aaron's, and we were all happy to do something normal. That was the problem with hanging with YouTubers, they wanted to do insane stuff and challenges all the time for their videos. 

After quickly making our way to the wheel, we noticed that there were two and two in one cart. "I'll go with Brooke!" Nash, Carter, Cameron and Matt yelled, all at the same time. All four of them ended up bursting into laughter. I felt a bit protective and went over to her. "You're going with me", I said determined. She didn't seem to mind and just nodded. "I have Nash's phone as well. I think he has forgotten it. So we can text some people and mess around for a bit. You know his passcode, right?" I asked, suddenly a little anxious. I did not know his passcode. "I sure do", Brooke gave me a smirk. "Sounds like a plan". She turned around to the twelve other people that we were with and announced that she was, indeed, taking the Ferris wheel with none other than myself. "Well, duh", Nash responded, as if it wasn't a surprise at all and he had known it all along. Perhaps he had. I didn't know. 

When I pulled Brooke over and opened the cart door for Brooke, the guys were as mature as ever and made kissing noises. I seated myself, closed the gate and we were above the ground just as quick as I had hoped. I gave Nash an evil smile, and I think that that's when he realized I had his phone. And I had Brooke. And we were alone. A dangerous combination. One could hear Nash swear and yell on the ground, but we were already to high up in the air and laughed. I pulled Nash's phone out of my pocket. Brooke opened it but didn't let me see the passcode to not break her trust to Nash completely, she claimed. I felt like she already did that by opening it up for me. I noticed how quick Brooke was to go out of Twitter when she unlocked the phone. She handed me it, and I went into Twitter again, without her noticing, to see what was so secret. Nash had been on some girl's Twitter account. It was Brooke's account. Nash had clearly been reading through the comments on the picture of Will and her at the beach yesterday. Hate. Hate. Hate. All the comments were hate. I looked over at Brooke. She stared out at the city. It was dark outside and the city lit up because of it. It was so beautiful. She was beautiful. 

The hate comments were horrible next-level comments. I experienced hate as well, but not like that. All because we hung out with her. We were the ones who exposed her to it. "How about those pics tho?" she asked and looked over at me. I chuckled and went into camera. We took a few silly pictures. "What to do for the next?" she asked. "Kiss me", I said, as a joke, but not as a joke at the same time. And she did kiss me. On the cheek of course. All of the pictures turned out really good, so I sent them to myself. Not that it was a surprise, Brooke was the most photogenic person I had ever met. I didn't look to bad myself either. However, I decided not to post any pictures on any social media, considering the hate Brooke experienced. Having them on my phone and on Nash's phone was enough for now. I set one of the silly selfies as Nash's new background so that he'd be reminded of his two favorite people every day.

We talked the rest of the ride. It was amazing, how we just vibed. When we got down to a not so happy Nash, I thought of how fun this whole day had been. How fun her whole stay had been. I simply couldn't wait for Magcon with her. Oh my. You met her yesterday. Remember that, Hayes. You met her yesterday.