This Could Be All I've Waited For

I sighed laying in the back lounge waiting for something interesting to happen so my wandering thoughts could stop going straight to Jack and how I should tell him that I had overheard his conversation with Marie. I know that they weren’t exactly trying to keep things quiet while they argued in the front lounge that day but I still felt a little guilty for letting Jack think that I hadn’t heard any of it.

“What are you brooding about back here?” Jack asked sitting on the edge of the couch so that his side was pressed against my hip.

I sighed again shrugging my shoulders without looking at him. I didn’t want to be tricked into telling him everything by looking at him; it would cause more trouble than it was worth. “Just thinking,” I told him adjusting my shirt so that there was no longer a strip of exposed skin above my shorts.

“Thinking about what?” he asked climbing over me and shimmying himself between the back of the couch and my side.

“My tattoo,” I lied glancing at him briefly before returning my gaze to the ceiling.

“I thought you and Alex decided on what you were going to get,” he sounded confused and I could feel his eyes on my face.

“We did,” I allowed feeling my cheeks grow warm under his stare.

“Then what is there to think about?” he asked jabbing a finger into my side.

I recoiled away from his finger and was forced to look at him. I did my best to keep a level glare at him as I answered, “Well I will have to get it before the end of this tour or I won’t have the guts when I get back to Georgia, what with my parents being around and all that.”

He was smirking at me at this point obviously finding some sort of victory in this situation. “Well, we’ll have a couple of days off soon you can try and get it then,” he offered.

I nodded liking the idea of not having to sweat directly after getting my tattoo. Having a couple of days to let it heal was for the best; especially if those days would be spent in a nice air conditioned hotel room.

It wasn’t long after this conversation had ended that the bus was shaking with the bass of some dancie music while the guys drank ridiculous amounts of alcohol. I sat back as I often did in these cases sipping on a drink that had been passed my way what seemed like hours ago while everyone else was on their fifth maybe sixth, possibly even seventh drink of the night; it was guaranteed that their drinks were stronger than mine.

Occasionally I would get pulled into dancing with someone or the one shot I’d taken of the night with Jack, but other than that I stayed on the couch laughing at the drunken boys dance and sing and pull stupid stunts.

Now, though, now was the worst stunt of the night. I’m sure that Alex and Jack thought they were being extremely funny when one of them suggested this nonsense, but I can assure you that I was not laughing.

“I fucking hate living with you guys!” I shouted as the guys started shedding their clothes on the bus… while we were on the road so there was no escape.

I just got choruses of laughter in return as they continued tossing articles of clothing while dancing and shouting along to the music that was blasting through the bus speakers. I put my hands on either side of my face and squeezed my eyes shut before they could lose their pants.

“I hate you guys, I hate you guys, I hate you guys,” I sang under my breath using the melody of the song that was playing.

I heard Jack’s laugh very close by and knew almost instantly that I wanted to get out of the back lounge and go anywhere else because what was about to happen could not possibly be good. Within seconds Jack was sitting himself into my lap wrapping an arm around me.

“Oh, Jack, please tell me you are wearing your boxers,” I begged without opening my eyes or moving my hands.

Jack’s laugh was answer enough but he spoke anyway, “It’s a party Cady!”

Why couldn’t I just be wrong for once?

“No,” I said shaking my head from side to side, “This is not a party this is a fucking nightmare.”

I could hear Jack’s laugh muffled by what I imagined to be a cup of the red solo variety as he took a long gulp.

“You should stop drinking,” I told him, “I would like to think that you’ll regret this tomorrow morning.”

I heard him almost choke on his drink laughing, “I’d never regret this!” he shouted as he started to wiggle around in my lap to the beat of the music.

“Oh god this is not happening,” I groaned as Jack continued to dance in my lap.

“Oh it’s happening all right,” I heard Alex call out, I’m sure he was getting some sort of sick and twisted pleasure out of all of this which is probably why he went along with this in the first place.

I shook my head keeping my eyes squeezed tight. This was traumatizing and I didn’t see why all of them thought this was a good idea to begin with. I also was unaware as to why they continuously pulled this kind of shit when I was around. Honestly if you could bottle the self-confidence that these boys had you could be a millionaire overnight. I felt cranky and knew that I would either have to lighten up and join the party, getting shit faced enough to be able to handle seeing all of my closest friends in their birthday suits, or I needed to go to bed.

“Alright, Jack,” I said feeling much too mature to enjoy this situation right now, “Get your naked ass off of me, I’m going to bed,” I explained.

He continued dancing and laughing and singing. I groaned throwing my head back knowing that I was going to have to remove him by force if I ever wanted to get to bed. Without looking at him I pushed my hands forward shoving him by the shoulder out of my lap, I heard his body hit the floor with a soft thud just before he cried out, “Party foul!”

I shook my head at his silliness and made my way to the bunks stepping over his and avoiding looking at anyone else in fears that they were just as naked as Jack.

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The next morning I woke up tangled up with Jack as usual and sighed finding that my face was in the crook of his neck. I heard Jack chuckled as my breath moved across his skin.

“That tickles,” he said sleepily.

I smiled blinking a few times before I decided I wasn’t ready to get up yet and squeezed my eyes shut snuggling into his neck. It wasn’t until I thought about last night that my eyes shot open and I quickly rolled out of the bunk.

“What are you doing Cady?” Jack asked rolling onto his stomach and looking down at me as I laid on the floor.

“You were not wearing clothes the last time we talked,” I pointed out.

He chuckled, “You are more accurate than you know,” he teased.

“You are the worst best friend on the planet,” I told him scowling up at him.

He simply grinned down at me and acted like he was about to get up causing my eyes to go wide. “Don’t you dare move!” I ordered holding my hands up.

Jack gave me a defiant look before throwing the blanket off of himself.

“If someone doesn’t come out here to keep Jack in his bunk right now I will die,” I called keeping my eyes on Jack and hoping that one of the guys, preferable Flyzik would come save me.

“You are on your own, Cade,” Alex answered hanging out of his bunk across from Jack’s.

“You are all demons,” I yelled closing my eyes and slapping my hands over them for extra protection.

Due to my traumatizing night, and morning, I felt the need to wear much more clothing than usual so when I got dressed I pulled on a light cardigan over my tank top and a much longer pair of shorts than I had been wearing. Everyone had already left the bus by the time I was done getting ready seeing as the guys thought it was really funny to randomly pull down their pants all morning leaving me huddled in Jack’s bunk until they were all gone so I didn’t see any more of them.

I had to admit that I was kind of enjoying having the bus to myself for once. I hummed as I made my way to the amphitheater where in less than twenty minutes the guys would be playing to hundreds of kids who loved them to death.

“There you are, Cady,” Jack shouted running over to wrap me into a hug.

I tried to push the thoughts of confessing that I’d heard his and Marie’s conversation out of my head as I hugged him back.

“Good news!” Alex shouted as he ran to us, “I check with Matt and you,” he pointed to me, “will be rooming with this guy,” he jutted a thumb in Jack’s direction.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, “Rooming when?”

Jack laughed at me as if my questions were silly.

“Tonight at the hotel,” Alex replied in a tone that was clearly meant to make me feel less intelligent.

I rolled my eyes at him and Jack nudged my shoulder, “I told you we were going to have a couple of days off,” he said.

I pushed him back, “I didn’t think they would start after today,” I told him.

Jack didn’t get a chance to shove me back because Matt called for them to get on stage allowing for me to claim my victory just before Jack demanded that I wish him luck.

--------------------------------------------

I fell into the couch of the front lounge after taking a shower to get all of the dirt and grime of the day off of my skin, because we were heading to a hotel I couldn’t exactly change into my pajamas just yet, instead I had put on a tank top with a flannel shirt that I’d stolen from Jack years ago and a pair of ripped jeans.

“I looked all over for that last winter,” Jack commented pulling at the sleeve a little.

I grinned back at him and shrugged my shoulders, to which he only laughed and wrapped an arm around me in return. I pushed my arm behind him to return his hug before standing back up and pulling Jack with me to go sit by a window.

I sat staring out the window while we all chatted about random things and Jack played with the bracelets on the wrist of my right arm. I tried as best as I could to hold back the goose bumps that were threatening to surface from his touch as I continued adding my bits to the conversation.

“When are you planning on getting that tattoo, Cade?” Zack asked causing me to look away from the window and direct my attention to him.

I pursed my lips in thought trying to come up with a good answer to his question despite the fact that I had no real plan here. “Tonight,” I told him deciding the sooner the better.

Zack raised his eyebrows at my response clearly not expecting that, honestly I hadn’t expected it either. “Do you already know where?” he asked recovering from his shock.

Well no I guess I didn’t know where I was going to get it. I looked back out the window thinking again and came up with an idea. “I’ll get it at the first tattoo shop I see once we’re close to the hotel,” I told him smiling triumphantly.

“That is quite a risk, Cady,” Jack said now tracing patterns on the back of my hand.

“I won’t get my tattoo at a super shady looking place, Jack,” I replied still looking out the window.

“Do you know where, on your body,” he clarified, “you’d like to get this tattoo?”

I flipped my arm over in his lap and pointed at my inner arm with my free hand. “Somewhere here,” I told him.

I continued to stare out the window as Jack ran his fingers across the small space of my inner arm; there was no holding back the goose bumps at this point. It wasn’t long before I felt the bus stop and Matt announced that we were at a diner for dinner.

I sighed upset that I hadn’t seen a tattoo shop yet and we were only a few blocks from the hotel we’d all planned to walk from the diner to the hotel for the night, which meant that I had lost hope of getting my tattoo tonight.