Chapter Seven

Saturday arrived sooner than anticipated.

It was weird going to pick a girl up for a date when you technically lived right across the hall from her. That was what I was doing. I got dressed, opting for casual because it was daytime and Kayla and I were not going on a real date, and then went across the hall to knock on the door to her suite.

Kayla opened the door looking marginally different from the way that she normally did. She still looked like a tomboy, except she was not wearing the usual skater dress. She had a pair of ripped jeans on, a crop top with an obscure band name splashed across her chest, and a faux leather jacket. I caught a glimpse of ink that started at her midriff and curved around her waist to her back but I could not identify what the tattoo was of. Her blue hair was tied up in a bun with several loose tendrils framing her face because her hair was so short.

“Hey Myles,” she said. She grinned. “Nice jacket.”

Something about the tone that she used made me feel like she did not really mean what she was saying. “What do you mean?” I asked. I looked down at it, wondering if there was a stain or something.

Kayla laughed. She shut the door of her suite and we began walking down the hallway to the elevator. “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Okay, I’m confused.”

“It’s just that I always see you wearing these super expensive-looking jackets and I find it a bit odd. It doesn’t really seem like you. You know?”

My eyebrows shot upward. I was surprised that anyone had noticed at all. “Right. Well. I mean, they aren’t really my style, to be honest.”

“So why do you do it?”

I shrugged. “When we got signed, our agents gave us the impression that we kind of had to change our whole look. Jake didn’t, of course, because he has that whole style all figured out. I felt like I had something to make up for.”

“You have nothing to make up for, Myles.”

I did not know what to say to that so I stayed silent. When we got outside, I was shocked to see that there were photographers waiting for us. I looked over at Kayla and she seemed less surprised. She seemed resigned to her fate. Before I had registered what she was doing, Kayla moved closer to me.

“You should put your hand on my waist,” Kayla whispered.

“Uhm…” I had nothing to say. I did not know how to argue. I did it.

The press went mad for it. They were cheering and whooping and shooting off flash after flash. We posed for them as though we were a couple for a while before the driver of our car finally broke up the party.

We did not need telling twice and climbed into the back seat of the car.

“Thank goodness that is over,” Kayla said. She sighed, seeming genuinely exhausted.

“I second that.”

“Okay, so, I thought that we could go to an arcade or something. I’m not sure how much you dig games but yeah. It felt like an okay date because we still have the chance of being spotted and it can be taken as a couple thing and we actually get to enjoy ourselves.” Kayla stared at me. I sat there grinning at her. “What?”

“I was just thinking that that is probably one of the best ideas for a date ever. Would you mind if I stole it for future reference?”

Kayla laughed. “Knock yourself out, Myles.”

The driver did not need to be told where to go and he did not ask. We arrived at a popular arcade in no time and Kayla opened her own door, climbing out of the car. I followed suit and we made our way into the arcade.

Before the car drove off, I called out a quick thank you to the driver. He hooted in response. I was glad that he had heard me.

Kayla was like a kid in a candy store. She made her way over to the counter and bought tokens so that we could play the games. By the time I had made my way over, she was already heading to the first game. It was a weird survival game where you had to run away from the dinosaur except it was backward and our characters were racing to us. We could not see the path ahead. It was down to quick thinking and memory.

“Shit!” I cried out as I lost. Kayla lost a short while later but her score was higher than mine. “You have so played that before.”

“I so have not,” Kayla said indignantly. “I just happen to be really good at games.”

She spent the majority of the afternoon proving it. Out of probably a dozen games, Kayla had beaten me at more than half. There was one thing that I knew that I was really good at and that was first-person shooters.

I found one where we were literally carrying the guns and called her over. We were in some abandoned building and there were zombies attacking us in waves. The objective of the game was to survive – nothing more. I had to revive Kayla’s character several times and that was my downfall, eventually.

“Damn,” I said. “What a way to go. I’d hate to be bitten in the back while giving my friend medical attention.”

Kayla laughed. “I have got to say, I’m glad you came back to help me instead of running off and saving yourself.”

I ran a hand through my hair, blushing. “You don’t have to make it so mushy. There were zombies. Come on.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and began making her way back to the front desk. We had finished all our tokens. Kayla’s handful of tickets was a heck of a lot thicker than mine was.

She handed them in and asked what she could get for them.

“You can get the bag of marbles, the teddy bear, or the play-dough.”

“Wow,” I said. I tried not to laugh as I handed my own tickets in.

“Wait, how much for the mini acoustic over there?”

I looked up to one of the top shelves where Kayla was pointing. There was a mini acoustic guitar. It actually looked really nice. The person behind the desk was a teenager who looked bored as he took my tickets and inserted them into the machine that counted them out. He then moved over to the back to check the price of the acoustic.

“You could get it if you guys combined your tickets,” he said. He looked impressed.

“Let’s do it,” I said.

“Are you sure?” I nodded. Kayla did not need telling twice. “We will take it.”

***

I was exhausted by the time that we got back to the hotel but I had had a really fun day with Kayla, to my immense surprise.

There was barely any time left for me before Thomas was about to show up. I made my way into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Running around the arcade had made me sweat and while I was sure I could have gotten away with putting on some deodorant and maybe a new shirt, I wanted to smell really nice for him. I rushed through the motions; brushing my teeth and my hair pretty much at once and pulling on a new pair of jeans and a black button-up shirt.

I was about to grab one of my blazers when I decided better of it. I had many jackets all from top designers with expensive price tags. What Kayla said had gotten to me, though. The jackets were never for me. It had become a habit to pull them on because they pulled everything together and instantly made my outfit look tasteful but that was never something that I had wanted. I did not want to pretend anymore. Besides, since the band had been signed, I figured I did not really need to.

As soon as I was finished getting ready, I made my way downstairs. I could see him before I left the hotel. He was standing near the sidewalk, beside a motorcycle. He had a helmet on and one in his hand. My heart began to beat faster as I made my way over to him, my hand outstretched and ready to take the helmet from him.