Three Strikes

Nick's Point Of View

The next morning I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow. I groaned, not wanting to open my eyes. In the bunk opposite I could see Joe laying there, mouth wide open, drool creeping out of his mouth. I sighed and turned back over. I couldn’t look at him. After the phone conversation with Rose last night she’d hung up on me pretty fast. She said she needed to sleep and that it was the wine talking. I rang her back straight after but it gave me a busy dial tone. She was ignoring me.

“Morning Nick,” mumbled Kevin. He was already dressed as he strolled past my bunk into the living area. “Sleep okay?”

“I guess,” I shrugged. I grabbed a shirt and pulled it over my chest and with that I traipsed into the bathroom. Minutes later I reappeared after showering, my hair sopping wet, the curls lifeless. It was 9:28am. I dried my hair and changed into some jeans and a v-neck and climbed back into my bunk. I couldn’t sleep though. Every time I closed my eyes I pictured that girl’s hands roaming over my brother’s chest. It made me nauseous. With an aggravated sigh I went to sit with my elder of my three brothers. We sat in silence for a minute as he ate his cereal until I broke the silence. “Kevin.. If you had a secret, but a bad secret… and you knew you couldn’t tell anyone because it would upset people… what would you do?”

Kevin cocked a brow and dropped his spoon. He fixed me a stare. “Nick… is this your way of telling me you’re gay or something?”

My eyes widened and I shook my head frantically. “What?!” I shouted, “No! No! I like that girl from New Jersey remember! No, I’m not gay. Not at all, Kevin!”

He laughed, raising his hands in a defensive manner. “’Kay, okay. I got you. I was only messing.”

“Don’t!” I said. “Seriously, it’s not funny.”

He laughed again, “Oh come on it was.”

“Wasn’t.”

Kevin rolled his eyes as they danced. “So what’s the big bad secret little ‘bro? Anything I can do to help?” He asked, genuinely concerned. I shrugged and poured myself some malt flakes.

“Don’t think you can.” I answered quietly as I grabbed the milk.

“Just don’t tell Joe,” Kevin disapproved. “If it’s some secret he’s the worst person to tell.” I about choked on my cereal. I wiped my mouth and shook my head.

“Don’t I know it.”

Kevin stood up, throwing his dish in the little sink we had. “Okay, well, if you wanna talk you know I’m here, alright? Mom and Dad took Frankie out to breakfast, he wanted waffles. I’m gonna go grab my guitar and wander around the venue. Tell Joe he’s gotta be out of bed by eleven if we’re going to do this AOL interview.”

“You tell him!” I said through a mouthful of cereal. Kevin looked at me confused. “I mean, I might want to wander around too, y’know?”

Kevin rolled his eyes and grabbed his guitar case. “You’re doing school work. You’re not allowed to leave the bus, Nick. Remember?” He saluted me before leaving the bus. “See you, bro.”

Truth be told I didn’t want to be left on the bus with Joe - there was only so many places I could escape to. I didn’t want to look at him. I still had the grotesque image playing in my mind. How could he do that to Rose? He seemed to finally have things going in the right direction and now this? Rose was way prettier than the blonde girl. Sure, Rose wasn’t super model pretty and she didn’t have looks that screamed Paris Hilton or Britney Spears but she was gorgeous in her own way.

Joe had said he was going to buy Rose a present. Some present if he decided to get sidetracked by some blonde bitch who wore far too much make-up. I mean, who could I tell? Mom? Dad? They’d kill him which would be a little too far, I mean, I’m not ready to take it solo yet and killing off a third of the trio probably wouldn’t be too great an idea with the month long tour ahead of us.

Who am I kidding? I love Joe. I just wanted to hurt him sometimes. He was so dense sometimes. It’s like nothing ever got through. The lights were on but no one was home. And what was Rose on about last night? ‘Amanda’. Who was she? How did Rose know who she was? Were they friends? I mean, if you knew your fiancé was cheating on you with a girl you knew, you’d be pretty pissed. Right?

I was proud of Rose. Sure, we didn’t really know each other well before all this. But we’d been swapping texts ever since she came back into our lives. She was really talented and I’d even gone and bought a few ties from her collection - I was planning on wearing a deep blue for tonight’s show. She was doing really well for herself -settled. And now Joe’s gone and messed everything up.

When I eventually stood back up I saw Joe clamber out of his bunk, bare feet hitting the bus floor with a thud. I looked up and saw him grin at me. “Morning little bro,” he said.

That was strike three. How could he be so… happy? Neutral? I wanted to scream that I knew his secret but instead I shot him a look and a “Whatever” before storming off of the bus.

I’d never wanted to hit my brother so hard until now.