I Swear I Love You

Jimmy’s POV

“Come on Jimmy! My great-grandmother can move faster than you!”

I groaned as I looked over at Jess, who was currently waving frantically from the steps of the tour bus.

“What’s the matter?” Val asked, looking between me and Jess curiously. “Do you regret taking her back on these past few days?”

“My god Jimmy!” The very subject of her question appeared in front of me and before I could help it, grabbed her luggage from me and began to drag it over to the bus, grumbling all the way. “Do I have to do everything myself?”

Watching her I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself- something Val instantly picked up on. “Or perhaps there was a secret motive into getting Jess back?” She continued slyly, poking me in the chest. “Does Jimmy’s heart want to say anything about it?”

“What?” Her poke caused my attention to snap back to her. “No! Can a guy not just want company once in a while?”

“Of course,” she agreed. “But-” She sat down on my case just as I was about to reach for it, knowing that I would try to use it as an excuse to run away. “That’s not why you asked her to come back, now was it?”

My gaze dropped; I couldn’t bear to look at her even though I knew it would let her assume she was right. “Even though it was only for a few days…”

“What was that?” She looked at me oddly. “I couldn’t hear it.”

I shook my head and smiled. “It doesn’t matter.” Grabbing the handle I gave Val a light nudge to get off my case before picking it up and walking off. “It was nothing important.”

--

“Wow…” Jess breathed, turning on the spot while walking to look throughout the bus. “This is amazing! God it’s so much nicer than my apartment…”

“Nicer than your apartment? You must live in a shithole or something,” I replied, tossing my bag on the side before suddenly shooting my arms up to stop her falling into me. “Hey! Watch where you’re going!”

“Sorry,” she replied meekly, a faint blush tinting her cheeks. “I just got a little excited.”

“How old are you, four?” I teased, chuckling as she stamped her foot on the ground and basically just proved me right. “Does lickle Jess want a lollypop?”

She rolled her eyes. “I get it Jimmy.” She then smiled. “Although I’ll take it if you are offering.”

“It wasn’t like I was really going to give you one.”

She feigned shock, acting almost as if her heart had just been ripped from her chest. Even her eyes echoed complete and utter heartbreak. “You… lied?”

“Are you seriously going to-”

“I can’t believe you lied to me!” She turned so that her back faced me just as a faint tremble began to take hold of her. Her voice cracked as she spoke. “I thought… I thought we were friends!”

I was taken aback, not really knowing what to say. “Jess… I-”

“Is something wrong here?” I turned to see Val behind us, her fiancés muscular arms wrapped loosely around her waist. At that point I didn’t know what was worse as their eyes went from curious to accusing as they swept from Jess and back to me; the fact that Matt could- and would, if Jess asked- easily force me into the luggage space under the bus and keep me there until we got to the first venue or the fact that I had actually managed to make her upset in the first place over something stupid like a lollipop. I mean come on; really?

“Jess, what’s wrong?” Instinctively I pressed myself back into the couch as the couple edged closer to Jess, noting how Matt almost seemed to flex his muscles as he passed.

Val gently touched her on the arm. “Jess? Did something happen?”

“Jimmy…”

Without elaboration on the answer this was enough to have both of them turn to me, making me sorely wish that some of the other guys had been picked up before me. Right now, it was basically as if I was trying to put out a forest fire with a lame-ass water gun from a dollar store.

I held up my hands in a defensive pose, attempting to edge to the steps leading down to my escape. “Look, I haven’t done anything…”

“Well you clearly have, she wasn’t like this earlier!” Val retorted. “You were only alone for five minutes!”

Someone coughed in the doorway to get our attention, revealing Logan, our driver for the tour. “I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

I glanced at Val’s ever-darkening expression and quickly shook my head, focusing on him for all I was worth. If looks could kill, I’d be a hundred feet under by now. “No, not at all. What’s up?”

“I’m about to set off for Brian’s- you sure you got everything?” I nodded. “Alrighty. Make sure not to operate any dangerous objects while I’m driving.”

“The only dangerous object around here is you driving,” Val muttered. Even though we had all known Logan since our sophomore years Val still didn’t trust his driving. Hell, not even becoming an official driver for other people helped. In fact, in her eyes, it made things worse, since now he could kill people and get paid for it.

In response Logan just grinned, taking her comment and basically throwing it back in her face. “The Assassin; to battle stations!” With no hint of embarrassment whatsoever he punched the air and basically ballerina jumped to the front and behind the wheel, slamming the bus into gear with another yell. “For Narnia!”

The shout must have stirred something in Jess since she suddenly turned and streaked past me and out of the doors just before they shut, stumbling slightly on the dismount as we had already begun to move.

Logan noticed this, and stopped abruptly, causing us all to nearly fall over because of it. He shouted back to us. “What was that?”

Anger set momentarily aside, we all universally replied him. “Jess.”

He sighed and got up from his seat after opening the doors once again, calling after her as we all watched her run back to the house. “What are you doing lady? We’re on a tight schedule here!”

We watched from the bus as she flapped her arm in a hush-hush gesture just as she unlocked the door and disappeared inside.

“What do you think she forgot?”

Val’s question was pretty much what we were all thinking at that moment as we waited for her return. The minutes began to stack up as we waited until she reappeared a short while later, a small bag clutched in her left hand as she locked the door.

“Sorry!” Jess apologised brightly, ignoring the dark look Logan shot after her as he started the bus back up again and started to move. She tucked the bag safely under the couch before she sat down on top of it. “Forgot something.”

“Better have been something important,” Logan grumbled from the front as he pulled to a halt at a stoplight. “Now I’m off schedule…”

“It’s only by a few minutes,” Val interjected, ignoring his further mumbles until she turned her attention to Jess. “What was so important that you needed to run back for it?”

“Why don’t I take a crack at it?” I had recognised that bag around the house before. “You forgot your insulin didn’t you?”

She grinned at me sheepishly, drawing out her answer like a child would. “Maaaaaayyybbeee.”

“Honestly Jess. Your toothbrush, I’d get. Your childhood blanket, sure, I’ll let you have that. But the medicine that saves your life on a daily basis?” I shook my head at her, donning the traditional disappointed look. “Man Jess. You’d lose your head if it wasn’t fixed to your shoulders.”

“You sound like my mother when you say that,” she grumbled. She crossed her arms across her chest as I sat down beside her.

“Why the hell am I your mother?” I protested. “I’m a guy you know!”

For a moment her expression flickered- that is until she turned to me and stuck her tongue out. “Because you are as whiny and needy as a woman, that’s why.”

“Hey-!”

“Well, looks like you two are fine then,” Val said with a sigh, sitting on the opposite couch with Matt. She looked at Jess. “What did Jimmy do to you anyway?”

“What did he do?” She repeated slowly. “Erm…” She laughed. “I forgot.”

I rolled my eyes. Forgot my ass. It was such an act- along with that stupid lollypop thing.

“You forgot? You looked like you were going to cry or something!”

She shrugged just as I answered for her. “She was upset because I apparently promised her a lollipop but didn’t give it to her.”

Then she glared at me. “You didn’t need to tell her that.”

“Of course I did.” I stretched my arms and crossed them behind my head. “It’s called ‘getting you back’.”

“Coming from the man-girl who couldn’t last a few days of being alone?” She snorted. “Real revenge there Jimmy.”

“Well at least I don’t go round and ‘casually’ forget something that would keep me alive!”

“Well I went back and got it didn’t I?”

“That’s not the point-”

“Guys!” We both stopped at Val’s interruption, watching as she rubbed at her temples with a pained expression. “I’d expect this from Zacky and Brian, but not you. How old are you two?”

Jess grinned. “Old enough to drink, smoke and get married.”

“Which coincidentally, I’ve done all three,” I added, sharing her smile. “Which makes me better than you Valary.”

Val’s eyes narrowed. “Remember that we are together on this tour for the next few months.”

“Yeah, but you love me, so you won’t stay angry long,” I replied casually, getting up off the couch just as Logan yelled from the front we were at Brian’s. He was already waiting outside with Zacky, and being just the fantastically considerate person I am, I decided to be a good Samaritan and help them out. Or at least scope out the snacks they had brought with them, since I was starved. “I’m going to go help the guys with their stuff.” I looked back at Jess. “You staying here?” She nodded. “Lazy ass.”

I waved them off before beginning to step down the steps, just as Jess called me back. “Hey Jimmy?” I turned only to just see Jess holding some kind of gun a split second before something struck me in the face and stuck there.

Looks like there wasn’t just insulin in that bag.

Pulling the foam arrow off my head with a mixture of shock and confusion to my side Val and Matt were holding each other, laughing in hysterics as they mimicked the stupid expression I must have made before roaring with laughter again.

“What the hell was that for?”

“Just checking your reaction times,” Jess replied, sounding as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “I have to say Jimmy, yours are pretty poor. Not very good for protecting.”

“And what do I need to protect?”

“You never know,” she began, just as she rose from the couch. “I might need you one day.” She then proceeded to pass me on the steps, the gun still in her hands.

“Hey,” I called, stopping her. “Where are you going with that?”

She turned back and smiled. “Well if yours aren’t up to par, I’m just going to have to rely on someone else, now aren’t I?”

I could only watch in silence as Jess did the same thing to Brian and Zack, laughing quietly to myself as they gave off some rather idiotic expressions. “Man this is going to be one heck of a tour, that’s for sure.”