Eleven Eleven

You're My Best Friend

Alexander and I met on the first day of kindergarten twelve years ago. I'd been scared, as Blake had been placed in a different classroom and I felt as though I was alone and nobody would want to be around me. Then, as if he'd felt every ounce of discomfort and uncertainty in my little six-year-old body, Xander had sat down on the rug beside me, reached out, and grasped my hand. He'd smiled when I glanced his way too, the big dimple on his right cheek shining as he nodded in reassurance that everything would be okay.

I'd assured myself for the next six years that everything would be okay-as long as he was there to hold my hand through all of it. We'd made a promise on that day twelve years ago, and it was thrown away long before his amnesia.

Though I'd been hesitant to agree to whatever this plan the boys had conjured up was, I couldn't stop my eyes from finding Xander in the back of the RV with his head against the window, eyes shut, but the fingers dancing anxiously across the table top was a sure sign he wasn't asleep.

After our little moment in the hotel room, Mason had distanced himself a bit, which I was honestly grateful for given I had no idea how to approach that situation.

It was Mason who finally broke the silence, "So where exactly are we going?"

"It's a secret." Haiden said from the back of the RV, a small smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow that he brushed off with a wink. Shaking my head to myself, I leaned back in the recliner, but the moment I looked back in Xander's direction I found his eyes on me again.

Clearing my throat, I averted my eyes to Ashton strumming on his guitar. "Come on, you can't have us agree to this and not give us any clue where we're going."

Ryan, his arms stretched behind his head and feet kicked up on the small round table in front of him, shot me a wink, "I just hope you don't have stage fright."

I quickly looked to the front of the bus where my father sat in the driver's seat, fingers tapping anxiously against the steering wheel. "What's that supposed to mean? You agreed to this?"

"Of course, he did." Haiden said with a crooked, boyish smile. "It was my idea."

Though I wanted further explanation on the location of our late night adventure, I never got the chance to push and pry further, as the bus slowed to a stop and the two guards in our bus and the half dozen that had been tailing us the entire ride her moved to the doors, as if they expected the boys to be mauled the moment they stepped out.

That was not a good sign.

"Let's go! Do not answer any questions!" Jack snapped, but his eyes weren't on the boys, but me. "Any of you."

I thought about snapping back with a bitter retort, but Ryan rested a hand on the small of my back, threw a pair of sunglasses on despite it being night, and ushered me out of the bus.

I was blinded by flashes from cameras in every direction and would have most definitely ran into something if Ryan and Haiden hadn't guided me in the right direction. By the time the floaters had left my vision and my eyes adjusted, I saw we were in a club. Though there'd be a hoard of paparazzi and people outside, it was nowhere near the extent there usually was, and as I slowed to a stop near the stage, I saw that the crowd was not even a quarter of what usually filled stadiums.

This must have been some kind of secret show or something.

"You think this is a good idea?" I whispered to Mason as he approached me, but his eyes were on our best friend, staring out the open door in awe.