Disclaimer: Um, I own no one except Erina and Angela. Please do not sue the poor, poor girl. Don't forget to review! Thanks.
"So, what makes her so special?" Shawn asked Chris, who sat comfortably in the driver's seat of the rental car.
"Hmmmm.....she writes back to me," Chris answered simply and then contemplated the question. What did make Erina special? Special enough for Chris and his friends to fly on an airplane and then drive a rental car to her book signing. "And she does this thing," Chris started again, looking over at Shawn, who sat in the front passenger seat. "She blushes when she's embarrassed. It's sweet."
Shawn smiled and then looked out the window.
....................................
Chris walked into Barnes and Noble two steps ahead of his friends. He was excited about seeing Erina for the first time in months. Sure, they had written back and forth through the whole time, but............ Well, it wasn't the same.
Chris stood right inside the door to the bookstore and scanned the large room, looking for Erina. Chris knew he wouldn't have a hard time recognizing her. He could still picture the blond hair and blue eyes that had been seared onto his brain the day she had spilled coffee on him.
He smiled. It seemed as if that day were so far back in time now. It seemed as if they had known each other for years instead of merely months. And it seemed as if Erina and her letters had become a larger part of Chris' life than he cared to admit.
But, he wasn't the only one who had noticed the friendship growing between Erina and himself. Jackie, Shawn, Reagan and Danso (who were all piling in the door behind him) had all noticed the difference in their friend. He was always eager to get a new letter from the girl he had met in New York. And now, he was so excited to see her that he had practically run from the car into the store.
It wasn't a bad change in their friend, they all had to admit as they watched him search the room for Erina. No, he was happy and that was all that mattered.
"There she is," Chris said smiling as his eyes fell upon Erina, who stood in the back of the store near a table covered with books. Angela stood next to her and both girls were looking at the books they were holding. Chris stood where he was and just watched Erina. She flipped through the pages of her book and every once in a while she would smile and laugh at something Angela said.
"Well," Reagan whispered, coming to stand at Chris' side. "Go say hi to her."
"Not yet," Chris whispered back as he watched Erina laugh again.
........................................
Angela saw them first. She had been talking to Erina about her book and something (she was quite sure what) had made her look towards the door. And her eyes had landed smack dab on the group of people that stood right in the doorway, looking as if they were in town for a beautiful people convention.
"Oh my good Lord," she mumbled, looking over Erina's shoulder at the actors from her new favorite show. All of them are here, she thought. Wow.
"What?" Erina asked, turning to see what had caught Angela's attention so well.
Her eyes too fell upon the small group right inside the doorway and she smiled. They came, she thought as Chris' eyes and her own locked gazes. It never occurred to her that her eyes had met his own, meaning that he had been watching her for a few minutes.
"Chris," She said enthusiastically and then started across the store towards them.
............................
"Looks like we've been spotted," Shawn mumbled as Erina came closer.
Chris took a couple of steps forward when she got close enough. Impulse overtook him and he greeted her as he would any good friend- he pulled her into a small friendly hug.
It was probably a good thing that the hug was over as fast as it had begun, because Erina would have been embarrassed if Chris had been able to detect the quickening of her pulse.
Erina stepped back and smiled. Chris looked exactly the same as he had just months before when they had first met. Good, she thought, he hasn't changed.
"How are you?" She asked Chris.
"Okay," he answered, "how are you?"
"Nervous," Erina replied, her eyes widening with her smile.
Suddenly Erina and Chris both were aware that they were not the only ones standing in the small group. It was odd how for just a couple of minutes there, it had seemed as if they had been the only two people in the store. But, as Jackie, Shawn, Reagan and Danso gathered around the two, they were almost forced to acknowledge the others' existence.
"Um, Erina," Chris started, pointing to his friends, "This is Jackie, Reagan, Shawn and Danso."
"Hello," Erina said politely and they all said it back in return.
Jackie stepped forward and smiled at the writer in front of her. " I hope you are planning on autographing a copy of your book for me," she said, pointing to the table covered in copies of Erina's book.
"Oh, ..um.....yeah, okay," Erina returned, a bit surprised. She could not believe that Jackie Rosenbaum wanted her autograph. Shouldn't it be the other way around, Erina wondered. She could just feel her cheeks turning red by the attention.
Chris took one look at Erina's reddening face and looked up to meet Shawn's eyes. His friend smiled back and nodded his head in agreement. Yes, the blushing thing was so very sweet.
"Hey," Danso said, breaking into Chris' thoughts. "Who's that girl over there by the table? She's looking at us weird."
Erina turned around and saw what Danso, and now the rest of them, saw. Angela, who was usually so cool and collected, had totally lost it. The book she had been holding now lay on the floor, as if it had been dropped. Her eyes were wide with surprise and her jaw was hanging low like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
In that instant Erina realized that she had forgotten to tell Angela about Chris' last letter and how he had planned to come to the book signing.
"Oh boy," Erina mumbled, and rushed across the store to her friend's side, Chris and his friends close behind her.
Erina had never seen Angela look that way before. She seemed to be in a trance as she watched them draw closer to her. Of course, Erina thought, she's never seen all of them in person before.
"Angela," Erina said, and Angela looked at her slowly, her mouth still open wide. "This is Chris and his friends: Danso, Reagan, Jackie and Shawn."
Angela turned back to the group of actors and blinked as if seeing them for the first time. "I......I......" She started, not able to form real and coherent words.
Reagan stepped forward, knowing how to handle this type of situation. "It's nice meeting you, Angela," she said sweetly.
"Um....it's nice meeting you too," Angela finally managed to get out. She turned to Erina, an eyebrow raised.
......................................
A Couple Hours Later
Something had come over Angela. She wasn't exactly sure what it was or when it had started. But, sure enough, it was there. The idea had started as a little flower waiting to bloom. It had opened slowly, allowing her to fix the little details in her plan until it seemed like it could not fail. Then she was ready to put it into action.
Angela peered over the bookshelf and surveyed the scene before her. Right in front of her, a little to the left, was a table piled high with copies of Erina's book. Right in front of the table was a line of people (all ages) stretching from the back of the store all the way to the front door. Everyone wanted to talk to Erina.
Erina sat behind the table, conversing enthusiastically with a young girl whose book she was signing. She's in her element here, Angela thought and she smiled. Erina could talk about her book all day, she knew. And it seemed as if she might just have to do that, judging by the long line of people waiting to get a glimpse of the young author.
Angela glanced over her shoulder to make sure her bag was in place. Yup, she thought, everything is ready. Now, I just have to wait...........
..................................
Jackie stood at the edge of the aisle and watched as Erina signed another book and handed it back to its new owner. Chris sat next to her, his arm casually draped over the back of her chair. Noticing how Chris sat, Jackie had to smile.
She remembered the day when Chris had first met Erina. He had been so annoyed when she had spilled coffee on him. But then, when he had had time to cool down and think, he had realized it was an honest accident. And that's where it had all began, Jackie thought. She remembered the whole bag incident and the letters that followed.
At first, she thought Chris had seen this girl as a total pain in the butt. Yet now, Jackie knew she had been mistaken. She watched as Chris whispered something in Erina's ear and Erina turned to him and smiled. No, Jackie thought with a broad smile, he doesn't think of her as a pain at all.
"Cute, aren't they?" Reagan said, coming up behind Jackie. She knew her friend would understand whom she was talking about without giving them names. Reagan and Jackie always talked that way. They just always seemed to be on the same wavelength.
"Yeah," Jackie replied, not even turning around. "They are cute."
"Look, Erina is blushing again," Reagan noted with a laugh. "I wonder what Chris said to her."
Both girls laughed and then turned as a motion a bit down the aisle caught their attention. Angela was peering over the book display again.
"And what," Danso said, coming up behind Jackie and Reagan and noticing who they were watching, "do you supposed she is up to?"
"I think we are about to find out," Jackie said quietly as they watched Angela suddenly duck down behind the shelf and pull a book out like she was studying it intently.
........................................
Angela's heart pounded in her chest and she forced herself to take a deep breath. Okay, she thought. This is no big deal. Everything is in place. Nothing could go wrong.
She looked down at her book and realized she had been holding it upside down. She rolled her eyes at her own mistake and turned it right side up. Then she stared at it, as if memorizing every word.
.........................................
Shawn was tired. He really liked Erina and her friend, Angela, but he wanted to go home. The plane ride and then the car ride had really tired him out. Plus, he had a shoot tomorrow. What he really needed was a soft bed with lots of pillows. Sleep, he thought desperately, I need sleep.
Shawn took a sip of his coffee as he entered the aisle. The coffee tasted so good. And hopefully, he thought, it will wake me up. Perhaps the coffee would not have woken him up fully, but what happened next did.
Shawn had reached about the middle of the aisle and he hadn't noticed the girl crouching on the floor just a couple steps in front of him.
4.....3....2..., Angela counted silently, waiting for Shawn to get closer.
Shawn was right behind her now and she whispered, "one," before standing abruptly.
"Oh, My---!" Shawn exclaimed as the lovely brown liquid poured excitedly onto his white shirt. Ironically, it was a new plain white shirt. But, of course, Angela had not known that.
"Oh my goodness!" Angela said, painting a picture of false innocence on her face. "Oh, I am so clumsy!"
Shawn just stared at her, his mouth opened wide. How could this have happened, he wondered frantically. How?
"Hold on," Angela told him as she ran for the bag that she had planted on the other side of the aisle. She reached inside and pulled out a box of tissues that hadn't even been opened yet. Yanking the top off, she pulled out a handful of them and rushed back over to Shawn. Immediately, she started dabbing the poor guy's shirt, muttering the whole time about how clumsy she was.
Shawn just continued to stare at her and wonder vaguely, if he would ever be allowed to own a white shirt without a brown stain on it. At this point, he doubted it.
Angela glanced over the aisle again as she dabbed at Shawn's shirt. Chris was talking to Erina, both of them smiling and looking at each other intently as if the rest of the world didn't exist. And perhaps for them, it didn't.
Hey it worked for Erina, Angela thought as she looked back at Shawn a sweet smile on her face.
"Clumsy me," she said lightly, shrugging.
Neither Angela or Shawn noticed the three people at the end of the aisle laughing uproariously. "Poor Shawn," Reagan laughed, looking at the pained expression on his face as Angela dabbed at his ruined shirt again.
"That was no accident," Danso commented, chuckling wholeheartedly.
Jackie wiped the tears of laughter away from her eyes and glanced back at the 'accident' that had just happened. "Here we go again," she whispered smiling. This, she knew, was going to be good.
The End
Whew! It's finally done. It even turned out longer than I thought it would be. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Anyway, please don't forget to review for me. Thanks lots.
"So, what makes her so special?" Shawn asked Chris, who sat comfortably in the driver's seat of the rental car.
"Hmmmm.....she writes back to me," Chris answered simply and then contemplated the question. What did make Erina special? Special enough for Chris and his friends to fly on an airplane and then drive a rental car to her book signing. "And she does this thing," Chris started again, looking over at Shawn, who sat in the front passenger seat. "She blushes when she's embarrassed. It's sweet."
Shawn smiled and then looked out the window.
....................................
Chris walked into Barnes and Noble two steps ahead of his friends. He was excited about seeing Erina for the first time in months. Sure, they had written back and forth through the whole time, but............ Well, it wasn't the same.
Chris stood right inside the door to the bookstore and scanned the large room, looking for Erina. Chris knew he wouldn't have a hard time recognizing her. He could still picture the blond hair and blue eyes that had been seared onto his brain the day she had spilled coffee on him.
He smiled. It seemed as if that day were so far back in time now. It seemed as if they had known each other for years instead of merely months. And it seemed as if Erina and her letters had become a larger part of Chris' life than he cared to admit.
But, he wasn't the only one who had noticed the friendship growing between Erina and himself. Jackie, Shawn, Reagan and Danso (who were all piling in the door behind him) had all noticed the difference in their friend. He was always eager to get a new letter from the girl he had met in New York. And now, he was so excited to see her that he had practically run from the car into the store.
It wasn't a bad change in their friend, they all had to admit as they watched him search the room for Erina. No, he was happy and that was all that mattered.
"There she is," Chris said smiling as his eyes fell upon Erina, who stood in the back of the store near a table covered with books. Angela stood next to her and both girls were looking at the books they were holding. Chris stood where he was and just watched Erina. She flipped through the pages of her book and every once in a while she would smile and laugh at something Angela said.
"Well," Reagan whispered, coming to stand at Chris' side. "Go say hi to her."
"Not yet," Chris whispered back as he watched Erina laugh again.
........................................
Angela saw them first. She had been talking to Erina about her book and something (she was quite sure what) had made her look towards the door. And her eyes had landed smack dab on the group of people that stood right in the doorway, looking as if they were in town for a beautiful people convention.
"Oh my good Lord," she mumbled, looking over Erina's shoulder at the actors from her new favorite show. All of them are here, she thought. Wow.
"What?" Erina asked, turning to see what had caught Angela's attention so well.
Her eyes too fell upon the small group right inside the doorway and she smiled. They came, she thought as Chris' eyes and her own locked gazes. It never occurred to her that her eyes had met his own, meaning that he had been watching her for a few minutes.
"Chris," She said enthusiastically and then started across the store towards them.
............................
"Looks like we've been spotted," Shawn mumbled as Erina came closer.
Chris took a couple of steps forward when she got close enough. Impulse overtook him and he greeted her as he would any good friend- he pulled her into a small friendly hug.
It was probably a good thing that the hug was over as fast as it had begun, because Erina would have been embarrassed if Chris had been able to detect the quickening of her pulse.
Erina stepped back and smiled. Chris looked exactly the same as he had just months before when they had first met. Good, she thought, he hasn't changed.
"How are you?" She asked Chris.
"Okay," he answered, "how are you?"
"Nervous," Erina replied, her eyes widening with her smile.
Suddenly Erina and Chris both were aware that they were not the only ones standing in the small group. It was odd how for just a couple of minutes there, it had seemed as if they had been the only two people in the store. But, as Jackie, Shawn, Reagan and Danso gathered around the two, they were almost forced to acknowledge the others' existence.
"Um, Erina," Chris started, pointing to his friends, "This is Jackie, Reagan, Shawn and Danso."
"Hello," Erina said politely and they all said it back in return.
Jackie stepped forward and smiled at the writer in front of her. " I hope you are planning on autographing a copy of your book for me," she said, pointing to the table covered in copies of Erina's book.
"Oh, ..um.....yeah, okay," Erina returned, a bit surprised. She could not believe that Jackie Rosenbaum wanted her autograph. Shouldn't it be the other way around, Erina wondered. She could just feel her cheeks turning red by the attention.
Chris took one look at Erina's reddening face and looked up to meet Shawn's eyes. His friend smiled back and nodded his head in agreement. Yes, the blushing thing was so very sweet.
"Hey," Danso said, breaking into Chris' thoughts. "Who's that girl over there by the table? She's looking at us weird."
Erina turned around and saw what Danso, and now the rest of them, saw. Angela, who was usually so cool and collected, had totally lost it. The book she had been holding now lay on the floor, as if it had been dropped. Her eyes were wide with surprise and her jaw was hanging low like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
In that instant Erina realized that she had forgotten to tell Angela about Chris' last letter and how he had planned to come to the book signing.
"Oh boy," Erina mumbled, and rushed across the store to her friend's side, Chris and his friends close behind her.
Erina had never seen Angela look that way before. She seemed to be in a trance as she watched them draw closer to her. Of course, Erina thought, she's never seen all of them in person before.
"Angela," Erina said, and Angela looked at her slowly, her mouth still open wide. "This is Chris and his friends: Danso, Reagan, Jackie and Shawn."
Angela turned back to the group of actors and blinked as if seeing them for the first time. "I......I......" She started, not able to form real and coherent words.
Reagan stepped forward, knowing how to handle this type of situation. "It's nice meeting you, Angela," she said sweetly.
"Um....it's nice meeting you too," Angela finally managed to get out. She turned to Erina, an eyebrow raised.
......................................
A Couple Hours Later
Something had come over Angela. She wasn't exactly sure what it was or when it had started. But, sure enough, it was there. The idea had started as a little flower waiting to bloom. It had opened slowly, allowing her to fix the little details in her plan until it seemed like it could not fail. Then she was ready to put it into action.
Angela peered over the bookshelf and surveyed the scene before her. Right in front of her, a little to the left, was a table piled high with copies of Erina's book. Right in front of the table was a line of people (all ages) stretching from the back of the store all the way to the front door. Everyone wanted to talk to Erina.
Erina sat behind the table, conversing enthusiastically with a young girl whose book she was signing. She's in her element here, Angela thought and she smiled. Erina could talk about her book all day, she knew. And it seemed as if she might just have to do that, judging by the long line of people waiting to get a glimpse of the young author.
Angela glanced over her shoulder to make sure her bag was in place. Yup, she thought, everything is ready. Now, I just have to wait...........
..................................
Jackie stood at the edge of the aisle and watched as Erina signed another book and handed it back to its new owner. Chris sat next to her, his arm casually draped over the back of her chair. Noticing how Chris sat, Jackie had to smile.
She remembered the day when Chris had first met Erina. He had been so annoyed when she had spilled coffee on him. But then, when he had had time to cool down and think, he had realized it was an honest accident. And that's where it had all began, Jackie thought. She remembered the whole bag incident and the letters that followed.
At first, she thought Chris had seen this girl as a total pain in the butt. Yet now, Jackie knew she had been mistaken. She watched as Chris whispered something in Erina's ear and Erina turned to him and smiled. No, Jackie thought with a broad smile, he doesn't think of her as a pain at all.
"Cute, aren't they?" Reagan said, coming up behind Jackie. She knew her friend would understand whom she was talking about without giving them names. Reagan and Jackie always talked that way. They just always seemed to be on the same wavelength.
"Yeah," Jackie replied, not even turning around. "They are cute."
"Look, Erina is blushing again," Reagan noted with a laugh. "I wonder what Chris said to her."
Both girls laughed and then turned as a motion a bit down the aisle caught their attention. Angela was peering over the book display again.
"And what," Danso said, coming up behind Jackie and Reagan and noticing who they were watching, "do you supposed she is up to?"
"I think we are about to find out," Jackie said quietly as they watched Angela suddenly duck down behind the shelf and pull a book out like she was studying it intently.
........................................
Angela's heart pounded in her chest and she forced herself to take a deep breath. Okay, she thought. This is no big deal. Everything is in place. Nothing could go wrong.
She looked down at her book and realized she had been holding it upside down. She rolled her eyes at her own mistake and turned it right side up. Then she stared at it, as if memorizing every word.
.........................................
Shawn was tired. He really liked Erina and her friend, Angela, but he wanted to go home. The plane ride and then the car ride had really tired him out. Plus, he had a shoot tomorrow. What he really needed was a soft bed with lots of pillows. Sleep, he thought desperately, I need sleep.
Shawn took a sip of his coffee as he entered the aisle. The coffee tasted so good. And hopefully, he thought, it will wake me up. Perhaps the coffee would not have woken him up fully, but what happened next did.
Shawn had reached about the middle of the aisle and he hadn't noticed the girl crouching on the floor just a couple steps in front of him.
4.....3....2..., Angela counted silently, waiting for Shawn to get closer.
Shawn was right behind her now and she whispered, "one," before standing abruptly.
"Oh, My---!" Shawn exclaimed as the lovely brown liquid poured excitedly onto his white shirt. Ironically, it was a new plain white shirt. But, of course, Angela had not known that.
"Oh my goodness!" Angela said, painting a picture of false innocence on her face. "Oh, I am so clumsy!"
Shawn just stared at her, his mouth opened wide. How could this have happened, he wondered frantically. How?
"Hold on," Angela told him as she ran for the bag that she had planted on the other side of the aisle. She reached inside and pulled out a box of tissues that hadn't even been opened yet. Yanking the top off, she pulled out a handful of them and rushed back over to Shawn. Immediately, she started dabbing the poor guy's shirt, muttering the whole time about how clumsy she was.
Shawn just continued to stare at her and wonder vaguely, if he would ever be allowed to own a white shirt without a brown stain on it. At this point, he doubted it.
Angela glanced over the aisle again as she dabbed at Shawn's shirt. Chris was talking to Erina, both of them smiling and looking at each other intently as if the rest of the world didn't exist. And perhaps for them, it didn't.
Hey it worked for Erina, Angela thought as she looked back at Shawn a sweet smile on her face.
"Clumsy me," she said lightly, shrugging.
Neither Angela or Shawn noticed the three people at the end of the aisle laughing uproariously. "Poor Shawn," Reagan laughed, looking at the pained expression on his face as Angela dabbed at his ruined shirt again.
"That was no accident," Danso commented, chuckling wholeheartedly.
Jackie wiped the tears of laughter away from her eyes and glanced back at the 'accident' that had just happened. "Here we go again," she whispered smiling. This, she knew, was going to be good.
The End
Whew! It's finally done. It even turned out longer than I thought it would be. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Anyway, please don't forget to review for me. Thanks lots.