Kaleidoscope Eyes

The fact that John was about to lend Isabella some of his clothes struck them both as ridiculous as he pulled out a pair of never before worn sweat pants and held them against Isabella.

“I’m essentially a whole foot shorter than you so I’m not sure how this is going to work,” she said with a teasing smile whilst wringing her hair out with a towel.

In the end John managed to find a pair of plaid pyjama bottoms that he had accidentally shrunk whilst doing laundry and a grey v-neck, of which he owned many so he wouldn’t be missing this one.

He left her to change and it gave Isabella a minute to look around the bunk part of the bus. Considering all the notorious things she had heard about travel and living at Warped, this bus wasn’t as bad as she thought. She had been duly informed, by her avid band girl sister Lorrain, that The Maine used to travel in a white van that was covered in fan scrawls. Lorrain’s number was of course written on there somewhere too.

She stepped out from the bunks and walked into the living room area where she was introduced to all the band members who were all in various stages of wringing their own hair out. She was also introduced to Kennedy’s girlfriend Emma, an elegant red head who by Isabella’s judgement didn’t look like the kind of girl that jumped at the first chance of going to Warped, but by girlfriendly duties she came along with a smile.

Isabella, like John, was a person of few words. If she had something to say she would, but if whatever she was thinking about saying did not add anything to the conversation then she preferred to keep silent. So instead of always being the one who talked she enjoyed watching over people interact and she was excellent at reading moods. Such was the case at this point in time. The mood in the bus seemed strained.

“You guys haven’t eaten yet right?”

Everyone looked up at her with surprise written across their faces, and nodded.

“How do you know?” Jared asked with interest as John watched Isabella form his seat on the couch.

“You can just tell when people get grouchy because they haven’t eaten yet.”

“All the food places in town were rammed because of the rain,” Emma volunteered, tying her wet hair up in a bun.

“Your stove looks alright to cook on,” Isabella said eyed the tiny kitchen unit carefully. “Mind if I cook you something?”

Of course there was no arguing and everyone was more than happy to give Isabella free reign of whatever tiny kitchen space there was. By offering to cook she had already established herself positively in the minds of every person on the bus. But their good opinion had existed long before this because they knew of the profound effect Isabella was having on John.

The latter had offered Isabella a helping hand with the cooking, which she happily accepted even though he warned her that his cooking extended to heating up a pop tart in a toaster. They scrounged the fridge and all that they found were a couple of chicken breasts, lemons, and salad and somewhere in the depths of a cupboard they found rice.

Assured and confident Isabella instructed John was what to do and less than an hour later Isabella and John presented a ravenous group of friends with crispy lemon chicken and green salad. There was not a speck of food left once everyone had finished eating. The plates were wiped clean and even the last rice grain was devoured with a smile.

All around the cramped tour bus table there were smiles, and this is what made Isabella the happiest. Not only because she felt accepted in this small but close group, it was also the fact that through her cooking she could make people happy. She was surrounded by musically talented people everyday, and it could be a knock to your self esteem, but she set herself apart by her cooking.

The rain had settled and so had the group’s bad mood. In fact it was very much reverse. The smiles were in places and Isabella was feeling the love. Jared and Garrett said their goodbye’s saying there were going to the after party, and Isabella had to smile. No matter what weather musicians would still party on anyway. It was so rock and roll to her. Kennedy and Emma stayed sat on the sofa bench, she flicking through a fashion magazine and Kennedy scribbling illegible words on a notepad, but all the time they were arm in arm. It made Isabella smile.

She and John made a start on clearing the table and the small cooking space; they did this in amicable silence. A lot of time that Isabella spent with John was in silence, but she didn’t mind it. Sometimes it said more than words. He didn’t have to fill it with awkward chitchat, or unnecessary jokes that weren’t funny.

“It’s stopped raining, do you feel like going for a walk?” John asked once they had finished cleaning.

Isabella nodded and reached for her flip flops, John producing a hoodie for her to wear.

“It may be hot during the day, but don’t be tricked by that after the rain,” he said with a smile.

The air outside was beautifully fresh and felt cleaned after the rain. Large puddles had collected in the dips in the tarmac, and the impulse to jump in them was strong, but Isabella didn’t want to appear too immature in front of John just yet.

“Aren’t you scared?”

The question, just like so many, came out of the blue. It wasn’t unusual for him to ask exactly what was on his mind, but in this case clearly it had been bothering him for a while. Isabella knew what he was asking about it, and it worried her that her troubles were occupying him so much.

“Sometimes,” talking about Mark always brought a shadow back and it annoyed her that he still had such power over her life.

“I’m worried that he’ll come back and ruing everything good that’s happened to me recently.”

For the first time she wasn’t frightened of leaving the house, she could walk and hold her head high. She could choose her friends and didn’t have Mark hounding her, making sure that they were the right friends for her. She could look at a boy and not receive a cutting look from Mark, or worse.

“I won’t let him,” John said with a reassuring smile, and Isabella knew that he wasn’t lying.