I'll Find Somewhere To Lay My Blame The Day She Changes Her Last Name

Alone. An eerie and weird feeling, especially in this house.

That was the one thing about their house. You were guaranteed to never be alone. There was always someone popping in and out. But right now, Sunny knew that no one, at least anybody that she wanted to see, would be walking through that front door any time soon.

Gunner laid beside her chair on the kitchen floor with his head on his paws. His sad
demeanor indicated that he knew as well as Sunny that they'd been left behind. Ichabod
on the other hand had his face in his dog dish finishing up his breakfast. The fact that his
dad had left hadn't set in yet. It would though, as soon as night rolled around.

"What are we going to do for like a month guys?" Sunny spoke softly to the dogs but neither
one looked up at her.

A month. At least they weren't off on a headlining tour. Then they could be gone close to a
year.

With nothing else to do, Sunny finished up her cereal, did the dishes, cleaned the house up
a bit, took the dogs for a run on the beach, then returned to shower. Afterwards, she decided
there was no time like the present to go visit her parents, whom hadn't spoken to her since they saw the tabloid magazine cover.

She got dressed, did her make-up, then grabbed her sunglasses and keys off the kitchen counter before heading out the door, leaving the dgos watching her from the living room window.

***

The steady hum of the engine was almost melodic to the ears. And the consistant up and down motion was almost like flying. That was until the bus hit a bump in the road that was larger than normal. Rev nearly fell out of his bunk.

"Fuck," stretching his long legs out he braced his bare feet against the other end of the bunk and reached out, grabbing onto the top edge of his bunk to keep from falling.

Welcome to life on the road.

Once the initial shock of waking up that way had subsided he rolled over to discover Chelsey beingthe reason he almost fell out of bed. Her small body was nearly pressed right up against his. There was a good foot of empty bed space on the other side of her.

"Chels," he shook her and she groaned, "Chelsey, move over."

She rolled onto her back allowing him to move over a little, but he still didn't have too much room to comfortably go back to sleep. Not that he was sleeping well anyway. Lately, the last image running through his head before falling asleep, was of Sunny in her wedding dress, staring at him like he'd murdered the Devil himself.

Swinging his long legs over the edge of the bunk he jumped down, nearly landing on Zacky's arm, which was sticking out of his bunk.

"Jesus dude," Rev grabbed his arm and shoved it back into his bunk causing Zacky to open the curtain and glare at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked groggily.

"I just about broke your arm," Zacky pulled his bunk curtain closed again and Rev ran his fingers through his hair as he left the bunk area near the middle of the bus and headed to the vrey back which consisted of a few couches, TV, and playstation.

"Good morning Jimmy."

Jimmy stopped short and realized Casey was sitting at the end of one of the couches curled up in her PJ's and a blanket.

"Morning," he muttered, dropping down onto the couch opposite hers and stretching out.

She smiled over at him, "good sleep?"

"Fuck no," he groaned, "I've been in the same bunk as Chelsey for one night, and already
I wished she hadn't come."

Casey grinned and looked out one of the windows beside her, watching the passing scenery.

"I thought she was gonna stay home at first," Rev continued without her even having to ask
him to, "but then she went into this big ass speel about how, she trusted me on tour, she just didn't trust the other girls."

"Most girls feel that way."

"No," Rev shook his head, "she just didn't want Sunny and I to be on the same bus."

Though Casey was totally on Sunny's side. She could see Chelsey's point in this situation,
"can you blame her though Rev? I mean, I wouldn't want Syn and Michelle," she paused, "or Syn and Ruby...or Syn and Lisa stuck together on the same bus for a month," she started laughing when what she just said sank in, "jesus he's a bit of a man whore isn't he?"

Rev laughed and lifted his head off one of the pillows and looked over at her, "how are you and Syn?"

"Good," she smiled, "but that's not who we're talking about."

He laid his head back down and stared at the ceiling, "well, Sunny and I would have been fine."

"Would you have?" Casey was intruiged that Rev was willingly talking about this with someone in general, let alone her.

"Yeah, I mean, we're still friends."

Casey was silent too long for his liking, "what?" he asked.

"Well, it's just that friends, usually make an attempt to at least talk to each other. I mean, you
haven't talked to Sunny since you got married. And that was what, like a month ago?"

Harsh. But fair.

"So what, you think I should call her?"

Casey smiled softly, "if you still consider yourself friends. She's pretty sure you're mad as hell at her."

This time it was Rev's turn to be silent. Casey got up from the couch.

"Call her, she'll be glad to hear from you."

***

"So are you just going to putter around the house, and pretend that I'm not sitting here at your kitchen table?"

Sunny's mom was moving about the kitchen tidying it up. She hadn't spoken to her much at all since Sunny rang the doorbell. Her father unfortunately wasn't home, and neither was her brother. Two people who would have been a little more welcoming.

"Do you realize that you're an embarassment to this family?" she finally spoke, turning to face her, her hand on her hip, "you're auntie called me, horrified about that magazine. She was upset with Ashleigh, but even more upset with you!"

"Oh jesus, I can assure you it was a far more embarassing situation for me, than you!" Sunny snapped back.

Her mother's face turned bright red with anger, "if you don't stop using that language in this house, you can get out!"

Sighing in frustration Sunny crossed one leg over the other and simply stared at her mother. It wasn't worth getting into a fight over.

"Hey Sunny you here?"

Sunny snapped her head up when she heard the front door slam. Colt came around the corner from the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Oh, hey," his smile slowly faded as he saw his mother's expression.

"Where were you?" she asked him.

"Nathan's, he got a new car," Colt took a seat at the opposite end of the table, "what are you up to?" he directed his question at Sunny.

"Well, I came to talk to mom, but she doesn't seem to wanna talk to me, so I was just about ready to head out."

"Oh," he glanced between the two girls before looking at Sunny again, "hey, a few of us were thinking about taking a camping trip,"

She looked over her little brother curiously, "and?"

"I was wondering if I could maybe, borrow your truck."

"What's wrong with our car?" Mrs. Wilson leaned against the cupboards.

Colt rolled his eyes, "Well if we could fit everything into a car, we'd take Nathan's."

"So what am I suppose to drive if you take my truck?"

He leaned back in his chair, rocking it onto the two back legs, "Nate said you could hold his car hostage till we get back."

"And how long are you planning to be?"

"I didn't even say you could go yet."

Both children glanced up at their mother.

"Oh let him go out for once...," Sunny was interrupted by her favorite song.

Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost...

Snatching her cell off the table she glanced at the ID screen, furrowing her eyebrows together.

"Who is it?"

She flipped it open and pressed it to her ear, ignoring her brothers question for fear of Rev hanging up.

"Hello?"

It was silent for a moment, and her heart began beating faster, maybe he hung up after all.

"Hey."

A sense of relief flooded over her, before the anxiety returned again in full force. Why would
he call her?

"Hey, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

She got up from the table and headed outside, her barefeet hitting the warm pavement of the sidewalk, it certainly felt good to just hear his voice, "I just wasn't sure why you'd be calling me."

"I can't call a friend?"

She smiled even though he couldn't see her, "yeah, you can always call a friend."

It was their little round about way of telling each other that 'hey, everything's alright'.

"Good," he paused for a moment, "I ahhh, called the house but you weren't home."

"Yeah, I'm at my parents right now."

"Oh," another awkward pause, "how is that?" he asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Not good, as usual."

"What's the fight about this time?"

Sunny bit her lower lip, this was going to have to be discused sooner or later. She'd just always hoped it'd be later rather than sooner, "over that magazine cover," she said carefully, the last thing she wanted was to scare Jimmy away.

He grew silent for what Sunny feared was way too long. He was probably trying to find a way to end this conversation.

"Well, those tabloids never have their facts right and always blow things out of proportion."

She sat down on the cement steps at the front door of the house, "yeah," she said softly.

"Hey babe, who are you talkin to?"

Sunny's heart sank as she heard Chelsey's voice in the background.

"Hey listen Sunny..."

"You have to go?"

"Yeah," he sounded like he was about to hang up, "but I'll call you later, I promise."

The beep of the phone signaled that he'd hung up. She flipped her cell closed and held onto it tightly. She became the epitomey of the phrase, On the outside I look fine, but on the inside I am dying.