Time After Time

“So what's your first impression of us, Rose?”

“... like... there are 5 Gustav... Gustavs, basically?”

“What?” Ben chuckled.

“What does it means?” Gustav asked.

“I just feel that you guys are very... alike. Of course you look different and have different personality and everything, but... that's just how I feel.”

“Cool. Alright, that's our luggage. Let's grab them and go out to enjoy the sun!”

Watching Gustav Wood talking to his four best friends after they separated for a quite long time was one of the happiest moment of Rose Lette's life. She watched them chatting, laughing, shouting at each other and then they were chatting more as they walked into the part where Rose parked the big van.

“That's a nice van, I can tell,” Si said.

“Yeah, that's definitely a nice van,” Ben added and they all laughed before they talked about the last van they used to travel when they were touring. Rose didn't say much and after everyone was sitting nicely (not exactly 'nicely', since obviously what they wanted was sitting together on the floor or something instead of strapped with seatbelt to seats) she drove the van to move outside Sydney.

For the first thirty minutes, all they talked about was lovely weather outside the van. After they went on about the weather in London for the hundredth time in thirty minutes, Rose shouted to them as she was trying to steer the van to the highway.

“So where do you guys want to eat?”

They mumbled a few answers. Si want pancakes, Gustav told everyone they should eat Spanish food, while Fraser said that the eating could wait and they should just go to a beach somewhere. Rose then came up with an idea.

“What if we go for a picnic? Grab some food and then we can stop somewhere near the beach—and you can grab anything. Pancakes, Spanish food... I want a wrap myself.”

Everyone thought it was great idea so they went for a little adventure for food on the suburbs area of Sydney before they moved towards South. Everyone was so excited; they're excited because Gustav got to see them again, they're excited because it's a beautiful day outside and they're excited because they have so many brilliant food waiting to be eaten.

They stopped on a little quiet beach not far from the last place they went to buy food. There was area with grass and trees, so they set up place to sit there where they all decided to eat first.

She watched the mans who sat around her as she munched her vegetable wrap.

Gustav sat next to her. He was calm. Excited, but calm on a very Gustav way that Rose had known pretty well. As he spoke, Rose could see that he thinks a lot as he speaks and there was something meaningful in that. John was the one who sat next to Gustav. He didn't show as much as expression as the other guys but Rose could tell that he was having fun. His sentences tended to be short and sometimes Rose got feeling that he didn't really like to talk.

Fraser sat next to John. Unlike his brother, Fraser had more grin in his face and he looked like a kind of reliable person, judging from the way he helped Rose to set up the place so they can sit and eat. Giggling next to Fraser was Si, who seemed to be amused at all time. Rose felt amused just by looking at him being amusing and it was great to have people like him as a friend because you'll always think everything light heartedly.

The person who sat between Si and Rose was Ben. Ben kind of felt like Si, who liked to be funny and being amusing, but he was gentler in a way that Rose couldn't really explain. He was joking about something with Si and she chuckled to see five of them sitting there, having great fun and laugh. After they sat for a while after eating, everyone went to the beach while Rose stayed there to look up for their belongings in the grass and tree area. Beside, she didn't really like running and getting blowed by the sea wind—it made her hard to breathe, somehow.

So she just sat there, watching them having fun as they were trying to push each other to the current.

After a while, Rose watched the sea as the wind blowing her hairs toward the land. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. There were moments where she felt that it was hard to breathe when wind blows her. But of course, such moments would be there, for the fact that she lived one extraordinary life now—in a beach with Young Guns was truly extraordinary. She smiled when she opened her eyes, watching the line that never actually existed between the sea and the sky at far. There was something scarcely terrifying about a landscape with horizontal line between the earth and the sky, because it gives you illusion of a line that never really exists.

“Hey.”

“Oh—hey!”

Rose looked up and saw Ben stood next to her, smiling, “Are you alright by just sitting here, Rose? Do you find it hard to keep up with five Gustavs and decided that it's too much?”

She chuckled.

“Maybe. I just liked sitting and relaxing. I can't afford to running around and getting blown by the wind like that. Maybe even though I know particularly nothing about famous England rock musician, it is still quite something to be with you guys there—I mean, you're Gustav's best friends,” Rose stared at standing Ben.

Ben jerked his head toward a space next to where Rose sat, “Do you mind if I sit next to you?”

Rose shook her head quickly, “No, no, of course not. Have a sit, Ben.”

He sat next to her and breathed deeply.

“I just love this country, you know? You got the weather and you got the beach, which are absolutely brilliant. We got the rain and... well, rain,” Ben shrugged and Rose chuckled.

“I'd like to see that kind of rain, though,” Rose smirked. “I'd like to see the country where my mother once belonged to.”

They both were gazing at the sea, saying nothing and listening to the sound of wind and sea at the distance.

“Do you know how much we owe you, Rose Lette?” asked Ben.

Rose shook her head again, she could felt that she was slightly blushing, “No, Ben, please don't say that. We're all just want to help Gustav and it is a normal thing to help a friend in need.”

“Do you know that I got the feeling that maybe you two are not just friend?” he snickered.

“Well, yeah... it's not like you're entirely wrong about that... but hey, I don't think it's a big thing. I mean, what matters right now is where are you guys going as a band. It is your job and there's complication on it.”

Ben finally took his gaze from the ocean and stared at Rose.

“You're quite something, aren't you?”

Rose chuckled, “I'm not sure I know what does it means. … but, Ben, I want to thank you as well because you called. It's a little thing of course, but life is a series of massive events constructed by little events; little successes and little failures. Sometimes a little luck, sometimes a little hard work. And now you guys here and Gustav looks happier than ever—which is great. It's super great and whatever happens next, I'm glad that he got to see you guys again.”

Ben smiled, “I think you'll be pretty damn happy if you know what are we about to tell him. But the surprise can wait. Let's put this thing back in to the van and give us time to know more about you.”

“I'm genuinely scared to think that I actually get Young Guns to know more about me personally.”

“We're just a group of really weird people, really, when you know us. Just take a step back and appreciate how cool you are, Rose,” Ben said as he stood up. Rose stood up and nodded.

“Okay,” she chuckled.