What If We Don't See Each Other Again?

Las Vegas, Nevada. 23.4.2013, 12.30. Day Off.

‘It’s already on YouTube.’ I laughed from the top of my lungs. All three bands and their crew were sitting around our bus, having a drink, even me. No Bruce has ever said no to a cold beer or two. I sat on a white plastic chair, beer on my right hand with Oliver’s lap top balancing on my crossed legs, which he loaned for me.

Oliver was really nice, even if he didn’t seem like that the first time we met.
Of course I had developed a crush on him, but c’mon who wouldn’t and the best part of this was that Oliver seemed to want to spend time with me.

‘Let me see.’ Oliver and Austin yelled at the same time. I put the fan made video on full screen and clicked play, turning the screen towards the guys.

‘This next song is called, The final episode and I want every each and one of you to sing along’ Danny’s voice echoed through the stadium. Ben started to count. ‘One, two, three, four.’ And right when Danny started to scream into his microphone he threw it to the ground and ran to the nearest water bottle.

Audience was confused and so was the rest of the band.

Danny almost tore the bottle open and started to pour the water into his mouth, just to spit it out.
Audience started to scream when they noticed Lee Malia, Phil Manansala and Alan Ashby ran to the stage, playing the typical Mexican music with acoustic guitars.

The girl holding the camera let out a loudest scream anyone have ever heard when she zoomed on Austin and Oliver, walking to the stage, dressed in ponchos, sombreros and fake mustaches, screaming random Spanish words into their microphones. Of course Austin started automatically laugh getting the whole audience to laugh with him.

‘Damas y caballeros, me and my mate Austin covered the poor Danny Worsnops microphone with tabasco and replaced the normal water to one with hell of a lot lime in it. And the mastermind behind this prank was no else but the lovely Dalia Bruce, the little sister of Ben Bruce.’ Oliver started to clap and soon I stood on stage in front of everyone, laughing like crazy person, but so was Ben, James Cam and Sam.

The video ended when everyone got off the stage and Danny got clean water.

Everyone except Danny was laughing at the memory. ‘Not funny.’ He pouted and opened his third can of beer. ‘I can’t ever again eat anything spicy because of you guys.’ He said and downed the whole can at one time. ‘Yeah right, right when you see food, you eat it, spicy or not.’ Ben laughed. ‘Benjamin, that is not very nice. You know Danny can’t help it, his stomach need all the food it gets, and that’s a lot.’ I high-fived Ben. Everyone stared at me. ‘Like twins for fuck sakes.’ Danny sighed.

‘Oi, Dalia.’ Oliver tapped my shoulder and hinted me to follow him. I excused myself and placed the lap top on the chair, but took my third beer with me and followed the tattooed boy to their bus. Oliver was already leaning to the bus, hands crossed over his chest. ‘Well hello.’ I giggled. Oliver smiled and took my hand, pulling me close to him, so close that his lips were just few inches from mine.

‘I really like you.’ Oliver smiled and pressed his lips against mine. Due the shock I was in, I didn’t kiss him back and he started to pull away. I panicked and pulled him back to the kiss, now fully into it. The kiss got deeper and more heated every second. I felt Oliver’s hand on my ass.

‘What the hell are you doing to my sister?’ Ben’s angry roar made Oliver jump away from me. He panicked and started to stutter. ‘B-Ben I-I-.’ He didn’t make past even the first two words when Ben grabbed his shirts collar. ‘You are dead.’ Ben spat and raised his hand, ready to punch Oliver.

Something inside of me told to stay away from those two, but still, I jumped between them right when Ben was hitting him. ‘Dalia.’ Ben yelled in shock, realizing what he had just done. My head hurt and I felt my heartbeat on my cheek.

‘Nice one Bruce.’ I didn’t know who said it, or was it meant for me or Ben but it made me angrier. ‘Fuck you Ben I fucking hate you.’ I cried and shoved past him, leaving him stand there tears pouring out of his eyes. I already regretted what I had said to him. It wasn’t true, I couldn’t ever hate Ben, he was my whole world. I made my way to our bus. Ben ran after me and tried to grab my hand, but I told him not to touch me and leave me alone.

‘Dalia, what happened?’ Austin gasped but I ignored him, I ignored everyone and went straight to the bus and for the first time on this whole tour, I went to my bunk and fell asleep right when my head hit the unused pillow.

When I woke up I felt huge pain on my cheek and two arms around me. First reaction was shock, but when I noticed all the tattoos on them so I sighed in relief. Oliver had tied himself so tightly around me that I couldn’t get up without waking him up, so I decided to just lay there.

I heard someone walk past my bunk, straight to the back lounge and the closing the door quietly. Fist I heard normal talking, but slowly it turned into yelling. ‘She’s been sleeping for days, we need to wake her up, and kick Sykes out. She needs her medication and she needs to eat.’ Ben shouted to someone. ‘I think Oliver can stay.’ James, Ben was shouting to James.

‘I’m team Cassells.’ Oliver whispered into my ear making me flinch. He laughed weakly. ‘At the moment, me too.’ I sighed and turned around, so my face was against his chest. ‘What did he mean when he said ‘for days’?’ I asked and he looked me like I were the dumbest person in the world. ‘How many days?’

‘You let me sleep for four whole days.’ I yelled to Oliver and pushed him out of my bunk. He was lucky that I slept near the floor. ‘Fucking hell Bruce, shut up.’ Danny yelled from his bunk. ‘On the second thought.’ Danny pulled the curtain open and jumped out of his bunk moving over mine, scooping me from the warmth of my bed. ‘Sykes, grab the legs. If I know something about Bruce’s they kick.’ Danny laughed and I started to kick the air, trying to get out from his grab. ‘See, what I told you.’ Danny kept laughing.

Oliver and Danny carried me to the main area and sat me beside the table, full of food, which scent made me want to puke. I pushed everyone out of my way and ran to the bathroom. I heard Oliver’s phone go off. ‘Yeah Alan she’s up.’ Oliver was on the phone. ‘Puking.’ silence. ‘Didn’t even touch.’ silence. ‘What fucking pills?’ He hangs up after a quiet moment. I turned my head from the toilet to see Oliver standing at the door with Danny. ‘Of Mice bus froze, they are here few hours before the show.’ Oliver scratched his neck. ‘Ashby said you left your medication to his bus.’ He sighed and helped me up from the bathroom floor. I flushed the vomit out of the toilet and brushed my teeth. Oliver stood at the door with Danny, leaning to the door frames, hands crossed against his chest. I felt uncomfortable how he stared at me. I tried to ignore it.

I spat the toothpaste out and rinsed my mouth. ‘Where are we exactly?’ I wiped the water from my face. ‘Wichita, Kansas.’ Danny said, sounding really tired, and he looked like it too. I exited the bathroom and sat on the table.

’Eat something.’ Oliver said and kissed my temple. ‘She can’t.’ James yawned and sat next to me. ‘Ben is really messed up.’ He sighed and stared at his feet. ‘For four days he hasn’t eaten anything, his just been in the back lounge, crying. It was a miracle when he came to the shows, but it was easy to see he wasn’t putting any effort to make those shows amazing.’ James said and looked at Oliver. ‘He doesn’t hate you Oli, he hates himself.’ Oliver gave him a weak smile and said that he would go back to his bus, to arrange some things with his clothing line.

James and Danny sat on the opposite sides of me, both staring through the bunk area, to the back lounge door. ‘He said that if you hate him, he doesn’t want to live.’ Danny whispered, obviously worried about his best friend.

I knocked on the back lounge door, only getting a sniff as an answer. I pushed the door open and saw Ben curled up into a ball in the corner of the couch. His eyes were pink and he looked like shit. The sight of him looking like this made me want to cry. I saw huge amount of untouched meals on the table and the room smelled like cigarettes. ‘Ben.’ I cried and his face turned towards me.

He started to cry even more when he saw me, standing at the door, in the same clothes I wore four days ago, makeup smudged on my face not badly though I tried to clean it but it seems to need a shower to get that shit out of my face. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He choked on his words. ‘Don’t be, you, my love are a Bruce; you don’t have to say that you’re sorry.’ I smiled and so did he. ‘But your cheek.’ He said, dropping the smile. ‘It’s not bad.’ I lied. My left cheek was swollen, not as badly as it probably had been while I slept. The bruise was turning yellow and it wasn’t a small one.

I sat next to Ben and wrapped my arms around him. ‘I love you Beni.I could never hate you.’ I whispered, using the nickname I gave him when I was five. ‘I love you too Dalene.’ He whispered back. I loved the nickname I had, but only Ben had the permission to use it.

Few hours passed. Ben had fallen asleep, leaning against my shoulder. ‘She’s in the back.’ I heard Sam and James say at the same time. Soon the door was opened and Austin walked in. First he looked sad as he saw the bruise, but the sad face was switched into a happy one, when he saw Ben sleeping and me stroking his hair carefully. ‘Alan asked me to bring these.’ He said, handing me the hello kitty bag. ‘Now, c’mon you need to eat.’ He offered me his hand it took it and he helped me up from the couch, carefully so Ben wouldn’t wakeup nor fall on his side.

‘Alan told me.’ Austin whispered as he made food for everyone in the bus. ‘Told what?’ I stared at my lap. Austin didn’t respond, he just took my medication bag from the table, where I had put it, and he took one of each, placing them on the plate with small amount of spaghetti and soya sauce. ‘I’m sorry if it tastes weird-he scratched the back of his neck-I’m an excuse for a cook.’ He nervously laughed.
He didn’t say anything about my “state” he seemed to be fine with it, and that was a bloody good thing.

I ate half of the spaghetti, before pushing the plate away. ‘I’m sorry, I know it’s awful, but.’ I interrupted him. ‘No, it was amazing, but I can’t eat anymore.’ I smiled and he nodded, smiling proudly. ‘Ben wake up, you need to eat.’ I yelled which made Austin jump along with James and Sam who were sitting beside me. I heard Ben groan, and soon he was standing in front of me, eating for the first time in four days. He ended up eating the rest of the spaghetti Austin had made, but I was happy to see he was eating.