Just The Way I'm Not

The feeling of the bus jerking woke Soph from sleep and she looked around finding herself in a dark small space. Somewhere she never liked waking up to. After losing her hearing, she hated being in places like that where she couldn’t rely on her eyes to fill in for her ears. She relied on her eyes most of all her senses and always felt trapped and nervous in situations like these.

She grabbed her cell phone and turned the screen light on so she could figure out where she was. When it turned on, it wasn’t much but it was enough to figure out what was going on. Something moved next to her just as she was aiming the light around and turned to her left to see Jack sleeping soundly next to her and rolled her eyes realizing that it was just like they were kids and used to have sleepovers.

Pushing her thoughts to the side, she looked around the small space to realize that she was in a bunk and had been snuggling with Jack the whole night. At least she thought she had. She honestly couldn’t remember much at the moment about the night before.

She stood from the stool behind her drum set as Addie was giving their last goodbyes to the crowd and the rest of the band gathered around the lead singer. Bram threw his arm around her shoulders and smiled to her widely as he nodded to the crowd and she could see them going nuts. For some reason, she tore her eyes away from the crowd and looked to the side stage where she knew Jack would be. When she met his eye, he gave her a thumbs up and a signature wide smile.

They walked off stage all sweaty and tired but full of adrenaline. That had been one of the best shows they had played and Soph was beginning to wonder why she had ever been worried. The show was great and the crowd seemed to like them a lot. She was still deep in thought when she felt someone wrap their arms around her and after catching the familiar scent of the person she knew exactly who it was and returned the hug.

“You did great!” Jack said once he pulled away from the hug so he could talk to her. She thanked him and glanced behind him to see Flyzik and Curran getting We Are The In Crowd to go on stage next now that their stuff was off stage.

“Was it really good? I was so nervous before we went on. This tour is so important to us. It’s either make it or break it right now.” She replied.

He shook his head, “You have nothing to be worried about. The crowd loved you guys! Trust me.” She smiled and hugged him again thanking him just as We Are started to play.

Ok, so she remembered playing and the rest of the set after that. But what about everything else? There was a faint pounding in her head that meant she must have drank last night so maybe that was part of the memory block that she was having. So now she had to try and think harder about what was going on.

I mean, it’s not just a coincidence that she ended up in Jack’s bunk only in a tank top and panties while Jack had no shirt on. Not that she was complaining or anything, she had to admit he was really handsome. He wasn’t just the lanky weird boy who happened to be her next door neighbor and best friend. He was bound to grow up, physically anyway, and she couldn’t help but notice his looks now.

He had, thankfully, gotten rid of the random blonde streaks that he had put in his hair, and she had actually helped, back at the start of eight grade. At the time they had both thought it looked cool but now looking back, she couldn’t believe how stupid they had been. He had even put a few streaks in her hair since he had some bleach left over. It hadn’t looked as bad but in pictures, you could tell that they had done them themselves.

He also had gotten his ears pierced like he had always wanted to because of Mark Hoppus. She remembered the long argument his mother and he had gone through when he had first told Mrs. Barakat that he wanted to get his ears pierced and she had totally flipped out like any rational mother would do when her thirteen year old son wanted to be just like his idol.

There were also a few tattoos that now covered his body. The Jack Skellington tattoo playing a guitar was on the upper left hand side of his chest and she was surprised the he had chosen The Nightmare Before Christmas instead of Home Alone. He had been obsessed with that movie when they were kids and figured that he still was.

She slightly remembered seeing two more tattoos on the upper left arm by his shoulder when he had first taken his shirt off the night before. Wait what? She was remembering more? She forced herself to stop thinking about the adorable Jack still sleeping next to her and focus on remembering last night.

All Time Low had just finished their set and were walking off stage. Jack was talking to someone way too fast for Soph to try and keep up as he handed his guitar to his tech. Then after giving a few high fives he made his way back over to Soph and wrapped a arm around her.

“Ew! You’re all sweaty!” She complained trying to pull away from him. But she felt him laugh as he pulled her closer.

“I can’t help it, it’s hot under all those lights!” He replied after letting her go. “Besides, the sweat proves what a good guitarist I am!”

Someone must have said something since Jack turned and said something to someone close by him and Soph couldn’t understand what he was saying. After saying something back to whoever it was, they made their way back to the dressing room where the rest of the bands had also gathered.

“Let’s all go get drunk!” Alex yelled throwing his hands up in the air as the rest of the people also cheered and began talking at once. Somehow they all ended up on All Time Low’s bus, well most of them did anyway, and the music was turned up as loud as it would go and the drinks began to be passed around.

She took a red plastic cup full of beer and was about to take a sip when someone grabbed it from her hands. She spun around to see a amused Jack looking at her with a mock disapproving face as he shook his head at her.

“I don’t believe you’re 21 yet missy.” He said as she reached to try and grab the cup from him and he jerked it away spilling some on his hand in the process.

She snorted, “Says the one who was stealing alcohol from his parent’s liquor cabinet at age of twelve.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied as he took a drink of the beer just to tease her. He had chugged half of it in the first gulp so when she went to try and grab it from him again he didn’t spill it.

She rolled her eyes, “Fine I’ll just get my own drink.”

After she was finally able to get her drink and stop Jack from stealing them, she started to feel the effect of a light buzz as the music was turned up louder and everyone started to dance. Jack was in the middle of all the dancing with his head thrown back and a stupid grin on his face as he moved to the beat of the music.

“God, it’s hot in here!” Jack said as he pushed his way over to where Soph was watching everyone dance with another beer in her hand. He took the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head throwing it behind him not caring where it fell. “Come dance with me!” He said and before she could say anything he grabbed her hand and dragged her closer as he began to dance again.

Ok so now she remembered how he had lost his shirt, but what about the rest of the night? She didn’t really think it was that big of a deal to remember it all at that moment anyway, it would come to her eventually. And she honestly wasn’t that freaked out at the fact that Jack and her had ended up in a bed together, her with no pants on and he with no shirt.

She knew herself well enough that she wouldn’t do anything stupid when she was drunk, and besides she hadn’t gotten that drunk the night before. There had been a few other occasions that she had been worse off and couldn’t even remember anything that happened. So part of the reason she wasn’t freaking out was because she could remember some things, and she trusted Jack enough to know that he wasn’t going to do anything to her.

The sudden smell of coffee made her crave a cup and she carefully crawled over Jack and opened the curtain of the bunk and dropped down to the floor. It was cold on the bus and she was only in a tank top so she glanced at the floor to try and find her shirt. When she found it, she pulled it over her head and grabbed her pants and pulled them on before walking out to the front of the bus.

“Morning,” She said to whoever was at the coffee maker. Their backs were turned to her and they were the only person actually awake who was in the room so they knew she was talking to her so they turned around.

“Good morning!” Zo said as she turned and gave her a bright smile and Soph tried to hide her wince. How the hell was this girl so perky in the morning after spending a night with a band who liked to drink so much? From what Soph could remember the girl had been drinking last night also so whatever she was doing to keep herself perky and alive after a night like they had she wanted to know too.

Zo gestured to the coffee maker, “Want some coffee?”

“Yes please, and your secret of how to make yourself look like you didn’t just spend the night drinking. Seriously? What do you do?” She asked as Zo turned to pour her a cup.

She could see Zo’s shoulders shake indicating she was laughing as she turned back to her and handed her the cup. “No secret, just lots of coffee and Aspirin.”

“Mm, I’ll keep that in mind.” She muttered as she took a sip of her coffee and glanced at the girl again. She could see why Alex was so madly in love with her.

She was cute and sweet and kind and seemed to get along with everyone. She looked like she was small and couldn’t stand up for herself but after only knowing her for a day, she had seen her put the boys in their places a couple times. Not that they didn’t respect her, they just liked to tease her but she kept them in line.

“So, how did you and Alex meet?” Soph asked as they took a seat at the kitchen table after Zo grabbed a bag of bagels and offered her some. And Soph had agreed wanting to get to know the girl better, she seemed like a really interesting person.

“Oh um, I sent a letter to some of my family in Maryland and somehow it ended up at his house and we continued writing to each other.” She replied and Soph rolled her eyes. Even if it was a cute story and might have been true for someone else, it certainly wasn’t true for Zo and Alex. She had caught the hesitant look Zo had before she had begun to explain instantly telling Soph she was lying.

“That’s a cute story, but how about the real one?” Soph asked as Zo instantly paled and stared at her with wide eyes. “Hon, I’m deaf, I read peoples lips to understand them so I’m pretty good at reading peoples expressions too. I’m also excellent at poker and can tell if someone’s lying.”

Zo blushed, “You honestly wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth.”

“Try me; I’m sure I’ve heard crazier things in my life.” Soph challenged as Zo gave her a ‘yeah right’ look. “Oh please, how weird can it be?”

“Ok I’ll tell you,” Zo started as she avoided Soph’s eye and put all her attention to the bagel she was spreading cream cheese on. When she was done, she looked up again and gave a small smile. “Alex and I met about four years ago when I was sixteen and he was the random voice in my head.”

Ok, so she wasn’t expecting her to say that. “Um what?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself again,” Zo pleaded. “I know it sounds crazy but it’s the truth.”

“Ok, if you want me to believe you then you’re going to have to explain more.” Soph replied as Zo bit her lip and eventually nodded.

She began explain and couldn’t seem to stop. She explained everything from when she first found out she could talk to the voice in her head up to when she found out who Alex really was and when her brother died.

“Um wow, that’s not what I was expecting.” Soph said finally once Zo was finished explaining.

“Now you’re going to ask me to prove it or tell me how crazy I am aren’t you?” Zo asked as Soph cracked a smile and shook her head. “You’re not? You believe me just like that?”

Soph shrugged and nodded, “Yeah. I was watching your face the entire time. It’s hard to fake seriousness when telling a story like that and you wear your expressions on your sleeve. I my not know you that well but I know that you’re telling the truth. It’s hard to fake the truth especially with a story like that.”

Zo laughed, “I don’t even know why I told you all that. I mean don’t get me wrong, you seem like a nice person I just don’t know you that well. I mean I haven’t even told my family about that and Jack only knows because Alex told him one night when he was drunk and after he proved it to him he believed us, but he’s the only one. No one else knows besides you now.”

“Well don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone until you do. But actually, my grandma believed in all those supernatural things so it’s not that big of a surprise to me.”

“Really?” She nodded. “Was she like a psychic or something?”

“Mm, no, just sort of a person claimed to see pieces of the future. I never really believed her until some of the things she told me came true. She was actually a really cool person even though she sounds really weird. She told me that when I turned five something was going to happen but she didn’t know what. Only that she had a dream that something was going to happen.”

Zo gave a short pause, “and did it?”

“Yeah, I lost my hearing. After that I believed her and she hadn’t been wrong when certain things happened and she told me about them.”

“Does Jack know?” She asked and Soph shrugged.

“I told him about it but he didn’t believe me. Only when she told him about something that was going to happen to his brother did he believe her.” Zo gave her a curious glance telling her to continue. “She told Jack that Joe was going to hurt himself and two days later the dork fell out of a tree trying to impress his girlfriend.”

Zo started laughing and tired to keep herself from choking on her bagel. Jack decided to make his grand entrance at that point and gave Zo a weird look as he made his way over to the coffee pot.

“What’s going on?” He asked sliding in next to Soph and snatching the last of her bagel. “Nice shirt by the way.” She looked down to see that she wasn’t actually wearing her shirt but one of the JAGK shirts that Jack had changed into after the concert. She had no clue what it meant but figure it had something to do with Jack since he wore them all the time.

“I was telling Zo about Grams, how you didn’t believe her when I told you she could see the future and then Joe fell out of the tree.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah he’s such a dumbass, but why did you tell her about that?”

“She told me about Alex and her and asked me why I believed her so quickly and so I explained about Grams and how she believed in the things that couldn’t all be explained by science or other things like that and how Grams used to tell me stories about things like that.”

Jack nodded, “Yeah I remember those. She was quite a lady.”

Soph just smiled slightly and nodded as her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and then opened the new text she had just gotten.

From: Addie
So I don’t even know if you’re up right now or where you are but I assume you’re with Jack. But whenever you get this come to the van, we have some things to go over x

To: Addie
Yeah I’m awake and I’m with Jack. I’ll be right there.

She hit send and explained that she was needed as Jack nodded and let her out of the seat. She slid the last of her bagel over to him and smiled as she said bye to Zo and him before going to the door and trying to find where the van was. They were already at the venue so all the busses and vans were parked behind one another at the side of the large building and the trailers were all open from where the crew had taken the equiptment out.

As she headed toward the newly found van, her phone buzzed again. She pulled it out of her pocket expecting it to be from Addie but gave the phone a confused look as she didn’t recognize the number.

From: Unknown Number
Hey Soph, I don’t know if you remember but you gave me you’re number last night and wanted to know if you wanted to go out to lunch again today. –Jack

She honestly didn’t remember giving it to him but was sort of glad that she had. Storing the number in her contacts, she hit reply and began typing.

To: Jack
Knowing you, you probably stole my phone and texted yourself so you got my number you’re just a creep like that. Lol But I’d love to go out to lunch with you again. Meet at noon? –Soph

She couldn’t help but smile again as she sent it. Even with the hangover and the thought that she had to spend the whole day setting up and preparing for another show that night, he still seemed to bring a smile to her face. She was acting all girly and corny but couldn’t honestly help it, it seemed like her Grams had rubbed off on her since she was getting the weird feeling that this was going to turn out to be the best tour ever, for more ways than one.