Heartaches Grow a Little Bit Stronger

Without a word, I hitched my bag higher up onto my shoulder and grasped Alyssa's hand tightly before I led her over to where Austin, Kent, and my stepbrother were waiting. As we approached, Kent smiled in a greeting to my girlfriend, while Austin waved a little.

"Alyssa, are you going with us this time?" Kent questioned as he pulled Alyssa out of my grasp gently, and hugged her tightly.

"No," Alyssa huffed softly as she hugged him back, and then released him. "I wish, though." She whispered.

Kent nodded his head slowly in agreement, a small frown on his lips as well. "You're coming to our hometown show though, yeah?" He asked with a small hint of mischief in his eyes.

"Of course." She replied with a smile of her own. "I already worked my class syllabus around that date; I told them that I was going to a family function so that we weren't going to have class on that day."

Kent laughed loudly in amusement and then bumped his hip into hers. "Slacker." He teased.

"Jerk." Alyssa grinned as she pushed him back.

Kent stumbled slightly, giggling to himself, before he caught Alyssa's hand with a sudden interest, and then brought it closer to his face so he could get a better look at it. His eyes widened slightly and he let out a low whistle as he pointed to Alyssa's hand with his free hand.

"What's all this?" He questioned before he turned to me. "Are you two getting hitched?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but Alyssa spoke up before I had a chance to. "No," she blushed, pulling her hand out of Kent's grasp. "It's just a promise ring." She added softly.

"A promise that the engagement ring is coming soon?" Austin teased.

Alyssa's cheeks flushed a darker shade of pink, and she shrugged her shoulders before she came back over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. Smiling to myself, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to my body before I turned my attention to Austin.

"If she wants, one day I'll get her an engagement ring." I admitted shyly.

Austin raised an eyebrow before a smile pulled across his face. "Oh?" He asked.

"Yes." I replied. "But like I said, it's up to Alyssa."

"Alyssa, babe, what do you say to that?" Kent questioned.

Alyssa stared back at Kent for a few seconds, an unreadable look on her face before her complexion began to flush once more. "I don't know." She whispered. "We'll see how he does this tour."

"I wouldn't be worried if I were you," Austin laughed softly, "you should have seen him last tour; he was worrying about you every little while."

"Worrying?"

"You guys," I sighed, but Kent raised a hand, silencing me.

"Every little while, he'd pull out his cell phone, and make a move to call you just to make sure you were doing alright." He said. "But then he'd change him mind, and instead decide to talk about you nonstop. It was always Alyssa this, Alyssa that, one time Alyssa said this, one time Alyssa made me do that. It was pretty redundant after a while."

"I did not." I mumbled. "Well, okay, I did, but it wasn't as much as Kent is making it sound."

"You'd better not have told them anything you weren't supposed to." Alyssa said, turning her green gaze up to me. Although her expression was serious, I saw a little spark in her eyes, indicating that she was teasing me.

"I may have told them a thing or two," I joked, "what we did, but not how we did it."

"Burns," Alyssa threatened before she laughed softly, "you'd better keep your damn mouth shut."

"I will." I grinned.

"Oh shit, if you're worried so much about Kyle telling us some things you don't want us to know, you know that now we're not gonna leave him alone until he tells us." Austin grinned. "Just because we know now that you don't want us to know."

"If I find out he told, I'm gonna kick his ass, and then I'm gonna come after you boys." Alyssa said simply. "And if I don't get a hold of you, I'm sure that Lucas will."

"Well, what if your brother gets curious to know the big secret as well?" Kent asked. "What are you gonna do then?"

"Kent?!" Alyssa laughed. "Shut up." She demanded. "And you can keep your mouth shut too, Bello." She added just as Austin opened his mouth to add something to the mix.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help but smile nonetheless before I set my bag down and then removed my arm from Alyssa's shoulders.

"Come on, babe." I insisted as I pulled her arms away from my waist, and instead took a hold of her hand, leading her away from the small group.

"Kyle, I gotta get going in a couple of minutes." She whispered softly. "I gotta do a couple of errands before I go in and get ready for class."

"Alright." I mumbled and then pulled her over to a bench.

Although it was only 8:12 in the morning, the airport was already busy with people arriving for their flights, and people waiting outside for their rides to pick them up. Alyssa's gaze examined the people as they passed up, her eyes going back and forth as she switched her attention from person to person.

"Babe, are you okay with being by yourself for two and a half months?" I asked softly.

"Yeah, I'll be able to manage." She said, turning her attention to me. "If not, I can always call up Lucas and have him come over and stay with me for a few days."

"Okay." I mumbled. "I just get worried about leaving you all by yourself in that apartment."

"Kyle, I'll be fine." She insisted. "We live in a good part of town."

"I know, but still ... you never know." I sighed.

My girlfriend sighed quietly as she reached up and placed her hand on my cheek before she kissed my lips softly. "Don't worry." She whispered as she pulled away.

I let a small growl escape my lips, not wanting the kiss to have ended so soon. Alyssa smirked softly, knowing what was bugging me and then she rested her hand on top of my leg, while she rested her head on my shoulder.

"Last night was fun, Burns." She said.

"Yeah?" I asked, a shy smile pulling across my lips. "It was pretty fun." I admitted.

"You have to stay outta trouble while you're on tour, so we can do it again when you get home."

"Alright." I smiled. "You gotta stay outta trouble too, though."

"Of course."

Although I wasn't looking at her, I knew that her smirk was still stuck on her face. Smiling to myself, I reached up and ran my fingers through her hair, thinking to myself about this tour. It was a full length tour, a hell of a lot longer than the two weeks we had been gone at the end of August. Alyssa tells me not to, but I can't help but worry about her wellbeing while she's here in Texas, and I'm out on the road. A different day, a different city; sometimes it can be hard to reach me, and in the case that something happens ...

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, and then looked down to my girlfriend.

"Babe, can I asked you something?" I whispered.

"Sure."

"Earlier when Kent asked you what you thought about an engagement ring," I paused slightly, frowning to myself, "why'd you hesitate for so long before you answered?"

While I waited for Alyssa to answer me, I felt her fingers tighten on my leg over so slightly before she relaxed then she sighed heavily to herself. "I don't know." She mumbled. "I guess, I was just caught off guard by his question."

My frown deepened because I knew that she was lying. But, seeing as how I was just getting ready to leave for tour, I didn't want to push the question, and end up having her get mad at me. I didn't want to leave her on such a bad note. I wanted her to be relatively happy, because I knew that with these next couple of months, she was going to get lonesome for me, and I was going to get homesick.

"Oh." Was all I said before we fell silent once again.

We sat like that for a couple of minutes, before she announced that she had to leave, and then together we stood up and walked back to the little group that had since been joined by Caleb and Jonathan. Alyssa squeezed my hand tightly before she released it, and went around, giving everyone a hug goodbye before she made her way back to me. As she approached, the small smile on her face faded away and she bit her lip slightly as her eyes started to glaze over.

"Sweetheart," I whispered as I took her into my arms. "Please don't cry."

"I'm gonna miss you so much." She cried softly. "Promise me you'll call me every night."

"I promise." I whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too," she muttered thickly.

Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly and hugged her tightly before I released her, and wiped away the messy tears from her face.

"You gonna be alright?" I asked quietly.

Sniffing slightly, Alyssa nodded her head and wiped away another tear that had just fallen. "I gotta get going."

I nodded my head in agreement, and kissed her lips gently before I hugged her one last time and let her go. "I love you." I repeated.

"Love you too, Kyle." She whispered, her voice barely audible as she turned away and slowly walked away from me.

I watched her walk away, until I couldn’t take it any more, and then turned around, making my way back to the guys. I felt their eyes on me, but I didn't look up to meet any of their gazes. I simply picked up my bag, and followed the sight of Marc's shoes as we went inside the airport. At the front, we checked our things in and got our tickets before we made our way through the airport toward our appropriate gate.

Along the way, I brought up the end of the group, walking by myself for a few minutes before I caught sight of Caleb, who had fallen back slightly so that he was now walking beside me.

"Hey." He said softly. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to leave Alyssa here." I muttered.

Caleb studied me for a few seconds before he shook his head, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "That's not what's really bothering you." He said simply. "What is it?"

"Alyssa doesn't want to marry me." I said quietly.

Beside me, Caleb's eyes grew wide as he stared at me. "You asked her?"

"No," I mumbled, "I didn't ask her. But ... the idea of marrying me scares her. You should have seen the look on her face when I pulled out her promise ring, she looked like she was about ready to run for the fuckin' hills. But once she realized it was just a promise ring, she calmed down."

"Kyle," Caleb laughed softly, "you two have only been together for a month and a half ... well, two and a half months if you want to cheat," I scowled slightly, remembering that Alyssa had said the same thing, "of course if you bring up the concept of marriage so early in the relationship she's gonna freak. Anybody would freak."

"I wouldn't freak." I said defensively. "I ... I wanna marry her someday."

"I know you do, but so soon?" Caleb questioned.

Not knowing what to answer, I simply shrugged my shoulders. Caleb laughed quietly at my response before he hit my arm slightly.

"It's easy for you to think about because you've been engaged before, or had at least talked about the idea of marriage. With Alyssa ... as far as I know, she'd never talked to Mason about getting married. They were together for what, five years? For two people to have been together that long, and never talked about getting married ... " Caleb trailed off, shrugging his shoulders.

I frowned softly and didn't say anything.

"But then again, things are different with you two. You love her very much, and she loves you more than anything. I mean, she did a lot of things I'd never think a girl like her would do, and she did it all for you. So who knows?" He said. "But maybe ... if you're thinking about taking your relationship further, maybe you should just wait a little while. Back off a little bit, and don't make her feel like you're pressuring her into something more. What Mason did to her hurt her pretty bad, more than she's willing to show, so maybe she just needs some time, still, to heal from that."

"Yeah, maybe." I whispered.

Taking a deep breath, I let it out in a soft sigh. I may not have had any plans to marry Alyssa just yet, but then again I wasn't planning on holding off on it for a long time either. Like she said, we'll just have to wait and see how it goes. I just hope that somewhere along the lines, things don't start to go bad.