Someone Somewhere

~story~

“So” Karen said as they pulled out of the parking lot of the restaurant they just finished eating at, “Danny, you’re okay with Jayda staying with you? Especially while being on tour?” she patted Danny’s knee while she drove, looking at him quickly.

Danny just looked at his aunt, a blank expression on his face before he spoke, “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be okay with Jay staying with me?” he looked at Jay. Flashing her a smile before looking at his aunt again, “she’s my sister. My best friend. I’m not going to let her stay somewhere else. Even if you don’t want to stay with me-“he turned his attention back to his sister who sat right beside him, “you’re staying”

Jay sat there with her head leaned against the window and smiled as she stayed quiet, listening to Karen and Danny talk. She couldn’t have thought of a much better place to be. If she was back at Commonwealth, all she would be doing right now is probably sitting in her room with Tabby, one of the other girls there, talking about nothing important. ‘This is perfect’ she thought to herself, looking at Danny and then down at her hands which were in her lap. She closed her eyes gently, not because she was tired –she wasn’t, but because she wanted the moment to last. The wind hitting her face, sitting here in the truck with her big brother and her aunt. Nothing could have made her happier than she was at this exact moment. Nothing. “I don’t think there is any place else I would rather be” she said, smiling up at her brother as she spoke. She lay her head against Danny’s shoulder and closed her eyes once again, letting everything go on around her. She was happy.
Jay slowly started to feel the world slip around her as it all got darker and before she knew it she was being slightly shaken awake by Danny.

He looked down at his sister who had fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder and he lightly laughed. He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head gently as very light snores began to escape from her. He smiled. “She’s tired” he said to his aunt as he rubbed her arm very gently, not wanting to wake her up. Danny jumped a little as his phone buzzed inside his pocket, “shit!” he said quietly, grabbing his phone from his pocket as he received a look from his aunt “sorry” he apologized, looking at his phone to see who texted him

From: Ben.
Dude, what time are you coming back?

To: Ben
on my way Back now. Why?

Danny lay his phone back down in his lap looking at Jay to see if she had woken up. He sighed in relief as she was still asleep before his phone buzzed again “what do you want ben!” he grumbled to himself, picking his phone up again

From: Ben
Dude, you got to hurry. Rob says that we need to leave tonight instead of tomorrow morning

Danny sighed, tilting his head back before replying back to Ben

To: Ben
Rraahh. It pisses me off when they switch it on us. We’ll be back there in about five minutes or so. Hey can you clear off the one bunk below yours that has your bags on it

From: Ben
Apparently the time for sound check got moved up. That’s why we got to leave tonight instead of morning. And yeah for sure. Why?

To: Ben
Ah alright. And Jay needs that bunk. I’ll see you soon mate

From: Ben
Alright mate

Danny read the last text from Ben before putting his phone back into his pocket, gently, careful to not wake up Jay as they pulled into the parking lot where of the Venue where the bus was. He took his seat belt off and began to slowly shake his sister awake, “Jay….Jay, we’re here”

Ben put his phone back in his pocket and stood up from the couch, pausing the movie that he was watching before walking out of the back lounge and over the his bunk. He sat down on the lower bunk, the one he was to clean off, and though for a moment of where he was going to put his bags. For now he just decided to throw them up on top of his bunk, not knowing where else to put them.
“Yo, Cameron” he said as he walked to the front of the bus where the rest of the guys were sitting around. Cameron was on his laptop checking twitter and tumblr and all that, James was sitting at the small table listening to his IPod and texting his girlfriend and Sam was standing, looking through the fridge to find something to eat

Sam looked up from the fridge and saw Ben walk in, “we got nothing in here other than alcohol, pop and water. We need food man. We need food” he as he shut the fridge door and walked back to his bunk where he had junk food that he could eat.

Ben just laughed at Sam as he ignored him and walked over to Cam, “dude, and is Danny back yet with his sister? And hey do you got any space in the bunk below yours so I can put my other bags there to? I don’t have any more room left in the shitty closet thing beside my bunk” he sat down beside Cam and put his feet up on the top of the couch and let his head hang off the side.

“I think they just pulled up now, why? What’s up? And yeah for sure you can.” Cam looked at Ben, curious as to why Ben wanted to know. Cam shut his laptop, putting it up on one of the shelves and then stood up from the couch, stretching, before walking over to the cupboards and grabbing a box of granola bars out of one.

“Nothing mate” Ben rolled backwards off the couch and stood up, flipping his hair out of his face and stealing a granola bar from Cam. “We leave in like thirty minutes” he said as he heard a car door close. He looked out the window to see Danny standing there with his sister and aunt. He smiled. His eyes landing on Jay for a moment before he shut the blinds and walked outside, his pack of cigarettes in hand. He leaned against the side of the bus and pulled a cigarette out of his pack the shoved the pack back into his pocket, lighting up his smoke. The sound of the bus started up and ben knew that he only had a few minutes until he needed to be back on the bus before they left. He sighed. He felt the need to get drunk for some reason. Even if he had no one to get drunk with.

Jay got out of the truck, grabbing her bag from the back seat and then closed the door after Danny got out and looked over at her aunt who now stood with them. “Thanks Aunty” she said, smiling as she hugged her aunt for a long moment before letting go. Jay was almost in tears as she said good bye to her aunt. Her aunt has been there for her over the past two years and now saying good bye to her she felt as if her heart was breaking. She didn’t want to say good-bye. Jay was not ready to say good-bye to her aunt but she had to in order to move forwards.

Karen smiled as she wrapped her arms around Jay, saying good-bye to her. She held her there for a few minutes before letting her go and holding her arm’s length away, “you take care of yourself now, you hear?” she watched Jay nod her head, “I doubt anything will go wrong, but you know you can always call me if you ever just want to talk” Jay nodded her head again and Karen turned to Danny, “You look after her well, alright? And for a little bit, I’m going to be calling either of you anywhere from two to three times a week just to check in and see how things are holding up” she hugged Danny tight before hugging Jay again and saying good-bye one last time “I love you both” she watched the two of them walk away and towards the bus, “Don’t do anything stupid! And remember I’m always just a phone call away!” she yelled after them, smiling to herself, waving to the both of them before walking around to the other side of her truck and getting in. she started the truck up again and watched as Danny and Jay walked into the bus. Jay stopped for a moment before she got in the bus and turned, waved to her aunt one last time and then followed Danny in. Karen waved back and smiled as she watched them disappear into the bus and bus door close before she out her seat belt on and pulled out of the parking lot and was now on her way home.

Jay stepped onto the bus behind Danny and slowly walked up the stairs one by one, keeping her eyes on the ground. She stopped once she reached the top step and looked up at Danny who stood in front of her. She smiled, “what?” she said with a small laugh as they continued walking further into the bus. They stopped once they reached the kitchen/dining area of the bus. She heard someone say her name and she looked up to see none other than “James mother fucking Cassells. Holy mother of god!” she stood there for a moment before the two of them wrapped their arms around each other “Dude, it’s been forever!”

“Jayda?” James said from the couch as he looked up from his phone and saw Danny and his sister standing there. He stood up quickly and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a tight squeeze and laughed. It’s been a while since James and Jayda have seen each other. They used to be such good friends and would tell each other everything. They met back in elementary school and that’s also how James became friends Danny. Was because of Jayda. “Dude, look at you” he looked Jay up and down, “I mean this in the nicest way possible. You’ve gained a little weight since the last time I saw you” he knew he hadn’t offended her when she smiled

“I know” she said enthusiastically, “I was like, what, 90 pounds? The last time we saw each other? I swear its 15 pounds from the 30 pounds of baby fat I carried. You should have seen me. I was huge. But now I’m back to tiny small me again. And-“she got in a little closer to him, “-between you and me… I like food. So now I weigh about 120. Enough about me look at you! Mr. I’m not ever going to get tattoos because I think they hurt too much. You grew up!” she Joked the last bit and James playfully hit her in the arm.

Danny just stood and watched in amusement at James and Jayda. He laughed, opening the fridge and getting out a beer, opening it up, before sitting down on the seat just as Ben and Sam came in.

“Why does James get to know her and I don’t?! It’s not fair!” Sam stood there in front of Danny, joking around with a serious look on his face and pointed over to James and Jayda.

Danny laughed at James’ actions and stood up, “Jay and James have known each other for like ever man” he laughed again, throwing his now empty beer can in the garbage and turned back to Ben and Sam who still stood there. Danny looked at Ben who seemed to be off in his own little world at the moment. He’ll find out later what is up with him. Ben always tells him everything. “Where’s Cameron?”

“Cameron! Get your ass over here! Now!” Ben yelled to Cam, making everyone laugh a little. Cam came out from where ever it was he was before and sat down with his feet up on the table

“Guys” Danny began, “this is my sister Jayda. Jayda-“he turned to his sister “-this is Ben, Sam, Cameron and you already know James. This is my band. Asking Alexandria” he pointed at each of the guys as he said their names, introducing them to Jayda, “I’ve told them so much about you”

Jay smiled and waved as Danny introduced the rest of the guys to her. Ben, Sam and Cameron. Ben. She looked at him a bit longer than she did the rest of the guys. Not to long for him to notice but long enough. “Hi guys” she awkwardly waved again, not really knowing what else to do or say “It’s really awesome to meet you guys finally. Danny has told me so much about you guys over email and threw phone calls” they all said things back to her but she was to off in her own world very quickly as she stared at Bens tattoos. Not really stare but more like… quickly glanced.

“Well guys” Ben finally spoke, “it’s late and I’m really tired so I think I’m going to go watch a movie in the back and fall asleep or something. It was nice finally meeting you Jayda and I look forward to getting to know you” Ben smiled at Jayda before grabbing a half bottle of Jack Daniels from the fridge and left to the back lounge.

“Well Jay, shall I show you your bunk?” Danny offered before quickly receiving a nod from Jay. He picked her bag up off the floor and led her over to the bunk area and showed her what bunk would be hers. He sat down beside her and put his arm around her as he began to think. He knew she was tired. Just by the way she was sort of slumped over/sitting. “Hey Jay?” he said quietly, leaning back into her bunk so he was laying down with his feet still over the edge.

“Yeah Danny?” Jay copied Danny and let her feet hang over the edge. She stared up at the top of the bunk. It wasn’t until then that she realized how tired she was.

“I was just wondering” Danny stopped for a moment, not sure if he should continue on with his question. He too stared up at the top of the bunk but once he felt Jay nudge him in the side, he knew he had to finish his question. “Why… I was just wondering and every time I tried to ask you this over the phone or through email, you would always find a way to change the subject. Anyways, what I want to ask you now is… why… why when you… you know… cut yourself and you were in the hospital for those few days before they put you into commonwealth… why didn’t you let me come and see you then? They had said that I was only aloud to see you if it was an emergency and well… that was an emergency. Why didn’t you let me come to see you?” Danny felt a pain in his heart as he finally got the question out, afraid of what her answer would be.

Jay sighed. She somehow knew that he was going to ask her that question except this time it wasn’t over email or phone. And she knew that there was no way out of it this time. This time she had no choice. She had to answer him. “I… Danny, the reason I didn’t want you to come see me is because… because I was afraid that they would take Avery away from you sooner. I wanted you to spend as much time with my son as you could before they took him and put him into the home. I was afraid. I was also afraid that if you saw me, saw how I was, that you wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore. So I panicked. That’s why. I got all depressed and shit because of everything that was happening and that had happened. The whole car thing, being put into the place I was in although I was innocent and then to top it all off, they took my son away from me the moment he was born. All I got to do was name him. I didn’t even get to hold him and they took him away from me. I heard his cry and saw him for all of two minutes and that was it. I got really depressed after that and did some stupid things I shouldn’t have done. I regret cutting my wrists, Danny. I wish I had not have done it but I did. I regret getting into the car that night with those assholes but for some stupid reason I still got in the car. So I hope that answers your question” Jay was in tears by the time she finished. She sat up and buried her face into her hands as she continued crying.

Danny was in total shock of her answer. He did not expect her answer to be what it was. After she had finished, he watched as she sat up and buried her face into her hands and continued to cry. He sat up after she did and put his arms around her, pulling her into him as she cried and lying back down. He held his sister in his arms and let her cry. He was almost at the point of crying himself. “You know” he began, “he looks like you. Avery, that is. And he is the cutest most adorable kid on the face of the earth” Danny smiled as he realized that Jay had finally stopped crying. He knew she loved to hear about her son.

Jay smiled when Danny said that Avery was the cutest most adorable kid. She loved to hear about her son. She couldn’t wait to finally see him again. She had seen pictures that Danny had emailed her but she had never once got to even hold him before they took him from her. “I can’t wait to see him” she said, snuggling up to Danny, “Hey Danny? Do you think that… you could stay with me until I fall asleep? Please?” she closed her eyes, already knowing what his answer was going to be

He smiled, “of course I will” he kissed the top of her head as she closed her eyes shut and he did the same. He was happy to be holding his sister in his arms again, knowing that she was okay. It was a new start for her and he was going to be there for her each and every step of the way. “I promise”