If the first day of tour was eventful, the second day knocked it out of the park. Mandy called Julie on her cell that afternoon. The guys had band practise, but were still in the hotel with us when it happened. We'd decided to keep it between the four of us for now, until we were sure and had proof. So Julie showed us into her and Sam's room and put Mandy on speakerphone.
"Listen, I have something really important to tell you, it came as a pretty big shock to me too." Mandy's muffled voice echoed from the phone "It's about Joey. He's-"
"Hello!" called a voice and Joey appeared in the doorframe. He tried to sound cheerful, but I couldn't help noticing a lace of nervousness in his voice. He was undoubtfully just listening to us. "Who's your friend?" he continued, again, trying to act casual.
Julie quickly hung up "It's Ma- uh, my friend from college." she hastily corrected herself. I cought on to what she was doing and backed her up "Yeah, she, um, called to congradulate Jules on her wedding." I said with a forced smile.
Joey nodded absently. He stayed in place for a few minutes, his gaze still transfixed on Julie's phone. Then he suddenly snapped out of his trance "So, come back to the living room then, we can watch TV." he said nervously.
"I think we'll hang around here for a while." Jenna answered, shooting her eyebrows up at him suspiciously.
A crooked grin broke over Joey's face and he seamed to be sweating "Yes, sounds good. I'll just stay with you here, then."
The four of us exchanged looks. There was definitely something he didn't want us to know. I did some quick thinking. It seemed pointless to argue or confront Joey right now. Besides, we wouldn't even know what to confront him for. And he couldn't possibly watch us 24/7. We'd get our chance to get to the bottom of things and if the opportunity wasn't now, I wasn't going to waste my time.
"Alright, let's go to join the others then, girls." I said, nodding at them. For a brief second, Julie, Jenna and Sam stared at me. Then, confussion still washing over them, followed me to the living room.
I found Luke, Michael, Calum and Ashton there, all squeezed onto the couch and watching the TV across them carefully. Their eyes widened and they stood completely still for a moment, as if expecting something to happen. Then, suddenly, Michael and Luke jumped up and cheered, highfiving eachother. Ashton groaned and Calum threw his Snapback from his head disappointedly.
"What's going on?" Samantha asked.
"We're playing a game we made up." Calum explained, obviously still not over his loss "Wanna play?"
"How does it work?" I asked, settling down on the soft carpet next to the coffee table.
"Well," Calum went on, picking up the remote from his side "Basically, we just switch to a random channel, find something we can bet on and then bet on it."
"Wow, you must be really bored." Jenna said"But I'm in."
Luke and Michael sat back down, Julie, Sam and Joey joined as well. Pretty soon, we were flipping through channels and laughing our heads off. Within minutes, the game had lost all meaning and we were just trying to make things funny. It did a great job of forcing Mandy's words out of our minds for now.
"Look!" Luke pointed at the TV screen, where the channel had stopped on a woman. She was standing at the top of a staircase, a large laundry basket covering her face. "I bet she trips!"
Just seconds later, a child about the age of 5 appeared running behind her, slammed into her and they both tumbled down the stairs. Roaring laughter echoed through the room.
"I bet someone shows up to fall over them." Michael hollered and, again, seconds later another kid showed up and fell face first over the other two.
The game went on and on until we were clutching our stomachs and gasping for breath. Deciding it was already about time to get to the studio, Ashton was the one to turn the TV off. He was asking where we were planning to be while they rehearse, when Joey bumped in "They'll come with us to watch!" he beamed, awkwardly throwing an arm around Julie and Jenna's shoulders.
This time, everyone seemed to notice something was off. We've seen them rehearse about a thousand times and there's something boring about hearing the exact same songs over and over and over. Luke seemed to notice this and the fact that we're usually off sightseeing when they're on tour.
"Is everything okay, Joey?" Luke asked, unable to hide his suspicion any longer.
"Everything's wonderful!" Joey said in an oddly cheerful tone "I just wanna spend as much with all of you as I can before tour's over and I have to leave you. You're just so darn cool!" he added a little too heartily, squeezing Jen and Julie's shoulders.
Despite the obvious that Joey was hiding something, we decided to have it his way. At least now everyone was a bit more sceptic about him. But the fun didn't stop there. Joey kept a watchful eye on us during rehearsals too. Every time one of us pulled out her phone, he was suddenly feeling tired or thirsty and had to come up to where we sat for a drink. I had just about had it with him, when an idea sprung up in my head. I waited until he was back to his guitar and well into the song before turning to Jenna.
"Guys, I think have a plan." I whispered and we brought our heads together "When is the only time Joey can't stop us from contacting Mandy?"
They frowned slightly and I continued "Tonight, during the concert, he won't be able to just fling off the stage because one of us looks at her phone."
"Brilliant! But we still shouldn't make it too obvious." Julie said.
"One of us can pretend she needs to use to bathroom and disappear to call Mandy." Sam suggested.
"Perfect, let Jules do it." Jenna concluded "Now let's do this before Joey makes me throw a 'slumber party'." she cringed and I laughed.
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hey guys!
so this chapter is dedicated to @JoxyJo because she's one of my very closest friends, she's so sweet and funny and sarcastic and i just love everything about her. if you see this, you're cute and awesome and you shouldn't be upset :)
love you xx
