Barriers

“So, Ariel, what do you do?”, Austin asked as he chew on his fries. It had been going on for the past 30 minutes. After Jonathan introduced me to his band mates and Eloise, who was actually Caleb’s girlfriend, they’ve been playing ’20 Question’ on me. I sat between Caleb and Kyle, and they were the ones who liked to ask me so many silly questions, but they were starting to become my favorite.

“I… I’m always on tour with my dad…”, I trailed off and avoided the question about me, but there was no use to not answer who my dad was. “Who is… Jared Leto.”

Suddenly, chokes heard everywhere, even Kyle choked from his soda. Then, coughs filled the air. I glanced at everyone who was wiping their mouths with a napkin or just covered their mouth with their hand, except for Jonathan, who was still eating. It was not surprise for him. “Is it that… surprising?”

“Y-yeah.”, Caleb coughed and continued. I slumped on my seat and bit my bottom lip. “But, hey, it’s something to be proud of.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve been brought on tour since I was…”, then, I bit my tongue. Would the fuss about my age? They were 22s something, and I was only 16. “Since I was a kid.”

“How’d you survive in a metal capsule full of men for all those years?”, Eloise rolled her eyes playfully and giggled afterwards.

“You know you love to be on the road with us.”, Caleb grinned and kicked her leg under the table playfully, and she kicked back. They were pretty much adorable in their own way.
After we were done with our lunch, they invited me to their bus and I went along with them. Dad hadn’t even called me yet anyway. They were still on the Bamboozle tour and the arena wasn’t that far, so we just walked there. Everyone was ahead of me, so it was just only Jonathan and I behind.

“Sorry about my friends’ questions. I guess they were just pretty excited about new people around.”, Jonathan grinned sheepishly down to me.

“They’re cool.”, I smiled. “I love meeting new people, especially people that I could be friends with, so I’m fine with their questions.”

“But, really, Ariel, I’m sorry, I feel bad… especially questions about your dad.”

I pursed my lips and smiled a little. “I’m used to that.”

He just grinned before we walked in silent. My stomach knotted every time he grinned and it was unusual of me to be attracted to someone who I just met, not to forgot who was way older than me, even though I still didn’t know what age he was exactly.

When we got to the bus, we quickly got in before some fans could catch them and ask for a picture or something. Everyone else was at the back lounge and from what I’ve seen; they were playing Uno cards.

“Do you guys always play a game on tour?”, I laughed and just sat down on the front lounge, feeling a bit full from the lunch. The air conditioner kept the inside of the bus cool and it made my eyes dropped a bit.

Jonathan sat next to me and I was trying to keep my head straight. It was a habit of me when I was sleepy, I would just lean my head on the shoulder of someone who was next to me, and I didn’t want to freak him out by that. “Yeah, don’t think all bands need alcohol for entertainment.”

I laughed a bit on his answer. “Touche. I live in one scene for too long.”

“You said you don’t have any friends. Is it because you’re always on tour with you dad?”

“I actually have some friends, especially my best friend, Quincy. He’s one of the crews and I’m really close with him.”

He nodded. “That’s good. At least now you have us.”

I turned my head to him and he was still grinning, but sheepishly, like he was scared that I didn’t like what he said earlier. “Yeah, I got you guys now.”
**************
There was a frantic buzzing inside my pocket and it was ticklish at first, but it turned annoying. I groaned in annoyance and rolled over until I bumped onto a wall. When I opened my eyes, it was dark. ‘I’m in a bunk?’

My hand brushed the wall and it was definitely not dad’s bus. The wall wasn’t velvet, but it was just… wall. Some of the voices outside the bunk was tad familiar, but I need to concentrate because it would take five minutes after I woke up. Then, it hit me.

I quickly got out from the bunk and fell off onto the hard wood floor. My phone fell out from my pocket and it was still buzzing with its screen lit up.
“Ariel, you okay?”, Jonathan asked quickly with worry in his voice from behind and I just kept my face planted on the floor. I was still in their bus and it was dad who calls me.

He helped me by pulling me up by my shoulder. When I was up, he turned me around to face him and eyes widened when he saw my face. “Ariel, your nose…”

My brows furrowed and touched my nose with my fingers hardly. It was throbbing and sore, and it took me five seconds to winced. “I think it broke.”

The next moment, I could see all of the blood in his face drained and his skin went pale. “A-Are you sure? Let me look at that.”

Jonathan took a step forward, making him closer to me as he took a look at my red throbbing nose. It was pretty much intense of me because our faces were just a couple inches away, probably just a hand length away. My cheeks turned into the same shade of my nose right now.

“I’m fine.”, I peeped and moved his hand away from my nose lightly, but I could see a hint of hurt in his eyes. “I-I gotta go.”

Before he could even say anything, I walked pass through him to the front lounge where everybody was there, doing their own things. Eloise was the first one to notice my presence. “Oh, Ariel, you’re already up!”, she grinned and stood up from her seat, then she noticed my nose. “W-What happened to your nose?”

“I think I broke my nose, I gotta go.”, I said quickly and when I reached the steps to the door, I turned around. “Thank you so much for today guys, I have an incredible time.”

Everyone couldn’t digest what just happened until Jonathan joined them at the front lounge. “I-I’ll call you later.”, I said quietly but I knew they could hear me. With that, I left the bus.
*********
‘She is out there and alone, Shannon! Do you think I could calm the fuck down and go on stage when I don’t know my only daughter’s whereabouts?!’, dad’s raised voice echoed from the closed dressing room and I was already outside the door, scared to knock the door.

I looked down to my shoes and took a deep breath before knocking the door ever so lightly. Footsteps were heard from the inside, coming for the door and then it swung open. “Ariel?”, it was uncle Shannon.

“H-Hi, uncle Shannon, I was—“, before I could finish my words, dad had pushed past uncle Shannon and pulled me into his arms.

He had his arms tight around me and I could feel his worry in the hug. ‘He was scared to lose me’. “I’m so sorry, dad, I feel asleep in my friend’s place.”

“You should’ve called me or something.”, he muttered and pulled away with a smile on his face. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I smiled and he let me go to go onstage. Uncle Shannon and uncle Tomo gave me a smile as they walked past me and I just nodded, knowing that I came back at the right time.

When I wanted to go to the side of the stage, my phone buzzed as if it was the millionth time. I groaned and it was a call from Jonathan. He looked hurt when I left just like that, and he looked worried too. With a deep breath, I tapped ‘Answer’ on the screen and put the phone on my ear. “H-Hello?”

“Ariel? It’s me, Jonathan.”, he said on the other line. He was stuttering and his voice was like really quiet.

“I know. The caller ID said so too.”, I giggled on his cuteness. Now I could imagine him blushing on the other side.

He chuckled. “So, I called because you left your board back at the bus and I’m outside of your dad’s venue right now. Think you could go outside?”

My eyes widened and my nose throbbed a little more. “Y-You’re outside?”

“Yeah.”, he chirped. “Can you go outside? The securities are giving me dirty looks.”

I laughed and ended the call before rushing outside. When I reached the double doors, I peeked at the little windows first to make sure that Jonathan was already there. He was sitting down on the sidewalk outside with his back on me. My lips curled into a grin and with an idea to surprise him.

Quietly and carefully, I slipped out through the little crack between the doors and tip toed to his place. When I was right behind him, I clapped his back. “So lonely!”

He yelped and quickly jumped off to his feet. “Ariel!”, he groaned when he turned around and found out it was me. “You scared me.”

“Why?!”, I laughed and clutched my stomach. “You’re easily scared.”

“Yeah, yeah.”, he rolled his eyes and sat back down. “Wanna join me?”, he patted the space next to him.

I bit my bottom lip a bit. Dad would probably have another tantrum when he found out that I wasn’t at the side of the stage the whole show, but I could sneak in before the last song. So, I sat down next to him and we got into a comfortable silent for a couple minutes.

“Where are the others?”, I asked, noticing that he was alone without his friends.

“They acted weird before I left. Even Eloise said ‘no, we’ll stay, just go meet Ariel by yourself’ with a giggle.”, he mimicked Eloise’s voice and giggle, making me laughed. “I think they’re hiding something.”

“They probably just wanna stay back at the bus. You’re so suspicious.”, I smiled and pulled my legs up to my chest before resting my chin on the knees.

We constantly peeked to each other from the corner of our eyes, and when our eyes met, we would quickly looked away. It was so middle school, but it was cute.