The Sky Under the Sea

[Chloe]



As soon as we saw Tom off with Bo, all went quiet. My heart was in my shoes.


“I thought she was better.” I said, feeling guilty.

How could I have missed that she wasn’t?


“Hey, we all thought she was.” Vic pulled me into a hug. I put my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder. He was so comforting, just by being there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mike pull Jaime into a hug. He must really be worried because Mike isn’t one for showing affection.


“As soon as the set is over, we’ll go see her.” Mike said and Jaime just nodded. He really was a great guy.


“Come on, we don’t have long before we go on. Moping about the car park isn’t going to help Bo so lets give the best fucking show we can. Okay?” Tony said. Vic pulled away, but grabbed my hand.


“What are you guys going to do?” He said, intertwining my fingers with his. My cheeks flushed red.


“I don’t know. We had a pretty big fight this morning and she doesn’t want anything to do with me right now, so I might hitch a ride with you guys later if that’s okay.”


“I heard.” My head snapped up.


“What?” Jaime walked over to me.


“This morning. I woke up and I overheard you guys arguing.” He rubbed a hand through his hair. I narrowed my eyes at him.


“We’re talking later.” Was all I said and he nodded. The whole lot of us followed them back to their stage, wanting to watch for a little while until our signing, save Jeremy who went back to the bus to call his girlfriend. The whole walk Vic held my hand and didn’t let go, his touch comforting.


Exactly how much had Jaime heard this morning?

~ after the PTV set ~



[Vic]



The instant we all walked off stage, my phone started ringing.


“Hello?” I answered, not knowing the number.


“Vic? Hey it’s Tom.” I recognized his voice.


“Shit. Hey. What happened? Is she okay?” I asked, seeing the rest of our band fall silent.


“It’ll be easier to explain all at once, but she’s okay. You’re welcome to come down to the hospital but they aren’t taking visitors yet, so there’s no rush."

A giant weight lifted off my shoulders. We hadn’t known each other long, but our bands had formed a fast friendship over Warped Tour, and we were all as close as anything.


“Thank goodness.” I sighed, giving a thumbs up to everyone.


“She’s in the local hospital, I don’t know the name of it. Fourth floor. See you guys there.” I hung up the phone and slipped it back into my pocket.


“What happened?” Mike asked.


“That was Tom. He didn’t say, but he said that she’s okay. They aren’t taking visitors right now, but we’re welcome to go down and wait until she’s up.” 
Everyone looked visibly relieved.


“I say we clean ourselves up and grab dinner on the way. What do you think boys?” Tony suggested. We all nodded and headed back to the bus.



Two hours later, all seven of us walked into the lobby of the hospital, strangely out of pace with all the tattoo’s. Sam, Chloe and Jeremy had hitched a ride with us.


“Uh hi, we’re looking for Bo Thompson’s room?” I said to a nurse sitting at the desk.


“Are you family?” She asked.


“Sort of.” The nurse looked at me quizzically before consulting the computer screen.

“She’s stable, but unconscious. Room 414, but you’ll have to wait here until the doctor clears visitors.”

I thanked her and headed back to the boys.


“Tom’s coming down. She’s still not awake.” Tony said, checking his phone. At that very instant, he walked out of the elevator.


“There you guys are. How was the show?” Tom asked, as if it was important.


“Fine.” Mike shrugged.


“How is she? What happened?” Jaime asked. Tom ran his hand through his hair.


“Take a seat, long story.” He cleared his throat and began talking as we all found some spare seats and sat down.


“As soon as we got in the car, she blacked out again. I drove here as fast as I could and when we got here, I took her inside and starting shouting for help. A bunch of nurses ran out and put her onto a stretcher, taking her pulse and all sorts of stuff. They put a tube down her throat so the blood wouldn’t fill up in her lungs, then took her for some x-rays. Turns out, she had whats called a pulmonary edema that was brought on by a cold. Thats why she was so tired for those few days, just a bloody cold. But, that caused fluid to build up in her lungs which is why she was coughing so much. When they figured this out, they gave her some morphine and took her into surgery to drain the fluid. They have her sedated still, but once she wakes up we can go in.” Tom looked exhausted, and frankly I didn’t blame him. Everyone sighed, relieved that she was okay.


“Anyway, I need to get back. Anyone want a ride?” Mike, Tony, Jaime and I all shook our heads. Sam and Jeremy nodded.


“Yeah, we’ll come see her in the morning. Don't want to smother her right away. Bye guys.” The three of them walked out, leaving our band and Chloe in the lobby waiting room.


“Anyone want coffee?” Tony asked, motioning towards the coffee machine. We all nodded, except Chloe.


“Suit yourself.” He said, walking off. I sighed, leaning against the wall. What a week.


“Jaime can I talk to you? In private, please.” I heard Chloe ask, then footsteps as they walked off.




[Jaime]



“Exactly how much did you hear this morning Mr. Preciado?” Chloe asked as we stepped outside into the dusk.


“Uh, only from when you told Bo not to kid herself. Before that, I was asleep.” I felt like shit, knowing I’d heard what was obviously a private argument between Chloe and Bo. And then, of course I opened my fat mouth and said something.
 Chloe sighed, not angry in the slightest, which surprised me.


“It’s fine. It was about you, anyway.” Chloe looked at me. I raised an eyebrow, indicating she should go on.


“Might as well start from the start, so it makes sense. When we first started out as a band, we were only playing local shows and stuff like that, just trying to get out there.”
 I nodded, knowing that Pierce The Veil did the exact same thing.

“There was this one gig, when Bo was about nineteen, that went off really well. We went out for drinks with the crew afterwards, and thats where Bo met Josh. They got on really well and started dating a few weeks later.”
 My chest tightened as I thought of someone else loving Bo the way I did.


“Anyway. Bo was head over heels for this guy, and they were rarely seen apart. It was like this for two years, and Bo thought she’d found the one. She was so in love with this guy and couldn’t imagine being with anyone else, they even moved in together. One morning, she woke up to a note on the table. It said ‘It’s over’ and that’s it. Just those two words. So of course, Bo rang Josh to ask him what was up and found that his number had been deactivated. It went on for weeks, Bo was so confused and didn’t want to believe that he’d left her. She rang him, rang his family and his friends and everything. Eventually, she gave up. She got sick of hearing ‘It’s for the best’ and ‘I can’t tell you why he left’ and stopped looking for him. He just got up one day and fucking left her with no explanation or anything, that fucking prick. It took her almost a year to try and get over what happened, trying to put her life back together without him. She’s still pretty raw over it, and here we are nearly four years later.” Chloe looked mad. No, pissed would be more accurate. And that was exactly how I felt.

How the fuck could someone do that? To her, of all people?

My hands were shaking from rage, so I jammed them into my hoodie pocket.


“What the fuck, that fucking prick.” I spat. Chloe nodded.


“She was really fragile at the time they met too, what with her parents and all.”


What happened to her parents?


“What do you mean with her parents?” I asked.


“You don’t know?” Chloe looked at me incredulously.

“The year before that, her parents were killed in a car crash. They left her and two brothers by themselves. They didn’t have any other family to take care of them, so Oscar had to pick up work full time at 20 to support them.” 
A million thoughts ran through my mind.


Bo had no parents? They died? Holy fuck. 
And then,

She had two brothers?


“I know Oscar, but what happened to her other brother?” I had no idea she’d had two.


“His name was Blake.” She said softly.


“Was?” Chloe nodded.


“He died when she was 18. But that’s all I’m going to say. Bo will have to tell you the rest, but when she’s ready. It’s not.. it’s not something she speaks about so be prepared for her to not tell you at all either.”

My head was reeling, the argument from this morning suddenly making more sense.

She didn’t want to open up to people, because both her parents and brother had died at such a young age, and the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with just upped and left her? Any fucking wonder she wants to protect herself. But I’m not like that.. I’d never do anything to hurt her.


Chloe’s words kept echoing in my head, like they had been all day.


‘And this time I think you’ve finally fallen for the right one.’


Bo had fallen for me? It wasn’t like she showed it, I thought she was only interested in me as a friend?


“Thank you for telling me this Chloe. Things.. make more sense now.”


“You’re about the only other person besides me and Oscar to know some of this, so keep it between us.” Silence settled in the night between us.


“You must have heard what else I said this morning then.” Chloe chuckled.


“Hmm?” I wasn’t listening.


“If you heard that part of the argument this morning, you would have heard me when I said she’s fallen for you, and hard.” My face went crimson and I was glad for the darkness. I nodded, then spoke when I realized she couldn’t see me very well.


“Yeah. She doesn’t show it though.” Looking at my feet, I took a deep breath.


“I love her. I mean, you probably knew that, but I do. Ever since the first day of the tour, I’ve felt this unexplainable feeling, like we were connected somehow. It just feels..” I trailed off, searching for the right word.

“.. right. It just feels right.” It felt good to admit how I felt to someone other than Vic.


“She’ll come around. She just needs to see that you’re not going to hurt her, like everyone else has. I know you won’t, and so does the rest of the world. But at least now you know why she’ll need time.” Chloe shivered.


“Let’s go back inside, it’s freezing.” Agreeing, I turned around and started to walk inside.
 Two arms suddenly wrapped around me from behind.


“Wha-” I began, then stopped seeing it was Chloe.


“You’ll be good for her, Jaime. I have faith in you. And like I said before, she’ll come around.” Turning to face her, I hugged her back.


“She’s lucky to have you.” I said softly. Grabbing her arm before she went inside, I whispered,


“Does she still love him?” My heart was pounding as Chloe stayed silent.


“I don’t know. She doesn’t talk about it. At all. You’ll have to ask her.”