Across the Miles (7 page)

Rose's thoughts were interrupted by the sound
of Liam knocking on the hotel door. She quickly hung up the phone
and answered the door.

And boy was Liam a sight for sore eyes. She
couldn't believe how much she had missed him, and it had only been
a little over a day that they had been apart.

“So, you ready to go? Are you packed?” Liam
questioned a few seconds after Rose opened the door, both taking
their time to just take each other in after being apart.

Rose nodded, grabbed her bags, and set out
after Liam, making her way onto the tour bus.

And
WOAH
. This bus was AWESOME. Wait,
no. Awesome didn't even begin to cover it. Rose had always pictured
tour buses as being cramped and stuffy. But no. Liam's tour bus was
spacious and had multiple bedrooms and couches and TVs and a mini
bar and it was decorated with bright colors and a mini chandelier
and just WOAH. Rose could definitely get used to this.

“I cleared a room up for you. Follow me and
I'll show you which one it is. Then you can put your bags down and
we'll watch a movie or something. Or, wait, are you hungry? The sun
should be rising soon, so we could have breakfast! I have a chef on
the bus and he makes delicious omelets.”

“Ummm... I'll just unpack for now, I guess.
We can eat later. And I have to say thanks again for letting me
stay with you. I hope it won't cause you too much trouble,” Rose
said, following Liam into Rose's temporary bedroom.

“Of course it won't cause trouble! How could
you even suggest that!?” Liam assured her.

Rose sighed in relief and began unpacking,
chatting idly with Liam as she did so. It never ceased to amaze her
how easy conversation was for them. It was like they had been
friends for years. Everything just felt so natural with him.

When Rose had finally finished unpacking, she
and Liam headed to the kitchen, and Liam surprised her by suddenly
saying, “You're my best friend, Rose. I'm sorry if that's weird of
me to say so soon, but it's true. I'm so happy I have you with me
the rest of the tour.”

Rose blushed.

“Thank you. It's not weird. I feel the
same.”

Liam smiled at her, then quickly told the
chef their orders.

Both secretly hoped that whatever they had
going on between them would last longer than the tour. They had
quickly grown to be best friends, and they knew it was only a
matter of time before those feelings developed into more. But they
both decided not to bring it up right then, and, instead, eased
back into comfortable conversation.

Liam grabbed their omelets and made his way
to his bedroom, Rose following behind him silently. Liam popped in
his favorite Disney movie and the two settled onto his bed, sitting
side by side, enjoying movie after movie all day long until they
eventually drifted off to sleep, Rose resting her head on Liam's
shoulder, and Liam's head on top of hers.

And they slept better than they ever had.

Chapter 10

So, now that Rose had proven to Liam that she
would stick by his side, no matter how bad the paparazzi had it out
for them, things went back to normal for the new friends. Except,
everything was ten times better, because, now, they were together
all the time.

You would think that, eventually, they would
have gotten tired of each other, but no. They just got closer and
closer with each passing day.

After the article about them got out, Liam
decided that it might be best if Rose watched the shows from
backstage from then on. Rose had no problem complying with that. As
far as she was concerned, backstage was the greatest place to be.
From there, she had a great view of the show. And it made her feel
special compared to the other people who came to see Liam.

The fans thought they knew who Liam was, but
they had no idea. They all screamed for him and chanted his name
and came up to him after the shows to tell him they loved him, but
they had no idea how spectacular the man they were meeting really
was.

Rose knew, though. She could only say this
because, a month ago, she had been one of those fans. But now that
she had spent time with Liam, she realized that Liam was even
better than the press made him out to be. He was as close to
perfect as they came. I mean, sure, he had flaws, of course. But
when Rose said that Liam was perfect, she meant that Liam was
perfect for her. She encouraged his goofiness, she helped him paint
his nails, she sang songs with him for hours at a time, she put up
with all of his favorite disney movies, even if he did have an
unhealthy obsession with them. Rose understood Liam, and liked him
just the way he was.

The only problem was, Rose didn't know if
Liam felt the same way. They still hadn't talked about what was
going on between them since Liam called Rose his best friend the
night he picked her up from the hotel, and it had been a whole week
since then.

Liam had quite a few nights off that week,
because the travel time was pretty short from city to city, but he
still needed to rest every now and then between shows, which
resulted in Rose and Liam spending a lot of extra time together.
Especially since they were now traveling together. This meant that
they were growing closer and closer. Both refused to address the
issue of their growing feelings, though.

That is, until one night right before his
show in Little Rock, when Liam pulled Rose aside backstage and
asked if he could sing her another song that he wrote for her. He
decided to ask her about it first, now that he had seen first-hand
the consequences of being seen with Rose in public. If he sang to
Rose, the news would get hold of it, which meant any decision Liam
made regarding Rose would now have a direct impact on how the media
portrayed her. So it was only fair to warn his friend what he had
planned.

Rose blushed. She was completely caught off
guard by Liam's proposal. She thought that after Liam had last sung
to her, and then never brought it up again, that it would be the
end of that. She wasn't expecting for Liam to do it again. And
frankly, she couldn't be more excited or flattered.

“Of course. I would love that,” Rose said,
trying to turn her head in order to hide her blush. But Liam didn't
miss it, and smiled to himself knowing that he had that effect on
her.

Liam had been inspired by all the crazy
events that had happened recently, from meeting Rose, to ending up
in the hospital because of paparazzi, to having Rose ride on the
tour bus with him. Rose had really gotten him thinking about trust
and love. Rose had showed him that there are still some sincere
people in the world and that not everyone was out to get him. Rose
brought out a side of Liam that he didn't even know was there to
begin with. Liam had never felt so free to just be himself. Rose
brought out the best in him.

So here went nothing. Liam glanced to Rose,
who was standing backstage, before turning back to the crowd,
announcing, “I made a new friend on this tour. She's basically the
greatest thing that's ever happened to me. She has changed
something inside of me. Made me a stronger person. And I just
wanted her to know how much she means to me.”

And with that, he began to sing. This song
was beautiful. It was a lot different than the song he first sang
to Rose. The first one was more of a song someone would sing to a
friend. This song was much deeper than that. It was obvious from
this song that their dynamic had changed in the course of a few
weeks. But, that came as no surprise. They were spending all of
their time together now. Sure, they hadn't really gone out on any
“real” dates since that night at the movies, but they hung out on
the bus and went sight-seeing in every new city and they were
basically inseparable. And all of that was put into this song.

Rose knew that she couldn't ignore it
anymore. She needed to talk to Liam to find out if there was
anything other than friendship between them. She just hoped that
Liam singing this song to her was a sign that he was ready to talk
about it too.

At the end of the show, Rose
hung around backstage, talking to various security guards that she
had come to befriend, while Liam met with his fans who came
backstage to meet him. When the last fan had left, Liam sneaked up
behind Rose, grabbed her hand, and walked them back to the tour bus
in silence.

When they got back to the bus, Rose was the
first to speak.

“This is the second time you've sung to me,
Liam. And we never really talk about it. I think we should talk
about it now.”

Liam nodded slowly, a bit hesitant and scared
to open up his heart. But it was something that needed to be
done.

“Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about it.”

They sat in silence.

“Liam... to talk about it, you actually have
to talk,” Rose joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“I don't really know where to start, to be
honest.”

“Well, how about you start with telling me
why you wanted to sing to me. Well... not even sing. More like
serenade, I would call it after tonight.”

“Because I like you, Rose.”

There. He had said it. And wow did it feel
good to get off his chest.

But Rose wasn't responding. Why wasn't she
responding? Liam looked up at Rose, to see that Rose had turned her
head away, blushing again, biting back a smile. Oh. Okay. At least
that was a good sign.

“Do you have anything to say to me, Rose?”
Liam asked, getting anxious from waiting to hear her response.

“Why me?” Was all Rose had to say. It all
seemed too good to be true. Her idol turned best friend liked her?
How was that even possible?

“Well, for one, you didn't scream in my face
when you met me. And I'm not gonna lie- your good looks definitely
helped out your case as well. I was drawn in by your beauty. And we
seemed to hit it off immediately... don't you agree?”

Rose nodded, so Liam continued,

“We can talk for hours and hours and we have
so much in common and you get me and you listen to me and you see
past the visage that the media has set up for me. You didn't even
care when you made it in the magazines and newspapers. You are
proud to be who you are and you seem to care about me. No one has
ever really cared about the real me before. It's impossible not to
like you. You're just... amazing. There's no other word for
it.”

Rose's jaw had now dropped. She couldn't
believe that Liam Walker was saying all of this to her. She didn't
feel like she deserved it.

“Stop right there. I can tell what you're
thinking,” Liam said, interrupting Rose's thought process.

“You are incredible, beautiful, talented...
hell, your voice is better than mine. You're funny, kind,
compassionate, caring, and I love being around you. Please tell me
you feel the same.”

“I do,” Rose responded instantly, no shame or
doubt in her voice. Rose knew that she definitely felt the same.
There was no denying that.

“I mean, I had a celebrity crush on you
before I even met you, but once I really did meet you, that picture
in my head melted away and became something even better. You are so
much better than I ever thought you'd be.”

Liam smiled, grabbing Rose's hand. He was
about to lean in for a kiss, when Rose began speaking again.

“But we can't do this. Not now.”

Liam froze, with the exception of dropping
Rose's hand as if it was on fire.

“Why not? I like you. You like me. Why can't
we do this?”

“Because you're on tour. In another month,
this will all be over. Just another summer romance. And I don't
need that. Neither do you. We both deserve something that is
lasting. Not this impossible teenage dream. What we have going now-
this friendship- it's good. No. It's better than good. It's
fantastic. I don't want to screw it up. I don't want to have my
heart broken. I just needed to know if you felt the same as I did
for you, because, to be honest, the tension and suspense was kind
of killing me.”

Liam couldn't believe what he was hearing.
What Rose was saying just didn't make any sense. He didn't agree
with it at all. He wanted Rose. He wanted Rose as more than a
friend. For longer than just another month.

But Rose knew that she had a point. What
happened when Liam finished tour? Would they part ways? Rose would
go back to New York City to finish school and become a famous
fashion designer and singer and Liam would go back to California to
work on his next album. How could they possibly work together with
distance working to keep them apart?

Liam, on the other hand, knew there had to be
some way for them to be together, but he didn't have an answer to
Rose's questions right then, so all he could do was nod his head in
agreement.

“You're right. What we have is good. We'll
keep being friends,” Liam said, hesitantly.

“I'm sorry it turned out like this. I wish
things could have been different. But it doesn't have to be for
forever. The fates have been kind to us so far. If it's meant to
be, we'll find a way,” Rose said with as much sincerity in her
voice as she could muster, pulling Liam into a hug.