Chapter Five: A Little Fun
So we were back in my apartment, the girls entertained with music and clothes, Hayden occupied with food and sports, but then I was sitting at my laptop, frustrated at the worthless gypsy visit.
I was pacing around the room, muttering, “How do we fix this… What did she mean?” and so on.
“Steph, get out of the way, they’re showing the Laker girls!” Hayden was leaning from side to side as I paced in front of the T.V. “Stephanie!”
I continued to ignore him, until ‘Transylvania’ by McFly suddenly blasted from the tiny speaker on my phone.
“Hullo?” I answered, plopping down on the couch.
“Thank you!” Hayden cried in the background. I was concentrating on the voice inside my phone, so I didn’t hear him.
The phone beeped as I set it to speakerphone and muted the T.V.
“Hey Stevie, its Jeffery!”
The girls stopped what they were doing and joined Hayden and I on the couches.
“Uh… Jeffery?” A puzzled expression was on my face, as well as everyone else’s.
“Yeah, Jeffery Waller… come on, don’t play games, Stevie.”
My jaw dropped. “Oh my God, Jeffery!! Sorry, I’ve been so confused for the past couple days, I can barely remember who I am!” Which was completely true.
Jeffery chuckled over the phone nervously. “Yeah, well, I’m having a summer beach party here at our house, and I was hoping that you would come.”
Kymberlie, Harlow, and Scout immediately began bouncing in their seats. Even Hayden diverted his eyes from the Laker girls to listen in on the conversation.
“Sounds fun, Jeffery, but we have lots of stuff to do…” I trailed off, looking at everyone’s now upset faces.
“We?” asked Jeffery.
“Oh, yeah, some of my friends are staying with me…”
Kymberlie was throwing her arms all over the place and mouthing words that looked a lot like “Party” “please” and “go!” Harlow and Scout were nodding and bouncing on the couch, and Hayden was pointing to a stack of swimsuits on the floor and whispering “please!”
“That’s fine! They should come too!”
Everyone returned to a smiley, bouncy state. I was overruled, again.
“Sure, we’d love to come.” My eyes stared annoyed at my friends. “When and where?”
“You guys can come whenever you want. The party is Saturday, but we just re-did the guest quarters.”
Guest quarters? I remember Jeffery and his sister Sara lived in a nice sized house… but not one with guest quarters. Oh wait; I forget that I wished all my friends to be rich.
“Wait, where is your house again? I loose track.”
Jeffery laughed again, and said, “Oh yeah, you’re used to visiting us in our normal house in Southampton. But we’re in our beach house in Venice right now.”
“Venice, Italy!” Harlow couldn’t contain herself. I couldn’t help but laugh, either.
“Sorry, Jeffery, that was my friend Harlow…” I rolled my eyes playfully. “And no, Harlow, he means Venice beach!”
Jeffery was laughing, too. “Oh, got it. So you guys should come tomorrow! It’s pretty lonely down here. Just me, Sara, Dad, the help…”
“Oh, okay… Yeah, we’ll be there tomorrow afternoon.” I smiled. A beach party sounded a lot more appealing now.
“Can’t wait. Adios!”
“Chow!” I closed my phone and squealed.
“Why didn’t you want to go in the first place, Stephanie?” asked Scout.
“I don’t know, I just think that we should focus our time on getting home… before its too late… but I guess, when in Rome…” I smiled.
“So we are going to Italy?” asked Harlow. Her eyes were wide and completely serious, and that was the sad part.
Kymberlie slapped the back of Harlow’s head. “No, smart one, it’s just an expression!”
Everyone laughed, even Harlow, although she still looked completely confused.-----
Kymberlie grunted, then flopped down onto the floor, blocking the doorway, causing me to almost trip over her as I exited my closet, holding a pile of dresses which soon came tumbling onto Kym’s freshly curled head.
“Hey!” Her cry was muffled under the materials. I giggled and gathered the dresses, now a sloppy bundle rather than the neat stack I had them in.
“Kymberlie, why are you sitting in the doorway of the closet? Très inconvenient,” I said with a giggle. Then I put in a great effort to step over her rather large Prada suitcase, while keeping the lump of dresses in my arms. “Whoa.”
Kymberlie giggled and rolled her eyes. “This suitcase is heavy! I don’t remember packing any steel items…”
“Its all those clothes!” Harlow’s voice was heard, but she wasn’t seen.
“Harlow? Where are you?” Kymberlie stood up, brushed off her pink satin P.J. capris and searched the room for Harlow.
Suddenly, a volcanic explosion of pants, shorts, shirts, and dresses took place on the bed.
“And I pack too many clothes? You were hidden by that mountain!!” Kymberlie smiled.
“No, I was searching for a specific top. I’m not taking any of these.” Harlow tossed a wrinkly Hollister tee shirt to the floor, already covered in enough clothes to keep a colony of starving African children warm.
“Thanks, guys, for destroying the closet, then.” I picked up a few of the spare shirts and shorts on the bed and threw them through the doorway, over Kymberlie’s curls.
“Watch it!” Scout emerged from the closet door, taking a shirt off of her face, revealing an annoyed expression, which quickly changed to panic as she tripped over Kym’s suitcase and fell to the ground.
The room erupted with laughter the same way the bed had erupted of wrinkled clothing. It was moments like these that would be lost if we weren’t able to get back home. That’s one thing worth fighting for, dontcha’ think?
After about twenty minutes of irrelevant laughter, Scout let out a large yawn.
“Wow,” she yawned again. “I didn’t realize how tired I actually am.”
Then, Harlow and Kymberlie yawned at the same time, and shortly, so did I. We all laughed again.
“Yawns are contagious, you know,” I said, lying down on the couch. “Whoa!” I shot back up again.
Hayden was giving me a half annoyed, half amused look. “Yeah I’m kind of sitting here, Steph. This lap is for holding bowls of popcorn, not your mega-conditioned head.”
I laughed. “Sorry, I’m so tired I assumed it was a pillow! And not to mention the fact that you are being awfully quiet.”
“SH!” His eyes were glued to the plasma T.V. screen that was playing The Notebook.
Nope, I could not contain this bout of laughter. The girls were all now watching the screen, shoulders shaking with laughter.
“Its not funny!” Hayden smiled anyway. “Its touch-” but he never finished that sentence, for it was drowned in laughs.
“Oh, Scout!” Harlow hopped off the bed and got down on one knee. “Build me a house! Build me a house!” They both doubled over in giggles.
“I wrote you everyday, Hayden! And you never wrote back!” I cried.
Hayden was laughing silently, but his face showed it.-----
We all eventually laughed ourselves to tears, and then to sleep. I awoke the next morning startled by the doorbell. The room had clothes and food wrappers tossed and thrown everywhere, not to mention, people.
Scout was sprawled out over Kymberlie’s suitcase. I don’t think she even left that spot last night after she tripped… Harlow was on the bed, Kym on the chair, and Hayden on the floor next to the couch and coffee table. I was now wide-awake on the couch, wondering who could be at the door.
I quickly pushed the right side of my hair behind my right ear, and pulled the left side forward, brushing up against the top of my eye, but not quite covering it. I was still wearing a laced pajama top and pink plaid boy boxers, but I answered the door anyway.
“Nick?” My alternate universe boyfriend was standing at the door holding a large bouquet of my favorite hot pink and black roses in one hand, and a pink CD case in the other.
He was wearing a very cheesy smile, but it was 0% fake and 100% genuine… which was kind of freaky…
“I know why you’ve been ignoring me.” He let himself in.
I shut the door and looked at him funny. “Ignoring you??”
“Yeah, you’ve been ignoring my text messages and acting funny whenever you see me, and I realized it. I’m really sorry, Stevie.” He held the flowers out in front of him. “I can’t believe I went to dinner with Selena and Demi instead of going to your opening.”
When I didn’t reach out to take the flowers, he stepped closer and held them out even further. “What?” I asked, completely lost.
“Your opening show of Peter Pan last weekend. I had made other plans before, and bailed on you. I am so sorry,” his innocent brown eyes shined, begging me to take the flowers.
So I took the bouquet from him, eyeing the CD case. “Oh, it’s okay, I forgive you…” I smiled for emphasis.
Nick’s cheesy smile broadened. “I thought you would. Oh, the CD,” He held it up. “It’s an exclusive demo of our new album. No one else in the world has a CD with all these songs or versions, well except our agent. And we all autographed it. Do you like it?”
I smiled and took the CD. “Aw, Nick this is really sweet-”
“I know, and to be even sweeter, I am taking you out to lunch today, come on, let’s go. Oh, I should let you change first…” His voice trailed off as he looked around the room for the first time. “What happened here last night? It looks like your closet erupted and…” He laid eyes on Hayden. His sweet expression changed instantly. “What is he doing here?” His voice had the same loathsome tone when he referred to Hayden, same way Hayden sounded when he talked about Nick.
I turned and looked at just how messy the room was, and how bad it looked that Hayden was lying on my floor. “Uh… I can totally explain!!” I turned back and faced Nick, looking in his sad brown eyes.
“What, was it like a… girls’ only night or something?” He directed this comment at Hayden’s drooling face.
“Haha, no. It’s just a really long story that you probably won’t believe…” I set the bouquet and CD on the coffee table and sat down on the couch. Nick followed and sat right beside me.
He placed his guitar playing hand gently on mine and smiled. “I trust you. You’ve never given me reason not to believe you.”
This was like torture. My celeb crush touching my hand, saying that he trusts me and all this other mushy stuff, and I have to make a fool out of myself. Why am I always in these kind of situations?
“Well… see… it’s that…” I looked straight into his brown eyes. “I’m really just this normal girl and my friends are the same and stuff and I made this wish that we’d be rich and famous and it kind of came true… but it’s dangerous, because we’ve meddled with the space-time continuum so if we don’t fix it, then all of reality, or in this case, alternate reality will go poof, so we, as in me, Harlow, Kymberlie, Scout, and Hayden need to come up with a way to fix it.” That was some run-on sentence if you ask me…
I searched Nick’s blank face. His mouth curled into a smile and he laughed.
“Stevie, you don’t have to make up crazy stories. Even though that is a pretty good one. Just tell me the truth.” He put his arm over my shoulder. “Come on.”
I wasn’t sure what to say next, but I didn’t have to say anything at all. Suddenly, a loud foghorn echoed throughout the room. I screamed and covered my ears, looking around for the noise.
Everyone in the room jumped awake and covered their ears, too. Except Hayden. He, instead, reached into his pocket, pulled out an iPhone, touched the screen a few times, and the sound stopped.
He wore a simple smile on his face, unaware of everyone’s anger. “Good morning, everyone.” He remained as smiley as a seven-year-old swimming in a giant toy box.
“Talk about rude awakening!” Scout ran her fingers through her short hair.
“Yeah,” agreed Harlow.
“What kind of alarm clock is that, Hayden?” Kymberlie glowered.
“What do you mean?” Hayden asked in his still cheerful voice. “It woke us all up.”
“Yeah, it woke us up, and deafened all of us, as well.” Nick looked annoyed. He wore a sort of snobby Lucius Malfoy look on his perfect face. I hope the real Nick Jonas isn’t like this.
“Oh, hello, Nick,” Hayden fake smiled at Nick.
“Hayden,” Nick nodded in Hayden’s direction.
Kymberlie, Harlow, and Scout stifled giggles. I rolled my eyes.
“Okay, well, we have a plane to catch…” I said, remembering last night’s phone call with Jeffery. “So we need to finish packing and stuff… so see you late, Nick!!” I attempted to get him to walk toward the door, but he remained sitting.
“Where you five flying to?” He eyed Hayden, who was now trying to zip his suitcase closed, with Scout sitting on top of it to keep the top down.
“Venice, Italy!” Harlow cried from inside the closet.
I rolled my eyes. “She means Venice Beach. To visit my friends Jeffery and Sara.” I smiled, thinking this wouldn’t lead to more problems. I was wrong.
“Oh I remember Jeffery… and Hayden is coming?” Nick was still watched Hayden pull the zipper on the suitcase and Scout laughing and trying to help.
I nodded. “Jeffery is having this huge party and stuff…”
“Oh yeah, I got an invite.” Nick finally looked at me when he spoke.
“You did?”
“Yeah,” Nick said, even though it sounded more like “Duh.” “Jeffery always invites me to his parties, my brothers, too. We don’t always go, though…”
Then it hit me that this was going to be a real Hollywood party. Something that little scheming Jeffery that I remembered would probably attempt, but never pull off. But in this world, anything was possible.
“So… see you there?” I asked.
Scout nearly fell off of the suitcase as Hayden finished zipping it with much force.
“Yep.” Nick smiled, kissed me on the cheek, gave Hayden one last glare, and exited the apartment.
