November 7, 2015
After another exciting concert concluded on the Drama Brothers Central Canadian tour, Trent, Harold, Justin, and Cody stepped backstage in Toronto. This was their second tour, and everyone was excited to be getting back together. The band split after a few heated arguments between the band, but now that their days of Total Drama were over, they decided to give the band a second chance. As they had stepped backstage, there were a few crew members handing them some hand towels to wipe their faces, and their manager, Greg, was smiling blissfully at them.
"Great show tonight." Greg said to them. Greg has been their manager since the conception of the Drama Brothers, and Trent, the leader of the band, was so excited to be able to get Greg back as their band manager when they decided to re-form.
As the boys stayed behind for a few moments, Trent could see Cody in the corner of his eye speaking with a body guard. He waited until the body guard left and approached him.
"Everything okay?" He asked Cody. "Is there an issue with one of the fans?"
"Oh! No." Cody looked as if he had been caught in the act of something, and appeared nervous. "I asked that security guard to grab Noah. I saw him at the concert, and I thought it'd be cool to see him again. Well, him and the girl he had with him."
"I thought he was with Emma." Trent said to him.
"I don't know if it's that kind of girl." Cody told him. "She looked a lot like him. Could be a sister or a cousin. If he comes over, just act surprised, all right?" Trent nodded and the two walked back over to Justin and Harold, and as Trent was about to speak, he could see Noah and the girl walk in. Everyone smiled as Cody leaned into Noah for a hug.
"I wish you had told me you were coming!" Cody exclaimed. Noah didn't look very happy to be surrounded by his former castmates, while the girl next to him stood silent amongst these strangers. "I saw you out of the corner of my eye and thought, 'I have to invite him backstage!'"
"It was a last-minute thing, otherwise I would have said something sooner." Noah motioned over to the girl next to him. "This is my twin, Nicole." Trent noticed Justin had gone from losing focus to immediate attention as Noah gave the mysterious girl a name, and he began to walk up to her sexily.
"You have a twin? Where have you been hiding her?" He was getting uncomfortably close to Nicole, which in turn made Trent uncomfortable. He knows the way Justin was, and didn't want this to be Nicole's first impression of anyone in the band, even if he did never see her again. He decided to step in and put a hand on Justin's chest while getting in between the two.
"Easy, tiger." He said. Justin backed up, crossing his arms like a preschooler who hadn't gotten his way. He could see Nicole was relieved and began to speak with them, looking at Trent in the eyes.
"I've always been a fan. Noah surprised me tonight with tickets." She said to them. He could see her coming closer to Trent. "Trent, I've always wanted to tell you - it was devastating not seeing you on World Tour. I mean, you were-" Trent knew exactly how he wanted this answer to go, and Nicole kept talking, so they spoke at the same time.
"The only real musician on the show!" The two of them blushed. He couldn't believe that they had spoken the same thing at the same time. It was as if time had frozen, and Nicole was the only person backstage with him. The only person he could focus on.
"Thank you! That's exactly what I thought, too, but I don't think I would have wanted to be there with everything going on between Gwen and Trent." He said to her. He cursed himself in his mind, remembering not to talk about his ex-girlfriend who dumped him on international television to a cute girl.
"How have you been doing since then?" She asked him. He was surprised to hear she still wanted to speak with him, but he rolled with it.
"I've been good. Really good. Been focusing on the music, and I haven't spoken with either since. Overall, I've been really, really good." Trent facepalmed himself in his mind, hoping this wasn't weirding Nicole out. What 'good' person says they're 'good' three times? None of them. Nicole didn't have much to say after that, and Noah had been silent since he introduced Nicole. He saw Justin trying to end the conversation, and stepped closer to them.
"Well, Noah, it was good seeing you again." Justin said. He put his hand on Noah's shoulder and pointed towards the exit. "We have some packing up to do. Maybe we'll catch you again?" The two of them gave a fist-bump and high-five to one another, and Harold, who was leaning on the wall, said something to Noah as well.
"Totally fresh to see you, Noah." He gave a wave and walked away with Justin, and Trent, not knowing what else to do or say, began to walk away as well. He turned around to see Cody staying behind to talk to Noah, and wondered if he should go back over, but decided to go back with Justin and Harold to help load the tour bus. He looked over to Justin, who helped him pick up Cody's keyboard. Justin was walking backwards holding one of the ends of the keyboard, while Trent was guiding them and walking forward.
"I saw the way you were looking at her, man." Harold told him. "You like her." Trent blushed. He hoped he was being subtle.
"I hardly know her." Trent said. "We just shared a weird, psychic moment, that's all. I'll probably never see her again." Secretly, as Trent said that, he had hoped he would get to see her again. He had this strange feeling that he only felt with one other girl. He knew she had a story, and he wanted to know what it was. Even though they were together for less than five minutes, he wanted to know her likes, her dislikes, everything there was to know about her. They approached the tour bus and dropped the keyboard down on the loading dock, then stepped away as the crew around them continued to pack up the stage for the next stop.
"You should try to get to know her. I see something there, and I know a thing or two about girls, and I can tell she saw that moment, too." Harold said to him. Trent couldn't help but peer over when he saw a car come by, and Nicole going in while Cody and Noah walked into a separate car next to them and drove off.
"What should I do? We were on a reality show with Noah and we don't even know his last name."
"Oh, I remember everyone's last name!" Harold exclaimed. "Noah's last name is Asper!"
"You're a genius, Harold." Harold and Trent began walking backstage to grab their instruments before heading out, and as Trent put his guitar case strap on his shoulder, he began to open up his phone's Facebook app and searched for Nicole. Her name popped up right away and he looked through her profile right away. There wasn't much to see, as she kept her profile pretty locked up, but he thought about sending her a request as they walked back to the tour bus.
Trent was afraid of coming on too strong. The world saw him when he came on too strong with Gwen, and he didn't want a repeat of this. There was something about Nicole that made him feel like she was different, so as he took his seat on the bus, he took a leap of faith and friend requested her, then looked for Cody to tell him as Harold and Justin joined him on the bus.
"Where's Cody?" He asked.
"He said something about staying behind with Noah." Trent shrugged it off as the bus began to move. He began to pick out a song from his music playlist, then plugged in his headphones as he leaned his head on the window for the short ride to their hotel stop.
A short ten-minute bus ride later, the Drama Brothers, minus Cody, were at their hotel for the night. Greg handed them a room key as they unloaded the bus, and the boys began to take their overnight bags from the overheads of the bus, with Trent taking Cody's, and walked into the hotel and towards their room for the night. Tomorrow, the band would begin their journey to the next tour stop. As the boys approached their rooms and claimed a bed, Trent looked down and got a ping on his phone. He was excited to see it was Nicole accepting his friend request, and immediately wrote her a message.
Trent Harris
Hey, Nicole! It was really nice meeting you. If you don't find this weird, I'd love to get to know you more.
He looked over his message a few times, and went ahead and pressed send. After a few moments, he noticed she was typing, and stared at the screen until her message popped up.
Nicole Asper
Hi, Trent! Don't worry, I'm not weirded out. Thanks for adding me. I would love to talk more. :)
He was so excited, but realized as soon as he had laid his head on the hotel pillow, he could barely keep his eyes open. He didn't want her to think he was flaking on her already, so he sent one more message before heading to bed.
Trent Harris
That's a relief! If you don't mind, can we chat tomorrow? We've got a show tomorrow night and we just got to our hotel.
He smiled as he watched the three dots jump to signify she was drafting her response.
Nicole Asper
Of course. I'll be looking forward to it. :)
He left it at that and began getting dressed in his pajamas for the night, then plugged his phone in and smiled blissfully as he drifted to sleep.
After a morning of spending some time virtually with Noah for their twenty-second birthday, Nicole and Trent were relaxing before heading out to celebrate Nicole's birthday with friends here in Australia. The two were a month into their six-month study abroad in Australia and were loving every second, and though she couldn't be with her family, Nicole was at least happy to have Trent with her.
"I have a present for your birthday, but I shipped it to Bethany and Joshua's home. I didn't think we would have room in our suitcases to bring it back." Trent said. Nicole laughed and looked at him wide-eyed.
"You're probably right." She said to him. He got out his phone and showed her a photo of what the finished product would be. It was a star map in a frame, and below it read, The day Orpheus met his Eurydice. November 7, 2015.
"It's the day we met backstage at the Drama Brothers concert." Nicole smiled sweetly at him.
"Wow. This is so sweet." She said as she looked carefully at the star map. She took his phone and zoomed in a bit. "I can see Fornax, right next to Sculptor and under Cetus."
"I love when you talk Astronomy to me." Trent joked.
"I can't wait to see this in person and put this up in our room when we get back." Nicole said, referring to the apartment they'd have together next semester. "I love it. Thank you." She hugged him around his waist and gave him a kiss. Nicole thought back on the memory of that night with glee.
"You're welcome."
