Along The Way

Bailee knocked on the door nervously and waited for Bam to answer. It took a few minutes and she took the time to catch her breath and think about what to say to him.

"Bailee!" He smiled as he opened the door.

"Hi Bam." She smiled back.

He took a step forward and opened up his arms for a hug. She hesitantly did the same and wrapped her arms around his waist. He smiled and pulled back. How was he not nervous at all?

"How have you been?" He asked. "I haven't heard from you since..uh..yeah." He blushed.

Bailee nodded. "I've been...OK. What about you?"

"The same." He smiled and stepped aside. "Come in!"

She nodded and walked past him into the house and he shut the door. She looked around and was amazed at the size of the house and all of the stuff he had.

"Would you like a tour?" He asked.

"Sure." She smiled and nodded.

"This is the kitchen, but we call it the Pirate Bar." He gestured toward the sign that one of the boys had surely painted. "Here is the small dining room, we mainly eat in the huge one upstairs, though."

"Two dining rooms?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the one upstairs is for like parties and families. Follow me."

She followed him upstairs where he showed her around. Lastly, he brought her back to the living room where several boys were sitting. Bailee recognized them from the show.

"Hi Dunn." She smiled and waved weakly when she noticed the scruffy looking beard.

"Oh hi.." He said, obviously forgetting her name.

"Guys, this is Bailee." Bam introduced. "This is Dico, Novak, Raab, and you remember Dunn."

"That I do." She nodded and smiled at him as he started to remember where they had met before.

"Hi." Raab waved and looked up at her.

"Holy shit, Bam. She's hot." Novak laughed and stared her up and down.

Bailee blushed and looked down then over at Bam for some sort of help.

"Shut up, Novak." He rolled his eyes.

"We were just about to order food." Dico smiled at her in a friendly way.

"What do you want to eat?" Bam turned to her.

"Sweet and sour chicken?" She smiled. "I can give you money."

"It's fine, it's on me." Bam smiled and sat on the couch, patting the empty spot next to him.

Bailee sat beside him and bit her lip when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She couldn't tell if it was in a friendly way, or if he was doing it so the boys wouldn't drool all over her.

"How long have you two been together?" Raab smirked.

"Oh- we're not together." She blushed and looked down.

Bam shrugged.

"Oh, sorry." Raab chuckled and looked back at the video game on the screen. He was kicking Novak's ass at whatever it was.

"Sorry about them." Bam whispered to her.

"It's OK" She smiled reassuringly. "Can I get something to drink?"

"Sure, what do you want?"

"I can get it myself." She sat up.

"Na, I'll get it I have to go call in our food anyway." Dico got up and walked downstairs.

"What are you guys playing?" She spoke up after a couple minutes.

"COD." Novak answered.

"And he's getting his ass whooped." Raab laughed.

"Can I play?" She asked.

All of them turned to her. "You play?" Dunn asked astonished.

Bailee nodded slowly. "Why...?"

"None of our girlfriends play." He laughed.

"Sure you can take my spot." Novak laughed too and handed her the controller.

She sat up and looked at the TV, Raab unpaused, having taken Dico's spot. Within a few minutes she was beating Raab and all of them were surprised.

"Damn, I didn't even know girls knew what video games were." Raab said, giving up.

She laughed and settled down next to Bam again.

When Dico returned he had a 6-pack of beer in his hands. He held one out for Bailee who looked up at him and shook her head. "Oh, no thank you." She smiled weakly.

"You don't drink?" Dunn asked.

"I do..." She said, trying to think of an excuse to cover for her. "I just don't want to drink and drive." She lied, she'd done it before.

"Oh, ok. I'll go grab you something else." He offered.

"No, it's fine, I can go get it." She smiled and stood up before he could say anything and headed for the stairs.

She walked down to the bar and opened the fridge, grabbing a drink. She set it on the counter and sighed running a hand through her hair. She walked back to the bathroom Bam had showed her and stepped in, shutting the door behind her. She patted a cold napkin on the back of her neck and her cheeks. She was burning up. It was from being nervous and a little hot, she wanted to take her hoodie off, but she knew it was best not too.

She headed back upstairs with her soda and sat beside Bam. Almost 50 minutes passed when someone knocked on the door. Raab went down this time and answered it, paying for the food and bringing it back up. They decided to stay in the living room and eat.

"So what do you do for a living?" Dunn asked her.

"I'm a dancer, I'm apart of two classes and I'm a teacher for younger girls." She answered.

"That explains the body." Novak murmured under his breath, but everyone heard him.

"How old?" Raab then asked.

"24." She laughed. "So we're playing 20 questions now?"

"If you want!" Dico laughed and handed her the food she ordered and she thanked him

"Any tattoos?" Dunn asked.

"I have 4." She nodded.

"Where?" Bam raised an eyebrow.

"I have two stars on my hip bones, one down my side and a butterfly on my wrist." She pushed up her sleeve to show them the one.

They continued to ask questions here and there to get to know her, and she asked questions in return. She was secretly planning in her mind to go upstairs with Bam after eating to talk to him about what had happened.