A Cherry Sunset

“So, this is how things are supposed to go?” Alan mumbled as he glanced around. We were sitting in lawn chairs, set up behind our table in a large arena. I was glad we were at an inside venue for a day. My shoulders were starting to get slightly sunburned and I was so tired of always sweating under the tent. Gates had only just opened about an hour ago and most of the kids were flocking toward the stage at the front of the arena.

I slid my sunglasses on top of my head and looked around with him. “Pretty much. Though, I will warn you that this seems to be a slow day. Usually you’ve got a steady stream of people coming up. Generally, when you inside like this, you won’t see too many people. The venue’s too big and people are too lazy to walk to the back and then up to the stage more than once.”

“That’s a little pathetic.” Alan chuckled and I agreed with him. “You’d think it’d be the other way around too. Like, when it’s outside you don’t want to use as much energy.”

“Don’t try to predict what people’ll do. It gets you nowhere.” I smirked as my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and read the new text message from Alex. I snickered at his ridiculous joke and quickly typed a reply.

“This is really nice. Thanks for coming to help me out, Em.” Alan went soft and I grinned at him, lightly giving him a high five.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s all a part of the job.”

“No, it’s not. You left your new boyfriend that you’re obviously in love with, left fucking England, to come and tour with a stupid idiot who doesn’t know a damn thing about how to do this job correctly.” I frowned at Alan’s description. “This is more than just a job to you. I’m fucking insane for being here.”

“You’ve got it all backwards, Alan.” I shook my head and sighed. “In all honesty, I don’t like this job.” His eyebrows rose. “I mean, the company is great. You’ll see as you go on more tours that you make some of the most unique and amazing people. Rockstars literally become your best friends. But then you’re never home. It’s like you have the lifestyle of a rockstar, without the joy of touching hearts through music. We sell merch to kids and few adults. It’s a weird balance.”

“How long have you been working for Skelanimals?”

“Uh …. Four or five years? I think. It’s been awhile.” I shrugged and he smiled a little.

“So it seems more like you’re ready for a change. Something that has more of a meaning.” He continued to grin as my eyebrows furrowed together. “It’s only natural to want change, Em.”

“You know,” I started and then bit my bottom lip. “You’re the second person to tell me that. And I’ve only admitted those feelings to one other person.” I thought about when I’d confessed my feelings to Oliver about my job. He’d encouraged me to find something I loved, like drawing, and to pursue that.

“I do have some brains.” Alan chuckled as he adjusted the hat on his head.

I giggled. “What I meant was thanks. I think I might enjoy this tour as long as you stick around.”

“Well, I ain’t going nowhere darlin’.” He smirked and winked at me, putting me into a good fit of giggles.

“Is that a southern drawl I detect?”

“Yep, born and raised all my life in a small hick town down in Florida. All I wanted in life was to get out of there.” His smirk turned into a small, sad smile. “I didn’t want to leave everything I did, but the town was killing me bit by bit.”

“I’m from here.” I didn’t usually just pour my life story out to people, but the forlorn look on Alan’s face made my heart dip a bit. “My folks struggled financially and fell out of love with each other and me because of it. The real final straw was when I ditched college to come tour with stinky boys. That’s kind of when they disowned me.”

Alan’s frown deepened. “That’s awful. Family’s supposed to support you no matter what.”

I shrugged it off, lowering my glasses to my eyes again. “I was a mess about all of it until I met Oliver.”

“That’s your boy, right?” He was back to smirking while I was blushing. I simply nodded and bit my bottom lip. “Everyone seems so shocked that you have a boy.”

“I guess I expected that.”

“They made you sound like you had taken vows or something to never even talk to a guy in a romantic way.” I cracked up at that and he laughed with me.

“I was a bit ridiculous and adamant.” I admitted as a boy around the age of sixteen came up to the table. I stood and talked to him for a bit as he bought a sweater and took some free stickers. It wasn’t until I sat back down that I sighed and continued our conversation. “I refused to let boys take me out. I got lots of offers, for relationships and just for dates, but I turned them all down. My motto was no dating on tour.”

“That’s got to hurt your personal life.” Alan made a face. “I mean, you did tour all the time.”

“I told everybody and myself that I didn’t want to stir the drama, you know? Get hurt or hurt somebody and then have to live the next four months in tight quarters with them.” I rolled my eyes at my own stupid ideas. “That was a lie.”

“Oliver made you see that?”

I smiled a little. “Actually, my grandmother helped me see that, along with Oliver. I kind of built walls around myself and whatnot because of my folks. But somehow Oliver slipped through the walls and helped me open my heart.” It all sounded way too gushy, but I was starting to get used to being mushy gushy when Oliver was around or just in the topic.

“You know you’ve got something special, right?” Alan arched one eyebrow and I couldn’t help but blush for the tenth or so time.

“Yeah, I do.” I grinned. “Oliver’s the best.” I added under my breath as I noticed a figure coming toward us. He had a hat on and sunglasses and a red hoodie. I smirked as I recognized the figure to be none other than Johnny. “What are you doing out here?” I teased as he quickly hopped over the table and ducked down so he wasn’t noticeable from the other side.

Only once he was safely hidden under the table did he take his hat and sunglasses off. “Are you not happy to see me?” He faked horror and exaggerated heavy breathing. “After I just risked my life,”

“Oh, shut up Johnny.” I lightly kicked his leg and then smirked. “It’s not like these girls would kill you. They’d just tear your clothes off and maybe kiss you a bit.”

He fake glared. “And to think, I was actually going to invite you to our all boys night out.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Right, because hanging out with a bunch of boys is exactly what I want to do after working all day.” I sarcastically remarked and grinned as Johnny rolled his eyes. Alan was still chuckling as he stood up to help a customer.

“You used to love going out on boys night!” Johnny exclaimed a little too loud, making the young girl perk up on the other side of the table. Her eyes widened and quickly darted from Alan to me and back a few times. I arched my eyebrows at Johnny and he rolled his again before muttering an “Oh, crap.” Then he stood up and turned an awfully charming smile toward the girl.

I giggled as my phone vibrated again and I quickly read the new text from Alex. He was complaining about something Jack was doing, to which I responded with a ‘stand up for yourself, pansy’ but just as I sent the message, my phone vibrated again. I frowned slightly in confusion as I went to open the other text, but then my cheeks started to burn.

“Now that has got to be sweet little Oliver, right?” Alan’s words made me bite my bottom lip. I nodded by kept my eyes on my phone as I texted Oliver back. “Man, he makes you blush like a tomato.” Alan chuckled some more as he took his seat again.

“I think the guys and I need to have a talk with Oli.” Johnny crossed his arms as he turned around to face us. I hadn’t even noticed that the small girl had left already.

“And talk about what?” I asked cautiously as I closed my phone and placed it in my lap. This sounded highly peculiar.

“Uh, how to treat a woman the right way. And more specifically, how to treat our Emily the right way.” My mouth fell open as Alan snorted.

“Your Emily? Like you have a claim on me or something?” My voice even raised a couple octaves, making Alan full on laugh out loud.

“Well, sort of.”

“Sort of?” I repeated and opened my mouth to start my defense, but my phone vibrated again. I could tell by the way it vibrated that it was someone calling me and my mouth turned into a silly grin when Oliver’s name blinked across the screen. “I’ll be back in just a sec.” I was mostly talking to Alan as I hurriedly stood and dashed out of the tent to answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Yeh sound surprised, like yeh were expectin’ someone else.” I melted to goo at the sound of his voice. It took a few seconds to reign in the hormonal girly teen in me.

“I wasn’t expecting at all, which why I’m surprised.”

“So ‘s not normal fer meh teh ring up meh pretteh girlfriend when she’s on tour wit’ lotsa otheh men?” I giggled at that one.

“Don’t you go getting jealous on me now; I’m still trying to adjust to the distance.” He chuckled too.

“’S difficult …. An’ differen’.”

“I miss you.” I closed my eyes and groaned inwardly. It was like the second Oliver and I said I love you, my guard on my mouth went out the door. Anything I thought in my head just got blurted out.

Oliver sighed heavily on the other side. “I miss yeh too, Em.” There was a long pause where I just listened to him breath and imagined him in front of me. “When is yeh tour oveh?”

“Uh, I think there’s about two weeks left, maybe a little less.”

“’S not too bad.” He chuckled. “Yeh’ll be back teh ‘avin’ Dee tease yeh in no time.”

“As long as you’re there to save me from her crazy antics.” I beamed as I let my head fall back.

“Always, Emileh.”

“I love you.”

“I love yeh too, a lot.”

I giggled and finally opened my eyes. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“Sittin’ in meh empteh apartment.”

“Lonely and bored?”

“Pretteh much. ‘S not the same without yeh ‘ere.”

“Well aren’t you just being oh so adorable. You’re going to play video games with Tom and Jonas later, aren’t you?”

He laughed. “Yeh know meh through an’ through now, eh?”

“I’d like to think so.” I beamed as I glanced over at the merch tent that was only about thirty or so feet away. Both Alan and Johnny had their heads poking out of the side. My smile fell a little. “I’ve got to get back to work, doll.”

“Yeah, I know. I jus’ wanted teh ‘ear yeh voice an’ ‘ear ‘ow yeh’re doin’.” Butterflies flew around my insides fiercely.

“I’m sticky and tired and so ready to come home.” I groaned and then bit my bottom lip. Jesus, Emily. Can you say anything not embarrassing.

“’Ome’s readeh fer yeh when yeh get ‘ere.” The butterflies erupted and made me warm from head to toe.

“All right, I’ll talk to you later, Oli.”

“Love yeh, Em.”

I sighed, torn between delight and misery. “Love you too, Oliver.” I pulled the phone from my ear and hung it up, seeing a text that Alex had sent me a while ago. I ignored the text for now and headed back to the tent. The boys were pretending as if they hadn’t been staring at me just moments ago.

“So, Em … about boys’ night,” Johnny started as I plopped back down in my chair.

“I’m in.” I wasn’t up for a fight and honestly, the night out would probably help get my mind off how much I missed Oliver.

“Really?” Johnny raised his eyebrows and gave me a nervous look. I shrugged back at him. “Well, cool. I’ll go let the guys know.” He gave an uneasy smile and wave before walking away in his semi noticeable disguise.

“You okay, Em?” Alan broke the deadly silence after five minutes. I exhaled loudly and chewed on my bottom lip as I contemplated an answer. “Is Oliver okay?” He sounded a little more worried after my pause.

“Oliver’s fine. It’s just,” I stopped and fidgeted a bit. “I just miss him.”

Alan started nodding immediately. “Gotcha.” He frowned and laced his fingers on his chest. “I actually have some experience in that field.”

“Really?” He laughed.

“Don’t act so surprised, Emily. I have dated a few girls.” I laughed a little too and shook my head as another kid came up to the counter. I stood up and went to take care of her. “I’m here if you ever want to talk about it though, Em. I know what you’re feeling.”

I gave him a small smile before turning to the girl. His words were encouraging, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to talk about my ‘feelings’ when I wasn’t even sure what those feelings were just yet. I only knew that I missed Oliver and it hurt to miss him sometimes.