When You Look Me in the Eyes

“Thanks Mrs. Konenkamp!” I yelled over my shoulder as Nick and Kevin carried Kendall’s suitcase up the steps onto the bus. Gosh that girl has a lot of hair products...

“No problem girls, have fun in California!” Mrs. Konenkamp called from the doorway.

“Behave Kendall!” I heard her brother, Dean, yell from the kitchen. He must have been yelling really loud, because their kitchen is a considerable distance away from their front door.

“Bye guys!” Kendall said to her parents. She waved and then climbed onto the bus after Nick, Kevin, Joe, and me. She continued to wave as John drove down the street and until we turned the corner and were out of sight of her house. “Free at last!” she said, flopping on the couch. I laughed at her and told her to move over. She gladly obliged and I sat down next to her. I was so happy not to be the only girl on tour with all the guys anymore.

“Great. Where do I sit?” Nick complained. Now that we had one more body, there weren’t enough seats for everyone. I stood up.

“Here,” I gestured to the spot on the couch next to Kendall.

“Then where are you gonna sit?”

“I’ll be fine.” He looked at me for a moment before sitting down and pulling me onto his lap. I leaned back against him; he was really warm and it felt good, since it was almost October and always cold in the bus. Kendall smiled knowingly at me and I glared back at her, silently telling her to shut up.

“Kendall, have you been introduced to the band?” Nick asked her.

“No, actually, I haven’t,” she answered, looking around at the seven men surrounding her.

“Well, that’s John Taylor, our guitarist.” The 26-year-old with the short dark hair waved to Kendall and she smiled back. “That’s Ryan, our keyboardist.” Ryan smiled at Kendall from his seat in the corner of the bus. He was tall, with blonde dreadlocks and around the same age as John T. “That’s Jack Lawless, our drummer.”

The 24-year-old drummer smirked. “Also known as Flawless Lawless,” he said, twirling his drumsticks. He was a few inches taller than Nick, with dark blonde hair that reached about to his shoulders.

Nick ignored Jack and continued with the introductions, “And that’s Greg Garbowsky, our bass player.”

“More commonly known as Garbo,” the bass player interjected, reaching out to shake Kendall’s hand. He was about Joe’s height, with short dark hair and a flirtatious smile. The ladies loved Garbo. He was young too, around 22 or 23.

Again, Nick ignored the interruptions, "And driving the buss would be our amazing producer John Fields, but we just call him ‘Fields’ because we call John Taylor ‘John’ and if we called them both ‘John’ it would get confusing.”

“It’s great to meet you guys, I admire you all so much. I can’t play any instruments, so I think you’re all awesome,” Kendall smiled.

“Now that we’ve gotten introductions out of the way, what are we gonna do about sleeping?” Garbo observed.

I groaned, thinking about how I was already on the couch and the band was sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags; we needed another bus.

“Well, we’re out of sleeping bags...” Joe informed us. The brothers had nothing to be worried about. They all slept in beds. Someone was going to have to share...

“We can’t put two of you guys in the same bed, can we?” I asked them, already knowing the answer. They shook their heads.

“Who’s sharing?” Garbo asked aloud.

“Ummm... I guess Kendall can have the couch, and I’ll share with one of you guys...” I groaned internally. Joe snores, Kevin talks in his sleep, and Nick does both.

“Why don’t you and Kendall take my bed?” Nick offered, being a gentleman.

“That really doesn’t work... We can’t sleep in the same room, let alone the same bed; we’ll stay up all night talking and we’ll be totally dead the next morning,” Kendall told them. She was right, and we couldn’t afford sleepless night while we were recording, or any other time really.

“Then I guess you’re sharing with me Laura,” Nick said.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” I asked him, laughing, even though that was exactly what I wanted.

“Well, Joe drools, and Kevin tosses and turns in his sleep, so it’s either that or me.” He grinned and we all cracked up.

“Ok, fine, I guess I’m stuck with you, Nick.” I was jumping with joy on the inside, but I didn’t show it.

“Hey Laura, can I see some of your songs that we’re gonna be recording?” Kendall asked me.

“Sure.” I lead her to the room where all my songbooks were stashed and grabbed a random one. It was Hold, one of my favorites. I desperately wanted to record it and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that having Kendall would make it sound even more awesome. I grabbed another one; One Step At A Time. I pulled out six or seven more and handed them to her, one by one. It was really late, so I went to grab some pajamas and walked in the bathroom to take a shower while she looked over the music.

The door wasn’t locked, so I opened it to reveal...