Chapter 10:
Shattered
Two weeks with the boys on the tour flew by. They treated Abby and I like their little sisters, teasing us. I was getting used to their crazy personalities, late night out dance parties, tickle fights and quarrels over trivial matters. Plus the fact that Cameron and Abby seemed to disappeared together more often. Oh well, I'll ask Abby about that someday.

I rubbed my eyes and headed for the kitchen. I was tired out, after the 'Friday' dance party we had last night. Pulling the fridge door open, I poured myself a glass of milk. We were at Dallas now, and the guys had to rehearse one last time before playing at a fair state tomorrow. My thoughts wandered off and memories flashbacked into my mind, the divorce my parents had, few months ago where I met Abby again, my first Allstar Weekend concert and the awkward kiss. My thoughts went further to the back of my mind and I suddenly remembered about Pearl. Weird, there were no messages from Pearl for quite awhile. Have she decided that it was time to move on to help another 'unlucky' person? If that is the case, that would be great, she wasn't of much help anyway. That would also mean I'm already on the right track of my life. I started grinning to myself when Nathan walked in.

"Good morning Samantha."
"Morning Nate. Excited for the show tomorrow?"
"Definitely. Today will be a long day rehearsing. I bet we'll be ..."
" Fooling around as usual." I completed the sentence.
"Yeah right. " He gave a chuckle.
Just then, Michael appeared from behind the door, singing.
"It's Friday, Friday. Gotta get down on Friday..."
"Uh, dude? Wrong day. Today's Saturday." Nathan corrected him and I almost choked on my milk.
"Really? Fine, I shall change it then. Saturday, Saturday, gotta get down on Saturday..."
Nathan and I just sat there roaring with laughter.

In an hour's time, Abby and I were at the rehearsal. The guys were taking a break. Cameron tried flipping Nathan and started running around in circles. This boy was sure hyper. He then did some booty shaking and Nathan was doing handstands. Abby was trying to control her laughter and record the whole thing. I was over at Michael and Zach's doing keyboarding. We pressed random notes, making random music. Then I saw a spider on one of the keys.

"OMFG! Get that thing away from me!" I yelled.
"It's only a tiny weeny spider. Plus it's chilling on that key." Michael blinked his eyes.
"And I have a phobia of spiders." I folded my arms.

Zach suddenly burst out laughing. I glared at him and gave him a punch.
"Uh oh."I thought. I knew what was going to happen next.
Zach reached his hands out trying to grab hold of me. I took one look at him and immediately run. I tried hiding behind pillars and objects. It was like a game of 'catching', except that once you get caught, you get tickled, badly. After 10 minutes of running, both of us just sat on the floor, panting, trying to catch our breath.

I stood up and went to grab my bottle of water, only to find out a yellow note on it.
"Hah, now you appear when I've just mentioned you this morning." I muttered.

'Call Aunt Irene. Now.' That was what it wrote.
I stared at the note for a minute, before whipping out my phone. Pearl notes always had a meaning and it would be stupid if I'd ignore her message.
I punched in Aunt Irene's number and waited patiently for her to pick up.

"Hello..?"
"Hi Aunt Irene, Samantha here. Is everything okay at your place? I mean is Russell being a good dog?" I questioned.
There was silence for a moment before Aunt Irene's voice was heard again.
"Samantha...I'm afraid I've a bad news for you..." said a muffled voice.
"Erm, yes?"
"I'm so sorry, I don't really know what happen... Russell broke off from the leash and it was knocked down by a car yesterday... " Aunt Irene blurted out.
"What?"My heart sunk.
"Russell's at the hospital now. But... he lost too much blood, they couldn't save him. I'm sorry, Samantha..." I could hear a sob over the line.
"Does Mum know about this?" I tried swallowing the lump in my throat.
"I called her when it happen, I just don't know how to break the news to you..."
"Aunt Irene, can you handle this for me in the mean time? I'm still at tour now and yeah, keep Russell's ashes for me first or something.." with that, I cut off the line.

Damn Pearl. Her note was a bad news. A horrible one. I could feel a tear forming in my eyes. I wanted to cry badly. The boys and Abby were heading towards my direction and I blinked it away. I didn't want them to see the fragile side of me. Not at this moment. I pretended that I was okay and joined them for lunch.

We went to the nearest fast food restaurant, which was Macdonald's. Zach and Nathan were telling jokes and I forced laughter. My mind was just in a whirl and looked down on my half-eaten burger.
"Samantha? You alright?" Cameron waved his hand in front of me.
" Yeah, Cam." I faked a smile.

Back at the rehearsal venue, I sat at one corner, pretending to text. I tried acting normal throughout the day and immediately excused myself to my bunk after dinner. I couldn't stay strong anymore. I put on my headphones and blasted music from my iPod. The conversation that I had with Aunt Irene kept replaying in my mind. Tears streamed down and I covered my face with my hands. I didn't even get to say a last goodbye.I blamed myself for leaving Russell at Aunt Irene's. I could've tried to brought it on the tour. Then it wouldn't have been run down by a car and died.

I reached for the keys that were hanging loosely on my pocket. I felt the sharp edges of it and brought it towards my arm. I didn't know what the hell was I doing.
All of a sudden, a hand grabbed the keys away from me.
"Don't. It's not worth it."
I looked up and saw Cameron holding onto my keys. He flinged it and the keys landed lightly on the bunk. He sat down beside me and I wrapped my arms around him.
I buried my face into his shirt and continued crying. Tears just poured from my eyes.
"Hey hey, it's alright." He consoled, passing me a tissue.
I blew into it and sniffed, breathing in deeply.

"So what's the matter? "Cameron asked.
"Russell...I mean my dog. It died. Got run down." I murmured.
"Oh." He looked back down at me, before continuing.
"You know what? Few years ago, my dog died too. I was as upset as you, but you just need to accept it. Accept that it has went to dog paradise."
"Dog paradise?"
"Yeah, just imagine one. Perhaps your dog can meet mine." He grinned.

What Cameron said just made me sob even harder.