I'm really glad you guys like the story so much. This one isn't one of my longer ones, but oh my god, is there drama. I wanted to end it at 'Nothing.' But I stretched a bit more out of it. Mitchie may seem a bit extreme in this chapter, too. Points to anyone who can see where Mitchie is once again inspiring Shane. Hehe.

Oh, and I had to fix Ch 5 a bit! I forgot to write Brown's arrival in. So, nothing major.

And does anyone know why some stories aren't being bumped to the first page when they get updated more than once a day?

Chapter 6

Dinner had been going really well while everyone ate. Or at least it was until Mrs. Gray opted to start speaking to me. Not that a mother talking to her son's girlfriend is bad. No, it was his siblings that were horrible. Well, more like his sister.

It started out pretty safe. "Mitchie, Shane tells us the two of you just recorded a duet?" She asked.

"Yeah, I mean, yes." I looked down blushing slightly. I felt Shane rubbing my knee.

"He said you wrote it. Is that true?" She was making the effort, I could tell.

I smiled brightly at him for a moment before turning to his mother. "Actually, we wrote it. I wrote the original, but after interrupting my Final Jam performance with his song, we realized they fit together really well." I said happily.

And that was when it started. "I'll bet." I heard Nicky remark. I saw Shane shoot her a look.

"Yeah, I'd had Mitchie's song stuck in my head when I wrote my song, so the melodies were similar." Shane said pointedly at his sister.

"Caitlyn," I said nodding toward her, "Mixed the original music I used for the song. She and Milo mixed the new music as well." I wanted the attention off of me. Besides, Nate's parents seemed pretty impressed.

"Really?" Mr. Frances seemed very interested in that. "Nate didn't tell us that. He said you were working as an intern."

"I am. But Milo's letting me do a lot of hands on stuff. That and because I created the original sound for the song, he wanted my input. I didn't put half as much effort into the other songs I helped on. This one is special to all of us. Even Nate." Caitlyn passed the attention onto her boyfriend. This was like hot potato.

"Why is that, Nate?" Mr. Gellar asked.

"Uhm, I wrote a lot of the music, mixing both melodies." For a pop star, that boy really hated attention. "Shane's right the melodies are very similar to begin with."

"Seems like Shane stole your music, then," Mr. Gray teased his son.

"Eh, I'll let him." I smiled happy at how mostly well things were going. Caitlyn's parents started questioning Nate for a little while before the music topic came back.

"The label is letting you write your own songs for the new album?" Mrs. Gellar asked curiously.

"Yes. They thought it best to give our new sound a chance. It appeased Shane making him calm down a bit, and thanks to Mitchie he had a bunch of new songs running through his mind." Nate said laughing. "We owe Mitchie a lot." I was surprised at Nate's words.

"Do you write a lot of songs, Mitchie?" Mrs. Gellar asked me.

I stammered. "Yes. I mean, they aren't that great, though."

At that, Brown interjected. "What have I told you about that, Miss Torres? You write wonderful songs. Stop being so hard on yourself."

"Sorry, Brown." I smiled.

"Right, you went to Camp Rock." Kevin said, speaking for the first time all night.

"Somehow." Nicky mumbled.

I stuttered. "Yeah. That's where I met Caitlyn and Shane. And of course Nate and Jason."

"Did you enjoy it? I remember how much fun the boys had when they went there." Jason's mother, Mrs. Bishop asked. "Though, Brown, you let them get away with a lot of stuff!"

I smiled at Brown. "Mostly." Smirking at Caitlyn, I continued, "Classes were fun, but the the food was eh. Better than previous years I'm told, but it wasn't amazing." Us teenagers began laughing, while Brown and Dad tried not to laugh. Mom glared at me playfully. The others looked quiet confused, so I explained. "My mother catered there this summer. It was… how I was able to go. Caitlyn ended up with Kitchen Duty, so we spent a lot of time attempting to cook." Nicky muttered something I hadn't heard, but obviously Shane had.

"Nicky, shut up, already." He snapped, glaring at the younger girl. She was only a few months, maybe a year younger than me.

Attempting to move on, I added, "Shane and Nate attempted to help cook breakfast on the last day. Unfortunately, they have no culinary skills and Mom kicked 'em out so Cait and I could actually help." Caitlyn and I laughed remember, while Shane and Nate seemed to be blushing. I saw Nicky make a face.

"What is your deal?" Shane yelled at her across the table.

She sat back huffing. "Like I need to explain it."

"Yeah, sis, ya do." Shane replied.

"She's just using you. Once the duet is released, they'll sign her and she'll drop you faster than you can blink." To say I was pissed off, well, that would be an understatement.

"No, she won't. So drop it." Shane growled at his sister.

She laughed humorlessly. "How would you know? You're so blind." In a voice imitating Shane, she continued, "She's so amazing. She has the greatest voice I've ever heard. I love her so much." Returning to her normal voice, she laughed again, "Mark my words, she's going to."

"I am not!" I defended myself. "I could care less about being signed. Shane spontaneously sang with me. The record label liked it. Shane asked me to sing it with him on the record. Not me." I glared at the younger girl.

"What ever you say, Princess." She replied not caring. I could feel the tears stinging my eyes but refused to let them fall. I stood quietly, and stammered an excuse before exiting to the kitchen.

Shane followed. Did you expect him not to? He wrapped his arms around me as I collapsed into his chest crying. "I just… I wanted this to be perfect. And now your sister hates me. And your parents are probably thinking she's right." I cried.

"Shh." He rubbed my back soothingly. "I know you aren't using me. We've been through this. Remember? I don't care what other people, even my sister, say about us, okay?"

Remembering our conversation from earlier I stepped back, but not out of his arms. "Others like who, Shane?" I really wanted to know who was so against us.

"Don't worry about it." He shrugged it off.

"Tell me." I demanded.

"Nate. Chris. Most of the execs at Lava. Kevin." I blinked, moving away from him. "Mitchie-"

"No. I'm fine. Just… why are they so against us? And I thought the label wanted us together?"

"Chris hates people who can distract his artists." He said coming closer to me, though my back was to him. "And you, Mitchie Torres," He held me tight against him, "Distract me." I was still crying, and may have even been sobbing at that point. "Nate was afraid of me getting hurt. The concept of us has grown on him." He kissed my cheek, then my jaw. "The execs? Similar to Chris." He kissed between my jaw and neck. "Except they're more worried about the press, given the age difference." He kissed further down my neck. "'Cept Bradley. Bradley loves you. He really does want to sign you." He kissed what was exposed of my shoulder. "Kevin just follows what Nicky says, only he's nicer about it." He pulled his lips away from my skin and turned me around. "I love you, Mitchie. Nothing is going to change that." He kissed me for real, and we both poured everything we had into that kiss.

Pulling back, I looked him in the eyes. "I love you, too." I know. I said it was too soon for those words, and yet we keep saying them. But that was almost three months ago.

"I wanna stay like this forever, Mitchie." He whispered, his forehead pressed against mine. "I never wanna let go of you."

"Shane…" I whispered brokenly. "Maybe… maybe you should."

Confusion clouded his eyes as I struggled to understand what I was saying myself. "What?" He was no longer whispering, but his tone was still soft.

"Maybe," I stuttered, looking away from him. "Maybe, while your gone… ya know, filming. Maybe we should, take a break? You can see if this is really what you want or if its just this notion you have in your head."

"Mitchie, no." He argued. He caught me as I pulled away. "Don't do this. Don't let them get to you. You'll just be giving them what they want." He begged. I never expected him to beg.

"I know." I said pulling my wrist loose, still not facing him. I couldn't let him see the tears streaking down my face. "Shane, there are a lot of things about us that, sometimes, they don't feel right." I heard him moving toward me again. I let him. He titled my chin toward him allowing him to see my tears. "I need to know if what we have is real, or just, all in our heads."

"Mitchie, please." He was crying. That was a bigger shocker than the begging. I never expected to see him cry. And I never wanted to again. That image broke me.

"Shane, please. Don't-" A sob escaped my throat. "Please, just, do this."

"This isn't going to prove anything!" He yelled at me.

"You don't know that!" I yelled back. Tiredly, I, myself, begged, "Please, Shane. Don't make this any harder."

Broken, he moved away from me. "Fine. If this is what you want. I'll, I'll call you when I get back." He started walking away, then paused in the door frame. "I mean what I say, Mitchie. I love you. Nothing is going to change that."

I don't know how long it was before I heard Shane yell at his sister or Caitlyn came running in with Mom, or how long I sat there crying my eyes out. All I know was nothing had ever hurt that bad in my life. Nothing.

I spent every moment I wasn't forced to leave my bed, tucked away in the security of it. It smelled like him. I could sense his scent lingering from the many times we'd laid on my bed talking. Or kissing. But usually talking.

Caitlyn told me Nate felt horrible for everything he'd ever said about us. He didn't realize how much we really cared about one another. He said Shane was miserable without me. He was irritable every time he wasn't alone in his room. Though, on the bright side, he'd learned to keep his anger in check. Mostly. He apparently punched Chris in the face a few times after a remark Nate wouldn't share.

Admittedly, I had a similar experience. I was literally a walking zombie. I'd been on the verge of tears constantly. Rosie seemed to take notice.

"Awe, what's the matter?" She cooed in a baby voice. "Did wittle Mitchie get her heart broken?" Speaking in a normal voice, she continued as I glared. "You did, didn't you? He finally realized he could do better?" I looked around, wondering where the hell Caitlyn was. "It was a matter of time, Mitchie, even you had to know that."

"Shut up, Rosie." I swallowed thickly.

"Oh, you didn't?" She laughed. "You really think he loved you?" She asked incredulously.

"Shut up, Rosie." I said more forcefully, standing up to get away from her.

But she wouldn't, she followed me and she kept going. "I better he never did. Probably never told you he did either, did he? You said it first and he broke up with you." She guessed. I'd had it. I turned around and slapped her. Hard. I've never slapped anyone in my life.

"You know nothing about me, or Shane, or anything to do with us. So shut the hell up for once in your damn pathetic little life where you feel the need to step on everyone else." I was screaming at her by the end. Caitlyn had appeared at some point and pulled me out into the hallway where a teacher who had seen me slap her followed.

"Miss Torres. Principal's office. Now." They said guiding me. I shrugged them off. I didn't care.

While we waited, Caitlyn ripped into me. "Come on, Mitchie. It's been a week. They'll be home in no time, and you and Shane can fix this." Caitlyn's patience was waning. I didn't realize the toll this had been taking on her as well. "You need to get out of this slump."

"I can't fix it, Caitlyn. I know why I did what I did. I need him to be absolutely certain this is what he wants." I swallowed. "Maybe, everyone else is right and we're wrong. Maybe he needs to clear his head so he can see that."

She sighed, squatting in front of me. "Mitchie… Do you see how miserable you are? Do you think that's how Shane wants you to be? He wants you to be happy. That boy loves you." Her tone became desperate as she practically yelled at me. "Why are you letting other people get to you, again?" The secretary looked at us funny, but we didn't really notice. I sat there staring blankly ahead, knowing she was right.

"Do you think he'll forgive me?" I whispered quietly.

"I don't know, Mitchie." She answered honestly. "Probably." She smiled.

"What if I was right, Caitlyn? What if he does realize he doesn't love me as much as he thought?"

"I don't have the answer for you, Mitch. Only he does. And you need to wait until he come back to get them." Sighing, she sat next to me again. "How about, we go Christmas shopping? Get your mind off of everything?"

I nodded weakly as the principal called me into her office. "Sure." I called over my shoulder.

My hand stung as the principal scolded me. It was against the rules to harm another student. When I explained the harassment of the last couple of months, she lightened my punishment, but swore I still had to be punished. So, on top of possibly loosing the greatest guy in the world, I had detention for an hour everyday after school for a week. Gee, thanks. Give me time to think in the eerie quiet of detention about my potential ex-boyfriend and how stupid I was. And as if school and detention weren't enough, my parents lectured me for hours.

I was looking forward to going shopping so badly, just to get away from everything else. I knew Caitlyn wouldn't let me stay in my own little world much longer, anyway. The downfall to living with your best friend.

All I really knew at the moment was how much I missed Shane. How badly I wanted to hear his voice. I played my Connect 3 CD over and over, as well as Gotta Find You. Caitlyn eventually stole my CD and hide the files on my computer. "As much as I love hearing my boyfriend's voice, it gets tiring." That was three days before this whole thing. I hoped she'd have compassion and give them back now.

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