But I Never Promised You

I woke up the next morning feeling rather refreshed. It was a beautiful morning. I could see the sun shining in the window through the cracks in the blinds. I sat up in bed and stretched, willing myself to fully commit to waking up. Looking around, I noticed the boys were still sleeping; not that it surprised me, mind you. Those boys could sleep through just about anything.

I decided the best thing to do would be to get up and start a pot of coffee. I knew Jack would probably wake up as soon as he smelled it, and I wanted company.

I started humming as I was rummaging through the drawers and cabinets trying to find the coffee grounds. I knew the hotel we were staying at had coffee downstairs in the lounge, but I was too lazy to walk downstairs for just one cup of coffee.

When I finally found where the hidden stash was, I poured the grounds into a filter and stuck in the machine. After pouring water in I hit the brew button and sat down to wait. Not long after, it couldn’t have been more than five minutes; I was pouring myself a cup. Just smelling it was enough to give me the energy I’d need to make it through the day.

“Do I smell coffee?”

“Of course, Jack. Do I ever not brew coffee in the morning?”

“Well, I don’t know. I wasn’t there for the first twenty years of your life. And as far as I know, until you were probably fifteen or sixteen your parents probably didn’t let you have any.”

“Okay, smartalic. Since you’ve known me, have I ever not brewed coffee in the morning?”

“Well, there was this one time, when you got hit by a car. You didn’t brew coffee that morning.”

“Can we not bring up specific instances when I did not brew coffee? If I am able, I make coffee.”

“I’m just teasing you.”

“I know, Jack. I’m surprised you haven’t jumped out of bed trying to get some.”

“Well, I would, but you see, I have a slight problem.”

“No, I don’t see, actually. You look perfectly capable of getting out of bed to me.”

“I would be able to get out of bed just fine, but once I did, you would laugh at me and I don’t want that.”

“Didn’t you wear underwear to bed Jack?” I said, giggling slightly thinking about Jack trying to run around the hotel room trying to find clean clothes to cover himself with.

“See, you’re laughing at me already and I haven’t moved yet.”

“If I turn around, will you get out of bed and get yourself some coffee?”

“No, not yet. Give me another few minutes or so. He’s still too excited,” Jack immediately hit himself over the head after saying this. I bet he hadn’t really wanted me to know what his problem was, but face it, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out. It was the morning and he was a young male. Baiting him into saying it probably wasn’t very nice of me though.

“Jack, I knew what the problem you had was the entire time. I just wanted to goad you into saying it.”

“That’s not very nice Mika.”

“I know, but you weren’t nice to me yesterday. You woke me up like three times when I was trying to get some sleep. It’s called payback Jack and it’s seldom referred to as nice.”

“Now who’s the smartalic?”

“Still isn’t me.”

Jack was finally ready to get out of bed and he came running after me. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but I ran from him anyway. I didn’t want to get tackled on the carpet. Rug burns were definitely not my favorite thing in the world.

“What are you doing, Jack? Are you trying to wake everyone up or destroy the hotel room? Or worse, me?”

“I’m not doing anything, Mika. I’m getting my exercise in for the day.”

“Jack, you and the band have a concert tonight. Don’t you think that will be enough exercise for you?”

“Nope. I’m an endless ball of energy.”

Of course, right after he says this he falls on the floor. There was a loud thump when he made contact. It sounded like it may have hurt.

“What was that?” Rian said sitting up and looking around. “We’re under attack! Duck in cover!”

Of course, Rian screaming woke up Zack and Alex.

Shaking my head, I walked over to the dresser where the card keys were kept, grabbed one and walked out of the room. I didn’t want to be in the middle of the war they were going to be engaged in. Besides, my stomach was growling and I wanted some breakfast.

What a great way to start the morning.

Once I had eaten, I decided I should probably go back upstairs and break up whatever fight they were still having and get them back on schedule for the day. I pushed the button for the elevator and waited as close to patiently as I could for the doors to open. I heard the ding signaling the elevator was there before I saw the doors open and still looking at my phone I started to walk forward. I felt something solid as I crashed into it and let out a small grunt. I had mistakenly run into another of the hotels guests.

“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I apologized and looked up to see the person I had run into.

This is going to sound familiar, it was Alex Gaskarth.

“You know, we need to stop meeting like this.”

“Haha, you’re very funny. I was just coming back up to the room to break up the world war three going on up there.”

“Well, I was just coming to find you to tell you that world war three was over and we need to get a move on or someone, namely our manager, is not going to be too happy with us.”

“I thought we didn’t have to leave for the show until four?”

“We don’t, but we have other things to do until then. Just like a certain merch girl has to get organized before we leave or she’ll never get set up in time.”

“Thanks for the not-so-subtle hint there.”

“Anytime, sweetie. Anytime.”

I walked with Alex back up to the room. We decided to forget taking the elevator and took the stairs instead. I’m not sure how, but it seemed to give us more privacy. Not many people wanted to take the stairs when they were staying in a hotel. It was too much work to carry their luggage up or down the stairs.

When we were almost back to our room, about two doors down, when Alex realized he didn’t grab a key when he left to find me. Not that it surprised me any.

“Um…Mika, I forgot to grab a key and I think the rest of the guys left to get food. We might be stuck out here until they get back.”

“Well, lucky for you, I brought one with me when I left to get breakfast. I guess we know who the brains is in the relationship.”

“That’s not very nice, Mika. But I guess we know then, too, who the bread winner is in the relationship.”

“That’s not nice, either, Alex. I had a job before I left to come on tour with you. I paid my own bills.”

“How about we stop arguing so it doesn’t ruin the rest of the day and possibly the rest of the tour? I don’t want this to break us up.”

“That’s probably the smartest thing you’ve said all day.”

“I thought we agreed to not ruin the rest of the day. It still sounds like you’re arguing a bit.”

“Nope, not at all. I was just stating my opinion of your last statement.”

“Let’s just go find the guys and get this show on the road.”

I remember him saying that the guys had gone out for breakfast and I don’t know about him, but I didn’t feel like getting lost in Tokyo to find them.

“I think I’ll pass on trying to find them. We’ll probably just get lost and that could waste a lot of time that we really don’t have. I’m just gonna wait here.”

“Maybe you’re right. Although, we could just call one of them and find out where they went and then call a cab.”

“Somehow, that seems like a lot more work than it should be. How will you even get the number for a cab?”

“The front desk. Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? You’ve never been to Tokyo before.”

“I’m good. I need to get some stuff done here before we have to really go to work.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later then,” Alex said. He leaned over to kiss my cheek before turning around and walking down the hall toward the elevators.

And I stood there, in the middle of the hall watching him leave. I knew I would see him in a few hours, but somehow it felt like goodbye.