The Rockstar Chronicles

Pizza with the Boys

Mr. Kane laughed jovially, wagging his finger at Grant. "We'll see. We'll see. All in good time." He rubbed his hands together, an excited expression on his face. "Now, Mrs. Madison," he said, turning to my mother, "we should go over the housing situation. I think Grant here is already familiar, but we do need your signature on some of the papers. Kids?" He raised his voice. "You get to know each other while we go over some things. You're going to be spending a lot of time together."

He left the room, my mother and Grant in tow. I stood there awkwardly, unsure of what I should do. I didn't feel as if I fitted in since I wasn't a member of the band, just a kid sister along for the ride.

Ryder sighed. "Hungry?" He gestured behind us with a sweep of his arm. "There's pizza."

I turned to find a mini-kitchen recessed into the walls, hiding it from view. Several boxes of pizza, doughnuts, candy, and other snacks covered the surface. My stomach growled loudly as I gazed at the feast. Ryder and Grady laughed. Even Hardyn cracked a grin.

I blushed. Leave it to me to break the tension, I thought. In the most embarrassing way possible.

"Sounds like your hungry," Ryder said, still grinning as he handed me a plate. I was surprised to find it was an actual plate and not made of paper. In fact, it looked like a very expensive plate. Please, don't let me break this, I thought.

We helped ourselves to the food before joining Hardyn at the table. He remained as before, staring out over downtown Nashville. He looked thinner than I had ever seen him, though I had never seen him in person. Worry clouded his expression, making him appear much older than seventeen.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked as I struggled to lift my pizza to my mouth without losing the gooey cheese in the process.

Hardyn shook his head, sighing. Reluctantly, he shifted his attention from the outside world to us.

"So how did you end up here?" Ryder asked. Pizza sauce stained his chin and, if I didn't know better, I would have thought he was just another teenage boy. An extremely attractive teenage boy.

"How did any of us end up here?" Hardyn replied, his tone condescending. "Hard work and talent."

Ryder laughed. "And our parents."

Hardyn ignored him. I saw him glance at our food, especially the boys. They had stacked several slices of pizza on their plates, along with chips, candy, and various other sundries. Mine held only my single slice of plain cheese pizza. I have a weak stomach when I'm nervous and hanging out with one of the most famous boy band members in the world as well as my celebrity crush was definitely nerve-wracking.

Hardyn rose and went to the mini-kitchen. "I thought you said you weren't hungry?" Ryder teased. Hardyn ignored him.

"Who else do you think is in the band?" I asked, attempting to change the subject. I didn't do well with confrontation. And, as annoying and rude as Hardyn was being, I felt sorry for him somehow. I think because I got the feeling his family was a lot like ours, except both his parents were probably like Mom. On steriods. As bad as Mom was, I knew she would have to be a lot worse for either of us to ever think of trying to get legally emancipated.

I narrowed my eyes at Grady. He looked almost... guilty. I opened my mouth to question him further when I was distracted by Ryder.

He shrugged. "Who knows? They haven't been very forthcoming with all the information."

"Forthcoming?" Hardyn turned, pausing with plate in hand to sneer at Ryder.

"Yeah, forthcoming," Ryder said defensively, stiffening. "So I use big words. Is it too hard for you to understand?"

Hardyn glared at him, clenching his jaw.

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I glanced at one and then the other. So far, it didn't look like they were going to get along at all. If the other members are anything like them, this may be a very long summer, I thought.

"Well," I said nervously. My voice was loud and the words bubbled out without any thought as I tried to salvage the rapidly deteriorating situation. "I wonder who they could be? Wouldn't it be cool if it were someone famous?" All three boys looked at me, puzzled.

"Hardyn and Ryder are famous," Grady helpfully pointed out, raising one eyebrow. The look on his face warned me that I was making an idiot of myself, but I couldn't stop.

"I know. I mean, also famous? Like, well-known?" Grady's expression turned to complete contempt, while both Hardyn and Ryder looked as if they didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for me.

"Probably," Ryder said, taking pity on me and ending my inane babbling. "But there's no way to know for sure." He gestured at Grady. "He's not famous. No offense." He held up in hand as if in apology.

Grady smiled. "None taken."

"So they may have more undiscovered talent on the way," Ryder shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. We'll all be in the same boat soon."

Grady paused, his slice of pizza in mid-air, before slowly lowering it back to his plate. He looked sick and I felt nervous butterflies in my own stomach. This isn't right, I thought. Grady never gets nervous.

A noise came from the hallway, footsteps pausing outside the door. I watched the handle jerk down as we all sat with bated breath, anxious to know who waited on the other side.

It swung open slowly.

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