Before the Fame

The next morning arrived and I felt worse than I did the previous night. I had been in and out of sleep the entire night and even though the sun was shining brightly, it didn’t lighten my mood.

I climbed out of my bunk scratching my head as I accidentally walked into Nick.

“I’m sorry!” I said apologetically before I began repeating myself numerous times before Nick finally spoke.

“Sam! It’s OK,” he said turning to me before placing his hands on my shoulders.

I nodded in embarrassment before resuming my walk to the lounge area.

“You alright?” he asked in a concerned tone.

I shook my head, but didn’t bother to explain.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. I shrugged.

“Well, we have a sound check in a few hours so we have some time to go out and see the city a little bit,” he suggested.

I sighed as he handed me a bowl of Lucky Charms. I smiled before thanking him and then dug in. I ended up eating two bowls by the time Joe came out of the bathroom fully dressed with huge sunglasses on. Kevin joined us a few moments later.

“Come on, Sam! We’re heading to Wild Adventures!” Joe said excitedly.

I raised a brow at him before responding.

“Are you serious?” I asked in shock.

“Dead serious,” Kevin confirmed.

I sighed before dragging my body to the back to pick an outfit. The boys followed me, but Nick was the one who spoke.

“You’re not excited about going?” he asked surprising me.

“It’s not that I’m not-I just-am kinda down today,” I admitted.

“Why?” Kevin asked in a concerned tone.

“Check the most recent article about us,” I answered before heading into the bathroom to change into this.

I brushed my teeth and combed my hair to its usual style before exiting. I grabbed the bag I usually carried throwing some of the snacks we had the previous day into the bag before grabbing my phone and other things.

I was surprised to see the guys fully clothed and waiting on me. It was nice to say the least. I approached them, a smile erupting onto Joe’s lips as one soon followed for the other two.

“I like your shirt,” Kevin said with a small laugh. I shrugged not caring about the matter before he walked out of the bus.

…

I hadn’t known Joe had brought a camera with plenty of batteries. I heard a shutter every now and then, but didn’t know it was Joe until I caught him in the act as I was laughing at a joke Kevin had made up.

“Hey! Who said you could take my picture, Mister?” I asked in a teasing tone.

“No one. I just wanted to remember the first day all of us hung out alone without Miley being around,” he admitted blatantly.

My eyes uncontrollably flickered to Nick as a guilty smile appeared on his lips.

“No offense, dude,” Kevin added before hitting Joe with his elbow.

“I know. She can be a bit-much sometimes, right?” Nick asked.

I bit my lip hard at his words before staring elsewhere. He had no idea about anything she and I have said to one another.

“But anyway, why were you down?” he asked all eyes on me now.

“Didn’t you read the article?” I asked with an attitude.

“Yeah, but at least you have some fans on your side,” he said with slight optimism, but I didn’t believe him.

“I guess,” I said trailing off.

We got stares everywhere, but didn’t expect anyone to come up to us. Two teenage girls did just after I spoke each with cameras in their hands before cautiously walking to us.

“We don’t mean to bother you guys, but we just wanted a picture,” the tall, slim one with long, blond hair and green eyes said eyeing us while her friend, shorter than her with brunette hair and green eyes stared at the boys only.

“No problem. Just don’t tell anyone we’re here, OK?” Kevin answered as we all flashed fake smiles on our faces before posing a couple of times for the girls. I was the shortest making me feel jealous of the girls as they were taller than me, but shorter than the guys.

“Thank a lot,” they said in unison as they walked away. I rolled my eyes at them before putting on my sunglasses.

“Come on, Sam!” Joe said suddenly, grabbing me by the hand as he led me to another attraction.

This went on for about another half an hour before we got called by Mr. Jonas via Kevin and had to leave. We took a break on the bus doing vocal warm-ups before heading out to do the sound check.

I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it and Nick didn’t know why.

“So, why aren’t you happy anymore?” he asked in a whisper once Kevin and Joe had hopped onto Guitar Hero. I shrugged not wanting to answer him.

Annoyed at this, he took me by the hand, leading me to the back of the bus which was much quieter than the other two yelling at the front.

“OK. What’s your problem?” he asked blatantly.

“What problem?” I asked as though I didn’t know.

“Your problem you’ve had since this morning,” he retorted.

Silence fell between us for a few moments before I answered him.

“I just really hate the attention and rumors the media’s started between your brothers, Miley, and I. You and I are just friends and people are going nuts thinking you’re going to break up with Miley for me. It’s ridiculous, right?” I asked with a small laugh, scratching my head afterwards.

Nick didn’t speak at first, but wore a guilty expression. I shook it off before replacing my attitude with a fake positive one.

“But there’s no point in thinking about that. Ah, forget I said anything, ‘kay?” I asked.

Just as I turned to head to the front again, he grabbed my hand gently to stop me, a spark igniting there ever so strongly, stronger than the one I felt with Noel. Out of reflex, I pulled my hand out of his, placing the one he grabbed with my opposite one, rubbing where his touch lingered.

I gulped silently before recomposing myself.

“L-let’s do the sound check. I’ll get your brothers,” I stammered.

“Sam,” he said quickly after I took a step causing me to halt in my steps.

I turned to face him.

“W-what?” I asked licking my lips nervously.

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He closed his mouth before trying again, but the same thing happened. He tried a final time saying something I didn’t expect him to say.

“Nothing,” he said closing his eyes as though he were upset at himself for some reason.

I nodded slowly before proceeding in my original path. Once I reached them, after numerous calls, they gave in, me leading the way towards the stadium.

I wasn’t thinking about the sound check, though. My mind drifted to Nick. What was he going to ask me originally? But that thought had to wait seeing as I had to do the sound check and my mom wasn’t going to let my mind wander off.