If Only Until Morning

~Matt~

Today was our travelling day, which meant no show to speak of. We still had to clean up all our shit from the venue, though, so that kind of sucked, but it was hardly what the minds on the bus were focused on.

"What do you mean, she never showed up last night?" Aromi exclaimed frantically. I winced and eyed Sean, who was himself trying not to flip out. "You just let her sleep on another bus? Which one is it?"

"Ehm," Sean began, rubbing the back of his head.

Aromi stopped pacing to stare wide-eyed at him. "You don't know?!"

"She's not answering her phone," Jesse informed us, swinging around the side of the bus. "And Ali still hasn't come back from getting her stuff from the booth."

"So they're both missing?" I rubbed my eyes. "Fuckin' 'ey, how do we lose two girls in this place, let alone one?"

Aromi ran a hand through his hair, and it stood straight up. "Forget Ali," he said, pacing again, "What're we going to do without Angie? What if something happened to her?" He gasped. "What if she was kidnapped? What if she's hurt? What if--"

"Hey, guys." The four of us spun around. Angie stopped with one foot on the steps into the bus and grinned. "What?"

Aero rushed forward and lifted her a good three feet off the ground. "Oh my god, Angie, don't you ever do that again," he cried. He put her down and demanded, "Why didn't you come back to the bus last night?"

"I slept with Shawn and the guys," she replied innocuously. I shot a glance at Jesse, whose eyes were wide. Angie rolled her eyes. "On their couch, you sickos. I figured it was easier and safer to rather than navigate the area in the dark alone."

"Well... Call us next time!" Aero sputtered before rushing onto the bus. Angie looked after him and shrugged at us before going to change. Of course it wasn't a big deal for her; she didn;t have to look after anyone but herself. And she was one of the few people who could handle that.

That still left the question of Alison's whereabouts, but since she actually slept in the bus, I figured she'd show up sooner or later. A few minutes later, after I'd settled into the couch to surf the web while I could, I thought I heard her voice outside. Curious, I got up and went to the door.

"...decorated your guitar," I heard her say, saccharin sweet. I poked my head door and saw Angie staring in horror at Ali, who was holding a fluorescent yellow and neon pink... disaster... by the strap with two fingers. "Isn't it pretty?"

Angie took a hesitant step forward and took the instrument. "What the f--" She cut herself off, inspecting the thing in her hands closely. "This isn't my guitar," she said curiously. She scoffed. "This is a bass and it sure as hell isn't mine. I don't play Fenders."

Ali's face took on a disappointed, horrified gaze. "Then who--"

At that moment, Pete came strolling towards them and I hid a little further in the bus. "Hey, Pen, can I have-- holy shit, is that my bass?!"

I winced as I surveyed the scene. Jesus, that guy can hit a note, I thought. Ali gaped between him, the bass, and Angie. "She did it!" she exclaimed, pointing. I frowned in confusion.

Pete blinked at the bass, shaking slightly in Angie's hands, and looked up at her. Angie shook her head, "Pete, I--"

"It's awesome!"

"What the fuck?" I whispered, pretty much summing up the expressions on Penelope's and Ali's faces. He liked it? That was hideous! It should never see the light of day again!

"Oh man," Pete said, taking it and getting a feel for it. He grinned up at Angie. "I was totally gonna donate this one to charity, but now I just really want to keep it." He hugged her, catching her off guard, and kept grinning. "Thanks so much, Ange!"

"No... problem?" she answered confusedly as he walked away. Ali shot her a venomous glare and stalked away, tossing her head into the wind.

I pulled my head back in and hopped to my seat before Pen could turn and see me. Why would Ali paint a bass for Angie and then say she did it when she discovered it wasn't hers? Why would Angie take credit for it?

As I thought about it, people decided they wanted on and off our bus for the ride. The guys of All Time Low-- all separately, apparently-- decided they wanted to hang out with us and have a marathon of all the multi-player games we had on the bus; for some reason, Jesse wasn't in the mood, so he went to take a nap on Panic's bus. And who knows where the fuck Ali went, but she sent me a text that said she was "on a bus."

Actually that's all the text said. Vague, much?

A few hours into the afternoon, we stopped at a gas station to fuel up, but everyone was too immersed in a fourth round of Halo to pause long enough to get food. We barely even noticed stopping, really. We probably wouldn't have if the door hadn't opened.

Ryan climbed up the steps and glanced at the TV before fixing Angie, sitting on my lap, with a stare. "There's something I need to talk about with you," he said seriously.

Those of us not playing at the moment-- and some of us who were-- looked up at him before turning back to the screen. This had nothing to do with us. "Can it wait a minute?" Angie asked distractedly. "I'm about to kill Jack."

"What about me?" Jack asked, looking at her. Then his section of the screen turned red, and he groaned.

"No, it can't."

She blinked up at him, interested in his sobriety, and instantly masked it with a smile. "Not a problem then. Matt, I bequeath this controller to you, to use wisely and mercilessly against our tour mates." With a beaming grin that had the others laughing and neither me nor Sean convinced, she got up and followed Ryan into the bunkroom.

The second the door shut, Alex turned down the volume on the TV, and everyone sat and played in silence, pretending (or not) not to listen. Obviously neither of the couple was anything less than genius, so they took that into account and spoke in very hushed tones.

Being the closest to the door, I heard the most out of anyone, which admittedly wasn't that much. Just a few snippets: Ryan's outraged whisper, "What do you expect me to think?", Angie's choked cry, "Because she's using you!", some shuffling, a lot of murmuring.

When the divider slid open and slammed harshly, I handed my controller off and watched Ryan storm off the bus. He even slammed the door, making the rest of the group jump. With the menu screen up, we all looked at each other awkwardly. Our silence was broken by the bus starting up again and rolling onto the highway after the other busses, and slowly we lapsed into playing again.

Several minutes passed where nobody said anything still. I kept glancing back at the door, still closed, and I noticed that Zack was doing the same. "Hey, man," he said in a low tone, "Is she gonna be okay?"

I sat back into the seat and tried to focus on the TV. "In a few minutes she'll walk out like nothing happened," I explained without intonation. "She'll take the controller from whoever's losing with a smile and pretend everything's cool and we weren't listening to her and Ryan's fight."

Rian Dawson turned his head away from the game and swerved it back when he heard himself getting shot. "Why would they be fighting anyway?" he asked.

I wasn't exactly sure how to answer. In another case, I would have told the truth, but I knew that Ryan and Angie didn't want too many people to know about them, in case it leaked, and I sure as shit didn't want to explain the whole Ali drama again.

Luckily I didn't have to, because Penelope walked out herself, sliding the door open softly and strolling back to her seat on my lap. "Thank you, Alex," she said chirpily, sliding the controller from his hands. "I'll be bringing your score up now."

Everyone else seemed to forget about what happened after a while, returning to yelling competitively as they played. The only sign that it had ever happened was that Angie, when not playing, would curl up into my chest with that miles-away expression in her eye. And despite my conflict over our opinions of Alison, I couldn't leave her cold, so I pulled her closer and rested my head on hers.

She needed to know I was still there for her.

Because even I could feel the rift growing.