Such a Typical Thing

Maybe it's all for the best, but I just don't see any good in this, no;

The next two weeks were slow and uneventful.

I had started to drift from Garrett, and everybody seemed to realize it, except for him. I had started to make excuses, and the excuses turned into lies, as terrible as that was.

If he invited me to the bus to watch, I'd tell him that I was having dinner with Matt. If he asked where I was, I'd say I was helping somebody with something.

I know, I'm a terrible person.

A few days before all of the lying started, Garrett had told me that he loved me.

And he'd meant it.

He'd poured his heart out to me about how much he loved me and that I was everything he'd been looking for. In all honesty, it freaked me out.

In the first week of August, Oakleigh caught me in a lie.

I was taking a nap when I'd told Garrett I was running errands with Matt. Oakleigh had come to the bus, probably expecting I'd be there.

I woke up when she threw a pillow at me with quite a bit of force.

“I'm trying to sleep here,” I mumbled, sitting up. She looked at me expectantly and I sunk down and confessed everything to her.

“If you're going to keep lying to him, it's only going to be worse when he finds out,” she told me .

“I know,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I”m gonna do it tonight,” I declared.

“Do what?”

“Break up with him.”

“Remy,” Oakleigh groaned, “You shouldn't break up with him.”

“Why the hell not?”

“You should at least try to make it work.”

“I have, Oakleigh. We've been dating for a month, so that should mean that I've tried.”

“No, you haven't tried! All you've done is lie to him,” she said exasperatedly. She let out a laugh. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I think you're scared,” she told me.

“Scared?”

“Yes, scared. All you do is sleep around, and you've barely had a functioning relationship. You're scared because Garrett actually cares for you. He actually loves you.”

“You couldn't be more wrong, Oakleigh. And I didn't give you permission to psychoanalyze me, Miss Psychology.”

“If you break up with him, you'd be throwing out a chance for an actual functioning relationship. You'd be ruining a good thing.”

“Like you know a whole lot about relationships,” I said nastily, adding a scoff.

Oakleigh looked as though I'd slapped her across the face. That was her sore spot; relationships. She'd never actually had one, for some reason.

“You know what,” she stoop up abruptly and walked to the top of the stairs to leave the bus. “Break up with him. Fuck up the only good thing you have, then go to the party tonight and fuck some random guy senseless. Because that's all you do. Fuck. And I don't even care anymore.” She spat her words at me angrily. Before I could do or say anything, she was gone, leaving me sitting there.

I let out a sigh, swallowing the lump in my throat. Great, just fucking great. I say there and stared at nothing for a long time.

The rest of the afternoon passed extremely slowly.

There was word of a party tonight, supposedly a huge one. I had no intention of going, but I did have every intention of breaking up with Garrett.

Garrett arrived at the bus right on time, after all of the guys had let.

“You aren't dressed,” he commented, kissing me quickly before sitting down beside me.

“Well, technically I am, just not dressed for a party,” I noted, laughing nervously as guilt churned in my stomach.

“Well, why not? You don't want to party it up tonight?”

“Not really,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Hey, what's wrong?”

“This isn't working, Garrett,” I told him flat out, just wanting to get it over with.

He looked dumb founded, so I continued.

“I've really tried to make this work, I wanted it to work, but let's face it; once tour is over, you'll be in Arizona and I'll be on the east coast. I talked to Oakleigh-”

“This is why Oakleigh was upset earlier,” he said, cutting me off. He looked up at me. “What exactly did you say to her? You made her cry.”

Guilt settled into my stomach. Fuck.

“Garrett, in all honesty, we're just not working out. I pissed Oakleigh off earlier, and I feel bad about this, but you live all the way across the country, and you're always on tour. I'm in college. It's two completely different worlds that don't blend very well,” I explained, trying to keep calm.

Garrett was silent for a while. Finally, he looked p at me and sighed.

“I live in a different state and I tour,” he said slowly. “Danny lives in a different state and tours.”

“Garrett, this isn't about Danny,” I assured him.

“Rems, yes I is. I've been competing with him since day one. I give it a week before you two are together.”

To my complete surprise, Garrett was smiling.

“Are we good then?” I asked rather hesitantly.

Garrett sighed with a nod. “Come here,” he said, tugging on my wrist and pulling me to him. His arms fit around my waist and he squeezed me tightly. He kissed me softly and quickly on the mouth before releasing me.

“Bye, Rems,” he said, squeezing my hand before walking off the bus, leaving me to sit there alone.

That night, the floor seemed extra hard. I rolled over a dozen times before finally moving to the sofa.

It was still uncomfortable.

“Matty...Matt!” I found myself hissing, ten minutes later. Standing outside his bunk in my tank top and pj bottoms, I was shivering.

“Remy, what do you want?” he asked quietly with a yawn.

“Can I sleep in your bunk tonight?” I asked, trying to sound helpless and innocent. He sighed, giving me the go-ahead to climb into his bunk.

We ended up arguing over the minimal supply of blankets and was out of his bunk in ten minutes. I tried waking up Vinny, Evan, Alex, and Rian but got no response from any of them. Jack was more than happy to let me into him bunk.

“Climb on in,” he said quietly, scooting over. His voice had a bit of a slur to it, and I could smell the booze on him.

I climbed in and was a few inches from sleep when Jack's hand snaked up my tank top, his fingers dancing over my rib cage. He pulled me closer to him and I could feel a hard bulge in his pants.

“Rems,” he whispered, pressing his lips to my neck.

“Didn't you learn your lesson last time?” I asked, pulling away.

“Nope,” he answered, his lips finding mine in the dark.

I pulled away in disgust, moving so fast that within a few seconds, I was on the floor of the bus, on my back, with a loud noise and in a world of pain.

Danny poked his head out of his bunk. “Are you okay?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.

The wind still knocked out of me, all I could do was nod. I say up, still seeing stars.

“Are you sure?”

“I'm good,” I assured him, my chest still tight. “Danny?” I said as he retreated back into his bunk.

“What?”

“Can I sleep in your bunk tonight?”

As he sighed, I stood up and climbed into his bunk.

“Won't your boyfriend be mad about his?” he asked, sounding rather bitter as he scooted over.

“I don't have a boyfriend anymore,” I whispered back.

“Since when?” He sounded surprised.

“About eight hours ago,” I responded, my voice barely there.

Something felt different.

We were laying on our sides, facing each other. Danny's arm was draped lightly over my waist and my eyelids began to feel heavy.

When I woke several hours later, Danny's arms were latched around my waist tightly. His face was buried in the crook of my neck. The bus wasn't moving and I heard no movement anywhere on the bus.

I smiled to myself, moving an arm up and toying with the hair that hung at the back of his neck. I slipped into a semiconscious state, only knowing the warmth of Danny's breath on my skin.

I snapped back into the land of the living when I felt Danny shift a bit. When he saw me open my eyes, he smiled.

“Morning beautiful,” he said softly. I laughed, covering my face with my hands. He pulled my hands away and kissed my cheek.

“What time is it?” I asked with a yawn.

He reached over my and grabbed his phone. ”Almost ten,” he said, his arms going around my waist again.

“We should probably get up,” I said, stretching as much as I could.

“Probably a good idea.” He buried his face in my neck again.

“We're making some real progress here,” I joked ten minutes later when we were still in the same position.

“You bet,” he mumbled, sounding sleepy.

I was so close to sleep when I heard my phone ring in the front lounge.

“Shit,” I groaned, sliding out of the warmth of the blankets.

I shivered as I grabbed my phone from the table. I frowned at the Caller ID.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, rather awkwardly.

“You dropped out of school?” she said expectantly on the other end of the line.

Shit.