Diamonds in the Rough

Val had woken up an hour later and found Jasey asleep on Zacky with Jimmy passed out on the floor in front of them. Laughing lightly to herself, she grabbed her camera from the front lounge and came back to take a picture of them all. This was definitely going into a scrap book.

After seeing that, Valary decided to head back to the front. She hit the button on the coffee maker and waited for it to be done. Sitting down at the dinette again, she scrolled through her texts. She had a new one from Leanna and a new one from Gena, but of which asked when they were going to be back in Huntington.

Gena and Leanna had left two weeks ago prior to the end of tour. Usually Jasey and Valary left with them as well, but they decided to stick it out and wait for the infamous end of tour pranks.

“Morning Val,” A sleepless looking Brian said, distracting her from replying to the girls.

“Morning Gates,” She smiled, quickly typing her reply and hitting send before looking to see if the coffee was done. Instead of the glass pot, her eyes met Brian’s.

“Woah, you look like shit,” She noted.
“Haven’t been able to sleep,” He said, slouching down in the seat on the other side of the dinette.

“Well I can see that,” She said still in shock, “What’s wrong?”

“I fucked it up with Jasey again,” He said, folding his arms on the table and resting his head on top of them. His eyes were red and his hair looked like a mess, which it usually did anyway, but that wasn’t the point. He was just pretty much out of it.

Before Valary could ask anything else, the coffee maker made a sound signaling that it was done. She slid out from the bench and grabbed two mugs out of the cabinet, pouring a cup for her and for Brian.

“Sugar?”
“Sure,” He answered tiredly.

She finished making the two mugs and put one of them on the table in front of him, taking a sip from hers as she sat back down.

“Zacky and Jimmy are passed out in back with Jasey, so you have time to talk about this,” She said with a warm tone to her voice.

He sighed, “I told her I missed her last night and I was hoping to just be her friend again, but that blew up all in my face too.”

She nodded.

He continued, “I was too scared before when I first asked her out,” He put down his mug, “I should’ve just fucking stuck around. We wouldn’t be in this mess if I stayed.”

“Brian,” Valary said sympathetically, “Don’t blame this all on yourself.”
“Why the hell not?” He snarled, flashing her eyes filled with anger.

“Because it takes two to fuck something up,” She said with what remaining composure she had.

“But it only takes one to break someone’s heart,” He muttered.
“Brian!” She snapped, slapping the table causing his head to jerk up. She met his gaze with serious eyes, “You need to fucking stop blaming this whole mess on yourself, alright? You and her both know that you want to be with each other, so if you’re going to at least try to make this work, you have to stop this bull shit.”

“I think I threw away all hopes of trying again last night.”
“Brian…”
“Right, I know. No more blaming.”

Valary smiled contently to herself. He let out a sigh and took another sip of his coffee, resting his head back on his arms on the table.

“I came back on the bus to apologize to her last night and I heard her in the back with Zack. She told him she loved me.”

It was Val’s turn for her eyes to go wide.

“She what?”

“I heard her tell Zack that she was in love with me,” He repeated, sounding sadder than before.

“Are you sure she said that?”

He nodded, “I know what I heard Val.”

“I’m going back to bed,” He said standing up, walking to the sink to put his mug in it, “Tell Matt to wake me up before we go inside.”

“Wait Brian!” She called out, causing him to stop and at the door and spin around to look at her. She drew in a deep breath, “Try and talk to her again before the show tonight.”

He didn’t respond back to her, but instead went to his bunk and fell in. His eyes remained wide open as he stared at the ceiling, trying to comprehend what all happened.

“I’m just going to see if Val’s awake, both of you need to calm down,” He heard Jasey say from behind him. The door to the back closed and she walked through the bunk room. He opened his curtain a little when he heard her walk past. All he caught was a glimpse of her still dark, almost black, auburn hair as she stepped through the door way.