Inside of You

I pour a drink
You move in quick, you’re moving forward

Babe walked back to the Maine’s tour bus and sighed. This was the last place she wanted to be. Neither John or her had said anything to the boys about what happened between them before Babe ignored them for a week, or what was said in the emergency room.

So there was no awkwardness in the tour bus, expect for between Babe and John. There was a huge awkward turtle between them. And when I say huge awkward turtle, I mean like a Empire State Building sized turtle of awkwardness.

And even so they managed to completely ignore each other for a little more than a week, but you can only ignore someone who you live with 24/7 for so long and have known for most of your life.

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Babe woke up one morning when the bus jolted to a stop; it was 5:34 in the morning. Which is an ungodly hour for anyone to be up, especially if you’re up all night because the bus left the venue late. Babe sighed and put a sweat shirt one before getting off the bus, there was no point in trying to sleep again once she was up. The air smelled like sea salt, and she was pretty sure one of the bus drivers said something about stopping in North Carolina by the coast for the next venue. So the ocean couldn’t be too far away.

“Hey Babe wait up,” she heard a voice called out from behind her.
Babe turned around and saw Pat running towards her. She smiled and called out to him, “Why the hell are you up this early?”

Pat finally caught up to Babe shrugged then simply stated, “Same reason as you. The bus jolted forward and woke me up.”

“Mhmm, makes sense. Well I am going to find the ocean,” Babe said looking around and finally spotting what looked like a dark black spot since it was still dark out.

Pat nodded, “I’ll come with you. We can watch the sunrise! Just like we used to back when you and that Olivia girl used to sleep over John’s with the rest of us guys.”

Babe smiled at the memory, “Only if we can mind a Micky D’s breakfast after and get egg McMuffin’s and spilt an order of hotcakes.”

“You had me at Micky D’s breakfast,” Pat said laying his hands on his chest in the shape of a heart, causing Babe to laugh as they walked forward. “Now there’s something we haven’t
heard a lot of lately,” Pat commented.

Babe looked at Pat confused, “What do you mean?”

“Well let’s see. Ever since the day we got you from the hospital you haven’t laughed at all that much and are barely smiling anymore. And I know the other guys haven’t noticed, but I have, that there’s something going on between you and John. Hell we always knew there was something between you two, but now I can tell something went wrong,” Pat admitted and shocked Babe. Babe had always thought of Pat as her slightly immature friend who was always good to give her a laugh. She never thought he could pick up on all of that.
Pat looked at her and laughed, “Don’t look at me like that. Just because I don’t say anything doesn’t mean I don’t pick up on it.”

“I never would of thought you’d be the one to pick up on all of that but it’s true,” Babe said as the finally made it to the beach. They both walked to the edge of the water and sat down.
Pat shook his head, “Yeah, yeah I know. You didn’t think I could be this ingenious with my devilishly handsome good looks?”

“No Pat it definitely isn’t,” Babe agreed smiling as the sun started to peak over the horizon.
“So Babe, tell me what’s going on,” Pat commanded more then asked. She sighed as she began telling the story.

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John woke up and looked around; both Pat and Babe were gone. Where the hell where they? Babe wouldn’t have left again would she? John shook those thoughts out of his head when he remembered that he was still angry with Babe.

And hearing her suddenly shot into the tour bus only made him get a worse
headache, “GUYS! Come get it, Pat and me got Micky D’s for all of you for breakfast.”

“YES,” Jared shouted running into the kitchenette.

John got up and followed Jared, the smell the breakfast was starting to spread and he was hungry. When he walked into the kitchenette he looked up at Babe, and she stared straight back at him. Like the kind of staring game you play when you’re little, seeing who would give in first. In this case it was Babe because Garrett came in and started talking to her.

Babe sat down at the table between Garrett and Pat and half listened to the conversation. She didn’t feel like she belonged on tour with them anymore. Actually, right now Babe would rather be anywhere but here because a pair of piercing green eyes kept looking up at her from across the table.

John, who was sitting between Jared and Kennedy, was also feeling the awkwardness. It wasn’t fair that Babe was SO beautiful. He hated waking up every morning knowing that Babe and him wouldn’t talk, or communicate in anyway. It was hard to act like your best friend just fall off the face of the planet one day. He knew he was supposed to be mad at her, but every time he looked at her he felt a little more heartbroken.

Babe got up and left the table. She practically ran into her bunk, she couldn’t be around John anymore without breaking down. She could only help but wonder if their fight was hurting him as much as it was hurting her. She turned on her laptop and starting going through old pictures and videos.

She smiled as she came across pictures of 1st grade John and her smiling at the camera showing off how they both had lost their two front teeth at the same time. Then there was another photo of them in the 3rd grade where they were holding a trophy because their paper airplane went the farthest of all the kids in the contest. Babe skipped a couple years, and found a picture of John and her smiling happily into the camera before their first day of high school; both of them were in the middle of their awkward stages. But looked completely happy together anyway. Then there were photos that Babe took the first time the guys had ever played in front of an audience. It was at Mary Miller’s party about 3 years ago, and they played in her back yard for only about 50ish kids of so. But they still looked like they had the time of their lives.

Babe looked at the time at the bottom of her computer and by the time she was done it was already mid-afternoon, she had to go set up the merch table and sell clothes to all the little teeny-boppers. But none of that was important now because she realized a way to get her best friend back.