Your Claims of Love Are Falling

The time between her phone call with Jake and arriving at Warped Tour the next day went surprisingly fast. Jake met her at the gate and brought her in as his guest and lead her back to the bus. No one was on it except for them two.
Jake went to the back to grab something and Ashley walked on the bus. He hugged Helena from behind and mentioned something about when they could take their bikes out again but left her and Jake to their plan.
“Jake, are you sure about this? I mean, what if he doesn’t want to see me?” Helena asked standing in the middle of the bus.
“Hells, he may act like he’s no different than what he would be if he had never met you, but I know that he still thinks about you.” Jake said putting his hands on the sides of her face.
“You sure?”
“So sure you could castrate me if I were lying.” He sounded unflinchingly honest.
“Oh damn! I would never say that!” Ashley said putting a hand on his crotch. “Just hearing that scares me.”
“Yours probably should be cut off.” Helena laughed.
“Seriously! That’s like my greatest fear. Stop.” Ashley said crossing his legs and leaning over to protect himself.
“Ash, go get CC. Don’t let anyone else on the bus. Lie if you have to.”
“No prob.” Ashley said getting up and walking out the doors.
Jake turned his attention back to the girl’s face he still had sandwiched between his palms.
“Now, listen to me. Let him speak first. Don’t rush into you not getting married. See what his feelings are first.”
“I thought you said you were sure.” Helena said scrunching her eyebrows.
“I am.”
“Your castration.” She reminded him.
“I’d still get chicks.” Jake shrugged.
“Not doing a whole lot for my confidence.”
“Did you drive over and hour to get here just so you could bitch out? No. Now sit on that counter.” Jake said pointing behind her.
“That’s the most commanding I’ve ever heard you be.” She said lifting herself to sit on the counter.
Jake left and then returned with what appeared to be makeup remover and a roll of paper towels. “You’ll need ‘em. Unless you like the taste of lipstick and grease paint.”
“Thanks.” Helena said as he placed them on the counter next to her.
“He’ll be here soon.” Jake said as he kissed her forehead and then ducked out of the bus. “Hey man.”
“Hey, what are you doin’?”
Helena looked at the open door only able to see a hand holding it. She knew it was CC just from the voice.
“Nothing, just forgot my phone. Going to get some food.”
“Oh hey, wait up for me. I want to get some too!”
“I’ll save you a place in line.”
“Cool man.”
Helena saw CC’s leg step into the bus. She looked away, waiting. She heard him stop at the top of the stairs.
“Well, you’re the last person I expected to see.” He said starting to take slow steps forward.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
“But you should be married in in like fucking Barbados or something.” CC said scratching his head.
“Well I’m not.”
“Not married or not in Barbados?”
“Well I think the second one is pretty obvious.”
“Okay, so then where’s Kyle?”
“How the fuck should I know?” Helena sighed tossing up a hand and letting it smack back down to her thigh. She was close to crying in such a short amount of time but she held back her tears.
“So I take it as a yes to not being both of those things.” CC said leaning against the counter opposite the one she was sitting on.
Helena raised her left hand for his inspection.
“Why?” CC asked not able to look at her, he was feeling the pain of the last time they were together.
“Because I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lie to him anymore.”
“You lied to me.” CC said quietly. “I haven’t gotten over that.”
“I know, I knew when you said that you forgave me you really hadn’t. And I think I made it worse by my choices that led to our... excommunication.”
“Got that right.” CC snorted.
“CC, can you please just look at me? I don’t understand why you are being so cross all of a sudden.”
“It’s not really all of a sudden. I’ve been mad for awhile now. I had a lot of time to think about it, to reflect on things without you there. It makes you see things... differently.” He said in the same upset tone as before.
“Well then I guess what I have to say will mean nothing if you’ve made up your mind.” Helena said starting to get off the counter.
“Stay.” CC said stepping towards her and gently pushing her back onto the counter. “I’m not done.”
Helena wouldn’t look at him. She cast her eyes down at her hands and tried not to start crying. CC lifted her face to look up at him but she still kept her eyes downcast.
“Look at me, please.” He said in his uncharacteristically soft voice.
She flickered her gaze up to his eyes and then back down. “I can’t take this seriously with the makeup on.”
“I’ve honestly forgotten it.” CC said reaching for the makeup remover.
Helena grabbed a towel and dipped it in the makeup remover and started wiping his face off. He stood there letting her. He wasn’t going to stop her, but he didn’t exactly want her hands on him because of the way it still made his heart race. The way it made all this harder for him.
“There, good enough.” She said putting the dirty towels on the counter.
CC stepped back from her again. Helena bit her lip. There was something different about him and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what was next.
“Let’s go in the back. I feel more comfortable back there.” CC said nodding as he started to head for the back. She followed him and sat on the couch next to him but kept her distance.
“I just don’t understand why or how you could have left me like that. I know it’s what you promised you would do, but I honestly believed that you couldn’t stay away from me. When I woke up and found that note you left me I felt like that was telling me I would see you again.
“If someone really truly deeply loved someone else, they wouldn’t leave that person alone. Much like I never left you alone even after I learned of your engagement.
“But then you never came around again, you didn’t respond to my texts, or even answer my phone calls. That was the hardest part Hells, being so cut off from you after I had told you exactly how I felt about you. I had left it all bare and you just left me out to dry.
“That was the worst fucking feeling I have ever felt. I never want that again. I can’t help but think that this will just end up that way again if I give in to you. It doesn’t matter that you’re not married or even close to being married anymore. Those wounds are still there. I’m not over it.
“I can lie to you and tell you I am over it, that I want nothing more than to have you to myself but I don’t anymore. I found a way to cope and I’m done. There is just no way around that. I’m done Hells. I don’t want to be yanked around anymore.”
Helena nodded and didn’t say a word. CC got up from the couch in the back of the bus and left. She heard the front door slam and she curled up into a ball in the corner of the couch.
That was that, she thought to herself. No more chances, she had fucked it all up. Helena should have known that the second he confessed everything to her that day in his bed she should have renounced Kyle and taken CC up. But she was too stubborn in her loyalty, too afraid to live with out a plan that she left him lying there and didn’t talk to him afterwards.
She had provided the time and space CC needed to get himself over her and now she was too late.
Jake found Helena there an hour later having guessed what had happened because he had ran into CC. Apparently CC had also figured that Jake had been in on getting Helena there and wasn’t happy about it. CC gave Jake and earful about how he had been pissed off and then left.
Helena explained to Jake how she was done now seeing that CC was over and and that she a screwed up and then she made to leave. Jake wanted to her to stay and at least see some music while she was here but she refused saying she’d rather get the long drive over with and curl up in her own bed.
Ashely walked Helena to her car and gave her a tight hug before she left. There wasn’t much communication on Helena’s end for the rest of the time they were on Warped Tour. While it wasn’t very long, Jake and Ashley still worried about her. They had kept what had happened to themselves rather than tell Jinxx and Andy about it too. This was a choice made out of respect for CC and Helena. They figured that neither of them wanted their lives out on display.
When they got back home Ashley took Helena out for a long ride on their Harley’s. This was good for Helena because she didn’t have to talk but she didn’t have to be alone either. There was nothing that could calm her like a long ride on her bike.
A few times she had to see Kyle so they could sort out their belongings but he wouldn’t say a word to her while she was at his apartment. Helena had made it easy for Kyle and put all his things in a box for him so he could take it and leave. He appreciated this but still resented her for what she had done.
The next week Ashley stuck closer than ever to Helena and made sure she was alright. She was starting to get back to her normal self though he knew she still had strong feelings for CC. They went out with some of the other guys in the band but never with CC.
Then one night, Ashely and Helena were out with Andy. Jake, Jinxx, and CC happened to show up at the same club they were at. Helena had immediately ducked out of sight and Ashley followed her. CC had made a quick few seconds of eye contact with Helena but pretended he hadn’t.
Andy looked at both parties and shrugged before picking up the beer that Ashley had bought for him. He was still underage but he wouldn’t let a silly thing like that stop him from having a good night. He fluffed his hair and made his way to the bathroom when no one said anything.
Ashley had chased Helena to a far wall and stood next to her watching her face to read what she was thinking. She was staring at the bar where CC had taken a seat and was biting her bottom lip. There was nothing more Helena wanted than to walk up to CC and apologize again but she had again sworn to herself to leave him alone. Although in the back of her mind she had a voice reminding her that the last time she had left him alone it had landed her in this terrible situation.
“Well then why don’t we give him something to think about?” Ashley said quite seductively in Helena’s ear having thought up a plan while she hadn’t been speaking.
He pulled her out to the floor despite her surprised look and pulled her close. They were dancing together but she was still throwing glances at CC. Ashley sighed and turned her around so he could have his hips against her backside. His hands gripped her hips tighter and she allowed it. It wasn’t strange for them now because they had become such close friends. Back in the beginning Helena would have done anything to get out of this situation, but now she was enjoying it.
“What do you have in mind?” Helena asked tossing a casual glance in the direction of the bar to search for CC again.
Ashley only spun Helena around again to face him and pushed her back against the wall they had just been standing against. She got the idea fast and threw her arms around his neck as his lips crashed into hers. They were in full view of the bar and CC was sitting there watching as his band-mate shoved his tongue down the throat of the girl he was trying to decide if he still loved.
When the kiss didn’t break after a few seconds CC started to feel his blood get hot. He was clenching his fists. That answered the question he had been contemplating, he still loved her. Watching another man kiss her in that way with his hands heading steadily for her chest was too much for him. He had to leave before he did something irrational.
Helena and Ashley had forgotten the original intent of their little stunt and were wrapped up in each other. They didn’t even notice when one song cut out and another began. When Ashley began to feel his will to throw Helena over his shoulder he pulled back. She laughed because they were just staring into each other’s eyes awkwardly.
“So that was a good fucking kiss.” Ashley said to break the tension.
“Yeah, but kind of strange.”
“I think you like strange.”
“Ash, don’t fool yourself. I’m still a girl with a broken heart and you’re just a playboy.” She smiled, hands on his chest.
“I know, it will never be between us. That’s fine though. I don’t want to lose my Saturday morning riding partner.”
“Right.” She agreed. “Let’s go find everyone else.”
It was decided that they should leave because the club was starting to get boring. Andy wanted to have more than one beer an hour and Jinxx had a whole bunch back at his place that would satisfy Andy.
As they were walking out CC hung back and grabbed Helena’s arm as she passed by. She was surprised and hadn’t seen who it was. As soon as she felt herself backed up against the outside of the club wall feeling the music pulse against her back and CC’s lips against hers she was fine. Her hands threaded into his hair and pulled her tighter.
Ashley smiled to himself though he was surprised his stunt had done so much so fast. He had only intended to make CC a little jealous and start the thought of wanting her back. Quick as it was he was pleased they were kissing outside against a dirty wall. It was the dirty Hollywood rock scene at it’s best.
“Do you want to get out of here?” CC asked.
“I think that was the idea when we all walked out the door.” Helena said cocking an eyebrow and letting a smirk pull the corner of her mouth up.
“I think you know what I mean.”
“Thirteen plus four.” She said.
“What? Still? Really?”
“Thirteen plus four, CC.”
“Seventeen. Did you dive here or are we walking?”
“I have my car. Yours or mine?” She asked grinning.