And She Made the Shape of My Heart With Her Hands

“Hi, this is Pat from The Maine and we’re in the hotel lobby waiting for our rooms.” Pat was holding his camera so that it got some of him and the lobby in the frame. The whole band looked over at him and rolled their eyes. “Let’s go say hi to everyone.” Pat walked over to Garrett first.

“Hi, I’m Garret and I hate Pat Kirch,” he joked.

Pat moved over to Kennedy. “Hey, I’m Kennedy and I hate Pat Kirch, too.”

Next was Jared. Of course being the nice guy that he was, he commented, “I’m Jared and I like Pat Kirch.”

Thinking Pat was going to skip over me and only do the band, I didn’t pat attention until Jared nudged me a little. I looked up and saw Pat smiling just the tiniest bit. “Uh, hi. I’m Garrett’s loving sister Cara and I also like Pat.” I smiled very cheekily. Pat beamed back.

John was still looking at me when Pat skidded over to him. He looked up at the camera and said, “Hey, it’s John Oh.” He just barely side glanced at me. “And I like Pat Kirch,” he finished.

“There you have it, more people like me than hate me. Anyway, see you later, guys.” Pat turned the camera back to us. Everyone except me did peace signs goodbye, so I looked up at the camera and waved while smiling like an idiot. He shut the camera off.

“Yeah, I’m really bored. I’m going to walk around the hotel,” I said while getting up off the fancy couch. “I’ll have my phone, Garrett.” I started walking towards one of the green-carpeted hallways.

“Hey, Cara! I’m coming, too.” Pat jogged up to where I was.

“Hey, look!” I pointed excited at an elevator that was see-through with glass. “Let’s go in there,” I squealed like a kid. I sprinted towards the elevator with Pat following. When we were both in, I hit the button for floor two. It lit up. Then I hit four and next six. They all lit up and the doors started closing slowly.

“Why two, four, and six?” Pat asked while looking from me to the buttons.

I shrugged. “I like even numbers better,” I stated.

Pat nodded his head. “Oh.”

Almost a nanosecond before we started moving, Pat hit all the odd numbered floors; one, three, and five.

I giggled. “You just had to do that, huh?”

Pat nodded eagerly. “Yep.”

Slowly but surely, we started up the elevator rail, hitting floor one in only about five seconds. The door opened and froze while it thought people were walking through. We just stared at it.

“This is definitely going to kill some time,” Pat said.

I nodded. “Yep.” Almost at the same time, both Pat and I sat down on the floor. We looked at each other and smiled. “Well that was strange,” I said chuckling.

“Yeah.” Pat had that warm smile and the whole glowing eyes thing going on. It made you just want to smile back.

Suddenly my phone started buzzing again. I flipped it open. Of course it was Camille. I rolled my eyes at her.

“What is it?” Pat asked me.

“Camille doesn’t think I’m really in Chicago with you guys,” I answered while smiling sheepishly. “She wants proof.”

Pat crawled over to near where I was sitting. “Put it on camera mode and take a picture,” he stated simply.

I did what he said and held the camera up above us. “Smile.” Pat leaned a little closer and we both smiled. I took the picture and sent it right to Camille. “She better not complain about not believing me now.” Pat leaned back away from me and smiled. Camille texted back an instant later.

Omg he’s so cute! Ok, I believe you now!

I could feel the smallest bit of blush cover my cheeks. I hoped it wasn’t obvious enough to notice.

“What’d she say?”

Pat’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and so did the halt of the elevator stopping at floor five. “Um, she says she believes me now,” I said sort of quickly, hoping he wouldn’t see or suspect the rest of the message.

“Good,” he commented. I shook my head. “Hey! We’re on the top floor! Look at everybody else down there!” We both peaked out at everyone in the lobby, including the band. I giggled a little. They looked so small and weird.

“Do you want to walk back down instead?” I asked Pat.

“Sure.”

By now, Pat and I were on floor three, I think. We talked the whole time down. I had learned that outside of the band and all, Pat was a pretty shy dude. Right now, we were playing the all too famous, 21 Questions.

“Okay, so if you could marry any celebrity, who would it be?”

“Megan Fox,” Pat answered without hesitation.

“Megan Fox… Is that the chick from Transformers?”

“Yep,” he replied. “What’s your favorite fruit?”

I was thoughtful for a moment. Strawberries? Bananas? Oh, wait. I know… “I think oranges.”

“That’s one of mine, too!”

Deciding to get a little more personal, I then asked, “Um… When was the last time you were kissed?”

Pat developed a blush and he was slightly at loss for words. “Um… I… Well… Actually, I’ve never been kissed before, so unless I can say my mom, I don’t really have an answer,” he said bashfully.

I nodded my head slowly. “I understand completely.” Then I added in a lower tone, “And like Garret’s already mentioned, I haven’t had a boyfriend in quite awhile, so I know how you feel.” I half smiled empathetically.

Pat pretty much did the same thing. Before he could get out another question, my Sidekick was ringing and vibrating at the same time. Someone was calling me. I gave him a quick apologetic look before hitting a button and greeting the caller. “Hello?”

“We have the keys to our rooms now, so get your asses back down here.” It was the warm voice of my brother.

“Alright, Pat and I are on like…” I paused and looked over to him. Pat held up three fingers. “Oh. Right. We’re on the third floor, walking.”

“Oh. Trying to burn some calories there, Cara?” My brother laughed. I didn’t find it at all funny.

My jaw dropped and I looked down at my body. I was not fat. I wasn’t even close! Yeah, I wasn’t stick-skinny, but that was good. I was healthily thin and happy. “I’m not fat!” Pat looked over at me with a confused expression.

“I didn’t say you were!” Garret defended himself. What a moron.

“Whatever, Garrett. We’re on the second floor now, so bye.”

“Later,” we hung up at the same time. Of course I wasn’t really too offended by his little joke. I was just messing with him. Pretending to be dramatic is fun.

When Pat and I met up with everyone else in the lobby, it was only about four minutes after I had hung up the phone with Garrett.

“Alright. Pat and John, you’re in Room 201,” Tim handed them both room keys. “Jared and Trevor are in Room 205, then Garrett and Kennedy’s in Room 202,” he tossed them all their keys, too. Then looking right at me and holding my key up, Tim explained, “Cara, you’ll be in Room 200. That’s across the hall from Pat and John, and next to your brother and Kennedy all on the third floor.” I went to grab the key but Tim lifted it higher so that I couldn’t reach it. Being only five feet and three inches tall wasn’t working as an advantage at the moment.

John quickly snatched the dangling key and held out his hand with it in the center. All the others were already heading to their rooms. “Thank you,” I said politely and taking it.

John smiled and looked straight at me with his pretty blue-green eyes. “Not a problem.”

I didn’t know why, but John always seemed a little distant or something. And every time I did talk to him, it made me want to get to know him a little better for some reason.