Fuzzy Blue Lights

I stared at all of the cameras and equipment in the room as I waited for this portion of the day to be over. Man, was it annoying to have to stand here and listen to the same questions being asked over and over again. Couldn't they just think up some new questions every now and then? These people need to start getting a bit more creative with their questions.

...I understood why the guys didn't really like interviews. I wouldn't like having to answer the same few questions asked over, and over, and over again.

Bill had already discussed with the other guys about 'running away' and hiding out for a bit at Jamie's house. Georg gave him a look when he brought it up, and Bill calmly informed him that it had not been my idea to cart them with me when I went. Seriously, I think Georg is a bit too suspicious of me. I would expect this from maybe Tom or quite possibly even Gustav, but Georg? Kind of weird, if you ask me.

Just as waiting there seemed like too much to take, the interview was over, and Bill was bounding over to me with a bright smile on his face. This last interview meant that we would be headed over to Jamie's. I don't know why he was so happy to go visit a guy he had never met before, but I wasn't going to start questioning. I hate to admit it, but I was glad that they were going with me. It would mean that Jamie would be too distracted to bring up any sort of uncomfortable topics.

"Let's go meet this Jamie person now," he said in a peculiarly chipper voice.

"You seem pretty excited for someone that will be meeting a complete stranger," I mused as the five of us- Georg had somehow ended up agreeing to joining us- began on our way down the hall and to where we would find the vehicle that Tom had rented just so that we could drive around without people having to hold our hand everywhere.

Yeah, that meant I would have to trust my life in the hands of Tom's driving. I don't care what anyone ever says, being in a car with Tom driving just doesn't sit well in my mind. Even if Tom isn't that half bad of a driver.

"It's not just some random stranger, it's one of your friends. I only thought it fair. You met Andreas, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. You also got to meet Maja right off the bat. And you've seen Cassie and Caspie before. This will be the fourth person I'm close to that you've met, whereas I've met Andreas."

Well, I got him on that one. He thought about it for a moment before grinning down at me. I reluctantly climbed into the van and took one of the three seats in the back. Bill grabbed the one next to me, Georg took shotgun, and Gustav sat next to Bill. Tom, of course, took the drivers seat.

"Oh! You've met the guys, which means you have already met four people close to me. And your siblings don't count, because they took off without introducing themselves or trying to strike up a conversation," Bill rationalized with a nod of his head. I rolled my eyes at him and looked out the window.

"Since when did it become a competition to see who could meet more close friends of the other?"

"You know, this will only be the second person that I've actually met that's close to you. That means I need to meet two more so that it really is even."

Yep, he just pulled a Maja. Leave it to Bill to ignore my question all together.

"You're such a little weirdo," I mumbled. Apparently, this went right over Bill's head, because he didn't act as if he even heard me talking.

"What is this Jamie like, anyway?"

"You'll see." Ha. Now I had something that I could use against him. Yeah, I should probably warn them that Jamie was a major star-whore, meaning that he'd do just about anything to meet someone even remotely famous that wasn't a super model. And then he would brag about it for the rest of eternity.

You know what? I could just as easily act as if I had no idea about this one particular part of Jamie's personality. After all, why would I know? Things like this aren't normally brought up in a conversation.

Now all I had to do was survive the car ride.

"Caaaanndiiice~! My Candy is here!"

Not even three seconds after I stepped out of the car, I felt something slam into me. Fortunately, I ended up face-planting into the grass, rather than the sidewalk. I felt two rather strong arms just about crushing all of the air out of my body and had no doubt who it was.

"Yes, yes, that's all wonderful. Care to let go of me now, Jamie?" I hissed. Jamie did as he was told and lifted me, quite effortlessly even, back to my feet. When I turned to greet him properly, the first thing that I noticed was that his bright blue eyes still portrayed that constant devious shine in them that seemed to never leave. A smile to match his found it's way onto my face as I hugged him and took a few steps away.

"My Candy is here~!" he repeated, and proceeded to continue repeating that little statement as he prepared to drag me into his home. When he turned around and caught sight of the people that were stepping out of the car that I just had a few moments ago, he stopped dead in his tracks. Since I couldn't see his face, I wasn't sure what sort of reaction this was. Bill raised an eyebrow at me and I just shrugged my shoulders. After about a second of silence, Jamie just began to repeat that I was, indeed, here.

"Way to be a broken record there, Jamie," I mumbled and rolled my eyes. I took this moment to walk Jamie over to where the band had gathered in his front lawn, waiting for the two of us.

'I know, but it's been such a long time! You ought to keep in better contact with people, you know. You have friends that think you just up and died," Jamie teased as he finally slipped out of his sort of dazed 'I-can't-believe-it' sort of groove he'd been in a second before. I just smiled sheepishly and cleared my throat.

"Guys, this is my good friend, James Mathews-"

"Jamie works just fine," Jamie interjected rather smugly. I elbowed him in the gut lightly as a warning for interrupting me. He just flinched out of the way and laughed at my attempt.

"And Jamie, from right to left, these four gentlemen would be Georg, Gustav, Tom, and Bill," I introduced the guys, more out of habit than actually needing to. I'm pretty sure that Jamie already knew their names. I think. Maybe. Okay, probably not, but that's not the point.

"Wonderful to know, but we should get inside now. You have a surprise waiting in the living room," Jamie hinted with a wink as he ran up to his house, flung the door open, and took cover inside. I glared after him, motioned for the guys to follow, and took off after him.

"What surprise?" I questioned as I got into the house. Jamie slipped his hands over my eyes after I entered the threshold of his home.

"Oh, you'll see, Candy. You guys go on ahead in. You likely don't want to be behind her when she sees what her surprise is," Jamie cooed. I started to get a little bit fidgety and attempted to remove Jamie's hands from over my eyes, but failed to do so. "And turn off the lights when you get in the living room, if you would."

"Um, wh--"

"No ruining it!" Jamie shouted in warning to a shocked sounding Bill. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other in an inpatient manor. I heard a low murmur of confused German conversations going about and growled a bit. Whatever this surprise was, it better be worth it.

...And not embarrassing. I mean, this is Jamie we're talking about. And my employer was in there with whatever this surprise was.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Jamie began walking me through his house, hands still over my eyes. When he removed his hand from my eyes, the room I was standing in was pitch black- Jamie had a talent for being able to remove all light from a room. I stood in silence for a few moments as I heard Jamie walk away, probably so that he wasn't next to me when the lights were flicked on.

"Now, Jamie?"

I paled and stiffened at the voice I heard in the darkness. That little...

"Now." The lights flicked on at Jamie's command and I just sort of stood there, my brain almost not wanting to comprehend who was standing in front of me. Screw all the decorations that Jamie managed to put up in record time- confetti, streamers, balloons, and all else- I was more interested in the person standing before me, holding a puppy in his arms for no apparent reason- probably so that he had something to preoccupy himself with. He set the puppy down, and the little Australian Shepard pup ran over to the couch and hopped up on it, conveniently next to where Bill was sitting.

"Hello, Candice."

And those were the only words it took to snap me out of my state of disbelief. Without putting much thought into it, I spun around and headed for anywhere but away from the living room, but it seemed that Jamie already had that bit planned, too. He grabbed me before I could get out. He easily wrapped his arms around my mid-drift, picked me up, and sat me down in one of the chairs.

"Oh no you don't. I don't care what the hell happened over in the 'States to get you so eager to just write everyone off like that, but it ends now!" Jamie seethed and glared down at me. I sunk back into the seat that he had forced me into and writhed a bit in an attempt to free myself. Yeah, that wasn't happening any time soon.

"You're one dirty little bastard, Jamie. Just thought you'd like to know," I hissed, practically under my breath.

"Oh, get over yourself! After avoiding any and all contact with him for three years, the least you could do is act like you still give a damn," Jamie just about raged at me in a louder voice than he usually used. I could feel all eyes on me now, meaning that I would likely have some explaining to do later about this little outburst of Jamie's. When I looked over at Bill, I could see that his expression was rather blank and hard to read, which worried me. Tom looked confused beyond belief, Gustav looked indifferent, and Georg just sort of had this sort of expression on his face like he wasn't all to surprised with this conversation.

Then I turned my eyes to him. He stared right on back, his eyes filled with a sort of indescribable hurt. I chewed on my lip and looked back down at my lap.

"I'm sorry, Avery..."

He just smiled down at me and nodded lightly. He sat down in one of the various chairs in Jamie's room. As Jamie moved away from me, the whole room just sort of enveloped in an awkward silence. Bill still had that unreadable look upon his face, and it was actually starting to frighten me a bit. Tom decided to finally break the ice by standing up and clapping his hands together.

"So, from all of these banners, I can safely assume that it's Candy's birthday, right?"

"Well, no. I just wanted to celebrate it while she was still available and in town. Her birthday is actually in three days," Jamie piped up in a happy tone. Tom just rolled his eyes.

"A party is still a party. What the hell is everyone just sitting around all sad for? Let's get this thing started for real now!"

Ah, leave it to Tom to be the party-hard guy. Well, at least his natural attitude was useful.

...For now...