Jaded by Bright Colors and Faded Walls

Jade smiled. So far, after hours of watching the show and performing, nothing bad had truly happened. Well, Jack fell off the stage into a large amp successfully getting a bloody nose, a bloody gasp on the bridge of his nose, and twisting his ankle. But things like that with Jack were normal and minor. He’d walked off letting Jade deem the situation only amusing.

“To Denny’s!” The injured man pointed before hobbling out of the area in the fan packed lobby.

“So he takes the hard way.” Pete grumbled annoyed. The rest of the group frowned and nodded. “Let’s go the easy way and wait for him…he’d bound to be atleast an hour. We could all change even.” The rest of the group agreed softly with the idea. They all needed clean cloths and a shower.

“But he just followed Aaron.” Jade stated. Axel just nodded and patted her shoulder. She sighed. “No one knows the disasters that follow Aaron’s ability to be invisible to non-believers do they?” she whispered gently up to him.

“Not a chance Tink’.” Alex sighed. William only chuckled at Jade’s confused face. “Let’s go find Peter Pan before someone goes Capitan Hook on him.” Her confusion only deepened at his words. They left his lips amused but scrambled her brain completely.

“She hasn’t seen Peter Pan yet Alex.” William divulged.

“Seen what?” Jade questioned. She smiled up at William as he let out a small laugh. The look on Alex’s stunned face was priceless. “Really seen what?” She asked gently looking between the two men.

“Are you depriving her of Disney’s evil and cute bubbly ways?! How dare you!” Alex roared out ragged she hadn’t seen the movie. He’d come up with that off the top of his head like that and it feel flat because of lack of simple Disney knowledge.

“No, there are just a lot of movies and she picks what she wanted to watch.” William smiled. Jade’s annoyed and huffing face. She was cute when she pouted angrily. “Come on Jade, let’s go.” He began ushering her along. “We’ll watch it to night to appease both you and Alex over there.” He added making her smile brightly. “No let’s go eat.”

“Yeah!” With that she bounced off, making sure to not get too far ahead of William. She didn’t want to ditch her. That was for sure. Laughing William followed her, some what like a lost puppy. “Come on! Come on! Come on!” She giggled. Alex huffed and followed anyway.

“Fair well Peter Pan.” He sighed at the lobby door. “Avoid crocodiles and men with hooks.” He added softly.

“Would you stop with the Peter Pan references already?” William laughed as Jade began to tug on his hand. “Seriously now. You’re just going to make this worse for both of you.”

“I want her to watch the movie later and be like: I get it!” Alex cheered.

“She won’t remember what you said five minutes from now. She’ll just re-notice Jack is gone.” Jade huffed at him and tugged harder. He was being slow. His words feel on deaf ears. She was too eager to go eat. “Hold on let’s go change so we don’t smell!” He laughed pulling her down another hallway out towards the buses.

William laughed lightly at something one of the guys said. Nodding he turned and slipped into the empty bunk area and froze. His heart stopped before going a million miles per-hour.

Ad stood wiggling into a pair of black jean shorts with nothing else on but her underwear and bra. He’d never seen her in such little clothing before. Turning he hid his face. Some how he felt like a complete pedophile for looking at her like that. Full grown woman or not she had the mentality of an eight year-old to her this was all innocent and sex wasn’t even in her vocabulary probably.

“Oh dear lord.” He whispered.

Jade looked up and pulled a green v-neck shirt on as she watched William try and disappear into the corner of bunk area. Giggling she reached out touching his back gently making him shift away and whine like an injured dog.

“Will?” She whispered concerned. William hummed and turned to her, sighing he nodded his head and smiled. “You okay?” He nodded forcing a smile onto his face. He’d always been a good actor but Jade was a better one and frowned at the fakeness of his smile. “Liar.” She huffed.

“I just…I’m not use to seeing you almost naked!” He huffed. She frowned. She didn’t understand how people got flustered over the sight of one naked person to another.

“You haven’t seen a girl naked before?” She asked confused. And this is where they hit William’s problem.

Licking his lip he sat in his bunk and smiled up at her.

“I have.” He whispered softly.

“So why am I different?” She whispered gently. William rubbed his face as she pushed for him to explain his problem more. He wasn’t sure how to tell and eight-year-old minded woman what sex was.

“Because I care about you more than the women I’ve seen. When I look at you I see not just a naked women,” Bullshit that’s exactly what he saw and that’s all his mind needed to go dirty. “I see something more, something I want to...to keep pure,” he tried while rolling his hands. “That I don’t want to ruin.” He sighed.

“I don’t get it.” She whispered. Sighing William rubbed his face again.

“When I see you naked, or in your underwear, I feel something more for you than if I were to see another woman in the same way.” She frowned. “And it makes me nervous.” He finished quickly. Jade nodded. He was just nervous around her in nothing on. That made sense. “Do you get it?” He asked gently.

“Kinda.” William nodded and stood up pulling his sweat soaked shirt over his head before stepping out of his pants.

Jade smiled weakly at him as he pulled on clean cloths. His nearly naked form didn’t hold the same nervousness for her as he’d described. She wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or not, but didn’t want to ask. She didn’t want him mad at her, they’d just made it through their first official fight.

“Let’s go.”

“Dan! Dan!” William jogged up to the man and stopped him. “Can we talk?”

“I swear to god,” Dan sighed softly. “If you hurt her again, I am going to kill you. You know this right?” He asked. William nodded.

“This is me trying to prevent hurting her so you don’t kill me and I don’t hurt her. If I can help it.” Dan nodded lightly and followed William away from the group.

“Yes?” Dan questioned softly as William began mumbling nervously to himself.

“I feel like a pedophile.” William rushed out. Dan frowned and stepped back.

“What small child were you looking at? I’d like to worn their parents.” Dan stated in complete seriousness.

“I walked in a Jade changing and knowing she’s mentally an eight-year-old makes me feel like a pedophile. I know she’s not ready for that stage of a relationship and I don’t want to rush her or be a creep but I can’t get the image of her in her underwear out of my head! I feel like a total creep when she grabs my hand. Like I offered her candy to get in my van!” He tossed his arms up flustered. Dan nodded slowly.

“I say you’re fucked.” William let his limp fall limp. Dan was telling him he was fucked, that honestly had to mean he was, infact, fucked.

“Oh dear god I am a pedophile. Aren’t I?” Dan laughed gently, patting his friends shoulder.

“No you’re not. I was kidding.”

“You’re sense of humor sucks.” William hissed as Dan’s smile grew.

“You do understand Jade is mentally growing, she is learning and at a very quick rate. Since the incident.” William swallowed nervously thinking back to the day, his hand tightened on his cane. “She had probably matured to that of an eleven-year-old. You have to give it time and not rush her.”

“I’m not going to! But I still feel like I’m looking at a small child!” Dan nodded slowly.

“I can’t help you there…” William groaned and mumbled about being a pedophile before walking off.

“Hey give it time. Pretty soon she’ll mentally be thirteen and getting into that kind of stuff. Who knows by then she’ll be twenty.” Dan teased.

“I hate you so much right now.” William whispered as he sulked towards the vans. “I so hate you.”

“I know.” Dan smiled. “Oh think by the times she’s twenty-five she’ll mentally be eighteen and a full grown adult, then you can fuck her and not be a creep.” William groaned and pulled at his hair.

“You’re worse than Jake!” Dan laughed.

“I bet you anything by the end of this tour, with Hayley adding her in the way of girls, you won’t feel like a pedophile.” Dan smiled while wrapping his arm around William’s broad shoulder to reassure the man.

“Or I’ll feel worse and kill myself.” Dan frowned.

“You’re depressing.”

“You’re not helping.”

“I could get Jake and Doug to make it better and toss in a little Pete and a dash of Jack-n-Alex.” William groaned and pulled the van door open. “Could be worse than me.” Dan beamed.

“Shut up.” Was the only response William could conjure as he sat next to Jade and felt his heart sink deeper. He truly did feel like a pedophile.