Daylight

Pet’s POV

The next morning, I awoke to a parked and rather quiet bus. Presumably, we’d arrived. I opened the bunk curtain to see the sunlight streaming in through the windows. It looked like another gorgeous summer day at Warped Tour.

Shit.

I rolled onto my back and considered my options. It looked like it was definitely way past the usual wake-up time, and I was pretty sure breakfast was over; I wasn’t sure how late I’d been up last night….
Oh shit, I thought again as memories of my conversation with Joe flooded my sleepy brain. I groaned and rolled over again, squeezing my eyes shut like that would force out all the stupid things we’d said to each other.
It didn’t work.

I figured at last that I’d better get up, knowing that I was gonna catch hell from my bandmates for sleeping so late. I stumbled down the hall into the kitchen, where I found only Mo and Sal, talking quietly for a change.
Mo’s face brightened when I appeared. “Hey! It lives!” she yelled in my general direction. Sal winced at the noise.
I sat down without comment. Just then, we heard a knock at our bus door. Mo leapt up to answer it. Sal and I exchanged pained smiles and then Mo was back.
“Pet, someone’s here to see you,” she said excitedly.
“At this hour?” I couldn’t help asking.
Mo smirked. “Yes, at this hour,” she sassed. “Come and see who it is.”
I rolled my eyes in frustration. “I don’t have patience for guessing games this morning, Mo,” I insisted. “Now who the hell is it?”
Her usual shit-eating grin got even bigger than normal, if possible. “Joe McCullough.”

My heart and my stomach both did a flip. Goddamn! Now what?

Mo stood fidgeting, waiting for me to decide.
“Damn!” I finally blurted. “Just tell him I’ll be out in a minute, OK? Let me get dressed.”
Mo disappeared again.
I looked at Sal. She was clearly miserable this morning.
“No lectures today, Pet, please?”
I patted her shoulder. “No lectures, Sal. Just feel better.”

A few minutes later, I let Joe onto the bus.
“Ladies,” he greeted us all, “I wonder if I might have a word?”
The three of us looked at him.
“Privately, with Pet,” he specified.
Mo and Sal just gawked at him. Annoyed, I grabbed Joe’s arm and led him outside.

Joe’s POV

I went outside with Pet so we could have a chat.
Of course, now that we were alone, we just stood there, not knowin’ what to say, or how to say it.
“Good morning,” I said, for want of summat better.
She nodded. “Good morning to you.”
I saw her two mates starin’ out the bus window. I nodded up at it. “We’re not alone, you know.”
She sighed. “I know.”
“So how do we get some privacy?” I wondered.
She counted off. “Well, one choice would be to kill them…”
“And another?”
She turned back to the bus and flipped them off. “Let’s get out of here. I’m tired and hungry, and not really responsible for my actions.”
I laughed, but stopped as soon as I saw she meant it.
“Well,” I said, takin’ her arm, “I can’t help with the tired part, but as for hunger….”

As we walked to the food tent, Pet asked for the time.
“It’s about ten, why?” I asked.
“No reason, I just don’t sleep in much,” she responded.
“Too much to do?”
She sighed again. “Something like that.”

We found a table well away from everyone else. It was late for the morning meal, but I’d had such a bad night meself, it seemed like the crack’o dawn.
Pet settled onto the plastic bench, and I had another coffee as she tucked into her food.

Her appetite didn’t seem to have been affected by whatever I’d done.

She threw away her rubbish and finally faced me. “So what did you want?” she asked.
Direct for direct then. “I wanted to apologise.”
She blinked at me in apparent surprise.
I held up one hand as if to stop her. “I—I realised almost as soon as I’d opened me mouth, that I’d upset you, but the words just kept comin’,” I explained. “I just wanted to say, I know how you feel about all this now, and—it’s the same way I feel.”
She watched me, waitin’.
“We’ve worked as hard as we could, we have,” I went on. “Peter’s busted his mighty arse to get us somewhere, and now that we’re here—it’s too hard to think about someone who has an advantage we don’t.”
Her voice was soft. “And you thought Viv was our advantage?”
“Looked like it,” I answered. “And I’m sorry for thinkin’ that you ladies wouldn’t have to work as hard, when it’s clear that you do.”

Pet sipped her own coffee, no expression on her face one way or the other.

When she didn’t answer, I admitted, “Alright, you've wrung it out of me. It’s true, Pet, you can ask anyone who knows me: I’m a tosser and always have been.”
She gave me a little smile. “Should I even ask what a tosser is?”
Encouraging. “Well, if you’re from England, it’s not the sort o’thing you’d want someone to call ya,” I said, smilin’ a bit meself.
She leant back in her chair. “Well, I guess if you’re willing to call yourself a degrading name,” she remarked, “I suppose I can forgive you. And I’m sorry too, for blowing up at you. But I guess you get it, right?”
I smiled fully now. “Friends again, then?” I asked, holdin’ out me hand.
She shook it. “Friends it is,” she agreed.

Pet’s POV

I don’t know why, but it felt good to see Joe smiling, and to know we weren’t competing—for a little while at least.

As we got ready to walk back to the buses, Viv came rushing up to us.
“Oh, Joe, there you are,” she said breathlessly. “Peter said I could talk to you all, but it had to be done this morning. I’ve been looking for you all over. Hi Pet,” she added.

I laughed. “I guess that’s my cue. I’m outta here. See you both later.”
Viv caught me in a brief hug and whispered into my ear: “Everything OK?”
I nodded and went back to the bus.