Andi let out a huge sigh of relief. “And I’m sorry I let you down by forgetting about those plans we made, or by lying about forgetting them, or…you know. I never, ever meant to disappoint you, and it kills me that I made you so mad.”
“Honestly? I’m kind of surprised at how much it bothered me,” Buffy admitted. “I’ve actually been thinking about it a lot, and I realized that it may have been less about you forgetting our plans and more about feeling like we were drifting apart.”
Andi frowned. “Drifting apart? Really?”
“I know it may sound silly,” Buffy admitted. “But I’ve been pretty busy lately with basketball, so I know I haven’t been able to hang out as much. But I couldn’t tell if you noticed…or cared. And when you said you were going to Mountain Jam with Bex? It didn’t just feel like you had forgotten about our plan to go together. It felt like you had forgotten about me.”
Andi smiled. “Buffy! I could never forget about you! Our friendship is everything. And I’m really proud of you for being on the basketball team, even if it means you’re too busy to hang sometimes. I don’t want to make you feel bad about it.”
Buffy smiled back at her. “I know I shouldn’t have gotten mad when I was really just sad. But sometimes when I’m feeling hurt, it comes out as anger instead. I guess the point is…I miss you. A lot.”
Andi gave Buffy a hug. “I miss you, too—and I would have missed you more than you could possibly know if I hadn’t been able to get you up here this weekend.”
“I’m so glad it all worked out,” Buffy said.
“Me too.” Andi held up her left hand and pressed the back of it against the back of Buffy’s right hand. “I mean, which of my other friends would have gotten a matching henna tattoo with me?”
“Obviously not Cyrus!” Buffy smiled.
Andi laughed, and then she and Buffy both did their best Cyrus impressions in unison: “Wouldn’t want to get erased from the Goodman family cemetery plot…forevah!”
“Seriously, though,” Andi added, “maybe we should commit to making more time for each other, even when we get crazy busy. Because I don’t ever want to forget about you, and I don’t ever want you to forget about me, either. You’re my best friend. Forever.”
“Phew!” Buffy laughed. “Am I glad we cleared that up! So do you think that after we go backstage, we could go back to the Skyscraper Slide…just you and me?”
“Oh my gosh, yes!” Andi bounced up and down. “I would love that!”
“Yay!” Buffy grinned, tilting her head toward the band’s private backstage tent. “Then let’s do this thing!”
After they joined Bex and the others inside, Andi and Buffy saw the guys in the band hanging out at a long banquet table, where they were grabbing bottles of water from a big metal ice bucket and dumping them over each other’s heads. Then they all exchanged high fives and fist bumps as Bowie shook some of the water out of his dark curls.
At that point, more people streamed into the tent, including Ham on his crutches, along with CeCe and others who were apparently family members or friends of the other guys in the band. As everyone crowded around, grabbing food and drinks from the banquet table and hugging each other, Andi pulled Bowie aside.
“Dad,” she began, and Bowie’s face instantly lit up, just as it had when she’d recently called him Dad on his birthday and whenever he had looked at her from the stage—as if the rest of the crowd had fallen away and she was the center of his universe. “Thank you so much for this weekend.”
“Are you kidding?” Bowie said softly. “Thank you—for talking Bex into taking you, for talking me into getting up on that stage.”
Andi scrunched up her face. “I didn’t talk you into that!”
“Um, yeah, you did.” Bowie smiled. “You had a whole master plan, and it totally worked, and you know it.”
Andi shrugged. “Okay, you might be kind of right about that.”
“Uh-huh.” Bowie gave her a long hug.
“So was it everything you hoped it would be?” Andi asked after they had pulled apart.
“Truth?” Bowie asked.
“Truth.” Andi nodded.
“Everything I hoped it would be and more,” Bowie assured her. Looking into his light-brown eyes, she once again got the feeling that he was 100 percent focused on her.
Andi smiled and glanced back at Jonah, who was chatting excitedly with one of the roadies. Then she looked over at Bex, who was hugging CeCe while Ham beamed with pride. Finally, she turned and caught a glimpse of Cyrus trying to convince Buffy to pretend to dump water on his head with an empty bottle while Buffy just rolled her eyes and laughed.
“Me too,” Andi said, turning her attention back to Bowie. “A lot more.”
Late Monday morning, after making the trip down the mountain—thankfully, with no flat tires or queasiness, and just a brief stop to get Bex’s ring back from Tara at the diner—Andi and Bex arrived at their apartment, happy but exhausted.
“So how did this Mountain Jam compare to the other times you’ve been?” Andi asked as Bex pulled open the sleeper sofa and they both stretched out. She knew it had been a pretty incredible weekend, but she had nothing else to compare it to—unlike Bex, who’d had about thirteen years’ worth of other adventures
“Way better!” Bex replied, turning onto her side to face Andi. “In fact, not only was it the best Mountain Jam I’ve been to, I’d say it was the best music festival, best road trip, best adventure, period!”
Andi smiled while Bex kept going. “I mean, hello? In addition to getting the full VIP treatment, we got to see Bowie perform for thousands of people, I got to see my kid dance in front of thousands of people! Plus, going backstage? So awesome! Not to mention all that incredible food…getting glitter makeovers…those fantastic art installations…and our amazing tent!” Bex shifted on the mattress, and the springs creaked. “I sure am gonna miss that bed,” she added with a faraway look in her eyes.
Andi laughed. “It really was awesome,” she agreed, “and I don’t just mean the bed.”
“But you know what I think I liked best of all?” Bex asked.
“Hmmm?”
“Getting to experience it with you and getting the chance to prove to myself—and to CeCe—that I really can be a responsible mom,” Bex said. “Even with some sketchy stuff along the way, we’re back home safe and sound. I kept you alive the whole weekend!”
Andi was about to laugh when her stomach suddenly made a loud growling noise—even louder than it had when Jagger had given them a lift in his truck on Saturday.
“Um, was that your stomach?” Bex asked, staring down at Andi’s belly.
“Yeah.” Andi grimaced. “Apparently, keeping me alive requires a lot of food.”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Bex replied with a smile.
“Yeah, but why have I been so hungry lately?” Andi wondered. “I can’t remember a time when my stomach has been quite so…communicative.”
“You’re probably going through a growth spurt,” Bex noted. “In fact, pediatric research has shown that most girls have a major growth spurt between the ages of ten and fourteen.”
Andi grinned. “Wow, you sound just like CeCe!”
Bex grabbed a pillow and whacked Andi over the head.
“So…pizza?” Andi proposed.
Bex cringed. “Ugh. No way.”
“Really? Why not?”
Bex rolled off of the sleeper sofa and walked over to the yellow trunk that served as an accent table, grabbing her memory box and carefully opening it. “There’s something I may have left out when I was talking about all the things that made this Mountain Jam even better than the others….”
“Yeah?” Andi’s eyes grew wide. “What is it?”
“I entered the pizza-eating contest again!” Bex revealed, her eyes sparkling.
“WHAT?” Andi felt a mix of emotions—happy for Bex but bummed that she hadn’t gotten to go through with it herself, or at least watch Bex comp
ete.
“Uh-huh.” Bex smiled mysteriously, reaching into her leather backpack. She grinned as she pulled out a large blue ribbon, which she dangled over the open memory box. “I was going to tell you right after it happened, but you were off somewhere with Jonah and then there were all those bands to see, and before I knew it the weekend had completely flown by, but…well…you’re looking at this year’s first-place winner!”
“Oh my gosh! That’s amazing!” Andi hopped off the bed, barely able to contain herself as she ran over to check out the ribbon, which confirmed—as if there were ever any doubt—that her mother was, hands down, the coolest mom ever. And she knew with absolute certainty that neither of them had to worry about being bored—or boring—ever again.
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