offlimits2

Dorothy awoke the next morning with heavy thoughts on her mind. What had she seen the night before? Monika and Brad? Together? No way. Dorothy didn't know what to think. She decided to go talk to Laurie. Laurie was the peacemaker of the house and Dorothy figured, if Laurie couldn't give her an explanation, she'd at least listen.

Laurie, who was always the first to get up in the morning, was already awake and packing things to take to the days photo shoot. Dorothy found her in the kitchen, packing a few of her favorite snacks into her backpack.

     "Laurie, I've got to tell you something", Dorothy said hastily.

Laurie looked up from what she was doing and gave Dorothy that nagging motherly type look.
     "Dorothy, don't tell me you've gone getting into people's business again", she said, "I'm tired of hearing about what you've heard or what you thought you've seen."

Dorothy had quickly become the group gossip. Always medling and prying. The other group members had learned to take whatever Dorothy says with a grain of salt.

"Oh My God Laurie, last night was sitting up by the window writing in my diary when I saw Brad's truck pull up with Monika in the front seat. And before she got out, he KISSED HER LAURIE!! THEY KISSED!!" Dorothy was trying to contain her excitement, but she just couldn't. She nearly jumped up and down as she was talking, her eyes bright.
    "And I'm not talking about a little friendly peck, I mean, it was a pretty hot kiss!!" Dorothy gave Laurie a 'you know what I mean' type look.

Laurie sighed. She didn't even know where to start. Dorothy was nearly impossible to calm down once she gets excited.

     "Dorothy, there's no way Brad and Monika could be together. I mean, it's like against the rules or something isn't it?" Laurie went on, "They wouldn't do something as risky as that. Plus, Brad isn't even Monika's type!"
Laurie continued to try and reason with Dorothy but there was no hope. She just listened as Dorothy went on and on. The only thing that stopped Dorothy's ranting was when Monika herself came down, looking radiant as ever, ready to head to the photo shoot.

"Good morning everyone!", Monika added very chipperly. Just as she said that, two very droopy looking boys came down the stairs, ready to...well go back to sleep. They both went straight to the table and put their heads down.

"Good Morning Donavan....Josh." Monika announced.   The boys mumbled something in return, but no one could make out exactly what it was. Donavan leaned over to Josh and whispered, "Why is she so happy this morning?"
Josh, too tired to even respond, just shrugged his shoulders.

The group piled into the van and headed to their photo shoot in Santa Monica. While in the car, Monika ran her her fingers over her lips. She thought about the night before and how passionately Brad had kissed her. Her body yearned to be with him, but she knew it'd be an entire day before she could be near him again. She decided to page him from her two way to his, just to let him know that she was thinking about him. She paged him with "Thinking about you always" and he promptly responded with "You're always on my mind." For the half hour car ride, Monika busied herself with her pager, smiling each time it buzzed to alert her of a new message from her man.

Dorothy and Laurie were sitting in the bench in front of Monika and Dorothy noticed Monika's preoccupation with her pager from the start. She nudged Laurie and motioned for her to take a peak at how intently Monika was using her pager. Dorothy's eyes sparkled at the thought of discovering a secret that no one else knew.

"Hey Monika, who's blowin up your pager huh?", she asked as if she knew nothing, "Your new boy toy?" She giggled.

Monika looked up from her pager and answered "Oh, just talking to my brother back home." she lied, "Simone is staying with him and my dad this week."

Unsatisfied with that answer, Dorothy kept prying. "Oh come on Monika, you can tell us," she pleaded, "We wanna know who's making YOU blush!"

Monika thought to herself, Dorothy is so persistant. Will she ever give up. So instead of making up another excuse, she turned her head and ignored Dorothy's ranting. She went right back to paging Brad.

Dorothy took the cold shoulder as rudeness and thought to herself, why is she so rude? We're supposed to be friends, why won't she confide in me?

--------------------

After the photo shoot, the group sat down and had lunch together. Jaymes arrived at the set and announced that there was a surprise coming their way. Something big that would bring the group closer, as it a tight knit relationship is crucial for a new group. The group busied themselves eating and guessing what it could be.
Just as the began to dig into their dessert, Brad and Tony walked in.

Monika's heart stopped. Why hadn't he told her that he was coming to the shoot? She watched him walk in, and take a seat next to Jaymes. She wanted so badly to jump into his arms and give him a kiss, but she had to hold back her urges and sit as if nothing was different.

The rest of the group were all anxious to hear what the big surprise was.
"Gosh, don't leave us waiting anymore ya'll, we wanna know now!", Josh said with his southern drawl.

Tony and Brad stood up and cleared their throats. "Well," Tony began, "we've been trying to figure out how to reward you guys for all of your hard work and we've decided to give you guys a trip."
The group shrieked in excitement.   "The day after next you 5, along with us 3, will be on a plane headed to the Bahamas!"
Monika's heart almost came to a stop. Brad was going too? A vacation to the Bahamas? This could be her chance to have a romantic getaway with Brad. As the rest of the group yelled in excitement, Monika sat quietly to herself and made eye contact with Brad, he smiled and winked at her. Maybe this would be the perfect chance for them.