Brighter

With only the blurred thoughts of what had happened between him and the other guy, Joe held the ice pack to his head as he tried hard not to let out the remaining fumes on someone like he always did. Many people were standing around trying to see the damage that was done from the fight, but it was hard to, Big Rob was trying to make room for Joe so that he wouldn’t feel dizzy and crowded. Sooner than later, Kevin and Michelle both arrived at the scene.

“What the hell happened?” Kevin questioned with eyes bugged open and stared down at his younger brother, Joe. “You could’ve gotten killed!”

“Nothing, I just got into an argument with someone, that’s it.” He replied with an annoyed look as he turned his gaze towards Kevin. He didn’t want to explain the entire situation of what had really happen, because then Kevin was going to get really detailed about what Joe should’ve done instead.

“Why’d you do it anyway? Knowing you, you rarely get into any trouble.” Kevin raised an eyebrow and hoped his younger brother would tell him why it was that he had gotten in a fight for, and for whom. Even though hew knew why Joe had gotten in the fight, he just wanted for him to admit the reason.

“For reasons unknown, now are you done asking questions?” Joe looked up at his brother and narrowed his eyes. He knew exactly what his older brother was trying to do; he wanted him to admit that he stilled cared for his girlfriend and though Joe did, he didn’t to admit it right there in front of her.

“Well, now that you’re fine, and won’t want to admit anything, Michelle and I are going to enjoy the rest of the night. Especially, since we missed the whole band performance.”

“Whatever.” Was Joe’s simple response to his brother.

Kevin grabbed Michelle by her wrist and went off to the dance floor where they started dancing around to a fun song that they had been playing. Both kids started smiling at one another and just began laughing at each others off hand comments. They got along so well, it even seemed like if they knew each other from a long time ago. Their faces both expressed that they were enjoying each other company. Especially since each one of them had been in a rough spot not too long ago with their ex’s.

The song, All Again For You by We The Kings began to blast through the speakers. Even though it was pretty much a jump up and down song, Kevin grabbed Michelle by the waist and pulled her close to him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and both of them swayed from side to side. Looking into each others eyes, both of them blushed and smiled. Kevin pulled her closer to him and she rested her head on the crook of his neck. They were both feeling secured in each others arms, but Michelle couldn’t shake her feelings of fear. In her short period of time on the road, she’d seen what Joe’s lifestyle had done to his relationship with Anny, and Michelle wanted no part in that.

“Sorry,” Michelle apologized as she accidentally stepped on Kevin’s boot. He smiled and told her that it was okay. She smiled back at him in a goofy way that caused both of them to burst out laughing. His hazel eyes glued to her brown ones, he wanted to lean in and kiss her, but instead Michelle turned her face to the side and smiled.

“You’re a good dancer, even though you stepped on my foot.” Kevin teased as he looked down at her.

“You’re not bad yourself either, Mr. Jonas.” She winked at him.

Joe and Anny were sitting by one another at the bar, just staring at Kevin and Michelle swaying on the dance floor and having fun. Joe slightly turned his head over to look at his girlfriend, who had a smile on her face as she watched her best friend, happily. He hadn’t seen a smile on Anny in a long time; it made him want to apologize to her, he owed her that much, at least.

“You know, we used to be like that not too long ago.” Joe mentioned looking at Michelle and Kevin.

“Used to,” She softly responded looking down at her he hands. The smile she once had on her face, began to descend. He looked at her and felt even guiltier for doing what he done not all that long ago, but had been keeping to himself.. The reason why he was constantly taking his anger out on her.

He stretched his arm out and placed his hand on the side of her face, pulling her closer to him. Their faces inches away from what was going to turn into a kiss that they hadn’t shared in a long time. Without saying anything to him, Anny quickly moved his hand off the side of her face and rushed out of the bar.

“Anny,” he called out following close behind her. Joe looked back at Kevin and Michelle and saw that they were both just staring at one another, Kevin whispering something to Michelle that made her whole face light up like a fourth of July sky. He shook his head and went behind Anny. “What are you doing? Why’d you leave?” He said grabbing her by the arm and turning her around to face him.

She didn’t respond, all she did was look him straight in the eyes. “You can’t just fix everything with just a damn kiss; it doesn’t work that way, Joe. Not anymore.” She snatched her arm out his hand and continued walking.

“What is it? What went wrong? We used to be good, Anny!” He snapped catching up to the pace she was walking at. He wanted to know what went wrong. Something inside of him wanted to make things right between both of them.

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.” She said stepping onto the bus and making her way to the very back. He stopped dead in his tracks as she slammed the door right in his face. His hand formed into a fist and his skin met the rough wall of the bus. He hoped to at least patch up a thing or two, but it just didn’t work out that way. He tried to think of what he could do in order to make things better, but the idea of her finding out what he had done choked any chance of him telling her the truth. He just sighed and walked over to the couch Anny would always sit at while she waited for their show to be over.

“That was one of the most fun nights I’ve had in a while.” Kevin admitted as he wandered by Michelle on the sidewalk.

“Me too.” Michelle replied while she carefully took one step in front of the other.

“So what do you want to do now?” Kevin quizzed, looking at Michelle as she just picked her head up and looked at the empty sidewalks. It was a quiet night that made everything calm and soothing. She enjoyed every second of it. The scenery of the small town made her feel like home.

“I want to get out of these shoes!” She laughed making a face. Her feet were pounding from all the dancing she had been doing that night. She loved dancing, but her feet always ended up paying the consequences afterwards.

“Think you’ll be able to rock out to another show tomorrow?” Kevin questioned as they were about to reach the bus. He enjoyed watching Michelle dance about to the music that would blast out of their venue speakers. For an odd reason, she would stand out from all of the girls that were there.

“We’ll see how my feet are holding up tomorrow.” She joked as they reached the bus.

Michelle walked up the bus steps and made her way to the couch Joe was sitting on. Kevin sat across from her and scanned for something through his phone. It was an awkward moment of silence between all three of them. The only thing that went on is the exchanging of uncertain looks to one another.

“So what’s crackin’ Joe?” Michelle spoke out, breaking the silence, slapping her hand down on his knee.

Shaking his head, he laughed, for the first time the entire night, at how she broke the silence.

“Not much, bud, what about you?” Mocking her, he slapped one hand down on her knee.

“One more night here and then we’re off to Las Vegas, Nevada,” Kevin informed everyone there.

He kicked his feet up on the table and just slouched down on the couch.

“Where were you guys all day? It’s like you guys disappeared after the show. Neither one of you guys would answer your phones,” Nick walked through the bus doors and leaned on the counter. Everyone had forgotten about Nick, since they fell so easily into the mess that was Joe and Anny.

“We’re sorry, we thought you might’ve had other plans already. Besides, it wasn’t that fun, a big fight actually broke out,” Michelle informed Nick. His eyes gave her a weird look when she said that it wasn’t fun and that a fight had broken out.

“Who got into a fight?” Nick questioned. “Wait, no don’t tell me. Was it Joe?” Nick laughed, noticing the throbbing red bump hidden under his bangs.

“You have a problem with that?” Joe snapped glaring at his brother.

“Damn, you still have some fumes there bro,” The younger brother spat out taking a Vitamin water out of the mini fridge on the bus.

“Where’s Anny?” Michelle questioned, surprised that there was no screaming or insults being thrown around them.

“I was about to ask you that as well, it’s too quiet here on the bus,” Kevin added in, giving Joe a funny look with one raised eyebrow.

“Ha-ha. We don’t fight that much.” Joe said to defend himself.

“Oh my gosh! Did you kill her?” Michelle’s eyes bugged open as she said that. All three people around Joe gave him a worried look. Obviously Joe hadn’t hurt Anny that bad, but for them, they didn’t know what it was that they were going to do next to one another.

“Are you crazy? I’m not that stupid,” Joe replied. “She’s in the back of the bus.”

“So are you guys doing better?” Michelle questioned Joe as she inspected her pinkie nail. He didn’t have to respond, the look he gave her was enough to tell him that they were doing even worse. “Anny!” Michelle yelled. Her voice echoed throughout the entire bus.

“She isn’t going to come out, just leave her alone,” Joe sighed and got up from the couch as he elbowed Nick to move aside so that he could grab a vitamin water out of the fridge.

“What?” Anny snapped as she walked out of the back of the bus with her pajamas already on. “Hey Mich, Kevin, Nick,” she paused looking over at Joe, “Joe.”

“You okay?” Nick inquired, putting the cap onto the bottle of Vitamin water.

“Better than ever!” She answered, sarcastically.

“Cut the crap, Anny, he asked you nicely.” Joe stood up straight looking down at Anny who was one foot away from him. He was tired of her being so sarcastic all the time.

“Just like you were going to kiss me nicely? That’s not going to change what a jerk you’ve been lately.” she glared deep into his eyes.

“Well as long as your under the roof of this bus, I get to make the rules!” He stepped closer to her and just stared her down like a father would a daughter. He could sense the anger trying to jump out of her, but didn’t do anything about it.

“I do whatever the hell I want!” Anny barked at him as she pushed past him and was about to sit down on the couch next to Michelle when she stopped her.

“I have this great idea,” Jumping up from the couch, Michelle hurried between them. “Let’s play a game!” Michelle exclaimed.

“I’m not in the mood for games, Mich,” Anny sighed looking at her best friend, standing in front of her, like she was nuts.

“I’m not going to give you a choice,” Michelle informed her as she put on a grin. “Pick a partner.”

“I call Michelle!” Kevin exclaimed jumping out of his seat and rushing his way over to Michelle, who in return just smiled. She knew that no matter what, Anny and Joe had to be paired up. Nick shook his head and laughed. Kevin wasn’t always the smoothest with the ladies, but he definitely gave it a solid effort.

“Count me out, I’ll see you guys later.” Nick shook his head and left them alone on the bus, his drink in hand.

“I’m out, I don’t like this game,” Anny added as she began her way to the back of the bus.

“You don’t even know what we’re playing!” Michelle rolled her eyes. After just one day with the battling couple, she was exhausted by how ridiculous and stubborn the were. “Besides, you and Joe get to go first.” Michelle grinned as she grabbed both their arms and stood them by one another. “You have to cover your eyes, okay?”

Once she found two of Kevin’s scarves resting in a ball on the counter of the bus kitchen, she handed them each one and they reluctantly obliged.

“Alright, hold on to my hands and don’t let go, okay?” She informed them once she knew both of them were tightly blindfolded.

“Fine.” Joe and Anny replied as they held onto Michelle’s hands and followed her through out the bus. Michelle signaled Kevin to open the small closet door that was empty. Kevin opened it and just laughed finally catching on.

“Joe, walk in here for a second and just wait,” She instructed letting Joe walk carefully into the closet. Afterwards, she shoved Anny in right behind him. Closing the door and locking it, she smiled and hoped it would work. “Okay, now you guys can take off the blindfolds.” Against the door she was locking by shoving a chair under the handle, Michelle called.

She could hear them cursing behind the door, and though she should’ve been insulted, she just laughed.

“Michelle, open the door!” Anny cried out as she pounded on the door. “It’s not funny.”

“I’m sorry, did you hear something, Kevin?” Michelle looked over at Kevin with a questioning look on her face.

“No, I think it’s just your imagination,” he replied following her plan.

“Kevin, open the damn door!” Joe shouted, his back against the small closet wall.

“Why don’t we go grab some late night Starbucks?” Kevin suggested. Michelle agreed and both were out of the bus with Nick tagging along leaving the fighting couple behind. They knew that no matter what, they were going to have to sort things out between one another. Michelle was fully prepared to leave the couple in there the whole ride to Nevada.