The Closest Thing We Have To Magic

The lack of sleep from the night before added to the amount of sleep I had gotten last night. I had tossed and turned all night only catching a few hours of sleep. Yesterday had been a day from hell and all I wondered was what was in store for me today.

I stumbled out of bed and did my normal morning routine getting myself ready myself for filming. I threw on a pair of shorts and tshirt knowing I would have to change anyways into whatever wardrobe wanted the backup dancers to wear. I didn’t even bother applying much makeup knowing the makeup artists were going to touch up my face. I applied the basic foundation and mascara before leaving my cabin.

Shay joined me on the walk to the mess hall for a quick breakfast. I decided to fill her in the events from yesterday. She would have heard from Roshan or somebody before then and I would rather have her hear it from me than someone else.

We arrived at the mess hall and went inside. It was slightly crowded as people were rushing in and out trying to grab something to eat before the long day. I picked out an apple and a small water bottle before finding us seats at a tiny table.

“Not hungry?” Shay raised her eyebrows. “That’s not much of a breakfast.”

I shrugged. “Not really hungry. I don’t have an appetite.”

“That’s it?”

“Well and I’m anxious to know what Nick is going to say after last night.” I admitted. While lying in bed last night, I tried to think how Nick would think the situation through. I had changed from earlier this year. I didn’t’ even know why I had gone through what I did. I had decided that my old way was too boring and I had needed some type of spice added into my life. Hanging out with that type of crowded, my life had drastically changed. My grades in school had dropped tremendously and I had acted like a bitch to my family and friends.

“Well I’m glad you’re not like that anymore.” Shay said. “You just don’t seem the type of person who would be the one to party all night and see how far you can tease and play with boys.”

“Hey I can still party.” I joked. “But I don’t as often as I used to. And it’s a lot different type of partying.”

Shay swallowed her donut and daintily wiped her hands on her napkin. “It’ll be okay Cady. I just think Nick is frustrated.” We set our trays above the trash can in its designated place and hurried out of the mess hall to make call time. I looked over at her and saw her troubled face.

“What?”

She hesitated. “Promise you won’t get mad if I said this?” I nodded.

“Maybe Nick thinks it’s Miley all over again.” She said softly.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Miley. Of course. I had completely forgotten about their relationship they had a couple years ago. The pictures that had surfaced up which people had said were for Nick. In my mind, I compared the pictures that had been on Emily’s MySpace and the pictures that had surfaced of Miley. They weren’t exactly the same but the relayed the same message.

“Shit.” I muttered.

Shay wrapped an arm around me and squeezed me gently. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah I’ll just keep thinking that.” I mumbled. I kept processing the new information in my head over and over again. I was so stupid. All I had wanted to redefine myself after my wild party ways. I knew I would have to mention it to Nick sooner or later, and I had chosen later. I just wish he hadn’t found out like the way he did.

Turning around a corner, I saw the clear, blue lake. We had arrived at the set location for today. The lake was going to be the background for one of the songs with the entire cast. The sun was shining and it was pretty warm outside with a slight wind in the air. Crowds of people were scurrying around trying to find their way out of the mass confusion. Tech crew was frantically trying to connect all the wires and such to their appropriate ways in a way where they could shoot the dance without the cast tripping over the wires.

Cautiously, I glanced around looking for one specific person. I frowned. There were too many people here to see him. Finally, I spotted the top of a head with matted brown curls. They looked irresistible. Stop it Cady, I scolded myself. I was looking for him to, hopefully, mend things up, not have a fan girl attack.

I hesitated before I slowly started walking in the direction. I weaved through the tech crew occasionally apologizing for bumping into somebody. His body was getting closer and closer, but he still hadn’t seen me it. Nick turned around slightly taking in the scenery before looking in my directions. We locked eyes for brief seconds. He turned around really quickly and whispered something to Joe. He eyed me before nodding to Nick. He patted his older brother on the shoulder as a thank you and walked over to me.

Butterflies entered my stomach as usual, but not for the same reason as the usually did. He came closer and closer and my mind started going blank as I tried to remember what I had wanted to say to him.

“Hey.” He said quietly.

I opened my mouth to reply when I felt pressure from a hand on my hand. My head jerked towards the person. A woman with a headset and a clipboard in her hand faced me. “Are you an extra?”

“No. I’m a backup dancer.” I explained.

She jotted a little note on her clipboard before lifting her head back up. “Okay you’re needed in makeup. Please get there now. We’re running behind schedule.” She rushed by me spotting more lingering people.

An apologetic look appeared on my face as I turned back to Nick. “Sorry. Can we-” I tried to apologize before he cut me off. “Let’s go talk.” I cringed. Those were words I never wanted to hear.

“Now?”

“Yeah. They won’t kill you if you’re a few minutes late.” He paused. “Actually they might. But you’re with me. Come on.”

Once again my arm was pulled but this time in the direction of the trees lacking the technical gear for the upcoming dance. People moved out of the way as Nick approached them leaving us with plenty of room to walk through. He didn’t say anything as we hurried through. Looks were given to us as they noticed my hand in his. I prepared myself in my mind for whatever Nick had to say, the pros and cons of each. I was nervous to hear what he had to say. The one thing that bothered me about Nick was I could never read him. Sure, I could tell whenever he was ecstatic or worried about something, but I was never able to tell what he was thinking.

Nick ducked under a branch as we entered the woods. My eyes concentrated on the ground as I tried to not fall and hurt myself with the debris of broken branches and leaves. He dragged me farther and farther inside until I couldn’t see the outline of the lake anymore. His pace slowed down and finally reached an ending point when he sat down on a fallen tree trunk. Motioning me to follow him, Nick sat down on the trunk waiting for me to join him. Hesitantly, I sat down next to him leaving a safe five inches in between us.

I peered around the area where we were in and I all I could see were massive amounts of trees. “Um Nick, do you know how to get out of here?” I twisted my body trying to answer my own question, unsuccessfully.

“Yeah of course.” He brushed it off. I shrugged. “Okay.”

I swung my legs back and forth waiting for him to bring up the topic. A few seconds passed before he spoke. “Can we talk about last night?”

I nodded. “Tell me whatever you want to say.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m going to admit, the pictures surprised me. A lot.” He added slowly.” I eyed him giving him the signal to continue. “But if you say they’re the past, then I believe you. I have no idea what you went through, and why you did it, but I trust you to make decisions for yourself and they are your choices. It caught me a little off guard last night. I hope I didn’t seem rude or ungrateful to you last night.”

Amazement was placed on my face. “You are saying sorry to me? Are you absolutely crazy?” I exclaimed. “If it’s anyone who should be saying sorry, it’s me. I should have told you from the beginning about what had happened. I kept putting it off to tell you because I was afraid to know what your reaction would be. I thought you would be disappointed me.”

His face softened. “Disappointed? No. Surprised? Yes. I am a teenager after all, I do you have friends who have gone through the drinking phase. Not so many, but a couple. Why did you it though?”

I sighed exasperated. “That’s the thing. I really don’t know why. I went to a party one night just for the fun of it and I started talking to Emily after one of my friend’s ditched me. One thing led to another and from there it went downhill.” I hesitated before adding the last bit. “I didn’t even do it to become “cool”. But the problem was that I enjoyed becoming drunk and not knowing where the hell I was. The feeling where I was invincible and nobody could get me. The hangovers and the feeling of being high made me forget everything in my life and made it seem perfect.”

“One morning after having one of the most hangovers I ever had, it hit me that I was completely destroying my body and I didn’t deserve it. My body was drained from all the stress it had endured for the last few months and I knew I had to stop. I cut off complete contact with Emily and her friends, well except for last night, and attempted to become my old self. It wasn’t easy. It took a couple of months for my family and friends to trust me. But in the end, it eventually worked out.”

Nick scooted his body closer to mine leaving no space in between us. He took my face into his hands and brought me so close to him, that it took all my willpower not to jump him. I could feel his mint fresh breath lightly breezing past me as he spoke. “It’s okay Cady. Don’t keep beating yourself over it. It’s not bothering me.”

I was in the process of trying to find some way to protest his kindness before quickly Nick discouraged that idea. He brought his lips to mine and gently kissed me making all my senses and thoughts disappear.

I pulled away after a few seconds in the need of air. “I still think you’re being too nice.” I grumbled.

Nick chuckled. “Too bad. This is what you’re getting. Now come on, we have to get of here. You’re already late to makeup.”

I agreed with him and stood up brushing the dirt off my pants. The sun shined through the canopy of trees above me and made the leaves glisten in the light. It was only then I realized the beauty inside of the forest. In awe, I swiveled around in a full circle taking in everything. The little critters that crawled on the tree trunks, the way the sun made the entire forest seem more beautiful and made every little detail stand out.

“Come on let’s go.” Nick repeated. His hand hadn’t left mine since entering the forest and now tugged mine urgently.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I assured him distracted.

“Taking in the sights?” Nick teased.

“Yes I am. Now hush so I can. Go ahead and lead the way, I’ll follow you.”

He snickered but obeyed my request and started to walk in the direction we had come from. The silence overpowered us as we headed back to set. Nick disappeared in my vision as I dreamed about all the wonderful aspects of the forest. It wasn’t till a few minutes later that I recognized the flower bush we had passed. Three times.

“Um Nick?” I carefully asked.

“Yes?”

“We’ve passed this bush three times already.” I pointed out. Nick stopped and looked at the bush and then back at me. “No we haven’t.”

“Yes we have.”

“No we haven’t.”

“Yes we have.” I said determined. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?”

“Of course I do!” He exclaimed. Nick turned his head to his left, then his right, behind him and then back at me then looked back at me with defeat written all over his face.

“Right.” I said sarcasm dripping from my voice. “Because all boys are magically installed with GPS’s in their bodies when they’re born. Sorry, I forgot. Carry on; take me back to the set.”

“Okay. We’re not lost.” Nick faltered. “I just don’t know where we are.” His face was now flustered at the fact he had no control of where he was. He ran his free hand through his curls sending them into different directions. I giggled at the sight. He turned to me with a confused expression. “What?”

I stifled my laughter. “Nothing. Can you call one of your brothers?”

Nick reached into his pocket and scrolled down his touch screen Blackberry. “Shoot. I don’t have signal.”

“And I left my phone back in my cabin. Great.” I muttered.

“Let’s just head in that direction. I think I recognize the cluster of trees over there.” Nick suggested. I shrugged my shoulders and followed him. Better than standing around doing nothing.

“What’s the time? I’m sure they should have already started filming.”

“It’s 8:30.” Nick said. “We are so late.”

We kept walking in the general direction we had started to walk in. Within walking a few feet, I could barely see the outline of the bright blue lake gleaming in the sunlight. “There’s the lake!” I said excited. “Let’s go!”

I pulled Nick along with me as I started running towards the lake. I almost tripped over a branch taking Nick also but caught myself before completely falling. I sent Nick a sheepish smile but started jogging at a slower pace. We finally came to the clearing and back to the real world.

We stopped and watched what was taking place in front of us. It seemed as if chaos had erupted as people were running around with anxious and worried expressions on their faces. Nick and I faced each other with matching expressions. We had no idea what was going on, but I had a feeling it had to do with the boy that was standing next to me.

Kevin zoomed past us and then back tracked and stared at us. “Where have you two been?” Kevin cried. “Everybody, and I mean everybody, has been looking all over for you! Do you realize how behind schedule we are?” He exclaimed. “We can’t exactly shoot the dance if the lead and one of the dancers aren’t there!”

“Sorry.” We synced our voices together as we apologized.

“Cady you’re needed in makeup and then they need you to get changed into your outfit. Nick comes with me.” Without even bothering for a reply from either of us, Kevin whisked Nick away to who knows where, as I stood there. Shaking my head to clear it, I headed towards makeup.

Everything was going to be fine.

Love is a game that two can play and both win. ~Eva Gabor