Chapter 31

"Hey Brooke." Adam said, giving me a friendly hug.

I let my tears fall as I hugged him closer to me. Out of all the places that I could go during a time like this, I knew I wanted to be with him. I felt really bad about it though, because Dr. Cullen had no idea I was here. It's not that I came to Adam for romantic reasons, but I still felt bad being with him and not with Dr. Cullen.

"I'm so sorry about your grandfather." He said, releasing his arms from around my waist. I could tell he was trying to be careful about physical contact.

I wiped a few stray tears off of my face. "Thanks."

He picked up my suitcases and brought them into the living room. "So what are you doing here in Alaska? I figured you'd want to relax at home."

I sighed and sat down on the couch, my face obviously indicating that everything wasn't exactly fantastic at home.

"Boyfriend troubles?" He asked, taking a seat beside me.

"Ugh...kinda. It's sort of a complicated situation."

"Did you guys break up?" He asked, almost too eagerly, but he seemed concerned.

I actually laughed. "No Adam, much to your dismay, we didn't break up."

"Oh." He said, looking disappointed. "Well, that's good, I guess."

"You guess?" I asked.

"Sure." He replied.

I groaned and rolled my eyes at him. "No, we didn't break up. We kinda had a...well a fight I guess. But not like a bad fight, more like opposite views on a subject."

"What subject?" He asked.

"I can't say."

He nodded. "Alright then."

"Just the combination of that and everything else that's been happening lately really made me just want to get away, and have fun. And when I think about fun the first thing I think about is you, Lacey, and Lance."

He smiled. "Do you think of me before the other too?"

I laughed again. "Yes Adam, of course."

"Good." He said. "I really missed you Brooke."

"I missed you too." I said, and I smiled at him. It felt good to be around him and actually be happy for the first time in a while.

"Of course you did."

"Speaking of the other two morons...where are they at?"

"Ah, Lance went camping with some of his friends, and Lacey was on her way to the mall, until I called her and told her that you were flying in, so she turned around and should be back any minute now."

"Lacey didn't have to do that."

"I don't think she really cares." Adam said.

I shrugged. "True."

As if on cue, the front door opened, and Lacey came running into the living room. Before I knew it I was wrapped up in her tight embrace.

"Brookie! Heck yeah...I'm saved!" She cheered as she released me.

"Yes Lacey, I came here to save you from the wrath of Adam and Lance."

"It's about freaking time." She said, smiling at Adam, who was giving her a dirty look.

"Lacey...I don't think we're that bad." He said.

"Um..yeah my brotha...you are." She replied.

Is it weird that I missed the way that she never put -er on the end of her words and just replaced them with an -a? Yeah it probably is weird.

"I'm not your freaking brother." He mumbled.

"Sorry about you grandfather Brooke, that really stinks." Lacey said, now turning her focus to me.

"Thanks Lace, it means a lot to me."

"No problem." She said, and then she punched Adam in the arm. "So McRomeo, now that Brookie decided to show up..what are our plans for tonight?"

"I haven't thought that deep yet Lace." He said, rubbing his arm.

"Good, because I have!" She said, jumping up and down. "We are all gonna go get pizza, and then we are gonna come back here, and play video games all night, while we eat fudge."

"Fudge?" Adam asked. I just stood there and watched. This scene could be very comparable to going to the zoo.

"Yeah! I've been wanting fudge for so freaking long, but Lance is a freaking crap face, and he won't get me any!" Lacey exclaimed.

"I could see why, the last thing you need is more sugar." Adam replied.

She smacked him across the face. "You shush your mouth boy!"

"Ow Lace. Jeez, fine, we'll get you some fudge."

"That's what I thought." She said, smiling, then she looked over at Adam. "Aw suck it up. For gosh sakes you got sacked by a three hundred pound dude once while playing football and you were just fine...but the second a girl smacks you across the face, bring on the tears."

"Lace, does it look like I'm crying?" He asked, pointing to his face.

"No, it doesn't...but you should be...because dang...I smacked you hard!"

"Yes you did." He said, looking over at me and shaking his head. "I think I'm the one that needs saved here."

I laughed. "I don't know why I missed you guys so much, but I did."

"It's cause you love us." Lacey said. "Well at least me."

"What makes you think she loves you Lace?" Adam asked.

"Well cause...whoever doesn't love me is a freaking idiot, and Brooke is a smart girl, therefore she's not an idiot, therefore she loves me."

"That made no sense, but whatever." Adam said.

"Your face doesn't make any sense." Lacey said, and she laughed at her own joke for a minute before she continued. "She really doesn't give a crap about Lance...none of us do."

"Lacey, how can you say that, you're his girlfriend!" I said.

She laughed. "I'm messing with you guys. Well, maybe not...I'm not quite sure."

I couldn't help but laugh in response.

"And McRomeo, babe I'm sorry...but Brooke has made it quite clear that she is defiantly not in love with you."

Adam frowned and rolled his eyes in response to Lacey's comment, while I stood there with my mouth wide-open, shocked she just said that.

"Lacey that was kinda..." I began, but she interrupted.

"An awesome burn!" She exclaimed, jumping in place as if that proved her point. The she looked over at Adam. "Sorry dude, didn't know that one would hit so below the belt."

He shook his head and smiled. "It's fine Lacey, you were just telling the truth after all."

"Awww, Adam...I'm sorry." I said.

"It's fine." He replied, exchanging a quick glance with Lacey. "If it's not meant to happen it's not gonna happen." He walked away from the two of us and headed upstairs.

"Hmm...maybe he could use some fudge." Lacey pondered, watching him.

"Lace, now I feel bad." I said, sitting back down on the couch.

"Ah..don't. He'll get over it."

"I know, but I still feel bad. I wish I could help him somehow."

"Baby cakes..I'll tell you something." She said, sitting down beside me with a very serious look on her face. "That boy is far beyond anyone's help."

I laughed.

"Don't feel bad about Adam being a moron, it's not your fault." She said.

I nodded in response. "Yeah I don't think I caused Adam to be a moron."

"Adam was born a moron." Lacey said, standing up. "It's a fact of life."

"Is there any way I can help him get over me?" I asked.

"Um...give him some drugs?" She said.

"Lacey! Something legal please."

"Oh..ok." She thought for a minute. "Crap Brooke I can't think of anything legal."

I laughed at her. "Like is there anything I can say to him, anything I can do?"

"You could make him some fudge."

"Lacey, you just want me to make fudge so you can have some."

"Yeah, but then if I have fudge, I'll be happy, and if I'm happy, then everyone in the world is happy."

That was probably true. As long as Lacey was content, the people around her stayed that way as well. If Lacey was mad, people got cursed out.

"I don't think fudge is the answer, Lace." I said.

"Hmm, that's odd. I always thought it was." She said, crossing her arms across her chest. "You could try and hook him up with someone else."

"You want me to play matchmaker? Lace I'm having my own relationship issues right now...I don't think I could set up another one."

"Well, give it a shot. Adam basically got me and Lance together."

"Lacey you and Adam have been best friends for years, you were due to encounter Lance sooner or later."

"True. Crap..I never could have avoided him." She said.

I laughed again. "Fine Lacey, I'll try this matchmaking thing, but it's gureenteed to stink."

"That's the spirt!" She said, before quickly dashing upstairs herself.

"Where are you going?" I called after her.

"I'm gonna go take a freaking relaxing bubble bath!"

"Awesome."

"You got that right." She said, and then I heard her bedroom door close.

I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the couch.

Great, now in addition to mourning over my grandfather's death and my boyfriend being a vampire, I had to try and make Adam happy with someone else and get him off of my case. And I thought I came here to relax and have a stress-free week to clear my mind. Now it was appearing to be quite the opposite.

Just as I was getting ready to get up and take my suitcases to the guest room, my phone began to ring. I dug around in my purse until I found it. The caller ID said it was Sandra.

"Hey San." I said, picking up my suitcases and slowly making my way up the stairs. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." She said, and I could tell she was eating something.

"What are you eating?" I asked.

"French fries." She mumbled.

"Ah, stopped for fast food huh?"

"Yep. I love these things." She said, and I could tell she had another handful of fries in her mouth.

"So are you in the car right now?" I asked, placing my bags on the floor so that I could open the door leading into the guest room.

"Mhmm." She said, and I heard the sound of crinkling paper.

"Where are you going?" I asked, closing the door behind me and making my way over to the bed so that I could sit down.

"Dance class." She said. "I didn't go all last week with the funeral and all, and I figured I might as well go back now so that I don't get too rusty."

"Sandra I highly doubt that would ever happen."I said, and I heard the door to my room open. I looked up and saw Adam standing in the doorway.

"You're probably right." She said.

"So what are you doing there today?"

"Well, I'm gonna take my class, and then Miss Wilkins wants me to teach that one group that I've been teaching for the past few years."

"Aah, the thirteen to sixteen year old group?"

"Yeah, them."

"How much do you get paid for that?"

"Quite a bit actually. It's a decent amount of money."

Adam seemed curious about who I was talking to, and he came and sat down beside me.

"If I didn't want to go into the culinary stuff, I would so try and be some kind of dancer." She said.

I laughed. "You always have been pretty good at it."

"Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun." She replied.

I looked over at Adam, and suddenly something clicked for me. "Alright Sandra, I probably should be going."

"Okay Brooke. I guess I'll talk to you later tonight."

"Yes, defiantly...have fun at dance class ok?"

"Gotcha. I love ya Brooke!"

"Love you too San...see ya later." I said, before ending our conversation. Just as I was expecting, Adam was looking at my with a very curious expression on his face.

"Was that your cousin Sandra that you talk about all the time?"

"Yeah, she's like a sister to me." I said.

"And she was going to a dance class?"

"What? Oh yeah. She's been taking some dance classes in Seattle for like the past...twelve years or so."

"What kind of classes?" He asked, obviously interested.

I couldn't help but laugh. "She took ballet when she was younger, but now she does more of the hip-hop/freestyle stuff."

"Is she hot?" He asked.

"I don't know, you tell me." I said, surfing through my phone until I found a picture of Sandra and I from a few months ago while we were at her house one night.

"Wow." He said, taking the phone from me so he could look at the picture better. "You look really hot."

He deserved to be smacked, so of course..I smacked him.

He laughed. "I would say I was kidding, but I'm truthfully not." He said, looking over at me with a dumb grin on his face. I gave him a dirty look, but the dumb grin still did not leave.

"No, she's really pretty." I said, handing the phone back to me. "She's two years younger than you?"

"Yep." I said.

"And she dances?"

"She loves to dance." I said. "Kinda like a certain show-offy playa I happen to know." I said, elbowing him.

"Ok, ok, I catch you drift. Your trying to hook me up with your cousin."

"Not necessarily." I said, putting the phone in my pocket. "I'm just trying to point out that you guys have a similar interest."

"No, I think you just want me off of your case." He said, quickly kissing me on the cheek as if to prove his point.

"Adam, now just because I said I'm having boyfriend troubles doesn't give you an excuse to kiss all over me."

"Crap." He said, but he smiled, indicating he was kidding.

I laughed and shook my head.

"Can I kiss all over you?"He asked, the dumb grin reappearing.

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Pretty please."

"No way."

"Pretty, pretty, please." He begged, starring straight at me with his best puppy-dog eyes.

"Alright." I said, leaning forward, acting as though I was gonna kiss him. I got really close to him before I gently smacked his face with my right hand. "Keep dreaming McRomeo."

He actually laughed instead of yelling at me, which I found suprising. "Brooke, you cannot do crap like that to me!"

"Why?" I asked, laughing myself.

He laid down on the bed, and covered his eyes with his hands. He muttered a few curse words under his breath, which made me laugh again.

"It's not funny!" He said, but his smile indicated otherwise.

"Oh I believe it is." I said.

"Yeah, toying with people's emotions to make them think that their gonna get a little satisfaction in their lives is so funny."

"A little satisfaction? What did you think I was going to do? Sleep with you?" I asked him, smacking his chest lightly.

He laughed. "I was hoping for it."

"You are unbelievable!" I said, but I was laughing too.

"Brooke, I am Adam Freaking Chandelier, the world's ex-biggest player, you should expect me to think that way."

"Oh I never said that I didn't expect you to think that way."

"Then don't act so shocked when I talk about wanting to sleep with you." He said, sitting back up.

"Adam."

"Yes?"

"Whether I do or do not know about your player tendencies, your talking about wanting to sleep with me will always cause reason for me to become shocked." I said.

He laughed. "Fine, I'm not gonna bother arguing my point."

"What point? You don't even have a freaking point."

"That's why I'm not going to bother arguing it." He said, getting up and walking back over to the doorway.

I walked over there to join him. "That's probably a good idea."

"Yeah, probably."

"Adam have a good idea my butt!" I heard someone, I was obviously assuming Lacey, scream.

We both laughed.

"So you want me and your cousin to date one another?" He asked.

"No I never said that, I'm just saying the two of you seem slightly compatible."

"Really?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'll think about it." He said, then he leaned over to whisper in my ear. "But I already have my heart set on a different Jeffers girl." He quickly kissed me on the cheek again, and then dashed down the hallway before I could smack him.

"Your such a freaking moron!" I called after him, and I heard him laughing in response.

"Wooho! Go baby cakes!" Lacey called.

And I walked back into my room, actually happy for the first time in weeks.

A little bit of a boring chapter, but it had to be done. Seriously...who else would she go to but Adam? Lol.

I guess to kind of briefly explain something here, I want to tell you guys the background behind Adam's character. When I first planned on writing this story, Adam did not exist in my mind.(A lot of the stuff that's happened in this story didn't exist at the time I decided to create it.) But after I came up with the idea of sending Brooke to Alaska, I figured she needed a "Jacob" figure, so to say. So that's when Adam's character was created, but he was nameless for a very long time. I actually came up with names for the characters of Lance and Lacey months before I came up with Adam's.

When I write a story and make up characters, I generally try and base some of the characteristics off of someone famous, just so I can give myself a mental image of that person, and it makes it easier to write the story. Brooke is an exception, because I really have no person I refer to as a reference for her. However, for characters such as Lance, Lacey, and Sandra, they are all somewhat based off of real-life celebrities. Lance and Lacey where named after my favorite Dancing With The Stars couple two seasons ago, Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. In Lacey in particular, I try to bring out a lot of her real life characteristics in this story. Sandra is named after a character in my school's musical last year, but when I physically picture her, I picture her as Selena Gomez. I'll explain the reasoning behind that choice later on. ;)

So Adam was a nameless character with no definite physical description. I wanted him to be hot, and I had his personality all mapped out, but I was in need of a name and a face to finally throw him into the story. I tried so many names, and was running out of ideas, until one day I heard a friend of mine talking about a friend she knew from another school. And she said his name was Adam. It clicked for me then, and the name Adam stuck, and I soon came up with his funky last name of Chandelier.

Now that he had a name, he needed a face, and it was getting close to the chapter where I knew I was gonna put Adam in the story, but I still didn't have a reference for him. I was becoming aggravated with myself, and put off updating. Then a few days later, my sister rented the movie "Another Cinderella Story" and I watched it with her. And watching that movie gave me my reference for Adam. When I picture Adam now, I picture Drew Seeley...exactly. So then I threw in the dancing and such to make the two of them similar, and tada...there was Adam!

It's kind funny, but my sister (who reads every chapter before I post it) is actually going Team Adam on me...she says it's because she thinks Drew is hotter than Peter.

I think she's a little crazy...don't you?

Lol, anyways, there's just a little background on how Adam and some other characters came about, maybe that helps you guys some.

Thanks for reading...please shoot me a review with what you think so far!

~Hazl~