Between You and I

I woke up what seemed like five minutes later to the sun in my face and my head banging against a cold window. We were still driving, since my head collided with the glass when we went over a bump. I looked around and saw that Eric wasn’t in the backseat anymore, but up front driving.
“Ow, watch those bumps.” I said in a groggy voice.
Shush, it was unavoidable. How was your sleep?” Eric asked, smiling.
“Great until my head met the window.” I looked around and saw everybody else was sleeping. “When did I lose my pillow?”
“A couple hours after you fell asleep. You got slightly disgruntled when I moved you, but you didn’t wake up.”
“Well that would explain the dream I had.” I said, resting my head on the top of the seat in front of me.
He laughed a little. “It was cute.”
I smirked, blushing a little. “What?”
“Watching you sleep, your disgruntled face. It’s cute.”
I blushed harder. “Shut up.”
“I’m complimenting you.” He said.
“I’m embarrassed.” I said, hiding my face.
“Don’t be.” Eric said, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
I smiled and my face went back to normal. “Hey, we should stop somewhere so I can pee.”
“Alright, can do.” Eric turned off the highway to a gas station. He followed me out of the van and into the bathrooms.
“Do you think the guys were faking sleep so they could hear our conversation?” I asked.
“Probably not, and if they were, who really cares. They’re gonna know eventually.” Eric said.
I sighed. “I guess.”
Eric left me alone while I peed. I bought two Monsters before we headed out.
Eric stopped me outside the gas station before we were in view of the van. I was confused until Eric pressed his lips against mine. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him right up against me while he did the same.
We pulled apart slowly and smiled.
“Morning.” I whispered.
He kissed me again. “Morning. Shall we?”
“I do believe so.” I said, following Eric to the van, sitting in the front seat with him.
“You made a stop and didn’t wake us up?” Jared asked. I swear he was still asleep.
“We haven’t left yet, so if you wanna get something, now’s your chance.” Eric said.
“Alright, lets go.” Mike said, opening the door, Jared stumbling out after him.
“Aren’t you gonna get anything, Beau?” I asked as he yawned.
He shook his head. “I’m good. Do you want me to drive?”
Eric too a subtle look at me and smiled. “Sure, if you want.”
We switched seating arrangements accordingly so Eric and I had the backseat to ourselves again.
Jared and Mike came out with more Monster and a bag full of steaming breakfast burritos.
“Those smell so good. Hey Beau, when did you get up?” Jared asked, sitting in the front seat with him.
“After you yelled at them for not waking you up.” He said.
“Honestly, you need to learn the meaning of inside voices.” Mike said, unwrapping his burrito and handing the bag back by us.
“Well Eric needs to learn how to drive around bumps.” I said, feeling a slight headache now that I thought about it.
“Shut up, it was unavoidable, like I told you before.” Eric said, elbowing me in the ribs.
“No bump is unavoidable, sometimes it just takes some reckless driving to get around it.” Beau said, smiling.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “For some reason I don’t feel safe with Beau behind the wheel anymore.”
Eric laughed softly with his mouth stuffed full of burrito.
Everyone ate in silence, minus the radio playing quietly as background music.
We finally arrived at the venue two hours later.
“Oh my god, I thought my legs were going to fall off from immobility.” Jared said, doing squats outside the van to stretch.
“I was pretty good.” I said, smirking. I love being short, not to mention that I was lying them across Eric’s lap the whole time and he was massaging them.
“Shut up, you and Eric are just vertically challenged.” Beau said.
“Or vertically gifted in this case.” Eric said, a sly smirk spread across his face.
The rest of the guys shoved us lightly and kept on shoving us through the door of the venue to check in, where we saw Brandon, Mikey, and Dougie already setting up.
“Hey, sorry we’re late.” Beau said.
“We took one too many stops.” Eric added on, grabbing my hand for a quick second, squeezing it affectionately. It was gone just as fast as it came. I smiled at him and went to the trailer to get my drum kit.
“So are you and Eric like, together?” Jared asked, wheeling one of the amps out of the trailer.
In my mind, I started freaking out. How the hell did he know?
“What makes you ask?” I asked in the calmest voice possible.
“Oh, I don’t know, everything that happened in the back last night? And when you two kissed this morning?”
My jaw dropped. “You heard everything last night? And saw us kiss. Wow. That’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Why?”
“We weren’t planning on telling anyone–” I started.
“No, no, no. why did you wait so long?” He sighed a little when I gave him a confused look.
“Before Mike brought you over to drum for us, Eric told me all about you and your guys’ relationship. Why did you wait five years to decide to get together?”
I sighed. I knew he wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. “I was basically living in denial. I was denying my feelings for him, even though it tore both of us apart. Did he tell you about the party?”
“Bits and pieces, but he never got into great detail.”
That was the thing that I kinda wish he would’ve told him.
“Well that night, we got really wasted, and I guess, even though I don’t remember any of it, we fucked. Craig was at the party and found out everything. He proceeded to write on my car words like ‘gay’ and ‘fag’ and push me and harass me. That’s why I transferred schools. I didn’t tell Eric ‘cause I was pissed at him. Looking back on it now, it was for a stupid reason. I just wish I could redo everything, start over.” I said.
“Well, my philosophy on life is everything happens for a reason. You moved schools, you learned drums. You met Mike, he brought you to Blessthefall. You probably wouldn’t be where you are today if it wasn’t for that.”
“I guess that’s true, but I just wish I could go back and make all the stuff I fucked up with Eric better, like actually accepting his offer five years ago instead of waiting til now to finally not give a shit.” I said, carrying some of my equipment out of the trailer while Jared followed beside me.
“Just be happy for what you have now. To be completely honest, I had my eyes on Eric for a little while, before he mentioned you. I was going to tell him that I had feelings for him, but after he described your guys’ relationship, I decided to stay out of it. Besides, the last relationship I had with a guy ended badly, very badly, so I think I’m gonna stick to girls for a while.”
I smiled and helped push Jared’s amp up the ramp onto the stage.
“It’s about time you guys get up here with something.” Beau teased.
“Shush, we got caught up in a conversation.” I said, going back down the ramp with Jared.
“Who was your last guy relationship with?” I asked.
I saw his cheeks get a little red. “Ryan, the lead from Greeley Estates.”
“Nice choice, he’s not too shabby. What happened?”
His cheeks got a little darker before he got a slightly pained look in his eyes. “His sights were set elsewhere.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Jared. How long has it been?” I said, hugging him.
“About three months. I’m almost over it, though, for which I’m very happy. The first couple weeks were torture.”
“Was that when you were moping around and getting on everyone’s nerves because of how sad you were?” I asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t tell anyone about my relationship with him because everyone thought that I shouldn’t be with him. They warned me that he would do something like he did, I just didn’t listen.”
I didn’t say anything as I wheeled another amp down, Jared following with some guitars.
“Still think he’s extremely good looking.” I said.
“Oh yeah, definitely. I’m pretty sure his looks are what lured me in.” He said, putting the guitars against the wall.
We heard footsteps coming toward the stage. We both turned and saw the rest of the guys coming toward us.
“The rest of the trailer’s unpacked and we have two hours before sound check. Wanna go walking around?” Eric asked.
“Sure, lets go.” Jared said.
We both jumped off the stage and followed everyone out of the venue to check out all the little shops in town.