Love Heals All

by Addie McKenna

  “Was that necessary?” he asked, annoyance evident in his voice.

  “Mm-hm.” I grinned, kissing his nose. I got up, only to be pulled back down on the little devil’s chest when he rolled over.

  “Hayes, you’re gonna wrinkle my tank top!” I giggled.

  “Well, you shouldn’t have jumped on me,” he said with a laugh.

  “Come on, get up so we can go get some food! I want waffles and tea. I know—weird combination.” I got up, pulling him with me.

  “Let me grab a quick shower and we can go.” He kissed my forehead and grabbed some clothes, then walked into the bathroom.

  Five minutes later, he walked out shirtless. I giggled and decided to tease him.

  “Did you forget a shirt, or are you just gonna go shirtless all day?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll just go shirtless all day,” he said with a smirk.

  My eyes widened. “No, don’t! Then girls will be all over you, and I’ll lose you.” I pouted.

  “You’ll never lose me,” he whispered, walking over and wrapping his arms around me. He kissed me on the lips.

  I sighed in contentment then pulled away. “Good, I don’t want it to happen again,” I mumbled under my breath as Hayes walked to his suitcase, picked out a shirt, and pulled it over his toned torso.

  “What?” he asked, confused.

  “Oh, nothing. Let’s just go. I’m starving!” I said, rubbing my stomach and rushing to the door.

  Hopefully, he doesn’t find out.

  Autumn

  Hayes and I were at breakfast with Alec, Tez, and Gabby. We were all talking and laughing, and soon everyone else came in to eat with us. We were all just having fun, occupied with our individual conversations, without a care in the world.

  “Please tell me you’re coming onstage tomorrow!” I begged Bailey.

  “But backstage is so much fun, and there’s a lot of food,” she said.

  “Nooooo, Bails! I want my best friend onstage.” I pouted. I begged her with my eyes and she finally gave in.

  “Fine, only for you,” she huffed. I cheered and wrapped her in a hug.

  “Okay, okay, I get it, you’re excited.” She laughed.

  I giggled and sat back down. I picked up my Peace Tea and started drinking until the doors of the dining room burst open. I swallowed my drink and looked back to see a slutty-looking Ashley. We all rolled our eyes and looked away from her.

  “Carter! Babe!” she screeched.

  He rolled his eyes and abruptly rose. “One, don’t call me babe. Two, you need to get the heck out of here before we call security.”

  “Baby, what are you talking about?” she asked in that overly high-pitched voice.

  “Bish, you know exactly what he’s talking about. Now get the heck out!” Gabby yelled as she stood up. Bailey stood up, too, and put an arm around Gabby’s shoulder, trying to calm her down, and that seemed to help a little.

  “Whatever. You just don’t know what you’re missing,” she sneered, trying to strut out of the room. The key word in that sentence was trying.

  “That was easier than one might have expected.” Cameron sighed.

  “Yeah. How did she even get in here?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but we need better security.” Nash laughed, trying to lighten the tense mood.

  “Who was she?” Justin asked.

  “Carter’s ex, who cheated on him and abused Autumn,” Bart stated.

  “Oh . . .” she trailed off.

  “Yeah,” we all finished for her.

  Soon, it was time for the meet-and-greet part of the day, and we all got into pairs. “All right, everyone from one to two hundred on the left and from two oh one to four hundred on the right,” one of the announcers said into a microphone. Stupid, Autumn, of course he announced it.

  Anyway, this was crazy! There were so many people here just to see us. And we were just regular people, nobody special.

  “Oh my gosh! Hayes, I love you so much! You’re so hot! Ahhhh!” a girl screamed in Hayes’s face.

  “Thank you. I love you, too.” He smiled. We all took a picture, the girl not even acknowledging me, and went on to the next.

  This happened with each of the next thirty girls—they didn’t even talk to me! I mean, I was a part of FAM Tour, too. Not to be self-centered or anything, but it would’ve been nice for even one girl to say she loved me or wanted an individual picture with me. I guess I was just Hayes’s girlfriend . . .

  The next girl came up, and I just stayed behind Hayes, thinking it was yet another one of his fans, but she ran up and hugged me, completely ignoring him.

  “Autumn! I love you and your videos so much! You saved my life, and I cannot thank you enough. I just wanted to tell you that before watching your videos, I was very depressed. I cut every single day, sometimes even twice. I tried committing suicide three times and was put into a hospital each time. But now I’m eight months clean, and I haven’t cut since. I also don’t have depression anymore. You saved me, and I’m thankful that you and your videos showed up in my life.” She started crying, and I cried with her. I gave her a huge hug.

  “That’s awesome. You have achieved what so many others haven’t been able to do. I’m happy to have been a part of it, but it was your hard work. You were the one who stopped. You were the one who didn’t give up. I may have given you a tiny push, and if so, I’m glad I did. You seem like such a great person! I love you, too!” I smiled at her.

  “Can you follow me on Twitter?” she asked.

  “Psh, girl, I will follow you on all your social media!” I said excitedly. She squealed and handed me a piece of paper with the list. We took a picture and, sadly, she had to go.

  “I hope I see you again someday,” I whispered in her ear, giving her one last hug.

  “That would be great,” she said, walking away.

  I smiled, stunned to have heard that I’d been a part of saving her life. Then I felt someone’s arms wrap around my waist and a head against my shoulder. His fluffy hair was touching my cheek, and I knew exactly who it was: Hayes.

  “You saved her life, babe.” He kissed my cheek.

  “No, she saved her own life. I was just there to give her some motivation.” I smiled at him.

  “Well, you’re one heck of a girl. Giving motivation to save lives one step at a time.” He gave me a quick peck, and then we were back to taking pictures. Girls were now paying attention to me, too, because of what had just happened, but I just couldn’t get that girl off of my mind.

  I didn’t even get her name . . .

  We were all back at the hotel, and I was going through the girl’s social media. I wasn’t stalking, just gradually looking through her pictures and stuff.

  I found out that her name was Maddie, and she lived in Burke, Virginia. Wow, she came all the way to Cali for FAM Tour.

  I liked her pictures that she posted of the two of us, but the comments baffled me. There were things like:

  “You’re fat.” But she was a stick.

  “You’re ugly.” But she was beautiful.

  “Why did your mom give birth to you?” Why would anyone be so hurtful?

  “Do you even have friends?” Anyone who would make these comments doesn’t deserve friends!

  I continued reading through the hurtful comments until I stopped at one that really made me mad.

  Go die in a whole. You’re a slut with no friends and your parents probably hate you. You didn’t deserve to go to FAM Tour, I did.

  And she didn’t even spell hole right. I replied to that comment instantly.

  She totally deserved to come to FAM Tour and you didn’t. She doesn’t deserve to die, no one does. She’s not a slut, she’s most likely still a virgin. Her parents don’t hate her, they were the ones who brought her here to California t
o come meet us, so please, stop hating on Maddie. She’s my friend and she doesn’t deserve all of this. She’s beautiful and funny and nice and anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend. It’s your loss for not being one of her friends.

  I sent the comment and smirked proudly.

  “Whatcha smirking at over there, little Miss Priss?” Aly asked slyly.

  “Just standing up for a friend.” I smiled. I screenshot the picture, cropped it, and posted it on my Instagram. My caption was, “Go follow @Maddielane! If you give her hate, you’ll be blocked! Love you, Mads!”

  “What did you say?” Cameron asked, a warning in his voice.

  “Oh, nothing bad, stop being so rigid.” I showed everyone the comment.

  “Autumn, you’re so nice.” Aly smiled at me.

  “Why, thank you, dearest Aly.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her. She laughed and rolled her eyes.

  You see, we kinda got Aly’s foster mom to let us bring her! We all persuaded her and she finally said yes! I treated her like my little sister and always watched out for her. Well, it’s not like I didn’t already treat her like my little sister, but you get the gist. Some of us had a suspicion that she and Bart were related—we just hadn’t told them. They looked and acted exactly alike, and they always picked on each other. They literally acted like brother and sister.

  “That was sweet of you to stand up for her, babe.” Hayes kissed my cheek. I snuggled into him, his arms already wrapped around me.

  “Why, thank you. I’m going to DM her to see how she’s doing. I hope she’s okay,” I said.

  I DM’ed her a weird selfie that Hayes and I took, with him kissing my cheek and me pulling a double chin and smirking. I laughed at the picture and started to write a caption.

  First off, if you send or show this to anyone, I will personally be there with my unicorn and he will fly you to a volcano of hot melted marshmallows and you will be thrown in and drowned to death by marshmallows. No jk lolz I trust yewww! Anyway, I wanted to see how you were doing, after reading all of those stupid comments. I was reading them and was like “Why is they hatin’ on my new bestayy?” Yes, you are my new bestayy. I wanted to give you my number so you can text me since we are now friends! I trust you with this, and if you tell anyone, I will be very disappointed ’cause I really like you. My number is 555-243-8978.

  I sent it, and she replied about fifteen minutes later saying she was okay and that I could trust her with my number and blah blah blah. She also said she about died laughing because of the picture and my first two sentences! So we texted for a while and then she had to go. Sad face.

  • • •

  I looked at the TV and saw the others were watching Orange Is the New Black. I rolled my eyes and smirked over at Bailey. She winked at me and returned her gaze to the TV, her head resting on Daniel’s shoulder. Of course she’d made them watch it.

  “I’m gonna go get into my pajamas.” I yawned, stretching as I got up. Everyone mumbled an okay as I walked over to our room. I grabbed Nash’s Florida Gators shirt and a pair of Hayes’s sweatpants and changed. I really didn’t care if any of the guys minded if I wore their clothes or not, I was gonna keep wearing them! I literally had at least three pieces of each of the guys’ clothing. Not joking.

  I walked back over to Brandon, Alec, Tez, and Gabby’s room with my glasses, a messy bun, and my pajamas. I used the spare key that could unlock anyone’s room to get in and sat down on the floor between Hayes’s legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and laced our fingers together almost immediately.

  “Is that my shirt?” Nash asked.

  “Maybe,” I giggled. He threw a Starburst at me. I caught it in my mouth and threw my hands into the air in victory.

  “That was cool. Where’d you learn to do that?” Tez whispered so Bailey wouldn’t yell at him.

  “I don’t know, it just happened,” I whispered back, smiling.

  “You guys need to be quiet!” Bailey yelled. Apparently, everyone whispering wasn’t quiet enough.

  We all rolled our eyes and looked back at the screen. To be honest, I didn’t really like Orange Is the New Black. It was really graphic and weird. But, eh, whatever made my best friend happy.

  I leaned back into Hayes’s chest and he kissed my temple. I played with his fingers, which was hard considering his hands were intertwined with mine, and just waited until everyone had had enough of the weird show.

  “Okay, I’m sending you that picture ’cause it was cute, and let’s watch something else,” Jonah whined. I laughed and agreed.

  “I agree!” Nash and Shaelyn chorused, checking out Jonah’s phone. We looked at them, confused.

  “Oh, we agree that it’s a cute picture and that we should watch something else,” Shaelyn said, handing Jonah his phone.

  “But, but, but.” Bailey pouted.

  “No buts. Aly shouldn’t be watching this anyway,” Bart said in a serious tone.

  “Dawww! S’cute. But Bart, Aly’s asleep,” I cooed.

  He looked over his shoulder and smiled at the eleven-year-old girl lying on his back, sleeping. “I’m gonna go put her to bed. Be right back,” he whispered. When he left, we all burst out into conversation about Bart and Aly, forgetting about which TV show we should watch next.

  “Who thinks they’re brother and sister?” Carter asked, raising his hand. All of our hands shot up.

  “Totally related,” Gabby said.

  “It would be unbelievable if they weren’t,” Aaron stated.

  “Okay, we need to figure out whether they’re brother and sister,” Jonah schemed. Pretty much what he does the best.

  “Autumn, you’re the problem solver—what do we do?” Daniel asked, looking at me. Everyone started staring and I looked at them, confused.

  “What are you talking abo— Wait, I have the perfect plan.” I sat up, only to be pulled right back down by Hayes.

  “We toooold youuuuu!” Justin sang.

  “Whatever,” I mumbled.

  “Well, what’s the plan?” Brandon urged.

  “Calm your tits. Okay, well, we’re gonna—” But just then Bart walked back into the room.

  “Okay. What’re we watching?” he asked, rubbing his hands together while sitting down.

  “We decided on Beauty and the Beast!” I said quickly.

  “WE ARE ALL SO EXCITED!” The rest of the girls clapped while the guys groaned.

  “I can see it wasn’t y’all’s choice.” Bart laughed. “But it’s fine. Aly made me watch it with her over a million times. It’s her favorite princess movie.” He smiled.

  We all smirked. “What?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” Daniel said. Bart shrugged and turned toward the screen, where Ella had put in Beauty and the Beast.

  After the Disney Movie

  Everyone was asleep except for Nash, Hayes, Daniel, Bailey, and me. We all looked at each other, and I motioned my head toward the door, indicating that we should go to a different room.

  We left and went into the room Nash, Shaelyn, Daniel, and Bailey were staying in. Bailey and Daniel lay on their bed, while Nash sat on his, and Hayes and I sat on the floor. Well, Hayes sat on the floor, and I sat on his lap.

  “Let’s play spin the bottle, but with a twist. Every time it lands on someone, the person who spins it has to ask a question and the person it lands on has to answer,” I said after several minutes of silence.

  “Sounds good,” Nash said.

  “I’m in,” Daniel answered.

  “Let’s do dis.” Bailey ran over and plopped on top of Hayes and me.

  “Bailey, you’re killing my legs,” Hayes gasped in pain.

  “Sowwey, Hayesie,” Bailey said in a baby voice, then gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek.

  “Nash, go get a bottle,” I urged.

  “No, you go get it,” he whine
d, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Whatever, butthole,” I mumbled, standing up and grabbing a big water bottle off the TV stand.

  “Whose is this?” I asked. It was still halfway full, so someone would have to drink it . . . And Autumn’s thirsty for water!

  “Mine, why?” Bailey furrowed her eyebrows.

  “I’m drinking it!” and before she could answer, I was chugging it down. In a matter of three seconds flat, I was done. And trust me, half of a 1.5 liter water bottle is a lot to drink.

  “Zayum, girl, you have some drinking skills,” Nash snapped in his puma face.

  I giggled and set it down. “Who’s ready to play?”

  Autumn

  “All right, let’s start! Autumn spins first since she made this up,” Nash said. Everyone nodded.

  I spun the bottle, and it landed on Bailey. I smirked, and her eyes widened. She probably knew I was gonna ask her something embarrassing in front of her boyfriend.

  “Bailey, who was your first kiss?” I smirked, already knowing the answer.

  “But you already know that!” she whined.

  “That doesn’t mean the others do.” I giggled, and she pouted. “C’mon, it’s only six people, and whatever is said in this room stays in this room,” I said.

  “Fine!” she huffed. “It was in sixth grade on a playground in front of one of those poles that you climb. His name was Jackson, and after we kissed he fell through the opening to the ground and broke his leg,” she said, blushing the entire time.

  We all burst out in laughter. As she shoved her face into Daniel’s shoulder, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, still laughing.

  “Aw, baby, it’s okay,” he said, still chuckling.

  She sat up. “That was embarrassing,” she said with a laugh. “All right, let’s get back to the game.”

  She spun the bottle, and it landed on Hayes. She smirked and asked him the question that, for some reason, all the girls were dying to know. We kinda didn’t tell them why we left that day at the lake.