The Sky Under the Sea

[Jaime]

I woke up to voices whisper shouting. Straining my ears, I realized it was Chloe and Bo.


“Bo, don’t kid yourself.”


“I’m not. You know what happened with Josh. I don’t know if I can handle going through that again.”


“Jaime’s not like that and you know it.”

Hearing my name piqued my interest. I felt bad for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help it.


“I didn’t think Josh was like that either, but look what happened there.” 
Chloe sighed.


“I know when you fall for a guy, you fall hard. And this time I think you’ve finally fallen for the right one. He’s done nothing but worry about you all week, Bo.”


“I don’t need a babysitter!” Bo snapped. 


“Jesus Bo! Why can’t you just go with the flow and let yourself be happy for once?” Chloe half yelled, half whispered.


“You know why. You don’t think that between my parents, Blake, and Josh, that I’ve lost enough people in my life? Why would I want to set myself up to lose someone else?” Bo’s words were like daggers. My breathing hitched.


“Because Jaime would never do that to you. He’d never hurt you, but how are you going to know if you don’t try? He might be the one to change things, Bo. And you deserve to have someone. I know you’ve fallen for him. Why not give it a go?” Chloe sounded desperate.


“Like I said before. I didn’t believe Josh would hurt me, and he did.” Bo spat.


“Fucks sake Bo! Can you even hear yourself? One day, when you’re old and all alone, you’re going to realize that you can’t push everyone away. You can’t keep us all out forever.”


“Watch me.” Footsteps echoed down the bus and I heard the door open and close.
 Chloe came back into the back room and I stretched, pretending that I’d just woken up. My mind was running a million miles an hour, trying to understand everything I’d just heard.


“Morning.”


“Morning Jaime.” She said softly.


“Where is everyone?” I asked, looking around and realizing the bus was empty.


“Catering, there’s a big breakfast because its the last day of Warped Tour.”
 Stretching my legs out, I stood up.


“Might join them.” I hurried past Chloe, wanting some alone time to try and figure out my mess of a mind. As soon as I left the bus, I realized I was still in the same clothes as the night before. Oh well.
 I made my way down to the catering tent, stomach rumbling. As I got there, my heart (and stomach) leapt at the sight of mounds of toast, spaghetti, eggs and bacon. Once my plate was loaded, I spotted Vic sitting at a table in the corner with Mike and Tony.


“Look who’s finally decided to join us.” Vic laughed as I sat down.


“Ha ha, Fuentes. It’s not that late.” I said, digging in.


“Maybe he had a bit of a late night snack, if you know what I mean.” Mike nudged my shoulder and I choked on my food.


“Fuck off Mike. Not in the mood today.” I snapped.


“Feisty, feisty!” Mike said, grinning. Suddenly, his phone rang.


“Sorry guys I have to take this, its my mother.” He rolled his eyes and walked off, phone at his ear. I eyed Vic.

“Why does she always call him instead of you?” He shrugged.


“Probably because he actually answers when she calls.” Satisfied with that answer, I turned back to my food.


[Bo] ~ later that day ~

“You guys were incredible!” I yelled into the mic, grasping on to it as if I were holding on for dear life. Which, in fact, I was. I’d been getting sicker and weaker all day, struggling to even make it through our set. My nose had started bleeding again this morning, but I hadn’t told anyone. I clenched my eyes shut as the world began to swim in front of my eyes.


“We do have a surprise for you guys though.” Jeremy said, filling in for me while I tried to stay upright. After a second, I felt steadied and opened my eyes. A sideways glance to side stage confirmed what I’d been hoping; Mike, Tony, Vic and Jaime were standing side stage watching.


“We decided that we want to play something new for you guys, something you haven’t heard us do before. So put your fists up and enjoy it!” He yelled, all three of us strumming at once.

The crowd went nuts as we started playing, realizing that this wasn’t our song. My lungs started to ache as I sung my way through the first verse but I wasn’t going to stop.

♪ I cannot spend another night in this home
I close my eyes and take a breath real slow
The consequence is if I leave I'm alone
But what's the difference when you beg for love?

As I run through glass in the street
Kerosene hearts carry the name that my father gave me
And take the face of the wolf ♪


I snuck a peek side stage and sure enough, they’d realized we stole their song. Mike had a look of disbelief on his face while the others were doubled over, laughing. At least they weren’t mad at us. Vic just shook his head.



Not a second later I see Tony running out onto the stage, picking up one of Chloe’s drums and taking off with it. Vic joined him, yanking Sam’s guitar off him with a cheeky grin. We kept playing, determined to make it through the song.



 Mike grabbed two cymbals and shifted them while Tony came back for a second load, laughing the entire time. Chloe just kept on playing as if the drums were still there. I laughed at our silly antics. You’d almost think we were little kids again. As I opened my mouth to continue singing, my bass was pulled up over my head and that was gone too.

Luckily the song was nearly finished. 
The very last line had barely left my mouth when two strong arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me into the air. To my right, I saw that Tony had Jeremy slung across his back and Chloe had jumped on Vic’s back. The guys started carting us off stage, and I wondered who had picked me up. Soon enough, Mike bolts past, carrying Sam bridal style which left Jaime. My heart quickened at the thought.


“You guys are awesome!” I get out before I’m whisked off stage. 
Jaime doesn’t put we down when we get backstage though, he keeps me up in the air despite my protesting.


“Put me down! Jaime!” My words came out in gasps because I couldn’t stop laughing.


“You guys got pranked, big time.” Smirked Tom, watching from afar.


“We got you beaners good, didn’t we? First prank ever and it was great.” Jeremy laughed as Tony put him down.


“You cheeky little shits, stealing our song. Whose idea was it? I demand to know.” Mike said, setting Sam down too. Vic looked pretty pleased with Chloe on his back, so there she stayed and since I couldn’t go anywhere, I stayed where I was. We hadn’t spoken since out argument this morning and things were still icy between us, giving each other the cold shoulder.
 Mike’s attempt at a stern expression was priceless and we all started laughing again.
 Jeremy weakly raised his arm and pointed at Sam, almost bent double from laughter.


“You!” Mike roared with a grin. Sam flinched slightly when Mike stuck his arm out, but relaxed when he realized he just wanted to shake hands.


“That was a good one man, haven’t seen a decent prank around here in ages.”


“Well, we like to change this up around here, don’t we gang?” Sam smiled and we all nodded in agreement. 
I was acutely aware of Jaime’s arms still wrapped around me, as well as his warm breath on the back of my neck. I tried to fight the blush creeping into my cheeks.


“What did you guys do for your warped prank? Or haven’t you done it yet?” I asked, trying to keep my mind of the very strong, and very handsome boy holding me tight.
 Vic smirked.


“We want to put Tabasco sauce on Oli’s microphone.”
 My jaw dropped.


“Holy shit, he’s going to be in for a rough performance then.”
 I felt Jaime nod behind me, then laugh.


“Too bad for him though, we’re going to get a good laugh out of it. That’s not all we're doing though.” Jaime sniggered.


“We're going to fill his water bottle with gin instead of water.” For the second time in as many moments, my jaw dropped. Turning my head to Jaime I said,


“Was this your brilliant plan?” He nodded, beaming at me.


“Sure was!” I rolled my eyes.


“Remind me to make sure we never get pranked by you guys.” Mike just shook his head.


“No can do, sorry. It would be such a shame to let you rookies go unpranked.”
 Jaime finally put me down, but didn’t let me go. It was lucky he didn’t, because my legs still hadn’t gotten their strength back. All of the effort put into the prank had really worn me out. All of a sudden I started coughing, my lungs feeling like they were on fire. Every breath was torture and only brought on another round of coughing. Chloe rubbed my back and offered me some water. I shook my head; breathing needed to come first.

Eventually it went away and I could breathe once more. I took my hand away from my mouth and saw it was splattered with blood. That’s definitely not good. I straightened up and another dizzy spell shook me.
 Chloe gasped as she saw it too.


“I don’t give a fuck what you say, we’re going to the hospital right now.” Tom steered me away from the stage.


“You guys have a signing to do. I’ll drive her.” Tom said, ignoring everyone’s protests. 
The walk back to the car was a struggle, Tom basically holding me up the whole way as I coughed up more blood. He slid me into the passenger seat and I heard him slam the door.
 Someone must have followed us because he paused on the other side. Moments later, the door opened and Tom clambered in.


“I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

That was the last thing I heard before my head rolled back and I blacked out, again.