Chapter 25
Kayla and I catch up with Nate and Jason about twenty minutes later. I run up to Nate, out of breath and hold on to his shoulder to catch him, whist leaning over and catching my breath.
He turns around and looks at me like I'm insane. "Where the hell did you go?" he asks.
"Where the hell did you go?" I ask back. "We turned our backs for like two seconds and you ran off!"
Nate scoffs. "Whatever, man!"
We continue trick or treating, and then eventually wind up at Jason and Nate's house. We all are exhausted by the time we get back, and we all go into the living room. We all sit in a circle and dump our pillowcases of candy out in a pile in front of us.
"Who want to trade me for three Snickers?" Nate asks, holding up three of those fun-sized Snickers bars.
You know what I don't get? Why is it called "fun-sized"? Like, what's so fun about having less candy?
I toss him an Almond Joy. He looks at it and sneers. "Fuck Almond Joy. Give me something good." He throws it back at me.
It hits me in the face and I scoff. "Hey! That hurt!" I set the candy down to the left of me.
He ignores me. "Does anyone have anything better than an Almond Joy?"
I toss him a Kit-Kat. He smiles and tosses me the Snickers.
By the end of the night, we all have the candy we like… except these dreaded Almond Joys. Apparently, no one likes those. So how in the world did we manage to get thirty of them?
"No body wants these?" Nate asks, holding up a handful of Almond Joys.
We all shake our heads.
"Well fuck these!" Nate exclaims and tosses it. It hits Jason and he cries out in pain, over exaggerating the whole entire thing.
Jason rolls over onto his side, and pulls his knee up to his chest. "Ahh! It hurts!"
Nate rolls his eyes. "Come on man. I hit your knee. With a piece of candy."
He scoffs. "It still hurt!" Jason takes like five and chucks them at Nate.
"Ow! Mother fucker!" Nate yells.
"Ha!" Jason exclaims, with a smile, pointing at Nate. "It does hurt!"
Nate narrows his eyes and throws all of his at Jason. A couple of them hit me, and I scoff while Jason screams like a little girl and gets up, running away.
Okay, so that did hurt.
I take mine and toss them at Nate. One of him hits him in the side of his head and one nabbed his ear. Nate picks up the ones I just threw and chucks them back at me. Jason comes over and pushes him to the ground.
"Okay, that was just rude," Nate says as he stands up. He takes some of the candy and throws it back at Jason, pelting him a couple times.
"This means war!" Jason exclaims and throws all of the Almond Joys at Nate. A couple of them hit the wall and make a rather loud crashing noise.
Kayla screams and runs up the stairs.
I get involved. I have a couple of my own, so I throw them across the room, hoping to hit one of them.
After about two minutes, we get bored. Shows how ADD we are.
X X X
The next day when we're eating lunch, I say, "We should have a party."
Jason raises his eyebrows. "What kind of party?"
I shrug. "A birthday party. For Kayla. Her birthday is in three weeks."
Kayla's face lights up. "Wait, for me? Seriously?"
I nod and she jumps up and down happily.
"Dude, we should like invite everyone," I add. "Like all the famous people. We kind of disappeared from the media for a while and it would be nice to see our friends."
Nate looks at me. "What friends? You guys are my only friends."
"Wha?" I ask, scoffing. "What about Aly and AJ and Selena? And Demi? I thought they were your friends."
He ponders this for a moment. "Oh. Yeah. I forgot about them."
"Wow. You are such a great friend," I say with a hint of amusement in my voice.
"When are we gonna have this party?" Nate asks.
Jason starts getting really excited. "Let's have the party next week!"
"That'd work," Nate says.
"And we can invite a shit load of people and perform some new songs!" he adds. "I'll go make reservations and call people!" Jason races off to god knows where.
Nate smiles. "Let's get to work."
By the end of the night, we have all the plans. It's going to be next Saturday at the Ritz hotel in Quebec. Everyone is coming… Well, we're not sure about Britney. We called her, but she didn't answer. But Paris, Lindsay, Samantha, Nicole are coming. All of the Disney stars are coming – except that two-faced (literally) Miley \ Hannah. (Hell, she didn't invite us to her sweet sixteen!) We even got Melissa Torgerson, Blake Olvera, and Louisa Jackson–Young to come!
Is it okay that I'm uber excited for this party?
X X X
The next week, all we did was plan the party. I bought Kayla a blue and pink Jessica McClintoc dress and we bought a giant birthday cake. Everything is going to be pink and blue. (Don't ask. She picked out the colours.)
But guess what? Now it's the night of the party (I know; time flies fast, eh?) and Kayla is parading around in her new dress. Jason and Nate are still getting ready, and I'm going over the new song in my head again. I'm just a screw up, trying to get to the world, not messin' with a beautiful girl. Drop that smile, turn around and leave me here to walk and fade away.
Don't ask me… Nate wrote it. I just sing it. It's going to be the first time we've ever performed it and I'm nervous.
When Nate comes downstairs, I turn to him. "Nate, I think we should practice 'When I See You Smile' and 'Music Man' again."
He shakes his head. "We've rehearsed it more than enough times. Gee, since when did you get nervous?"
"Well we haven't done a show in like… forever."
"Then this is our comeback!" he exclaims, putting his arm around me. He looks suddenly serious and turns to me. "So don't fuck it up."
"Great pep talk…" I mutter sarcastically.
"That's why I'm here," he says and grabs an apple off of the counter, eating it. "Damn, these McIntosh apples sure are the shit. It's a shame that they only come in the fall."
I nod and walk over to him. "Put the produce down, and let's go to the party."
With just hearing that word, Kayla squeals and jumps up in the air. "Party!" she exclaims.
Jason comes downstairs. "Okay, let's roll. The limo should be here."
We all head off outside; Jason locks the door before we hop in the super long limo that was waiting for us. When we get to the hotel, we see a mob scene.
I look out my tinted window and see fans holding up posters lined up on the streets. Since when did the word got out about the party? Oh yeah, it was me that told everyone. I am such a blabbermouth.
So I give the fans what they want. I open the sky roof and stick my head out. Everyone goes crazy and I wave. "Hi!" I say, but I don't think anyone heard me.
When I stand on the expensive leather seats peering out at my fans and hear them scream, it reminds me how much I missed them. Man, I'm such a horrible person deserting my fans like that. I blow kisses and I think a few people faint.
The limo stops and we get a police escort into the hotel. They have such tight security here – it's probably because practically every famous singer is going to be here right now. Even Britney Spears is here! Yeah, Britney and me go way back. Dudes, I met her like a month ago and we just clicked. B.F.Fs for L right there.
At the party, we're like the last to arrive – which is weird because we're the hosts and it's our party – and I spot Lindsay Lohan with her girlfriend at a table. Remind me to go say hi.
Someone comes up to me and does that weird French kiss-kiss thing. "Darling, we must catch up later," she says.
Okay, who the hell is this person, and why is she kissing me? Whatever. I don't know a lot of people. (Jason and Nate invited everyone and they have some pretty weird friends.)
We partied for two hours, but all I could think about was the performance. Sure, I've performed for an audience before, but not only is this our comeback, but everyone is here.
When it was finally time to perform, I was practically shaking. Nate grabs his guitar. He looks over at me. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."
I shake a bit to snap out of it. "Maybe I have," I say to myself.
The audience hushes and the lights turn off. Three spotlights are shining down on the stage and Jason starts playing the intro. It's fast and catchy and we all run on at the same time, going under our spotlights.
"Trying so hard, but I think you're gonna leave me," I start singing. "I know I'm a fool, but baby gotta let me think…" I trial off. What the fuck did I just say? "But when I see your smile, you're not looking at me," I continue even though I totally just screwed up big time just then. I look over and Nate is giving me a weird look saying, 'How the hell could you mess up my lyrics you fucktard?' "When I hear your words. But you not getting to me. I'm just a screw up, trying to get to the world, not messin' with a beautiful girl. Drop that smile, turn around and leave me here to walk and fade away. Fade away, fade away…"
I look down at the audience and freeze up for a second when I could swear I saw… DA? I blink and look back. It's just David Archuleta. Since when does DA look like David Archuleta?
Jason plays the intro to the next song. I snap out of my trance. "This song is dedicated to all those children who lost music in their hearts," I say and start singing 'Music Man.'
Whoa, whoa! Hold the show! David Archuleta's initials are DA! I'm freaking out right now because that's just so weird!
I continue singing. I start jumping up and down, but time stops when I swear I saw Mitchie Torres standing there. But guess what? It's Melissa Torgerson.
What is up with me and then initials thing? I think her middle name is… Danielle.
FSAT. Initials… I think I'm going crazy.
I stop singing. Nate looks over at me and takes over. I freeze up and gently strum my guitar, not thinking at all. It was like in Freaky Friday when Lindsay – well, the mum – was like on stage and she didn't know how to play and she was playing all this random shit. Yeah, that's what I was doing.
I have a sudden flash back to those horrible nights.
"You little fuck!" DA yells as he slaps me across the face. "You got it wrong again! I wanted the Coors, not this shit!" He kicks me and I fall to the floor.
Mitchie walks up to me and lifts my shirt off. "Lord, Shane. You have quite an amazing body, honestly." She exhales and her breath smells like alcohol and vomit.
"What the hell's wrong with you, boy?!" My father punches me in the stomach.
"Shane, you're so sexy," Mitchie says, licking her lips.
"You little fuck!!"
"Sexy can I?"
I fall to the ground with the empty pill bottle in my hands.
It all flashes before my eyes and I close my eyes for but a moment, getting all those bad thoughts out.
"I am a lost soul, but girl, I'll be a music man," Nate sings. He and Jason play the last chords and everyone starts cheering. We all bow and blow kisses.
Right as we head off stage, Nate hits me lightly. "What the hell was that?" he asks, scoffing.
"I'm sorry I just-" He cuts me off.
"Whatever, man. I hope you realize that everyone who's anyone was out there watching you make a fool of yourself." Nate shakes his head and walks away disappointed.
I stand there and someone hands me a water bottle. I chug it and throw it on the floor.
Our show was the end of the party, so everyone started leaving. Kayla, Jason, Nate, and I were the last to leave. It was well past midnight and boy were was I tired.
Jason and Kayla got in the limo, but Nate stopped me from going in the limo. "Shane, you and I are walking home so we can talk about this," he says. He closes the door to the limo.
I sigh. Nate is the boss of me even though I'm older than he is. The limo drives away and Nate and I start walking back home.
"Dude, what the hell happened back there?" he asks and we walk.
I shrug. "I just kinda zoned out."
"Why?"
"I was thinking of stuff…"
"I think now would be a good time to explain everything."
"Explain what?"
"Everything. Start at the beginning. Why did you disappear for a month about three months ago?"
"I lost my phone, remember?"
"Well you would have found it in a month."
"Yeah, well maybe I didn't want to buy a new phone."
"Maybe you didn't want someone getting in your dirty laundry."
"What?"
"I think you're hiding something." Nate stops walking for effect and turns to me being all serious. "What are you hiding?"
"I'm gay," I remark sarcastically and keep on walking.
Nate rolls his eyes. "This is a serious matter right here."
We turn the corner. Oh. Shit. Right in front of me is the bar my dad always goes to. Er, used to. He's clean, remember?
"I do understand that it's serious," I continue. "But maybe I don't want to tell you."
Nate raises his eyebrows. "Now you got me curious. What could possibly be so juicy and secretive that even though I've been bothering you about it for three months, you still refuse to tell me? Did you kill someone?"
"No!" I defend.
"I understand if it was an accident; I've done it too."
I stop walking.
"Just kidding," he laughs and we keep walking.
"Shane!" I hear someone calling my name.
It's DA.
My father stumbles up to us.
"You little fuck!" he yells in his drunken voice. I flinch. "Where the hell have you been, boy? We all thought you died!"
I don't move. I don't talk. I don't breathe.
Nate turns to me, sending me a silent signal. I don't know what he's trying to say, but it doesn't seem good.
My father puts his hands on my shoulders. "You little fuck! You had me worried sick, what the hell's wrong with you?" He slaps me across the face as hard as he can. I try my hardest not to scream.
Secret's out. Nate just saw that and his mouth just flew open.
DA kicks me. "What the hell's wrong with you, you little fuck!" I fall to the floor and he keeps kicking me. Then he walks away.
I lay there on the ground for a bit, my suit has a rip in it. Nate just stares at me in awe.
"Shane," he whispers. "What was that?"