Heaven Can Wait

Shaun inspected my walls as I threw clothes into a bag.

"Can I?" he asked as he got to the sharpie signature wall.

"Go crazy," I said as I headed to the bathroom for a few things. When I got back, he'd moved to the show wall. I stuck my camera into another bag as I figured out weither or not I had everything.

"What about work?" Shaun asked as I finished up.

"Mine?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, it's kind of weird, but... don't worry about it." I held up my arm, "Plus, this little sucker's kind of fucked up my work schedule." He grabbed my duffle bag as I turned off the trail of lights I'd left on. I picked up my backpak and we were out.

Shaun had jacked the Red Bull Sion for us to drive bak in. During the ride back to Poughkeepsie, it finally made sense to me why. I mean, what'd happen to my car after we'd gotten back? Smart boy. I watched him as he drove; radio blasting windows down. This was going to be an amazing couple of weeks.

I put my things in the back lounge. The seat lifts up for storage or whatever underneath, and I stuffed my bag in there. The other girl who was traveling with them, Katie, she slept back here too. I hadn't met her yet, but Shaun told me what she was like, so I wasn't all too worried. People had left the skatepark but I was sure this party would be going all night.

To my surprise, Shaun didn't want to join in the party.

"There's plenty of time for that," he shrugged as he took a step to the side. He nodded his head over his shoulder, and I followed him as he headed to the ladder on the back of the bus.

"What's with you and this?" I chuckled.

"I like it... kinda, just get away. It's fun." he smiled.

We laid on top of the bus staring at the sky and talking for a good couple of hours. He mentioned Ohio, which was where we'd be heading tomrrow.

"So you'll probably wake up and we'll be on our way." he said to me.

"That's so weird,"

"You'll get used to it. It's pretty cool... just like we're always on a mission or something."

"Hmm," I agreed as I absent mindedly wrapped an arm across him. He pulled me closer and I closed my eyes as I leaned into his warmth. A little while later, he chook me gently to wake me up and tell me weshould go inside. I hardly remember making it down, inside, and to the back. I just know I passed out almost instantly.

I woke up, but remained sprawled on my stomach, lying on the wrap around couch. I could hear a light humming and felt the slight sway of the bus as it drove along. My heart started to pound with knowing that at some point while I was asleep I'd left home. It was like I'd been kidnapped, just I was ridiculously excited and knew that I hand't in fact, been kidnapped. I went to roll over on my side, but slipped off the couch and couldn't catch myself quick enough. I hit the floor with a dull thud.

"Take it easy over there." someone laughed. I rolled over again, looking up at a girl sitting on the couch at the opposite end.

"How's it going August?" she asked with a smile as she closed the book she'd been reading.

"Not too bad," I said sitting up. I took notice of the fact that I hadn't changed my clothes before going to sleep. Typical.

"Now, I know I know your name, but it's kind of lost somewhere in there." I said rubbing my head.

"Katie," she laughed again. I nodded a little as I remembered, "Nice to meet you."

"Well, just so you're aware, we're in Pennsylvania - probably about half way through by now."

"Kay," I acknowledged as I got up. I pulled the couch up to get out some clean clothes. I got a pair of sweat pants and a plain green shirt.

"The bathroom's up passed all the bunks on the right if you want. But feel free to change in here whenever cause hey! I'm a girl too and I do it all the time!" she laughed as I pulled the couch back down.

"Thank you."

I walked through the bunk area surrounded by snores and mumbles. It was pretty hard not to laugh. A couple of guys were awake and sitting up at the table in the front section of the bus. We all said a good morning quickly and I headed into the bathroom to change.

___________________________________________________________________

Katie and I had chilled out in the back talking for a long time afterwrds. Mostly it was about music and movies. We also stumbled across the topic of coffee and our enourmous loves for it.

"Light and sweet for LIIIIFE!" Katie practically yelled. "For real; people who drink it black deserve to be left in a hole in the desert... You have to let me make you coffee!" I gasped so hard I almost passed out.

"Let's do it, I haven't had any today." Katie said as she jumped up. I followed her to the front of the bus. Pretty much everyone was up now. A couple of people were in their bunks, but the rest were hanging out up front.

"AH! Can we Xbox now?!" one of the guys asked as we walked in.

"Go ahead," Katie said as she pulled up the coffee machine. I walked over to Shaun, who was sitting at the table.

"What it do, Ging?"

"Call me that and I'll never stop calling you berries&cream." he said as he hugged my waist. A chorus of 'beeerries&creeeeam?!?!' was yelled at me. My head dropped as they went aobut taking note of the nickname. Shaun pulled me down, sitting next to him.

"I'm so sorry." he whispered in my ear as he bear-hugged me.

Once the coffee was done, I made up a good handful of cups for those who wanted some.

"Shit, I won't need a damn Starbucks with you around," someone laughed. I threw my hands up in an 'I'm down' kind of gesture.

"We're gonna be getting in in about half an hour," James said. Katie was James boyfriend, who was one of the managers on this tour. Boy oh boy had he proved to be energetic since I'd met him... I was kind of scared; not even gonna lie.

The last half hour of the ride, I left Shaun and stuck it out in the back, watching as a couple of the guys battled it out in some Xbox game.

Never, ever gonna understand that.