Smiling at Everything

The members of RxN and All Time Low stood outside of their buses, saying goodbye the friends and family members. Jazz kept a smile planted on her face as she watched her band mates. She didn't have anyone that she knew of showing up to bid her farewell for the tour. Her parents both had surgeries to attend to that morning; she had already talked to her students. There was no one who would end up walking into the parking lot and no one in the group of people she felt the need to get teary eyed over.

Jazz watched as Lestat's mother planted lipstick kisses on his cheek. She could never imagine her mother doing that. She would never want her mother to do that. It was comical watching Lestat's mother kiss her son's cheek and wail about how she would miss him; but Jazz would never want her mother to do that, drunk or not.

It was odd that she didn't want her parents to care more for her than they did, she could admit it. Most of the members of RxN grew up with different backgrounds, ones that made them closer to their parents than Jazz was to hers.

With the exception of Dorian. He wasn't on speaking terms with his father; he hadn't been since he came out. But he was still participating in the farewells. Joseph's parents were basically his parents since they took him in when his father kicked him out. Even though Joseph realized his sexuality and came out a good year after Dorian did, his parents didn't claim the eccentric bassist turned their son gay. They were the ones to push the two together after Joseph came out.

Regardless, everyone besides Jazz had someone who would miss them while they were gone for the two month tour, someone to cry with in the parking lot. She almost felt bad about it.

In her distraction, Jazz didn't hear a set of sneakers hitting against the pavement at an alarming pace. She didn't hear the boy running toward her yell her name. And she definitely didn't hear the boy's mother demanding he calm down. The rest of the members in the parking lot, on the other hand, did.

"Who's that?" Lestat asked, nodding his head in the direction of the young boy.

Jazz turned her head just in time to catch sight of a mess of black hair before a body collided with hers. She stumbled but didn't fall to the pavement, forcing herself to keep balanced as the boy remained attached to her midsection.

"Michael, what are you doing here?" Jazz asked.

"You said I could show up to see you before you go," Michael said.

"Don't you have school today?"

"You don't know that. It could be a holiday."

"Is this holiday National Michael Skips School Day?"

"No," he denied.

"Uh huh, how much convincing did it take to get your mom to let you skip school?"

She wasn't stupid. It was a Monday. There were no holidays that she knew of going on. Michael should have been in his fifth grade class, the one he complained about at many of their piano lessons.

"You don't even know the half of it. I made so many promises that I hope she forgets. I even ate my salad at dinner last night," Michael answered.

For some reason, that made Jazz feel a bit better. Michael, one of her students, took the time to convince his mother to let him see Jazz before she left for two months. There was no reason for it considering they would see each other over webcam twice a week for lessons. But, somewhere deep in his young heart, he felt the need to see her before she left. He might even miss her.

Though, Jazz knew that he had a mild crush on her.

"Sounds terrifying," Jazz joked.

"It was," Michael proclaimed.

Michael's mother finally made it across the parking to the group. She shot Michael a disapproving look, which he ignored. He was too busy hugging his piano instructor to care.

"I'm so sorry about this Jazz. He insisted that I let him miss school to come," Michael's mother said.

"It's fine, Mrs. Coors. Michael's no bother," Jazz said, smiling politely.

"Who's your friend, Jazz?" Lestat asked.

Jazz turned her head from Michael's mother, noticing most, if not all, of the group was staring at her and Michael. Their expressions were varying levels of confusion. Aside from Lestat and Dante; they were smirking, obviously prepared to tease Jazz at any moment about the young boy attached to her midsection.

"This is Michael. He's one of my piano students," Jazz introduced.

Michael pulled his face away from Jazz's body long enough to wave at the group and snuggled back into the underside of Jazz's chest. If he were just a couple of inches taller, his face would be at the same height as Jazz's natural made pillows.

"Student, huh? That's kind of kinky," Lestat commented.

"And illegal," Dante continued.

Jazz mentally groaned. They couldn't wait until they were on the bus to start this? Michael's mother was still in the vicinity. To top it off, they opened with that kind of remark. It was almost enough to make Jazz lash out at them.

Or send her into a series of unwanted memories.

"How old are you?" Lestat asked Michael.

Michael turned his head to face Lestat, keeping himself pressed to Jazz, "Ten."

"Jazz, that makes you a cougar."

"No wonder she never keeps any significant others her age," Dante said.

"Are you guys done?" Jazz asked.

"Not even close," Lestat responded.

When the opportunity arose, Dante and Lestat would pick on Jazz. They did the same thing to Dorian. It was a nice break from being serious a majority of the time. It's not like Dorian or Jazz ever minded; they normally had their own quick-witted responses to throw back at them.

"Oh man, Zack, that means you have competition now," Alex remarked.

"Shut up, Alex," Zack commanded.

He hoped Jazz didn't catch the comment. And, if she did, that she wouldn't think anything of it. There wasn't a member of All Time Low that didn't know about his crush on Jazz. They knew him better than most people and noticed his attraction to Jazz before he even noticed. He had a feeling the members of RxN were beginning to notice.

But he knew that Jazz wasn't aware. She couldn't know yet; he was still trying to crack her, trying to understand her. He would tell her in time. Alex didn't need to tell her for him.

"I put my money on Michael," Dorian said.

And, of course, Dorian was going to drag the matter out.

"Are you serious? Zack is at least two times his size," Arpeggio commented.

"But kids bite, cutie, and they're not nice when they do it," Jack said.

"Jack, he's ten. I think he's beyond the stage of biting people," Neon stated.

"Jack's still not beyond the stage of biting people," Rian mumbled.

"I bet Arpeggio would know that," Dorian said, smirking.

"Go make kissy face with Joseph," Arpeggio retaliated.

"While we're on the subject of kissy faces, I have one very important bus rule for you and Neon: no animalistic sexing on the bus."

Jazz's jaw dropped. Was Dorian not aware of the fact that a ten-year-old was standing there? She didn't doubt that Michael knew what Dorian said meant, but it was the principle of it. Things like that weren't supposed to be said around ten-year-olds and their mothers.

"I can't guarantee that I'll follow that rule," Alex said.

"I'll violently remove your baby maker with a pair of scissors," Dorian threatened.

"I'm so sorry about them, Mrs. Coors," Jazz said.

"Don't worry about it, Jazz," Michael's mother replied, smiling.

"You're friends are funny," Michael said, staring at the band members with admiration in his eyes.

He had been, amazingly enough, laughing along with her band mates as they conversed.

Jazz shook her head, still keeping a forced smile on her face. It was true; they didn't have as many serious moments as most people did. They took life in stride, living carefree. Even Arpeggio had become relaxed enough around everyone to let loose. They didn't worry about the past coming back to hurt them because they were over the situations that made them who they were for the most part.

Jazz just wished she could be like that naturally.