I felt my heavy eyelids lift, seeing rays of sunlight hit the bed sheets over my bare legs. I yawned, stretching out my arms wide, cuddling back into the pillows. My head felt confused, from last night events, what happened after I fell asleep.
"Good morning, sleepyhead." I squinted my eyes, looking over to see Sterling, her hair in a messy bun and two coffee cups in her hands. She held one out to me as she sat on the bed next to me. "Thought I would go through the trouble of getting us some coffee. Its our free day and I don't know what the boys want to do yet, in fact I don't think anyone else is awake." Her eyes looked curious, wondrous, yet beautiful, just like her.
"Thank you, bae." I said, taking the cup and smelling the caramel aroma lift from the cup. I grabbed my phone from the table next to me and saw the time was only 8 am. "Hey, what happened last night, I mean, I passed out and ended up in my bed this morning, so..." I questioned, throwing my legs over the side of the bed.
"I'm not sure, I think Jaden brought you in." She looked down at her cup, trying to avoid the subject. I eyed her and she continued. "It sounds cheesy, but uh, when we got to the hotel everyone got out of the bus and Jaden noticed you were still asleep, so he picked you up in his arms and brought you in." She bit her lip, still looking down at her cup.
"What about Noen?" I questioned, brushing my hair behind my ear.
"I think he was the one checking us in. I'm sure he didn't just leave you there." We heard a knock at the door at that moment, followed by Milo's deep voice.
"Hey Girls, I think we're going to head to the Dallas Skyline in about an hour." I stood up and walked to the door, opening it to a very tired looking Milo. "Hey, Rose. Sleep well?" I nodded and mumbled a small 'yea' before taking another sip of my coffee.
"I'm still tired, not gonna lie. Tour takes so much out of us." I rub my left eye with my free hand, moving to the side so Milo could walk in.
"You're telling me?" Milo said, stumbling into the room, seeing himself in the mirror and immediately running his hand through his hair to adjust it to his liking. "Morning Sterling."
"Morning Milo." Sterling replied, laying down in the bed now, scrolling through her phone. Milo and I both went to lay next to her, peeping on what she was looking at, which happened to be Twitter. I cuddled into the blanket and Milo laid behind me, his head in his hand. I felt his breath move my hair and smiled at him when he pretended to eat some of it.
"Me and Cynthia are no longer together. Love the gal to death but things just haven't been working out. I hope y'all understand." I read aloud, a chill running down my spine as I read Chases tweet. I heard Milo gulp and Sterling switched her screen to Messages, pulling up Cynthia's contact, about to text but hesitating.
"Look Cynthia just tweeted." Milo said clicking on his notification, pulling up her response. "Puts me in the worst pain not being able to call you mine anymore." Milo cleared his throat after reading it, sitting up. I slowly sat up as well, thoughts running through my head and connections finally being made.
Just at that moment, as if it wasn't a coincidence, Chase's contact rang my phone. I jumped at the light noise and eyed Milo and Sterling for an action to make. Sterling nodded to me before I took a deep breath and answered.
"Hey Chase, whats up?" I said, almost too happy.
"Hey, we're gonna head out soon. Milo should have dropped off the news, just checking in. Good morning by the way." Chase sounded normal, and in this case I didn't want to question it. I mean he must have known we saw it by now.
"Yeah, meet you in the lobby in like 30." I responded. Milo nodded before hugging Sterling and kissing me on the head and walking out of the room.
"See ya soon b." I hung up, taking a deep breath, my eyes meeting Sterling's. Her jaw was set, as if we both knew how the breakup went down. Although, I knew it was too early to set blame.
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I smiled for the 11th picture we were asked to take with fans as we walked through downtown. I mean it was expected we would be stopped, but we'd been walking for 40 minutes. Carefully, I eyed both Cynthia and Chase, but I wasn't the only one who was. I would see some of the boys casually pat him on the back or Brooke would hug Cynthia out of no where. It was an obvious thing now.
"Hey gang, how bout we do a city scavenger hunt. Like the app thing. And we'll meet back up at the Ferris Wheel?" Payton exclaimed, a smile forming on his lips. We all formed a circle around his phone, getting our teams.
"Okay looks like we will have six groups of 3. Me, Chase, Kevin. Brooke, Noen, Yousif. Bria, Griffin. Chaser, Cynthia, Anthony. Jackson, Milo, Sebastian. Rose, Jaden, and Sterling." Payton announced.
"Of course I'm not with you." Noen whispered next to me. I looked over and gave a weak smile, It was really annoying that Noen and I never got to do anything together on tour. "Ill see you in about an hour right?" Noen questioned, moving a blown piece of hair behind my ear. I nod and grab his hand, giving it a small squeeze before Yousif dragged him away.
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For maybe an hour and twenty minutes, we walked around the south east part of downtown, achieving digital awards for every thing we found. Soon enough we found all 12 things and started to walk back to the center of the city, where the Ferris Wheel stood. The group chat beamed with messages of teasing and items found, although, it was my message that caused the surge of disappointment for everyone else, saying we found all 12 items only minutes beofore Milo's and Payton's groups did. Sterling chuckled and Jaden playfully pushed me.
"Hey can we talk?" Jaden questioned, his blue eyes glimmering in the bright heated sun. I saw Sterling give me a sympathy smile and walked faster than us, to give us some form of privacy.
"Yeah, whats up Jay?" I uttered, my shoes starting scrape the sidewalk from my nervousness.
"I don't want to cause any drama in the group or start any fights." He scratched the back of his neck, trying to find words to describe his thoughts. I urged him on with my eyes, meeting his and smiling lightly. "This tour means everything to me and these fans don't deserve to be played with as much as we've been doing."
"Yeah, I agree. They should get us as genuine humans and role models." I agree, my head lightening the pressure.
"Exactly, and I just think that involves me being the most genuine version of myself with them, and others. That also includes the members of this tour." Jaden shakes his head, as if agreeing and convincing himself of that statement, let alone me.
Up ahead I saw the Wheel, and none of the other groups had arrived yet, so Sterling sat on her phone on the bench below it. I smiled at her as she met my eyes and turned my attention back on Jaden as he took a deep breath. I nodded him on and he took my hand lightly in his, almost letting it sit limp in his.
"In that case, Rose, I think you and I have something." I felt my jaw set and my knees start to give out below me. "I'm sure you've seen how I act around you. Its like I cant form sentences, or even thoughts in that matter. Its a feeling of yearning that pulls me to you every time I see your smile and not to mention the amount of hurricane that goes on in my stomach when you laugh. All I want to do is hold you and call you mine." He paused, his eyes meeting mine for the first time since he started talking, and his hand letting his grip go off my hand, still letting it sit in his. "Then I notice how you look at him. How you always look his way for a reaction to every joke you say, or how you always want to be touching him, as if hes your safety. I might be wrong, but I feel as if you were forced into that feeling-"
"Jaden-" I try and stop him, but he cuts me off.
"No, I'm serious. What if you had kissed me? Kissed me instead of him? Or maybe even met me first? I mean lets face it, when me and you are together its like we are sparking, but then you remember him and force yourself away form me." He sighs, feeling defeated and his grip returned. "Rose I'm utterly-"
"Really?! You've got to be kidding!" I cocked my head to the left, my stomach dropping a million miles so deep I'm sure it found its way to hell.
His face was a mix of upset and devastated, and I couldn't handle it.
