The Most Unexpected Faces

ASHLEY’S POV

It took us a good 10 minutes to stop arguing about who got what bunk. In the end we decided (through pushing, shoving and general debate) that Andy should have the top bunk on one side due to his height and the fact he’d hit his head on the bed above if he was on a lower one and C.C should have the other as he got to it first. I took the bed underneath Andy even though I would probably squidge in his with him. There’s reason for that of course, due to the nature of some of the things me and Andy do in our free time *cough* heavy make out sessions *cough* I thought I’d spare one of the guys the pain of being in a bunk underneath us. Jake took the one under me and Sammi took the one opposite him on the other side, leaving Jinxx to take the one below C.C.

Once we got that sorted we put some of our stuff away in the limited storage space and just left the rest in our bags in the back room of the bus, we could find more places to put it but right now we were all pretty excited about the start of tour and didn’t want to waste our first day on the bus unpacking.

Back in the living area we started to make plans for the day, well, more specifically the night as during the next few hours all we’re doing is driving and walking out a bus doing 80mph onto the freeway is not high on my to-do list.

We decided to watch a movie together until we got the roadside services for our one hour break when we could buy some snacks. In the end through majority-rule vote we watched a horror movie called The Ring, and by now –with only half the movie gone – I was wishing that I’d voted for something else.

“God, don’t be such a wimp, Ash!” Andy chuckled deeply when I buried my head into his shoulder. In my defence the creepy demon child was now crawling out towards the tv screen, gruesome hands out stretched. In the movie she walks out through your tv screen as well so you can understand why it creeped me out a bit.

“Whatever Andy, besides, she only comes to kill people who have watched the clip so I’m safe… And don’t come crying to me when she’s ringing you up and whispering “seven days…” into your ear!” I warned much to the amusement of the others, who didn’t seem to be finding it that scary. Well, whatever, I bet they’re only pretending; they’re probably inwardly shitting themselves. I might just sneak up on them in the night and whisper in their ears anyway to freak them out.

Curious as to how much longer I was going to have to sit here and try and pretend I’m not scared I picked up the dvd box to see how long the movie is and then looked at the dvd player to see how far through we were. Another hour… Yay…

I was about to turn to C.C who seemed to be the only other one getting a bit scared by this movie and ask him if he wanted to go play xbox in the back when I saw something very, very interesting…
Just as the demon child Samara or whatever her name is claims another victim I see C.C start to curl into Jake’s side before moving himself back slightly as if deciding against the action, then – obviously to C.C’s internal delight – Jake reached out and put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in closer.
C.C’s tomato impression is really rather spectacular. If you haven’t seen it then imagine it, it’s fucking hilarious.

*****

Remind me never to eat truck stop salad, I’m 99% sure that the stuff in that plastic container wasn’t even edible let alone healthy (or in date to be quite honest, and I thought veg didn’t really expire…)

Andy just laughed when I pulled a face at the weird saggy leaf thing and told me I should have made wise food decisions like him and just brought a couple of big bags of Doritos. I went to argue that that wasn’t healthy but once again, let’s be honest. There is probably more nutritional goodness in those crisps than there is in whatever the hell it is I’m eating.

Our first day on the road left us all rather tired after such an early start and then nothing but movies to fill our day. I’m in no way complaining though, I’m on tour with my best friends going to perform to people who believed in us! The overwhelming-ness of it all has hit me several times this week but this time it was even stronger than before. Looking around at the other people on the bus one word really stood out in my mind. Family.

As everyone got up to head off to the bunk room, wanting to be well rested for tomorrow I decided to stop them, I just had something I needed to say.

“Hey guys, before you go, I just want you to know that what we have right here, right now,” I smiled at Andy to make sure he knew I was referring to our relationship as well as the band, “is the best thing to ever happen to me, and I can’t think of any other people in the world I would rather do it with. I love you guys” I finished.

Suddenly I was caught in the middle of a massive group hug.

“Aw that’s so sweet Ashley! I second that!” Jake shouted. Soon to be followed by the rest of the guys shouting “Third-ed!” “Fourth-ed!” “Fifth-ed!”. I chuckled and enjoyed the embrace, happy to be so close to the people that mean most to me.

After we all released each other and said our goodnights we headed off to our respective bunks and settled down. I of course got straight into Andy’s bunk with him.

I’d bet good money that I won’t use my bunk below me bunk once this tour.

One by one the lights inside the bunks turned off; me and Andy shared a long kiss before breaking apart and whispering our “goodnight” ’s and “I love you” ’s to each other. Happy and content in Andy’s arms,
I slipped into sleep without trouble.

*****

“Ashley”

“Ashley?”

“Ashley!”

“ASHLEY PLEASE!” A voice whispered/yelled/pleaded.

I blinked awake and pulled back the curtain of Andy’s bunk, curious as to who wanted me in the early hours of the morning.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw that C.C’s bunk across from where I was also had the curtain pulled back and my usually bandana-ed friend peering out at me in the low light.

“Yeah C.C?” I asked, what could he possibly want at… okay, there’s no clock here and I can’t find my phone, it’s under the covers somewhere… I have no idea of the time more specific than ‘gone midnight but probably earlier than 4 am’.

“Ashley, can I talk to you?” then I realised C.C sounded upset about something.

“Sure, you want to go into the front?”

“Yeah” he whispered back, the living area was a good choice as we wouldn’t have to whisper and we’d have access to the coffee maker. I could tell something was seriously up with C.C and I was willing to talk to him for as long as it took until he’d be able to sleep easy again.

We made our way into the front and sat side by side on one of the couches; I waited for him to get comfy before pulling the blanket on the back of the seat over us to keep us warm.

“Tell me all about it”.