He held her hand,
Soft skin tingling under her touch.
They watched the trees
Sway to the music of the wind,
People walking in the peaceful surrounding.
They sat on a wooden bench,
Uncomfortable to any other person,
But to her,
There was no better comfort.
Her head contently in his lap,
As his other hand stroked her hair.
She closed her eyes at his touch,
And for once she felt-
"Audrey!" Megan shrieked, slamming the door the to room open with an ear splitting bang.
She groaned, rolling over, trying to grasp every moment of her dream. There was still some there, but it was seeping slowly through her fingers like sand in an hour glass. Was her time running out? Or had her moment just not begun yet? Whatever the case, it was gone now, and the detail had disappeared.
"What?" She replied groggily, sitting herself up on her elbows.
"What is this I hear about you going on a date?" She snapped, coming over and hastily sitting on the bed.
'How does she know?' She thought to herself. "It's not a date, it's more like a 'get to know you' thing with one of the crew members. Plus, who told you?"
"Who told me doesn't matter, why didn't YOU tell me?" Megan rolled her eyes.
Audrey grew angry. Who was she to get in her business when she never cared before? She knew Megan about as much as the guys did, which was barely at all, and they all could depict from her attitude that she didn't care about anything.
"Why the Hell are you all up in my business?!" She yelled, getting out of bed and grabbing some clothes from one of the bags.
There was a knock on the door, putting a pause on their argument.
"What do you want?" Megan sighed loudly. Chris entered, eyeing both the girls before realizing he had come at a bad time.
"I just wanted to tell you we're loading the busses now, we're heading to Florida today, so it's going to be a long drive. I'm sure that will give you enough time to get ready for your night with 'Mikey' Audrey." He laughed, and then left.
Audrey rolled her eyes. Okay so it was now official, Chris is a jackass. She began getting her things, realizing all this was a lot more to carry around then her usual notebook and pen. Ignoring Megan’s glares, she took all her bags and went to the elevator, hoping she wouldn't drop anything.
"Need help?" Lance greeted, coming from his room with only one duffle bag.
"Just a little." She smiled gratefully dumping all her bags on him. "You can carry these. It's what you get for forgetting my name all of the time."
"It was an accident." He pleaded, clumsily trying to balance the bags.
"That's bullshit and you know it...what’s your name again?" She questioned as the elevator opened with a tiny 'ding'.
"Very funny." Lance rolled his eyes, stumbling into the elevator.
Audrey stood, her arms crossed, tapping her foot to a song in her head. 'Maybe I could write a song...I've never thought of it before. It shouldn't be too hard...’ She continued to think things up in her head, wishing Lance wasn't holding her stuff so tight...'Jeez, you'd think he was lifting weights or something...is he sweating?' Audrey observed him closely.
"What? Is there something on me...is this a trick? Cause I can always drop this!" Lance threatened.
"No it's not a trick! Get over yourself, I've given up on you guys. It was fun for awhile, but pranks will only come when called for now. So don't bug me." Audrey rolled her eyes, leaning against the elevator wall. The elevator stopped in the lobby and they exited, the doors closing quickly behind them. Lance continued in front of Audrey, stumbling every so often. She looked at him closely again, and laughed. 'Yup, he's sweating, what a nerd.'
***************************************************************
**2 hours later**
"I'm bored." Megan sighed, plopping down on Audrey’s bunk. She all of the sudden forgot that she was mad at her.
'Fascinating.' Audrey thought. 'Maybe she's bipolar or something...'
"Hello are you listening to me?!!" Megan yelled, waving her hand in front of her face.
"Yeah, I'm listening and I know you're bored, you told me like a million times!" Audrey rolled her eyes, going back to her notebook. 'This song writing thing is harder than I thought...' She thought, tapping her pen on the paper.
"Stop that!" Megan spat, getting off the bed.
"What?" Audrey said. 'Yeah bipolar.'
"Tapping your pen, it's annoying." She growled, stamping out of the room.
"Jeez." Audrey rolled her eyes, going back to humming a possible tune for her possible song.
She then heard a weird tune coming from the living room of the bus. Curious, she hesitantly walked into the room. She saw Megan perched on the couch, watching a movie.
"What is this?" She questioned, watching numbers countdown on the screen.
"I have no idea, it just said 'REEL' on it." Megan shrugged.
So they sat in silence, their interested faces all of the sudden turned to shock as a face popped onto the screen.
"Oh...My...God..." Audrey stuttered, unable to get her eyes off the screen.
"Is that...is that...." Megan stuttered also.
"Yeah, that’s Justin..." Audrey spoke, and then clamped her mouth to keep from laughing.
"How old is this!!" Megan questioned.
"I have no idea, couple years maybe..." Audrey shrugged, watching Chris act like a midget and being stupid.
"This is insane...I can't believe we're watching this." Megan sighed, though still not reaching for the remote.
'This is gonna be a long day' Audrey thought, glancing at the clock flashing the early hour of 10:30.
**********************************************************************
**3 Hours later**
"Another movie?" Audrey suggested, getting up from her 5th position in the living room in the last couple hours.
"No! No more movies dammit!!" Megan sighed frustrated. "When are we stopping, I can't feel my ass."
"I don't know..." Audrey said as the bus then came to a stop. "I'm guessing now." She climbed off the bus, heading into the building, Megan disappearing as usual. She wondered around looking at all the magazines. Inspecting each cover carefully, picking a random one up and browsing through the articles.
"Hmmm...Never Say You Never Can...That’s different." She mumbled to herself, looking skeptically at the five guys on the cover.
"Just can't get enough of us can ya?"
Audrey spun around, seeing Joey standing behind her.
"Oh, yeah, I just love breathing your luscious scents every time you sweep past me, gracing me with your oh so powerful presence." She rolled her eyes.
"That was poetic." He laughed, grabbing the magazine from her. "Oh, this is that one new magazine the company designed for us, it's pretty cool, original too. It's more in-depth than the other teeny stuff."
"Thanks for the information Joey, care to tell me the publishing date?" Audrey snatched the magazine back, taking it up to the register, leaving him behind. She set it on the counter and the cashier rung it up.
"That will be $3.99 ma'am." The girl said in a perky voice.
'Oh shit...money...I have no money...shit shit.' Audrey repeated in her head.
"Here." Joey came up again, placing the money on the counter.
Audrey, embarrassed, grabbed the magazine and left the building, heading to the bus. When she was outside, she turned to Joey, giving him a small smile of thanks, and then went back into the bus. She was greeted by Megan who was sitting on the couch, a bored look crossing her usually angry face.
"So, what are we gonna do for another 7 hours?" Megan questioned.
Audrey groaned. "We're not gonna get there for another 7 hours?"
"That’s what the driver said genius."
"Great." Audrey slumped down on a chair. She threw the magazine she bought on the floor, planning on looking at it later.
"Wanna play a game?" Megan asked, opening one of the cabinets to reveal various board games.
"Sure why not, got nothin better to do." Audrey replied, pulling out Sorry and setting it up. '7 more hours...'
*********************************************************************
**4 hours later**
Audrey sighed, flipping through the magazine. The blur of the TV was in the background, and the ticking of the wall clock was really starting to bug her. She and Megan had quit playing games about an hour ago due to Megans’ continuous whining that Audrey was cheating because she kept losing. So she sat comfortably on her bunk, deciding to cut out some of the pictures in the magazine. She taped a picture of each guy on a separate page of her notebook. She took her pen and began with the first picture, Lance.
"Sweet, annoying, will make a good husband. Complains a lot, nerd, not in very good shape."
She smiled and then flipped the page to Chris. Without even needing to give it thought, she simply wrote:
"Jackass"
Rolling her eyes she then looked at Joeys.
"Charming. Will make a good father."
Flipping the page she stared at Jc. She hadn't had as many encounters with him as she had the other 3 so far. She thought a moment then wrote:
"Kind."
She left the rest of the space blank. 'I'll get back to that one.' she thought. Her eyes then landed on Justin. She inspected it carefully. The wrinkles under his eyes and the shape of his cheek bones. And his eyes. She looked him them, seeing passed the smile. The camera flashes marking his fame. The bus then stopped and a knock on the bus door broke her stare, making her lose her thought.
"Hey Audrey." Justin entered, waving slightly. "Mikes waiting outside, we're stopping for the night.
Audrey looked at the clock, the hands on 5:30. 'That's weird...we only have three more hours till we get there, what’s the rush?'
"Can't he just wait till we get there? We only have a couple more hours." She pointed out.
"Nah, he said he wants to take you to dinner and a movie. He said if he waited he wouldn’t have enough time for the dinner." Justin replied, rolling his eyes.
"Ok whatever. He better not be takin me any place fancy." She laughed, looking down at her blue Aeropostal flared sweats, and matching hoodie. "How do I look?" She spun for him.
Justin watched her, a smile crossing his face. "Lovely, darling, lovely." He joked, throwing in an accent.
"Why thank you. I'll be going now." She waved like a prom queen, then exited the bus.
Justin watched her go, then traced back to where she had been sitting. He knew he shouldn’t, he figured whatever was in there she wanted to keep to herself...but being a human he couldn't help himself...he had to at least take a peek. He found himself standing right next to it, and he watched it, afraid that if he touched it, it would attack him. He carefully picked it up as if it were a bomb. He bit his lip and then turned open the cover revealing the first page. He began to read.
Sour candy lips
Fruit punch glistening
Perspiring down a sun kissed glass
Rays wrap in a comforting embrace
Butterflies sparkle on my eyelids
Glitter twinkles on my cheeks
Rain drops grasp my hair
Steal my butterflies
Snatch my glitter
I let them
I have nothing to hide
‘That’s kinda cool.’ He thought to himself.
He began flipping through the rest, more curious than ever. He found a couple news articles taped to the pages and a few journal entries. He then came to a picture of Lance. He saw they were the last couple used pages and figured she must have gotten these from the magazine she had purchased earlier. He skimmed through them, and laughed Chris’ blank page, well except for the one word. He came to his. It was a recent picture he had gotten taken about a month ago. Under it, in Audrey's quickly scrawled handwriting was:
"Let's force that smile a little more, then go home and wonder why."
Justin quickly shut the notebook. Why would she write that? She had no right to judge him and say he wasn't happy with his life. Yet, as he began to think, maybe she was right...
* * * * * * * * * *
Megan wandered out of the bus, taking in the cool night air. Audrey had left an hour ago and everyone else was in the hotel. Justin was on the bus for awhile, he had read Audreys’ little diary thing. 'I wonder if I'll tell her or not...maybe I could just blackmail Timberlake with it...Anyway’ she looked around. She was just three hours from Orlando, Florida. She was getting quite the trip out of this. She never liked staying in one place very long, so now that she'd got the opportunity to travel, it'd been pretty nice. So far Audrey had been playing little servant girl and shit, so she didn't have to do anything except enjoy herself.
"Hey, Megan." She whipped around to see Jc.
"Can I help you?" She snapped.
"Chill jeez. It's nice outside, wanna go for a walk?" He offered.
"Why?" She questioned skeptically.
"Like I said, it's nice, and I offered." He rolled his eyes. 'Duh.' He thought.
"I suppose..." She agreed slowly, following behind him as he began to talk.
"So, why are you here?" He asked casually.
"What do you mean ‘why am I here?’ I have to be dumbass." Megan spat.
"No." Jc rolled his eyes yet again. "You haven't done anything since you've been told to stay here. I'm sure you could sneak away at any time, yet you're still here, why?"
Megan was silent, continuing to follow behind him. Why was she here? Normally in this situation she would run away, so why was she staying? Free travel she supposed. And then there was Audrey, though she could probably just leave the twerp. She wasn't a big fan of her anyway...
"Well, I get to travel for free." She decided to say.
"What about Audrey?" He questioned, slowing down a bit so she could walk next to him.
“I barely even know her. I met her the day before we got caught by you goons. She got kicked out of an orphanage." Megan told him, avoiding any eye contact. She watched the kids playing on a swing across the street, the wind brushing back their hair, glowing smiles on their faces.
"She's an orphan?" Jc asked surprised.
"Guess so." Megan sighed.
"How about you?"
Megan looked over at him. He stopped, then walked over to a park bench. Megan hadn't even noticed they'd reached a park. She contemplated on following him, or turning back.
'I've got nothing better to do...' She thought to herself. So she sat next to him, making sure to be as far away as possible, and not be off the bench. They sat in silence, the wind blowing lightly, the sun setting in the distance.
"You gonna answer?" Jc finally spoke.
"Me." Megan breathed deep. "Mom was a bitch, Dad was a bastard. I'm fine on my own."
"Interesting answer." He smiled lightly.
There was more silence, the crickets chirping their own symphony of songs. A dog barked in the distance. The sun had set and the only light came from the lamps lining the walk way of the park. The stars glistened in the cloudless sky. Megan looked up, searching for certain constellations.
"Do you think it's true that the North Star always leads you back to where you were last?" Jc questioned.
Megan shrugged. "I'm not sure, I’ve never been in that situation before."
"You know, you're not so bad when you don't go around acting like a bad ass." Jc smiled.
Megan laughed. "Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment."
"You're welcome."
And they continued just watching, letting the night proceed.
* * * * * * * * * *
"So what did you think of the movie?" Mike asked.
Audrey forced a smile on her face and looked at him. "It was really good." She then thought, 'Not!'
So far the night had been a complete disaster. Mike continuously tried to kiss her in between talking about himself, himself, and hmmm...himself.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Mike flashed a grin as they stopped in front of the hotel. "Maybe we could do this again sometime."
"Maybe." Audrey choked out. 'Not!'
"Hey, there's something back here I want to show you." Mike said, taking her hand, and leading her to an ally that led to the back of the hotel.
"Maybe we should get in, someone could start to worry..." Audrey trailed on, beginning to turn around, but Mike yanked her back.
"No, we're going this way. Plus who would care if you were missing?" He said through clenched teeth.
"Mike? Ow! You're hurting me!" She fought to get away as he yanked her more.
"What are you doing?!"
"The finale of the night, Audrey." Mike grinned, throwing her against the brick wall of the hotel.
Pain shot through her head and tears welled up in her eyes. Mike advanced towards her, slowly unbuttoning his shirt, and that was all she saw, then her body went limp.
* * * * * * * * * *
Justin sat on the roof of the hotel. The breeze was cooler up here, but he didn't seem to notice, except for a few shivers. The city was beautiful from this view, and the stars delicately twinkled against the deep blue. He almost felt like he could reach out and touch one. But his mind wasn't fully on that either. He kept thinking about what Audrey wrote. It was just a dumb picture, maybe she was just assuming, or maybe she was writing about something else. And why did it matter so much to him? She was just some girl that would be gone once her time was up. So why did he care that she could tell how he felt by just looking at a picture?
"Mike! Ow! You're hurting me!"
Justins’ head shot towards the sound immediately. That voice sounded awfully familiar. He went over to the edge of the roof, looking over into the alleyway. He saw Audrey lying motionless on the ground, and Mike walking towards her.
"Oh God..." Justin whispered to himself. He pulled out his cell phone, quickly calling the bodyguard in the lobby.
"Hey Jeff? You need to get to the alleyway to the right of the hotel quick. I think Audreys in some trouble." He demanded urgently.
"Who's Audrey?" Jeff asked.
"God Dammit! Jeff, who cares? Just go quick before something happens!" He yelled.
"Okay, I'm going, chill out."
Justin hung up his phone, then began quickly running down the hotel stairs, ignoring the elevator. Things were rapidly going through his head. How could they let her go out with someone they barely knew? Probably because no one cared...
"Get off her!" He heard Jeff yell from outside as he neared the ally.
He stepped out into the dimly lit ally. He saw Jeff with Mike against the wall.
"Justin call the police, I think that girls gonna need a doctor, and this guy needs to be locked up."
Justin obeyed, talking to a 911 correspondent and giving her the details.
"Okay, they said they'd be here in a minute."
He went over and sat next to Audrey. He pushed the hair out of her face, to reveal a cut on the side of her forehead. She moved a bit, a slight groan escaping her lips.
"Ow...." She complained, lifting her head.
"Careful, don't move too much, the ambulance is coming." Justin warned her.
Audrey opened her eyes and looked at him. "Why is Lance coming? I don't need Lance...I need a doctor...and..." Her eyes moved to Mike. "A restraining order."
Justin laughed. "Not Lance, an AMBULANCE. And I think we can get you that restraint." He glared at Mike.
Audrey nodded. "Good. You know, your eyes are pretty." She then passed out, her head landing on Justins shoulder.
"Ok..." Justin sighed.
Moments later, the ambulance and police arrived, taking Audrey and Mike away. They asked Justin a few questions, and he answered them the best he could. After everyone had left, Justin stood with Jeff in the ally.
"That was a good thing you did today Justin. Who knows what could have happened. You should go visit her tomorrow at the hospital." Jeff smiled, patting him on the back. "And you've got such pretty eyes." He chuckled, ruffling Justins hair and walking into the building.
Justin rolled his eyes. He walked around the place where Audrey had been lying and spotted a silver charm bracelet. He picked it up and read the inscriptions on each charm. 'Love' 'Dream' and 'Believe'. He pocketed it, and started back to the door to the hotel. There was a lot to learn about this girl, and for some reason, he couldn't help but be eager to see what she had to hide.
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