CHAPTER 25

"Marry me." Nate mumbled against her lips. Rylen opened her eyes, pulling away and staring to laughing instantly.

"You're a funny kid Nate," Rylen continued to laugh and wiped a tear from her eye and looked at him. He was staring back at her with a blank expression on his face. Rylen's laugh choked in her throat, and she stopped. "Oh my god. YOU"RE SERIOUS?!" She started laughing again and stopped when she heard Nate huff.

"Well, I'm glad you think this is so hilarious," Nate crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Well Nate, I'm sorry… I really am, but this will probably go down in history as the worst proposal. Ever." She began another fit of giggles.

"It's nice to see you find my feelings for you, so hilarious. I say I want to spend the rest of my life with you and you laugh in my face." He began to stand up.

"Nate! That's not what I meant. It's just… well it's all kind of funny. And so awkward. I mean I just finished bawling to you about how your BROTHER cheated on me. The night after you tell me you love me and try to get me to choose between the both of you. Then I admit that I have some feelings for you, and now you're proposing. I mean you're 18. I'm 19. We are way to young. I haven't even met your parents, and actually, you haven't met mine either! And you just kind of... threw it out there! Like in a "hey? You know what be fun? Let's go bowling. Actually, I changed my mind why don't we get married instead?" kind of way. You asked me while I was kissing you. AND…. You don't even have a ring. I mean come on Nate. You have to admit the hilarity of the entire situation. It was a sweet thought though." She put a hand on his knee and rubbed it a bit. She smiled at him, holding back more giggles. She was shocked when Nate didn't say anything. He just continued sitting on the ground with a look of intense thought on his face. She was more shocked when he pushed her hand gently off his knee, standing up and walking away. She didn't know whether or not she should call him back. What would she even say? She opted to give him some time to think, and let him walk away. Rylen suddenly noticed the sweater she was clutching which up until this point, she had thought was hers. Now that she was looking at it, she realized it was Nate's. She slipped it on over her head and put the hood up, nuzzling her nose into the neck a bit and breathing in his scent. She couldn't believe he had just proposed to her. It was so ridiculous. I mean it was the truth. They were both young, and although close, they hadn't even met each other's families yet. Rylen sighed and looked at her hand. "I bet had he thought this through, the ring he would have picked out would have been really nice. He has a great taste in those things," she thought to herself. Wait, was she even thinking about that? What would she have said had he actually had a ring, and got down on one knee? She shook her head a bit. No it was ridiculous. Her mom would shoot her if she came home engaged and her mother had never met the boy before. She could always introduce them and have dinner together before they told her. Or maybe both of their families could have a dinner together. Rylen shook her head a bit harder this time when she realized that she was actually trying to find a way to make it work. What was wrong with her? Even if all of the issues that would prevent it could work themselves out, she was still only 19. And they had still known each other for only a month. She had always been a believer in love at first sight, but now that she was in that kind of a situation, she wasn't sure how well that could ever turn out. Sighing at the fact that she was still even taking Nate's proposal remotely serious, she looked down at her watch. She had a fitting with Aly and AJ in an hour while the boys worked with the band on their new song. Awkward. She slowly got up and made her way back to the bus. She had forgotten about the bus, the bus that would confine her and Shane to the same space for the next 3 months. Excellent. She was not going to forgive him for this, but the only way it was going to work was to be civil. Not one for personal drama, Rylen decided to keep to herself mostly and just try to forget about it. She walked onto the bus knowing full well the boys would be rehearsing already. She started looking through her luggage, when an idea popped into her head. She had to be civil but no one said anything about not making Shane completely sorry for what he did. Putting her glasses on her bed, she grabbed her outfit and slid it on in the hall. The bathroom was so small, and the boys weren't there so why not? She put on a tight fitting pair of short shorts that were solid black. They made her legs look longer and slimmer then they already were, and she had become quite tan this summer already. She put on her pushup bra, and over that slipped on a white cami with lace across the top. Next she grabbed a forest green no sleeved cardigan, which was slightly baggy. Rummaging through her bags some more she continued to add a few extra touches, starting with a gold chain that had an oversized heart locket on it and some small studs in her ears. On a whim she grabbed some dark green and gold bangles to put on her wrists as well. Rylen threw her sketchbook and supplies in her black hobo bag, before carefully slipping on a pair of black peep-toed stilettos. Smiling in the bathroom room mirror (what was left of it) she fixed her hair into loose waves. She applied some white shimmery eye shadow to her lids, with a couple coats of mascara and some lip-gloss. She inspected herself for a moment. Something was missing. She sighed for a second and thought, and then she smiled and ran to her bunk, grabbing her glasses. She slid them on and looked in the mirror again. She still thought she looked quite dorky, but Nate and Shane generally had the same idea of what they thought was hot about a girl…so if it worked for him. Generally she would never dress this revealing. Not that it was even, but Rylen was a pretty conservative girl, this was not something she would wear any other day. She smiled satisfied and strutted off the bus. Eat your heart out Shane.

****

To say that her plan worked perfectly would be an understatement. Rylen strutted into the studio as the band was going over some changes to the chords. Shane was just standing around fiddling with his mic. Her heels made a loud clacking noise as she walked in, causing Shane to look up. He instantly dropped his mic, standing there with his mouth agape. She stood in the corner, waiting for the girls. She could only see this out of the corner of her eyes, as she was choosing to pretend Shane didn't really exist, but she allowed herself a small smirk at the sight. Looking around to see where the girls were she glanced at Nate, who was talking intently with his bass player and pointing to a sheet of paper, occasionally playing and singing something on his guitar to prove a point. She let herself watch this sight a little longer until he looked up and at her then looked back down, then instantly looked up again for a moment, doing a double take and staring into her eyes, then looking back down as if he had never saw her. Rylen's heart skipped a beat at this. She had momentarily forgotten how mad he was. Maybe. She wasn't actually sure if he was mad at her. He hadn't really said anything at all to imply ANY emotion. Trying to erase the boys from her mind for a moment she looked at the rest of the band. They were all staring at her too. Well at least she knew she looked hot. She shifted onto one foot, leaning into the corner and looked down, suddenly embarrassed by all the attention. She looked at her watch. She had been a couple minutes late, and the girls still weren't there. She decided to be brave, and walked over to the mock stage. She headed straight for Jason, who was taken aback when she tapped him on the shoulder while he was scribbling notes on his music.

"Oh hey Ry, how are you doing?" he looked at her with concern and added in a whisper, "I heard what happened this morning, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine I guess. I don't really want to talk about it. I was just kind of wondering if you knew where Aly and erm… her sister… are?" Rylen purposely avoided mentioning the girl who she hated intently at the moment.

"Uh, they went to their bus I think. They were arguing about something and left. I'm sorry, I can't be totally sure."

"No that's cool, I'll check there. Thanks Jase."

"No prob Rylen, and you know I'm hear if you ever need someone to talk to."

"I know, thanks again." She gave him a quick hug and turned to walk out of the studio, slower then she usually would have, but she wanted Shane to really hate himself. Just as she was opening to the door to leave, it flew open, revealing Aly looking irritated.

"OH! Sorry Rylen!" she cried, almost running into her, "I was just coming to find you, I'm so sorry I'm late, I just had some um, business, to discuss with AJ."

"No, it's cool. Where is AJ anyways?"

"She's… not feeling well. We're pretty much the exact same size though, so she doesn't really need to be here. If that's ok with you anyways?"

"No that's totally fine. Why don't we go into the back room? Harper sent all the clothes over here last night, and I think that's were they put them." Rylen breathed a sigh of relief at not having to deal with AJ for at least a few more hours as they walked into the back. Aly tried on outfit after outfit as Rylen pinned them and fixed small details, marking them for the final adjustments. Rylen sighed through the pins in her mouth while trying to stick down the hem of a skirt that just wasn't lying flat.

"Hey Rylen, you can say no if you want, but I didn't really get to eat breakfast this morning, and I'm STARVING. You want to go grab a bite to eat with me?"

"Yes, please, I'm starving too, and I'm pretty sure I need a break from this skirt before I just take a pair of scissors to it," she laughed, "Oh! And would you mind if we made a small stop? I ran out of contacts."

"That's cool, I ran out of shampoo actually, so it works perfectly." Rylen waited for Aly to change back into her normal clothes before they headed out to Aly's car. (They towed it behind the tour bus usually) After deciding on a place to eat, the car became silent other then the radio.

"Ok, I'm just going to say it, because I like you and I want to be friends, and it would be nice to have some new girl friends," Aly laughed, "I kind of know what happened this morning. Jason told me when I came for breakfast and I instead walked in on an AJ and Shane Scream 'till the death match. And I just want to say; my sister is such a bitch for doing that. I mean I'm not perfect, but that's just so wrong."

"Thanks. I don't really feeling like starting a discussion about all the drama this morning, but I am definitely going to take you up on the friends offer. Any amount of estrogen is welcome in my world right now after a month of living on a bus with 3 boys ha-ha."

"Yay! I vote instead of going back right away; we sneak off for facials too and make the boys sweat it. I mean, they put you through enough today."

"I second that vote." Rylen smiled and sighed a little bit, happy about her new friend. Maybe this summer could still turn out decent.