A Cherry Sunset

“Ollllliiiii.” I whined into Oliver’s shoulder as I tightened my arms around his neck, pressing him more against me.

“Emmmmmeh.” He whined back and then chuckled. I slapped his back playfully and hid my smile into his neck. “Wha’ was tha’ fer?”

“Fer mockin’ meh.” I was getting slightly better at imitating his accent. He laughed more as I pulled back some to look at him. “And laughing at me.” I glared, but it was all a show. Really I was just trying to keep myself from dwelling on what was really going on.

“I’m terribleh sorreh, Em.” He grinned and leaned down to rest his forehead on mine. “I promise teh neveh mock yeh again.”

I fidgeted with his shirt. “You’re not supposed to make promises you can’t keep.”

“’Ey,” Oliver whispered and brought his hands up to my face, making sure I looked him in the eyes. “Who says I can’t keep it?”

I smiled a little and kissed him softly. “You’re entire being says you can’t keep it.” We both chuckled as I returned to hugging the life out of him. Boarding for my flight was called over the intercom and I think we sighed simultaneously. “That’s my ride.” I joked drily as I pulled away from him.

Oliver still managed to keep a smile up as he ran his hand through my newly dyed bangs, pushing them away from my face. “I love yeh Emmeh an’ I’ll see yeh soon.”

My inside turned to mush. “I love you too, Oliver.” I grabbed my bag from our feet and hiked it up on my shoulder. He stepped closer to me, cupping my face again, and kissed me.

He kissed me for a long time. When we parted, we were both panting for air and he was smirking. “Call meh when yeh land.”

“Will do captian.” I smiled as I bravely stepped away from him, walking toward the gate entrance. I could clearly hear my heart beating in my ears as I glanced back at him. He stood there, hands in his pockets, black beanie covering most of his hair except for the few strays that curled out from under, jeans stuck to his legs. I kept smiling as I faced forward again and continued toward the plane. It wasn’t that sad of a goodbye, because in my head and in my heart I knew I’d be coming back.

I would come back to Oliver no matter the cost.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

I tossed my bag to the nearest bench I could find once I made it off the plane. My body was aching and my eyelids were extremely heavy. I pulled my phone out and called work to check on my ride to the tour busses. Jason answered of course and spent a good fifteen minutes making fun of me and Oliver until he finally told me that the newbie was in charge of picking me up.

I groaned as I hung up with him and dialed the number he’d given me that was supposed to belong to the newbie. “Hello?” I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly as I listened to the male voice.

“I swear to Jesus and God, Jason, if you fucking gave me your own number,” I inhaled and opened my eyes, shaking my head. “I’m just going to kill you. That’s it. I’ll fly over to New York right fucking now and murder your ass in that stupid apartment of yours, because guess what? I know where you keep the spare key. How do you feel about giving me the correct number now, jackass?”

There was silence on the other end and I frowned a bit. My temper was obviously shorter than usual. I opened my mouth to start apologizing when the male voice spoke again. “I’m sorry; you must have the wrong number. There’s no Jason here. This is Alan and this is my phone.”

“Alan?” I repeated and covered my face with one hand. “Please tell me you’re not the new employee for Skelanimals, Alan.”

“Um, I don’t think I have anything else to tell you, sweetheart.” I dropped my hand and frowned.

“Okay, I’m really sorry about yelling earlier, Alan. We work with some class A jerks who like to joke around and I really thought this was another joke. Go figure, it’s not.” I shook my head at how stupid I sounded. Great first impression, Em.

“Totally understandable. Is it safe to say though that this is Emily, my new tutor?” I giggled slightly at his use of the word tutor. At least he was kind and had a sense of humor.

“Yeah, that would be me, little Emily Hale. Are you on your way to the airport? Or,” I trailed off. I wasn’t really sure what the or situation would be here.

He laughed. “I’m actually here already. Me and the guys are in the Starbucks, beside the other restaurant things.”

“The guys?” I repeated as I picked my bag up reluctantly and started toward the small food court area of the airport.

“Well, after Michelle left I wasn’t really able to run things completely by myself so one of the bands on tour has been helping me out. They apparently know you and are super excited to see you again.”

My stomach turned slightly. “Cool. Uh, I’ll see you in the Starbucks in like two minutes, kay?”

“We’ll be right here, waiting for you, Em.” I smiled a little and said goodbye before hanging up. I hoisted my bag up higher on my shoulder and sighed before dialing Oliver’s number, placing my phone to my ear.

It didn’t even get a chance to ring, but instead went straight to voicemail. “Hey Oliver. Um, I suppose you’re not answering because it’s like two in the morning there. It’s only six in the evening here in Cali. I just landed and now I’m walking through the airport completely lost with a heavy bag on my shoulder. Oh, and I screamed at the newbie over the phone just a moment ago too. It was pretty embarrassing. I’ve prolly scared the poor kid for life now. This is going to be an interesting tour, I can already tell. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later. Love you, Oliver. Sweet dreams.” I giggled as I hung up and bit my bottom lip. I was definitely in over my head when it came to Oliver and this whole in love thing.

“Emily!” My head snapped to the shout and a grin formed on my face as I recognized both the voice and the faces coming toward me.

“Zack, Matt, Brian, and Johnny.” I clicked my tongue as they all started hugging me, one by one. “I should have known it was you mischief makers that had so kindly taken in my new kid.” I noticed the man standing slightly apart from us, yet close enough to make his presence known. I smiled wider as I stepped toward him. “You must be Alan.”

He grinned in return and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “You must be Emily.” He nodded toward me and then glanced at the guys. “The guys have been filling me in on how amazing you are.” I blushed and looked down. “In fact, practically everyone on tour has been just gushing about how they couldn’t wait for you to arrive. And I have to say, I’m not disappointed.” He chuckled and my cheeks burned even more.

Matt shoved him slightly, jokingly. “Man, we told you not to hit on her.” He rolled his eyes and smiled innocently at me. “I swear, we warned him, Em.”

“I wasn’t hitting on her!” Alan quickly defended himself as his eyes widened. “I just meant, you are all they’ve talked you up to be. You’re beautiful, witty, kind, though you did yell at me earlier.” I frowned and ran my hand through my hair.

“I am really sorry about that.”

Zack arched his eyebrows. “Emily Hale raised her voice? Since when?” He chuckled a bit and I rolled my eyes again.

“Yeah, the summer really changed me.” I noted dryly and folded my arms as Johnny put his arm around my shoulders.

“Am I sensing some kind of tension, Em?” Johnny rested his head on top of mine as the rest of the guys snickered. I pouted for a moment but then grinned.

“Actually, there is tension. You guys ruined my vacation with my boyfriend.” The four musicians’ eyes’ widened and mouths dropped while Alan’s eyebrows furrowed together.

“I thought you like, didn’t date, or something.” He scrunched his nose up too and I giggled slightly.

“I used to not date on tour.” I agreed with him and then blushed a little. “However, on this last tour, I sort of met my match, in a way.” I shrugged and Brian shook his head to shake the trance he was in.

“Are you fucking serious?” Brian startled me with his cursing. “You met a guy, on tour, and now you’re dating him?” I nodded slowly and he frowned. “Well damn, who is the lucky guy?”

“Uh,” I hesitated as they all looked at me so expectantly. “You guys probably don’t know him; he’s not even from here.” I tried laughing it off but it sounded so fake.

“Emily?” Zack raised his eyebrows and I pouted.

“His name is Oliver Sykes. He’s the front man for Bring Me The Horizon.”

“Holy shit; you’re dating Oli Sykes?” Alan exclaimed and then whistled. “I’m impressed.”

“Isn’t he like … a giant douche?” Matt spoke up and I rolled my eyes again. I really thought I was past the whole ‘Oli is an ass’ thing.

“No, he’s not. Oliver is a sweetheart and I love him. There, everyone happy now? Any more digs you want to take on me or my boyfriend?” I placed my hands on my hips, making Johnny’s arm fall from around me. “Well?”

“Calm down, Em.” Zack smirked. “We’re only looking out for you.” He winked.

I smiled back at all the boys. “I appreciate it, but I don’t need it. Oliver’s good to me.” Matt made a face which I promptly ignored. “Now, how are we getting to the tour? And where’s the merch van, Alan?” Once I forced myself to stop thinking about Oliver, there were a million things about work that suddenly crossed my mind.

“Uh, the van is kind of attached to their tour bus.” Alan had a sheepish look as he ruffled his hair. “I wasn’t really able to drive the van and work merch by myself.”

“That’s okay. You’ll generally always have a partner when you go on tour. It helps with the driving. As for merch, well, we’ll get to that later.” I dismissed the actual work for later and stared at the boys just as oddly as they had been staring at me practically since I’d walked up to them. “So are you guys going to carry my bag and lead me to the freaking bus already? I’m tired as shit.”

Brian laughed. “Jesus, Emily. When did you start cursing like a sailor?” He easily took my bag from me and held it like it was lighter than a feather.

“I’m constantly surrounded by potty mouths. It had to rub off eventually.” I shrugged and massaged my shoulder a bit as we slowly started to walk toward the exit.

“You’re like a completely different person.” I elbowed Matt’s side at his comment and slightly glared at him, making him chuckle. “Well, almost.”