So Easy To Love

Ian Sykes was the perfect combination of both of his boys. Or better yet, both Oliver and Tom had Ian’s best traits evenly distributed to them. I had liked him the first time I had met him and oddly enough he felt the same. He had told me from the very beginning he wanted me as a daughter in-law, and if that either of his boys were smart enough to marry me it would be the happiest day of his life. I always found it odd, but I think he liked the fact I kept them both in order without making them completely miserable. I may have been a bit of a freak when it came to getting things done, and I may not have been a party animal, but I wasn't a pain in the ass.

"Blair, yeh get better wiff age. Like a fine wine," Ian told me after he had engulfed me in a huge bear hug. And predictable me blushed and thanked him sheepishly. "No ring on yeh finger yet?!" He asked, grabbing my left hand and inspecting it carefully. "I can' believe it."

"I'm too young to get married," I told him.

"But yeh neva too young ta fall in love," he pointed out.

Sometimes I wondered if Ian knew about how I felt for his eldest son. He had hinted at it on several occasions, but had also made references to Tom as well. But still, there was always a small glimmer in his eye when he mentioned Oliver and I. It made me quite nervous if I'm being honest. Ian had the label of being a fairly big loudmouth and if he did know something I just hoped he could keep his mouth shut.

"That's true," I nodded, another blush spreading across my cheeks.

"Blair is in love," Oliver said, throwing his arm around my shoulders as he walked up behind me.

For a brief few seconds, my whole world slowed down. I almost felt like I had before I passed out, only much less intense. I thought this was going to be it. This was the moment Oliver found out that I loved him and then I would never hear the end of it. I would be made fun of constantly and eventually I would just have to stop touring and leave because it would all be too much. It wasn't so much like the movies, where time slowed down. It was more like the whole world got quiet for a few moments and the sun flickered and all I could hear was my heart pounding against my chest."Wiff this Josh bloke," he finally added.

I almost let out a sigh of relief but when I realized what he had said, I started to panic all over again. Was he really still going on about Josh and I? I had told him countless times we were just friends, why hadn't he got it yet? Did he really think I had been lying to him this whole time? Surely he wasn't being serious right now.

"Josh, aye?" Ian snorted. "Who's 'e?"

"'e sings in a band," Oliver explained to his father.

"Original," he muttered.

"'nd 'e's from Weybridge."

"Yeh 'nd the Brits, eh?" Ian nudged me softly and I hid my face behind my hands.

"Okay, I need to go...away. I need to do stuff. I'll see you later Ian," I kissed his cheek quickly and scurried off the bus, immediately slammed right into Matt Nicholls' chest. He steadied me by placing both of his hands on my shoulders and then he sent me a small smile, leaning his head down slightly to my height.

"'re yeh okay, Blair?" He asked me.

"I'm just...frazzled," I admitted, tugging lightly on my dark red roots.

"Yeh look it," he laughed lightly. "Jus' relax, why don't yeh."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I lowered my gaze. He and I both knew that was next to impossible for me to do. Asking me to relax was like asking the sky to stop being blue, like expecting it not to rain in England, like Oliver actually loving me back- it just wasn't gonna happen.

"Seriously?" I asked him.

"Jus' calm down. Yeh gonna end up back at tha clinic, an' we all know 'ow much yeh like tha' place," he grinned.

"I should probably just live in a mental institution anyway," I rolled my eyes.

"Aye! Yeh can't 'elp us from there!" He exclaimed. "Yeh have ta jus' stay sane for taday, alrigh'? Can yeh do tha' fer meh?" Matt asked, placing his hands back on my shoulders and squeezing them lightly. I nodded begrudgingly and he simply let out a small laugh and ruffled my already messy red hair. I let out a long sigh and then raked my own fingers through my air before slowly making my way to the merch tents. Tom and Flip were each sitting in each of their respective tents, both with their feet up on the table, and their chairs titled backwards. I walked under the Drop Dead tent where Tom was set up and sat on the table facing him, his feet propped up right next to me.

"One of you is gonna fall," I stated simply.

"Hopefully it's Tom," Flip replied, a smug look of his face.

"Ha ha ha," Tom rolled his eyes seemingly aggravated. "More people would care if I fell," he said.

"Don't get your hopes up," Flip shot back jokingly.

"Can you two just stop?" I asked irritably.

"Was my Dad naggin' yeh again?" Tom asked, a small smile playing his lips. "'e talkin' 'bout yeh marryin' one of us?"

"I don't know why he would want me to have to settle for either one of you," I grumbled, kicking my feet back and forth lamely.

"We all know tha's a lie," Tom smirked. "Or at leas' I do. Yeh would love ta marry Oli."

"Shut up," I scolded him, my face heating up as I sent him a swift kick to the shin.

"Didja 'ear my Dad's gonna be singin' Football Season wiff tha band?" He asked, switching subjects quickly. That was one thing I liked about Tom. As much as he liked to nag me about Oliver, he always respected my wishes when I asked him to stop.

"Seriously?" I asked, both of my eyebrows shooting up. "Nobody told me."

"Well Tom's tellin’ yeh now."

If my anxiety was a fraction worse than it already was, Oliver would have sent me into cardiac arrest a long time ago. He had a nasty habit of sneaking up on me and nearly causing me a panic attack. Sometimes I wondered if he did it on purpose, or if he simply forgot I had a serious medical problem. I grabbed my chest quickly and embarrassingly enough, my eye started to twitch. Oliver noticed his as he walked around to stand in front of me and smiled widely, making me melt.

"Sorry Twitchy," he grinned. "I forget, yeh know?"

"It's alright," I nodded slowly as I did my breathing technique to slow my heart rate down.

"So is that okay then?" He asked. "My Dad singin' wiff us?"

"Yeah, of course it's fine," I said. "I don't make your set list."

"I know, but I dun want the change ta make yeh nervous, or whateva," he shrugged, placing his hands in his back pockets.

"Oh," I blushed. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem," he nodded. We were all quiet for a few moments, and I tried to avoid the fact that Tom's electric blue eyes were focused on me and he was smirking like mad. It just made me blush even more and I quickly pinched the skin above his ankle to get him to stop. "Yeh wanna go on a walk wiff me?" Oli asked, his hazel eyes trained on me. "We could go see Parkway Drive or sumfhing," he shrugged lamely. I perked up immediately and hopped off the table and onto my feet.

"Sure," I smiled widely.

"Brilliant."

As we walked together I stole quick glances at him. He was wearing the Bulls jersey he had made famous during Warped and a pair of dark skinnies with a hole in the knee. The bottom of his dark hair was curled slightly and he had a few days worth of stubble on his chin. I tried hard to hide the smile that so desperately wanted to creep onto my lips as I looked at him. It was hard to deny how gorgeous he really was, and it was even harder to ignore how giddy I got whenever I took the time to really look at him. During the first half of our walk across Warped we were both silent and it was nice to just be comfortable in our silence. It was nice to know that it didn't have to be awkward when we didn't speak; that we were comfortable enough with each other that words weren't necessary. After he was stopped for a picture with a few fans though, he began to talk.

"I'm sorry if I made yeh feel weird earlier," he apologized. I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at him, confusion smeared across my face. He seemed to notice too, and continued on. "Yeh know, when I told 'm 'bout Josh."

I nodded once and made an "o" shape with my mouth, not exactly sure what I was supposed to say. His endless ability to read people's feelings had yet to fail him, and it seemed that he easily picked up on why my exit was so hasty before. Even if he wasn't exactly sure why I had left, he seemed to know I wasn't very happy with his admission to his father about my love life, or at least, his perception of my love life.

"I told you Josh and I are just friends a million times, Oliver," I told him quietly. He kept his eyes forward as we kept walking, his face tilted upward slightly. I crossed my arms over my chest and began to chew on my lower lip out of nervous habit. We were almost at the stage.

"Yeh don't 'ave ta lie ta me Twitch," he said flatly. "I know yeh two spend quite a lot of time together."

"That doesn't mean we're dating, or that I'm in love with him," I stressed.

"Then why aren't yeh datin' 'm?" He almost snapped at me, turning to look at me quickly before looking forward again. I was a bit put off by both his question and the way he delievered it, but mostly just confused. Why was he pushing this on me?

"I dunno," I shrugged. "I just don't feel that way."

"But 'e's such a nice guy," Oliver pressed on. "e'd be good for yeh, Blair."

I shook my head as I watched my feet as we continued to walk. This was the last thing I could possibly want; the boy I loved telling me how good someone else was for me. It was fucking horrible, and it honestly made me want to cry. I wasn't good at things like this. When it came to how I felt about Oliver and how he didn't love me back, I had almost gotten used to it. And I was used to watching him date and fuck other girls. But now it was like he was purposely pushing me away from him, like he was trying to tell me something. And that was something I couldn't deal with.

"No he wouldn't," I said in a small voice.

"Jus' give 'm a fuckin' chance, will yeh Blair?!" He yelled. I stopped walking then, my arms still crossed over my chest and my dark eyes wide as I walked Oliver continue to walk, either unfazed by the fact I had stopped walking or unaware of it. Either way it took him a good seven feet to notice I was no longer beside him. When he turned around to see where I was, he lifted his arms up slightly and then let them fall back down to his side with a low groan. "Yeh can’t be serious," he mumbled. "Why 're yeh bein' such a bitch about this?" He asked.

My eyes went wider and I felt the sting in the back of my eyes. I refused to let them fall though. I didn't want Oliver to know he was capable of making me cry, or that he had before. Oliver had never even jokingly called me a bitch before; he had never spoken to me in any derogatory way before at all actually. And hearing him call me a bitch just sent me over the edge. I turned around on my heel quickly and hastily walked back to the bus.

I just wasn't a strong person. I wasn't good at dealing with emotions. And I wasn't good at dealing with boys. I was much for fragile when it came to my emotions and things that normal people would let roll off their back kept me up for days and easily reduced me to tears. Hearing Oliver call me a bitch did just that and when I finally climbed the steps to the bus, Matt Kean and Ian were the only ones there, watching something on TV and sipping a few beers.

"Wha's tha matta, love?" Kean asked me carefully, being the first of the pair to notice my tears. He immediately stood and placed his beer on the ground, walking over and quickly doing his best to wipe my tears away.

"It's nothing," I tried to say, lightly pushing his calloused hands away from my face. He narrowed his eyes at me and gently guided me to the couch he and Ian had been sitting on. He placed me down right in-between them and wrapped his arm around my waist lovingly. I swear, that boy didn't have a bad bone in his body.

"I've only seen yeh cry twice before," he told me. "An' once was because Curtis accidently knocked yeh in tha nose wiff 'is elbow an' yeh eyes started ta water," he told me with a chuckle. A small laugh escaped my own lips as I wiped my tears away and recalled the memory. "So wha's wrong? An' don't yeh say nofhing," he advised.

"Oliver was just being really difficult," I said. I didn't want to tell anyone Oliver had called me a bitch because I didn't want them to overreact. Although I was the same age as most of the guys, they all looked at me like a little sister and protected me like one too. The last thing I wanted, or needed, was for the boys to be angry with each other. So as for now, I decided to keep my mouth shut about the name calling. Until I told Tom, perhaps.

"Don't yeh tell me my son was bein' an arse ta yeh," Ian's voice was soft as he spoke to me. "'Cause I 'ave a righ' mind ta kick 'is skinny ass inta next week."

"No," I shook my head furiously. "It's fine."

"Makin' yeh cry is not fine, Blair," he told me.

"Just forget I said anything!" I said quickly, standing up and wiped my face feverishly. "See, I'm fine," I smiled widely and straightened out my shirt. "I was just overreacting. I gotta get to the stage now. Make sure you're both there in a half hour, alright?" I said, my words all rushed together. I hurriedly gathered my things from the kitchen table, pushed a pair of Ray bans over my now puffy eyes and exited the bus before I was asked anymore questions.

I was trying to avoid the conflict as much as possible before everything exploded, but when you live on a tiny tour bus with too many people that's easier said than done.