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Chapter Nine: The Question

Saturday 11:15pm

Shane couldn't believe how extremely well the evening turned out; the entire concert was a complete success. His heart still pumped faster than usual, thanks to post-concert excitement. He sat comfortably in the limo, his arm dangling around the shoulders of a gorgeous girl in a blue shirt.

"You are amazing," he whispered into her ear for the hundredth time that night.

His breath tickled her, sending pleasant shivers shooting down her spine. "Stop saying that," she giggled.

"Okay, if I can't tell you how amazing you are, what can we talk about?"

Mitchie shrugged her shoulders. "Tell me more about you."

Surprised, Shane asked, "Why? I'm rather boring."

"You are a rock star. I hardly think that counts as boring."

"Well, I wanna know about you," he said. "Tell me about your family."

Something in Mitchie constricted. The circulation of blood to her heart all but stopped. Her breathing came out in short rasps. Calm, take control of yourself. He just asked one simple question. No need to freak about over it. Thankfully, Shane hadn't noticed her momentary lapse.

"Well, uh, I have a younger brother. He is six years old and causes so much terror in the house I wonder sometimes if he was an animal in a past life," Mitchie tried, hoping her attempt to sound cool and calm didn't seem too strained.

"Sounds like my youngest brother. He is crazy and always running around doing things, but I still love him."

She smiled at him.

"You're parents must be awesome. They raised such a good girl they couldn't be anything but perfect."

Nodding, Mitchie hoped he would drop the subject of her family quickly. "So, where are we going exactly?"

The slight diversion shifted Shane's statements to the after party they were currently on their way too. She had to admit she barely listened to anything he said about the party. Her thoughts drifted on his question: tell me about your family. For the longest time, no one ever mentioned anything to her about her family. And she personally liked it that way best. With no mention of her family, she wouldn't have to explain her painful background.

Stay calm, there's nothing you can do about it now. Mitchie focused on Shane. Looking at his animated face calmed her more than she ever thought it would.

The limo came to a slow stop, Mitchie's door clicked open.

"Welcome to Pier Port, Miss Mitchie," the driver said extending his hand to her.

Mitchie glanced at Shane; he nodded. She grabbed his hand and pulled herself out of the limo. Flashes and lights impaired her vision as soon as she hit the pavement. A hand flew in front of her face to shield her eyes from all the lights.

"It's the downfall of being famous," whispered Shane in her ear. "Walk along the carpet slowly, greet anyone you want, take pictures, sign things; it's simple and not as bad as you think it might be."

Mitchie nodded. "They aren't going to want my autograph. No one knows me."

"You'll be surprised," he said, his whole face lighting up. "Come on; let's get going so we can get inside to the real party."


11:35pm

"I can't believe we are at a party with so many famous people!" Lola squealed excitedly. "I seriously think I just saw Tom Hanks. I gotta go see if that was him!"

Lola sprinted off into the crowds. Caitlyn and Mitchie shared a look and busted out laughing. "This is surreal though, isn't it? Who would have expected all this?"
Caitlyn shrugged her dainty shoulders. "No idea, but I could get used to this."

"Dance?" Mitchie suggested, dragging Caitlyn to the center of the dance floor.

The two friends danced to the pulsating music. People danced and mingled everywhere. Pier Port was almost full to the maximum capacity point. Mitchie couldn't find one area where there wasn't someone in it.

"Mind if I cut in?" a gorgeous stranger asked Mitchie.

"Go right ahead," she giggled, giving CC an excited look.

Mitchie left the dance floor and her flustered friend behind her. Someone grabbed her arm and turned her to face them. Her eyes instantly fell into Shane's smoldering brown eyes. She felt her heart melt.

"You want to step outside with me?" he asked nervously.

What did he have a reason to be nervous for? "Of course," she accepted easily. Her fingers slipped perfectly into his hand. The heat from his hand caused her thoughts to not form properly in her head.


Sunday - 12:00am

Stars twinkled in the midnight black sky. So many stars stretched over the expanse of the sky. It looked endless.

Shane and Mitchie lay comfortably on the ground, gazing up at the stars. They had found a quiet spot where no one would bother them. They had been talking for the last half an hour or so, talking about their dreams and their wants.

"What's your dream, Mo?" Shane asked, twirling a piece of Mitchie's hair in his finger.

She thought hard about this question. "I'm not exactly sure. I've always wanted to conquer my fear of singing on stage, but I never thought I would get the chance to do that."

"You conquered that fear with flying colors," he said happily.

A blush spread across her cheeks.

"Now that you conquered that one, what's your next dream?"

She shrugged. "To be happy throughout life."

This statement confused and pleased him at the same time. Mitchie was far more mature than he ever thought she was.

"That's an easy enough dream to conquer. You already have me, so you are already going to be happy throughout life."

Mitchie laughed at his playful cockiness, but the idea of him being with her for a very long time satisfied her. She imagined the two of them some years much later sitting around a kitchen table discussing the news. Shaking her heard, Mitchie was thinking way too far ahead of herself. Stay in the present she wanted to scream at herself.

"What's going on in your head?" he asked softly, propping himself up on his arm so that he could face her.

"Just thinking."

He smiled and didn't question her thinking. That's one thing she loved about him. He wouldn't pressure her into giving him an answer. Wait, did she just say love?

"So," he started, "I have to tell you something. Can you wait until I'm done and then comment?"

His face pleaded with her and she never saw him look this afraid before. "Of course."

Shane let out a huge sigh before talking. "These past two days with you have been the most fun I have had in a really long time. You make me so happy, and when I'm with you I can't imagine being anywhere else. This is all happening really fast, but I can't help it. I saw you two days ago and from that moment on all I could think about was the girl with the voice. Even when I didn't know it was you, you still plagued my mind."

"Then I met you, without knowing I already saw you, and we hit it off. You are so different than all the other girls I've ever talked to. You are interested in things other than me being famous. You actually like good music and don't pretend to like ours. You have this adorable habit of twirling your hair when you get nervous, which you are doing right now." She dropped her hand from her hair; she hadn't noticed she was doing it. "Don't stop, it's cute. I love how I can actually have intelligent conversations with you and not feel like I'm the only one who knows what I'm talking about. I also love how you are so oblivious to how beautiful you look. It makes you even more gorgeous in my eyes."

"I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to find someone as special as you are. Who would have guessed I would have found it in Jersey, only miles away from my own home? I know I'm rambling, seems I picked this habit up from you already. I just wanted you to know how much you mean to me, even if you don't feel the same way. I needed to get it off my chest before it suffocated me. It's really killing me that I'm going to have to leave you tonight."

Mitchie nodded, stunned too much to be able to speak.

Shane's arms had wrapped around her somewhere during his monologue. He drew her even closer to him. Mitchie's heart pounded louder than ever; she thought it would burst right out of her chest. Their lips were inches apart.

"Shane! Mitchie!" shouted Jason from the entrance to the party. "We've been looking for you two everywhere."

Shane glared at his eldest brother over Mitchie's shoulder. "I guess we should go back inside."

Mitchie gave him a heartfelt smile. "We're being summoned."

This made Shane laugh and forget about Jason's interruption. Once they were back inside, Shane was dragged away to talk with someone. Mitchie wandered around the still packed room looking for her friends. She needed to talk to someone. She spotted Caitlyn with the boy she had been dancing with earlier.

"CC, do you have a minute?" Mitchie asked, stepping in between her and the boy.

"I'm about to leave. Mom just called, she wants me home now," she said sadly.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later then," Mitchie said, leaving her friend to her new boy.

Lola had to be around here somewhere. She needed one friend to talk too. As soon as Mitchie glanced Lola was bounding down on her.

"Mo! Where have you been!? Why are you so happy!?" she asked excitedly. "Did you and Shane finally kiss?!"

"We were so close," said Mitchie. "But I have something even better to tell you."

"Something better than kissing? I can't believe it."

Mitchie smacked her friend. "He just confessed his feelings to me."

Lo squealed happily. "This is so exciting! Did you tell him how you feel?"

"No, I didn't get a chance too. Jason came and found us right before we were going to kiss."

A guilty expression planted itself on Lola's face. "That might be my fault. I was with him and we went looking for you two."

"Lo! You killed the kiss! You kiss killer," laughed Mitchie.

"I'm so very sorry! I will make it up to you! Let me go find Shane right now."

Before Mitchie had time to protest Lola was already winding through the party goers looking for Shane. Someone tapped on her shoulder.

"Shane!" she said surprised. "Lola just went to get you."

"Why?" he wondered.

"Nothing of importance," she stated. "What's going on?"

"I have a really crazy idea. You want to hear it?"

Wedding bells danced around in her head and she quickly silenced them. She was beginning to think she was getting a little carried away. Really?

"Just hear me out to the end, and then you can tell me what you think. I had this crazy idea and I told Dad about it. He went to the tour manager and he agreed with me. What I'm trying to get to is that if you wanted to, and only if you wanted to, would you want to continue the rest of the tour with us?" he asked, almost pleaded.

The shock of the proposal stunned Mitchie into silence.

WHAT'S SHE GOING TO SAY!? whoever gets it right gets the next chapter dedicated to them! =] i love you all.