Waiting For The Sun To Rise.

“Honey, can you come in here for a minute. Your father and I would like to talk to you.”

Whenever your parents use that line, they try and get you all excited, wondering what it could be they want to talk to you about; a new car, perhaps? Maybe their planning a family vacation. Or maybe they just want to tell you how proud they are of their child. Yeah, bullshit. Whenever a parent uses that line, it means that nothing good will come from the conversation. So when my parents called me from my room, using those exact words, a frown appeared on my lips as I slowly made my way to the family room.

“Take a seat, dear.” My mother said, extending her hand to arm chair in front of my father and her. I let out a sigh and did as I was told.

“What’s up, guys?” I asked, trying to make my voice sound light.
My parents shared a look before my mother cleared her throat.

“Well, it’s just that your father and I have noticed you’ve been spending almost all your time with Logan.” I just sat there, waiting for one of them to get to the point. They shared another look and I fought the urge to roll my eyes or glare.

“Are you serious about this boy, Jamie?” She asked.

“Uh, yeah. He’s my boyfriend.” I said, as if that would explain everything. My father cleared his throat and made eye contact with me. I could see the worry in his eyes and his forehead creased up. I hated seeing my dad worry about me.

“Well then how come we’ve only met him once?” He asked sternly. Now I had to roll my eyes.

“Seriously? I mean, come on. What guy really wants to spend time with their girlfriends parents? It’s just awkward and unnecessary.” I exclaimed, throwing my hands out in front of me.

“I don’t know Jamie. Your grades have gone down; you come home later and later past curfew, and now you’re getting quite an attitude around the house.” I bit my lip in order to prevent me from saying something I would regret later. I mean, seriously, my mom sounded like she was so proper or something. My parents stared at me with worried and tired eyes.

“We’re just worried about you honey.” My dad said, rubbing his eyes. I sighed, feeling the tiniest bit guilty, and got up to sit next to him on the sofa. He slung his arm around me in a sideways hug. But his next sentence made my whole body stiffen.

“If you don’t start shaping up, I’m not so sure you’ll have a boyfriend anymore.”
I pulled away and stared at my dad.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Logan likes me just the way I am.” I said loudly.

“I don’t care what Logan likes.” He let out a frustrated sigh and turned to look at me once again. My mother stood up and was angling towards the door to leave.

“In other words, if you don’t loose the attitude, focus on your school work, and start obeying our rules, you won’t be allowed to see Logan anymore.” My mouth was hanging open in shock and my eyebrows were furrowed down in anger. I let out a bitter laugh.

“You think just because you say I can’t see him, I won’t? Then you’re stupid.” Now it was my dad’s turn to look surprised. I could see the hurt he felt shining through his eyes at me, but tried to ignore them. I also tried to ignore the guilty feeling I had rising up in my gut. If I wasn’t so angry, I would have apologized right away. But I was angry.

Then my dad used the line that had been used so many time before in households all around the world.
“Young lady, as long as you live in our house, you’ll go by our rules.”
And I said what millions of kids said to their parents after that;

“Then I’ll move out!”
My dad’s eyes went wide for a millisecond before he laughed.

“Oh really, and where are you going to live?”
A smirk grew on my lips as I stood up and stared down at my father.

“I’ll be living with your favorite person.” I paused to be dramatic as a look of recognition swiped over my father and mother’s face.

‘That’s right dad, Logan.”

“You sure you don’t want a bowl or something?” Brandon asked, gently putting a hand to my forehead. I let out another groan as the nausea swept through me. Brandon saw the look on my face and raced for a bowl.

It was just my luck, getting sick the first day they’re going to kick off their tour in concert. There was even a special celebrity guest, Leighton Meester to sing in Cobra’s ‘Good Girls Go Bad’ song; and I was going to miss it.

Brandon quickly returned with the bowl, a thermometer, and a bottle of Coke. Okay, so it wasn’t the best thing for my stomach, but I was addicted to it! I thanked him quietly and when the nausea feeling passed, I took a sip from the bottle and laid back down. Brandon smiled at my pitiful state and stuck the thermometer in my mouth. When it beeped, he swore under his breath.

“Yeah, you have a slight fever.” I let out another groaned and turned sideways in my bunk, facing the wall. Brandon chuckled and ran his hand through my hair soothingly.

“I’m so sorry I have to miss the first time you guys go in concert.” I muttered, glancing at him from the corner of my eye. He sighed and gave me a pat on the back.

“Hey, they’ll be plenty of more shows.”
“Yeah, no worries. You just focus on getting better.” Brandon and I both turned our heads to see Pete standing with Devlin. I turned around again, not wanting the whole world to see me look like I was going to throw up. Speaking of that, another wave went through me and I reached for the bowl. I heard Devlin should ‘Ew’ and then footsteps, indicating he had probably ran away. Brandon gave my back another pat and then stood up from the bed.

“Well, we have to go to sound check and everything…” He paused and looked down at me with a wary expression.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” I sighed and nodded my head slightly. He and Pete both walked away, sparing me one last glance before exiting the bus. Now all I had in mind was sleep, sleep, and more sleep.

When I woke up a few hours later, I felt much better; not one hundred percent or anything, but better. I figured I’d take a shower and change into some fresh clothes, if I could manage to stand and walk without feeling dizzy.

Success!
After my shower, I changed into a pair of basketball shorts I found in Brandon’s bag, and a blue tank-top. I ran a brush through my hair and then laid down lazily on the couch with the bowl, just in case. Glancing at the clock, I figured they were probably on the second band by now, which would be my brother’s band. Each concert they did was supposed to run like this; it would start with a small, local band, then my brother’s band ‘The Scene’, and Cobra and ATL would switch off each time for who got the closing act. I clicked on the TV that came out of the wall on the bus, and flipped to my favorite Christmas movie, Elf. Seeing as how Christmas was coming around fast, I needed something to put me more in the Christmas spirit. But I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, the movie was ending. I frowned in disappointment and began to search for the clicker that I thought I had put on my knee.

“I love that movie.”
I screamed and threw the closest thing I could find (which happened to be a pillow) in the direction of where the voice had came from and lurched back.

“A pillow? Do you really think a pillow is going to hurt someone?” I exhaled in relief as it was just Alex. I realized that I was covered in a blanket; well at least I was, before I freaked out and jumped up. Alex laughed more and I settled back into my earlier position on the couch.

“What are you doing back so early?” I asked yawning. Alex grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, Cobra is closing for tonight and I figured you’d want some company. I hate being sick, I always get so fucking bored.” I found myself grinning back and thanked him quietly. He smiled back sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders again.

“How was the concert?” I asked after a minute of silence.

“Jamie, I was there”. I raised an eye brow, not understanding his short statement. Alex furrowed his eye brows and let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Meaning, it was fucking incredible”, He stated matter-of-factly. I laughed as I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow.

“Oh of course.”
He grinned back and replied, “But no girls fainted over me tonight.”, with a wink. I felt my cheeks heat up, knowing I was blushing and I elbowed him again. As we made eye contact, we both found ourselves laughing hysterically, for no particular reason.

In between giggles, I managed to get out “Why the fuck are we laughing?” Alex gripped his ribs and croaked, “No idea!” Which just sent us into more fits of laughter. By the time we settled down, Elf was starting over on the TV. I smiled in satisfactory, but It quickly fell.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked instantly, turning his body to face me.
“You don’t want to watch this again, right?” He stared at me for a minute before tossing his head back and laughing.

“I thought you were actually sad about something!” He yelled, poking me in the stomach. I gave him a warning look, reminding him I was still sick and he smiled apologetically, but continued to chuckle.

“We can watch it, I don’t mind.” He said. I eye balled him carefully as he turned up the volume.

“Really?” I questioned. He grinned and nodded in return.

“Hm, well thanks Gaskarth; you’re not that bad of a person.” He arched an eye brow and laughed.

“Once you really get to know me, you’ll realize I’m that not only am I incredibly and irresistibly sexy, but I‘m just down right fantastic too.” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes playfully.

“Someone’s been hanging out Jack too much.” I muttered just loud enough for Alex to hear. He opened his mouth wide, as if in shock, and I laughed.

“No. Okay, maybe. But I’m still pretty fantastic, love.” I grinned, rolling my eyes.

“Well if you’re fantastic, I must be amazing.”

Alex muttered something under his breath, but I couldn’t quite catch it as my eyes were drifting closed once again. I struggled to keep them open, but they were winning.

“It’s all right, love. Sleep.” Alex said softly, running his hand through my hair like Brandon does. With Alex’s words ringing in my head, I let my eyes win and surrendered to the feeling of sleep.

Well, I was woken up, again. Big surprise there.
But this time, I was from talking, yelling actually. Even though my eyes were still closed, I recognized it was Alex’s voice. He was angry about something; in fact, I’d never really heard him this upset before besides the incident at the party. I kept my eyes closed and waited to hear what was going on. I caught Alex mid-sentence.

“-he doing here?!” he yelled.
Next came Jack’s “Whoa dude, chill out.” There was movement and I realized Alex had gotten up from next to me and my head drooped; he was my pillow. I fought the urge to frown and pretended to still be asleep.

“Chill out? This is the guy that-” But Alex stopped mid-sentence. Even with my eyes closed, I felt his eyes on me.

“We met at the party.” My eyes flew open instantly at the sound of that voice. I sat upright and stared at the three people in the room, besides myself. Alex, Jack, and Nick.

“Oh, honey! Did we wake you? My bad. Well no, actually it’s Alex’s bad.” Jack said, glaring towards Alex. I ignored Jack and continued to stare at Nick. He stared back, a warning stare. I rubbed at my eyes to make myself more awake.

“Sorry man, Alex is just a little cranky. Probably ‘cause he didn’t get any tonight, if you know what I mean.” Normally I would have rolled my eyes at Jack’s comment, but I felt far too nervous at the moment. Just like how normally Alex would have made a witty or sarcastic comment back, but he just stood there staring at Nick too.

Jack noticed the tension and stepped in front of Nick, blocking my vision.

“Guys chill, this is my friend Nick. He called me and wanted tickets to our concert, so I hooked him up with a plane ride and tickets, and Walah, here he is.” Jack said, waving his finger around like it was a wand.

“Hey, nice to meet you.” Nick stepped up and said innocently. I swear Alex’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He looked towards me in disbelief, and I could tell he was looking for permission to say something about what happened at the party. I bit my lip and glanced at Nick. He smirked for a second before Jack glanced back at him; then he resumed his sweet and innocent smile.
I shook my head at Alex and let out a long sigh.

“Hey Nick, I’m Jamie. My brother’s in that new band, The Scene.” I tried to smile, I really tried, but failed anyways. Alex’s mouth almost fell open as he now stared at me with disbelief. I tried to avoid his intense stare. Jack grinned, pleased that one of us was making nice; he then sauntered over and took a seat next to me on the couch.

“And how are you feeling, Jamie-boo?”
Okay, act normal Jamie.

“Lovely choice of words, as always Jack.” I said grinning. Chuckling, he slung an arm around me nonchalantly. Nick made his way to the couch to take a seat on the other side of me, but Alex nearly knocked him down by jumping in front of him to sit next to me.

“Whoa, he really must want some action.” Jack said aloud, smirking at Alex. He ignored Jack and instead focused his attention on me. I heard Nick chuckle and say it was cool, before sitting across from us instead.

“So Nick, where are you from?” I tried to ask it as casually as I could muster. I saw Nick’s mouth tug downwards for just a second before he lifted them up in a smile.

“A small town in New Jersey.’ I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Ohmygosh, so is Jamie!” Jack screamed, nudging me in the side with his elbow. I glanced at Jack for a second and gave him a grin, just to make everything appear normal. But nothing was normal here. I was sitting across from a guy who was basically stalking me now.

“Yeah, well I figured Nick could stay the night and leave tomorrow after the next show.” As my body stiffened, I felt Alex’s do the same thing almost simultaneously.

“Why does he want to stay here?” Alex asked carefully. Jack raised an eye brow and grinned, “Because I’m here, duh.” Nick laughed like what Jack said was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

“No, it’s really because I’m in love with Jack.” Nick said, giving Jack a kissy face. Jack tossed his head back in a laugh but then stopped, looking very serious.

“Sorry, my heart belongs to Alex.” I nudged Alex in the side when he didn’t make any comment back. Finally Alex broke out in a grin.

“Yeah, Jack’s my bitch.”
All four of us laughed, but only Jack seemed to be enjoying himself.

No, I take that back. As I watched Nick go through the next hour or so talking with us, he was enjoying himself too, I could tell. He liked the fact that I was uncomfortable and scared. He liked the fact that Alex wanted to rip his head off, but wouldn’t. He liked everything about this situation.

And truth be told, I was scared of him.