Foolish Games (16 page)

“Bitch,” Lizzie muttered. “I think McIntyre just needs to show Hawkins how to relax and enjoy the
show
.”

“Stop improvising, Lizzie.” Riley laughed.

“What? That’s what it says,” Lizzie insisted, but she couldn’t keep a straight face.

“At least none of it was unexpected.” I tried to stay optimistic as I passed the damn Subaru again. Pick a lane and stay there, buddy! Man, this six lane highway was not my idea of a good time.

“What do you mean 
not
unexpected?” Lizzie asked.

“I don’t know, Lizzie, with you being half-naked on the cover, I’m pretty sure they could have practically written anything and everyone would have believed them.”

“Chill out already,” Lizzie groaned. 

“A tweet is up from Hawkins,” Riley announced to us.

“Errrr.” Growling, I clunked the side of my head off the nearby window. Here it comes, I thought.

“It’s gotten so bad that the girl is flashing me now,” Riley read the tweet out loud.

“Good one,” Lizzie laughed.

I felt my eyebrows pinch together. What?

“She couldn’t handle not being the center of attention,” he continued. “@Brooklyn86 asked, ‘why haven’t you tapped that yet?’ Hawkins responded, ‘who says that I haven’t?’”

I looked over at Riley to make sure that he wasn’t joking.

“He wishes,” Lizzie said hotly.

Riley looked up at me with a grim expression, “That’s it.”

“What are you going to blog?” Lizzie asked me excitedly.

“Where would I even start? What the hell!” I shouted. “You damn Subaru!” I took all my sudden frustration out on the road as the car passed us.

“Someone’s not happy.” Lizzie bugged out her eyes.

“Foreign piece of crap!” I yelled out my window. “Try keeping the jobs in America next time, buddy!” I flipped him the bird as well.

Riley softly chuckled beside me. “You do realize that you’re driving a Volkswagen, right?”

“And
you
realize I’m driving you around, right? So whose side are you on?” I glared over at him.

“Yours, definitely yours.” Riley grinned.

I started to think again about how Hawkins had been easy on me. Not one real insult among them so why was I baffled and pissed? I knew the rest of the world was taken with Lizzie’s beauty. Hawkins had earned some bonus points for being the only one who was seemingly unfazed by it, but as of a whole two seconds ago that all came to a crashing halt. Even so, I could still remember the fiery glare Hawkins threw my way after Kosic had kissed me. Men, who knows what they’re thinking? I knew that I was the writer and Lizzie was the muse, but I also knew that Hawkins didn’t approach me last night just so the details would be more convincing. No, he had approached me to make my life a living hell, but with the new tweets I couldn’t be certain where Hawkins was going with this?

I looked up at the signs for Charlotte. “I’m going need a little help with the exit.” I refocused back on the road as Riley pulled up the directions.

“You want exit 38.” He looked at the sign up ahead of us. 

“Cool.” 

“I hope the paparazzi aren’t there tonight.” I sighed.

“Why?” Lizzie asked.

“Seriously? You may feel comfortable getting naked in front of the paparazzi, but I don’t.” I veered off the six lane highway, glad to see it go. It instantly felt like the world of traffic stress was gone as my shoulders began to relax.

“Okay, let’s not make this all about you,” Lizzie said. “He was commenting about me, remember?”

The vision of beating a pillow over her head popped back into my mind but I decided to save what I was feeling for my blog. Heaving a sigh, I said, “Okay, I’m ready to comment.”

“Are you sure?” Riley said with a slightly emphatic tone.

“Yeah, why?” I said as calmly as possible.

“Okay.” He raised his eyebrows.

Riley could sense my bullshit a mile away, but he didn’t press me. Besides, how could he know something I didn’t understand myself? Dictating my blog to him, he typed, “Hawkins hasn’t tapped away at anything but his BlackBerry where he comments about me at a time that is most advantageous for his wallet. As for his attention, if a half-naked girl can’t get it, I can only make assumptions about who would.”

“That’s hysterical.” Lizzie giggled. “I can’t wait to see his reaction.”

“He’s probably just jealous that Kosic kissed Joie,” Riley countered.

“I don’t know,” Lizzie murmured as she rummaged through her clothes in the back. “Maybe Hawkins saw something he liked?”

Riley scoffed at the notion as he typed up his review for the show last night. My eyes drifted to the wild orange lilies that overflowed the center of the highway. The van didn’t even have to put up a fight along the flat stretch of road. So why was I restless and annoyed?

I was brought out of my thoughts when Lizzie reminded me “You know, technically he’s still a free agent. No one has made enough of a connection with him yet to call dibs, right?”

Glaring ahead, I remained silent, but I caught Riley looking over at me expectantly. He just shook his head at me and said, “I do.”

“You don’t count, Riley,” Lizzie said dismissively. “He’s straight.”

“This is from the same girl who wondered if he was batting for my team?” Riley reminded her.

“He finally met the right girl to set him straight,” she offered as Riley snarled at the insinuation.

“What’s wrong with Warren?” I asked.

“He’s dependable, but everyone knows that Hawkins is the real showstopper with him being the lead singer of the band and all.”

I snarled at her now. God, did she ever freaking stop?    

We exited the highway and parked at the venue. I opened the side door and noticed that people walking by kept looking our way. A couple of brave stragglers approached us, “Are you Lizzie McIntyre?”

“Yes, I am.” She flashed her dazzling smile.

“Can I have your autograph?” A young teenage boy asked. She signed her John Hancock across the cover of the magazine like she was proud. I tried to stop myself from groaning; I didn’t want anyone to encourage her behavior.

We heard The Larks playing in the distance as we walked up to the amphitheater. We were moving slowly because most of the crowd that was just walking in only came to see The Grimm Brothers Band.

Up ahead, I spotted the Nicholas Johnson booth. We stopped so I could pick up a bag of memorabilia, pamphlets of information, and a few pins. Leaning into the booth, Riley took a few photos with the camera in his cell phone. I asked to take my picture with a clip board stating that I was a huge fan, just in case I needed evidence for my mom later. Riley could barely hold the phone up straight he was laughing so hard. By the end we only had one credible looking photo, but that was better than none at all.

While we were busy at the campaign booth, Lizzie easily scored a free couple of beers for Riley and herself before we headed down the aisle. The crowd was already standing up with anticipation for the band as we inched down the row to our seats. Once we found them, I noticed the girl beside me was practically bouncing on her toes. By the way everyone was acting before the band took the stage, you would have thought it was Christmas morning.

A girl with a long homemade patch-like dress raised a sign in front of us, blocking off our view. The frat guys behind us started to boo her, but this flower child was in her own world while she swayed the sign back and forth. I assumed the band took the stage due to the thunderous applause and cheering around us, but I couldn’t tell as the sign “Stalking Hawkins” bobbed up and down in front of me. Suddenly a hand jetted out over my head as one of the frat guys from behind me ripped the sign out of the girl’s hands.

I glanced up at the stage just in time to witness the spotlight zeroing in on Lizzie beside me. She jumped up and down excitedly, causing the crowd to cheer and boo around us. But as I glared up at Hawkins, I realized he was only looking down at me. “
You
got my attention. Now what are you going to do with it?” he said into the microphone. 

With a lot of effort, I tried very, very hard not to smile. The spotlight moved away from Lizzie, but she continued to sway sexily beside me while watching Hawkins.

As the music began, it was somehow different tonight. There was an energy coming from Hawkins that even eclipsed yesterday’s performance. It was so infectious that I danced right along with Riley. Before I knew it, Hawkins hit the last chord and the music had suddenly stopped at the end of the night. The band slowly exited off the stage to the cries of fans. My eyes blinked a few times from the sudden contrast of the loud, beautiful music next to the silent murmuring of the crowd around me.

Lizzie had already strutted off in the direction of the backstage. Riley and I had already agreed on crashing at the nearest Walmart parking lot so I gave him a quick hug, before heading off that way myself. I raced to catch up to Lizzie who had already broken away from the exiting fans. When we arrived, Harrison pushed open the backstage door while keeping his eyes peeled on the crowd. Once inside, Cyrus was already standing there waiting for us.  

He quickly walked ahead of us down the hallway and pushed through the exiting doorway to the parking lot. Within minutes, we took off in the black Escalade with its heavily tinted windows. The SUV slowed down, but didn’t come to a complete stop when Cyrus flashed his pass to the security staff outside of his window. They directed us around the traffic to a lane reserved for only paramedics, police, and band members. We drove out of the place like we were part of the presidential motorcade.

After ten minutes, I smiled to myself when Cyrus pulled up into parking lot of a hotel. I knew it. Hawkins may have tweeted about Lizzie, but he clearly wanted to send me a message. Lizzie got out, looking less excited about the hotel, having already seen her fair share of them. We left Cyrus in the Escalade and entered into the Ritz Carlton Hotel with its cream and light brown lounge chairs scattered elegantly throughout the lobby. We were greeted by Hampton who escorted us across the glossy cream floors, past the receptionist desk to our right and on to the elevators. 

Another bodyguard stationed by the elevator checked our names off the top of the list and leaned in to press the fifth floor button before the doors closed. The elevator steadily climbed the floors without stopping in between. The doors dinged back open to a tightly cramped hallway filled with people. I laughed to myself while thinking that this was a far cry from the scene we saw the night when we tried to “save” Lizzie.

“Nice.”

We overheard loud laughter in the next room. Lizzie rounded the corner with me right behind her. The room was packed with people—some were smushed side by side on the long, beige couch that extended down the length of the room to the left, some were standing along the walls while others sat on the ground. Across from the couch were three beige and white checkered lounge chairs. Hawkins was sitting in the middle chair with his elbows resting on his knees.

Hawkins’ eyes grew wide as he looked across the room at Blakely, the drummer, who was seated on a long couch. “So he dared me to,” Hawkins’ smile widened, “and I lost, so I had to streak through Belvedere Park.” Everyone busted out laughing along with him. Lizzie started to maneuver through the packed crowd to get a better position in the room while I leaned beside the door.

“So wouldn’t you know it, even after midnight someone saw me. It was probably some elderly lady walking her dog.” He waved it off. “I don’t know, I wasn’t exactly aware of anything but my mind screaming at me to run faster, you know?” The room softly chuckled. “Long story short, an officer stopped me. Well, not stopped me directly,” he snickered, “but tried to contain the situation like he was herding cattle or something.” The room busted out laughing. “I mean I don’t blame him. To make matters worse,” he sighed, “I think it was the poor soul’s first day. He’s asking me all these questions that he was trained to say in the police academy or something like that because lord knows he had never envisioned this. He’s all, sir, do you have any identification?” Hawkins snorted then said as seriously as possible, “No, sir, I’m sorry, I didn’t have anywhere to put it.” Hawkins heaved in a silent laughing fit as the room lost it.

This was the first time I had seen Hawkins so…happy. Hawkins darted a sideways glance across the room at me. He cleared his throat and started to settle himself down again.

“Where is my sweetheart?” he called out while glaring at me. “Lizzie?” He didn’t have a second to look around the room before Lizzie appeared at the front of their crowded circle.

“Ah, there you are.” He motioned for her to come closer as people murmured around the room.

“It’s that girl,” a blonde said in front of me to her friend. Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms while continuing to lean against the doorway.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said, wrapping his arm around Lizzie’s shoulder. Hawkins lovingly twirled a strand of her blonde hair between his fingers, the way I had seen Warren do so many times before. He aimed a sideways glance over at Warren, who shook his head, but still smiled anyway. It was clear to me that Warren was in on the joke.

“I’m sorry, I was saying?” Hawkins asked.

“The officer,” a guy prompted him from the crowd.

“Right.” Continuing to play it up, Hawkins gazed lovingly into Lizzie’s eyes.

I had seen enough. Pushing off the doorway, I figured I’d go down the hallway. Maybe Kosic was here?

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Hawkins bellowed across the room, catching my attention. I turned back to face the room, with a slightly confused expression on my face. “You have a part to play, too,” he reminded me. 

A few people looked from Hawkins to me and then back again. I smirked, so was this just another game? It would explain his sudden interest in Lizzie and people in general. Hawkins held my gaze until I crossed my arms and leaned back against the doorway. Shrugging at him, I mouthed, fine and made a gesture for him to continue his performance. He pulled his eyes away from me and returned his attention back to the circle of people around him.