You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away

Jack woke up from a slim ray of light that was leaking in through the slightly parted curtains, he didn't open his eyes as he tried to figure out who was laying besides him breathing on his neck. He looked down, seeing Steff and remembering last nights events, he smiled in spite of himself and slowly pulled away from her.

He took the remote into his hands and rolled his eyes, "I always forget to turn the television off."

Jack walked across the room and shut the curtains tightly so it wouldn't wake the sleeping girl. He was about to start the coffee pot when a continuous bang started from the door; he ran across the carpet and swung the door open, holding his finger to his mouth to tell them to be quiet.

Alex brushed past him, taking one look at the crooked picture and the scatter of clothes across the room. He opened his mouth, not bothering to talk quietly, even as he saw his ex laying on the bed.

"You always take my left overs, don't you Jack?"

"Shh!" he said grabbing his friend's arm and trying to pull him into the hallway.

The coffee haired boy only pulled his arm away and walked further into the room, "How could you do that to me?" he continued to yell, "I don't get it Jack, I thought you cared about Kyra, but now it looks like you're just trying to get a broken girl. You're sick, you know that?"

"It isn't like that," Jack said shaking his head.

"You slept with her last night, didn't you? Don't lie to me, Kyra and I heard you."

Steff sat up in the bed, annoyed that she was woken up, she rubbed her eyes as she spoke, "You heard us?"

"You couldn't have been any louder," Alex grunted, unamused. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the affects of the alcohol he'd consumed the night before.

"I'll just be going," the girl said grabbing her stuff off the floor and looking at Jack, "I'll give you your clothes back on the bus."

He took her arm as she walked past him, pulling her close to his chest as he placed his lips on hers. They closed their eyes as their lips remained attached, "Thanks for last night."

She smiled up at him going back onto her heels, her cheeks rosy as she thought of what Alex was probably thinking, "No problem."

Steff didn't say anything to her ex as she left the room, she didn't even look at him. She held her clothes in her hands and walked a couple doors down, knocking lightly, praying that Kara was up. The brown eyed girl opened the door, stepping aside to let her roommate in.

"Where were you last night, I was worried about you!"

"With Jack," she said dropping her clothes and pointing to the ones on her body before digging through her suitcase for a new outfit, "I'm going to get a shower, we can talk after words, okay?" She pressed a shirt to her face, smelling if it was clean before grabbing the rest of her outfit and walking to the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.

~x~

Steff stepped out of the shower, smiling at the feeling of being clean, sick of feeling the tour filth on her; though she knew she had a little over a week to deal with it still. She dried off and wrapped the towel around her body as she turned to the large mirror, and started to brush out her hair. The blonde haired girl jumped, clutching her towel to her body as the door swung open; she expected to see Kara, but she was met by the shorter blonde on the tour.

"You are a fucking slut!" she yelled.

"Can we have this argument once I'm dressed?" Steff asked more annoyed with the fact that she was practically naked over the name calling.

"No, we're having it now. How could you? Jack gave me his virtue because he loved me, he cared about me, it took me a couple months to get there. And you - you whored yourself off to him, dressed like a skank, getting him to bed when you barely knew him compared to the time he knew me! Do you even care about the people you walk all over? Maybe you just enjoy wrapping them around your finger."

"I don't really see any point in your words Kyra, I'm not offended because I know that I am not those things: you are."

The girl furrowed her perfectly plucked brows, "I'm not a slut."

She chuckled, "Of course you're not."

"I feel bad about hurting Jack, I was crying last night. You don't seem to care much that you're using him, we all can see that."

Steff looked over the shorter girl's shoulder, seeing Alex and Jack standing behind her, having just come into the hotel room. She felt even more uncomfortable under her towel, she felt her cheeks heat up, "Can I please get dressed?"

"I'm not leaving this bathroom until you apologize."

"What am I apologizing for?"

"For ruining everything on this tour, if you weren't here, nothing would have been this bad. Everything would have been fine, maybe Jack and I could have broke things off cleanly without this -- this want to make the other jealous. I don't know what you're trying to do here, but you're not going to get Alex back. He belongs with me."

"I'm not apologizing for something that I don't feel I need to."

Jack cleared his throat, "You guys are acting like is some big deal, it was just sex, move on with your lives!"

He grabbed Kyra and Alex's arm, pulling them out of the hotel room. Steff stood there for a moment before shutting the door and throwing her clothes on. She walked out into the room and sat down on her bed, her hair drying in a mess as she looked down at her feet.

"You slept with Jack?" Kara asked walking over to her, "I didn't think-"

"We didn't sleep together, we just eluded to it. I don't know how they claim that they heard us," she paused, "maybe Jack forgot to turn the television off."

"Are you okay?"

"I feel like I was just assaulted," she ran her fingers through her hair, bringing her hair out of her face, "do you think Kyra really feels sorry?"

"I don't know Steff," she said sitting besides her and hugging her sideways, "don't beat yourself up over this. You didn't have sex with him, she didn't mean any of that."

"She was right about one thing."

"What?"

"Alex will never love me, I was nothing to him."

"Don't-"

"I was just some stand in," she stood up and threw her stuff into the bag, "I shouldn't have come, she was right about that too."

"Stop!"

Kara and Steff both turned to see Jack standing in the hotel room, he looked at her with wide eyes. He pulled the blonde girl against his frame, causing her to smile into his chest as the wetness in her eyes leaked onto his clean shirt. He took in the smell of her coconut shampoo, worried that he wouldn't see her again with the way that she was acting.

He put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up, "Everything is going to be alright, what Kyra said was like a slap in the face to both of us; but don't let her bring you down. You'll find someone better than Alex, I'm sure of it."

She looked up into his brown eyes, even though she still found it hard to believe what he was saying, she felt that she could trust him.