Author's Note: And here is chapter two, reposted of course…
Best Friends, Lovers, and Nate Gray
Speed Bumps
By: Chelsea Hall
Rating: T… 13+… language and possible sexual content in future
Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Rock or its characters (no matter how much I wish I did). The themes, plots, and other characters are the product of my nutty, crazy head and they belong to me.
"Hey! What was that for?" Nate asked, rubbing the back on his neck where I had just smacked him.
"For being you!" I answered, "You don't have to be so sarcastic all the time you know." I stared at him.
Nate rolled his eyes at me. "I'm being lectured about my sarcasm from the Queen of Sarcastic and Snarky Comments herself," he looked at me with his eyebrows raised.
I was sitting next to Nate on the couch on their tour bus. We were on our way to Oklahoma City and instead of being cooped up in our cramped van, Ellie and I were invited to ride on the bus. Last night had been our first show and it was amazing, I was counting the hours to our next one: which was now at 28 hours.
I stared at Nate incredulously. It was true; we could go back and forth all day with our sarcastic ways. "Whatever," I rolled my eyes and picked up the nearest magazine on the table next to me. It was Red Book. I stared at it blankly for a moment. "Why do you have Red Book?" I asked, tossing the magazine at him.
Nate picked it up and looked at the cover. He shrugged. "It's not mine," he said.
I raised my right eyebrow, a skill that I had now perfected. "Are you sure?" I asked jokingly.
"Yeah," he answered self-righteously, "but you might want to ask Shane." His smile widened and he chuckled slightly.
"What?" a deep voice said. Shane was walking towards us from the opposite end of the bus. "Ask me what?"
I stifled a laugh, "Nothing." Shane looked at me curiously. "Uh-huh," he said. Shane looked back and forth from me to Nate, raised an eyebrow, and then walked off. As soon as we could no longer see his back, we busted out in laughter, no longer able to contain ourselves. Nothing extremely funny had happened, but we were in a slightly-giddy mood.
After a few minutes, we began to calm down. Nate yawned and sleepily rubbed his eye with his hand.
"Tired?" I asked, rotating my silver ring on my ring finger that had 'hope' imprinted on it. I had taken my vow of purity when I turned 13 and my sister did the same the next year when she turned 13.
Nate sighed deeply. "Yeah, I didn't sleep well last night," he said, running a hand through his curls.
I brought my eyebrows together. "Why not?" I asked curiously. He hadn't said anything to me before.
"I'm not sure," he replied, "I just couldn't get to sleep." I nodded my head understanding perfectly.
I reached over his lap and grabbed the remote that he had been sitting next to. I hit the red 'power' button and the TV set that was across from Nate and I popped into life. "Let's see," I sighed, flipping through the channels. "What do you want to watch?" I through my head over and looked at Nate and he shrugged. "You're a lot of help," I smiled.
"Why thank you," he retorted with a grin, "You are so kind."
I huffed, "Yeah, yeah." I continued flipping through the channels. "Hey," I said, stopping on a channel, "there's a Heroes marathon on."
"Alright," Nate said excitedly. "Hours and hours of Hayden Panettiere kicking ass, I love it!"
I smiled at him and rolled my eyes. "You are such a typical guy," I lamented.
Nate looked over at me. "Would you rather me be a typical girl?" he said smartly. I picked up the pillow that was next to me and through it over at him, hitting him in the head. "Hey, that wasn't very nice," he said. "You know, you can be abusive at times."
I looked away and at the TV. I had never really seen Hereos but a couple of times, but I knew that Nate loved it. Plus, I owed him after forcing him to watch The Bachelor with me. So, honestly I had no idea which character was which.
I laid my head back on the couch. I, too, was tired. I was starting to learn that this lifestyle was a tiring one and that you should nap when you got the chance. But, I was too much about living, so instead of going to sleep right when I got the chance, I made Ellie have a dance party with me. And instead of napping during the 3 hours I had free time, I hung out with Nate.
I closed my eyes and heaved. I heard Nate's breathing start to become even. I opened my eyes and looked over at him. He had his legs propped up on the coffee table and his left arm thrown to the side, propping his head up. To tell the truth, he didn't look very comfortable, but Nate was like me, he could sleep in the strangest positions and not care. His eyes were closed and he was definitely asleep.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes again.
--
My eyes quickly fluttered open. We must have hit a speed bump. I looked around and realized that my legs were up underneath me and my head was on Nate's shoulder. I looked up at his face and realized that he was still asleep. He must have woken up and rearranged himself, I thought.
I brought my hand up and began to rub the sleep out of my eyes. I flew up slightly when we hit another speed bump and my elbow lurched into Nate's side. His eyes flew open. "Sorry," I said apologetically, "we hit a bump."
Nate looked down at me, he looked exhausted. "It's alright," he attempted a smile but instead yawned. "What time is it?"
I shrugged and looked around. "Um," I said blinking so that my eyes would focus on the clock, "5."
"Well, that was a nice 2 hour nap, huh?" he asked lightly. I smiled. 2 hours was a long nap for me, but short for Nate.
"Nate?" Shane's voice cut in as he walked into the small room on the bus. When he saw us he stopped speaking and looked inquisitively at us as I realized that my head was still on Nate's shoulder.
"Yeah," Nate said, he still sounded exhausted.
"Mom told me to come get you, we're at the hotel," Shane finished. He gave us a final glance and then walked out.
So that would explain all of the speed bumps, I thought, we're in a parking lot.
I lifted my head up off of Nate's shoulder and he leaned forward, stretching his back. "I think I'm more tired now than I was before," he joked.
"Yeah, me too," I agreed, yawning, "And I'm starving."
Nate looked at me. "Uh, you are always starving," he said. It was true. All through Jr. High my friends had always joked "eats like a pig, looks like a twig".
I stood up, as did Nate, and we began to walk to the front of the bus. I hopped down off of the steps and my feet hit the pavement with a thud. My mom was standing there waiting for me and Ellie.
"See ya later," I waved at Nate as got off the bus and began to walk towards the hotel.
"Yeah, I'll call ya," he replied and waved as he disappeared through the doors.
Nate and his brothers always stayed at the nice hotels. We always stayed at a cheap hotel or motel since we didn't have as much money as the Connect Three. I walked over to our small white van and slid open the side door. I climbed in and crawled into the back and Ellie did the same, sitting down next to me. "Off to some rat's nest," she said smirking.
Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for reading! I hoped ya'll enjoyed it. In the next few chapters we'll start bringing in some drama and action. This one was more of a carry-over chapter and so ya'll could start understanding Nate and Katie's relationship. Thanks again!