Kissing Hearts #2: Fighting Broke Apart Friends

Nellson, Aaron, Justin, Joshua, and I were watching and voting videos on YouTube. We vote on comedy and coolness. At that moment we were watching a video about a girl who can take off a hat in a special way.
“Hello, YouTube!” she greeted in a peppy way, “Watch me take off this hat.” She laid on her stomach and her feet reached her head and with her toes took off the hat.
“Awesome,” I said, “I give the hat girl a four.”
“Five,” voted Nellson.
“Four,” Justin added.
“Five,” said Joshua.
“Three,” Aaron voted, “If it was Joshua, a negative two.”
“What for?”
“Just for being you.”
“Why do you always rip off me?” Josh asked sharply.
“You want me to use rocks and sticks and then ball them into your head, smartass?”
“That’s enough!” I said firmly, “What other videos are there?”
Joshua looked at the computer. “There one with a kid named Hans and his pet fish from last week.”
“Click it,” ordered Nellson.
Joshua clicked on the video. “Hi,” Hans spoke, “This is my pet fish, Dr. Numb.”
“Dr. Numb?” Aaron asked strangely.
“No way that kid went to a regular elementary school,” Justin explained while chewing a piece of gum he got from 7 Eleven.
“Come on, Dr. Numb,” forged Hans on the video, “Roll over!” He wouldn’t roll over. Hans dipped his hand into the fish bowl and flipped his fish over. “Tadah!”
“Zero,” I said.
“Don’t vote,” Aaron insisted.
“Stupid,” voted Nellson.
“Lame,” said Joshua.
“Negative eight hundred,” Justin snapped.
“I also found one of two dudes both named Tyler,” Joshua added and clicked on the video.
“What’s up, YT?” one Tyler said, “I’m Tyler.”
“And I’m Tyler,” the other Tyler butted in. “And we’re…”
“BFE’s, yo,” they both cheered together.
“I like Tyler, but Tyler creeps me out,” I commented. Aaron looked at me like he thought I was going nuts.
“More than we are best friends,” Tyler added, “We’re also the best…”
Then both Tyler’s’ cheered, “Meat drummers!”
“Meat drummers?” Nellson asked strangely. He never heard of anything like that before. On the video, the Tyler’s were rapidly patting the different kind of meat around them. We started laughing.
“Oh my God! This is fantastic,” I said, “Five.”
“Five!” Aaron commented with a scream.
“Five!” Joshua voted.
“Five!” Nellson boomed.
“One hundred and six!” exclaimed Justin.
Joshua started to type this time.
“And the best friend meat drummers are going on Hearts City,” he said.
“Go, meat drummers!” cheered Nellson.
I sat up a little more. “Speaking of best friends,” I slowly said, “do you know what today is?”
“Wednesday?” he guessed.
“Well ya but go a little further.”
“The 15th?”
I nodded a “yes”
“Shut up!”
“What the Hell is the 15th?” Joshua asked.
“The two year anniversary of how Nellson and I first met,” I explained to him.
“Yup,” Nellson agreed. “I remember it like it was two years ago.”

We met back in the 7th grade in middle school during 11th period. A.k.a. Gym class. I was packing up for the day, ‘til I saw Daphne, one of my enemies, beating him up like a punching bag. I had to do something about it. I shouted, “Leave him alone!”
She turned to me. “You wanna make something out of it?” she asked.
I put my fist in the air. “How about a piece of shit outta ya?” Daphne got too close to me, and then I punched her in the face. “Anyone else wanna try?” Everyone else ran away before I picked another bone at somebody. After they left, I had to help Nellson up. “You’re okay now,” I cooed.
He took my hand and I pulled him to his feet. “Thanks,” he replied still shaking like a leaf falling from a tree.
“I’m Caitlin,” I introduced, “You can call me Cait or CC.”
“I’m Nellson,”
That was how we became great friends. Over a stupid fight with the fattest girl in the universe.

I didn’t know how I remembered all that, but saving Nellson was worth so much to me. “Wow,” Joshua said.
“Even back then Daphne was mean and acted like a bitch,” added Justin.
“I still can’t believe I even dated that chick,” Aaron blurted out.
Nellson and I boomed into laughter. “Now you like Daphne,” I said to Nellson.
“I never said that,” Nellson tried to explain, “I said, “I like to make fun of how Daphne says “tuna”.”
“Oh, I remember,” I started to chant in a Chinese accent, “Tuna! Tuna!”
Nellson laughed again. “I just adore tuna.”
“I want fish ‘n chips and tuna,” exclaimed Aaron in a British accent.
Justin blurted into laughter. “Tuna!” he shouted.
Joshua wanted to join in the fun. “Tuna,” he said in a French accent.
“Don’t play along, wise guy,” snapped Aaron.
While they were fighting, I stood up and picked up a wrapped up box. “And because today is our special day,” I started, “I made you this.”
“Aw,” Nellson cooed, “You didn’t have to make me something… gimmie that!”
I shook my head. I had no idea what was in that boy’s mind.
When Nellson finally got the gift out, he smiled. I made him a shirt with the band on it. “You made a Kissing Hearts T-shirt?” he shouted in question.
“Look what it has on the back.”
Nellson turned the shirt and smiled again. “Oh my God!” he exclaimed, “It’s our heads!” Then he hugged me like there’s no tomorrow.
“In shirt form.”
“You’re the best of best friends I ever had!” Nellson squawked.
“It’s no big deal,” I said sarcastically.
“You know what I’m gonna get you?” he asked letting me go.
“You don’t have to get me anything,” I insisted.
“Two tickets for us to go to the next Adam Lambert concert this Thursday at the Nassau Coliseum. You and me kid.”
“Oh my god! That would be awesome,” I frowned, “but that concert has been sold out for at least four months.”
“I have my ways, Caitlin Ann Cherniak,” he taunted, “You know what else I have?”
“Warts on your butt?” teased Justin.
Nellson was not happy with the remark. He had that face like he was going to beat Justin to a pulp like an orange. Justin escaped the room as fast as he could. “He was smart to run,” Nellson said to me at last. I had no idea at all what he was going to do after that.

I opened the door to Caitlin’s apartment a tiny bit. Caitlin was watching T.V. at the moment. “Psst,” I whispered. Caitlin turned with a start. She calmed down when she realized it was me by the door. “Is Josh still here?” I asked.
“No,” Caitlin replied, “He just left. You can come in.”
I opened the door fully and walked in holding a baseball bat. “Then, I don’t need this thing,” I said putting down the bat. I sat next to Caitlin on the couch. “So…” I started, “Are you feelin’ the mood tonight?”
That was the most stupid question I asked for dear life. In the background Luca flushed the toilet in the bathroom. “Yeah, I feel the mood alright,” Caitlin answered.
Luca came out of the bathroom with a big frown on his face. “I’m sad,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I was at a funeral.”
“In the bathroom?” Caitlin asked with a strange look on her face.
“Yeah,” answered Luca, “For my ferret, Hans.”
“You forgot to feed him again, did you?” Caitlin asked sounding pretty obvious.
“Hey!” Luca snapped then he calmed down, “I’m not good with pets that have a special diet.”
“Well my point is you ain’t gettin’ another ferret again, and that is that,” Caitlin said strictly.
“Fine,” Luca responded surrounding the countertop by the kitchen, “From this day forward, I won’t and will not get other ferret from the store across the street.”
Caitlin got off the sofa and walked toward Luca. “Move,” she ordered.
“Why?”
“Move!” She glared at Luca. I know I should’ve done something about that. I did. I tickled Luca’s sides and he started laughing and moved away from the countertop. There was all ready a ferret in Hans’ old cage. “You got another ferret while I was upstairs?” Caitlin asked meanly.
“He’s name’s Vince.” We had nothing to say from that point. Another ferret? My sisters wouldn’t let me have one.

The next day at school before 4th period, I was wearing the shirt Caitlin gave me before. It was a bit big, for I tied the leftovers with one of my sister’s hairbands. The only way I could get tickets was in school from a kid named Matt. It was easy. At the moment, Matt was already busy with somebody. After the kid left, I went up to him and said, “Yo, Matt!”
“What can I do for ya today, Torres?” As you can see, I get most of my supplies from this guy.
“Two concert tickets, Parks.”
We called each other our last names for a stupid reason, which I didn’t want to explain. Again, a stupid reason. Anyway, Matt asked me, “Which ones? Paramore? Michael Jackson? Maroon 5? K.I.S.S?”
“Adam Lambert for this Thursday at the Nassau Coliseum,” I said.
“Yikes. There’s good news and bad news,” Matt told me, “The good news is that a do have the two tickets left.”
“And the bad news?”
“They’re a hundred bucks.”
“Excuse me?” I stammered loudly.
“Each,” he said holding the tickets in his hand.
I sighed in depression and frustration. Some people aggravate me so much. “I guess that’s why people used to call you Matt “Rip-off” Parks,” I guessed.
“It hurts, but I can live with it.”
“Forget it!” I said at last. “I can’t afford two hundred freakin’ dollars!”
I was about to give up until Matt shouted, “Wait!” I turned around to see what he wanted. “Instead of money,” he started, “How about I’ll trade you for my tickets for your shirt?”
“Why would you want this shirt?” I asked.
“Cause Kissing Hearts is the most popular band in the state,” Matt answered, “If someone outside the band was caught with this shirt, more people will want it.” I didn’t know what Matt was up to but I didn’t like it at all. “What’s it gonna be, Torres? The shirt or nothing?” I didn’t have a choice in the matter at all. I had to trade something. It was the riskiest move I have ever made in my life.

It was after school and I was at Caitlin’s apartment. Caitlin was stressing out because Nellson didn’t come home yet. “Where is he?” she kept asking me every minute.
“I don’t know CC,” I had to say every time she asked.
Finally Nellson entered through the door. “Sorry I’m late,” he peeped.
“Where have you been?” Caitlin snapped, “And why are you wearing the most crappy shirt on the planet?” Nellson did have a different shirt on than this morning.
“I’m wearing the most crappy shirt in the world because I got you these,” Nellson replied holding the tickets in his hands.
“OMG!” she screamed, “I thought they were sold out!”
“You know that kid, Matt Parks?” he asked.
“The one who gets ISS all the time?” she asked, “He must have cost you a fortune!”
“Zippo!” Nellson beamed, “I traded the shirt for the tickets.” Every thing stayed silent. Caitlin’s face didn’t show any happiness at all. “Knuckle touch!” Nellson cheered. Caitlin didn’t move. “Come on, sissy, they’re clean!”
Finally, Caitlin snapped, “I’m not touching you hands!” She pounded my fist down. “You traded the shirt?!”
“I had to!” Nellson shouted back. “You said it wasn’t a big deal!”
“Oh, all girls say that when they give presents to guys!” Then Caitlin started to impersonate a girly girl. “Oh it’s no big deal. Of course it’s a big deal! It’s the most gargantuan deal in the history of all deals.”
While they were fighting, Joshua and Aaron went upstairs. I had to shout to get their attention. “Hey!” I shouted, “You know that Kissing Hearts thing we do? It’s time for that!”
Caitlin and Nellson started at each once more angrily. “Well I guess we aren’t friends any more!” she said.
“Fine!” Nellson screamed.
While they started to fight again, I grabbed Caitlin arm and Aaron got Nellson’s. “Then don’t talk to me then!”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”

Even when we got to the roof of the building, Caitlin and Nellson didn’t stop arguing. “Why are you still talking to me?” Caitlin snapped in question.
“I don’t know,” Nellson replied, “Stop talking then!”
“You always suck me back into the conversation!”
Joshua wanted the fighting to stopped we could rehearse. He started a count down to get their attention. “Fifteen seconds!” he called.
“You know why I’m not good friend with you anyway?” Nellson asked Caitlin.
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to take Taylor Young to the concert.”
“Oh, like you’re such good friends with Taylor Young.”
“Yeah!”
“Then you should’ve known that Taylor was in the hospital since last Halloween!”
“So I forgot!”
“Now!” Joshua shouted.
The boys started to play softly because for our gig in Chicago, we had to give an intro. “What’s up, starting point of Route 66?” Caitlin started breaking up the argument.
“This is Kissing Hearts coming to you live in Chicago!” called Nellson.
“I’m Caitlin!”
“And I’m Nellson!”
“Justin here!” I shouted like I meant it.
“Aaron right here, dudes!” he joined in.
“Aloha!” we all shouted. We all laughed, but Caitlin and Nellson’s laughing died away quickly before Aaron and I stopped. “Before we start singing tonight,” started Caitlin.
“We want to show a quick birthday video from one of our fans,” Nellson finished the sentence.
“It’s about a girl giving her mom the bestest present ever,” I said.
“Josh!” Aaron called. Joshua clicked the video from his Facebook.
“Happy Birthday, honey!” said the man in the video.
“This present is a big one,” spoke the women.
After she loosened a few strings on the present, she fell over after he daughter jumped out of it like a jack-in-a-box shouting, “Happy Birthday, Mommy!”
“Poor mom never saw that comin’,” Caitlin said after the video was over, “I bet she wouldn’t trade that present for anything. Especially from someone she cares about.”
Nellson stared at her and started to say something. “Well. If she did trade the gift, she would get something else that her and the girl can do together. Then, the daughter would be happy and wouldn’t complain about it like a psycho maniac!”
“I would’ve liked it much better if you didn’t trade the shirt!” Caitlin chirped like a crow.
“I’m outta here!” shouted Nellson while he was aiming for the door.
“Don’t walk away from me, Nellson I. Torres!” Too late. He was gone like a candle light. “Come back here!” Caitlin ran out the door to complain some more.
Aaron banged his head on one of my drums. “We’re doomed in Chicago,” he cried. I didn’t know what to do either. If Caitlin and Nellson didn’t stop fighting soon, our career would be over in seconds like the life of an abandoned baby kangaroo.

On Friday, their conflict was still going on. Cait hated Nellson more than ever before since Tuesday. It always got worse when we all kept seeing Matt in the hallways wearing Cait’s made shirt.

When Nellson and Cait got to there lockers. Right away Matt found them. He said to Nellson, “Hey, Torres! Love my new shirt.”
Cait kept glaring at Nellson after Matt left. He glared at her without any hesitation too.
When Aaron, Justin, I showed up, we weren’t happy at all either. “Will you guys stop fighting already?” Aaron asked in a grumpy tone.
“Sure,” Cait answered, “As long as Nellson apologizes.”
“Then I have nothin’ to apologize for,” he said. Then slammed his locker shut.
“Then neither don't I.” Suddenly them both started slamming our lockers.
“Okay,” Aaron tried to say. “Okay!” They both stopped slamming the lockers after he screamed. “This is so retarded! You two are best friends.”
“Were best friends,” Nellson reminded us in a growl.
“Blah!”
“Blah!”
They started a sound effects war! Justin couldn’t handle this anymore at his point. “Hey!” he screamed louder than Aaron did. “What about Kissing Hearts? If this keeps going on, what’s going to happen to the band? Think about our fans. Think about our future.”
Cait stared at Nellson’s face into his eyes.
“What about me?” asked I pointing at myself, “If Kissing Hearts quits, I have to spend every moment with my little brother at Color Me Color in the Freehold Mall for the rest of my freakin’ life!”
Cait didn’t want the band to end now. I could tell. Nellson didn’t want that either. “The guys are right,” Nellson admitted, “Maybe things are getting’ out of control. Because we wanted to do something nice for each other.”
“You’re right,” Cait agreed, “Nellson, I’m so…”
Before she could apologize, one of their other best friends, Sarvar ran to Nellson shouting like a psycho. “Oh my God, Nellson!” he shouted then the other half I didn’t at all. “Thanks for taking me to the Adam Lambert concert.”
He did what now?! I thought with my heart jumping at my chest.
“Remember that part when the stage exploded?” Sarvar continued, “Whoa, I have to get to class. See ya!”
Cait glared at him once more. “You went to the concert,” she started, “And you took Sarvar with you?”
“Oh damn!” I heard Aaron groan.
“You didn’t want to go, so I didn’t want to waste the tickets!” shouted Nellson.
“We were so close,” Justin whined.
“Those tickets were meant for us.”
“Yeah! Right before you called me the gift giver awayer!”
“They were just about to hug,” moaned I again.
“We’re not going to speak of this, and we are not friends any more!” Cait screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Fine!” They slammed our lockers again. Then, they walked away in different directions.
I smacked my head againist the lockers. Aaron and Justin patted my back. Then, we heard snapping of fingers.
It was Mr. Kempman. “Why were you three slamming lockers?” he snapped.
“What?” Justin shrieked.
“We didn’t do nothin’!” Aaron freaked.
“It was…”
Before I could finish my sentence, the teacher pushed us to the office. “Way, with you,” he said.
I whispered in anger to Justin, “You owe twenty bucks for my allowance.”
“Once we get outta the slammer,” Justin retorted.

When I left school, I went to Caitlin’s apartment. I wanted to speak to Luca about Caitlin and Nellson’s spat. I knocked on the door, Luca’s friend Carl answered. “What’s up, Aaron?”
“Hey, Carl,” I said, “May I come in?”
“Sure,” I went inside and dropped onto the sofa. “Caitlin’s not home yet.”
“I know.”
“Why do you look so glum?” he asked.
“I am glum,” I answered.
“Why so glum?”
“Can we stop saying, “glum”?”
“Sure,”
I had no idea what was in Carl’s mind, but I had to deal with it. “Caitlin and Nellson are still fighting.”
“So things haven’t gotten better?”
“No,” I said, “They gotten the opposite of better.”
“So worse?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Carl said, “Luca has been very worried about Cait lately. I never had seen them so glum.” I glared at him cause he said, “glum” again. “Depressed I meant to say.”
“What can me, Josh, and Justin do? We have a band rehearsal again tonight,” I explained, “They would probably start fighting and I would have to say, “We’re doomed in Chicago,” again!”
Carl sighed. “Aaron, come sit.” I sat down by the kitchen. “I had to learn a lot of things about girls.”
“Like?” I asked.
“Like, when you break up with them. They don’t like if you ask out their sister. That can get you a fork in you leg, and a knife in your… you don’t wanna know.”
“How does this help me exactly?” I asked again, but a different question.
“Look,” Carl tried to explain, “When girls and guys get angry, the girls want to be told they’re right.”
“But Caitlin’s a girl, and Nellson’s Josh’s right hand man, so they both can’t be right for this,” I added.
“Or can they?” Carl thought for a few seconds and said, “You’re right they can’t.”
“Guess I know what to tell Justin and Josh,” I said.
“Do you want to see what Luca, Greg, and I are making?” Carl asked trying to change the subject.
“Sure.”
“You know that Luca always forgets to feed is ferret right?”
“Yeah?” I didn’t know what Carl was getting at, but I didn’t mind.
“Well Luca planned to make an automatic ferret food processor, and I made it more difficult than it needs to be.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Cause it’s fun. Now, follow me, sir!” I followed Carl into the kitchen where Luca’s ferret was. The cage was middle sized and was made out of glass. “Now,” Carl said, “This car here is going around this here track, to that target that activates that tank that the gun fire is going to hit that other target and food is gonna go into the ferret cage.” Carl placed the car on the track, which the car went automatically around the track. The car finally hit the first target and the tank started to prepare to fire. A couple blinks later on the tank, it fired. It didn’t hit the second target. It hit the ferret cage that which busted into pieces letting the ferret go free. We both gasped at the same time.
“Smokey!” Carl screamed.
“I thought Luca named it Vince,” I reminded him.
“Vince!” We ran to get Vince off the floor. Vince was moving and shaking around like a mental person, but the ferret was in terrible pain. Carl got him off the floor and placed him on the sofa where he could enjoy the softness like the old cage. We both still gasped, but we stopped after a few short breathes. “Okay,” Carl started to speak again, “Vince is okay.”
“Great,” I gasped, “I’ll be upstairs waiting for the others.”
“Do well, Aaro. Your duty calls you.”
I smiled and ran right up the stairs to wait for the others.

Aaron told Justin and me about the plan. Sounded easy, but hard to do. Here’s how it went.

I was setting up for the rehearsal when I heard Caitlin and Nellson coming up the stairs. Like I predicted, they were still fighting. I started hearing when Nellson shouted, “I want to do a guitar solo to start the concert!”
“No!” Caitlin screamed, “I’m the leader of this band, so we’re starting with the piano!”
“Pianos suck!”
“Your attitude sucks!”
“Guitar solo!”
“Piano solo!”
“Wrong!” I shouted at them, “Both of you!”
“What?” Caitlin and Nellson asked me at the same time.
“Tonight, I’m in charge of we are doing.”
“Save it, Goldberg!” Caitlin snapped at me.
“Do as I say, or you’ll have to find a new stage manager!” I snapped back.
“He’s bluffing,” Nellson said.
“I don’t bluff!” I paused for a minute and finally cracked, “Okay, I was bluffing when I said, “I don’t bluff,” but I’m serious about the quittin’!”
Caitlin and Nellson sighed. “So, what do you want us to do?” Caitlin asked.
“Each of you put on your worst pair of jeans and a belt on,” I ordered.
“What?” Nellson asked.
“Jeans and belts!” I snapped. Caitlin and Nellson were on their way after my scream. I hoped the plan was going to work.

“And five, four, three,” I heard Joshua count back. Caitlin and I had to wear stupid jeans with stupid belts. I didn’t know why at first. Then Joshua started the video. “Hello people who own computers!” he greeted, “This is the band we like to call Kissing Hearts.”
“I’m Caitlin,” she stammered.
I stammered too, “And I’m Nellson.”
“And I’m Joshua,” he finished, “Usually, I’m behind the curtain.”
“Where you should be,” I interrupted.
Joshua glared at me with a anger frown. “Tonight is something a little bit different. Now Caitlin and Nellson are in a huge fight, and both of them say, “They’re right”.”
“I am right!” Caitlin said.
“You am wrong,” I informed.
“You am obnoxious!”
“See what I mean?” Joshua asked, “Now this fight is gonna ended tonight.”
“So what does this have to deal with wearing jeans and belts?” I asked.
“I was getting to that!” Joshua snapped, “Both of them are going to tell their sides of the story, but if one of them interrupts, says something mean, or yells, Aaron or Justin will pull a rope that will yank that person’s pants.”
Aaron and Justin both finished the rules by saying, “Hard!” Justin grabbed Caitlin’s rope and Aaron grabbed hold of mine.
“This is ridiculous!” said Caitlin.
“I ain’t doin’ this!” I snapped. Aaron and Justin at the same time pulled the ropes, which made our pants go up. We both screamed, “OW!”
“Thank you!” said Joshua, “The first person to speak will be Caitlin.”
I lifted up my cell phone and pressed the “boo” ringtone, and it made a booing sound.
“He pressed the “boo” button!” Caitlin shouted.
Aaron yanked my rope. “OW!” I screamed.
“Drop the phone now!” he ordered. I did what I was told and dropped it. “Caitlin, you may begin,” he said after that.
Caitlin took a deep breath and started. “It all started when I gave Nellson a Kissing Hearts T-Shirt which took me at least months in advance to make and finish. Then, he traded it for concert tickets.”
“But you wanted to go to that concert.” Then Aaron pulled my pants higher. “OW!”
“It’s Caitlin’s turn!” he snapped.
“But I was just…”
Yank!
“But just…”
Yank!
“Just one…”
Yank!
“I’ll be quiet,” I finally finished with a whimper.
“Thank you,” Caitlin snapped, “I was about to forgive him until he went to the concert without me.”
“But…” I was about to say something until Aaron looked like he was gonna pull the rope, so I stopped.
“So he still hasn’t apologized for the whole thing yet.”
“Uh huh,” Justin hummed, “Nellson, you can start.”
“Finally,” I said, “First off, she said, “The shirt was no big deal.” Second, the tickets were for Adam Lambert. He’s one of her favorite people.”
“Let the record show that one of Caitlin’s favorite singers is Adam Lambert, and that he’s gay,” interrupted Justin.
I glared at Justin a little. I continued, “So yeah I traded the shirt, but it’s for something Caitlin and I would have done together. And Caitlin refused to go to the concert and…”
“I would’ve gone if you’d apologized!” Caitlin snapped.
“She interrupted me!” I shouted, “Yank her pants off!”
“I’m gonna allow it,” Justin said.
I stood there with my mouth dropped. “Why?” I screamed.
“Cause I love her.”
I couldn’t take it. I had to put my anger on somebody. I pushed Aaron away and then knocked Justin down. “Move!” I shouted. After they were done, I pulled Caitlin’s pants up.
“OW!” she screamed, “You’re not the rope keeper!”
The problem was that I was left vulnerable. She grabbed my rope and pulled it down. “OW!” I screamed. We both kept pulling each other ropes. Joshua tried to stop the fight, but we didn’t listen.
“Stop!” Joshua screamed, “You’re gonna stress your pants too hard!”
We still didn’t listen. That day proved that we were idiots.

The fighting finally stopped after we shot the video. Nellson and I decided to put on different pants on. Our jeans were so stressed from before. “My butt feel like it’s been yanked by a hairdryer on reverse,” I said.
“My ass feels like it’s been yanked by an Aaron,” Nellson squawked.
Aaron was really offended by that.
“Just tell us the votes already!” I snapped.
Joshua logged on to Facebook to check the votes. “Okay, I gonna say the votes. Whoever has the less votes, apologizes?”
“Okay,” Nellson and I both agreed.
“Nellson, you got 2,639 votes.”
“Yes!” Nellson cheered.
“How many did I get?” I asked worriedly.
“5,382.”
“Yes! You have to…”
“Wait!” Josh called, “There’s a third button.”
“By the both of us,” Justin and Aaron both said at the same time.
“What?” Nellson and I chorused.
Josh checked the computer again. “The first button say, “Caitlin’s right.” The second one says “Nellson’s right.” The third says, “Caitlin and Nellson were both acting like dumb asses, and they should be friends again.””
“How many people voted for that?” Nellson asked.
“800, 719.”
Nellson and I looked at each other with the most shocking expressions on our faces.
“Our fans don’t like it when best friends fight,” Aaron explained.
“And neither do we,” Justin chirped getting teary eyed.
Nellson rubbed his eyes. His hands were wet.
“Nellson, you’re crying!” I exclaimed as I noticed Nellson’s wet hands.
“I ain’t cryin’,” he sobbed, “It’s just that Joshua’s such a dumb ass, he makes me emotional sometimes.”
His mouth dropped open.
I sighed of true embarrassment of myself. “I’m sorry,” I finally said.
“I’m more sorry,” Nellson peeped as well. They shook our hands and hugged real tight.
Luca came downstairs and saw the whole thing. “Aw!” he said, “I see hugging.” We stopped hugging and looked at Luca. “So everyone’s friends again?”
“Yep!” We peeped at the same time.
“Lets celebrate this with a dinner,” Luca said.
“It’s only four o’ clock,” Josh reminded him.
“I meant find dinner to Vince. I run to the kitchen.” All of us followed Luca into the kitchen. Vince got a new cage. “See? I finished my ferret food processor.”
“Wow!” we all cheered.
“Watch how it works.” Luca pressed a button, which made a catapult work. A metal ball flew and the dominoes fell from their spot. One of them fell on a pressure plate and a ball fell down a tube. The tube glowed with red and green lights. The ball knocked on the target and the ferret food landed in the cage with no mistakes. All of us clapped with amazement. Luca was cheering. “Now,” he started, “I should never again forget to feed my ferret.”
“Wait,” I reminded, “Do you still have to set it up every day of the week.”
Luca opened his mouth then closed it. “I’m going to bed,” he spoke at last.
Once Luca was gone, I grabbed Vince and was aiming for the door.
“Taking him back to the pet store?” Justin asked.
“Yup,” I replied. That was the end of the ferret business. Most importantly, the end of the shirt spat.

Everything was finally back to normal with Kissing Hearts. Caitlin and Nellson wrote a new song for the band to play in Chicago. It was really good even I liked it. They both sang it together. This was how it went:

Both: Na. Na. Na na na na. Na. Na. Na na-ah.

Caitlin: I like the way you make me feel inside
I will remember all those good times
And you’ll always fill my heart with everything that I need.

Nellson: I liked the way when we first met
You’re gentle and your voice spoke to me
I remember when you gave love a try.

Both: Both of us took a chance
But there was one that was missing

I never realized that there was one thing left
To fit the puzzle for us to be free

It was one look into your eyes
I never felt they looked so good
And we never let ourselves go
And we took our hands one by one

How can we be so wrong
About our love for our freedom
We just clicked
That’s how we fell in love

Na. Na. Na na na na. Na. Na. Na na-ah.

Nellson: I never knew this could to happen to me
And all this time we were meant to be
Together forever and ever

Caitlin: How did I get this feeling inside me?
How did you get under skin baby?
We were the best of friends

Both: If we had our right
If we had to fight

We’ll be together
For on and on and on

It was one look into your eyes
I never felt they looked so good
And we never let ourselves go
And we took our hands one by one

How can we be so wrong
About our love for our freedom
We just clicked
That’s how we fell in love

(Guitar solo)

Caitlin: I remember how we each other on that day

Nellson: How can I forget it

Both: But I don’t think we will

It was one look into your eyes
I never felt they looked so good
And we never let ourselves go
And we took our hands one by one

How can we be so wrong
About our love for our freedom
We just clicked
That’s how we fell in love

Na. Na. Na na na na.
We just clicked
That’s how we fell in love love love love

The song was really amazing. We gave them standing ovations. They bowed with each other. “That was awesome!” Joshua cheered.
“If it hadn’t for the fans,” Caitlin explained.
“We’d still be fighting, and we wouldn’t have wrote that song,” Nellson finished.
“I think it’s settled,” I said, “The fight is declared over.”
We all stuck our hands in. We said a number each time a hand went in. “One!” Cait.
“Two!” Nellson.
“Three!” Aaron.
“Four!” Me.
“Five!” Josh.
Then, we raised them high in the sky and shouted, “Kissing Hearts!”