Far From Home

Leaning against the bus, I tried to blend in with the crowd. The six men were standing in different areas of the large open space, with fan girls swarming everywhere, giggling in half drunken delight when the guys hugged them, or signed something for them, or even just looked at them.

Jorel came out of nowhere and appeared next to me, sounding out of breath. “What happened?” I asked, listening to his rapid breathing. “Those girls, they wouldn’t leave me alone! They stole my jacket, and I swear I felt them trying to get my shirt too.” “Well you’re just Mr. Irresistible now aren’t you?” “Afraid so,” he laughed, his wind coming back to him.

We stood around for a few moments, until the crowd died down a little, and the other guys came back to the bus. Dylan ran up, excitement spread across his face. “Aye guys, one of them guys over there just said there’s an amazing bar down the street, and we should check it out!” He shouted, and I could tell that he was already fairly drunk.

Everyone agreed, and began to walk that way when I cleared my throat. Danny was the only one that stopped and turned around. “Oh yeah… you’re still underage. Damn,” he grunted, turning around. “You guys go ahead, I’ll stay here with Jess.” “See, told you that girl would cause problems!” Jordon shouted over his shoulder.

“Don’t listen to him, I really don’t mind. Plus, I can’t get too smashed tonight, Theresa may be flying in with Scarlett tomorrow and I have to be in good health. Wow I miss those two,” he breathed, climbing onto the bus. “Oh, is that your girlfriend and a friend or something?” I asked, climbing on behind him.

“No, Theresa’s my wife, and Scarlett is my daughter,” he said, taking off his jacket and tossing it aside. “Hold up!” I shouted, “You’re married? And you have kids? How old are you?!” “Haha yep, almost a year now, and Scarlett’s 9 months old. I’m thirty two, an old guy. Oh, my back’s going out!” He joked, leaning against the table and putting a hand to his lower back.

“W-wow! I thought you were younger. You really don’t look that old, and thirty two is young anyway.” He laughed and thanked me, then reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of alcohol.

He offered one to me, but I refused. I had sworn not to drink a long time ago, for personal reasons.

“Come on, I won’t tell anyone, and one won’t really do much to you.” “No, it’s not that, it’s… a long story.” I stared at the ground, horrible memories coming back. The room began to spin, and I made my way to the couch, wrapping my arms around my stomach. He placed one of the bottles back and joined me, having a seat next to me slowly, and wrapping an arm around me.

“Jess, is something wrong?” I breathed slowly and heavily, tears forming in my eyes. Three years and it still killed me to think about it. “No, I’m fine. It’s just, I swore I would never drink when I was in eighth grade, because of something between my brother and I.”

“Aw, Jess, come here.” He pulled me closer and I cried into him. “What happened? Just out of curiosity.”

“Well, when I was thirteen, my parents went out to some fancy hotel, and left my brother, who was four years older than I was, home alone. I loved Damon so much, we were so close, I trusted him with anything and everything, so of course I turned down my parents’ offer to go with them, just to stay home with my brother.

“everything was fine until he started drinking some alcohol he had stored away for a while. I thought he was just having one, and I knew that one wouldn’t really have an affect. I should have stopped him from having another, and then a third. I should have said something BEFORE he had gotten drunk out of his mind.”

I kept crying, but tried to continue with the story. “He was so messed up, when I asked him why he had drunk all of that beer, he freaked out. He yelled at me, and started beating me relentlessly. Finally, he passed out, and I did too. And the next day, when I woke up, he was gone. He left a note saying that he felt so bad for what he had done, he ran away, but he promised someday he would find me again, and we could have back what we had before.”

“Jess. I’m so sorry,” Danny whispered, hugging me even tighter. My feelings about this man were right, he was like Damon. This is what Damon would have done. I let out a sigh of relief, and felt myself doze off in his arms.