The Untitled Diary of a Girl Named Bones

The boys ended their set, and bowed to a wildly clapping and cheering crowd. It became obvious to me, looking at their smiling, sweaty faces that this is what they were born to do. They lived for the adrenaline rush that was created by standing on that stage, and looking down at the swarm of dancing bodies. This was their purpose.

They walked offstage, the crowd still buzzing excitedly about this band that had to be Las Vegas’ best kept secret. The girls and I shoved our way out of the crowd that was expecting the next band to appear on stage and met our rockstars backstage. Brendon was the first of the group that we saw, and he was smiling like a banshee. Aimee ran up to him and squealed, hugging him.

“Ew, you’re sweaty”, she said, wrinkling her nose. Brendon just hugged her tighter.

Jon and Spencer were already talking animatedly with Erin, Brittany and Christine, leaving me on my own for the time being.

I didn’t see Ryan.

As if by impulse, the words “Where’s Ryan?” came out of my mouth.

Brendon shrugged and pointed in the general direction of the little dressing room that was designated to the boys. I walked over there, slowly, almost like I was afraid I was going to wake someone up. I realized how silly I was being, and stopped, walking normally. I cleared my throat a little, and tried to calm my nerves before speaking.

Wait, why am I nervous?

“Hey, Ry? You fully clothed?” I asked, only half joking.

He chuckled, “Yeah, come in.”
I pushed aside the curtain, only to be met with something that came entirely by surprise.

I was met with a bare set of abs, and a flustered looking Ryan. He was looking for something, and his hair was pushed back, so he obviously had been running has hand through it. But, as I mentioned earlier – a bare set of abs.

He muttered something under his breath, and looked up, only to catch me staring quite wide-eyed. “Uh, hi,” he offered.

“Uh, hi. That isn’t exactly what I…meant by fully clothed.”

He turned an obvious shade of red. “Oh, erm, sorry…” He looked away, down at the backpack that he was rifling through.

When he looked up, he saw me grinning and we both started laughing.

“Well, geez, that was awkward”, he said.

He looked back down, and I leaned against the little table that had been set up in the makeshift room.

“What are you looking for?” I inquired softly.

He eyed me thoughtfully for a second.

“Promise not to laugh?”

I smiled. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

He chuckled. “Well, I’m looking for my notebook. Okay, it’s a journal. Just don’t tell anyone that.”

The memories of us running into each other in the hallway, and me dropping my notebook, as well as his writing things in Chemistry class instead of notes flashed in my mind, and I nodded.

“I usually write in it when there’s something big on my mind…”, he was bashful about his words. I could tell he was being choosy with them.

“Like what?” I challenged, truly curious.

“Oh, nothing,” he muttered.

I was about to reply when a tiny shine of metal caught my eye, peeking out from one of Spencer’s shirts laying on the table. I reached for it with Ryan watching in curiosity. I pulled my hand back and produced a familiar spiral-bound notebook.

Ryan emitted an oddly feminine squeal, and before I could even react , he was hugging me, and pulling the notebook out of my hands.

“Thank you!”

I giggled, “Just doin’ my job.”

“Come on, let’s go out and hang with everyone”, he suggested, making his way towards the main room of the ‘backstage’.

“It’s a lovely idea, Ry, but why don’t you put a shirt on first?”

This caused him to blush again, thus making me laugh uncontrollably.

He glared at me. “Shuddup…”

Score two for Bones, zilch for Ryan!

Much to my dismay, he found a shirt, threw it on and pulled me out to the rest of the group. As we appeared, the entire group containing my friends and the bandboys went silent.

Ryan said, as sarcastically as possible, “Wow guys, make it obvious that you weren’t talking about us.”

I laughed and sat on Brittany. “Ello, darlin’!”

“Hallo!”, she said, smiling giddily.

I smiled a sickly sweet smile, and just stared at her, waiting for her to crack. It was a few seconds before her smile faltered and the words came out in a big rush.

“Weweretalkingabouthowyouguysshouldgettogetherasacouple.”

For those of you who don’t speak Brittany, she said “We were talking about how you guys should get together as a couple.”

Now it was my turn to blush. I was tempted to look over to Ryan for his reaction, but resisted, because that would probably only cause my already pink face to go a full out shade of red.

Brendon broke the awkward silence that had ensued.

“So, share the story of why a random squealing girl appeared out of nowhere this afternoon,” he said, implying Christine. I silently thanked Brendon for having the world’s shortest attention span.

We went around the group, each of us explaining part of her story. Christine just sat and watched on in amusement at our version of what happened.

Brittany: “Christine is really smart, so she got into this thing, and they made her live in Nazi-Land for a whole year!”
Bones: “Christine basically is one of those super-smart high-honors students, and was accepted into a student exchange program.”
Aimee: “She’s a year younger than us, so in her freshman year, she got placed with a family in Germany, to live with for a year.”
Erin: “We pretty much haven’t talked to her at all except for the occasional e-mail or whatever.”
Christine: “Hey, that’s not my fault! It would be super-expensive to call, and they didn’t have a computer!”

Brittany’s eyes went wide. “You mean they didn’t have internet? You lived without internet in your house for a whole year?!” She then proceeded to dramatically feign death.

Spencer looked concerned. Then Brittany’s eyes popped open, and she turned to talk to Aimee about how horrible it would be to not have internet.

Erin and I had intentions of continuing our conversation with the nomad-friend.

I smiled widely. “Germany did you well! You’re more stunning than you were when you left!” She always had been a very pretty girl, with red-brown hair and piercing eyes, but the European style really had rubbed off on her, and she seemed to just…stand out.

Aimee butted in, “She’s right. And speaking of doing well in Germany…Did you meet any hot German boys?” I rolled my eyes, but leaned in anyways for her answer.

She blushed and muttered, “Uhm, kinda…..”

I gave her a blank look. “What do you mean kinda?”

“Yeah, I did…”

I smiled broadly, with a newfound excitement. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier? Do you have a picture? Is he cute?!”

She giggled softly. “We’re not exactly…together. But no, I don’t have a picture.”

My smile dropped a few notches on the hugeness meter. “Aw, honey, you must really miss him.”

She looked sheepish again. “There’s the thing…there here. At my house.”

Aimee had the complete ‘wtf?’ look. “Huh?”

Christine looked down at her hands, “That guy…is here. He’s at my place. Sleeping off the flight. They’re on break from school right now, and they came back to the states with me. I should probably have done the same, and got some sleep considering we only landed this morning, but I slept on the plane and I figured you guys would be here and I really wanted to see-“, I covered her mouth.
“Wait, them? There’s more than one?”, I asked.

She smiled “Him and his brother. Sorry that I didn’t mention it earlier, I just wanted-“ I cut her off before she could start rambling again.

By now, the rest of the gang had started listening into our conversation. I looked around the group, which was collectively smiling, except for Ryan, who was feverishly scribbling in his precious notebook. It was all I could do to not laugh at his cuteness.

“So when can we meet him?”, I asked excitedly.