Learn to Fly

John opened his eyes as he heard screaming in his ear, “Pat, shut up,” he mumbled groggily.

“We’re here, John Cornelius O’Callaghan the fifth!” The thin boy sang happily. His long brown hair was hanging in his brown eyes and he looked like he hadn’t showered in days.

“You need an effing haircut,” he mumbled angrily, sitting up from his seat in the back of the van. He stepped out of the vehicle and stretched his arms. He smiled when he saw they were at a Pizza Hut and he had one single thought on his mind: food.

Kennedy slapped his friend on his bottom, “Let’s go, John Oh.”

“Why are you guys so gay?” John chuckled as he pressed open the door to the small building and let the cool air conditioning replace the Texas heat outside. “It’s really getting weird. Between you and crazy fan girls I always have to worry about getting raped in my sleep.”

“It’s not rape if it’s willing, baby,” someone said from behind him grabbing his butt. Eric Halvorsen walked by with a smirk on his lips, winking at his best friend.

“Oh my God, next person to touch me gets their as—

John was cut off by a hand on his shoulder softly, and he silently fumed. He was about to hit them in the face but when he saw a smiling blonde next to him he melted like putty. She was wearing short jean shorts and tall sandals that made her little legs look like they went on for miles. Her hair was in playful, loose curls and she was barely wearing any makeup.

“Oh, my bad,” Peyton chuckled before winking and walking towards Eric.

John bit his lip and watched as she walked away his thoughts leading him somewhere else; somewhere with a bedroom. He felt a hit on his arm and he turned to see an angry Nick Santino. “Do not look at my cousin like that. Not only is she my family, but you have a baby coming mister! We don’t need anymore!” He ordered.

John felt himself blushing as he looked away from the girl who was sitting next to his best friend. Eric was taunting her and she was rolling her eyes in annoyance. Halvo had a bright smile that reached all the way up to his eyes as he messed with the girl enjoying every second of her undivided attention. To say the least, John was jealous.

“Eric, I am not going to sign your petition for naked Tuesdays,” Peyton laughed.

“I don’t understand why not. I mean think about it: we’re on tour and don’t get to do laundry very often. It would save you a load of clothing to wash! And plus, you could get a killer tan. It’s extremely hot outside so no clothing would cool you down. And, I mean, come on Peyton, don’t act like you don’t want to see this in the buff,” Halvo explained gesturing to his body.

John started laughing, “No one wants to see you in ‘the buff’.”

“That’s not what your mom said last night!”

Kennedy smiled and grabbed Peyton’s hand from across the table, “Why do you put up with Eric, dear?”

John watched as she rolled her eyes and nudged Halvo, “He keeps me entertained with all of his ridiculous ideas and gives me incentive to work on my selective hearing.”

“What does that mean?” Eric asked with a confused look on his cheeks as the friends started laughing.

“Don’t worry about it, man,” John laughed throwing his straw wrapper at his friend.

“Pey, can we talk for a second?”

Everyone at the table turned to look at Nick who was looking at the blonde. She nodded her head with a questioning look on her lips. She smiled lightly at the boys, “Excuse me for a moment.”

No one could keep their eyes from traveling over the girl’s thin tan body as she exited the table. John watched intrigued as her and Nick talked outside. He could see them through the window and the look on Nick’s face was worried. Peyton looked upset as her lips turned into a serious grimace and she shook her head from left to right forcefully. Nick seemed as if he was begging for something and the girl was turning him down, repeatedly.

John looked away from the two and back to his friends, tuning back into their conversation. “Tell me again why you aren’t hitting that yet?” Kennedy asked Eric.

Halvo shrugged with a smirk, “Who said I’m not?”

John couldn’t help but to laugh while on the inside he wanted to strangle his best friend, “I did. There is no way in hell that Peyton would ever want to have sex with you.”

“She so wants me! She kissed me, remember?” Eric grinned.

Kennedy grinned, “I bet you can’t be the first one to get into her pants.”

“I bet you’re wrong.”

“Okay, here’s the rules: anyone else gets in them first I win…but if you do, then I’ll give you twenty bucks,” he laughed.

John didn’t like where this was going at all. Peyton wasn’t a girl to bet on—she was a girl to love. She was the girl to make love to in the most real sense of the words, not just screw to win a game.

“I don’t want your money,” Eric said seriously. “I’m not going to make this a game…if I’m going to do this it’s because I want to and she wants to. She’s a great person and I’m not going to hurt her like that. So, no thank you for the bet.”

“Pussy,” Kennedy laughed jokingly. “Just kidding, I respect that I suppose. But hey, if you do get in her pants at least you get bragging rights.”

John balled his fist under the table and wanted to hit him more than anything right now. At least Eric had some dignity and seemed to have an actual interest in the girl she was and he understood how special she was. John still didn’t respect the idea whatsoever but he respected the way his friend was handling it—he seemed to want to do it the right way.

“What are you guys talking about?” Peyton asked, placing a smile on her lips. John didn’t know why he knew it was fake—he just seemed to have this sense about her. He could tell when she was being honest and when she was hiding something.

Eric looked at Kennedy and wrapped his arms around Peyton’s shoulders with a smirk before replying, “How much fun the rest of this tour is going to be.”
_____

John wandered the back alley behind the venue and laughed as he saw a cowboy hat shop across the street. He sauntered over to the small shack looking behind him both ways to make sure none of his friends were watching. He walked into the air conditioned shop and chuckled as he saw cowboy hats of all sorts. Reds, blues, browns, and classics. They had all shapes and sizes each with its own decoration.

“Howdy partner.”

John turned to the familiar giggle behind him and smiled as Peyton placed a hat on his head. He looked at her blonde curls that cascaded down past her breasts. She was wearing booty jean shorts and a button down plaid t shirt. She had on black cowboy boots and a tan colored hat. “You look dandy,” he laughed.

She pulled her lips into a small pout, “A Rocket to the Moon is dressing up as cowboys and Indians. I thought I looked fine.”

John chuckled and grabbed her chin, “You look like a perfect little cowgirl no worries there, Hayes.”

Peyton giggled and bounced on her toes a little bit as her blue eyes stared into his own. He didn’t know why he seemed like she felt uneasy about something. She was making more conversation than normal today, asking about specific topics rather than just letting their conversation flow normally. She had seemed on edge around him for the past two days. Was she feeling weird because he had brought her to meet his family?

Peyton’s face turned more serious, “What are you thinking about John?” She asked as she began playing with hats that were at her finger tips. Her manicured nails traced over weaves in the hat and she eyed the pattern purposefully.

“Did you have fun in Arizona?” He asked nonchalantly, trying to feel her out. His intentions of bringing her to meet his family weren’t supposed to make her feel uncomfortable—he just wanted them to meet this new part of his life.

He watched as her face dropped a little before she placed a small grin on her lips, “Yeah, I did.”

“What was your favorite part?” John asked, getting more to the point.

Peyton looked at him sincerely, “Meeting your family.”

He felt relieved as he listened to her words but once again not completely at ease. What was she hiding? Was he just overreacting? God, what was this girl doing to him? “I’m glad you liked them,” he smiled. “I know they loved you.”

She smiled, “That means a lot. They were so nice…so welcoming. It was refreshing. You—you’re so lucky you have a family like them.”

John rubbed her arm soothingly. “I’ll share them with you if you want. They can make up for your parents,” he chuckled. “You can even come over for Thanksgiving dinner considering we’ll still be on tour.”

Peyton smiled at him and he swore he saw her blush for a second, “Thanks John, that really means a lot.”

“Of course, hun. So, I was thinking,” John started before walking to the other side of the store, placing a black cowboy hat on his head. He lifted his shoulders and put his hands on his hips posing, causing Peyton to giggle.

“You thinking? That is crazy!” She laughed.

He punched her lightly on the arm, “Shut up. Anyways, I realized that if I’m going to help you with this list then I’m going to need to see it at some point, Miss Hayes.”

He watched as her cheeks turned red and her teeth bit in to her lip, “Uh, can I just show you parts of it?”

John lifted an eyebrow at her curiously, “Is there something embarrassing on this list?”

Peyton adverted her eyes from his before focusing them on the hats in front of her. She seemed to stumbled over her words as she spoke again, “Uh-well no, I mean I just…”

He chuckled, “Hayes, calm down. You don’t have to show me them all, okay?”

She looked at him with a smile in her eyes, “I’ll show you them sometime okay? I just, right now isn’t the right time for those.”

John couldn’t help but to wonder what they were. Was it something embarrassing? Personal? Against the law? His mind was racing with a million thoughts as he watched her try on hat after hat.

“What about this one?” Peyton asked, turning to look at him. She was wearing the classical sort of cowboy hat that pops into your mind when you think cowboy hat.

John chuckled, “It’s very cute.”

“Yeah, well, everything is cute on me,” she winked playfully.

John smiled at the new confidence the girl seemed to have around him. When they had first met she was stumbling over her words and constantly blushing, but now—now she was different. She was playfully cocky and more sarcastic than ever serious. She would reach out and touch his hand when they had solemn conversations and he was the one who constantly felt at a loss for words.

“So, we’re going to this bar tonight and I’m doing something on the list,” Peyton grinned, wrapping one of her bouncy curls around her index finger. She turned her blue eyes to his, “I’m singing karaoke.”

John grinned, “I finally get to hear that singing voice of yours?”

She nodded her head, “I’m nervous though. What if I’m actually horrible?”

He shook his head at her and grabbed her shoulder making her look into his eyes, “I can promise you that if you are really that bad I will not laugh and I will only make you watch the video seven times.”

Peyton laughed, “You know, I was expecting you to say something encouraging like ‘I’m sure you’ll do great!’ But no.”

John chuckled and smiled at the girl teasingly before becoming more serious, “But for real, if something happens and you freak out I’ll hop on stage with you and make a bigger fool out of myself okay?”

She grinned at him, her cheeks a small shade of pink, “You would do that for me?”

John smiled and ruffled her blonde hair playfully, “Of course, Hayes. We’re in this together.”
_____

“John,” Peyton said nervously as she stared out at the full bar. It was a full night and everyone in the joint had on a cowboy hat. It was a country bar in Texas after all. “I can’t do this!”

“Pey,” he chuckled. “You’re not even on stage yet. They haven’t even started karaoke yet, babe.”

He smiled as she wrapped her arms around one of his and put her face onto his shoulder. He laughed softly as he rubbed her back. “Why are you so scared, Peyton?”

“I hate being the center of attention,” she said softly.

John looked at her with irony in his eyes, “And you were a dancer?”

“Dance is different…” she trailed off, staring in horror at all of the people. “When you’re dancing it’s for you, but when you’re singing it’s for everyone else.”

“Peyton, I know you can do this. I believe in you. And I’ll be sitting right at the front of the stage, okay? You can look at me the whole time. I’ll be right there,” John comforted her verbally, and handed her a beer that he ordered from the bar. “Here, this will help.”

She chuckled and pushed the beer to her lips instantly, gulping back all of the liquid quickly. “Have anything harder?”

“John may not but I do,” Eric laughed as he walked up and wrapped his arm around the girl’s shoulders, stealing her from John’s grasp. Halvo looked like an idiot in his button down plaid, cowboy boots and hat but John kept his mouth shut, afraid that his annoyance with his friend would come out. He just wanted to talk to Peyton alone.

Peyton bit her lip and giggled as she looked up at the boy who was holding her. She looked at John once more before Halvo led her to a table across the floor. He grabbed another beer from the server before following them over. He wasn’t surprised when Halvo stole her away again and led her to the dance floor to join a line dance.

John watched her with a small grin on his lips as she stepped perfectly in synch with everyone else in the bar. The soles of all the boots made loud noises on the wood of the floor and everyone smiled and laughed, thoroughly enjoying the dancing. John was just glad Eric wasn’t grinding on the girl again.

“You like her don’t you?”

John turned to his friend who sat next to him, looking away from Peyton, “I have a girlfriend, Jared.”

He shrugged and pressed his lips to his brown beer bottle, “That didn’t stop Melissa did it?”

“So, you’re saying that because she cheated I get to? Yeah, not only is that sickening and wrong but she’s pregnant,” John seethed, pouring the cool liquid into his mouth.

Jared sighed and ran a hand through his red hair, “I’m just saying…even when you and Melissa were still in love you never looked at her the way you look at Peyton. Peyton is probably the nicest girl I’ve ever personally met and I can name five guys off the top of my head that want to be getting with her on this tour, so, if you want her don’t mess this whole thing up because you’re trying to protect Melissa.

“It’s going to be a whole hell of a lot harder if you and Melissa hate each other while you have a baby. That kid is going to be unhappy and you’re going to be trapped in a loveless marriage and Peyton will probably be engaged to Eric at that point,” Jared chuckled. “So, if you want to be happy, think about your future and not just about today.”

John looked at his best friend with respect. Jared, besides Halvo, was his closest friend. He had been in the band for three years and because of their strong musical interests the two always got along well. “I can’t just break up with her, Jar,” John sighed, putting his forehead on the wood of the table in front of him. “I really want my kid to have a family that’s complete.”

“Sometimes it’d be better if complete families were broken though. Wouldn’t you rather him or her have two parents that loved him more than anything that were divorced than have parents who fought and weren’t happy together?”

John groaned, “I suppose.”

“I’m not trying to tell you what to do, man, but just think about it, kay? We’re all kind of worried about you lately,” Jared replied, taking a swig of his beer. “No one knows about Peyton though. I’m really the only one who can tell. Everyone else just thinks you’re a flirt.”

He chuckled, “Of course they do.”

John and Jared sat in silence as they listened to all the sounds in the bar. John’s eyes turned towards the stage as it lit up and lights all went down. “It’s karaoke time ladies and gentlemen!” The man yelled into the microphone from on the stage. People around the bar started hollering and laughing. “So, our first act tonight is from out of town, all the way from Massachusetts. Let’s give a big Texas welcome to Peyton!”

John instantly sat up from his seat and walked to the front of the stage and stood next to Eric. As Peyton walked onto the platform he watched as her eyes automatically found his and her body seemed to relax a bit. Peyton walked up to the man on the stage with a newly confident grin on her lips.

“Howdy darlin’,” the man smiled, lifting his hat and looking at her body. “How are you his evening?”

Peyton smiled shyly, “Oh fantastic.”

John listened as the guys next to him talked about her body and how they all wanted to take her home tonight. And he had to admit, he was in the same boat. Eric had tied Peyton’s shirt up to where her stomach was showing and you should see her bra with how many buttons were open.

“How old are you sweet heart?” The host asked, smiling at her.

She giggled lightly, “Eighteen.”

The men in the bar started yelling and cheering and John watched her cheeks blush as she began laughing.

“Last question, you have a boyfriend doll?” The man smiled, his deep voice getting deeper.

Peyton looked at John for a split second before looking back to the man. Her laugh echoed throughout the place as she narrowed her eyes, “You tell me,” she flirted.

John smiled, enjoying every ounce of her confidence. It made her that much more attractive to him as if that was even possible. He turned to the boy who was now standing next to him and Halvo shaking his head, a smirk on his lips. “I’m going to kill her,” Nick chuckled, rolling his eyes.

“She looks sexy!” Halvo yelled laughing.

“After I kill you!”

John laughed as he looked between his two friends, looking back up at the stage where the rough guitar sounds to a song had started. It was a country song that John recognized; Boots On by Randy Houser. Peyton found his eyes instantly as he saw herself trying to get her nerve back. He mouthed ‘you can do it’ to her before she smiled and pressed the microphone to her lips.

“Man I been workin' too hard. Ten hour days and I'm tired. Damn this knuckle bustin', back breakin' no payin' job,” Peyton sang nervously. John smiled at her and she seemed to gain more confidence as her voice grew louder. “Know where I'm goin' from here. Hot headed men, cold beer. Kick up my heels, for a little while and do it country style.

“In my dirty ol' hat; with my crooked little grin. Granny-beaded neck and these calloused hands. In a muddy pair of jeans with that Copenhagen ring. No need to change a thing. Hey y'all I'm goin' out with my boots on.”

John smiled as he watched girl singing on her stage—and her voice, God her voice. It was the prettiest voice he had heard. It was small and soft like a girl, while at the same time being as strong and holding her own like a woman. Guys around the crowd yelled up at the stage with grins on their faces as they cheered on the girl. John yelled as well, causing a grin from the girl as she continued.

“How I keep catching his eye man I keep wondering why. Ain't nothing special about an aw shucks country girl. Lord he's sure looking good; like something from Hollywood,” Peyton sang with a smile on her lips. She began smirking as she walked to the front of the stage, shaking her hips along the way, John’s eyes following them shamelessly. She walked up to a young guy, twenty from what John cold presume and she took off her hat and bent over in front of him, her hat in her hand, “He's got me thinking that I just might,” John watched her giggle as her voice rose a few octaves to hit a note as she placed the hat on the boy’s head. “Leave here with him tonight.”

Peyton shook her hips from side to side and moved her hair around her head she sang the rest of the song assertively. She smiled and ran her hand through her hair and hit all of the notes perfectly and John stared at her in awe. As the song finished she bit her lip and stared at the crowd who was cheering loudly. She said her thank yous before giggling once more and walking off the stage. John walked over to where she would be coming from and as soon as she saw him he grinned. Soon she was flinging her body into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist.

“Peyton, you’re amazing. You did so great!” John yelled over the crowd who was still cheering.

She pulled away before pressing her lips to his cheek, “Thank you for being at the front. I don’t know if I could have done that without you there.”

“Of course, Hayes,” He smiled as he stared into her eyes, her still in his arms.

They stared quietly for a moment and John felt his stomach tightening. He wanted so bad to lean down and press his lips to hers and Jared’s words from earlier were echoing in his mind.

“Peyton freaking Hayes!”

He watched as Peyton stared at him for another second before turning to the approaching boy and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Halvo!”

And as Eric gave her a kiss on the cheek, dangerously close to her lips John had never felt more jealous.