She Could Make Hell Feel Just Like Home

Aria and Vic stepped out of the bathroom and went into the bedroom. Vic opened the door and just stared at the mass of sheets draped over all the beds.
Vic! Ariel! Come play in our fort with us!” Kellin shouted when he saw them. Mike popped his head out from inside the closet.
“Yeah! And bring popcorn!”
“What the hell is this!?” Vic asked. Mike unfolded himself from the closet, sprawling across the floor.
“We told you we were going to make a fort.” Mike said, incredulous. Vic slapped his forehead and shook his head. “What? God, live a little.” Mike said, getting up and taking the blanket from Kellin. Vic looked at Aria and shrugged, then dove into the blanket covered bedroom, accompanied by loud hoots from Kellin.
“Toss me some new clothes!” Aria shouted. A pair of jeans and a t-shirt came flying out. Aria caught them and shook her head at them, though no one saw it. “I’m going to go outside with the big kids.” Aria said with a laugh before going back into the bathroom and changing before heading outside. Justin, Jesse, Gabe, Tony and Jaime were all sitting on chairs outside, talking about some past tour they had done. Tony was describing how Jaime had fallen on his face, and Jaime was turning a light shade of pink.
Gabe saw Aria come out and got up, offering her a chair. Jesse handed her a wine cooler and Aria accepted, sitting down. She looked from one man to another.
“What time is it?” She finally asked as Gabe pulled up a chair next to her and sat down. Tony held up a finger and pulled out his phone.
“It is…nine fifteen, give or take a few minutes.”
Aria blinked slowly, popping the top off of the wine cooler. “In the morning. And you’re already drinking.” Jaime shrugged and motioned at her bottle.
“So are you.” He pointed out, taking a swig of beer.
“I was taking it as a gracious gesture.” Aria defended. Tony laughed and shook his head.
“So how did you like Kellin waking you up this morning?” Justin asked.
“Does he always do that?” Aria asked, leaning back and crossing one leg over another.
“Yeah.” Gabe laughed. “No offense, but we’re glad he did it to you, we got some extra sleep. That boy loves getting up at the ass crack of dawn.”
“I totally understand.” Aria laughed, smiling.
“Where are they anyways?” Jesse asked.
“Inside. Mike and Kellin took over me and Vic’s bed, then made a giant fort. Vic joined them and I came out here.” Aria explained, making air quotes around the word fort.
“They made a fort?” Jaime asked. Aria nodded in response. Justin, Jesse,Jack and Jaime all looked at eachother for a moment, then all burst up at the same time and ran into the bus, leaving Gabe and Tony sitting outside with Aria.
“Good god.” Gabe said, shaking his head and laughing. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna goto the bathroom.” Gabe got up, set his drink down and went inside, shutting the door behind him.
“He’s not coming back.” Tony stated as the door shut.
“Nope.” Aria replied, taking another sip and looking at him. “So how’ve you been?”
Tony shrugged and picked at the sticker on his beer bottle. “Alright I guess, looking forward to getting some time off to head home for a bit. I love touring, but sometimes, I don’t know.”
Aria nodded and looked out into the distance, studying the landscape they were in. They had both buses pulled over at a rest stop and were camped out in the parking lot. Touring season was coming to a close, with only one more show left.
“What’re you going to do?” Aria asked.
“Not sure. Relax, get some sleep, hang with Stephanie.” Tony said with a smile.
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“Are you going back to school?” He asked and Aria nodded.
“I’m almost done with my bachelors. Then we’ll see about my next few years.” Aria replied.
“Do you have wish you have done things differently? I mean, not went to school?” Tony asked, scooting in closer, and leaning in.
“I don’t know, yes and no I suppose. I mean, I don’t have talent other than psychology.” Aria said, staring out into the parking lot they were camped out in. She turned the bottle she held in her hands around, twisting her fingers around it.
“You’re kidding, right?” Tony asked. “You can sing, play guitar, set up a set, and, color.” He added on.
“Coloring? What?” Aria asked, looking up suddenly, confused.
“Yeah, I know about your coloring books, they’re very nice.” Tony laughed. “Will you color me a Cinderella picture?”
“Hah, sure.” Aria said, smiling. “But back to the point, I don’t have enough talent to become a musician, or the patience to deal with fans and the burden of being a hero.”
“Its not a burden, its something amazing.” Tony answered. Just then, Vic staggered out, looking a little dazed. He fell into the chair between Tony and Aria and stared at the sky, not saying a word. Finally, he turned to Aria and then Tony.
“I didn’t realize forts were so dangerous.” He finally said.
“What happened?” Aria asked, noticing the bump forming on his forehead. Tony handed him a beer, which Vic promptly opened and took a large swig of.
“Well, Mike was trying to get onto a different bunk, and Jesse was in the way, so he went to hit him with a pillow, but whacked me instead, and I got knocked off balance and fell onto Kellin, who tried to stop my fall with his elbow, in my face.” Vic explained.
“Now I’m glad I didn’t go in there.” Tony said, laughing.
“It’s like being in a mosh pit. But without music, and there are a lot of pillows and blankets.” Vic summarized.
“You go hard in the mothafuckin fort.” Aria joked, finishing off her wine cooler, then she stopped and stared at Tony and Vic’s drinks, then to look at the bottles the other guys had left laying out.
“Hold up.” She said, putting down her wine cooler. “How come you all have beer and I have a wine cooler?”
“Oh, right. Well, Kellin was basically in charge of the alcohol last night, and when we went on the run, he picked up some wine coolers just for you. I told him you would be fine drinking beer with the rest of us, but he started ranting and raving about how you’re a lady and you should drink lady-like things.” Tony explained. “He was already a tad drunk, so we decided not to argue with him.” Aria blinked slowly, gathering her thoughts.
“I don’t know if that was a kind gesture, or extremely sexist.” She finally said. Vic laughed and handed her his half gone beer.
“There you are my lady.” He said, saluting her. Aria just smiled at him and took a drink. “I wonder how long it’ll be before the rest of them come out.”
“I’m betting another five minutes for Jaime, he can’t stay focused that long.” Tony said. Just as the words left his mouth, Jaime came out. He sat down next to Tony again, picking up his beer and looking from one person to another.
“Damn Tony.” Aria laughed. She turned to Jaime. “So how’s the fort?”
“Well, they’re all spooning on the beds watching a movie, so I left.” Jaime said, kicking back in his chair and looking over the parking lot. “Plus it’s so nice outside. I want to ride bikes.”
“Of course you do.” Vic said with a sigh. “We’ll take them out in a bit. Let’s just kick back and enjoy the day for a little longer.”
“Ok.” Jaime sighed, taking a long drink, draining the rest of his beer. “So, Tony, lets go buy a turtle.”
“No.” Tony said without hesitation, not even looking over at him.
“Tone-bone, c’mon.” Jaime said, jiggling Tony’s leg. “It’ll be fun.” Tony rolled his eyes, ignoring Jaime.
“We don’t even have room for a turtle.” Vic said as the door swung open and the rest of the boys piled out. Mike and Kellin wrestled for the chair next to Aria while Gabe, Justin, Jesse and Jack just sat down in open seats. Mike finally pushed Kellin out and sat down, a huge smile on his face.
“God I’m just kicking everyone’s ass today!” He hollered, taking a beer offered by Jesse, who was passing them out.
“How did you like your wine cooler Ariel?” Kellin asked, a huge expectant grin on his face. “Was it…proper?”
“Kellin I’m fine with beer. I don’t need special drinks.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. We have wine coolers?” Jaime exclaimed, then grabbed the cooler from Jesse and fishing around for one. “God I fucking love these things. I feel so classy drinking from one.” Jaime popped the top and then looked up to see everyone staring at him with a weird expression on their faces.
“You can have them Jaime.” Aria laughed. Jaime shrugged and chugged one down. “It’s a shame you don’t look classy drinking from it.”
“I don’t need to look classy if I feel it.” Jaime retorted with a huff.
“Ariel, Ariel.” Kellin said, tsking her. “You need to show Vic here how much of a refined lady you are.” Vic snorted. “He won’t love you if you drink beer.”
“Oh I prefer tequila to anything.” Aria replied. “And Vic, I heard that.”
“What? You’re not lady like. Thank god.” Vic said, laughing. Kellin looked at the two of them and sighed, leaning against the trailer.
“Do you want to sit down?” Aria asked.
“We don’t have any more chairs.” Kellin pointed out, pointing from one back to another. “No more chairs means no more places to sit.” Aria stood up and sat down in Vic’s lap, gesturing to the open chair.
“There you go. I’ll martyr my seat for you.” She said with a smile as Vic linked an arm around her waist and settled her more comfortably on his lap.
“Too cute.” Kellin said, sitting down instead on Justin’s lap. “Can we pull it off just as well, if not better though?” He cocked his head to the side and smiled at Justin, fluttering his eyes at him.
“I think you need to swoon as well.” Jack said. Kellin put a hand up to his forehead and sighed dramatically, leaning backwards and falling from Justin’s lap.
“Sorry dude.” Justin laughed as Kellin got back up and sat down in Aria’s now empty chair, crossing his arms and trying to frown.
“Can we bike now?” Jaime asked, getting up and all but dragging the bikes from their compartments without waiting for anyone to answer.
“I’ll go get ours.” Justin said, and him and Jack both went to their tour bus. Aria got off of Vic’s lap and Vic grabbed a bike. Aria got onto the pegs behind him, then turned to Mike.
“Wanna race?” She asked. Mike shrugged and pulled beside next to them. Jesse saw this opportunity and tied his shirt off around his pecs and lowered his pants down be lower around his hips, then took his hat and waved it as they took off. Mike flew past them until Jaime leapt on the back of his bike and dragged them both to the ground. Aria jumped off the bike, landing on Mike’s back as soon as he stood up. She pointed where Vic was headed.
“Go!” She screeched. Mike ran, letting his long legs carry both Aria and him where Kellin was waving his arms to signal the finish line. Vic pulled the bike to a halt, jumping off and dropping the bike and pulling Aria off Mike’s back and into his arms. Aria tightened her legs around Vic’s waist and nuzzling his neck. “You lost.” She whispered into his ears. Vic bit her neck.
“You little brat.” He laughed, spinning her around. They stopped, turning to face Mike, who was stretching down to grab the bike Vic was on.
“I’ll just take this as my prize.” He said with a smile before pedaling away. Kellin leapt on Vic’s back, wrapping his legs around both Vic and Aria, toppling them over.
“Dog pile!” Jesse hollered, leaping onto Kellin, followed by Jaime and Justin.
~~
Later that night, Kellin and Vic sat down outside, the sound of everyone else disappearing as Kellin shut the door before plopping down, beer in hand. They both sat in silence for a moment, listening to the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking.
“So, you gonna marry her?” Kellin finally asked after taking a swig of his beer. Vic spit out the beer he was swallowing and stared at Kellin.
“Am I going to what?” He sputtered.
“Are you,” Kellin pointed at Vic. “Going to marry Aria.” He pointed at the door, speaking slowly. Vic sat in complete silence for a moment, looking down at his beer.
“I think so.” Vic finally said. Kellin smiled and set his beer down before leaning back in his chair, arms over his head, one leg crossed over the other.
“Look at you, getting married.” Kellin said with a smile. He looked back at the bus, then back at him. “You going to keep touring?”
“Dude, I want to marry her, but have I asked her yet? No. I’m not getting ahead of myself.” Vic replied.
“Touchy, touchy. What are you going to o after the tour? You don’t have another one this fall do you?”
“I think I’ll be with Aria. I’m going to get an apartment near her, maybe see if she wants to move in with me.”
The door opened and Mike stepped out, plopping down on the stairs and fumbling for a cigarette.
“Last show tomorrow gentlemen.” He said, leaning back against the door and blowing out smoke. Vic and Kellin both nodded.
“That’s true.” Vic said, looking at his phone to see the time, seeing it was one in the morning. He stood up. “Now, I’m going to head in.” He said good-bye, then got up, heading indoors. Aria was on the couch, nursing a bottle on tequila, leaning against Tony, her eyes half closed as she stared down at the bottle.
“C’mon Ar, lets go to sleep.” Aria muttered something inaudible in response and Vic scooped her up, carrying her into the bedroom and setting her down on their bed. Vic followed her up, pulling the blanket that Mike had left up when they had built a fort down to mask them.
Aria stretched with a yawn, opening her eyes. She arched her back and stretched her arms over her head, bringing them back and over around Vic’s neck, bringing him down to her so their noses touched.
“Love me.” She rasped, pulling her shirt up and over her head. Vic leaned over her as she ran her hands over his body. He slid her shorts down and off, then pulled his off. Aria melded her lips to his as he thrust inside of her slowly. She arched against him, a silent plead for him to go faster.
“Ssh.” He whispered, tightening a hand in her hair, drawing back slightly and looking at her. Aria rammed herself back against him, pushing him over, taking the lead. She bent over him, covering his mouth with hers as they finished. Aria collapsed onto his chest, her hair spilling over his chest like blood as she regained her breath. Vic winced as she crawled off of him. Vic pulled a blanket up around them and kissing her forehead as they fell asleep.