What Makes It Wrong for Us to Fall in Love?

"Fuck." I turned around and forced his arms off my waist. "You don't go doing that, Halvo."

"I can do whatever the fuck I want! I'm Eric fucking Halvorsen for crying out loud!" He exclaimed.

"Sure you can, Halvo." I wiped my shock away and smiled at him.

"Halvo," He repeated. "It sounds weird coming from you. Call me Eric."

"Okay." I shrugged and started walking off.

"That's sort of rude, don't you think?" He grabbed my wrist.

"What do you want?" I gave in and looked at him questioningly.

"I'm Eric." He let go of my wrist and held his hand out for me to shake.

"I'm Jess?" I reluctantly shook his hand. "We've met,"

"I play bass for A Rocket To The Moon."

"I play drums for The Summer Set?" I pulled my hand away from his.

"I am very pleased to meet you." He smirked.

"What?" I laughed. "Will you just stop this now?"

"Stop what?" He innocently asked.

"We've met, Halvo."

"Call me Eric."

"Okay, well. Eric, we've met."

"Well, have you met my friends?" He walked over to my side. He draped one of his arms over my shoulder and brought his face next to mine, pressing his cheek against mine. "That one," He pointed at Nick. "That one's Nick, he sings for our band," Then he pointed at Andrew and Justin. "That's Andrew, and that's Justin--"

"I've met them. I've met you." I pulled myself off from Eric.

"Have you met our sister band?" He pulled me close to himself again. He looked around and stopped at where Pat and Garrett were. "That's Pat and Garrett,"

Garrett's ankle didn't have the bandage anymore but he kept insisting that it still hurt, but he could bear it. The past shows, Pat always had to help him on stage. One time, Garrett played sitting down on the edge of the stage which was a fun idea, because it was safe. So they decided that was how Garrett could've kept playing with them.

They even tried to get Stephen to sub for Garrett one time. That almost worked, but Stephen didn't know how to play any of their songs. So we left it at that. Garrett's ankle was getting better anyway.

"They're from The Maine, our sister band." Eric continued as he looked around again. "Jared's over there," Then he stopped as he pointed at Kennedy. "That's Kennedy."

"I've met your sister band."

"Have you met their lead singer?"

"John O'Callaghan, the one and only." I forced Eric off of me. "I've met him."

"Oh?"

"Are you forgetting we've been spending the past five weeks of tour sharing a tour bus?" I asked curiously.

"Oh," He said again. "You haven't met John O'Callaghan yet."

"Yes, I have." I insisted. "Your guys's set starts in two minutes, I think you should go."

"You don't know anything, do you?" He tilted his head at me pitifully.

"I don't know what you mean."

"You have not yet met John O'Callaghan. Maybe you've met Jawno, this crazy twenty year old who fronts our sister band, this crazy person with the weird accent everyone thinks is hot, this crazy dude who gets all poetic when he's alone.." Eric crossed his arms in front of his chest. "But you have not yet met John O'Callaghan."

"What?"

"I just happen to know that you guys haven't been talking the past two weeks."

"How do you know that?" I curiously asked.

Was it that obvious that Jawn was avoiding me? So obvious that news already spread to the other buses?

I didn't know why he just suddenly stopped talking to me, why he stopped getting close to me, why he felt so awkward around me. I tried to forget about what I so intentionally eavesdropped on from his conversation with Jared, I tried not to have accepted the possibility.

"I have my sources." Eric said with a smug. "Besides--"

"Eric fucking Halvorsen, will you get your fucking ass over here?! Our set starts in half a fucking minute!"

We both turned around to where Nick was wiping sweat off his forehead.

"Come here, you dumbass!" Nick yelled.

"Alright, it was nice meeting you, Jess." Eric smiled at me and started walking off towards his angry band mate.

"Man, it's the second to the last date of this tour and you're still like that, Halvo, you're always fucking late!" Nick complained.

"Halvo--" I put my hand around his wrist.

"Call me Eric." He shook my hand off and went off.

"Eric--"

Too late. He ran off.

What was it with boys running off from me?

But I let it go.

"Love." I felt two arms wrap around my waist, making that the second time it's happened that day.

"Love," I called him too, and turned around.

Stephen pressed his lips against mine and pulled off a bit.

"Hi."

He pulled away from me completely and took my hand in his. "Do you wanna go do something?"

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

He started pulling us away from the back stage.

I turned my head around and saw Eric staring at me. When he saw me looking back, he winked.

"Oh God." I muttered.

"What's wrong?" Stephen looked at me.

"Nothing." I mumbled.

"Do you wanna go back to the bus to cool off?"

"Sure."