Speak Now & Surprises [Hunter Hayes fanfic]

Chapter 4: Omaha, Nebraska

"Wait, so you were locked in a cupboard for twenty minutes with Hunter Hayes?!" Liz and Caitlin stared at me with gobsmacked looks at dinner that night, "Oh my God, wait until Taylor hears about this-"

"Please, Liz! Taylor can't hear about this!" I begged, "Because, you know, it'll just sound like something that it wasn't-"

"Damn right, it will," Caitlin snorted, twizzling another fork-load of carbonara into her mouth, "You were locked in a confined space with Hunter Hayes and you didn't make a move on him - come on, Shelby! The boy is dying for a taste of you!" she teased.

"Don't be ridiculous," I shot her a look, "I mean, maybe in my dreams he is-" did I just say that out loud? "-but that's not real, and that's not how it works... and besides, nothing could've happened anyway because I had my earpiece in the whole time, you know, the thing I used to get somebody sent out to rescue us after twenty minutes."

"Girl, you're in way too deep for just day two," Liz chaffed, gasping for air, "Oh flipping heck, here he comes Shel!" she nodded behind me, and out the corner or my eye I saw Hunter and his band walk into the dining hall, all dressed and refreshed after rehearsals.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," I muttered to myself, "Is he coming over here?"

"You bet he is," Caitlin grinned, brushing back her auburn-red hair she stood up and waved, "Hey Hunter!"

"Liz and... Katie?" Hunter pointed between the girls as he tried to remember their names, his band taking seats around us.

"Close enough," Caitlin told him, indicating that he should take the seat next to me, which he did, "How's your chin now, Hunter? Shelby fix it up for you?"

"Yeah, actually she did quite a good job," he explained dumbly, lifting up his chin as everybody made impressive noises at my less-than-thrilling handiwork, "She's got a soft touch-"

"I'm sorry everybody, she's had too much to drink," Liz was holding an arm around a now cackling Caitlin, her head buried in her arms so just a quivering mountain of hair was visible of her as she completely lost it, "She's really just so irresponsible - I should take her to bed!" and with that the two of them left the dining hall and headed to the main foyer.

"Ah... is she alright?" Sam, Hunter's curly-haired Mandolin player asked, still watching the girls as they were walking out.

"Attractive, but crazy," Matt with the dreadlocks shrugged and picked up a menu, "Ah! Carbonara tonight, men!"

Although Hunter was next to me I was still sensing some stoniness from his band, so seized the opportunity to clear the air with them.

"Look, guys, I know I might've snapped at you a little bit once or twice earlier and I could've probably handled the situation a little bit better, well, I mean I know I should've," I stammered, the words were coming out all wrong and by the puzzled looks I was seeing around myself, they probably weren't being understood all too well, either, "But I just wanted to say that this was my first day on the job and I'm really sorry and I'm just trying my best and-"

"Shelby, has anybody ever told you that silence is golden?" Matt lowered his menu and cocked his eyebrow at me, before bursting out into laughter, "And here were we thinking you were just some high strung nutcase! Water under the bridge, but, ah, aren't you a little young to be a managing a tour?"

"Oh, thank-you," I said nervously, not sure if that was meant to be taken as a compliment or not.

"Toast! Toast!" the tinkling of china from further down the table caught our attention and we turned to see Taylor standing, a glass of raspberry cordial raised in her hand, "To the Speak Now World Tour!" she cried, and the rest of us raised our drinks and repeated after her; for the first time since meeting all these new people, I felt like a part of something.