I'm surprised. Only one person pointed out something major. For those of you who forget, all three band members wear purity rings. I thought I'd remind you since not too many picked up on that. However, I have to point out that Dracos-Slytherin-Goddess was the only one to comment. Good memory. Warning: There is cursing and drama in this chapter. And I know the interview seems a bit summarizing, but I wanted to show how they chose their words. Please don't hate me, Nate, or Shane. And remember, these are characters, not the Jonas Brothers, so I can manipulate them how I wish. Hehe. Oh, and our first cliffhanger.
Chaptter 12
"Tell me." I demanded as soon as we closed our bedroom door behind us.
Caitlyn sighed and sat on her bed, looking pretty uncomfortable. Not half as open as she was the day before. "Do I have to?"
"No," I offered. "But if you want to, I won't mind listening." I said sitting across from her on my own bed.
"I don't think Shane is too happy at the moment." Caitlyn said quietly.
I tilted my head in confusion. He was in a much better mood when we all got up that morning, and his mood seemed to be getting better by the hour. "What makes you say that?"
"You didn't notice the tension between Nate and Shane all night?"
"What tension? They were fine all night. Like when they were watching us dance." I asked confused still.
She shook her head. "They stopped talking once Jason came over to dance with us. They barely spoke the rest of the night." She clarified.
As I thought about it, it made sense. I still didn't understand why they'd be mad at each other. "But what's the matter with them?"
Caitlyn got defensive. "It's what's the matter with him not them. I think Shane is pissed at Nate and I for…" She trailed off blushing.
Unlike most parents, mine didn't tell me I had to wait until I was married. But if I couldn't say to them 'I want to have/had sex' without blushing, stumbling, and being generally embarrassed, then I had no business doing it. That was what I grew up believing in and I knew I wasn't ready. I didn't think Caitlyn had been either.
"Caitlyn…" I sighed. "Shane, Nate, and Jason have a different outlook on life. Or, they did. Shane thinks you're supposed to wait until your married, and that was a belief he and Nate shared. Remember how you got mad at me for ditching you for Tess? How I had all these things I thought were important and I threw them away to impress Tess? In Shane's eyes those things are their view about sex and Tess is the girl Nate really, really cares about."
"Like Shane is some Saint?" Caitlyn mumbled in reply.
Getting upset, I replied, "Kinda. We haven't done anything. Shane and I have known each other longer than you and Nate. But I don't want the problems between our boyfriends to effect us, okay? We didn't force them to make that promise and therefore it's not our problem." I could tell she was still upset with me, but she nodded and agreed anyway.
"Can we talk tomorrow?" She asked crawling into bed. "I'm tired." I nodded and left the room. It was still fairly early and I wasn't very tired.
"Oh, Mitchie!" Mom stopped me as I headed into the living room.
"Yeah, Mom?" I asked finding her in the kitchen.
"Mr. Bradley called earlier today to let us know you have an interview tomorrow after school. 3 magazines are gonna be there to do 'one on one' interviews. Shane's going to pick you up and take you where ever they decide to do it tomorrow."
"Oh, cool." I said, looking less than thrilled.
"You nervous, sweetie?" Mom asked in her motherly way.
I shrugged. "A little. But I'm sure I'll be fine." I assured Mom.
After that, I was suddenly more tired than I had been. Opting to not call Shane like planned, I climbed back upstairs and got changed for bed. My good ol' thermal snuggly in place.
When I got out of bed, Caitlyn was up and mostly dressed already. I saw her roll her eyes a bit when she saw I was wearing my thermal again. I didn't want to cause problems, so I let it go.
Breakfast was in silence, and so was the trip to school. By lunch, Caitlyn had told me she was going to go to the computer lab for the period. I was hungry so I stayed in lunch. I'd never felt more alone or wished for Sierra in my life. Sierra never left me alone at lunch. Even if we were mad at each other. We simply sat in silence the whole time.
"All alone, today?" I heard a timid voice ask as the person sat down. "Sierra?" I was surprised when she sat down. "Won't Rosie get mad at your for talking to me?" I asked, disbelieving she was there out of the goodness of her heart.
"Probably. I don't really care, though. I'm friends with them to avoid being alone. That was something we never did to each other and then in waltzed Caitlyn and you pushed me to the side."
"I didn't mean to, Sierra." I was half apologetic, half defensive. "You didn't believe me about Shane, at all. And then you got upset when you found out I was telling the truth and Caitlyn and I left with them. We had a meeting to go to."
"Yeah, but then you just kept going on and on about Caitlyn and Shane. And then Caitlyn came to school and I felt like the third wheel."
I shook my head. "That's because you let yourself. Jason is always the spare tire with us. It's Shane and me, and Caitlyn and Nate, and then Jason. He always has fun anyway."
"Jason's an airhead, Mitch." She said rolling her eyes laughing slightly. I laughed, too. "Where's Caitlyn today?" She asked finally.
"Too much togetherness lately." I lied smoothly. "She needed a little space."
I knew Sierra doubted that, but she let it go. "So, I heard you were engaged?" She gave me an odd look.
"No. It's a promise ring. We aren't engaged." I showed her the ring.
She looked at it for a moment before replying. "It's on the wrong hand." I looked at her in confusion. "This is a Claddagh ring, right?" I nodded. "It should be on your right hand unless you are married or engaged. You are neither."
"Oh, that matters?" I asked.
"Only if the tradition matters. If you like the ring, and are not wearing it because of the tradition, then I guess not. But you might have some of Shane's fans mad if they know what it is." She shrugged uncaring.
I nodded. "So, how's life on the dark side?"
"Tiring." She answered. "Rosie wanted to know everything I knew about you, but I didn't really tell her anything. I think she keeps me around in case something like the slapping incident happens again, so she can retaliate."
"Why hasn't she?" I asked. That had been about a month ago.
She shrugged. "She was going to, but I guess when Shane showed up, and we all heard you talking, we understood. I think she realizes it must be hard for you to date a celebrity."
"Rosie Maren has a heart, who knew?" Caitlyn said sitting down.
"I thought you wanted to be alone?" I asked Caitlyn, trying to keep my tone indifferent.
"I did. Then I was lonely and realized you were probably alone, too. But I see Sierra finally saw the light again." Caitlyn seemed generally happy that Sierra was sitting there. "I was wondering when you two would make up."
"What?" Sierra and I both asked.
"You guys have been friends forever. Little things don't come between you and big things don't stay between you for long." Turning to me specifically, she added, "And things that aren't your fault shouldn't either." I knew that was her way of apologizing to me.
"Very true." I agreed. "Sierra, you back for good?"
She nodded happily. "I hate Rosie. After day one, I remembered every single reason over the last couple of years why we hated her." We laughed. I was glad to have my friends back.
After school, the two were standing on either side of my locker. "You nervous?" Caitlyn asked. I nodded.
"For what?" Sierra asked.
I sighed, "Interview. We have to explain a lot of things." I closed my locker, zipping up my coat. The weather finally got cold, and hopefully it would snow soon. Christmas wasn't the same with no snow.
"Good luck." Sierra offered. I gave her a small smile and walked outside with them in tow. I felt hands cover my eyes.
"Shane…" I laughed. When he moved his hands I turned around to see him smiling brightly.
"Come on." I heard Caitlyn say to Sierra. "Later, Mitch!" Sierra yelled bye as well as Caitlyn dragged her away.
"What was that about?" Shane asked.
I shrugged. "Don't know. Anyway, where are we going?" I asked as we headed to the limo awaiting us. Shane refused to tell me. Already waiting for us was Connect 3's press manager Stacy.
"Okay, you are to only talk about your relationship. Mention nothing about the album, unless you mention the duet. It releases in 2 weeks, so that's alright. Try to tell them as much as possible, but nothing that can bite us in the ass, okay?" Stacy was very specific about what she told the media about the band. "We're hoping that if we tell them a lot, they'll think you're open about everything and won't try to dig something up. We're really hoping the public falls in love with you. The fact that you've already been fairly nice to the paparazzi, Mitchie, is good. They like you." We pulled up outside of Shane's apartment.
"Seriously?" I whispered to him. He nodded, looking less than thrilled.
"Good luck." Stacy said to us as we climbed out. We entered the apartment a few minutes later to see three reporters, 2 photographers, and Rich, the band's new manager. Rich was in the kitchen area, leaning on the counter separating the living room from the kitchen.
"Hey, guys." Shane smiled at them, leading me by our clasped hands over to them. "I'm Shane, this is my girlfriend Mitchie. Who are you all?" He asked politely. We were really trying to make them like us.
"Vicki Roberts, YM magazine."
"Terri Nichols, ComsoGirl."
"Jeremy Sanders, Teen People."
"Nice to meet you all." I said smiling.
"Shall we?" Shane said motioning for everyone to sit. The reporters all sat on the couch, leaving Shane and I to share an arm chair. I sat down, letting him sit on the floor in front of me, between my legs.
"Okay, let's just start with what we all want to know," Jeremy started, obviously the more experienced of them all. "The engagement rumors."
"We're not." Shane said shaking his head. "I bought Mitchie a promise ring."
"Why is it on the left hand if its not an engagement ring?" Vicki asked.
I answered this question, shocking Shane a bit that I did. "It's a similar thing to the purity ring Shane wears. It's to symbol a serious commitment to an ideal or belief. It's our way of showing everyone we're confident in our relationship and nothing is going to change that."
"I'd forgotten about that." Terri laughed. "Shane has it been hard for you to keep that promise now that you're in a real relationship?"
He shook his head no, and then yes. "Yes and no. There are times when I wish I didn't have it because honestly, I am a guy and think my girlfriend is hot." I blushed at his words. "But then I'm grateful I do have it because it keeps us from doing things our relationship isn't ready for. A lot of times people who think they're in love get caught up in that and do things they may regret later. It can make a relationship awkward and one-tracked."
I placed my hand on his shoulder and interrupted him, adding "Shane and I are more concerned with getting to know everything about the other and focusing on that and our careers. Oh, and school in my case."
Shane reached up and laced our fingers together. "School?" Jeremy asked. "What do you major in?" Shane and I laughed lightly.
"I'm still in high school." Three shocked faces looked at us.
"How old are you?" Vicki was the first to recover.
Shane answered for me, "She's 16 and we do have her parents permission to be dating."
"I'll be 17 in 3 months." I added.
"How did your parents take it when you told them about you?" Terri asked taking the opening we gave them.
I smiled. "My mom had been at Camp Rock with us when we met, so she had already gotten to know Shane and was okay with it. My dad, however, pulled the typical protective father act and didn't really warm up to Shane too much at first."
"It was a lot of work to get him to like me." Shane threw in.
I nodded. "But eventually he did. Shane and the boys came over and helped my dad set up my room when my friend Caitlyn moved in with us. I didn't know until my mother and I got back with Caitlyn that he had come over. It really impressed Dad."
"I think he likes Nate and Jason more though." Shane pouted playfully.
Jeremy asked, "Does the band spend a lot of time at your house?"
I nodded. "Yeah. None of the guys can cook to save their lives." I smiled, "And my mom is a caterer, so they are always over my house for dinner. I don't think I've eaten at my kitchen table more than 10 times since I started dating Shane. It's too small for all of us to fit."
"You mentioned meeting at Camp Rock," Vicki started, "Did you start dating during the camp?"
Shane shook his head no. "No, I was an instructor, and she was a camper. We became friends when she heard me playing my guitar on the dock. In the end, though, she ended up being the girl I had been trying to find all summer. I heard her singing and had no idea it was her. Her voice had me captivated."
"Which I was lucky I was his mystery girl." I gripped his hand tighter as I admitted, "I had actually let the 'it' girl at the camp intimidate me and I lied to her, and in turn the entire camp. And it was a pretty big lie. When she revealed that to the entire camp, Shane got really upset with me. When he heard me sing at Final Jam, I had unknowingly sang the song he'd heard."
"I began singing with her after I saw it was Mitchie. After that we talked things out and I realized she hadn't lied to me directly, but by consequence of lying to the other girl."
I smiled. "We've been together since."
"Any possibility of you two singing together?" Jeremy asked.
"Actually," Shane smiled up at me. "The label loved Mitchie's song, and when I started singing with her, I sang part of the song she inspired me to write. They loved the combination and asked us to record the duet for the new record."
"Which the world will be hearing in two weeks." I added.
"The new single is your duet?" They clarified. We nodded.
After that they asked us more questions about what dating is like for us. Did we have any future plans. Is an engagement possible.
"I promise, the world will definitely know if we get engaged."
Shane was quick to correct me, "When." He smiled up at me again while kissing my hand still in his. I giggled, nodding.
After a few staged pictures we said good-bye. Rich commented that we did really good. We led the interview, revealing things as we wanted them and didn't get caught in any traps. Rich left soon after.
"You okay?" Shane asked, knowingly.
"I'm nervous. Telling them about the whole lying thing…"
Shane kissed my forehead. "At least you told them and not someone from Camp Rock, which would result in a major need for damage control." I relaxed into his arms sighing contently.
"At least its over." I mumbled. He nodded.
A few days later we were sitting in the apartment again, this time hanging out with Jason. We were helping him make the bird house. Jason insisted that Shane help him since he never made it, and Shane insisted I helped because I bought it.
We were all laughing and messing around as we attempted to put the bird house together. Suddenly, the door bursted open revealing a very angry Nate.
"I can't believe you!" He yelled at Shane. "You are being such a damn hypocrite!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shane said standing up to confront him.
"That interview!" The first printing of our interview had been on Cosmo's site, earlier today. They seemed to love us. "How could you say something like that? Caitlyn's in tears because of what you said."
I jumped in to the conversation, "Why is Caitlyn in tears? Is she okay?"
"Like you care." He snarled at me. "Your little comment didn't help any. You're making yourself out to be the perfect couple, when in reality, you're not."
"At least we're taking things slow. We aren't jumping each other every chance we get." Shane shot back.
"Fucking hypocrite!" Nate yelled back.
"How is he being a hypocrite, Nate?" I asked.
"You don't know?" Nate asked, more calmly. "You never told her?" He asked Shane. "Mr. Self Righteous knows how, Mitch, why don't you ask him."
"Shane, what is he talking about?" I asked growing more and more worried.
"Nothing. Because he's being the bigger hypocrite, aren't you Nate?" Shane said attempting to change the subject.
"Shane." I said forcefully, refusing to let him distract me.
He sighed glaring at Nate while answering. "I wasn't exactly innocent when we were younger." He said grinding his teeth together.
I think the world stop turning at that point.
And I'm off to fireworks now. Peace :p