Life Aint Living Without You, But Its Pretty Damn Close; We'll Make The Most Of It.

~August~
“Lily, Ryds! Rise and shine dear tour bound children!” I yelled upstairs from the kitchen. I heard movement up stairs and saw some very groggy looking twins with bed hair and sliding feet that led them onto their seats on the small island table in the middle of the kitchen. I was dressed and ready to go and I only hoped the twins were.
“Got your things packed and ready to go kids?” they nodded slowly as they chewed on their cereal like cows chewing on cud.
“Well I hope you guys will be ready in twenty minutes cuz that’s when the bus gets here to pick us up.”
“But I haven’t even showered yet!” Lily yelled running up the stairs.
“I’m glad one of you two showers.” I chuckled into my coffee. Ryder looked at me indifferently and shrugged.
Twenty minutes passed and the bus was here, Lily and Ryder were still running around making sure that all their necessities were packed safely in their bags.
Ryder had his things ready and started to load them onto the bus. Talented kid, he’s really into the music, some people call him mini-me because we are so much alike in every way. My charming good looks and passion for music; he plays three different instruments though, piano, guitar, and just started learning drums. He dresses like me too, so kinda punk looking. He has longish hair like mine used to be till I chopped it all off, the usual shirt and skinny jeans with converse. My little girl however managed to stay girly with all the testosterone she grew up with. She dressed in her dresses sometimes but she doesn’t mind dressing in the usual (baggy shirt and skinny jeans with converse). She loves music but she has more of a passion for writing and literature; I’m sure she got that from her mother. She’s a spitting image of Ellie, she even has the same colored highlights as her when she was young (purple), though I never told her that.
“Kay daddy, I’m ready to go.” She struggled with her two bags of things, wobbling towards the door till I ran to help her with her biggest bag.
“Jeez Lily what are you carrying in here? A corpse?!” I joked
“Aw you caught me dad, I stashed my boyfriend in there.” She looked serious for a moment and my eyes actually got wide, she saw this and started laughing.
“Don’t joke like that Lils, I can’t have some perv dating my little girl.” I dreaded the day she would start dating boys; she’s my angel and I would kill any boy that hurt her or even looked at her wrong.
“Aw daddy, don’t worry that won’t happen for a long time.” She batted those hazel eyes at me, she knew that it instantly melted me on the inside, daddy’s girl indeed.
“Hey sugar, hey Frankie boy.” my best friend Gerard came up the driveway and took Lily in his arms and swing her around.
“Uncle Gee!” she laughed as she was swung. She stood back a little and examined Gee’s bright red hair. “Whoa, what happened uncle Gee, did you lose a bet or something?”
“What? You don’t like it?” he pouted jokingly, “I thought out of all people you would love it.” He continued pouting.
“No I love it, but…why?”
“Change; Just wanted something different.”
We boarded the tour bus and set off onto the streets, our first venue was here in L.A. but the next day we would have to leave to the next venue in a different state.
I’ve been thinking hard about what Gee and the guys said to me a month ago at the twin’s birthday party, and I think I’m ready to start dating but first I would have to get the okay from Ryder and Lily.
Everyone was in the main part of the bus watching movies or playing games (Toro reading about games), or reading (writing in Lily’s case. What she writes? I’ll never know.)
“Hey Ryds, Lily, can I talk to you guys privately in the back? They looked at each other with faces asking if either twin did something wrong but they soon got up from their seats and followed me to the back of the bus where the bunks were.
“You’re not in trouble; I just need to talk to you guys about something.” They instantly looked relieved. “Now you know I will always love your mom and I will never forget her and she will never be replaced as a wife to me or a mother to you but,”
“You’re seeing someone aren’t you dad.” Ryder cut me off
“What? No. no I’m not but…”
“But you want to start dating don’t you daddy?” Lily said almost reading my thoughts.
“Well yes. I think it’s time, but I won’t do it if you two aren’t ready for that. I would never want to do anything to make you uncomfortable and I will not date anyone you don’t like or anyone who would want to hurt us as a family. We stick together always.” They both smiled and pulled me into a tight hug. “Does this mean I get your approval?”
“Of course dad, you deserve to be happy and you’ve taken care of us by yourself all this time.”Ryder said thoughtfully.
“And now that were older you deserve to date and have fun, just not too much fun.” Lily added. I smiled into the hug and kissed the tops of their heads.