Free Prophecy of the Most Beautiful by Diantha Jones Page A

one of the prettier girls with brown hair who was standing among a group of similars.
    "Bite me, Ace," She said. She shot a quick, icy glance at Chloe, but did not break her flirty smile.
    Ace clutched his chest and grinned. "Aw, break my heart, why don't you?" Tiffany only stuck out her tongue out at him and Ace made the "call me" sign with his hand. She shrugged and he laughed.
    They stopped inside a room with several tables stocked with sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays, and bottled drinks.
    "Want one?" Ace asked, clinking together two bottles. Chloe shook her head. He shrugged, put one bottle back, and grabbed a sandwich. "Come on. Show's abou' to start."
    " What show ?" She was frustrated by his avoidance of the question. She wanted an answer. Now.
    "Know wha'? You're pretty cute when you're annoyed," Ace said, chewing.
    "Bite me, Ace," She replied and he almost choked on his sandwich, laughing.
    The roar of the crowd got louder as they exited the narrow back halls of the center and stepped out into the main part of the arena. There were barricades separating the noisy chaos of the crowd from the tight-guarded behind the scenes. Security was stationed at different points, but Chloe got this weird feeling that they weren't really employed by the arena. They were somber and cold, a bit paler than most people, and way too big for their shirts. They all just looked so…not of this world.
    She followed Ace up to one of the openings. The guard there let Ace through but blocked the way as she tried to go behind him.
    "This is her, Frank," Ace said, rolling his eyes.
    Frank's peepholes widened and he stepped aside to let her pass. "Sorry, m'am," He said, all of a sudden looking very nervous.
    "What was that all about?" She asked as she followed Ace through the barricade.
    "Oh, Frank didn' know it was you."
    She spent way too much time trying to understand how that answer made any sense. By the time she had figured out that it didn't, they had made it to their destination.
    They were in the front row of a massive concert setup. Ace led her towards two chairs placed in dead front center of the enormous stage that was only about ten feet away from them. Chloe got ugly looks as she scooted down the row from people seated around her and further back and she didn't really wonder why. She just wanted them to stop. She kept her head down so her bouncy hair could hide her face and was happy when they arrived at their seats.
    The curtains were half drawn down on the stage, and Chloe could see legs and feet and equipment moving underneath it. She was overwhelmed by the noise of the crowd that filled the arena. Every chair was full and every mouth was screaming. The Staples Center was huge. Rows and rows of seats climbed the walls on every side, until the last row was almost touching the ceiling. Chairs had been set up on the floor, which was a basketball court in its other life, covered by several thick, black tarps. Two mosh pits at both ends of the stage were packed with people. Private boxes filled with concert goers framed the upper edge of the lower half of the arena, and the big scoreboards and basketball hoops had been drawn up to hide them from view. In their place, were enormous screens flashing adoring phone text messages fans had sent in to be displayed for everybody to see.
    Chloe read a few of the messages to herself. "Marry me? Circle One: Yes or No. Love, Jessica K."
    "We're sitting in the last row and we love it! Tammy, Lauryn, and Samantha."
    "Dedicate a song to me! Darsha P." But it was the message that followed that almost made Chloe fall out of her chair.
    "The nominees for Best Rock Group are…wait…There's only one! A Divinity's Stimuli is the best! Whoo! Tyler W."
    "We're at an A Divinity's Stimuli concert!" She shouted to Ace, pure shock radiating through every syllable. He grinned at her as the lights dimmed and the curtains did a slow crawl upward. It seemed they were just in time for the show.
    The noise in