Life on the Road.

“Temperance, I said no!”

I stare at my mom unable to believe the words coming out of her mouth. How could she say that?

“Why not? I’m old enough to go.”

“I can’t risk you going,” she says.

“It’s not like I’m going by myself, Spencer will be there, and so is Ryan and Brendon.”

“I can’t, I just can’t risk you.”

“For God sakes Margo, she’s 19 not 9,” my dad says as he walks into the kitchen.

“How can you say that Roger, after everything she has gone through.”

“That’s why I should go, after everything I’ve gone through I deserve this.”

“No, you’re going to stay right here at home, where I know you’ll be safe.”

“You can’t keep me trapped here forever mom!” I shout at her unable to contain myself.

She shakes her head hoping somehow that would change my mind. Please.

“I could just runaway and never come back, then you’ll never know if I’m safe,” I say in a threatening voice.

She looks at me and then at my dad, I could tell from her look that I had won.

“Fine, but you will call me every night, I don’t care at what time, if you don’t you will come back home, no exceptions.”

I shriek from happiness and give her a hug, “thank you, thank you.” I tell her and then hug my dad.

I run to the living room and pick up the house phone and dial Spencer’s phone.

“Hello?”

“Aspen! She said yes!” I shout into the phone unable to control my excitement, I was finally going to start having a real life.

_______________________

I stare out the tour bus window, and I couldn’t help but to smile. I never thought in a million years I would actually be doing this, going to a city every night, meeting new people, and actually feeling good, for once.

“You look happier than usual.”

I look away from the window and look at Ryan who’s smiling at me.

“I guess it sank in that this is real and not a dream.”

“And it only took you two weeks,” Spencer says from my other side.

“I know! I thought it was going to take me until the tour was over, but I was wrong.”

“Hey there’s somebody walking out there,” Jon says coming out from the back.

“Stop the bus,” Brendon says to the driver.

“Where are you going!?” I ask as he opens the door.

“I’m going to see if they need help,” he says and then walks off.

I stare out the bus window trying to see where Brendon was, and then I see a black silhouette running away, and just like an idiot Brendon follows them. I wonder where they disappeared to; I mean there weren’t a lot of options of where to go as seeing we were at the side of the highway.

“What if they murdered him?” I gasp and turn around to look at Spencer and Ryan.

“We would have heard him scream,” Jon replies as he walks to the back of the bus.

“It could have been a silent killer, and they could be making their way towards the bus right now ready to kill the rest of us,” I say with a deep tone of voice with wide eyes just as the bus door opens.

We all become silent as Brendon walks into the bus followed by somebody.

“Hi,” a girl about the same age as me says shyly.

“Guys this is Riley and we’re giving her a ride to Vegas,” Brendon says happily as he drops some luggage on the floor.

“You don’t look like a murderer to me,” I say to her causing her to look at me with a confused look. “So welcome aboard the love bus, haha not really it’s actually just a regular tour bus.” I finish with a small giggle.

“Thanks?”

“You can ignore her if you want, she’s weird.” Brendon tells her.

“But everybody loves me,” I say with a pout.

The bus became silent once again, and I wanted to laugh, it was as if they hadn’t seen a girl in their entire life, I mean hello, what am I?

“Aren’t you going to introduce everybody?” I ask Brendon with a smile.

“Riley these are the rest of the guys, Ryan, Spencer, and Jon is right over there,” Brendon says as he points to each one of them.

“And I’m Temperance,” I say.

“Nice meeting you all, and thanks for allowing me to ride with you guys.” She replies with a small smile.

“So you’re okay if it takes us a couple of weeks to reach Vegas?” Spencer asks.

“What do you mean? Why would it take a couple of weeks?”

“You didn’t tell her?” Ryan asks Brendon.

“It might have slipped my mind.”

“Tell me what?”

“We’re in a band, and we’re actually in the middle of our tour,” Ryan informs her.

“Oh, well I don’t mind, a little adventure never hurt anybody.”

“Great, you can take the first bottom left bunk, and you can try and fit your stuff in the closet, if they don’t fit then just put them at the back of the bus.”

“So how do you know the guys?” Riley asks me after three hours of being on the road.

“I’ve known Spencer and Ryan practically my whole life mainly because Spencer is my cousin. Our family is very close so I got to see him a lot, I actually just met Jon a couple of months ago after he replaced the previous bass player, and I met Brendon in High School.”

“Oh. I was thinking something completely different.”

“Let me guess, you thought that one of them was my boyfriend and that was the only reason I was here?”

“Well kind of…” she shrugs looking embarrassed.

“Unfortunately I’m too much to handle,” I say with a big smile and stand up from the couch.

“I’m going to bed… I’m exhausted.” I announce as I stretch.

“Because you have such an exhausting life,” Spencer says sarcastically.

“Duh, who do you think keeps this bus clean and smelling nice?” I retort with my hands on my hips.

“Point taken, good night.”

I smile and head over to the bathroom to change into my pajamas, I could really get used to this.