Elena strummed her guitar, jerking her head awkwardly to try and push the wisps of brown hair out of her face. She sat on her bad, legs tucked under her, biting her lip as she tried to play the simple song to no avail. Who knew that simple chords could be so difficult? She tried again, glancing at the clock to see whether or not her hour of practice had come to a close. It had, so she gave the song one last effort. In the middle of the rendition, the bedroom door opened and Christina bounced in with a wide grin on her face.
"Hey," Elena greeted her, immediately silencing the whining of her guitar. "I didn't expect to see you for a couple of hours."
Christina shrugged. "I had some news I wanted to share, so I came over early. You mom told me that you were almost done practicing, but…" she trailed off, looking around at the windows in Elena's room. "The windows are still intact, so she must've been mistaken."
"Shut up," Elena said with a grin, chucking a pillow from her bed at Christina.
"Fine," Christina said nonchalantly. "Then I guess you don't want to know who I met today, and why I came over early." She tossed her head, flinging her lair over her shoulders. "Your loss," she added, knowing that that would push Elena over the edge.
"Never mind," her friend said, right on cue. "Tell me what happened. Your cheeks are all flushed."
Christina considered making Elena beg a little more, but her excitement overruled her torture, and she gave in. "I met Joe Grey," she said in a whisper.
"He came?!" Elena exclaimed, having heard all about the online conversation. "It was really him?"
Christina nodded and Elena let out a high-pitched scream. Christina leapt forward and clapped a hand over her friend's mouth, looking at her, alarmed. "Shhhh!" she admonished. "The whole city of Dublin doesn't need to know!" She gave her friend a shake. "Besides, if your guitar playing doesn't do it, your screaming will indeed shatter your windows."
This enlightening observation seemed to bring Elena back down to at least cloud eight, and she blushed. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm just excited for you!" Her eyes widened as a thought came to her. "Do you think you could let me meet Nick?"
Christina smiled at her friend. "He already has someone he's interested in, Elena," she explained. "I wouldn't want you to break your heart even further."
Elena nodded sadly at the logical answer and jumped up, scrolling through her playlist on her iPod and selecting a song. Seconds later, My Heart Will Go On began to play through the speakers. Christina rolled her eyes and grinned at her friend. "Good," she replied dryly. "I'm glad to hear that you won't die."
Elena smiled. "So, I take it you're going to be hanging around until it's time to go and get ready for the concert, right?"
Christina nodded. "Is that a problem?" she asked with a smile.
"Nope," Elena responded, grabbing the remote off her bedside table. "But you have to watch American Idol with me." She flipped on the TV, ignoring Christina's groans and mutterings about certain TV shows rotting people's brains, and snuggled up, ready to watch another episode of the show she secretly enjoyed.
After a moment, a brilliant idea came to Christina's mind. Why hadn't she thought of it before? This was a foolproof way to get Elena away from the TV and occupied for the next couple of hours. Fishing through her pocket, she found the backstage pass that Joe had given to her and deftly slid it in front of Elena's face. When the girl's eyes focused on the words inscribed on the sheet, they grew as big as saucers. She looked from Christina to the pass, and back again so fast that Christina began to fear that she was going to give herself whiplash. "No," she breathed.
"Yes," Christina responded.
"No," she said again, staring intently at the pass.
Yes," Christina assured her.
Elena's head snapped up and she turned off the TV, jumping off the bed as she did so. "Why didn't you mention that earlier?" she cried. "We should've been getting ready for the concert hours ago!" She ran around the bed, scrambling over to her closet. "We have to find something for you to wear."
Christina shook her head, laughing at her friend's hectic state. "Elena, I brought clothes with me to change into."
"No, no, no," Elena said, waving a dismissing hand at Christina, her head stuck in her closet. "I mean real clothes. Cute clothes. My clothes," she told her. She pulled out a pair of jeans, a green sweater, and a matching headband and threw them at Christina, who caught them awkwardly.
"I'm wearing my own shoes," Christina said, motioning to the green Converses on her feet.
Elena narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she responded huffily. "But only because they actually match what you're going to be wearing." She looked up at Christina innocently. "Aren't you going to get changed?"
Christina rolled her eyes and headed for the bathroom. Tonight was going to be an interesting night.
Christina sang every word of every song during the concert, and screamed right along with everyone else. Elena almost fainted when Nick looked her way, but kept herself together better than some of the other girls there. Christina was almost shivering with excitement, even though all the bodies pressed around her were making the air hot and difficult to breath. Whenever Joe looked at her and winked, Christina had to remind herself to stay calm and smile back without looking dazed like the rest of the girls.
"Do you realize that Joe Grey just looked at you?!" one girl shouted in her ear to be heard over the music.
"Yes!" Christina shouted back. The girl looked at her as though she was crazy, acting so calm and indifferent when the Joe Grey had looked at her. When the girl turned and edged away from her, Christina shrugged. Oh well!
By the time the concert ended, Christina and Elena were happy, yet exhausted. Elena's mother was going to be picking Elena up, so Christina waved goodbye to her friend, promising over and over again that she would tell her everything that would happen backstage, and that she would tell Nick hello for her. The bodyguard who was waiting to escort Christina backstage just shook his head as Elena finally tore herself away from Christina and left. Irony always her constant companion, Christina remembered a line from Hannah Montana, her own show that she secretly liked to watch. "What can I say?" she asked the bodyguard. "She's my dork."
The bodyguard smiled and motioned for her to follow him. He led Christina backstage and left her standing there, all bravado completely depleted, not ten feet from the boys of Connect 3 and their family. She gulped, trying to find the courage within her that had been there a second ago, and took a hesitant step forward. Joe looked up from the small gathering and saw her, his face lighting up as he hurried over to her.
He stopped right in front of her, trying to decide what was the best way to greet her. "Hey," he finally said, but the word came out softly, carefully, as though he was happy to see her because he was fond of her.
Christina smiled back, Joe's greeting demolishing any of her old fears. "Hey," she whispered, smiling.
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Elena, a friend of Christina's. Hope you all liked it!