Managing Boys

Managing Boys (36)

Everyone else had already said their goodbyes to the boys before we went to the airport. My parents tried to get me to say goodbye beforehand, but I refused. I was going to go to the airport with them and there wasn’t anything they could do about it. I could have at least been given that much.

Annabelle wasn’t happy with this, but she allowed me to go anyway since she was getting what she wanted in the long run.

The drive to the airport was filled with awkward silence. It was the Hello Aria boys, Annabelle, my father, and me all in a large van, which my father would then drive us back after they left. I was sure the ride back would have been awkward as well, even if it were just my father and me.

Grim and I sat right beside each other in the very back, much to our parents’ chagrin. Our fingers entwined, never wanting to part, his mother was scowling from the front seat while my father just tried to ignore it.

Once we got to the airport, Grim and I still didn’t let go of each other. Luckily our parents had no complaints. They didn’t even look at us.

“We’ll go on ahead,” Annabelle said, barely even looking at us as she continued forward with my father. “I’ll let you all say goodbye to each other now.”

I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to say goodbye. And the only reason they were going ahead of us was so that they could have a mushy goodbye without any of the teenagers having to see.

“I’m really not looking forward to this,” Ben sighed as we entered the airport. “Especially because of who’s opening for us.”

I blinked at him. “Who’s opening for you?”

Ash looked absolutely miserable. “Jules Zaro.”

“You’re going on tour with Jules Zaro?” I asked, and I couldn’t help but make a face. “I heard she’s kind of a... a...”

“A bitch?” Grim guessed, and I only nodded so I wouldn’t have to say it. “Yeah. Word is she’s difficult to get along with, so it’s not going to be very fun having to deal with her for nine months.”

“We’ve met her once before,” Ash explained to me, and his face went white at the thought of it. “She was very loud... and rude... and really, really loud.”

I couldn’t help but make a face. “That sounds... nice.”

“Nice?” Sawyer looked like he was about to fall over. “If you think that’s nice, then I don’t want to know your definition of bad.”

The media always made people seem worse then they actually were, so I didn’t know if Jules Zaro was actually as bad as the boys said she was. She might have not been the nicest person when they met, but maybe she was just having a bad day.

Jules Zaro was almost as popular as the boys, but there were rumors all the time about how rotten she really was. I wasn’t so sure if I believed all those rumors, but if they were true, the boys were sure in for one hell of a time.

“Are we even pronouncing her name correctly?” Ben asked us as he flipped to a picture of Jules Zaro in the magazine he was holding to read on the plane. “Isn’t her last name pronounced like the number zero?”

“No, I think it’s pronounced like Zorro with an A,” Ash corrected.

Grim rolled his eyes at his friends. “Her last name is pronounced like zare-oh. I heard her introduce herself to my mother.”

“Is Jules even her real name?” Sawyer questioned.

Grim let out a sigh, as if he couldn’t believe he was stuck with these idiots for nine months. “How am I supposed to know?”