CHAPTER 29
Nate stood there in shock. Rylen had always told him she was a shy person when it came to guys, but she could have fooled him after that. He realized he was still standing where she left him and shook himself. He needed to get ready himself. In hindsight, he could have just followed her, but she had him so entranced he didn't think of it. He walked through the hallways of the arena outside towards the bus passing a very confused looking Jason. Jason opened his mouth as if to say something to Nate, but Nate just gave him a slight wave, smiling and then climbing up the stairs. He heard the shower going in the bus, so he climbed into his bunk to wait for Rylen to finish up. He checked his phone and grinned, knowing in an hour and a half, half of his surprising would be waiting for them. He curled up in his clothes on his bunk and decided to sleep until Rylen got out of the shower. He put his head on the pillow and smelt vanilla, like Rylen's shampoo. Did she sleep in his bunk too? Nate smiled to himself, hoping that was a good sign, and drifted off yet again.
Rylen got out of the shower and changed, quickly doing her hair and makeup, before walking out of the bathroom. She laughed as she saw Nate passed out in his bunk with the curtain open. She kissed him on the cheek and ruffled his hair to get his attention. Nate's eyes fluttered open, smiling when he realized why he was being woken up.
"Hey gorgeous," he mumbled. Rylen had her hair down, with just some mascara on. She was wearing a strapless, knee-length, navy blue dress with a grey cardigan over top of it. She also had a black chunky bracelet and the same black peep toed stilettos from the day before.
"Hey yourself mister sleepy. Are you just going to keep sleeping or tell me why I'm supposed to be dressed nicely?"
"No, but now that you mentioned it, I really need to get changed myself." He swung his legs over the edge of his bunk and hopped down. He threw his arms around her and pulled her into a hug, smelling her hair, which had the same vanilla smell as his pillow. Hah. Busted. "So are you going to tell me why you were sleeping in my bunk AND wearing my pajamas?" Her felt her stiffen a bit and he laughed, "You're so busted missy." She playfully slapped him and pulled away with a pout on her face.
"I couldn't get to sleep in my own bunk," she whined, "and yours smells all… nice… and like you." She blushed.
"Awww, you miiiiissed me!" He pulled her into another hug.
"Yeah I guess. Right now I'm missing that nice smell though, because that is not what you smell like currently." Nate laughed, realizing he hadn't showered after their rehearsal yesterday, and that he has been wearing the same clothes.
"I guess I will go shower then. Can you please pick me out some clothes? Make me match you."
"Why do you want to match me?"
"I dunno, because then it's like we belong together?" He gave her a shy smile.
"Cute. Go take a shower stinks McGee." She laughed and pushed him into the bathroom. Rummaging through his suitcase she grabbed him a clean pair of boxers, and a nice pair of dark wash skinny jeans. She looked through his shirts until she found a nice dress shirt that was the same navy color as her dress. She heard the shower turn off while she was grabbing a pair of black dress shoes and some socks for him.
"RYLEN?" she jumped as he yelled her name, "CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A SECOND?" Rylen walked down the hall and stood outside the bathroom door.
"What can I do ya' for Nate?"
"I uh, kind of forgot I needed a towel."
"Yes, I could see that proving to be an issue," she giggled.
"Do you think you could grab me one?"
"Well I guess I COULD, but where would the fun be in that?" she giggled again.
"Fine, if you WANT to see me naked, then just say the word. I don't need to be dry or anything either you know," Nate grumbled through the door.
"Oh relax, I'll grab you a towel," she turned to the cupboard behind her and pulled out the smallest thing she could find, which was a wash cloth, "Open the door a bit so I can give it to you," she laughed. The door clicked, and Nate's hand reached around. She placed the corner of the washcloth in his hand and he quickly closed the door. She heard a grunt through the door.
"Very funny Ry. A REAL towel would be nice."
"Yeah, yeah. Here I got one for you." The door clicked again and this time she gave him a real one. She walked back to her bunk and sat on the edge, fiddling with her phone for a minute. Remembering about her mom not answering earlier, she tried again. Still no answer. Rylen felt a small amount of panic surge through her. This was not like her mother. She was racking her brain, trying to remember if her mother had told her something she had forgotten, before she was interrupted again by Nate's voice.
"RYYYY!"
"WHAAAAT?"
"I NEED CLOOOTHES!"
"WELL COME GET THEEEEEM!"
"BUT-"
"NO BUTS NATE! GET OFF OF YOURS AND COME GET THEM!"
"FINE!" She heard the door open, and looked up to see Nate, his wet hair hanging in his eyes, with a towel wrapped around his waste. "Oh dang," she thought. She was staring at him. It wasn't like she hadn't seen Nate with out a shirt on before. She did every night, but this time he was wearing NOTHING. Well nothing except that towel. She blushed when she realized that she had been staring and looked up at him. He was just standing in front of her, his cheeks a dark red.
"Well, I told you I needed clothes, where did you put them?" She pointed up to his bunk and then looked back down. He continued to stand there. He didn't say anything but instead looked from her to the bunk above her. Then she realized he would have to stand in front of her and reach upwards to get them. Which would pretty much mean shoving his, uh, crotch, in her face. She blushed more, and stood up, moving out of the way.
"I'll just turn around so you don't have to walk back to the bathroom," she spoke while covering her eyes and looking the other way.
"Okay," she heard his towel drop to the floor, and him pulling on his clothes, "I'm decent." She turned around and he was buttoning up his shirt. His pants were still undone so that he could tuck his shirt into them. She looked at him and then laughed.
"What?"
"Nate, you didn't line up the buttons right. Look, they're all one higher then where they're supposed to be."
"Oh, oops." She watched him taking his time undoing the button again and huffed. She pulled his hands away and started doing it for him.
"So you were going to tell me why I'm dressed up?"
"No I wasn't."
"Dang, I thought I could trick you."
"Nope. You'll find out pretty soon though." She nodded her head and patted his chest, signifying that she was done. Her thoughts suddenly turned back to her mother as she eyed the phone on her bed. "What's wrong?" asked Nate, noting her look of frustration.
"Nothing, it's just my mom still isn't answering her phone. I can't help but worry, it's just so unlike her." She sighed and wrapped her arms around Nate's waste, pushing her head into his chest.
"Don't worry about it Ry. She probably just forgot to tell you she was going somewhere." He smirked.
"Nate! It's not funny!"
"I know it's not!"
"Then why are you laughing?" she frowned.
"No one is laughing."
"Then what's that stupid look for?" she demanded.
"Ugh, it's nothing. Listen; don't worry about it all right? I'm sure she is fine." He squeezed her and felt her head nod against his chest. He brought her head up to his and gently kissed her lips. She ran her hand through his hair and pulled him into her for a more passionate kiss. Her other hand slowly drifting up his shirt and running up and down his abs like earlier. Nate let out a moan against her lips, as her hand started drifting downwards. She let her hand play along the line of his boxers, before pulling her other hand out of his hair and doing up the button of his jeans. Smiling against his lips, she reached down and slowly pulled up the zipper of his pants. She pulled away and started to laugh. Nate groaned and hung his head, "you are SUCH a tease!" he looked up at her and she stuck out her tongue.
"Well, I want to know what my surprise is, so let's go!"
"I'm not even finished getting dressed yet! Relax!"
"Oh. Right." Nate unbuttoned his pants again, since his shirt was still not tucked in. and started shoving in the end of his shirt.
"Here, let me do it," Rylen grinned. She reach around him, grabbing the ends of his shirt, and slowly pushing them down, making sure to run her hands over his butt in the process. She did this around his waist until she got to the front. She didn't get a chance to finish the job, when Nate grabbed her hands and pulled them away.
"I think that it might be a good idea for ME to finish this, or we might never leave the bus," he smirked, tucking in the last bit, and doing up his pants. Rylen looked him up and down.
"You're missing something," she said as Nate pushed up his sleeves and rolled them to his elbow, "I know!" she ran to the closet and pulled out a grey tie, throwing it over his neck. She tied it and straightened it before patting him on the chest.
"Perfect."
"Yes you are," Nate smiled at her. Rylen blushed and swatted at him.
"Let's go Romeo." Nate looked down at his watch and smiled. Only a half hour.
"Actually, we're not going anywhere. The surprise is coming to us."
"Really?"
"Really really."
"Well when does it come then?" she asked, "and why did I have to get dressed up?"
"You will know when it's here, and once again, you will thank me when it's here."
"When WHAT"S here? Naaaate! IS IT A PERSON?" she looked up at him her eyes huge.
"You will find out in… 25ish minutes. So hold your horses. We should probably get into the arena though. I have sound check first before it gets here." Rylen huffed as Nate took her hand and led her outside. When they climbed off the bus, Rylen instantly froze and dropped his hand.
"MOM?!" she screamed, running towards her.
"Oh, crap, part of my surprise is early," thought Nate. Never the less he trailed after Rylen who was running to the doors of the arena. Rylen threw her arms around her mother and squeezed her. "Oh my gosh! Why are you here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"Well I was told not to tell you. A nice boy named Nate called and said he thought you might be homesick and thought it would be nice if I visited. I thought it was a very sweet thing of him to do; none of your other boyfriends have been so considerate. Which reminds me, thank you for telling me you got a boyfriend!" Rylen stiffened. She didn't tell her mom about Shane because she thought she wouldn't approve, especially since she shared a bus with him. Then she realized she was more likely talking about Nate. She stiffened more at that thought. Were they dating even? She would hazard that he would say yes, but they had never actually formally discussed the matter. Thinking about the entire situation more, she realized how awkward it was to be dating Nate, that was, if they even were dating. What about Shane? What would he think? What would her mom think about this boy who invited her to visit, despite the fact that they might not even be dating? If they were, they hadn't even been dating for a day! Her mother stared at her still expecting an answer.
"Um…well, see…" she was interrupted when Nate finally met up with them and stood beside her. She gave him a quick look of death before smiling and turning to her mother. She couldn't believe she was in this situation. "Uh, Mom this is Nate, Nate this is my mother, Connie Sims."
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Sims," Nate stuck his hand out and shook hers.
"It's very nice to meet you too dear, and please call me Connie."
"In that case, has anyone told you Connie, that you passed on your wonderful looks to Rylen here?" Connie blushed and waved at him, scoffing. She was almost a replica of Rylen, but older, and her hair was only shoulder length. Nate smiled at her, "No, seriously, I would think you were her sister if I didn't know already that she was an only child." Nate always had a way with charming woman.
"Well I think Nate, that you are entirely to kind, but thank you very much. Now not to be rude, but I was told there was food here? I didn't eat on my flight, I get to nervous."
"Of course, I can walk Rylen and you to craft services for the moment. I'm afraid we have to wait an hour before dinner; I wasn't expecting you to be here so early. I'm sorry. We're expecting other guests and they should be arriving shortly. So you two can have a snack while I do sound check. I'm sorry to have to leave."
"That's perfectly fine, I'm sure we can hold out for an hour." Connie smiled at him as he motioned for them both to follow. As Nate walked slightly in front of them Connie whispered into her daughters ear, "He a cutie. And gentlemen. I approve." Rylen blushed. She had been silent through this whole exchange. She was stunned at the fact that Nate had planned this all. She was even more stunned when she had heard they were expecting other guests. Looking at her mother walking silently beside her through the halls, Rylen just about stopped dead in her tracks when she finally came to realize the only other people these other guests could be. She was going to kill Nate.
