Without You, I'm A Disaster

Crystal was lying on the bed in the back of the bus with the phone held up to her ear as she talked to Doug, telling him what hair dye to pick up for her. She was partially instructing him on what to get her, but part of her wanted him to take things into his own hands and see what would happen. Doug was the quietest out of the band, and Crystal kind of liked that about him. It was nice to know that one of the guys still had his head somewhat on his shoulders.
Brendan slid onto the bus when he saw Reid and Sal walk out of the hotel. The two boys stayed a fair distance from each other as they walked towards the door of their tour bus. Reid backed up and let Sal walk on first. Sal nodded to him and dragged his bags up the steps and slid them down the hallway so they would land somewhere near his bunk in the back. He sat down at the table across from where Matt was sitting and pulled his iPhone out of his pocket. He was always doing something on the damn thing, whether it was Twitter, Socialcam, or Instagram. The guys never understood it, but never kept him from it either.
Reid sulkily made his way up the steps of the bus and tucked his bags underneath the couch that Matt was sitting on. Without saying a word to anyone, the keyboardist walked to the driver’s cab in the front of the bus and started the engine.
Brendan sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Matt and raised his eyebrows. He didn’t really know what to do or say in a situation like the one that they were in. Matt shrugged as he pulled a magazine off of the shelf above his head and began to lazily flip through the pages.
After about fifteen minutes on the road, Crystal came back out into the main part of the bus. She looked around at the guys, and quickly realized that Reid was driving and that she was going to have to talk to him about picking up Doug. She sighed as she slid past the three guys in the main part of the bus.
She poked her head into the driver’s cab. “Hey,” she said softly as she sat down in the passenger seat. Reid glanced over at her for a second and flashed a split-second smile before turning back to the road, “Hey.” Crystal sat there silently for a moment and then cleared her throat. “Umm,” she started nervously, “Doug said that he was at the plaza on 4th street. He said you guys would know where to go.” Reid nodded, “Yea, I know. We’ll pick him up in like, five minutes. We’re not that far away.” Crystal nodded and leaned back in the chair with a light sigh.
“Crys?” Reid said somewhat nervously. The girl stopped playing with the ends of her hair and looked over at her ex-boyfriend; his pale face was already beginning to show the signs of the blacks and blues he got from Sal. “Yea?” she responded gently. “I’m,” he stuttered, “I’m really sorry. About this morning. I swung at Sal first. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I was just so angry with everything and-” But before he could continue, Crystal placed a delicate, tan finger to his lips to stop him. “Don’t worry about it Rei-Rei,” she said reassuringly. Reid couldn’t help but to crack a small smile at her use of the pet name that she used to call him back while they were dating.
He looked over at her for a moment. “Can I ask you something?” he said with a slight shake in his voice. Crystal could tell by his uncertainty that this was a question about the two of them. She glanced over at him, fear glinting lightly in his beautiful brown eyes. She slowly shook her head, “If it’s about us, no. if it’s about me and any other guy, no. I think this past morning as more than established that neither of us are ready to talk about things like that.” Reid nodded and kept his eyes locked on the road. He knew that it was a longshot, but he still figured that it was worth a try.
Matt looked up from his magazine and over at Sal, who was looking at his phone but you could tell that he wasn’t focused on what he was doing. He cleared his throat. “So,” the singer said as he waited for Sal to look at him, “what got into YOU this morning Costa?” The guitarist looked up at him, his eyes already beginning to swell and turn color slightly underneath the deep tan he had. “What are you talking about?” he said with a clueless tone to his voice. Matt laughed, “Oh please, don’t play dumb with me bro. Why did you beat the shit out of Reid?” Sal’s jaw dropped, “He swung at me first!” Matt shook his head, “Yea, but you could’ve stopped him without busting the kid’s fucking face open. You know that damn well.” Sal sighed and put his face in his hands. “I know,” he mumbled. He looked back up at Matt, “But I just couldn’t stand the fact that he was being such an ass to Crystal. I mean, you of all people should know what I mean.” Matt cocked a questioning eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Brendan couldn’t help himself; he let out a laugh. “Are you kidding me man?” he said to the band’s singer. Matt looked back and forth between the two guys who were there. “What are you two talking about?” Brendan made his expression serious again. “Dude, everyone knows that you have a thing for her. And none of us blame you, ‘cause Lord knows the girl is absolutely amazing. But yea, you’re not overly awesome at the whole hiding your feelings thing.” Matt sighed, “Well, I can’t be that bad at it. She obviously doesn’t know.” Brendan’s smug grin quickly turned to a frown as he said, “Yea, but she’d be blind to anyone. She’s still so caught up on Reid.” His voice trailed off as he glanced down at his hands.
Matt cleared his throat awkwardly, “But anyway, back to the original problem at hand. Sal, you can’t just go beating the shit out of any of us when we’re being assholes. ‘Cause we’ll all be dead before the tour is over. So just keep your shit together alright?” Sal sighed and gave an unenthusiastic nod before looking back down at the screen of his phone.
After they picked Doug up from the plaza, the tension on the bus began to dissipate slightly. Doug seemed to have a calming effect on everyone. Perhaps it was because he was the calmest of them all to begin with, but regardless, it was what the band needed at a time like that.
The drummer went back to their bunks and flopped down onto his with a sigh. He buried his face into his pillow. He was exhausted and he didn’t even know why. Sure, it had been a late night with a lot of drinking, but that’s how it had been throughout the whole tour. He didn’t understand why it was just beginning to affect him now.
He heard a set of light footsteps, and knew that there was only one person who walked with that much grace. He smiled but kept his eyes closed. “Hey Crys,” he said to her. The girl flopped onto the bunk across from him, “Hey Olives.” The drummer sighed; he hated it when she called him that. It made him feel like some little kid, or some kind of pet. Either way, he didn’t enjoy the feeling it caused. The two of them laid there on their separate beds in silence for a while. It was relaxing for the both of them. Crystal needed to be around someone for a little while without feeling any kind of tension, and she knew that she could always go to Doug for that no matter what. It was what she loved most about him, and she hoped that it‘d never change.
“You’ve got ‘em wrapped you know,” the drummer said softly. Crystal opened her eyes and turned her head to face him, “Huh?” Doug propped himself up on his elbows. “The guys,” he said simply, “you’ve got them all wrapped around your fingers. Even Reid.”
The last part of that sent a chill up the girl’s spine. She shook her head, “No I don’t. They’re just not used to having a girl around all the time. You’ve got a girlfriend, you’re used to having someone like me around all the time. Them? Not so much.” Doug chuckled and shook his head, “You really don’t get it do you? The flirty comments from Matt, the playfulness and shyness from Brendan, the fact that Reid and Sal broke out into a brawl over you, you can’t tell me that you’ve been THAT blind all this time.”
Crystal bit her bottom lip; she had never even thought about it that way. She knew that Sal had always been protective of her, but she figured that it was more in a brotherly way rather than a boyfriend-ish way.
Doung could tell that she was trying to process everything that he had just told her. He got up off his bunk and went over and sat down on hers. He gently placed a hand on her back. “Look, I know it seems like a lot to handle, and it probably appears to be a little far-fetched. But trust me, as the only guy in a rational frame of mind on this tour, please believe me when I say that you could have any of them if you wanted to.” Crystal rolled onto her back and looked over at the messy-haired drummer. “How can you be so sure?” Doug laughed as he toyed with the ends of her wavy brown hair. “Because I’m a guy, and I know how other guys think,” he paused, “Just trust me on this, Love. You’ve got ‘em.”
Crystal shook her head, even though she knew that Doug was right.
In a desperate attempt to change the subject, she leaned up and asked him, “What hair dye did you end up getting me anyway?” Doug laughed as he leaned down and went through the bag of things that he had gotten at the plaza. He hid the box of dye behind his back. “It’s a surprise. I’ll do it for you when we get to the venue.” Crystal sighed, “Fine, be that way.” Doug laughed and ruffled her hair before getting up and walking to the front of the bus. He called back over his shoulder, “Wrapped!”