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» CHAPTER TEN: GAZEBO «

Nick led Allie to the far side of the yard; where no-one could see them. They found AJ’s gazebo. Inside was a hot tub with chairs sitting around it. They sat down on the chairs. There was a minute or two of total silence.

“So what did you want to talk about,” asked Allison, trying to break the ice. Nick turned to her and looked into her eyes. Allison sighed, 'His eyes are so beautiful,' she thought to herself.

“Allison, before I met you, I felt like a part of me was missing. Now I feel whole, just being by you today has made me so happy.” Nick thought for a moment. "I probably sound stupid saying this, since I just met you, but I like you a lot. I don’t know how you feel about me, but I hope that you feel the same way.” Nick looked down at his hands, waiting for Allison to answer.

“Nick,” Allison sighed, "I like you a lot too, but I’m only 16 and I think that if anything happens between us; that we should move slowly.”

Nick looked back up at Allison. “Yeah, I understand what you mean… I won’t push you in anyway. I think that at this moment, we should focus on getting to know each other better.” Nick held on to Allison’s hand.

“That sounds good to me,” said Allison.

They started talking about what they want to do later in life, and what has happened to them in the past. After a while, they just sat there in silence, enjoying each other’s company. Allison rested her head on Nick’s shoulder. Nick sighed and wrapped his arms around Allison, as they slowly drifted off into a light sleep.

~ Meanwhile ~

 “Valerie,” AJ said, looking deep into her eyes. "I… I like you a lot.”

“AJ, I like you too, but we just met,” said Valerie sadly.

“That’s OK, it’s just that I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

“But, I’m so young.”

“I know, I know, you are really young for me, but in love, age doesn’t matter” AJ said, reminding Valerie.

Valerie, pulled herself out of AJ’s arms, walked over to a lawn chair, and sat down. She put her head in her hands and started crying.

AJ, of course, ran over to her side. “What’s wrong? Did I say something that hurt you?” He wrapped his arms around Valerie and pulled her close to him. For a few minutes, she sat there crying on his shoulder.

Valerie sat up, wiping her eyes. "AJ, for the longest time, I’ve dreamt of being with you; being held by you; being close to you. Now, that I can; I won’t be able to.”

“Why?” asked AJ, looking into her eyes.

“I live in Washington; you live in Florida; you go on tour all around the world and you’re famous; I’ll be lucky if I ever get famous. We are just so different in so many ways…Gosh, this hurts me so much that I…”

AJ stopped her by putting his finger up to her lips. ”Shhh, don’t say anything else.” He leaned in and gave her a soft but sweet kiss on the lips. “Lets not talk about that anymore… we can keep in touch and I won’t even tell the press. I just want to get to know you better.” AJ looked at her for approval.

“OK, but I have to tell my parents that we are just friends. Then when I’m older, we can let it all out. But for now…. can we move slowly?” asked Valerie, trying to hide her excitement.

“Absolutely!” said AJ, grinning. “Come here.” AJ drew Valerie in for a long hug; he pulled away after a minute.

“Let’s go inside and get something to drink,” said Valerie.

“OK.” They walked inside and stopped at the door.

“Hey, where are Allie and Nick?” Valerie asked.

“I don’t know. I guess we forgot about them” he said.

“Lets go and look for them, ok?” Valerie said as she grabbed AJ’s arm and walked out of the room. They looked around for a few minutes, and had no luck in finding them.

“Maybe they went to the gazebo” AJ suggested.

“You didn’t tell me that you had one of those!” Valerie teased.

“You didn’t ask!” AJ joked.

“Whatever, lets just go and find them” Valerie said. And they went to the gazebo where they found Allie and Nick asleep holding each other.

“Well well, what do we have here?” AJ exclaimed.

“AWWWW! How cute!!” Valerie giggled.

“We should wake them up, it looks like a storm is coming and your mom is having dinner with us soon,” AJ stated.

“OK…” Valerie walked over to them. “Allie, wake up!” Valerie watched as Allie’s eyes slowly opened.

AJ walked over to the hot tub and got a handful of water. “Allie, you’d better move unless you want to get wet.”

“Why, what are you going to do… splash him?” Allie replied, as she got up out of her chair and walked over to Valerie.

“As a matter of fact, I am!” yelled AJ as he threw the water on Nick.

“What the…..” Nick screamed.

“Rise and shine morning glory!” said AJ as he ran up to Nick and gave him a big hug.

“Oh, man! Get off me!" whined Nick.

“Come on you guys, lets go inside. It’s looking ugly out here” said Valerie. Just then there was a flash of lightning.

Allie jumped and grabbed on to Nick's arm. “I hate storms!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you” said Nick.

“We’d better go inside, it’s kinda dangerous out here” said AJ, linking arms with Valerie.

“I’m not afraid of storms, but you can still hold me anyways,” whispered Valerie into AJ’s ear.

All of a sudden, a downpour of rain came down; soaking everyone immediately. They ran inside to the warmth and dryness of the house.

¤ Chapter 11: The Storm ¤
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