Disasterpiece

“Vixen, Vixen, Vixen,” Josie’s calls twisted their way annoyingly into my dreams. I groaned, waved my arm in the direction of her voice and shoved a pillow over my head. Even with the pillow I could still hear her laughing.

“Come on sleepy butt,” she whined playfully, this time she placed her hands on my back and began to shake me. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” she sung. I seethed as I flung myself over onto my back and glared up at her.

“You’re the most annoying person in the entire world,” I told her, a statement which made her seem quite pleased with herself.

“I try,” she replied, batting her eyelids. I rolled my eyes and glanced over at the alarm clock on the bedside table, it was only seven am.

“What the hell! Why am I awake?!” I groaned, putting the below over my face again. Josie yanked it out of my hands and hauled it across the room.

“Because we’re going to the gym!” she informed me brightly, only now I noticed she was wearing gym appropriate clothing and running shoes.

“Get stuffed,” I stated plainly, rolling over onto my side so my back was facing her. She ran across the other side of the bed and stuck her face within an inch of mine.

“I’ll keep bugging you if you don’t come,” she said, her warm breath coating my face.

“Argh, brush your teeth woman!” I exclaimed, clasping my hand over my mouth and nose. Again Josie just laughed and then proceeded to start poking me. Knowing that she could go on for hours I relented in frustration, got ready and followed her down to the hotel gym.

My feet trod heavily against the treadmill belt, my body was still sluggish and waking up. Josie ran easily on the treadmill next to me, almost like she was bouncing along a squishy surface. I increased my speed just slightly so I didn’t look so pathetic next to her, but there was still no way I was running.

“I can’t remember a time that we have ever gone to the gym together,” I pointed out, taking a swig from the bottle of water I’d bought in the lobby shop.

“I guess we’re growing up!” Josie chimed back; I glanced sideway at her, raising my eyebrow.

“Or someone is trying to impress someone else,” I countered; she smiled, shook her head and kept running. “I take your silence as an affirmation,” I said.

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your health,” she stated, I could tell she was doing her best to keep the sides of her lips from curling up into a smile.

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to look rock hard in some lingerie either,” I said while laughing. A smile broke out on her face this time and she snorted.

“You’re such a dick,” she chuckled.

“As long as I’m right, that’s a tick for the dick,” I replied, faking a huge toothy grin. We kept on for another minute before I broke the silence once more. “But seriously…how’s all of that going for you, with Sid?” I asked, earnestly wanting to know since we hadn’t really had a chance for some girly chit chat in a while.

“It’s…it’s pretty amazing,” she answered carefully, turning the treadmill down so she was at the same pace as me.

“But…?” I prompted, knowing there was more she was holding back.

“No but’s really…he’s amazing, we get along so well, I can’t think of anyone else I’ve felt so connected to, well except…” she trailed off, I saw her eyes glaze over just slightly in the reflection of the window we were facing.

“Except Daniel?” I added softly; bringing him up could stir up a lot of stuff given their last encounter, but I knew that’s who she was getting at.

“Yeah…” she sighed. “But everything happens for a reason, so I’ll just keep playing this out with Sid and see where it goes,” she said, her voice teetering on the edges of bright and gloomy. We continued our work out session for another hour, doing mostly cardio but hitting a few weights too. Once we were both too tired and sweaty to go on we made our way out onto the street for some fresh air and breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of lots of coffee and frozen yoghurt. It was good for us to spend some time together away from the guys, after all even when Josie was with Daniel were we always had a weekly girls night and pretty much lived in each other’s pockets the rest of the time.

After breakfast we walked back to the hotel and turned into the lobby to find most of the guys and John standing around. I guessed that they were getting ready to leave for the venue; not such good news for us as that meant we were late and John was anal retentive about his schedule.

"Hey there's VJ," Paul called out, pointing over at me. I gave them an awkward wave as we approached, each of them turning to face us. "Have you seen Joey?" Paul asked when we reached them. I scrunched my face and shook my head.

"Not since last night, why?" I replied, a mild pressure building up in my chest.

"We can't find him, he's not in his room," Paul explained with a sigh; as if they all had bets that if they found me they would find Joey.

"Have you tried calling him?" Josie asked.

"Oh my god babe you're so smart, why hadn't we thought of that?" Sid joked sarcastically as he walked over and wrapped his arm around Josie's shoulders. She hit him lightly in the chest and poked her tongue out.

"His phone is in his room, I could hear it ringing," Corey called over the lobby as he came out of the elevator and made his way over to the group; evidently he had been sent up to door knock. "Did you sleep with him last night?" he asked, turning to me. My face burnt the brightest red; I know brothers are meant to annoy you and everything...but Corey was really going out of his way lately.

"No!" I exclaimed, embarrassed by the grins appearing on everyone's faces.

"Hey there he is," Shawn interrupted. I spun around and saw Joey lumbering in from the entrance, his face downcast and his hands deep in his pockets. My stomach churned, something just didn't feel right. His aura screamed dejection, his slumped shoulders read sad resolution and his creased brow said that a confused, complicated thought process going on inside him. I could feel his pain through every crevice inside me; I just didn't know what it meant or why it was there.

"Where have you been, man?" Chris asked Joey, who seemed a little surprised to find everyone before him.

"I just went for a walk," he replied with a shrug; a shrug that seemed carefree enough but was really a mask for the real truth.

"Why didn't you take your phone, we've been trying to get a hold of you?" John asked; while I could tell he was agitated because we were running late, he seemed to be a little concerned to, as if this was totally out of character for Joey.

"Sorry, it was annoying me," Joey answered, again offering another shrug. It seemed like he couldn’t be bothered with anything or anyone right now.

"Alright…well let's get going," John said, not happy with Joey’s answer, but obviously not wanting to pry any further when there were interviews and a show to get organised.

"Ah we're not ready," Josie pointed out, indicating our smelly gym wear. John sighed, glancing briefly at his wrist watch.

"I'll send the bus back to get you in an hour then," he replied, his mind concluding that there was no time left to wait around.

"I need to get changed too so I'll come over with them," Joey told John. John gave him a piecing look, then exhaled loudly.

"Fine," he sighed, then began to usher the others to the bus. We left the guys to head off to the venue and made our way up to our rooms. As we stepped out of the elevator on our floor, Josie walked quickly ahead and left Joey and I together.

"So why was your phone annoying you?" I asked him, trying to brighten his mood as he still had the same demeanour about him.

"It kept ringing," he shrugged, not making eye contact with me.

"And you didn't want to answer it?" I queried in confusion. He let out a loud frustrated sigh.

"No not really," he replied sharply. I blinked a little, stunned by his abrasiveness as he strode off to his room, the door slamming behind him. What the hell was going on with him?

The bus ride to the venue was just as depressingly astounding. Joey sat as far away as he possibly could from us, his arms folded and his head bowed. He didn’t even make eye contact with us when he got on. Josie seemed to realise something was up, but without asking questions (even though I knew she was totally confused and curious), she just took my hand in hers and held it the whole trip. When we arrived at the venue, Joey stalked off to the green room so we made our way straight to the merch desk to help set up.

“So get this,” the head of merch began to tell us a story while we organised the last of the shirts. “At the last gig this girl comes up to me and was all like ‘I heard Corey’s sister works the merch can I meet her?!’ So I was like ‘you’re talking to her,’ so she totally screamed and took a photo with me and got my autograph,” she laughed at the hilarity of it all. Josie joined in with her, but all I could manage was a small smile; my mind plagued with images of Joey and confusion as to why he was acting out. It continued on that train of thought until the sound of my ring tone pulled me out of my daze.

“Hello?” I greeted, answering it.

“Hey darlin’ how are you?” Uncle Frank’s voice washed over me like a warm bath on a winter’s night.

“Uncle Frank!” I breathed, more than happy to hear his voice. “I’m good, how are you?” I replied, walking away from the merch desk and over into the corner for some privacy.

“I’m great pumpkin, just great,” he said; my mind filled with images of his smile and his big belly coming at me for a hug.

“I miss you,” I told him, frowning just slightly.

“I miss you too, it’s not the same without you,” he said, sounding a little sad but I knew he was trying to mask his feelings because he was the only thing that almost stopped me coming on this tour, and would stop me staying here.

“How’s business?” I asked, twisting a loose thread on my jacket between my fingers.

“It’s good, Brandon’s stepped up and has been helping out a lot,” he replied.

“That’s nice of him,” I said; Brandon was always a nice guy and pretty efficient in his job, but I didn’t know that he was the type that would take charge on a whim.

“Yeah he’s a good kid that Brandon,” Uncle Frank mused. “So how’s the tour?”

“Oh you know, pretty good,” I responded, again thinking about Joey’s sudden change.

“Only pretty good?” he pointed out knowingly, I sighed.

“Oh you know, I always attract drama,” I replied, pulling the string from my jacket and throwing it on the floor.

“Just remember what I told you at the airport,” he reminded me, referring the conversation about coming home if Joey breaks my heart etc. etc. But Joey hadn’t broken my heart, I felt like you had to be together and give each other your heart before it could be broken.

“I know, I remember,” I said, biting my lip. I looked across the room to see Josie waving at me and pointing at her wrist. “I’ve got to go,” I told him.

“Oh,” he was unmistakeably sad now.

“I’ll call you I promise,” I said, feeling bad for having such a short conversation.

“I’ll forgive you if you don’t,” he said. “Hey Vixen?” he added, which startled me a little as he never used my full name, tending more to go by pet names.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Just remember that I love you and support you and will always be here for you even if you think that I’m not,” he said strangely, I wasn’t even sure how to reply to the statement, I knew these things already…sort of like an unspoken law.

“I know, I love you too,” I replied. We said goodbye and I hung up, heading over to Josie who was leaning on the door frame waiting.

“Who was that?” she asked as we started to walk to the back of the venue.

“Uncle Frank checking up on me,” I told her; somehow it felt like more than a check-up though.