We Came Alone but Left Together

Lyssie was sick. My maternal side rushed into view. I was worried, I mean, who gets sick during the summer? I wanted to help, but at the same time, I didn’t want to belittle her, so I made her some soup, and left her to it. She looked a little worse for wear, but not deathly ill, so I went to find someone to hang out with. I tried not to worry as I was engulfed in a huge hug from behind.

“I haven’t seen you for like a year!” I heard Alex’s accent say to me. I smiled and pulled out of the hug. I turned around and hugged him back.
“I know! I almost forgot what your obnoxious accent sounded like!” I said, forgetting how English I sounded. He laughed at me, and ruffled my hair, I scowled and he pulled his phone from his green skinny jean pocket. He looked at the time on the screen and narrowed his eyes.

“I go on in like, 15 minutes, come watch?” he asked, I considered it, I loved The Cab, and I knew he put on a great show, but I knew I should probably go help Jonathan with merch. I smiled and shook my head.
“I got to merch it up. But hang out later?” I said, smiling broadly, he looked disappointed for all of two seconds before smiling and nodding. I hugged him, and walked off to merch, where I found a tired and sweaty looking Jonathan and Caleb. Caleb smiled and flung himself at me; I shuddered, and pulled away brushing at the sleeves of my cardigan.

“That was attractive. Hi Jonathan!” I said, chirpily. He smiled that smile at me, and I felt my pulse speed up. I sat down in a merch bin; Caleb looked at me, confusion mixing into his features as I sighed aloud. I slapped a hand over my mouth, trying to do it inconspicuously. I failed and Caleb narrowed his eyes. I shrugged my shoulders and rested my head on my hands. Caleb decided he needed to shower, as did Jonathan, I sat at the merch table with k-dirty.

“Sophii, you know you’re kind of cool?” he said to me, slowly, with a purpose.
“What do you want, love?” I asked, letting go of my accent worries, it was only k-dirty.
“I need to pee so badly, and I need to eat, watch this for a few minutes, and I’ll pick you some food up?” he blurted out. I rolled my eyes and nodded, he smiled, already knowing that I wanted coke and then he would choose. He walked swiftly to the direction of the buses. I sat at the table, pulling my iPod out of my pocket, and blasting some hey Monday. I started to sing along, conscious in case someone heard me.

“Hey!” young girls said to me, making me look up swiftly.
“Hello!” I said, pulling headphones out of my ears, she smiled at me, and looked at the merch behind me. “I think the yellow would look great on your skin.” I said. She nodded and pulled some money from the pocket of her green shorts.
“Can I get the two wristbands, a red and a green and then the yellow shirt in...?Um...” she said, looking at herself, then at the shirt. I smiled and pulled out girls small and a girl’s medium. I held both up to her.
“The small would fit you nicely, but American apparel shirts shrink in the wash.” I said, she nodded, and took the medium, I grabbed the wristbands from the box, I handed them to her, and she handed me the money.

“Why are you alone?” she said suddenly. I smiled and shrugged.
“What about you?” I asked, sitting back down. She sighed, and leant against the table.
“My boyfriend is on stage.” She said, putting her purchases into her tote bag. I raised my eyebrows.
“And which one is he?” I asked, not sure whether to believe her.
“Alex, from The Cab?” she said, surely. I nodded and smiled, pulling my phone from my pocket, ready to send him a message. “I'm Logan, by the way.” She said kindly.
“Sophii. I'm FTSK’s BFFL for summer.” I said laughing. She smiled.
“And you’re from England?” she asked raising her eyebrow, as the conversation grew tedious. I nodded.
“I live in Arizona. Really recent though, the accent is a major give away though.” I said, smiling; hoping she would get the hint soon and leave me alone. I saw a flash of green and looked around her; Jonathan was approaching wearing an attractive green tee-shirt. I smiled, and he made a heart sign and smiled.

“I hope you weren’t too bored while I was gone!” he said, jumping over the table, and sitting next to me. I shook my head, and he put his arm around me, he smelt amazing.
“Is he your boyfriend?” Logan asked nosily. I shook my head, blushing profusely. She smiled at him, and Jonathan smiled back.
“will you sign my shirt?” she asked, pulling out her recently purchased shirt from her bag, Jonathan nodded, and I pulled a pink sharpie from my cardigan pocket, he signed the girls shirt, and handed it back, putting my sharpie in his pocket, and sticking his tongue out at me, Logan eventually walked away. I rolled my eyes.

“I see you met Logan then.” Jonathan said, smiling, I looked at him questioningly.
“oh, Alex’s girlfriend shows up every year, and she and Alex break up, because she goes off with a band dude, while Alex is with his friends.” He said, laughing. I smiled and raised my eyebrow.
“Jonathan Samuel Cook, have you fallen victim to her?” I asked, smiling coyly. He shook his head and laughed with me.
“I haven’t, and I won’t but Caleb has.” He said, and busted into a fit of giggles. My eyes started watering, but I couldn’t stop giggling. I had finally calmed down, as k-dirty arrived, thrusting coke and a giant cookie in my face. I smiled and stood up, dragging Jonathan with me.

We sat on the bus roof, sharing the bottle of coke, and shoving bits of cookie into each other’s mouths. I laughed, and sprayed cookie everywhere. Jonathan’s eyes widened and he started laughing too, spraying cookie.
“We go on soon.” He said, ruffling his hair. I smiled and looped my arm through his. I used my other arm to play with my bracelets. He smiled and pulled my wrist closer to his face for further investigation.
“Can I have one for on stage?” he said looking at me with puppy eyes. I didn’t want to give these ones away. I shook my head.
“I’ve got one on the bus that you can have, and I think you’ll like it.” I said, climbing down, closely followed by Jonathan.

I put the bracelet on his wrist, and dug through my bag, and tied a pink bandana around his wrist too. I thought this would give him enough luck. He sniffed the bandana.
“I thought it would smell like you.” He said, looking like a lost puppy. I grabbed my perfume and sprayed it on the bandana. He smiled and hugged me.
“I’ll see you after the set?” he said, as Austin walked from the back lounge, and smiled at me.

“Hello darling. How are you on this fine day?” he asked, trying to put on an English accent. I smiled.
“Well tour mum, so far so good. You?” I asked, smoothing his hair down, he smiled, and gently tugged the ends of my hair.
“Well, jewel recovered, so she’s watching movies. And now, I'm going to play.” He said happily. I kissed him on the cheek, and hugged him.
“Be good, tour mum.” I said, walking to the back lounge, to see Alyssa watching a random Tim Burton movie. I smiled, and sat next to her. The bus fell silent, the boys had left, and I was sure Alyssa was asleep. I stroked her hair, and stood up; I walked off the bus to see Alex approaching.

“Hey!” he said, pulling me into a hug. I smiled, and hugged him back, he smelt like he had before. I pulled away from the hug, and grinned.
“I met Logan!” I said, with as much fake enthusiasm as I could muster. He smiled weakly.
“She’s here? I haven’t seen her yet?” he said, sounding uninterested. I nodded, and he shrugged.
“She stopped by our merch tent, and we had a conversation, and Jonathan told me a very interesting story.” I said, smiling broadly, as we went back onto the FTSK bus. We sat at the table.
“Oh, cool. By the way, what you’ve heard is probably true. And I know I'm stupid. But I hate being alone at home. So I know it’s stupid, but she knows, and were in it for the same thing.” He said, sighing. I narrowed my eyes.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me Alex, but you are ridiculous, Logan or no Logan.” I said, smiling at him. He stuck his tongue out. I pulled my laptop across the table, and opened photo booth. He smiled and messed my hair up. We took over a hundred pictures, and some of them were really cute, but Alex had picked his favourite.

He had said something about being Monsieur Mankini, and I had started laughing like an idiot, and he had taken a picture. It was really natural, he looked good, and I looked insane, but it wasn’t a bad picture. He uploaded the picture to twitter, and I rolled my eyes, knowing people weren’t going to like me very much for this. I looked at him, my face meeting his hair.

“I should go, but we need to hang out more.” He said, hugging me, and kissing my cheek I smiled and kissed him on the cheek, and he walked from the bus smiling. I turned around to go check on Lyssie, when my head met the door of a cupboard. I fell back, cursing. I touched my eyebrow, and I saw blood. I felt nauseous.
I sat on the couch, and leant my cheek against the window, the cold helping with the nausea. I closed my eyes, feeling dizzy. I heard voices, but I kept my eyes closed. I felt something drip from my chin to my shirt. I gulped, as I heard the bus door opening.

“Sophii? Dude! She’s bleeding!” Kent said, sounding alarmed, I felt a hand on my chin, tilting my head back, for a better look.
“She’s split her eyebrow. She needs to see a doctor.” I heard Caleb announce. I felt the wave of nausea intensify, as I sat up, and pushed past the boys, I got to the bathroom, and puked.
“Don’t like blood?” I heard Caleb ask from the door. I shook my head, and he passed me a bottle of water. “Were going to the hospital. Don’t look in the mirror.” He said, grabbing my hand.