You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away

“But there’s room for two… Shitfuck, I made a mistake,” Alex sighed into his microphone as his guitar made a horrible screeching sound, quoting Blink-182’s song “Time to Break Up” accidentally, and causing the rest of the band to stop playing “Six Feet Under The Stars.” He looked out at the crowd, it was the third mistake in the set, and they were only on their fourth song.

“I’m sorry guys, my mind just isn’t completely here,” Alex admitted.

“Don’t understand why,” Jack muttered to himself as he turned his back to the crowd.

“You know what,” Alex said to the crowd, running a hand through his hair and grabbing the neck of his guitar again. “We’re going to come back to this song. I think we should do a cover of Blink’s “Time to Break Up” and get focused again. Just a bit of improv. But that’s what this whole business is about.”

“And going behind you’re friend’s back,” Jack said into his microphone as he flipped his hair from his eyes.

“What the hell does that mean?” Alex asked, a look of confusion spreading across his face as he glanced at the guitarist.

“I’m just warning them what you sign up for,” Jack stated to the crowd. “Now we aren’t improving. We’re sticking with the set, which means we play “Coffee Shop Soundtrack.” Rian count it off.”

Rian looked at Alex, who just nodded, before counting off the song.x-x-x

Jack stood talking to Rian by the bus, completely ignoring Alex, which was a mistake. His hand twisted the cap to his Vitamin Water back on, and the next thing he knew, his face was against the black top and Rian was screaming at Alex.

“Dude, what is you fucking problem!?” Rian shouted, shaking Alex by the shoulders. “You just tackled your best friend to the ground for no damn reason!”

“He thinks I’m sleeping with his girlfriend!” Alex shouted back.

Jack sat up, rubbing his cheek and grabbing his Vitamin water, which had rolled a few feet away. It was one thing for Jack to attack Alex over the rumour, but for Alex to just flat out attack Jack didn’t seem acceptable in his book. Rian continued to lecture Alex about ‘attacking people for no damn reason’ while Jack collected his thoughts and stood up and walked towards the door that lead onto the bus.

“Where the hell are you going, Barakat!?” Alex shouted, causing the dark haired boy to look at his supposed friend once more before climbing on the bus and heading to his bunk without giving him an answer.

Once in his bunk, Jack pulled his iPod out from under his pillow and plugged the ear-buds into his ears and searched for a song to take his mind off of everything. He settled on “Dammit” by Blink-182, and started to drum along on his knees to get some frustration out. After the song went off, Jack relaxed a bit, sliding forward so he could lay down and let the next song fill his ears.

Just as his eyes started to get heavy and he started to slip away into a blissful state of sleep, a weight became present on his chest.

“Ugh, fuck,” Jack muttered, dragging out the ‘uck’ as his eyes opened and he saw his girlfriend on top of him. A smirk was on her lips and a hand was playing with the collar of his shirt. “Kyra, get off of me.”

“Why, Jackers?”

“We went over that, I am not Jackers. Do you know how retarded that sounds?”

“But Jackers…” she whispered, leaning forward so her lips were hovering above his.

“No,” Jack stated, using the arm she wasn’t holding down to push her up so he could sit up. “Kyra when were you going to tell me you and Alex kissed?”

“He started it,” Kyra said with wide eyes as she stared at her boyfriend and wrapped her legs around his waist. “I thought if I didn’t say anything it would save your friendship. I mean, it was just a kiss…”

“I don’t believe you,“ Jack stated, grabbing her legs and removing them from his waist.

“Wh-what do you mean?” she questioned, biting her bottom lip and looking at him with sad eyes.

“Kyraleigh, I don’t believe the words coming out of your mouth.”

“But, Jack, Alex did start it” Kyra lied. “He asked me to go talk at the party and the next thing I knew, we were sitting behind the busses, and he was getting all, you know, like, touchy. He was playing with my hair, running his hand up and down my arm. I told him no, Jack, I did. I told him I didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. I told him I love you and couldn’t ever do anything to hurt you. He didn’t listen to me, Jack. He-he..” Kyra sniffled and let some tears fall from her eyes and stopping her story for a dramatic effect.

“Kyra…” Jack whispered as she looked away.

“He didn’t listen to me, Jack,” she repeated. “Alex leaned over and kissed me, and it wasn’t even a sweet innocent kiss. It was, it was rough. I didn’t kiss him back and he threatened me. He told me he’d hurt me if I didn’t kiss him back. I was scared, so I wriggled out of his grip and ran. I had tears streaming down my face and everything. I-I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to get mad at him. I-I think he was drinking and he thought we were together. Or maybe he thought I was Steff…”

By now the blonde was crying into Jack’s chest, gripping the fabric of his shirt and on the verge of sobbing. It broke Jack’s heart to see a girl crying like that, but lies broke his heart even more, and he knew that was exactly what Kyra was feeding him.

“No one likes a liar, Kyraleigh,” Jack scolded, once she finally let go and sat up to rub her eyes. “And the dislike them more than they dislike a slut.”

“I-I’m not lying,” Kyra said, sniffling again.

“Kyra, you came into the party with a smirk on your face. Your eyes were bright, not puffy or blood shot,” Jack recalled. “Point being, you couldn’t recover from crying that fast. And no matter how drunk Alex gets, he doesn’t get aggressive unless someone provokes him, and even then it takes a lot, like shoving him into a wall and threatening his face.”

“Jack, I’m telling the truth,” she said, dropping the act and gaining her attitude. “Why the hell would I lie to you?”

“Don’t know,” he said, pulling his legs out from underneath the blonde. “But I sure as hell know a lie when I hear it straight from the source. I don’t want to talk to you. Get out of my bunk.”

“But Jack…”

“Out of my bunk!” Jack shouted, causing Kyra to look at the dark haired boy in shock for a moment, then oblige and slid out of his bunk. She walked towards the door, which was ajar. Knowing that she had shut door completely, Kyra knew something was up. She opened it quickly to hear footsteps moving quickly.

Without looking she knew the footsteps came from the other girls on the bus, and that was confirmed when she stepped out of the bunks and the blonde and brunette were sitting on the couch flipping through magazines and making conversation about Hey Monday’s last set.

She was about to open her mouth and yell at them for listening when Jack appeared in the door.

“Oh yeah, and Kyraleigh,” he said, leaning in the door frame.

“Y-yeah, Jack?” she questioned, turning to face him. Steff and Kara stopped talking and looked over the magazines to watch what was going to happen.

“If you have to lie, you aren’t worth it, babe,” he smirked. “And that’s not the first lie I’ve caught you in. You’re breaking my heart, and I can’t deal with it. I think we’re done.”

“J-Jack,” she whispered as Kara’s jaw dropped and Steff’s grin grew.

“No, I know we’re done,” Jack corrected himself, turning to go back to his bunk, leaving Kyraleigh to crumble right in front of Steff, causing the taller blonde’s grin to grow even more.

Kyraleigh was crashing fast, and Steff couldn’t be happier.