And She Made the Shape of My Heart With Her Hands

“Oh my God,” I breathed as we slowed down to a halt.

Kennedy chuckled. “I know, right?”

I blinked. “That was just like… Wow.”

“You bet it was,” John said from behind me, lifting the thick green bars up off him when he was able to.

Kennedy and I did the same as we stood up from the low black seats, Kennedy being more stable than me and just walking right out. I, on the other hand, almost tripped trying to get out of the cart. Lucky for me, John was there to grab my hand and place his own on my back.

“Heh. Thanks, John.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t just going to let you take a face-plant right there,” he said with a goofy smile.

I chuckled. “How thoughtful of you,” I said a little sarcastically.

“Um,” I heard an annoyingly familiar high voice say from behind John. “It was a pleasure riding with you, John,” Kristen The Slut said, bending down at the waist slightly while saying ‘pleasure’. I’m sure you can imagine why she did that.

“Err,” John said as he tried to find the right words to say, trying to be nice. “Yeah. Good times.”

“You bet it was,” she said disgustingly flirtatious as she batted her eyelashes once and smiled like a deranged maniac. With that, she finally left, swaying her hips along with her steps.

“Thank God,” John muttered, turning back to face me once again.

I giggled. “Don’t enjoy girls throwing themselves at you?”

John’s mouth turned into a half smile, going to the left. “Hm. Not really. I like a challenge, actually,” he explained, finishing off his explanation with a wink and walking ahead.

I felt my heart beat harder in my chest for a moment. I shook it off and followed him to where the other guys were waiting.

“Hey! They lived!” My obnoxious brother called out upon seeing us. A couple people passing by glanced over.

I rolled my eyes and sighed, as did John and Kennedy.

“Did you barf?” Pat asked me with a small smile.

I giggled. “Nope!”

“Okay, that’s good,” he said before pecking my lips for a moment.

I grinned from ear to ear. That’s when I heard Kennedy talking about ‘Kristen’.

“-And she was wearing probably the shortest friggin’ skirt you could find in Hollister and the most cleavage-friendly shirt in Abercrombie. Really, she might as well have started tearing her clothes off she was so obvious. Huh, John?” Kennedy’s raised eyebrows were directed towards John.

“Pretty much,” he said bluntly with a shrug. “And then she gave this look that could kill towards Cara when I said something simple to her. It made me laugh.”

“Heh. Yeah, I noticed that, too,” I mentioned lamely.

“She wants to fight you, Cara,” Jared stated.

“Huh? Why?” I asked in a laugh.

“Because she obviously thinks that you’re John’s chick or something!” Kennedy hollered. “She doesn’t like that. She wants to be John’s bitch, not you.”

“Fight! Fight!” Garrett roared.

I sighed and shook my head while looking slightly up to the clear blue sky.

When we got back to the van an hour or so later, we weren’t that tired. Well, at least some of us weren’t.

“Where to next?” I asked the band.

Nobody responded.

“I said,” raising my voice a little, “Where to next?”

“Oh,” Jared said, looking up at me. “Uh, Rhode Island.”

“Would that be… Providence?” I asked with my head cocked to the side a little bit.

“Yep!”

‘Hey. I’m so, so, SO sorry that I haven’t been able to text you too much. The days go by quickly while on tour,’ I started to explain to Camille in a text.

‘Hey, chick. It’s fine. For real. I’ve been pretty preoccupied…’

Uh oh. Camille put the dreaded ‘…’ at the end of her text. That’s normally not a good thing to see. ‘Oh boy. What happened?’

A minute or two later, I got a reply back from my best friend. ‘Well… Apparently, the whole Carlos and me thing was just something to distract him from his ex.’

I sighed. I just knew nothing good would come from that kid, no matter how cute the guy was.

In another instant, Camille sent another text my way. ‘So yeah, that had me down for a bit but I soon forgot about him when I came here to my sister’s.’

I smiled a little and started typing, ‘So everything’s good now?’

Camille responded almost immediately. ‘Not exactly… See my sister has this new boyfriend that she’s extremely fond with… So fond with that they actually moved in together in my sister’s apartment… I try to look for the good in people normally, but Cara, he’s just an asshole to me!’

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Camille’s last line. I did, however, feel a wave of sympathy for Camille. ‘I’m sorry, Cam. Have you tried talking to Cassie about it?’ I put the phone down for a moment and ran my hand through my hair, waiting for her reply.

‘Not yet. I don’t want to interfere. She seems to be like in love with him, Cara.’

I was just about to text back with another message full of sympathy, but Camille replied again.

‘I think I’m just going to come back a week early and say to Cassie that you had like a mental breakdown and you seriously need my consoling. It’ll work, Car.’

I giggled out loud a couple times, reading the message my best friend had sent over a few times.

“What?” Kennedy asked, sticking his head well over the seat and looking down at my Sidekick’s screen.

I chuckled and pushed his head back a little. “Don’t be so nosey, Kennedy. It’s just my friend Camille. She wants to come back home earlier than planned.”

“Why?”

“Well… Apparently I’m going through a tough time in life so she’s going to tell her sister and her ass of a boyfriend that she’s got to go home to comfort me,” I explained.

“Hm. Smart girl,” he said in thought.

I let out a laugh, as did Garrett.

“You’d be the first to tell her that,” Garrett mumbled.

“Yeah? Okay.” Without warning, Kennedy unexpectedly yanked my phone out of my hands and started typing away. “Dear Camille,” he said aloud, “This is Kennedy Brock speaking. I’m in Garrett’s band. Anyway, I think your plan for getting out of your sister and that prick’s house is amazingly brilliant. With love and adoration, the Kennedy Brock.” He smiled and then added, “Oh, yeah. I added a little heart thingy, too.”

“Wow. That was the gayest thing I’ve ever heard,” John commented.

I giggled, Pat, Trevor, and Garrett chuckled, but Kennedy frowned.

“It’s not gay… It’s charming. And you never know, she could be hot,” he said hopefully with a dreamy smile. He then turned to me for reassurance. “She is cute, right?”

I laughed and nodded. “You bet. I’m not friends with ugly people,” I said jokingly.

“Then why are you-”

“Shut up!” I interrupted my brother just in time. He sighed.

Now I was excited to get home because I knew that my best friend would be there and then… And then I can fill her in on my whole physical and emotional excursion of this summer…