Mmkay, so let me start off by saying...this is my first fanfic, so I might be suckish and stuff, so just please be nice and tell me about which parts I suck the most :)
And anyway, I know this first part is sorta boring, but I'm making this like...THE PROLOGUE. So, yeah, just please finish reading it and I promise that the next few chapters will (hopefully) be better.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. (I wasn't planning on putting that, but like almost everyone does in their stories, so I do, too. Haha)
AS COMPLICATED AS LOVE - CHAPTER UNO
"Shane, Nate, Jason! Over here!" A desperate photographer yelled. Actually, it wasn't just that desperate photographer. Everybody seemed to be pouncing unto the trio, screeching their heads off. Well, that would be a normal reaction. They were, after all, the famous Connect Three.
The three toned, well-built, and of course—handsome boys walked briskly towards their jet. They had just finished a three-day concert in California, and were going to New York the next day. They would stay there for quite a while; it was sort of how their father repaid them for all their hard work. Mr. and Mrs. Gray had already settled themselves into the private jet as Nate, Jason and Shane waved their last good-byes. The three of them began to get inside the jet, since they were just standing near the door, and after a few seconds, the door was closed by one of the stewardesses. Shane swore that he heard a couple of girls sob.
"That was awkward," Shane shrugged as he plopped himself down on the chair next to the plasma TV. "I mean, did you hear that one girl actually cry? I mean, with the red face and the puffy eyes—it's creepy." He cringed, hoping to lighten the mood.
In response, Nate groaned, annoyed. He obviously wasn't in the mood. He was never in the mood, not since the diva of divas, the "superpopstar" of Hollywood, none other than Hannah Montana, broke up with him. Well, more like cheated on him and never called him back. Whatever. It didn't matter anymore. Nate's heart had been broken; he doubted that it would ever be fixed again.
Seeing Nate depressed worried Jason, since he was the caring big brother. He glanced at Shane, who shrugged. "So, Nate," Jason began, "What do you think about New York?"
Nate slumped as he opened the mini-fridge and got a diet Coke and sat on the nearest seat. "I dunno." At that moment, the seatbelt sign had turned on, and Jason took his seat beside Nate, while Shane was on his other side.
"You're still upset, huh?" Shane asked, not seeing how dumb his question actually was. Nate rolled his eyes, obviously uninterested in the topic. "Well, don't worry, 'cause New York will be awesome! We'll be there for a long time, too, so we can make a lot of new friends and—"
"Just stop, Shane, okay?!" Nate exploded, holding back the tears. He was irritated by the fact that whenever he'd have a talk with his brothers, the only thing they'd talk about was finding him a girlfriend. He wasn't ready to move on yet. How hard was that to understand?
"Dude, I'm just trying to help!" Shane shot back, Nate's anger causing him to be irate, too.
"Boys, stop it," Mr. Gray cleared his throat, frowning. "Give your brother some space."
"He just came through a very difficult…break-up," Mrs. Gray tried to sound consoling, "And Nate? Be nice to your brothers. Shane's right—New York will be wonderful."
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RIIIIIIING! Alex's alarm clock screeched. She groaned, yet remained calm.
Saturday. Thank God! Alex had enough of waking up early and getting detention for being late. Finally, the weekend was here! 'I can sleep as late as I want to,' She thought lazily, practically punching the snooze button. She flipped backwards and fell back to sleep.
"Alex! Alex!" A familiar voice screamed, jolting Alex from her peaceful slumber. She groaned—why now?! Of all the times Harper had to run into her room and wake her up, why did it have to happen on a Saturday? Alex pretended to still be asleep, hoping that Harper would buy it and go away.
Alex's door opened, and she heard Harper's footsteps approach her and nudge her shoulder. "If you're not waking up," Harper warned, "I'm going to have to throw this ice-cold bucket of water on you," Alex felt Harper flick cold water on her. She moaned—she knew for a fact that Harper would pour the bucket of water on her.
"What?!" Alex asked groggily, rubbing her eyes and sitting upright. There standing in front of her—looking extra stupid, since she was carrying a bucket of water—was her best friend, Harper Finkle, wearing one of her "original" creations which consisted of a million smiley-faced buttons all over a plain blue dress. If you weren't looking at it right, you'd say that Harper's face was a huge smiley-face button, too. It looked so weird.
"You'll never guess what!" Harper grinned widely, gently putting her bucket of water down. She jumped on Alex's soft bed, "But first—like my outfit?"
"Yes, I love it," Alex sarcastically stated, though Harper seemed to believe her. "…but what's up with the faces?"
"Well, I think they represent my mood." Harper defended herself.
"Oh, what's that? Insanely high?" Alex chuckled to herself and got up, tying her messy raven tresses into a loose ponytail.
"No, silly!" Harper shook her head, "Happy! Can't you see?" She imitated the smile of the button. "And you know why?" Alex looked at her in a 'you-really-want-me-to-guess?' kind of way. She sighed in defeat, "Okay, I'll tell you! Guess which absolutely hot band is coming to New York!"
"Um…" Alex nibbled on her lower lip, thinking. "Metro Station?" Her smile grew bigger. "Oh my—"
"Not that hot band, Alex," Harper shook her head, "Connect Three!" She squealed before jumping up and down, like a possessed pogo stick. She jumped around in circles, expecting Alex to join her funfest. But instead of hopping up and down, Alex raised a brow.
"Ew. Connect Three?" Alex shook her head, "Justin listens to that. It's like some geeky cult or something. Seriously, Harper?"
"Yeah, I like them," Harper calmed herself down and stopped jumping. "They're gonna be here for a couple of months." She grinned wildly. She always had this thing for older guys—a.k.a. Jason Gray, the guitarist. Alex just sat there, watching Harper daydream about Jason. She grinned as she imagined Justin doing the same thing—he was obsessed with Connect Three, too.
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"How long are we gonna be here?" Nate complained as he shut the limo's door. He was sick of the limelight, of the girls throwing themselves at him. He just wanted one girl—Hannah, and even a vacation to New York wouldn't change anything. Well, he doubted it, that's for sure.
"Five months," Shane smiled, happy. "We'll be staying at some fancy hotel dad booked for us."
"Where's Frankie, by the way? Still stuck in New Jersey?" Jason chuckled; Frankie had been left behind since the brothers were touring—but he was safe with their Aunt Sally.
"Your Aunt's bringing him here tomorrow," Mr. Gray murmured, flipping a page of his newspaper.
'Great,' Nate thought, a little bit happier. Frankie had always cheered him up, somehow, because he and his jolly nine-year-old self always lifted his mood.
After a few minutes of driving, the Gray brothers, along with their parents, finally arrived at The New York Palace, which was absolutely stunning. Mr. and Mrs. Gray got their separate room—with an extra bed for Frankie the next day—while the brothers had their own just across the hall.
"Okay guys, we have to unpack first before we go out of this room." Jason announced as he and his brothers settled into their suite. He opened his bag and started arranging his shirts inside one of the cabinets.
"What, why?" Shane—the lazy one of the three—queried, not in the mood to move. "I'm still sick with jetlag. Can I go…to some place outside—let's say the mall—and hang-out first?"
"No, my horoscope says bad things will happen if we don't get the important things done first," Jason sternly stated as Nate began unpacking, too. Fast forward thirty minutes later; Jason was tidying up his side of the room, putting their guitars in a straight line against the wall. Nate, being depressed and all, turned to the TV, while Shane was just dying to go out and check out the…people.
"Guys, wanna go out with me?" He offered, grabbing a Fedora, black Ray Ban shades and a jacket. Jason obviously wasn't paying attention while Nate was being Mr. Grumpy, so Shane proceeded to the mall, very carefully wearing his disguise.
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"Where do we go next?" Harper asked enthusiastically, carrying three shopping bags. Alex and her had been going on a big spending spree since there was a huge sale.
"I don't know, I think we've been to all the stores!" Alex exclaimed, exhausted. Dangling on her arms were six shopping bags. "You wanna take a break and go to Milkyway?"
"Wait—isn't that like a bajillion miles away?" Harper stopped and thought, a daft look on her face.
"It's a smoothie store, Einstein." Alex rolled her eyes, though she was amused. "Now stop thinking or you'll give your head a real beating." She grabbed Harper by the wrist and dragged her to Milkyway.
Meanwhile, just outside Milkyway, a cautious yet thankful (that he wasn't being chased by billions of girls and that his 'disguise' really worked) Shane Gray hesitated on going in. Well, first, he was thirsty, and he couldn't just be prancing around the mall, risking his very life.
'Oh well,' Shane thought as he got inside. He fast-walked as he spotted two girls walking behind him and beat them to the cashier. He snickered silently, looking back at them, hoping to show the girls his victory face, as if to say 'Ha-ha, I beat you to the cash register, I'll get my smoothies first and you'll both be sore losers'. But, things turned out a little differently.
You see, it was Alex and Harper who happened to go in behind Shane (well, of course, they didn't really know it was him). When Shane looked back at both of them, Alex also coincidentally looked right at him, causing their eyes to lock for a few seconds. A few heart-thumping, knee-wobbling, body-melting seconds…for Shane, at least. For some odd reason, Shane experienced 'love-at-first-sight'—yes, that whole little cliché. Her big brown eyes captured his whole attention and her cute—no, that would be disrespect to call her cute—on second thought, her absolutely beautiful face, her figure, her overall aura, what boy in the right mind WOULDN'T be mesmerized by this girl?
"Hey, sir? You're holding up a line." Shane broke off from his trance just as Alex was about to give him a small smile.
Shane grew grumpy—and Alex was just, well, freaked out. What a douche. She was going to smile at him and then he just turned his head impolitely. Oh well, there were a lot of other good-looking guys out there.
The cashier waved her hands right in front of Shane, catching his attention. "What can I give you?"
"Just a strawberry smoothie, extra…strawberries."
"Great, that'll be four dollars, please." Shane gave the girl his money, and the cashier gave him his change. "Hold on," She said as she went to the kitchen and got him a smoothie. Shane chuckled; Hold On had been one of their songs.
"Here you go," The cashier emerged from the kitchen and handed Shane his smoothie.
Great, Shane thought, smiling as he got his smoothie, now I can go talk to that girl. He gave the cashier an extra—his signature melting smile. "Thanks," He murmured softly.
The cashier got it. She figured it out. In less than a second, Shane regretted everything. "OH MY GREY! IT'S…IT'S…SHANE! AHHHH." The girl started to scream and began to reach out to Shane, with the counter separating them. Her hands roughly pushed Shane backwards, causing him to lose his balance and spill his strawberry smoothie on the girl standing right beside him (who he noticed smelled like vanilla perfume)…Alex.
Heyyy:)
Okay, thanks for reading! Um, yeah, I know that that was...well, boring as death, but I swear, the next chapter will be wayyy better :D Please be a saint and give me a review? Flames are welcome, and I wouldn't mind some constructive criticism, or a simple "I LOVED IT" (What? 'Don't push it'? Oh, okay.) Well, yeah. Thanks for sticking with me through the whole chapter. :) You guys are awesome.
