Daylight

Pet’s POV

I’d seen Joe around at various times during the day, but he didn’t see me.
I was trying to stay out of his line of vision, if you want the truth. It annoyed me no end that he’d gotten Tom to lie to me for him.

About an hour before showtime I showered and did my hair. Then I struggled with my eyeliner, which I’ve never been very good at applying, and did the best I could with my makeup.
Fat lot of good all this is gonna do, I mused; I knew we’d all be melting pretty soon, and have to look good doing it, too. Shit.
My thoughts drifted back to Joe, Tom, and how pissed I was. I can handle a lot of shit, I thought, but I can’t stand a lie. It really made me wonder, you know? Like, what was happening?
I thought he said liked me, I argued with myself. If so, why would he pull that kind of shit?
And I didn’t know who to be madder at, Joe or Tom.
I lingered as I inspected my face in the bathroom mirror, delaying the inevitable. Right now I felt like a stupid teenager, wondering and worrying about her equally stupid…boyfriend.
I sighed as Sal pounded on the door, hollering for me to get out.
Be mad at Joe, I decided, nodding at my reflection as I unlocked the door.

Sal gave me a withering look as I finally vacated the tiny bathroom. None of us had thought to bring a lighted mirror, and it was the only place with decent light for us to do hair and makeup.
“Jesus!” she said in a snotty voice. “About fucking time you got outta there! You know, other people need to get the fuck ready too!”
I shrugged, not answering, and she ignored me, closing the flimsy door in my face.
Tia giggled as I started into the bunk area to get dressed.
I looked at her suspiciously. “And what’s got you in such a great mood?”
“Sal,” she said in a low tone. “It’s kinda fun to watch her get mad. She’s so good at it.”
“I heard that!” came a very loud voice from the bathroom. Tia rolled her eyes, and we burst out laughing.

I pretty much avoided Joe before the show started. I glanced over at the side of the stage a couple of times during our set, and I could see him staring at me. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just looked away from him and kept singing.
I knew I couldn’t afford to let thoughts of whatever Joe was doing mess me up, so I concentrated on how great it was to have my keys with us. I was only too happy to call for a few songs that weren’t possible for us to play a couple of weeks before.

Things went great. It seemed like the crowds were getting bigger and louder at every stop, which was awesome. At the end of the set we all looked like we’d walked a mile in the rain, but the crowd response made up for it.
We came offstage to our usual round of high-fives with the Madmen, resulting in a mildly uncomfortable moment between me and Joe. He looked like he wanted to talk, but we both knew they’d have to get onstage in a few minutes. I could still feel his eyes on me as the four of us walked away to cool off.
Sal poured a whole bottle of water over her head instead of drinking it, shaking her hair off so that she splattered all of us with cool droplets. Mo laughed and walked off with our bassist, the two of them chattering about the crowd the whole way to the nearest beer garden. Tia lifted her soaked ponytail off her neck. “Whoo!” she exclaimed. “If it gets any hotter this summer, I’m gonna have to cut this off soon!”
Tom appeared right behind her just then. “Don’t you dare,” he advised, kissing the top of her sweaty head. “Hey Pet,” he greeted me.
“Hey Tom,” I replied without much enthusiasm. He looked at me like I was crazy, but I walked off alone before he could say anything else.

Joe’s POV

After the night was over, I still couldn’t seem to gain Pet’s attention. I couldn’t figure out how the fuck I was supposed to talk to her, when she wouldn’t even fuckin’ look at me? I knew I shouldn’t be gutted at her, but what sort o’ game did she think she was playin’ with me?

A bit hard to man up when the bird you need to talk to won’t even look yer way. And I knew Tom’d never give me peace if he thought I needed to do summat—anythin’—that had to do with a bird. And he was right pissed off now, tellin’ me furiously that I had to talk to Pet.

Finally, watchin’ Pet ignore me from just a metre away, I made up me mind.
I walked up to her and put me hand on her shoulder.
“Pet, are ya busy?” I murmured into her ear.
She looked up at me at last. “As a matter of fact, I am,” she answered almost coldly.
Right, then, she was pissed off: fine.
“I don’t see yeh doin’ anythin’ at the mo,” I pointed out. “How about a walk?” Then without waitin’ for her to answer, I just took her arm and led her off.

We walked for a few minutes in silence, in no particular direction. I just wanted to get her away from the crowd. Her body was stiff; I could tell she’d just gone off with me so as not to make a scene. Also fine.
When Pet finally spoke, it was clear she was ever more annoyed with me. “Where are we going, Joe?” she asked sharply.
“I told yeh, just for a walk,” I said calmly. “I’ve not seen you all day.”
“Sure you have,” she replied, stoppin’ all of a sudden. “You’ve been watching me all day. It was getting to be a little creepy, in fact.”
I turned to her, finally havin’ had enough. “Yeah? Well, sorry for annoyin’ yeh. I’ll be more careful in future. And yeh could’ve come talk to me, ya know. It’s not like I was doin’ anything all fuckin’ day.” She flinched, but I carried on. “What was you doin’ all bloody day?”
She smirked. “Mo and I are working on some new songs, so we tried to get them into shape. And we rehearsed a couple songs we haven’t played in awhile. Why, what did you do?”
She cocked her head; now I was getting’ bloody well pissed off too. “Oh, yeah,” she carried on smartly, “you were doing nothing all day. Is that right, Joe?”
I kept me voice down, but it was an effort. “What the bloody hell’s this about, Pet?” I hissed at her. “What did I do to you?”
All of a sudden, instead of gutted, she looked hurt—and sad.
“Why did you have Tom lie for you?” she asked softly.
I was gobsmacked. “What? I didn’t have him lie for me. What’s that mean?”
Pet looked me direct in the eyes. “I came to see you this morning…”
“—I know…”
“—and Tom told me you were asleep. But then I saw someone in your bus window.”
“And yeh knew it was me?”
She put a hand on her hip. “Well, I’d just seen Bryan and Glenn at the catering tent, so, uh, yeah.”
Stupid fucking idiot! I thought. No wonder Tom was gutted at me. “So what did ya think I was doin’, then?”
She frowned. “I wasn’t sure. All I was sure of was that Tom told me you were sleeping when you obviously weren’t.”
I looked round for a bench and found one, sittin’us both down. “You didn’t think there was…” I hesitated, “someone else with me? Or summat else goin’ on?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t know. The whole thing just seemed kinda fishy.”
I had to ask. “Don’t you trust me, then?”
A faint smile. “Yeah, that’s just it: I do, and I don’t even really know why,” Pet replied. “I kept going over everything in my head, and call me stupid, but I just couldn’t imagine what the hell could’ve been going on.”
I smiled at last. “There was nothing else goin’ on, luv,” I assured her. “I—I looked like shit, is all, and I didn’t want you or no-one seein’ me that way.” (It was as good an excuse as any.)
Pet said impatiently, “Joe, I’ve seen you in the morning before, remember?”
I laughed. “No, Pet, not like I was. I scared meself.”
She chuckled too. “Really? Like how?”
I leant in to her. “Let’s just say I’m glad me mates forgot to take a photo,” I replied. “It could’ve been very bad for me—very bad for us all, indeed.”
Pet shook her head, now giggling. “Is this why you dragged me off, to tell me that you didn’t wanna talk to me this morning because you looked terrible?”
“No…” I murmured, kissin’ her. “There was that…” I whispered when I let her go, “and another thing, luv,” I carried on, kissin’ her again.
She opened her mouth under mine and pulled me closer. Straightaway all me senses were full of her taste, the softness of her lips, the silky feel of her hair under me fingers….
It was drivin’ me mad.
I groaned and shifted away from her slightly. Pet opened her eyes, a confused look on her gorgeous face. “What…?” she asked.
Time to stop bein’ a bloody coward.
I took a deep breath and held both her hands. “There was summat else, Pet, that I needed to tell ya. For real this time. And I’ll need you to listen.”