Someone's Gotta Give

“Hi Lucy, feeling better?” DJ asked brightly as I smiled at him blankly for a moment, trying to think about why he would be asking me something like that.

“Oh…ah yeah loads better.” I said as it clicked why he was asking me that, because of yesterday night, when I was “sick.” I self-consciously smoothed out the skirt I was wearing.

“Glad to hear that, we’d better get in the bus though, I think Motley’s just wrapping up and planning to get back on the road.” DJ said as I looked around and saw Nikki and Tommy talking as they headed back to the Motley bus.

“Then I guess we’d better get going, don’t want to get left behind.” I adjusted the bag I had slung over my shoulder with all the art supplies that I thought I’d need until we got to wherever we were going.

“Exactly, so after you.” DJ said as he ushered me into the bus, I let out a little laugh before climbing up the stairs into the bus. “It’s not really clean, so sorry ‘bout that.” The bus wasn’t that messy. Sure there were a few cans and bottles of various beverages on the little table, and garbage was scattered around the floor, but it wasn’t that bad.

“It’s fine, you’re forgetting who I live with.” I answered as DJ let out a chuckle, my dad wasn’t the tidiest person around, and that was a heavy understatement. “Where’s James?” I asked as I looked around and realized the absence of the dirty blonde haired singer.

“He’s still sleeping.” DJ said as he stifled a yawn, I felt bad almost instantly; maybe I had woken them up when I agreed to come over and get away from my dad and Nikki. “You can sit down if you’d like, or if you’d prefer to stand could you scoot so I can sneak by you.” DJ added cheerily after a moment as my face turned red, I had stopped in the middle of the entire place, I felt like a fat ass, DJ had made me feel like fat ass though I knew it wasn’t his intention to do that at all. I slid into a seat quickly, trying not to look at DJ until my face didn’t feel quite so hot.

“He’s still sleeping? But it’s like eleven o’clock.” I focused on looking out the window and trying to memorize all the details of the gas station before we would depart. I heard DJ let out a chuckle as he slid into the seat across from me.

“We’re normally up until four or five in the morning so we don’t get up until two or three in the afternoon.” He explained I had woken him up, now I felt like a bitch and a fat ass.

“Except for today Nikki’s been persistent with texting, so when neither of us answered he called me and the ringing woke me up.” I felt a tad bit better after that, but not much.

“That sounds like Nikki.” I grumbled, remembering how persistent he had been on the walk to the bus. DJ nodded his head.

“D’ya want something to drink or eat or anything?” He asked after a moment of silence moment of awkwardness more like it he drummed his fingers on the table.
“No thank you, I’m fine.” I answered politely as he put a seemingly forced smile on his face.

“So…” I started after another moment of silence passed uncomfortably.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you even on this tour? I mean it didn’t really seem like you wanted to be here yesterday.” DJ blurted out after a moment before he drummed his fingers on the table, watching me intently. I studied his snakebites for a moment before letting out a sigh.

“I’m on this tour because my dad wants me to be here, not because I want to be here.” I wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t telling the entire truth. He probably knew the entire truth though; Nikki had probably filled both of them and warned them away from me.

“I take it you’re not a rocker then?” His upper lip twitched slightly, like he was trying to hold back a smile. It was almost like he was toying with me, and I didn’t like the feeling that I was getting from it.

“Not at all.” He nodded his head and I could almost see his mind working, the cogs turning as he tried to figure out why my dad could possibly want me to be here. “I’m more into Lady Gaga.” I added after another moment, he didn’t say anything just stayed quiet before looking out the window. The bus roared to life as doors shut, and just like that we were off. T-minus fifty-nine minutes and counting until we supposedly reached our destination, I could handle that long with DJ and possibly James if he was going to get up.

“Deej, d’ya know what the hell all the noise was about earlier?” I heard James call; he seemed to break DJ out of his staring contest with the gas station.
“It was nothing, just Nikki asking if we’d like to babysit Mick’s kid for an hour or so.” DJ replied as I shot him a glare, so that’s what Nikki had said, if they’d like to babysit me. I didn’t need to be babysit.

“I hope you said no.” I heard rustling in the back before a door slammed and a shirtless James appeared as he ran a hand through his messy hair and yawned loudly before putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “That was refreshing.” He added as he stifled another yawn.

“Actually James I said sure to it, after all it’s only another hour to the site.” DJ answered as James blinked and stretched. I pulled my shirt up a little more before fiddling with the clasp on my bag and pulling out my sketchbook and a pencil.

“Hope I don’t bother you too much.” I added in before opening my sketchbook and flipping through the pages furiously, passing sketch after sketch trying to find a blank page I could draw on.

“I was kidding; you don’t seem that bad to have around, of course I might be wrong.” James replied as I glanced at him taking a metal photograph of his face. He would be the next one to draw, after I finished DJ of course. Maybe if I was feeling adventurous I would even try pencil crayons on James and if it didn’t turn out it wouldn’t be anything to complain about, he’d look better than he did now.

“Can we restrain from arguing for the next hour please?” DJ said as I found the half completed sketch of his face in my book and pulled it closer to me. I studied what I needed to do, I needed to fix his mouth, including the snakebites and then do shading on the majority of his face and hair. James grunted before he shuffled around and opened up a cupboard I didn’t answer. Instead I began working on the drawing, sneaking peeks and DJ when I could and letting my hand take over.

“Do we have anything to eat in this bus?” James asked as he moved from cupboard to cupboard empty handed. DJ shrugged his shoulders before he got up and walked out of sight. I could hear him rummaging in the back. “What the hell’s his problem?” James asked the air, I ignored him and continued drawing from memory DJ’s face. The more times I had glanced at DJ I realized that I was off on more than a few parts of his face. DJ returned a few minutes later with a hat on his head and his guitar in his hand before sitting down in the seat that he had previously deserted. I closed my sketchbook after a few minutes of not getting anywhere on my project and stared out the window while DJ plucked away on his guitar. James looked from me to DJ before shaking his head and muttering something under his breath before disappearing into the back and reappearing a few minutes later with a gray t-shirt.

Much to my displeasure he slid into the seat beside me and pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and began to shuffle them whistling to himself. I carefully took my sketchbook off the table and packed it securely in my bag then put the pencil in carefully.

“Anyone up for a game of Crazy Eights?” He asked after a moment of shuffling the cards, he looked at DJ who ignored him and continued to pluck away at the strings then to me.

“Sure why not.” I answered lightly, it didn’t seem like there was much to do at the moment, the conversation with DJ had gone seemingly downhill after James showed up. A wicked grin appeared on James face as he shuffled the cards again.

“So Little Mars wants to play cards,” He said as I sighed. Little Mars or Mick’s kid I was bound to be called by one of them when I was with a friend of my dad’s.

“Little Mars has a name.” I said sharply as James raised an eyebrow before dealing out eight cards to both of us and placing the deck between us on the table.

“Little Mars will be called Little Mars until she’s proven that she’s worth being called by her name.” I ignored his jab and studied my cards, two, four, six, eight, eight, jack, queen, ace. Six red and two black. Not bad at all. “You first,” He added after a moment before he flipped over the top card, nine of spades. Just my luck.

“Doubles allowed to be played?” I asked as I picked up a card, nine of hearts. I put it down.

“Of course,” James said as he put two two’s down the smirk staying on his face. “Pick up four.” He added as I picked up the four cards.

“Pick up six.” I put down my two, now we were back at clubs, but from my pickup I had a few of those. I watched satisfied as James picked up six cards the grin disappearing, I assumed that he didn’t manage to pick up a two. Instead he placed a six down, I instantly countered with a jack followed by a four. I looked up from the card game and saw DJ watching us with a wry smile on his face as James picked up a card then made a face.

“Your turn,” He told me before grumbling to himself. I put down a red four overtop of the black one I had put down. “Something funny Deej?” He asked as he put down two red kings changing the suit to hearts.

“Nothing that you’d find amusing,” DJ answered as I played two queen changing the suit to spades as James let out a sigh before rubbing his face and picking up a card.

“Tell me anyways; maybe I’ll see the humour in it.” He said before looking at me. “Go.” It sounded like he was almost demanding it, but that might have been my dislike for James coming into play. I put an ace of spades down hearing James say “the ace of spades.” In a voice that sounded like he was about to burst into song.

“I just think it’s funny that she’s pretty much kicking your ass James, that’s all.” DJ said as James grumbled picking up yet another card and looking at me with the word I knew he was going to say.

“Go.” I looked at my cards, I had no spades left, the ace had been the last card I had of that suit, which meant that I could either play an eight or pick up another card. I picked up another card and it just my luck that it happened to be an ace of hearts, I put that down.

“Funnily enough I didn’t find that even slightly amusing,” He told DJ who shrugged his shoulders before playing a jack then two fives, back to diamonds.

“I told you that I didn’t think you would.” He answered with a yawn, like he had grown bored of watching us play cards as I put down a seven. “Man she’s really wiping the floor with you.” He commented as James picked up yet another card. I had four cards left, two which were eights and it looked like James still had quite the handful.

“Shut it.” James growled as he put a queen down and I put my two six’s down. Now I had two cards left, I was bound to win. “Ha,” James said as he put down a jack then a nine. With a grin I placed down my two eights.

“Whatever suit you’d like.” I told him as he looked at me in disbelief while DJ let out a laugh. James growled as he threw his cards down before pushing the cards into a pile and shuffling them furiously. “So have I earned the right to be called by my name?” I asked in a sugary sweet tone. James looked at me, jaw clenched before he got up and left, leaving his deck of cards on the table and me alone with DJ while I heard noise coming from the back.