Harder Than You Know

I stood with Sara and Michaela, it was Jack's idea that we have "girl bonding time" since we were going to be together for a while. Sara and me hesitated, while Michaela jumped on the idea as soon as it was suggested. She's still the same. She bounced around, gathering things for us to hang out to. We ended up just going to the mall, shopping around. We had stopped to eat.

"So, are you two both dating someone from the band?" Michaela asked, smiling at us. Her eyes lingered on me longer than normal, and it made it very awkward..

"Well, I'm dating Craig, and I'm pretty sure Sara here's gotta thing for Maxie." I nudged her with my elbow playfully, earning a glare from her.

"Oh, that's cool. So Sophia, have you always been with Craig?" She asked, smiling at me.

"Nope, just around a year now." I said, and realized it had actually been that long.

"Oh, so are you originally from Vegas or not?"

"Um.. No, I moved down her from the North." She nodded her head. Her questions were starting to startle me, it's like she knew or something.

The guys were at sound check, and I was the only one on the bus. I think Sara went to listen to them, since she had only heard a few songs. Or to watch Max play. I laughed out as Ellen made a mockery of the 'Loud-And-Clear' ear thing. The bus door opened, and Michaela stepped in. She sat beside me, and turned the TV off. I gave her a questionable look, but didn't bother to turn it back on.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, still a bit confused.

"I know this might sound a little weird, but I need to ease this feeling I'm having. But, can I see your left shoulder?" My eyes grew wide.

"W-what.., Why?" Dammit dammit dammit dammit.

"Just," She turned me around, "Let me..." She gasped, and let go of my shoulder. I knew she saw the shoulder tattoos, the matching ones we had.

"ADDISON!" She screamed, tackling me in a hug.

"Shh!" I hushed her, but hugged her back tightly. I missed my best friend insanely, like half
of me was gone.

"I knew it was you!" She cried, literally. I saw tears brimming her eyes, but she was smiling. "I new there was something familiar about your voice at the store, and then when Craig was carrying you out, I saw your shoulder tattoo. Plus, I knew you just had to be.. well, you. And WHY THE HELL DID YOU LEAVE?! YOU HAD ME GOING FUCKING INSANE AND THEN JACK WAS UPSET, AND ZACK WAS TOO AND ALEX CRIED AND RIAN WAS JUST RIAN!” She said all of that in pretty much one breathe. She breathed deeply, ready to go at it again, until I covered her mouth with my palm. Then, what she said sunk in.

“....Alex cried?” I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. She shook her head sadly, closing her eyes.

“Yeah. He moped around for a few weeks. He sung, like normal, but without as much energy. I could hear him crying late at night sometimes, Addison. You hurt him bad.” I felt a tear slip from my eye, then another. I loved him so much, he was my life. But with Jack always lurking around, we couldn’t act on it like we really wanted to.

“So, when are you going to tell them?” She asked, suddenly perky again. I shot my redden eyes up to hers, mine big again.

“You can’t! Michaela please don’t! I don’t want them to know! It’ll hurt them even more!” I yelled, jumping up.

“Alright, alright. Calm down. But you know, if your anything like you were in the past, you can’t keep a good secret.” She shook her head, and walked off the bus.