Hopeless Desires

A door slammed open and hushed voices followed. It was really early in the morning and I was only slightly alert and aware of my surroundings. I brushed off the noises and rolled over, trying to fall back asleep.

“Ow!”

“Sssh!”

“Don’t sssh me! I’m injured!”

“How are you injured? We just stepped into the room.”

“I stepped on some makeup shit.”

“Oh boo hoo!”

“What kind of friend are you!?”

“Ssshhh!”

“Shut up!”

“I’m about to punch all of you!”

“I thought you were the nice one out of all of us.”

“Right now, I’m the annoyed one.”

“We are so horrible at being quiet.”

“I think there’s a bra right there.”

“You’re a pervert.”

“It’s right out in the open!”

“If you had a girlfriend, I would so rat you out.”

“Don’t say rat!”

“If you told my girlfriend, I would shave your eyebrows off in your sleep!”

“Ssssshh!”

“Oh my fucking god.”

“How about you all shut up and count?”

“One, two,”

“Three,”

“Wakey wakey sleepy heads!” Voice loudly yelled, sounding much too cheery for my liking.

In my state of half-consciousness, I flew up from where I had passed out on Amber’s floor last night, my eyes wide and filled with alarm. I looked around the dark room, the only light flooding in from the sides of Amber’s red curtains. When I looked up, five smiling faces were staring down at me. I let out a string of curse words, laying back down as my heart beat slowed back to normal, placing my arm over eyes.

“I will kill you all,” I grumbled. Amber groaned from her bed, rolling around.

“I'm sorry, but you’d definitely lose. The birds nest on top of your head may be just enough to scare me off though.” I could hear the stupid smile in John’s voice.

I flung my arm out in attempt to hit his leg that was right next to my head but he simply took a step back, avoiding impact.

“You and your…fucking, stupid boots,” I muttered.

“You are aggressive in the morning, you know that?” Jared asked, laughing as I sent him a dark glare.

“It’s kind of a turn on,” John smirked.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes, glaring up at all the boys. “You try and pull anything O’Callaghan and I will personally be sure you don’t have the ability to make children,” I growled. Obviously, I was not a morning person. I happen to like my sleep.

“Kinky,” Kennedy said, earning laughs from all the guys.

“Why are you idiots here at 8 in the morning?” Amber grumbled, sitting up in her bed.

“To annoy you two,” Garrett shrugged and then added, “Clearly, we’re doing a good job.”

I stuck my hand up in the air, waving it around. “Someone help me up.”

A hand slipped into mine, tugging me up gently but with enough force to lift me off the ground. I stumbled trying to stand on my sore legs. Two hands placed themselves on my arms to help balance me, and I smiled at Jared appreciatively.

“Why were you sleeping on the floor?” Pat asked, sitting down at Amber’s desk, spinning around in the black chair.

“Isn’t it obvious? I love to sleep on the floor. It’s so comfortable and makes my body feel all happy when I wake up.” Sarcasm dripped from my every word.

“Oooh, someone is snappy in the morning.” John chortled.

“Bite me.”

“With pleasure.”

“Okay you two, cool your hormones,” Jared said, stepping in between us.

“Get dressed and lets go do stuff!” Pat said, his hair flying all around as he spun in circles.

“There’s no way you can convince me to get up out of this warm bed.” Amber wrapped her blanket around her head, burying her face into the white and gray fabric as if to prove her point.

“How about breakfast?” Kennedy questioned.

“Throw in a doughnut and some coffee and you have yourself a deal.”

“Sold.”

“Yay food!”

Amber and I kicked the guys out of her room so we could get dressed. I had brought some clothes with me yesterday just in case I decided to sleep over so I already had an outfit picked out. While Amber showered, I sent my mom a quick message, telling her I was awake and about to go out with the guys. She replied with a smart comment of “Don’t get pregnant”, which caused me to snort with laughter.

I then began the challenge of brushing out my hair that really did look like a birds nest. When Amber finally came out of the shower, I jumped in and then quickly got dressed, throwing my hair up in a careless, messy bun. I put on some mascara, eye liner and light eye shadow, my typical makeup routine, and then headed downstairs as Amber finished up her hair.

“If any of you ever wake me up like that again, I will kill you.” I plopped down next to Garrett on the couch and watched as all the guys simply laughed at my warning.

“I’m so scared,” John mocked from his place next to Jared on the love-seat.

“You should be. You’re already on my list.”

“As long as I’m at the top, baby.” I rolled my eyes, trying and failing to hide my smile. John smirked at me, knowing that my ‘angry’ facade was cracking.

“I’m ready! Let’s go buy me food!” Amber came barreling down the steps, smiling wide and headed straight for her front door, her flip flops flapping on the hardwood floor.

Everyone filed out behind her and I stopped in my tracks when I saw the giant, white van with words covering every available space sitting in front of Amber’s house. There was much color all over; words, phone numbers and pictures all over lapping one another.

“What’s with the sketchy van?”

“This is the van we use for touring. We weren’t all going to fit in a normal car so we decided to drive this baby.” I looked at Jared, who was standing next to me, one hand tucked in the front pocket of his black jeans.

“If you use it for touring, won’t fans recognize it and follow us?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

He walked away after sending me a wink. I laughed as I walked after him, slipping my black Ray Bans on as the sun shined down. I climbed into the middle row of the van and sat down next to the window. Amber climbed in behind me and took the seat next to me. John was driving with Jared in the passenger seat, and Garrett, Kennedy and Pat were in the row in front of Amber and I.

“Hm, smells like boy,” I noted, looking around. The ceiling was covered in various stickers, and different notes and pictures drawn in sharpie, some I regret even looking at. I recognized some of the artist’s names, like Eric Halvorson and Alex Gaskarth.

“We spend 10 out of 12 months in this van. Of course it smells like boy.” I stuck my tongue out at Jared who rolled his eyes at my childish act.

“Have you talked to Carter at all?” Amber asked me as the guys broke into their own conversation.

“Who’s Carter?” Kennedy asked, turning around and looking at me.

“Chey’s boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” John asked, his eyes flickering between the road and the rear view mirror where he was able to look at me.

“Yeah, so all that flirting you’ve been doing seems pretty futile now, huh?” I smirked.

“Are you kidding? Guys are like dogs; we’re territorial as fuck. Finding out you have a boyfriend only makes me have to try harder.”

“Good luck with that,” I laughed with an eye roll. “I talked to him yesterday morning. He’s not any better. Kyle is supposed to be taking him to the doctors today.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Garrett asked.

“He has the flu. But he’s on this medication for his blood so his immune system doesn’t work as well as mine or yours. So when he gets sick, it lasts a while and hits him hard.”

“Yikes. That sucks.” I nodded my head in agreement, turning my gaze to look out the window.

I leaned my head against the window, watching as the familiar scenery flew by, Ivory playing lightly in the background. When we pulled into the diner parking lot, the guys raced out, the van barely pulling to a stop before all the doors swung open.

“One of these days they’re going to kill themselves,” Amber mumbled, jumping out the van, myself following suit. “That’ll be the day millions of thirteen year old girls around the world fall apart.”

I snorted and laughed as Amber looped her arm with mine, racing to meet up with the guys who were already seated.