Bis Die Zeit Uns Vergisst

I awoke the next morning by having my head slammed up against the wall.

“Shit!” I cursed, touching my head and groaning.

I heard someone laugh behind me and that caused me to get angrier.

“Shut up!” I hissed, throwing my pillow in their direction.

“Hey, hey now, Deanndra, you gotta be nice to the merchandise!”

Realizing where I was and who was talking to me, I jumped up in the bunk too quickly, cracking my head on the bunk above me.

“Oh my Buddha!” I wailed, holding my head.

Slowly and carefully, I stood up out of the bunk, pulling my blanket over myself. I was wearing pajamas, but having Tom around me while I was in black Sofee shorts and a white spaghetti strap top made me uncomfortable.

“It’s not funny!” I pouted at him, picking my pillow back up and whacking him in the stomach.

“Ooof! Hey! I surrender!” he said, clutching his stomach.

I stood there, weight shifted to one leg and hands holding the blanket around me.

“Are you naked under there?” Tom asked, wiggling his eyebrows at me once he had recovered.

“Do you really want to be hit again?” I questioned, glaring at him. “I have clothes on thank you very much.” I threw the blanket on my bunch to justify my clothing. “See?”

Tom looked at me and smirked, his brown eyes twinkling and moving from my face to my body. “I can see through your shirt.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m done here. If you wanna get on my good side, I advise you leave those types of comments to yourself.”

I turned around and wobbly made my way down the few steps to the front of the bus to find something to eat.

“Good morning sunshine!”

I laughed a little at them and ran my fingers through my hair. “Yeah…I guess. If any of you want to see your friend Tom live another day, you better teach him to leave his vulgar, sexist comments to himself. I really don’t like to be eye-raped.”

The bus took a sudden turn and I decided that it would be best if I just sat down. Georg and Gustav were playing some kind of video game while they sat on the couch. Bill was the only one who seemed to make sense to me because he was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of corn flakes and reading a magazine. I took a seat next to him.

“What’s this?” I asked, gesturing to the magazine.

“Oh, it’s just crap I picked up at the gas station last night,” he shrugged, showing me the article on Michael Jackson’s death that he was reading.

“Ah…well…can I have some of this?” I asked, picking up the box of corn flakes.

Bill looked up at me, connecting his makeup-less brown eyes to mine, then at the box of cereal. “Yeah…sure.”

He passed me a bowl and a carton of milk. I grimaced a little when I noticed that the milk was whole milk. After years of growing up in a health-freak family I had gotten accustomed to always drinking fat free skim milk. My stomach made a quiet growl and I decided to just go ahead and eat the cereal. I poured the corn flakes in the bowl and added the milk slowly so I wouldn’t spill it. I was in mid-bite when I noted the large print across the cereal box:
BILL’S DO NOT EAT.

“Bill’s actually letting you eat some of his cereal?” Tom questioned, joining us from the back
of the bus.

I shrugged my shoulder, deciding to be nice. “I…guess?”

“That’s not fair! Bill you never let me have any of it! Do you like Deanndra or something?” he said, taking a seat across from his brother and opening a bottle of water.

Bill looked up from his magazine and almost choked on his cereal. A second later, the table shook and Tom yelped.

“I do not,” Bill firmly stated, not meeting my gaze.

I raised my eyebrows and looked back and forth from them. They really looked a lot a like; same nose, eyes, eyebrow shape, mouth, ears. I frowned in thought. They were about the same age too. I watched as Bill picked up his coffee and Tom picked up his water and they drank simultaneously. It was freaky.

“Are you guys brothers?” I questioned, furrowing my brow.

They both looked at me, same expression on their face. I never wanted that to happen again. It was like seeing double but with different styles.

“We’re identical twins,” Bill spoke up, smiling. “Have you ever heard of Tokio Hotel before yesterday?”

I shook my head. “Sorry guys. I don’t know how you got passed me. I didn’t even know how much of fans my roommates, Illa and Jazlyn, were of you guys until I had to go in Jazlyn’s room to find my brush and Illa got so excited when I asked her to help me with my bags because she might would have a chance to see you…”

Bill smiled. “That’s great…well not great, but…it’s cool to finally meet someone who doesn’t know you for your fame…or even know you at all.”

I returned his smile. “I imagine it would be.”

Tom frowned. “It’s not when she’s abusing you with a pillow, that’s for sure!”

I turned to Tom. “Well stop being such a pig, and stop laughing at me when I get hurt and I will have no reason to abuse you!”

“I am not a pig! And who wouldn’t laugh when someone wakes up and whacks their head!”

“Any normal person would not make comments like you make and would try to help when they saw they got hurt!”

“Well, you know what--”

“OKAY YOU GUYS, COOL IT!” Gustav shouted, throwing his control down and pushing us apart.

I didn’t realize how close Tom and I were getting until Gustav shoved us back in out seats.
And to think, when I first met Gustav I thought he was a quiet guy…

“Sorry,” I mumbled, moving corn flakes around in my bowl with a spoon.

Tom didn’t say anything, or even look back at me for that matter. I inwardly rolled my eyes at him, already making up my mind that I didn’t like him too much.

“So…we’re passing the German boarder now into France,” Georg said, looking out the window from his paused video game and trying to lighten the mood.

I wasn’t too much impressed with the scenery outside. I had seen the same sight millions of times on my voyages to Paris for family vacation. The guys probably had too because none of them really seemed interested in looking out the window.

“Maybe I should start trying some sketches…” I said, my sentence trailing off.

I was on this tour for business, not for making personal relationships. Quietly, I stood up from my seat beside Bill and went back up the steps to the bunks. I dug around my bunk space for my purse where I had stowed my sketch book. When I couldn’t find it, I became frustrated. What did I do with it yesterday when we were packing? Bill had helped me put my things up, right? I was so exhausted last night that I couldn’t remember hardly anything.

“Bill?” I called.

“Yeah?”

I whipped around to go back and ask him, only to knock into him and fall. When I had started to fall, I had grabbed him to try to keep my balance, but only pulled him down with me. Bill laid sprawled on top of me, both of us in an awkward and uncomfortable position.

“Sorry,” I said, struggling to move out from under him.

“It’s okay.” Bill stood up and then extended his hand to me to help me up.

“Thanks.”

I smiled at him and a sudden blush rose to my cheeks.

“Did you need me?”

“Oh, yeah,” I laughed. “Where did we put my stuff last night? Or where’s my purse? I kinda need my sketchbook so I can start making some clothes.”

Bill smiled. “Yeah, I guess that would be important, huh? Um…I think we put it here.”

He walked down to the end of the bunk area and opened a cabinet. Without a second thought, he pulled out the black and red checkered purse and handed it to me.

“Wow. I feel dumb. Thanks,” I smiled, feeling the heated blush rise to my cheeks.

I took the purse from Bill and sat it on my bunk.

“You know something?” Bill asked, coming over to me. He put his hand on my cheek and gently stroked my face with his thumb. He dropped his voice to a whisper, “You’re really cute
when you blush.”

Scared and shocked, I turned my face from him abruptly and pulled my sketchbook out of my purse. I wasn’t too crazy about what had just happened. One, I didn’t even know the guy. Two, he was a client. Three, I had Travis. When I turned around to go down to the front of the bus, Bill was looking at his shoes.

“I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what made me do that.” He looked up at met my eyes. “We’re still cool though, right?” Bill laughed a little before continuing. “You’re not going to shun and beat me like you do my brother are you?”

I grinned at Bill. “You’re fine unless you start being all perverted.”

Bill returned my smile and waited for me to leave before he turned and climbed up into the bunk above mine. What was he doing? Surely he wasn’t going back to bed. But I really didn’t care about staying to find out.

I went back to where the rest of the guys were and sat between Georg and Gustav on the couch. I drew rough ideas while they played a video game and fought over who won. This was starting to take my mind off what had happened between Bill and me, but I found little satisfaction in it. What I really wanted to do was get off this stupid bus. Slowly, I found myself getting stir-crazy. I didn’t like half of the people I was forced to be on this bus with and it was all for a fashion line. Did I really like fashion enough to endure this? The question was silly and stupid. I loved fashion. It was my passion. I would have to endure this if I was going to have my dream job. How bad could these few little weeks be anyways?

“I don’t wanna lose my head today, but I know there’s something in the way. Maybe I made a big mistake last night when I left you alone with Chelsea…”

“Um, Deanndra, is this your phone?” Tom questioned, still sitting at the table, holding up an iPhone that was covered in a zebra print and hot pink star case.

My little five year old brother, Beau, had gotten me the case for Christmas with his own money. I didn’t particularly like it, but it kept my phone safe from scratches and it would crush him if I didn’t use it.

“Yeah. Thanks.” I stood up and went to Tom. I took my phone from him and answered it. “Hello?”

It was Ms. McCauley…and she didn’t sound too happy. What did I do this time? What had I forgotten?

“Deanndra, I gave you this task because I thought you were ready for it. Now I come in this morning and have Henri look all over the place for those notes you took at the Tresoné fashion show and they’re no where to be found! What have you done with them?”

Thankful for the fact that she couldn’t see me right now, I rolled my eyes and let out a silent sigh. Naturally, she was blaming me for everything. When I left her office yesterday, she was looking at them. How the hell was I supposed to know where she put them? I attempted to calm myself down before I spoke.

“Did you check your briefcase, Ms. McCauley?”

I heard some ruffling around and figured that she had her briefcase on her desk and was going through it.

“Ah! So that’s where you put them!” she exclaimed into the telephone, causing me to hold it away from my ear. “Don’t forget about your duties. I heard people laughing and playing in the background. You’re not there to have fun, you’re there to work. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Ms. McCauley,” I said in a bored voice.

“Very well, Deanndra, goodbye.”

I clicked “end” on my iPhone and laid it back on the table.

“She sounds like a real bitch,” Tom said, eyeing me.

I actually smiled at him. He wasn’t being perverted now and it seemed like I could have a legitimate conversation with him. “Um, yeah. You haven’t even heard the worst of it.”

“Why don’t you just quit?” Georg said, his eyes sill on the video game.

“Because I love fashion. She’s with the most popular fashion company in Berlin and it’s a huge opportunity for me. I’m sure you guys would understand about big opportunities since you’re musicians. Even if she is a bitch, it’s my only chance to make something of myself.”

Tom nodded in agreement. “You’re right. If I were you, not saying that I like fashion, but I would probably do the same as you are. I mean, like you said, that is how we got to be where we are. You can’t just throw that all away.”

I smiled at Tom. “You know, I think I’m starting to like you. Maybe I’ll give you another chance.”

Tom grinned at me and played with his lip ring. “How could you not? Everyone likes me.”
I rolled my eyes, playfully. “Don’t push it.”

Suddenly, the bus screeched to a halt and I was thrown down to the floor, sliding right into the refrigerator. Damn, did these guys not know how to drive or something? Tom looked out the window and sighed.

“We’re here…and I’m already getting nervous.”

Here we go…