“I saw your video,” Naomi says.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your video with the band!”

My eyes widen while my mouth hangs open. “W-what do you mean?” I stammer.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!” She says as she scowls at me. Even in the low quality of the laptop, I can see her green eyes with envy.

I minimize the Skype window, and quickly check the band’s page. It’s not there. The last video was from their latest music video. Besides, Nate promised me that he’ll not post it there.

“Give me the link,” I tell Naomi.

When I receive the link, I open it. Sure enough, it’s the video of our performance.

Nate uploaded it on his personal account. The traitor.

 “I can’t believe it,” I mutter. He tricked me. He may not post it on their page, but he uploaded it on his account, which is basically the same thing.

As I continue to watch it, my anger slowly ebbs. I look kind of okay in the video, but still, it’s embarrassing.

“Ugh!” I cover my face with my hands. Even if I tell Nate to delete it now, I’m sure his fans already downloaded it. I stop the video and click the Skype window.

Naomi sent me a message:

I want to sing with them as well :( :( :(

This is embarrassing. I don’t understand why she wants to experience this. I want to hide in a closet and never let anyone see my face.

Naomi stares at me with accusing eyes.

I raise my hands in surrender. “I didn’t know that he’ll post it. He made a promise!”

She sighs. “Have you seen how many views the video has?”

I shake my head. “I didn’t look.”

Naomi raises her phone and moves it closer to the screen.

I gape when I see the number of views. I can’t even. . . “When did he post it?” I inquire.

“Five hours ago.”

“And it already has a hundred thousand views?!” I bite my lip. Living with them, I forgot how famous they are. I did not dare glance at the like and dislike button. I might lose my confidence, and never sing again.

“The comments are pretty much—“

“No,” I interject, “Please, I don’t want to know.”

Naomi rolls her eyes. “They’re pretty much alright,” she continues. “Mostly they were asking who you are. Some even assumed you were Nate’s girl friend.”

“They're crazy,” I say while rolling my eyes. I’m just plain and simple. I can’t even dream that Nate can like me because it’s impossible. Like, hello?

“Whatever,” Naomi says. “I want to sing with the band as well.” She sends me a couple of sad faces.

“I’ll see what I can do about it,” I say with a sigh. I can’t promise her anything. If the band found out my identity, I’m dead.

“And I miss you so much, B.” She frowns. “It’s not the same without you here!”

I smile. “I understand what you mean.”

I’ve been friends with Naomi for as long as I can remember. She’s like my long lost sister. I still remember the day when we first became friends like it was just yesterday. . .

There are days when you wished you didn’t wake up. And today is one of those days. I’m cornered in the park with my bullying classmates. They prey on people like me because they don’t have a chance with people who are bigger than they are.

“Hey!” Naomi runs towards us, a baseball bat on her hands. “What are you doing? Leave her alone!”

“That’s one of the other freaks,” one of the boys whisper.

Too bad for them, Naomi has supernatural hearing so she heard him. “We’re not freaks!” she says. She stands in front of me, blocking me from the bad kids. “And you’re all immature for prying on a girl. You’re all bullies!”

“At least we’re not a midget,” one of them says, sticking his tongue out.

Naomi rolls her eyes and swings the bat carefully. I wonder where she got that. Maybe from her brother? I’m not close to her, but one time I saw her walking with her brother to school.

“If you just stay at home and study, you’ll know that our body is still regulating and that means we’re going to be taller when we grow up,” she says confidently.

I adore Naomi. She reads a lot of books; she’s like a walking Encyclopaedia. Though we’re just in Middle School, she already read hundreds of novels. I found that information about her in one of our group activities.

The boys have the same scowl on their faces, and they have no reply to Naomi. When they just stand there glaring at us, she threatens them by swinging the bat close to their faces. They all scramble backwards and run, some of them tripping on the rocks. Naomi and I watch them while laughing. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life, there are even tears flowing from my eyes.

“They’re acting tough,” Naomi says, “but they’re all cowards!”

“Thank you,” I respond.

She shrugs. “What are friends for?”

“Hey!” Naomi says, snapping me out of my reverie.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. That was a long time ago. And ever since that day, we became inseparable to the point that we entered the same university. I’m about to ask her about her class schedule when there’s a knock on my door.

“Wait,” I tell her.

“Don’t sign out yet!”

“Fine.” I get up from the bed and open the door.

“Hi,” Zeke says.

“Hey, do you need anything?”

“Why are you asking if I need anything?”

“Because I’m your band manager?” I say matter-of-factly.

“What are you doing?” he asks while peering into my room.

“Just talking to my friend—“

I’m not even done speaking when Zeke suddenly enters my room. Without my permission, he sits on my bed and put the laptop on his lap.

“Hi,” he says.

I freeze as I watch him talk to Naomi. Oh, no, I’m busted!

Naomi is not moving. Literally. Her green eyes are wide with shock, and her mouth is hanging open.

Zeke glances at me. “What’s going on?” he asks. I can hear the confusion in his voice. “Is the wi-fi not working?”

I laugh at his innocence. “She’s literally awestruck!” I say. “See, she’s not even moving?”

He grins. “Hey, I’m Zeke.”

I sit beside him and try to get Naomi’s attention. “Naomi?” I ask amusedly. “Are you there?” I know I shouldn’t make fun of her, but this is funny.

Slowly, she blinks her eyes; her gaze drifting between me and Zeke. “Am I dreaming?” she asks quietly.

Zeke laughs. “No!”

“Oh dear heavens!” she squeals. She quickly brushes her hair with her fingers.

“Your friend is cute,” Zeke murmurs as he watches Naomi wipe her face with paper towel.

I smile at him. If only he knows, Naomi has a huge crush on him.

“I’m Naomi,” she says after a few seconds of fangirling.

“Naomi, you have a very—“

“Hey, dude,” Lance says barging into my room. “We told you to call Brielle, what took you so long?” he has an annoyed expression on his face.

Zeke turns the laptop to him.

“Hello, pretty lady,” Lance says quickly changing his expression into a charming one.

I smirk. He sure is an expert at that. My best friend is stunning; she has flawless skin, shiny hair, and a good figure. Even in her bad day, she’s still beautiful.

“I’m Lance, and you are?”

There’s a couple of seconds of silence before Naomi responds. “I. . . I’m Naomi,” she stutters.

Okay, time to stop this before she embarrassed herself.

I grab my laptop from Zeke and tell a quick goodbye to Naomi. “I’ll call you later!”

Zeke frowns at me. “I want to talk to her.”

I raise my eyebrow. Is he interested? “You can,” I say, “Later.” I turn to Lance. “What do you need me for?”

“We need to organize the things in the attic,” he replies shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

As we walk upstairs to the attic, Lance asks me if I have more friends like Naomi.

I roll my eyes. Here we go again.

“Can I meet them?” Lance looks at me under his eyelashes. Ugh, why is he so adorable? It’s hard to say no to him! I clear my senses and say, “I’ll think about it.”

When we enter the attic room, to say that I’m surprised at what welcomes me is an understatement. I didn’t expect that it will be like this.

There are probably hundreds of stuffed toys here. Some are new; maybe they received them from their latest concerts. I glance at all the gifts their fans gave them. There are posters, hats, shirts, letters on baskets, and pictures. It will take hours to organize all these.

KY is arranging the ballers and bracelets on the farthest corner of the room. I wonder if he remembers what happened last night because seriously, I didn’t sleep. I just stared at the ceiling and thought of the reasons why he did that.

I sigh. Maybe I’m giving too many meanings about his actions.

In the corner of my eye I find Nate watching me. I walk to where he is and hit his arm.

“Ow!” I quickly check my knuckles. Instead of hurting him, I hurt myself in the process.

Nate sighs and takes my hand. “What was that for?”

“For tricking me, you jerk!” I push him away, but he just tightens his hold on my hand. “Let me see if there’s a bruise.”

My hand is shaking, and I know that he can feel it. He leans closer to me and whispers “Are you nervous?”

“W-what?”

KY strides towards us and separates me from Nate. “Stop flirting!” He has a scowl on his face. “Let’s start cleaning this!”

I glare at Nate. He’s the reason why KY is irritated.

Nate mocks salute him and begins to go to the baskets.

What was that about?

Boys are so confusing.

KY continues his work on the ballers, Nate on the letters, Zeke on the hats and shirts, while Lance is displaying the pictures and posters on the wall.

They left the task of stuffed toys with me; the most tedious chore.

I notice there are some dusts on the cabinet so I wipe it first, and then I begin to put the bears on it. I organize them by their color.

After what felt like hours, we finished cleaning and organizing the room.

“I’m hungry!” Lance says as he stretches his arms.

“We missed dinner,” KY says dryly.

“We did? I’m sorry!” I didn’t notice the time.

“It’s okay.” Zeke shrugs. “Can you cook for us? I’m tired of delivery foods.”

“It’s fine with me.”

I’m about to go downstairs when Zeke starts talking about Naomi. “Brielle has this hot friend, and I met her—“

“Dude,” Lance interjects, “I met her as well!”

“You told your friend that you’re living with us?” KY asks with an unreadable expression on his face.

Uh oh. “Is it against the rules?” I ask.

Nate shakes his head. “It’s not. Just don’t tell the location of this house.”

“Or have you already told her?” KY inquires.

“No!” I say quickly. “I didn’t say.”

“Make sure you don’t spill anything else,” he says, and then he storms off.

I sigh. Good job Brielle, you took a step forward, but you took two steps backward.

I go downstairs and enter the kitchen. When I open the fridge I find three eggs on the carton, a bottle of milk, a carrot, and butter.

I chastise myself. Why didn’t I notice that we were running out of food?

I should have focus on my chore than thinking about KY constantly. It hasn’t even been a month, and yet I’m already doing a lousy job.

We’re all starving; we can’t eat the left over from the fridge. I slap my head mentally. I forgot to go to the supermarket and but our food. I sigh. It’s already late, and I’m not even familiar with this neighbourhood.

“There’s a supermarket open 24/7.”

“Really?” I ask bemusedly. “Tell me the direction so that I can go there.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Nate says. “It’s already late, I’ll go with you.”

I shake my head quickly. “You don’t have to. People might recognize you.”

He rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll just grab my keys. Wait for me!”

Lance walks in on us, a huge grin on his face. “Did you just say grocery shopping?”

I nod.

“I want to go as well!”

I open my mouth to protest when he yells, “Zeke! Let’s go and have a midnight stroll.”

Zeke comes to where we are, and he’s only wearing pants.

I look away quickly. Is it too much a burden to wear a shirt?

“Let’s go!” he says. I can hear the excitement in his voice. “Hey, Brielle?”

“What?” I ask, finding the carpet really interesting.

“Are you bothered by my lack of clothing?”

The heat rushes to my face. He did it intentionally! “Go and put on a shirt!” I say furiously, pushing him away.

He laughs as he walks back to his room.

“What’s this commotion?” KY asks as he comes down the stairs.

“We’ll go to the supermarket,” Lance answers. “There’s no food in the fridge.”

I expect his complaints, but instead, he just says, “I’ll come with you.”

I tilt my head to the side. Did I hear him correctly?

“What are you staring at?” he asks.

“Nothing,” I say.

I want to give the band a hug because instead of scolding at me for failing them, they accept me and ignore my mistake. Tears burn at the back of my eyes but I do my best to keep them in bay.

“Are you ready?” Nate asks as soon as he returns.

“Aren’t you going to put some disguise?”

KY cocks his eyebrow. “Afraid to run into mobs?”

I bite my lip. “It’s just. . .”

Lance sighs. “Wait a minute.” He goes and comes back a few minutes later, holding four baseball caps in his hands. “Are these enough?” he asks.

“Fine,” I say doubtfully. I’m just worried about their safety, but they act as if they don’t care if people see them.

“We’ll use my car,” Nate says.

“Shotgun!” Lance says while raising his hand.

I grin. His excitement is really contagious.

Zeke walks in then, finally wearing a shirt.

We get in Nate’s car, and I end up sitting between KY and Zeke.

“It’s too compressed,” Zeke grumbles. “We should have used my car!”

“But it’s my turn,” Nate says, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“What’s—“

“Every time we go out together we only use one car, and its Nate’s turn to drive today,” KY interrupts me. “Your questions are amusing.”

I cross my arms over my chest and try not to be intimidated by his stare.

Nate switches on the radio, and to our amazement, their song is playing.

I grin. “Is it weird?”

Zeke shakes his head. “We got used to it.”

Oh, well. They probably hear their songs anywhere they go.

We arrive at the supermarket after a couple of minutes. It’s not that far from Infinite Chase’s place.

When we enter, I almost turn back around because there are no people inside, aside from the two cashiers at the counter.

We’re the only customers in the supermarket. I glance at my watch and see it’s almost midnight. Who will shop in this hour, eh?

I feel silly for telling the band to disguise.

There are even no staffs walking around checking the products and stocks. The aisles are deserted; it’s unusual from when there are a lot of people.

The band put stuff on the cart every now and then when they want something. When we get to the back of the store, away from the prying eyes of the staffs, they start running around. Even KY. They look like children being let free after months of exclusion.

I feel nostalgic all of a sudden. They probably feel free here because they can roam around, instead of being stuck in the house.

My eyes almost bulge out of their sockets when I see Nate sitting on the push cart. Lance pushes him, and instead of chastising them, I laugh at their antics.

A tap on my shoulder makes me jump from my place. I’m busy watching Nate that I forgot we’re in a public place.

I whip around and see KY smiling at me.

Smiling at me.

I blink.

His blue eyes are playful, and he has a clear expression on his face. “You’re IT.”

I didn’t even realize that they are playing.

Seeing KY like this, so open, makes me want to reach out to him.

So I ignored the rules- the fact that if the management found us we would be detained. Right now, I don’t care. I'll listen to my heart.

 I’m going to have fun with the band because I don’t want to regret anything. This is the start of our friendship; the beginning of everything.

******

I hope you liked it! =)

The song is Listen To Your Heart by The Maine

Thank you! *.*