Rum and Coke

The A7X crew and Ellie all gathered in the back room of the bus for a horror movie marathon. At first, Ellie felt a little awkward around the new group, but she quickly settled in and got comfortable in Brian’s arms.

Sometime during the second movie of the night, Ellie changed positions so that she was draped over Brian’s lap with her feet on Matt and her head in Zacky’s lap. They can’t say that Ellie didn’t warn them that that would happen.

Towards the end of the third movie, Zacky started squirming in his seat, causing Ellie to swat at him.

“Stop hitting me!” he whined/ whispered. “I gotta piss then I’m hitting the sack,” he added, also at the whisper before lifting her head off of him and darting out of the room. Ellie raised herself up on her elbows and stuck her tongue out to his retreating back.

“Yea, sleep sounds good right about now,” Matt voiced for the others. “See you later, kid.” he said, picking the sleeping Val up and carrying her to their bunk. Jimmy and Johnny soon followed.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” Brian said, giving her a tired smile. Ellie could tell that he was fighting to stay awake, but she didn’t argue.

Ellie shrugged and changed into her original position. If there was one thing that Ellie had learned about him from spending the past few hours on the bus is that he A) makes a great pillow, and B) that he is as much of a cuddle whore as Ellie is.

Brian laughed and slung his arm over her shoulder, drawing her closer to him. “That’s better,” he said as the opening scene for I Walked With a Zombie played on the screen. A quarter of the way through the film, Brian sighed heavily and gently squeezed her shoulders. “I like this. You know? Just the two of us, hanging out…acting like we’ve known each other all of our lives…”

Ellie nodded her head, knowing full well what he meant. She felt very content- at home, even. She flet like she could lay like this forever, and be perfectly fine. Hatred instantly flared up in her. It was directly aimed toward her mother. I could have had this all along if she wasn’t so fucking scared to stand up and face the fact that she was madly in love with him…if she hadn’t run away. But, just as soon as her hatred came, it disappeared when Ellie realized that she couldn’t hate her. Danielle was, first and foremost, Ellie’s mother…and Ellie could never hate her, no matter how much she tried. She also came to the conclusion that holding a grudge against a dead person is just not a good idea anyway. Ellie sighed and placed herself in her mother’s shoes. She found out that her mother was terrified- having never known what love was…it was scary…Ellie’s gut twisted at the realization that she still didn’t really know what had happened between her parents. She made a mental note to ask him when she could finally speak again.

“Ellie? Are you asleep?” Brian asked, his voice low and rumbling.

Ellie lifted her head, meeting his eyes, and shook her head. Why? she signed, hoping that he would get it.

“I just wanted to know your thoughts on your half brother coming on tour with us. He would be staying in your bus.” He asked hesitantly, almost as if he were afraid of Ellie’s reaction.
Ellie waved her hand in a manner that said she didn’t mind. Why? she asked again, mentally cursing herself that she couldn’t remember where exactly she had left her notepad and pen.

He pursed his lips together. “Because, I feel bad for not spending as much time as I should be…and, well…I’ll just come out and say it. Michelle and I are getting a divorce.”

Ellie instantly shot up. What?! Why? Is it because of me? I can leave if you want! Please, don’t end your marriage because of me! she quickly signed, forgetting that he A) couldn’t see her, and B) didn’t know sign language.

“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Ellie. I think I know what you’re thinking and- no, we’re not divorcing because of you. Okay? Trust me. This has nothing to do with you and I don’t want you blaming yourself for my mistakes. Michelle and I have always had problems- we’ve just ignored them for so long and now it’s coming to bite us in the ass.” He said slowly, trying to calm his daughter down. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled at her. Slowly, she got back into her original position on him as he continued to stroke her hair in a soothing manner. “I’m sorry for upsetting you. We can talk about this more in the morning.”

Against her will, Ellie slowly drifted off into sleep.