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Chapter 23: Almost Over
"Well I don't think there's anything we can do about Mitchie now." All eyes from the small circle that had formed around Alex moved to Justin, who was walking up with Baron, Sander and Max trailing behind. "I'm beginning to think it's a lost cause. I think Nate should drop the act and you all should butt out and let Mitchie and Shane work it out on their own."
Tess rolled her eyes dramatically and wagged a finger in her boyfriend's face. "Justin Carl Russo don't say that! Shane's too nice to make Mitchie look like a fool and Mitchie's too stubborn to try to see that she's wrong even if it would make her happier. So you see we have to intervene. Otherwise Connect Three is out the window due to one very depressed popstar and one of my friends is going to be annoyingly sulky." Justin's eyes grew wide at the monologue Tess had just performed.
"Did you even breathe?" Max was looking up wide-eyed. "Whoa, if I had that sort of power…"
"Dude you'd be like a wizard." Baron was nodding his head in approval.
"Which would be the coolest thing in the world." Sander paused, "Next to being a famous rockstar team." He and Baron did their handshake.
"And if you did breathe, then you just totally warped this whole situation into a way for you to be manipulative." Alex giggled with approval. Manipulative people were the best.
"Dude," Sander continued, ignoring Alex's comment. "we have to teach you something while you're here so you could join our band."
"What we really need to do is get Lola to join us." Baron stared off towards Lola, Mitchie, and Caitlyn.
"That hot thing would help us for sure." Max nodded approvingly.
Alex's eyes grew wide, "You're not supposed to look at girls, you're Max, you're our little brother."
Justin sighed, "Now you know how I felt." He commented wistfully as he draped an arm over his sister's shoulders.
"Ugh Justin, don't drag me down Memory Lane with you. I was interested in guys long before you were interested in girls." She threw his arm off of her shoulders, "Or at least before they saw you. I knew I didn't have quite that long with Max cause he's actually cool, but I figured I had longer than this." Justin grunted unhappily and moved to stand by Tess, clearly bristled by his smaller sister's comment.
The sound of hands loudly clapping brought a silence over the performers. "I see no one used their rehearsal time wisely." Brown's clearly perturbed voice made everyone within hearing distance cringe. "Well all the guests and campers are on their way now so let's get started. Torres," Brown pointed at Mitchie unhappily, "you're opening. Then Montana, Russo, Tyler and finally Connect Three." He held up his hand as Hannah opened her rather large mouth to most likely voice a loud complaint. "No arguments. Now Lola, Peggy, Ella, Caitlyn you weren't on my sign up sheet, which leads me to believe you're simply a distraction. What happened to Baron and Sander?" He looked around at the quiet camp. "I thought I saw them, did they leave Miss Russo?" He turned to face Alex.
She gave him her sunny smile, "No sir, it was just the four of us girls talking. Mentally preparing or what have you."
Brown raised his eyebrows skeptically, "And your brothers? I was nice enough to let them remain for the duration of the camp, are they causing issues?"
Again Alex shook her head, "They were spending the afternoon shadowing Baron and Sander, something about learning something to make them part of their rockstar group. I really don't listen when Justin talks, sorry."
This time Brown nodded, walking away with Lola, Peggy, Ella, and Caitlyn glumly on his tail. "I didn't even see those four run off." Tess shook her head incredulously.
"Max has a sixth sense for trouble. Mostly when he's about to get into it." Alex rolled her eyes, not at all surprised Max had led the other three bumbling idiots out of Brown's warpath.
"It's still impressive. We should head over to our little waiting area before Brown has a coronary. I wonder who rubbed him the wrong way?" Tess mused more to herself than to Alex, whose arm she had looped her own through.
"Three guesses as to who pissed him off." Alex muttered, glaring hatefully at Hannah who was hanging off of Nate. Literally she was draping herself on him. And there was nothing she could do to stop it. Time had to take its course with the plan. The plan would work, it would just take time. Well patience never was her forte.
Alex dumped the last of her bags on the bed next to Tess'. "I can't believe I had to switch rooms because Mitchie thinks I'm the worst friend ever." She sat down dejectedly on the edge of her new bed. "I mean do I come off as a bitch?"
Tess, Peggy, and Ella all smiled sympathetically, "If Nate hadn't sent Shane after you then it'd be fine." Peggy reasoned. "So in reality you can blame Nate."
Ella giggled and clapped her hands, "And boys are so much fun to blame."
"Exactly, guys just don't think as clearly as we do. If Nate had been smart, he'd have sent Jason to tell one of us to go after you and that would've solved the whole problem. None of us are allowed to talk to Shane or Nate, but even Mitchie can't stay mad at Jason. Like you said he just doesn't do anything wrong ever."
Alex smiled at the three girls who were watching her expectantly, "Ya'll are the best friends in the world."
"We know." The three answered simultaneously.
"So Hannah, I heard what you and Amber did and I think it's pretty incredible." Nate laced his hand through Hannah's.
"What did we do?" Hannah looked up at Nate as they walked down towards the edge of the dock.
"You got a picture of Amber kissing Shane on the last tour and you slipped it to Mitchie, then she dumped Shane." Nate nodded his head, "Now all we have to do is convince Shane that Amber is ten times better than Mitchie."
Hannah's eyes grew wide, "Wait, how did you hear about that?"
"Jason told me. It's brilliant really cause Mitchie's never going to go anywhere and Shane should be with someone successful like Amber. I mean you and Amber are just so much more classy and easy to be with than Alex and Mitchie."
"It's like we fit together like two pieces of a perfectly made puzzle isn't it Natey?" Hannah leaned into his strong torso.
Nate wrapped his arm around her tiny waist. She didn't fit into his frame like Alex did. Her hand didn't fit into his. Their fingers twined together awkwardly. There was no way they fit together as well as he and Alex did. "Exactly."
"So you don't mind that we did that to Shane?" Hannah looked up through thick lashes, playing an innocent look.
Nate shook his head, "Not at all, I mean yeah he's upset now, but if that's what it takes to get him to realize how blind he's been…" Nate shrugged.
"What did it take for you to realize that you should've been with me?"
Again Nate shrugged, "It just hit me. I was walking with Alex and I realize, what am I doing? I had it so great with Hannah, how could I just let that go? I was lucky you wanted me back."
"Oh Natey, I'll always want you back." Hannah cooed, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
"So the picture, you guys really sent that to Shane, it was really all a set-up. I mean Jason could've gotten his story messed up and I'd love to hear how the two masterminds played Shane and Mitchie. It's brilliant really." He was trying to feed her ego.
"Well when Amber visited us on tour we cooked up the plan. We're patient people you see. So we waited and when the time was right, after Shane got off the phone with," her face scrunched up, "Mitchie, and he was alone, Amber just kissed him. She didn't care if at the time he was upset cause we knew it'd take a push in the right direction to realize exactly what he was missing." She paused for a moment, "Then when we got here we just left the picture in Mitchie's room. She did as expected, she flipped out. If she weren't so insecure this wouldn't have worked, but you know how she is…" Hannah rolled her eyes.
"That's incredible. So, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. So why don't we sleep on ways to make Shane figure out how freaking amazing Amber is?" Nate stood up and offered his hand to Hannah who pulled herself up.
After Hannah was safely tucked away in her cabin, Nate made his way down to the spot.
"I just don't see how she could even talk to him!" Mitchie yelled at no one in particular.
"She was just upset, okay Mitch? She got played just like you and she was upset. And Shane was just there. If it'd been Jason or you or me or Brown she would've done the same thing alright?" Lola tried reasoning with the ridiculous girl, it wasn't working.
"I don't think so. I think that she planned this somehow. She's a terrible person, I can't believe Brown let her in this camp. She's not even that talented." Mitchie continued.
"Okay, Mitch, I love you, but you're giving me a headache, I need sleep, let's sleep." Caitlyn turned the lights off, ending the conversation.
Alex picked up her phone as it rang, "I gotta go meet Nate, I think he put the plan into motion. I think he got Hannah to admit it." Alex stood up and pulled a sweater on as she grabbed her cell phone and sprinted from the cabin.
Walking down the barely worn path, Alex smiled and stopped to admire Nate's perfect form standing by the water's edge.
"I know you're watching me Russo," Alex giggled as Nate spoke, without even looking in her direction, "you better get your cute ass down here."
Alex giggled louder and did everything but fly down to the lake. When she reached Nate's side she didn't hesitate to throw her arms around his neck and drag his head down to meet her own.
Their lips moved together languorously, in a way that could've lasted for centuries if oxygen hadn't been necessary.
"Wow, I missed you too Lex." Nate whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"You have no idea Nate, no idea. It's so hard. So hard, I can barely take it anymore." Alex sighed and dug her head into his neck. "Please tell me you got it." Nate nodded, "You got the recording?" Nate nodded again. "You really got it?"
Nat pulled a tape recorder out of his pocket, "It's all right here."
Alex squealed and grabbed the recorder, "I've got to hear this!" She pressed play.
"Well when Amber visited us on tour we cooked up the plan. We're patient people you see. So we waited and when the time was right, after Shane got off the phone with," her face scrunched up, "Mitchie, and he was alone, Amber just kissed him. She didn't care if at the time he was upset cause we knew it'd take a push in the right direction to realize exactly what he was missing." She paused for a moment, "Then when we got here we just left the picture in Mitchie's room. She did as expected, she flipped out. If she weren't so insecure this wouldn't have worked, but you know how she is…"
Carefully rewinding the small contraption that held the answers to all their problems. Turning it off she placed in Nate's open palm. "This is really almost over isn't it?"
She let lead Nate lead her to their tree. He sat down, pulling her onto his lap. "I think we can pull this off tomorrow. We just have to get Mitchie to listen."
"Well then leave me out of it." At Nate's questioning look Alex sighed, "When you sent Shane after me, Mitchie saw us together. She was beyond pissed that I was talking to him." Alex closed her eyes and leaned back into him, "She called me a bad friend, I told her she had no idea what she was talking about. Now we're not talking."
"Well I'll tell her. I'll probably get Caitlyn to do it with me." Nate sighed.
"Don't do it publicly, I hate Hannah, but I don't want to hurt her like that. I hate Amber more than Hannah. Hannah's just obnoxious, if you hadn't gone to her, I don't think she would've gone to these lengths to get you."
Nate nodded, "Privately. Done."
"So how much time do we have left?" Alex asked, twisting around to look at him.
Nate smiled and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on her cheek before sliding down her jaw bone and finally loitering on her pulse. "A few hours."
"Good." Alex leaned down connecting their lips.
It was almost over.
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Mollie XOXO