Learn to Fly

John was happy.

For the first time in a while he was truly just, happy.

He didn’t mind eight hour long car rides anymore. He didn’t mind waiting for sound check to start, hell, he didn’t even mind listening to The Bachelorette updates in the van rides that Garrett put him through every Monday night.

Because when you were happy, the little things didn’t matter anymore. The little pesters weren’t constantly annoying you—life was in motion and it was bigger than a pet peeve.

And as well as being happy, John was alive. He was experiencing new things with someone that with each passing day was becoming more and more special to him and he was growing. She was changing him—and he liked it. Whether Peyton knew it or not she was teaching him how to act like a man when he was really just a boy. He needed her to be able to trust in him and to do that, he had to mature. He needed to be the man that she needed.

“Jooooooooooooohn.”

John laughed softly under his breath looking down at the girl who was cuddling into his armpit. She was hiding her face behind her blonde hair, closing her eyes. “Yes Peyton?”

“I’m scared,” she whispered.

John laughed and looked up at the screen she was hiding her eyes from. He watched as the woman was grabbed from under her sheets and her echoes lingered down the hallway that a demon was dragging her down. Her husband, Micah ran down the hallway with a camera on his hand looking for his demented wife.

“It’s not even that scary yet,” he answered quietly, trying not to disturb the other bands in the room.

Peyton jutted her bottom lip out and looked at him with her large baby blue eyes, “This isn’t a happy movie. I wanted a happy movie.”

“The guys didn’t want to watch Harry Potter again, Hayes,” John chuckled watching her cheeks blush as she sighed and hid once again in his shoulder.

They watched the rest of Paranormal Activity laughing collectively as Halvo’s popcorn flew around the room as ‘Katie’ through her husband’s body at the camera yelling, ‘I am so over this movie!’ repeatedly.

Peyton shook her head and sat up in her seat, stretching her arms over her head. John looked slyly at the smooth skin of her back that was playing peek-a-boo and he wanted so desperately to feel her against him—under his fingertips.

He and Peyton weren’t official. Hell, he didn’t know what they were at all… They held hands, they cuddled, they spent an unusual amount of time and secrets, but they never kissed. They didn’t do the one thing that would officially make them a couple.

But, he was content. He was more than content.

John had never been okay with not kissing a girl he had feelings for. He usually wanted his from them—he and Melissa had sex before they were dating…but with Peyton he couldn’t do that. He wanted to take it slow with her because she meant something to him—slower and slower she meant everything.

John didn’t realize that he had drifted off to sleep until he felt goose bumps rising on his arms. He opened his eyes slowly realizing that he wasn’t alone and that the girl who was bundled in his arms during the movie was still there, her own chest rising and falling in sleep patterns. Her breath was blowing on his neck giving him the chills.

His clenched shut nervously as he felt his cell phone vibrating in his pocket and soon enough the girl next to him was stirring. He picked it out of his pocket slowly, his movements as minute as possible watching as the girl cuddled in his side fell back into a sleep.

He pressed the phone to his ear making sure his voice was low as he answered, “Hello?”

“John? Why are you whispering?”

“Sorry Ma, Peyton is sleeping and I’m trying not to wake her up,” he chuckled softly. “To what do I owe this call?”

“Is a mother not allowed to check up on her eldest child?” His mom laughed in the line.

She instantly brought a smile to his lips. He had always been a ‘momma’s boy’, whether he cared to admit it to others or not. “Did you said eldest..or favorite? Because I’m pretty sure you said favorite.”

“Yeah well, don’t tell your brother,” she chuckled, “So, where are you guys tonight?”

“Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,” John replied.

That was John’s single most favorite part of his job: the fact that he got to travel the world. He had been so many places that twenty one year olds had never been and he was so lucky. When he was younger he never would have dreamed of this life—sharing his thoughts on life with millions as he experienced so many new places, and he wouldn’t have traded it for anything. This was the life he wanted to live for the rest of his life.

He wanted to be like a Tom Petty for the generation, because Tom Petty did it right. He didn’t change who he was to get famous but merely the other way around. He was looked upon for his thoughts and the way he viewed the world. He was seen as a legend because of the things he held dear and that’s all that John could ask for.

“So you’re sitting with Peyton…while she’s asleep,” Mrs. O’Callaghan began. “John, we had the birds and bees talk correct? I don’t need any more babies running around.”

“Oh God Mom, it’s not like that at all,” John laughed in a whisper. “We were watching a movie and she fell asleep. Besides, Peyton isn’t like that…at all. She’s a good girl. She respects herself more than that.”

“Good,” she replied, “She seemed like a very sweet girl. I wish you had met her before you met your she-devil girlfriend.”

“We actually broke up a few weeks ago, mom,” John said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Why?” His mother said angrily. “This isn’t about just you two anymore, John Cornelius. You have a child to think about.”

John sighed and ran his hand over his face tiredly, “She accused me of cheating on her, Mom, and you know that I would never do that. I know what it feels like to be cheated on and I could never do it.”

“With Peyton?”

“H-how did you know?” He asked, surprised, but not at the same time. His mother always had a sense about her.

“You don’t look at her like you look at other girls, John. You look at her like, a friend, foremost, rather than just a pretty girl. You care about her—that’s a good thing,” his mother commented. “It’s the same way your grandfather looked at your grandmother.”

John felt his cheeks turn red and he cast his eyes on the girl in his side. Her blonde hair was cascading down her back with one small piece falling onto her naturally rosy red cheek. Her lips were slightly parted and breath was blowing onto his neck that her chin was tucked in to. Her long tanned legs were curled beneath her and her shirt was rising showing the smooth skin of her lower back.

She was the most beautiful thing he had seen.

*

“Do you love being on tour?”

John smiled at the three teenage girls in front of him sincerely, nodding his head, “It is seriously the best experience one could ever dream of.”

“I’m so jealous! I think it’s so cool that you get to do that for a living,” one of the girls commented.

“I couldn’t agree more,” he replied, “Now ladies, it was so nice talking to you and thank you so much for coming to our show tonight, but I have to be helping pack up before Tim fires me.”

The girls giggled and he gave them quick hugs before running back stage as to not get caught by more fans. If he could, he’d thank each one of them, but he’d be there for hours and it was completely unfeasible.

John walked to the back of the venue and slipped out the back door to where the vans were. He leaned against The Maine’s, chuckling at all the black scribbled font from fans from touring over the years. Next tour they were getting a bus—something he was more than enthralled for.

John listened as heels approached him and a sweet scent came into his nostrils.

“Can I bum one of those?”

John turned his eyes to a girl who now stood next to him. Her long legs were showcased with her high heels and short skirt, and her tight shirt showed off her large bust. She had long black hair and big green eyes, plump red lips.

“Uh yeah, sure,” he stumbled, his hand slightly shaking as he grabbed the cigarette and handed it to the girl.

She smiled before leaning forward to catch a flame from the end of the stick between his lips. “I’m Diana, like, Dirty Diana,” she smiled, sticking out her hand.

John shook her hand, laughing softly at her Prince reference. “I’m John.”

“I know who you are,” she smiled, giving him ‘the eye’.

‘The eye’ is what he and Kennedy called it. If they could put it in the dictionary they would. ‘The eye’ was: the look given by desperate, but yet attractive, woman in hopes of turning you on and leading you to a bedroom…or on tour, usually a bathroom or a van.

‘The eye’ was something that he and Kennedy had often succumbed to.

‘The eye’ was evil.

Diana made small talk with him, meaningless words that meant nothing to him and John would be lying if he said he was listening to her. All he could focus on was how unattractive she seemed to him in this moment. She was so desperate and the way she was able to just give it all up to him was unappealing.

John kept talking to her though out of kindness, and it didn’t hurt that the girl was somewhat humorous. He didn’t know how to push her away without coming off as a douche bag, but he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea from his niceness.

But she obviously already was—and that was apparent as she slowly ran her hand down his arm and continued to give him ‘the eye’. Diana leaned forward slowly and pressed her lips to John’s neck.

At first it felt good—of course it did, but it didn’t feel right. She wasn’t the girl he wanted to be doing this. He wanted this to be Peyton. He placed his hands on the girls hips before pushing her away slowly, “Diana, I’m sorry…I-uh, I’m not that kind of guy.”

The girl pouted her lips and batted her eye lashes. She bit her lip seductively, “I won’t tell.”

Just as John was about to respond he heard a door open and laughter stop. He quickly pushed Diana away from him as he looked at a girl who was looking into his eyes nervously, her bottom lip between her teeth—not in the same way Diana was, but out of hurt.

“I-uh, Tim wanted me to let you know that we’re leaving soon,” Peyton said softly, her finger apprehensively with a strand of her hair.

“All right, awesome. I’ll come with you then,” John said quickly, trying to show that he was eager to get away from Diana. He didn’t want Peyton to have the wrong idea…God, she couldn’t.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Peyton said simply, holding her hands out to him as if to say ‘it’s okay.’ “I’ll just see you tomorrow.”

He watched as she started walking away quickly, heading back into the venue with a look of confusion on her lips. “I’m sorry,” John mumbled quietly to Diana before running after the girl, “Peyton!”

“It’s not a big deal, John, come on just go,” she said simply, keeping her back to him as she walked into the venue’s lounge. John grabbed her wrist and forced her to look at him. She kept her eyes on the floor, “What?”

“Hayes, come on beautiful, look at me,” he said simply, grabbing her chin and forcing her eyes up.

“I’m not beautiful…John, that girl was. So go on.”

“Peyton, you are gorgeous,” he said softly, sighing. “Baby girl, look at me.”

“John, we-we’re not together. You can do whatever you want,” she replied quietly, shrugging her shoulders.

He shook his head and stared into her eyes, “That’s not good enough.”

“What do you mean ‘that’s not good enough’”?

John looked away nervously before grasping her hands in his and resting his head against her forehead, “I don’t want to be with other girls because I want to be with you…Peyton, please say you want to be with me too, or else this will be so awkward.”

Peyton laughed softly, “Way to ruin the moment, John.”

He smiled softly, rubbing the back of her hands with his thumbs, “So what do you say, Hayes? Be with me? We don’t have to label it or anything if you’re uncomfortable with it…but just say you’re mine, and only mine.”

He watched as the girl in front of him blushed immensely and he felt butterflies gather in his own stomach as she spoke, “I’m yours.”