London Calling

I avoided looking at the guys for the rest of the zoo trip while still attempting to act like a normal person at the same time. It's sorta very hard to do both, and it's definitely not an art I have mastered.

Chris kept looking at me with his super concerned look and I just couldn't take it. I prayed for the trip to end so we could just leave and go to Norfolk and I could pretend I hadn't said anything until the article came out.

When we got back to the area where Adam After Eve's bus was stationed, I grabbed a towel and my shower stuff and asked Mike if I could take a shower, which he was totally cool with mostly because James had gone out to god knows where and would be back god knows when, but definitely before the departure call. I was mostly doing this to avoid the boys, but part of me was actually just really hating the degree of yuck my hair was getting to. I locked myself in the bus' surprisingly mildly roomy bathroom and stripped down before stepping in the shower.

It was like a slice of heaven made only for me, that bus shower. Perfect size, the heat wasn't absolutely horrid, and it was much better than taking a shower in the rain. Plus I could actually shave my legs in a comfortable space for once instead of in a venue sink. I didn't mind being dirty and gross (let's face it, I pretty much live with three guys), but believe me when I say we had to get us one of these on the next tour. I didn't care how, but it had to happen.

I'll admit I was in that damn shower until I could feel the water started to freeze me to the spot. When I finally got out my fingers were all wrinkly and disgusting, and I had never felt so clean on a tour. It was pretty awesome.

After toweling off my hair as best I could and slipping into my clothes again, I wandered back to the van. Towel wrapped around my neck to keep my more than damp hair from soaking through my shirt, I walked slow, very determined to avoid the boys for as long as possible. I didn't need them to suddenly become so overbearing I collapse into myself.

“'Ey! Ahlison!”

Turning, I saw Thoa lightly jogging towards me, Evvie standing just a little way off. Thoa's hair had this lovely bounce, molten copper, and I couldn't help but grin as she came to a stop in front of me.

“Hey. What's up?”

“Well, I wahs wonderin', I jus' go' mah pay for teh week. Wanna go for lunch when we ge' teh Norfolk? I know this place-”

“Sounds cool,” I automatically agreed. Honestly I was thinking that it would be the best way to get away from the boys, plus I pretty much had no friends who were girls. At least no good friends. “I'd love to.”

“Brilliant,” she said, her grin somehow wider than the Cheshire cat's, “I'll mee' yeh ou'side teh loh' then?”

“Yeah, awesome.”

She made this amused face at me, like pretty much everyone else from this country did when I said 'awesome,' and walked back towards Evvie, who looked mildly exasperated. I watched them walk back towards the area that always seemed to be this forbidden place that just gave birth to techies then swallowed them back up again at the end of the day, still trying to keep away from my own van. This was a horrible idea anyway, avoiding the boys. They would be on my ass about what happened today already, avoiding them for this long would just make it worse. Knowing that didn't exactly help me hurry back. In fact, I ended up in a tree, clutching my bin of cleaners and listening to my ipod, until leave call.

“Alison Costello,” Rowan roared as soon as I got back to the van, full guardian mode activated, “Where the fuck have you been?”

In a tree three yards away.

“I took a walk,” I lied, shoving my things into the back of the van. “Got lost. Came back.”

“With your shower stuff?”

“Yeah. No big deal.”

“Ali, you can't wander off like this without telling me.”

“I'm not five and you're not my mother,” I growled, “I'm going to sleep.”

And to officially end the conversation, I climbed into the back, shut the doors, made a more stable version of Levi's Leaning Tower of Equipment, and fell asleep. I actually slept until Thoa woke me up for our lunch whatever, which was pretty awkward for me because I was kinda a mess right after waking up. Graciously, she allowed me to pull on a pair of shorts and a loose sweater and make my hair and make up somewhat decent before pulling me out of the van to go on some insane adventure.

She barely let me say goodbye to the guys before she was blabbering on in that accent of hers, so quick and muddled that I could only pull out a few words before I had to stop her.

“Thoa, slow down. I cannot understand you!”

“Wha'? Oh, sorreh. Forge' yeh don' speak teh dialect sometimes.”

This somehow turned into one of those giggling fits that don't end. I couldn't tell you how, maybe it was just a thing that girls who are friends do? It was super nice. She dragged me around everywhere because apparently she knew pretty much everything about Norfolk. We walked by the Arts Centre, this wicked ass castle-like building which also happened to be where we were playing that night. She pointed out all of these cool little places to hang out and all of the places to get good coffee (which I had become kinda snobbish about due to so many tour stops in Wisconsin). Thoa held my hand the whole time she dragged me around the city, and she didn't let go until we finally got to wherever we were eating.

“So, tihs is meh favori' Indian place,” she explained just as the curry hit my nose. We were barely though the door before all of the waiters walking by were greeting Thoa and smiling at her and none of them made a fuss as she grabbed us menus and sat down at a table by the window that opened to the street outside.

“Your favorite,” I grinned as our menus were almost immediately taken away by waiters who insisted they knew what to get us, “You don't say.”

“Hush.”

“So, new friend, is merching your only gig in this big thing we call life?”

“Uh, noh,” she smiled, blushing slightly, “I, ah, well I kinda model.”

“Wait, what.”

“Yeah.”

“You model? Like, model what?”

“Clothes,” she shrugged, beginning to shred a piece of bread immediately after it was placed on the table, “Make up. It wahsn' a big deal rheally. Jus' a thing teh do. I qui' when they star'ed tehllin' meh I couldn' eat wha' I wanted and still be 'pretty.'”

“Good to know you have morals.”

“Yeah,” she grinned. “Wasn' wort' havin' an eatin' disorder fer noh one.”

“So you just quit? For like, ever?”

“Well, noh. I do some jobs, if I'm asked. I mostly do teh merch stuhff.”

We kept talking about pretty much everything through our meal. Growing up, school, music. I learned that Thoa was forced through a Catholic high school away from her home town that she could pronounce but God knows I couldn't repeat. I talked about being home schooled and never really knowing anyone besides the boys, and how I didn't really know how to do things besides music. We ate this rice dish that had so much spice I had to chug my juice to keep my tongue from exploding. She just gulped it down like it wasn't a big deal at all.

“How do you even eat this,” I demanded after draining my second glass.

“Um, favori' Indian place, yeh?”

“Oh, right, yeah.”

“We can goh somewhere where yeh don' have teh practically drown yerself.”

“No, this is okay-”

“Noh, let's go ge' some teah,” she said, waving one of her waiter friends over for the check. As soon as it touched the table she snatched it away, slapped some bills on it before handing it back to the waiter with a friendly “kheep teh tihp,” and hustled me out the door and down the street. She was holding my hand again, and she was smiling this huge grin that made it impossible for me not to smile as well.

“So, what's In...uh, Inshitig...um-”

“Inistigoe,” she corrected me, the Irish/Gaelic/Whatever flowing off her tongue easily. In-ish-teeg. With her accent it probably would've sounded right anyway she said it.

“Yeah, that,” I sighed, “What's it like? How was growing up there?”

“Oh,” Thoa smiled the smile of the homesick, only an island away but yet so far, “Is grea'. All green an' wide an' soft. I'd run arouhnd all day, an' meh dah' would laugh at meh when I go' home, all muddied uhp an' all. Mum was never soh pleased, bu' she'd never yell when I go' mud all ohver teh house.”

“Must've been hard to leave for school.”

“Yeh. School...school wasn' good fer meh. Go' inteh trouble a loh' jus' teh hear 'em say they'd send meh home. Never did though.”

“I'm sorry.”

Thoa just shrugged and looked at the ground. I squeezed her hand and she grinned again, just slightly.

“Hey, I get it,” I said, “Being away from home sucks. I'm away from home all the time. We'll be in the middle of driving through Nevada and I'll just wish that I was at home with my mom, eating rice cakes and doing my school work instead of sleeping in uncomfortable positions in the smallest fucking van you can imagine.”

She laughed as she pulled me into one of the coffee shops she had mentioned before. It was small, comfortable, and had this ridiculous menu board with pretty much everything from coffee to sandwiches on it. Thoa ordered first, I made a face behind her back at her choice, ordered something far superior to whatever bullshit she had decided to put in her mouth, then made fun of her choice, which made her make fun of me for being pretentious.

Thoa was a leprechaun after my own heart, she was. It was nice having a friend besides the boys. I could talk to her about girl stuff for once. I could talk about how my hair was being ridiculous that day and how I never got how to do that one make up trick or something and she'd say she could teach me how to keep my hair from being stupid or how to fix my technique. I decided then and there that I needed more ladies in my life, and I could not spend the rest of my days with only four friends who were all guys. I would go insane if I could never be this comfortable around another girl ever again.

Eventually she lead me back to the van an hour before show, and we said our goodbyes.

“Okay, we really need to do this again,” I stated very seriously. Thoa laughed at the very serious face I made that may have cracked just a little bit as she bent double, crouching on the ground. She laughed like that for a really long time, maybe longer than was healthy, but eventually she got back up and wrapped her arms around my neck for a moment before holding my shoulders at arm's length.

“Yeh, definily,” she said, leaning in and kissing my cheek, “I had fuhn. Give meh yer number an' I'll text yeh?”

“Totally.”

I quick gave her my number as the boys started yelling at me from the van, then made a mad dash to jump in while they had the damn thing moving (like the ass-hats they all fucking are), and we got there just grazing the last call for sound check. And then all of the sudden it was time for the show and we were hitting it so hard. Everything was perfect. This venue was a damn castle, the crowd was great, the boys were into it, and so was I. We were playing a really old song, something that wasn't even on the original EP that you couldn't find anywhere anymore. Actually, we had never even made an actual recording of the song. I think maybe Chris recorded it on his phone once. But this was one of my favorite songs, with all of the soaring high notes it made me feel like I was flying.

I was following the path you set me, but I'm never sure if that's what I want to be. Shouldn't I know by now? Shouldn't you have told me that there are ugly things out here in the dark? You sent me out without even a spark...

I couldn't hear any of the low, crowd chatter through my monitor, but that was okay. I liked to pretend that this song was just me and the boys and the music, just like old times. Back in the garage and the backyard at home. It was a nice bit of pretending until we slammed into one of the newer songs and everyone was moving again.

After the set I drank my tea and curled up on the couch, my head in Chris' lap, just like back at home.