Love Is Hell

It was a quiet day on the bus which was unusual.

I woke up only a few hours ago and everyone was already up. When I walked into the front of the bus everyone was doing their own thing. Jared and Pat were eating, John and Kennedy were playing cards, and Garrett was on his laptop. Quite confused about the unnatural quietness I decided to take advantage of the moment and read one of the two books that I brought with me. I never got the chance to start them because there were always numerous distractions going on.

I was sitting on the couch with my back against the arm rest while Garrett was sitting on the other end of the couch. We didn’t talk, but I would occasionally steal a glance in his direction. His hair was messier than usual and he was wearing his glasses. I’m pretty sure he was still wearing his pajamas too. He definitely was not dressed to impress today however, I still found myself staring at him, probably longer than I should be.

We haven’t really talked since the other night. I couldn’t help but feel like things were awkward between us now. I didn’t really know why, but it definitely was bad timing since I finally just realized my feelings for him.

“So!” I finally exclaimed, breaking the silence.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and glanced at me.

“What are we doing today?” I asked.

Everyone just shrugged.

“You’re looking at today’s activities.” Jared replied.

“Is today a driving day?” I asked.

“No, we should be in Seattle soon, but it’s our day off so we were just going to hang out in the hotel today.” John explained.

I sighed. I was all for relaxing, but I was itching to get off the bus today and do something. It probably was just me, but there was definitely too much tension between Garrett and me for me to handle in such a small space.

I decided to get out of my pajamas and get dressed anyways. If they didn’t want to go out that didn’t mean I couldn’t. The fact that I’ve never been to Seattle and had no idea where anything was could be problematic, but I just wouldn’t go too far from the hotel I guess.

While the guys continued to lounge around I grabbed some clothes and quickly changed. I
noticed that I was beginning to run low on clothing and made a mental note to find a decent clothing store.

After changing into my outfit and quickly doing my makeup I made my way back out into the front of the bus. As I looked around I realized that the bus was beginning to look like a mess. I decided to take it upon myself and do a little cleaning. Anything to prevent me from sitting around all day doing nothing but dwell of the fact that Garrett was avoiding me.

I began picking up random trash that never made it in the garbage and cleaned some dishes. I started gathering random clothes that were lying around the room when Kennedy looked over at me.

“What are you doing Lo?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Cleaning.”

“Yeah, we see that,” John said, “But why?” he asked, like it was one of the weirdest
things he’s ever witnessed.

“Because this bus is a mess and I am a girl and can’t take it anymore.” I explained as I scrunched my face in disgust when I lifted a pillow on the couch and discovered a pair of boxers.

“So you’re going to clean for us?” Kennedy asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded as I threw the boxers into a basket that was already full of the other dirty clothes, “Someone has to.”

John chuckled, “We should have you on all our tours,” he looked over at Garrett, “Good job finding this girl Garrett.”

Garrett glanced up from his laptop and rolled his eyes at John. I giggled and he looked over at me. We made eye contact for a second before he glanced back down at his computer.

I sighed quietly in frustration.

“We almost there yet Leon?” I called out. I needed to get off this bus.

The bus coming to a halt answered my question instead.

“We’re here!” Leon replied.

“Finally,” I mumbled as I grabbed my duffle bag from my bunk. Everyone grabbed their stuff and we made our way off the bus and into the hotel lobby.

We waited for Tim to check us in and get our room keys. After we all settled room arrangements we made our way to the second floor to our rooms. Kennedy and I were rooming together while John and Jared were in the room next to us and Garrett and Pat were across from us.

We made it to our rooms and I eagerly slid the key into the slot, unlocking our room. I pushed the door opened and walked inside with Kennedy following behind me.

“I call the bed by the window!” I exclaimed as I threw my bags on the farthest bed and jumped on top of it.

“Then I guess I call the bed next to the bathroom.” He chuckled as he set his stuff on the floor near his bed.

“So are you really going to laze around in the hotel room all day?” I asked as I opened the curtains that were covering the windows.

It was a nice and sunny day out with a clear blue sky. I’ve never been to Seattle before, but knew enough that when there was a sunny day in Seattle you should definitely take advantage of it, not sit in a hotel room all day.

Kennedy shrugged, “I mean why not? It’s one of the few days where we actually have off from everything. No shows, no interviews, nothing. What better way to take advantage of that then to sit around and do nothing?”

I shrugged casually and walked over towards him, “Oh, I don’t know, how about showing me around Seattle? You did promise me you would show me around on tour.” I pointed out.

He sighed, “I did tell you that didn’t I?”

I nodded, smirking.

He looked at me for a minute and then groaned in defeat, “Fine!”

I smiled, “Yay!”

“But!” he held up a finger, “We’re not going to do anything strenuous or something that involves a lot of walking.”

I shrugged, “Yeah, fine. Honestly, I just want to get out of the hotel. We can just go eat or something.” I suggested.

Kennedy mulled it over, “Yeah ok I can do that,” he nodded in approval as he got up.

We walked out of the hotel room and as I started walking down the hallway towards the elevators Kennedy stopped me.

“I’m going to ask the rest of the guys if they want to come.”

I nodded, “Ok, but don’t they just want to sit around and do nothing all day?”

He nodded as he walked towards John and Jared’s door, “Yeah, but something tells me that they’ll all make an exception for food.”

&&

Ten minutes later all of the guys and I were sitting in an Apple Bee’s.

“Dude, I’m so hungry.” John groaned as he looked through the menu.

The rest of the guys nodded in agreement. Kennedy and I looked at each other and laughed. It didn’t take much to perk up the guys, that’s for sure.

Once the waitress came back we ordered our food.

There was barely anyone else in the restaurant so I didn’t take long for the food to arrive.

Once the food arrived everyone dug in. I simply ordered a salad and ended up just pushing
it around on the plate. I don’t know why I suggested going out to eat, but I was desperate to get the guys out to do something.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Garrett asked from the right of me.

It was one of the first things he’s said to me since the other night so it took me a while to even register he was talking to me.

“Lorraine?” he spoke again.

I looked up from my food and over at him. He glanced down at my untouched food and then back up at me.

“Oh,” I said looking back down at my food, “Yeah.”

I tried to find the smallest piece of lettuce and took a bite from it. I looked back at Garrett and smiled. He just nodded slowly and eyed me before returning to his own meal.

After that I began taking small bites of my salad periodically and whenever someone looked at me. Garrett kept glancing at me and by the time everyone was finished I had ended up eating half of my salad. I grimaced when I noticed this and pushed away the bowl in disgust.

“Do you want to save that for later?” Garrett asked.

“No, I’m full.” I mumbled in response.

We got the check and then left the restaurant. We all flooded out onto the rather busy sidewalk. The guys began walking back towards the hotel, but I stopped and looked in the other direction.

“You coming Lo?” Kennedy asked as they all stopped and waited for me.

I shook my head, “I need some new clothes so I’m going to look around for a store. You guys go ahead though.”

They all shrugged, “Ok, call me if you need us,” Kennedy replied.

I nodded and smiled at them before turning around and walking down the street. I had no idea where I was going, but decided that if I stayed close to the hotel then it wouldn’t be a problem. I came to an intersection and looked around. Taking a guess, I decided to turn left.

“There are no good stores down there.”

I turned around to find Garrett standing behind me. Slightly confused as to why he was here
with me rather than back at the hotel, I stared at him in surprise.

“You should continue to go straight.” He continued.

“Really?” I asked skeptically.

He nodded his head, “Yeah, if you keep going straight you’ll eventually reach some decent stores.”

“While that may be true, I’ll also probably end up getting lost.” I replied.

He shrugged, “I know where to go, so I can show you.”

I contemplated his idea. The whole reason I wanted to spend some time away from the bus and hotel was because of the awkward tension between him and me. However, it didn’t seem as awkward and he obviously wasn’t avoiding me anymore if he was willing to go shopping with me. While that was kind of surprising I decided I should just go with the flow.

So instead I just smiled, and gestured in front of me.

“Lead the way.”