Through the Lens

The following day brought the normal hustle and bustle of tour. The couple woke up at the crack of dawn so they could go and meet the band at the tour bus and set off to make it to that nights show in South Carolina.

Scarlet hated having to get up this early and while Alex showered and did his hair like normal, Scarlet just put on a pair of sweats, a t shirt of Alex's, slipped on some vans and put her hair up in a pony tail. She didn't even bother with any makeup. Alex had to basically drag her out to the car where she almost fell asleep on the way to the meet up spot.

"Hey!" Jack yelled as soon as the couple stepped onto the bus. Scarlet simply groaned, walked past everyone and disappeared into her and Alex's bunk, making everyone laugh.

"Are we the last ones to arrive?" Alex asked his band and crew mates as he sat down on the couch beside Sam, who smiled at him softly.

"Yup. We leave in two minutes." Matt answered as he stepped onto the bus. "Where's Scarlet? She did come with you, right?" He asked when he saw that the brunette was no where to be found in the front lounge area, even though she was normally attached to Alex, the two were never apart.

"Yeah, she's here. She's asleep in our bunk, you know that she's not much of a morning person." Alex explained, making Matt smile.

"Yeah, I know that." Matt was thinking of the time on the previous tour when he had tried to wake Scarlet at five in the morning to see if she wanted coffee. The end result was a shoe to Matt's head.

Soon, just as Matt had said, the bus set off. The occupants of the tour bus milled around, played video games, ate snacks, watched movies, some napped until finally they reached their destination.

"Let the fun of tour begin." Scarlet said as her and Sam stepped off the tour bus together. They looked around the empty parking lot that they stood in.

"Want to go adventure? Let them get all settled in? I mean, we would just get in the way, ya know?" Sam suggested.

"Yeah, let's go." She turned to Alex who had stepped off the bus after her. "We're gonna go out and adventure, alright?"

"Why don't Jack and I come with you? We have nothing to do here either, we'd get in the way too." Alex told them, making them smile and nod.

"Sure, that sounds fun. Just the four of us." Scarlet said, kissing Alex's cheek who smiled.

"Jack! Come here!" Alex yelled to his friend who had been off by the door of the venue talking with Vinny. Jack nodded and made his way over to Alex and the girls.

"What's up?" He questioned, smiling softly at Sam.

"We are going out with these beautiful young ladies for an adventure before the show. Let's go." Alex quickly explained. He took Scarlet's hand and pulled her towards the street, Jack and Sam followed behind.

"So where are we going first?" Scarlet questioned as they stepped onto a semi busy street lined with shops.

"Let's go in here, this stuff is cute!" Sam said, gesturing to a small boutique ahead of them. Scarlet agreed and pulled her boyfriend into the shop. About an hour later the four of them exited. Alex carried two of Scarlet's bags full of new skirts and tops while Sam carried hers, Jack wasn't much of a gentlemen. Alex had even paid for Scarlet's clothes, saying that he wanted to pamper her for the day and that she wasn't going to spend a single penny. Sam had to admit, she was jealous of the relationship her best friend had. She looked over at Jack as they walked down the street, ahead of them Scarlet was giggling and kissing Alex's cheek thanking him over and over again for the clothes, while Jack looked in the complete opposite direction than Sam, making her sigh.

Sam was starting to think that Scarlet had been wrong about Jack, that he was simply using her for sex and nothing more. The thought broke the young females heart...

________

"Hey babe..?" Scarlet spoke quietly, looking over at her boyfriend. They sat in the front lounge area of the tour bus with the band and crew as they all watched a movie in the dark.

"Yeah?" Alex whispered back, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"Can we go into the back area? I have to talk to you about something." Alex now turned his eyes away from the screen to look at his girlfriend who was biting her lip. He nodded and removed his arm from around her shoulders and stood up, taking her hand as she too stood up.

"Where you guys going? This was just getting good!" Rian complained as the couple made their way towards the door.

"None of your business, Rian." Alex responded, smiling at his best friend. "We'll be right back."

"Rushing off for a quicky, I get it." Jack said, smirking making everyone laugh.

"You are just jealous cause you get none." Alex retorted before closing the bunk door. "So what's up, babe?" He wondered, turning towards his girlfriend who sighed and stepped away from him, walking the narrow length of the bunk area.

"Has Jack talked to you about Sam?" She asked as she sat down on the edge of their lower bunk. Alex frowned and went to sit on the bunk across from her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well.... do you know that before tour started they had been messing around?" She asked him, making him nod.

"Yeah, Jack mentioned it to me."

"Well what did he say? Does he like Sam or is it just.... sex to him?" Scarlet had promised Sam that she wasn't going to talk to Alex about this, that Sam would rather just talk to Jack on her own but it seemed that Sam was making no move to do such a thing and Scarlet was getting anxious. The looks Jack once gave Sam were no longer there, he was flirting with other girls right in front of her, he didn't even talk to her now unless he had to. Scarlet decided that talking to Alex wouldn't hurt anything, Scarlet just wanted to know for herself.

"Well.... he doesn't really like Sam like that. It just kind of happened... and you know Jack, he's not going to turn down sex...." Alex felt bad, he knew that Jack was just using Sam. He hadn't mentioned it to Scarlet because he knew that she would get upset about it and be angry with Jack and Alex didn't want or need that kind of drama on tour.

"So he is just using her..." Scarlet looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap and sighed. "Can you do me a favor?" She asked, looking back up at him.

"Yeah, I'd do anything for you." He answered immediately, making Scarlet smile and lean over to kiss his lips gently.

"Will you talk to Jack about this? Don't tell him that I mentioned anything... it's just... Sam is really torn up about this. She really likes Jack, Alex. I do not want to see her hurt just because Jack is a sex addict who can't keep it in his pants." Alex sighed and reached forward to take her hands in his, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"I'll do what I can, but I can't promise to fix this. Jack is his own person, as is Sam. They will work things out. I'll tell him how wrong it is though and that he needs to either stop or make it official with her. I can't promise that it'll fix it though." Scarlet smiled and scooted forward so that she was kneeling in front of him, her forearms resting on his knees and their faces close together.

"I'm not asking you to fix this, I'm just asking you to talk to Jack. I'll talk to Sam and have her talk to him as well. It's just so wrong what he's doing and Sam doesn't deserve it, not when she's opening herself up so soon after loosing Jake." Scarlet explained, making Alex nod.

"I know that and I completely understand. Like I said, I will do what I can." Scarlet smiled and leaned forward to kiss him softly.

"You really are the greatest boyfriend in the entire world, you know that?" She told him when they pulled apart.

"And you are the greatest, sweetest, sexiest girlfriend in the entire universe." Scarlet rolled her eyes but pressed her lips back to his none the less. She had a perfect relationship and all she wanted was for her best friend to have one as well, she deserved one. Scarlet was just afraid that Jack wasn't it; Jack seemed out for nothing but sex. Scarlet was afraid that if it ever came down to a blow up between the two that Scarlet wouldn't have to choose one over the other because she would go with Sam, while Alex would go with Jack and who knows what would happen to their happy relationship then.....