I'll Take You There And Back Again

"Ouch!" I heard a yelp come from the bunk area early in the morning. We were currently on the road to who knows where. I think it was Utah or something. I lost track. Peering down into the hallway from my spot on the couch reading I saw that Will had since rolled out of his bunk and was lying on the ground scratching his head.

"Have a nice fall?" I grinned as he grimaced while getting up. His hair was a mess and his clothes were tangled up. Eyes half open, he managed to sit down next to me on the sofa. It was about six in the morning. I should have been sleeping but my thoughts had been crammed with various things that had been going on, the main one was a man named Synyster Gates. So after deciding that sleeping was a lost cause I decided to do a bit of reading before we got to the venue. We were still a good two hours away was my guess.

"That hurt." Will groaned as he slouched down and laid his head on my shoulder. I reached up and ruffled his hair even more.

"Aw I'm sorry hun." I chuckled before retracting my hand. I returned my gaze to my book. It wasn’t really anything special. Just a mystery novel that I picked up in the last town. I have never been much of a reader, but hey it helped to pass the time, especially the time when I couldn’t sleep.

"You know, you've had those pj pants forever. I never managed to get them back." Will was poking my thigh gently as he stared at the pair of knit pajama pants I managed to snag from him back in high school. We had all stayed at his house for a week and I forgot my pajamas. He lent me this pair of pants and I fell in love, never gave them back. They were black and had small cartoon squirrels on them followed by the words 'totally nuts' on them.

"And you will never manage because I love these way too much. Why don’t you go back to bed?" Will was usually a sound sleeper. And when he woke up, he was quick to go back to sleep. When it came to waking him up, it was a pain in the butt.

"I could ask you the same." He raised his head and looked at me for a moment. I sighed and put my book down on the table that was in front of me.

"I just can't sleep. Too much on my mind." He nodded. Will understood how I felt and how confused I was. I never had to tell him much for him to understand.

I felt the bus stop moving and heard the engine stop. Will and I both gazed questioningly at each other before standing up and heading toward the door. I glanced out the window to see that we were stopped at a rest area, probably for some food for the drivers. Will opened the door and stepped out to be greeted by Rob, our amazing bus driver. Rob was an older guy, but was fun to talk to. He loved touring and loved just driving at that.

"We're just stopping for some food." He told Will who nodded in reply.

"I think I'm gonna go lay back down. You going in?" The yawn that escaped his mouth was enough to let me know he would be out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"Yeah I'm gonna grab some coffee and a snack. Go get some sleep. If anyone else is up I might offer to have them come over and keep me company." He just gave me a thumbs up as he scooted past me and back onto the bus. I reached for my wallet that was sitting on the counter and slid on my blue fuzzy slippers and a hoodie before heading out.

The air was slightly chilly. Typical for morning weather. I wasn't sure where we were still but at this moment I didn’t care. I entered the store area and immediately spotted a coffee cart. I was about to start adding in my sugar when a voice behind me caused me to stop.

"What are you doing up?" I turned to face Matt who was also clad in pajama pants and a hoodie. He had his hands tucked into the front pocket and his head was cocked to the side.

"I couldn’t sleep. So I figured might as well get some coffee." I smiled before finishing up my drink. "What about you?"

"Same. Jimmy's snoring away. I'm tempted to go tape his mouth shut." I laughed as he rolled his eyes before fixing himself a coffee as well. Caffeine was a great way to start off the day.

Once Matt was done we each grabbed a few donuts and paid before heading back outside.

"Care to join me on my bus?" He questioned. "I could use some help plotting against Jimmy." Of course it would be Jimmy who snored. Might as well help poor Matt out.

"Sure why not. My guys are all still sleeping." They probably wouldn't be up until we got there, if not after so I don’t think they would mind. I could use some company. It beat reading my book that’s for sure. Matt led me onto the bus and we sat down at the table. I loved how they had comfy bench seats to sit on. I curled up in the corner and held my coffee close to me. Matt sat opposite me and was instead stretched out on the bench. The door to the bunk area was closed but you could hear Jimmy's snoring coming through the door, thankfully it was slightly muffled.

"So tell me how you got into singing. To be honest, I didn’t peg you as the front leader type of person to begin with." He took a sip before setting his coffee down on the table.

"Well, it’s a funny story. And incase you haven’t already noticed, there's a lot of funny stories within our group." At this Matt gave out a chuckle. But it was true. Everytime they asked us a question, it brought about some sort of so called funny story.

"I have always liked to sing. Just not in front of other people. Especially the guys. I was always scared they'd make fun of me. It started back in high school. My parents would go out on the weekends sometimes and my siblings would stay at friend's houses so I usually had the house to myself. I would spend my time bouncing around the house with the music blasting and would just sing. Well one weekend, I had gotten out of the shower and had on a pair of basketball shorts and my bra. And that was it. I figured no one really saw through my windows so it didn’t matter. I was in the living room, just singing away, when in barged the guys. Well, more like they fell through the doorway. They had obviously been standing there watching me and it scared me half to death. I screamed but they were all too much in awe to laugh like I expected them to. I tore upstairs to go put a shirt on and when I came back they all had evil grins on. And that was the day I was forced to be their singer. They didn’t even give me a choice." I laughed thinking back to the memory.

"I remember being so embarrassed that I had no shirt on. That and the singing were my main concerns. Now I walk around the house with my bra on and it's no big deal to any of them. We've come a long way." I laughed as Matt followed suit.

"You guys are sure unique that's for sure. Mattie held back that you were a chick when he was telling us about you. We’ve seen bands with girl singers before but none really impressed us. Mattie knew you guys were something else. He had actually talked about you personally a lot. We just didn’t know you were the singer of the band he raved about." I smiled at the mention of Mattie. He was such a great friend. My smile was cut short however when we heard a big snore from Jimmy and then a thud, followed by a "Fuck!"

Matt glanced at me and then started laughing. I grinned as we heard footsteps thud through the bunk area, heading in our direction. The door swung open to reveal a disheveled looking Brian. His hair was sticking out at all angels and his eyeliner from the night before was smeared slightly. He wore, much like Matt and I, a pair of pajama pants but unlike us, he had no shirt on. One hand reached up to rub his head while the other reached down and scratched his lower regions. Well that’s a lovely sight, note the sarcasm.

"Ahem." Matt coughed while looking at Brian. Brian's gaze shifted to me and he quickly stopped his scratching. He jumped slightly before his cheeks turned dawned a light pink tinge.

"What are you doing here?" He tried to compose himself and just play it off, but it didn’t work very well. I stared at his bare chest for a moment before looking up to meet his eyes.

"I couldn’t sleep. And apparently Matt here couldn’t either. So we're having a mini party." I smirked as he just rolled his eyes. He came over and sat down next to me, snagging my coffee before taking a sip.

"Hey! Go get your own!" I wagged my finger at him before reaching over and taking my coffee back.

"I can't therefore you need to share. Didn't you learn that back in elementary school?" His questions were groggy and the sleep was still affecting him somewhat. He scooted closer to me and soon was squishing me up against the wall. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him before taking another sip of my beloved caffeine. He handed it back though. Smart man.

I had now shifted positions so that I was leaning more into him rather than into the wall. I saw Matt watching us as we got our positions set. The look on his face was funny. It was that all knowing suggestive look, but it didn’t suit him well. It was more of a face you would see Zacky make, not Matt. I just stuck my tongue out slightly at him causing him to wiggle his eyebrows. I think Brian was too out of it still to notice that gesture.

"So how did you manage to get onto our bus? Not that I mind of course." I looked from Brian to Matt and laughed.

"The same way we got coffee. We stopped at a rest area and Matt found me inside the little store. Everyone on my bus is cranking out the Z's so I figured I would chill with the other person awake at this awful hour of the morning."

Brian's eyes looked sort of confused. I guess my wordy explanation was a little much for him this early.

"It's ok Bri. Don't worry about it." I patted his leg lightly before finishing off my coffee. Incase you failed to notice, I'm a coffee junkie. It's true. I blame Will. He's the same way.

"So Kace, what foreign country you excited to go to?" Oh snap! I forgot this was a European tour as well. Shoot.

I looked at Matt for a second before raising my hand up to prop it under my chin. "I don't know. Probably France, for Paris, or London maybe. I've always wanted to go to those places." I loved traveling, but Europe was the one area that remained unexplored by me. I had been to several places in Asia and the Pacific growing up but Europe always seemed to far away.

"Paris is a gorgeous city. The city of loooove." Brian wiggled his eyebrows at me as he spoke. "And the city of love can also be called the city of great sex." I smacked Brian's arm as he gave me a suggestive look.

"Somehow I don't think they call it that." Matt was watching our exchange intently I noticed.

"That doesn’t mean it's not true. I'm just saying from my past experiences…"

"Alright! I don't need to hear about your past experiences thank you very much." Both men laughed as my eyes widened at what Brian was about to say.

"To spare you from his stories, got any birthday ideas yet? Plans, gift ideas, anything?" All of the guys had been bugging me about my birthday. I was really easy going about it and honestly I thought it would just be fun to chill. To me, my birthday was never a big deal, but I guess when you hit 21 it becomes one.

"Umm well, as for plans, just hanging out might be nice. Since we'll be in Florida a beach barbecue or something might be fun, if we have time. And I don’t need any presents. Really." I had the biggest present of a lifetime already in the works. I was on tour. And that was more than I could ever ask for.

"A beach barbecue would be fun. I could go for that as well. And you're getting presents whether you like it or not." Brian's arm tightened around my shoulders as he pulled me even closer to his warm body. I let my head droop on his chest and I admired his sleeve of monsters that was resting on the table in front of me. I'd have to ask him about that one day.

"Morning." Zacky muttered as he appeared through the doorway, stretching as he sat down next to Matt. "Woah, what are you doing here?" He looked skeptically at me for a moment then noticed the position I was in with Brian. "I don't remember you spending the night and fucking." I glared at him before sticking my tongue out.

"I didn't spend the night, nor did we fuck. I came over when we stopped at a rest area." I sighed exasperatedly before hearing more footsteps. Johnny was next to make his grand morning entrance.

"When did you get here?" He asked as he went over to the sink and took out a glass before filling it with water.

"Ugh. Matt you're turn to explain." He just chuckled.

"Heeeey. Kacie's here!" Jimmy practically bounded through the door and shoved Zacky over so he could join the table.

"Yes I'm here. I enjoyed your snoring by the way." My snickering earned me the finger from him but I just shrugged it off still laughing.

"So guys… looks like tonight is our chance to get hammered afterward. We have an earlier show." Zacky gave Brian a high five as he spoke. Oh joy. I get to deal with a bunch of drunken men. Just how I want to spend my night.