Hummingbird

The Escape the Fate bus was pretty packed. Hey, at least it was bigger than the one that we had. This one actually had an incredibly fancy TV in it too, which Monte and Robert were playing Halo on at the moment. Max led me over to the couch, which Craig and another boy were sharing. I gave Max a look and he mouthed the word “brother”. I gave the stranger a good glance before averting my eyes. I guess he looked like Craig, their eyes were the same and their noses were similar. But the other Mabbitt was skinnier and taller, though not by much. Max plopped down on the couch, leaving a small space for me to sit. Taking the space meant for me, I sat down in between Max and the other Mabbitt. I glanced around the lanky boy to say hi to Craig. Finally, glancing my way, Craig smiled.

“Hey, Niki.” He said. His brother, just now realizing my presence even though our thighs were touching, turned around and gave me another smile. Okay, so they look more alike than I thought; they both had the same smile. [Craig’s was better, though].

Snapping out of my daze, I replied, “Hey, Craig. Who’s the kid taking up the whole couch?” I nudged his brother in the arm.

Before Craig could say anything, his brother interrupted. “I’m Colten, Craig’s bro. I’m gonna be here for the next few days.” His smile turned into a smirk. His arm fell around my shoulder. Following suit, I felt Max’s do the same. On the other side of Colten, I saw Craig’s face turn slightly red at these actions. Feeling bad [well, that’s not the only reason], I turned to face Craig.

“Hey, buddy, no need to feel left out, Max and Colten have extra arms, we can get you in here too.” What my plans were for Craig to go around to Max’s other side, but instead, watching him stand up and walk our way, my plan backfired. Instead, Craig came and sat on my lap. Letting out a huge groan, I spoke. “Jeez, Mabbitt, you could give me some warning before you come and flatten me!” All this did is grab Robert and Monte’s attention.

They exchanged looks that told what they were thinking of, before standing up and walking over to the couch themselves. I braced myself for impact as I felt another couple hundred pounds settle on top of the weight that was on me before. We all laughed as I struggled to push the three boys off of me. Finally, the three toppled off of me and landed onto the floor.
Colten, Max, and I all laughed as we watched Craig, Robert, and Bryan struggle to get up. My phone buzzed and I twisted to pull it out of my pocket.

-Whos bus r u on?

It was from Chris. I guess I had neglected to tell him where I was going before I left. I punched in a quick response and felt my phone be pulled from my hands right as I hit the SEND button. Bryan had taken my phone and was now rapidly pressing a bunch of buttons. Curiously, I stretched to see what he was doing, but he only pulled away. My phone buzzed again and I reached for the small piece of plastic, only to have it be pulled out of my reach. Bryan quickly stood up and ran towards the bunks, eyes still glued to the screen.

“A message from your lover?” He asked. Yes, Chris and me had put our numbers is as “Mysexaylover” in each other’s phones. Hey, it was Caleb’s idea.

“Bryan Money, give me my phone back!” I yelled, chasing after him.

“No way! He dashed into the bathroom, about to shut the door before I pushed it halfway open. I was sure that the thin door would snap with both of us pushing against it, but finally, I started to win, gaining inch by slow inch. I felt a body come up behind me and push on the door too, and I looked up to see a tall Robert slowly pushing the door open for me.

With the door wide open, Bryan went and sat back in the corner, huge grin on his face. I went and reached for my phone and wrestled it out of his grasp. Flipping it open, I read the new message.

-Well, u could have told me. Im all lonely and stuff now, and we both kno tht dennison is no company.

I grinned, I knew that Caleb was probably situated in front of the TV or his laptop, immersed in his own little world.

-Im sorry, tell c. that I told him to stop what hes doing and entertain u. we cant have a bored signer, now can we?

I sent the reply and maneuvered my way around Robert and made my way back to the couch, which was now empty except for Max. Colten and Craig were now positioned in front of the Xbox. Deciding to sit on the couch, I plopped myself down in the seat and put my legs on Max’s lap.

He turned and looked at me. “Really, Niki?” he said.

I nodded ecstatically with a happy smile, which he returned. Settling in for the long ride, we both launched into a conversation about anything and everything we could think of.
This went on for a couple hours until we stopped for lunch. About ten buses went to MickeyD’s, ten to Burger King, and so on. We were one of the buses that were sent to a Chick-fil-a. Robert and Max decided it would be fun to mess with the soda machine while the rest of us were waiting for our food and while I was ordering my salad (Chris had me convinced on the vegetarian thing), we all heard a loud splash. The people in line turned around while the manager of the small place turned red and started yelling. Instead of actually cleaning the mess that they had made, Robert and Max just went and walked off, chatting up one of the workers. The manager was fuming at this point, and not so graciously kicked us out. Who would’ve known that the girl they were talking to was the manager’s niece?

We all piled back into the bus with our bags of food and sat around in a circle on the dirty bus floor. I was sandwiched between Robert and Craig this time, and thoroughly enjoying it. Occasionally, the two would sneak a couple of my french fries into their mouths, giving sheepish grins every time I would turn to look at them. Not soon before long, Colten and Max were on the Xbox, arguing about who got what controller and betting about who would win. On the couch, in order, was Bryan, me, Craig, and Robert. Robert was in his own world, texting, and Craig and Bryan were looking over my shoulder as I went through Craig’s iTouch. No surprise, he had every Blessthefall song. Escape the Fate didn’t show up on the list of artists. I smiled when I found “Womanizer” by Brittany Spears. I tapped that song and turned up the volume as loud as it would go. At the same time, Robert and Colten turned around to give me strange looks. I smirked and waved Craig’s iPod around. Since it had “Property of C. Mabbitt” written on it, recognition spread. Craig reached to grab the iPod from my grasp, but I quickly pulled my arm out of reach.

“Niki, change the song,” he asked, leaning forward to try to grab the iPod again. I bent backwards to keep it out of his grasp. At this point, I was half leaning on Bryan, who was trying to contain laughter.

“No chance, Mabbitt. This song’s staying on.” I smirked at him. I didn’t expect him to actually lean closer, but he did, and he almost succeeded in changing the song, but I leaned back as far as I could, now full out laying on Bryan’s lap. Craig surprised me again by climbing on top of me and tickling me until he wrestled the iPod from his grasp. To my utmost shocked surprise, he turned on “The Point” by Eatmewhileimhot!.

He saw my astonished face and plainly asked, “What?”

I managed to say, “Craig? Do you know who’s in that band?” He looked at me simply and shook his head no. “Well, that singer would just so happen to be my very best friend.”

It took him a moment, but he finally realized what I was talking about. “Ukulele boy? This is him singing? He screams? Seriously?”

I laughed, “Yeah, Chris and the guys form The Shout started Eatmewhileimhot as a side project a couple of months ago. Actually, that’s kind of how The Shout was started. Now how do you feel about Chris?” I knew that my question was sure to make Craig uncomfortable.

His answer was unclear and unheard, all he did is mumble something. I looked behind me at Bryan who was cracking up at the sight of me and Craig. I stuck me tongue, and he returned the gesture and pushed me off of him. I landed on the floor with a thud, right where Colten should have been. I glanced around and found my answer. Walking back towards us, Colten came carrying a bunch of Monsters. I sat up and pulled one out of his hands and popped the tab open. Me and Craig had finally calmed down enough about his attitude towards NeverShoutNever, and we returned to our seats on the couch. By this time, each of us had a drink, and were talking excitedly about the playing bands and any upcoming parties for them. After all of tonights sets were done, the guys running Warped Tour were going to throw a huge bonfire for us all.

I was excited, as I had said before, I haven't been to any good parties lately. Tonight was sure to be fun, it was the first night for everyone to actually get to meet each other, and make friends with all of the other bands.

The bus hit a large bump, and drink sloshed out of Robert's can onto Max's and Craig's lap. "Robert!" Max practically yelled as he hit Robert in the leg. Craig joined in and punched Robert in the shoulder.

"Hey!" he cried. "I didn't mean to!" The bus hit another large bump, and this time, Bryan and Craig's drinks splashed out of the cans, Monster landing on my shirt. Max had apparently gotten even more on him, and he announced while trying to stand up that he was going to go change into dry clothes. He stepped over Colten's lap, and tried to make his way towards his bunk.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion, before he had made it out of the small room, the mus hit its final large bump, and Max started to fall towards the floor. His can flew from his hand, landing, along with all of its contents, right on Craig and me. We both jumped in surprise, shock written all over out faces. Max's only conveyed horror at what had just happened. He stumbled to his feet and took off towards the bunks.

"Max!" Craig shouted, taking off after him. I sat, shirt and shorts soaking, bra most likely showing, for what seemed like forever before Craig came back.

"Want some dry clothes?" He asked. I gratefully stood up and followed him back towards the bunks. Max was just now coming out of the bathroom, now wearing his zebra print jeans and a Michael Jackson shirt. Craig interrupted my thoughts of Max's outfit and tossed me a shirt. I caught it and glanced over his shoulder as he pulled a new shirt.

“Dude, got any jeans? Max soaked my shorts in the process of soaking my shirt.” A pair of jeans was tossed to me from the opposite direction of Craig and his suitcase.

“It’s my way of saying sorry. Besides, you look more my size in pants than him.” Max said and walked past me.

Craig spoke. “You should probably change in the bathroom, Colten might get a little too happy seeing you change right here.” His face was grim as he said this, and I padded off into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I stripped off my wet clothes, changing into the dry ones that were given to me. The shirt given to me was a black v-neck and had the word “Phoenix” stretched across it, and the jeans were plain black skinnies. Somehow, they fit almost perfectly.

I unlocked the door and walked out. Craig was just now pulling his shirt over his head. Once he had finally gotten his shirt on, he saw me standing there. His eyes grew wide, but quickly went back to normal before he started to blush.

“Craig! Niki! What the heck are you guys doing back there that’s taking you so long?” Robert called from the other room.

“Yeah, don’t keep her all to yourself! We want her too!” I heard Max call.

This time, we both blushed as we made out way back to the couch.