The Way She Wears My Clothes

Tay and I, on our way back to the bus, were laughing hard enough to stumble up the steps. She grabbed my hands and danced around with me in the front half, causing us to laugh even harder. Our good moods didn’t seem to be as infectious to the rest of the bus as we’d thought they might be. In fact, it seemed that we were disturbing the peace that had fallen over everyone in our absence. To be honest though, everyone around us was slightly less intoxicated than we were. We’d stopped off at a pub on the way back from lunch and well, one thing led to another and we were seeing who could chug a pint of beer faster. I won, but only just. She’s perfect, she really is. Even her lips are perfect.

Oh, yeah. We kissed, a lot, after the chug contest. Actually, we’d been asked to leave the pub because of how much kissing we were doing. That’s when we decided to go back to my bunk and carry on, without a disturbance. We got sidetracked once we were in my bus, by the soft playing music. We kept dancing and laughing, even as Alex stormed out from the bunks, looking rather upset.

“WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN? I’ve been calling you for the past hour and a half!”

I stopped dancing with Tay and stood before Alex. His eyes were rimmed with red and he looked way beyond upset. He looked like someone had ripped out his heart, threw it into a fire and stamped it out with a gasoline-coated shoe. I had a feeling something had happened with Sierra while I was gone. I wasn’t even gone that long!

“What happened, Lex?”

He shook his head and hugged me tightly. I stumbled back from the force and glanced back as I felt Tay’s hand on my lower back, steadying me. She grinned and I nodded towards the bunks.

“Second, top on the left is mine. I’ll be in as soon as I can,” I told her. She stood up on her toes beside me and pressed a kiss into my cheek.

“See you soon, tiger,” she replied and slipped into the bunk area, disappearing behind the curtain. I moved Alex and I to the couch, separating my best friend from my chest.

“What happened?”

“Sierra Kusterbeck,” he groaned, falling back into me. I ran my hands through his hair as he continued, speaking into my chest. “She called me and told me to meet her outside, like, right after you left. So I went outside and she started yelling at me as soon as she saw me. She told me that it was my entire fault and that she couldn’t possibly be with me because of how much of a cocky asshole I am and she just kept going. She just kept insulting me and for the love of god, Jack, I don’t know what I did wrong. I just want to kiss her and suddenly, she thinks I want to fuck her and then leave her. Why does this shit happen to me? And now, you’re happy with Tay and why does my life suck?”

I hushed him and rocked us back and forth, rubbing his back until he fell asleep. I lifted him easily into my arms and moved him from the front couch to his bunk where he curled up with a pillow he stole from my bedroom before tour.

I joined Tay and she kissed me immediately. I melted into her, lying against her with one hand playing with her soft straightened hair and the other resting against her stomach. She gripped my shoulders and dragged me in closer. I ran my tongue along her lower lip, as if testing the waters. We’d already been past this stage, but we weren’t as sober as we are now.

“Jack,” she gasped, pushing me away just a bit. I leaned up on my elbow, hovering over her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just. I wanted to talk to you. You know, about this. I don’t want to have a fantastic night with you and then wake up tomorrow and it’ll change. I like you, Jack. I don’t want that to change because you’re having a bad day.”

“It won’t,” I assured her.

“How can I know that?”

“I guess you can’t, but I swear, if you keep being this amazing, Tay, and I’m not going anywhere.”

She grinned.

“How’s Alex?”

“Considering he’s in love with Sierra and Sierra flipped shit on him, he’s fine. I mean, he was pretty upset but he’ll be okay. I have faith in him. He’ll sort everything out, like we did.”

I smiled at her, and she smiled back. I kissed her softly and then settled myself down onto her chest, listening to her even breathing as we both drifted off to sleep, without uttering another word.