When Two Worlds Collide

The last part of the song ‘6 foot 7 foot’ slowly faded out as my small and extremely energetic dance class free styled.

I was so exhausted from the numerous hours we had been rehearsing for the my legs gave in and I flopped to the ground.

I let out a loud sigh as the cold wood of the floor came into contact with my back. I pulled off my singlet to reveal my sports bra and I rolled over onto my stomach as my fellow dancers laughed at me.

I closed my eyes and as I did I heard the squeak from someones shoes next to me as the lay down.

I didn’t need to open my eyes to know it was my best friend Anthony.

Anthony and I had known each other literally since we were born. Our parents were next doors neighbors in Seattle and we were both born in the same hospital although he was born a year before me.

Our parents were friends with each other and we always went around to each others houses so we grew up around each other.

When I started at the same school as him we became inseparable. He was like an older brother to me and I found it adorable that he was so protective over me.

When I was 11 and he was 12 we both decided we would start dancing together.

Everyone, including our parents, had always thought we were dating but we had to keep telling everyone constantly that there was absolutely nothing going on between us.

At the moment we were both starting our 6th year of dancing and I was 6 months away from finishing high school. Anthony had already finished and his main focus became his dancing, although he was pretty good at singing too.

I heard a groan next to me that caused my eyes to shoot open as I saw him mimicking my position on the floor. He slid closer to me so our arms were touching and he smiled.

“Do you want to go out and grab some dinner? I’m starving. That lunch break was not enough.”

I smiled. “Sure.”

Anthony was about to reply when our friend Eric who we had known for a couple of years now lay horizontally across both mine and Anthony’s back.

We both groaned as we tried to catch our breath.

“So are we going to grab some food?” He asked energetically as he rolled off of us.

“Yeah. Where do you both want to go?” We all sat up as we thought.

I smiled. “I’m kinda feeling like Chinese food right now. You guys up for it?” They both smiled and nod.

Eric stood up first to grab his stuff and Anthony helped me up after he stood up.

As I stood up I jokingly complained that my legs were too weak for me to walk at the moment and Anthony picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as I squealed.

“Hey Eric! Can you please grab Amy’s bag for her?” He turned to see me over Anthony’s shoulder and laughed before picking up my stuff.

“Thanks Eric.” He laughed. “Anthony, I swear you better not fart or you will seriously regret it.”

He laughed. “We’ll see.” I groaned jokingly as we made our way out to the car.

Anthony flopped me down on the back seat after Eric had shoved my bags on the floor.

I sat up and he closed the door behind me.

“Thanks Anthony. I love yoouuuu.” He laughed.

“I know you do.” He smiled at me. “I love you too. Now lets go get some food. My stomach feels like it’s eating itself!”

Eric drove us all to a small Chinese place where we stayed laughing and chatting until it was time for them to close.

Eric drove both Anthony and I home when and as we wandered up to my door step he remember something.

“Hey. My family are all gone for the week. You should stay at mine, keep me company.”

I smiled. “Okay. Just let me get some stuff and tell my parents and i’ll be over!”

“Alright.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek before heading to his house.

I walked into my house and closed the door behind me confused. He had never done that before. Usually he just hugged me and said goodnight, what was so different now?

I shrugged of the weird feeling and I wandered into the lounge room where my parents sat.

“Hey Mum, hey Dad. I’m staying at Anthony’s house for the night. His parents aren’t home and he wants some company, is that okay?”

My Mum had a sly smile on her face as she nod. “Oh yeah. That’s totally fine. Have fun.”

I shook my head and laughed. “Mum. No. Nothing is going to happen. He’s like my brother, that’s weird.”

She just nod and said an unconvinced no.

I sighed and walked up stairs to my bedroom to change into my pjs and grab my toiletries before heading out the door and over to Anthony’s.

He greeted me with a smile and as he hugged me I took notice of his rock hard abs against my stomach.

As I pulled away and looked down I noticed he was shirtless.

He looked down awkwardly. “Oh, sorry. I always sleep shirtless.”

I shook my head a little too eagerly as I spoke, “no. No. It’s fine.” I coughed awkwardly.

“So, what’s on the agenda tonight Ladao?” He laughed at my use of his last name.

“I was thinking, movies for as long as we can stay up with popcorn and a bunch of candy I bought and yeah. Also, I was wondering if you wanted to keep me company for the whole week.” He smiled cutely as he put his hands in pockets of his tracksuit pants.

“Sounds good. I’d love to. Let’s do this!” I shouted enthusiastically and he laughed, tackling me onto the couch when someone walked in.

We both turned our heads to the door as Eric walked in with an extremely confused look on his face.

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” He winked and I slid backwards to get my legs out from beneath Anthony and I sat up.

“Nope. Anthony was just beating me up. The usual.” I laughed at his defensive face that he did every time someone accused him of something.

“What are you doing here?” He put a suitcase down and a few other bags.

“I’m sleeping here for the week until Anthony and I le...” Anthony jumped off of the couch and cupped his hand over Eric’s mouth. He looked at Eric’s confused face just shook his head desperately.

I was just as confused as him.

“Until you two what...?” Anthony removed his hand.

“Oh, nothing. I’m going to take my bags to the guest room.” He walked off quickly bags in hand.

As I went to ask Anthony what was going on he picked me up over his shoulder like he did before and he took me upstairs and planted me in the mini cinema that he had in his mansion of a house. His parents were really rich so they could easily afford this house.

He walked out into the mini kitchen that was upstairs and started popping the popcorn.

I heard Eric and him having a hushed and intense conversation and I was extremely curious to know what was going on.

As the popping stopped I heard Anthony say something quickly, “just don’t tell her until Saturday night. Please.”

I heard Eric sigh as he agreed not to.

They both came in with arms full of food and popcorn. The aroma from the food filled the room and it smelt like a candy shop in here.

I grabbed a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and popped it in my mouth.

“So, what were you boys talking about in there?” They looked nervous. I widened my eyes dramatically to lighten the mood.

“Oh, you’re not planning on killing me are you? Please don’t, I want to live!” I laughed as did they, except Anthony’s laugh sounded forced.

---

A few movies in and Eric dismissed himself to bed while Anthony and I stayed curled up on the sofa bed.

By the time I had fallen asleep it was apparently 5 in the morning.

Eric walked into the room at 12 in the afternoon after realising we both weren’t in our beds.

“Morning sleepy heads!” I woke up and recoiled in shock as his face was right in front of ours.

I looked next to me to see Anthony’s arm wrapped around my shoulder and my head was resting on his chest.

He looked down at me apologetically, “sorry. You fell asleep like that and you looked so adorable. I didn’t have the heart to move and wake you up.”

I smiled. “That’s okay.”

“You guys want to head into town to get something to eat?” Eric asked.

“Sure. But i’m not getting changed or putting make up on. I can’t be bothered.” Anthony and Eric’s eyes both widened in shocked.

“Did you just.. oh my word. It’s a miracle. We’ll be getting out of the house on time. SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR I THINK AMY IS SICK!” Eric pressed the back of his hand to my forehead.

“You must be ill. Do you have a fever?” I laughed and put him in a headlock as I gave him a noogie.

“No!” He shouted playfully as I jumped on his back.

Anthony got off of the couch and went to throw a shirt on as Eric gave me a piggy back downstairs so I could grab my shoes.

We ended up taking a drive down to a beach side cafe to have lunch before we wandered down to the sand.

It was a freezing cold day and I was glad to have grabbed my hoodie before we left.

I never complained about the weather in Winter, only Summer. Everyone thought I was weird for preferring Winter to Summer but I did. I didn’t know what it was, but it made me happy.

The week went by in a blur and it finally got to Saturday night.

I had just got back from my run when I walked in to Eric and Anthony looking nervous.

“Hey, are you guys okay?” Anthony just looked at me.

“Amy. We need to talk to you.” My heart increased in speed.

“Guys. What’s going on?”

“Please sit down for this.” Eric and Anthony sat down and I sat down across from them.

“Guys. You’re worrying me.”

Anthony took a deep breath and spoke. “The reason why Eric was staying here the whole week and the reason why I wanted to you to stay for the week is because...” he looked upset “because we are getting on a plane and heading to L.A tomorrow afternoon.”

I felt my heart drop and I felt my eyes stinging from the tears that were trying to escape.

“What? I don’t understand. Why?” My voice cracked from the lump in my throat.

“Do you remember when Eric and I went on a trip to L.A for a week at the beginning of the year? Well, we’ve started a boy band with 3 other guys and we’re all meeting up in L.A because we just got signed. This means we’re probably going to move there as well.”

I felt the first tear escape and I wiped it away quickly so they wouldn’t see. I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face into them.

As I was breathing in and out slowly to calm myself down I felt the couch shift next to me and Anthony pulled my knees over his legs.

“Hey. Look at me.” I looked up at him and I saw a grin on his face.

“We knew you’d be upset.” I got frustrated.

“Then why are you both smiling?!”

My parents walked through the door with my suitcase behind them.

Anthony spoke again. “We knew you’d be upset... so we decided to get you a plane ticket as well so you could come and stay with us for 2 weeks.”

“Wait... what?! Are you serious?!” I wrapped my arms around him too tight and he gasped.

“Oh, sorry.” I bit my lip and laughed.

“Here you go.” My Dad handed me my plane ticket as I jumped around the room squealing.

If you didn’t know me you might have thought my reaction was over the top, but in my 17 years of living I had never been out of Seattle.

“Thank you guys so much.” I hugged them all before my parents left.

“Alright, well we should probably go to sleep. It’s a bit of a drive to the airport and we have to get there early to check in.”

“Alright.” Anthony and I had shared his bed all week so we both head upstairs and hopped in bed when Eric decided to join us.

He crawled in the bed right between us and we all fell asleep.

I was so excited that I wasn’t quite sure i’d be able to get to sleep.