‹ Prequel: Pictures on Silence

If Only Until Morning

Chapter 19

Someone was knocking on the bus door. "Someone's here," I said into the receiver, turning my head. "Not one of the guys, they never knock. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Make sure you do," my very good friend, and at this point saviour, said. "I get lonely when I don't talk to you."

"Love you too," I laughed. Another set of knocks rapped on the door. "Insistent little bugger, apparently. See you, love." I shut my phone and climbed from the couch towards the door, humming to myself.
Having opened the door, I tilted my head and leaned against the frame. "What're you doing here?" I asked.

Shawn gave a light shrug. "I called your phone but got a busy signal, so I called Trill and he said you'd left, so I figured you'd be here," he explained casually.

"Very astute," I said with a touch of irony.

He flashed a smile at me. "Are you letting me in?" I smiled at him wryly for another moment before returning to the couch. Shawn shut the door behind him and sat across from me. "So you lied to me," he declared.

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You said your little chew toy wasn't anyone important."

I felt my eyes widen and directed them at my shoes, which were comparatively much less fancy than his. "Oh," I said shortly. "That." I cleared my throat, trying to think. "Well, technically speaking, I didn't lie. He really is just a person."

"Yeah, but when you said 'he's no one of great imperative,' I'd figured you meant you were dating some lucky-shit teenager back in California," Shawn elaborated, laughing slightly.

Despite how uncomfortable that made me, I sure as hell wasn't going to let it show. I gave him a haughty look and quipped, "I'm not going to dignify that with a response other than 'I'm not going to dignify that with a response'."

Shawn chuckled. "Oh, yeah. You're a lyricist." I had to crack a smile at that. His pocket quacked and he pulled out a phone, glancing at it before answering. "Hey, man. Penny Dreadful's bus with Angie." He winked at me as he listened, and I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, come on over. We're not doing anything. 'Kay. Peace."

I shook my head. "Inviting people over. Isn't that what your bus is for?"

"Yeah, but Jon lives there and he's never been on your bus." Shawn grinned that grin a lot of people found creepy; personally it made me think of a black-and-white villain with a monocle rubbing his hands together menacingly. "But seriously."

I cringed, turning beseeching eyes to his. "I don't like serious," I objected.

"Well, you seem to like tangents, which is what we went on," he commented, stretching his legs out to the other couch. "Jess also said to tell you they were going to have a few choice words with Ryan once they got him alone." Shawn raised an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise, Ange?"

"No, not at all," I pardonedlying through my teeth.

Shawn shot me a level look. "Really. So I guess the smudged eyeliner and wet mascara is just the look this season, then?"

Half-sheepishly I went to the bathroom and washed all the now horror-movie-style makeup off my face. As I reapplied some auburn mascara, I faintly heard a knock and hurried up so Shawn wouldn't feel obligated to open it. But when I re-entered the room, I stopped short, seeing he already had.

"The hell?" Shawn was saying. "You're not Devoto."

"Nope," Zack said as Jack flicked through our DVDs and games, "But we're devoted to dear little Penelope here." He shot me a grin, at which I raised an eyebrow.

"What're you two doing here?" I inquired, crossing my arms.

"We're invading your bus!" Jack informed me with a grin. He turned back to the movies. "You have '10 Things I Hate About You'? That movie rocks! Julia Stiles is a total babe."

Before I could compose a response, another knock came at the door. "I pray that's Jon," I said, going to the door again. "So he and Shawn can throw you out."

And, what do you know, it wasn't. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked in disbelief as Gabe and Joe walked in past me. "And who said you could come in?"

"Visiting our favouritest little vixen ever," Gabe replied with a grin, throwing himself down beside Merrick. "And I don't hear you objecting."

"Are we watching a movie?" Joe asked, crouching beside Jack. "Hell no are we doing a chick flick. No offense, Pen."

"I hate chick flicks," I denounced emphatically. Then I sputtered. "No! We're not doing a movie at all! You're all--" The door swung open. "Freakin' knock, why don't you! This isn't a brothel!"

"Could'a fooled me," Jon laughed, looking around the room. "I didn't realise you were throwing a party. I would've told Justin and Matt."

"She wasn't," Shawn said, taking the exponential population growth far more in stride than I was. "They all just kind of showed up."

"Let's watch 'Return of the King'!" Zack suggested, grabbing it from Trohman's hand.

"No, 'Two Towers' has more battles and less hobbit-on-hobbit action," Gabe contested.

"There's always Guitar Hero," Jon offered, "For those not sick of it."

"Dude, they've got Half-Life 2!"

"Hey, Angie, I came by to-- Oh. Hey, everyone." I turned in exasperation to see William staring, somewhat surprised, at all the people. "What's everyone doing here?"

"That's what I want to know!" I exclaimed, tugging on my hair.

Jack beamed up from the floor. "We're invading!"

"Personal-space invaders," Shawn laughed.

Gabe looked over Zack's shoulder in interest. "Ooh, is that Portal?"

Next I found myself looking at seven very loud, very excited males with an average height of over six feet goading me onto the couch to play video games. Not only was I outnumbered, but also I was no competition for force or diplomacy. Realising this, I threw my hands up. "I give up!" I groaned, letting Gabe and Bill pull me down between them.

Some time later, after several humorous attempts by each of the guys at playing Portal, I found myself sprawled across four and a half different laps, head resting on Shawn's leg (because the other option was Saporta and I didn't like those odds), watching "V For Vendetta" on the plasma TV mounted on the wall.

"This is a great movie," Trohman said, "But I can never understand anything V says."

"We are oft to blame in this," Shawn quoted along with the movie, "'Tis too much proved, that with devotion's visage, and pious action we do sugar o'er. The devil himself."

I grinned up at him whilst everyone else turned to stare. "Holy shit, you get this?" Gabe asked disbelievingly.

I chuckled, but raised an eyebrow when I noticed Jack, sitting on the floor, was no longer looking at Shawn. No, he was looking at something considerably closer to his face. "Jack Barakat!" I barked, clapping him over the head. "You depraved creature!"

"What!" he protested, rubbing his head. "I can't help that you're at eye-level! Plus you've got a nice rack!" I smacked him again. "Ow! Stop doing that!"

"Stop being a perv!"

"Now now, children," Jon chided, laughing. "You're talking over the movie."

I crossed my arms, peevishly turning back to the screen. A hand stroked my arm and I lifted my head a fraction to see William smiling at me. "He's got a one-track mind," he reminded me. "Try to take it as a compliment."

"I'm sorry, but lewd comments about and leering at my chest are not appreciated," I retorted dryly. "If I were dolled up and wearing something low-cut, maybe looking subtly would be overlooked, but I'm wearing a guy's t-shirt!"

"What?"

I looked up, along with several others of our group, to see my band just having entered the bus. They were all eying us, and it took me a second to figure out why. What they saw was pretty much me lying on a pile of attractive guys, one with my head in his lap, another petting my arm, and the last two leaning on my legs. It was probably hilarious.

"Well, I don't feel in the least bit bad anymore," Jesse scoffed, climbing over people and shooting me a derisive look. "I know he snubbed you, Pen, but employing a harem is a bit excessive for revenge."

I sat up in outrage, almost head-butting Beckett accidentally, but Jesse slid into the bunkroom before I got a word out, so I was stuck with fuming and glaring at the door, hoping my mutant powers would manifest and I'd get laser-eyes to disintegrate the door and my offending guitarist.

Neither Matt nor Sean were any less antagonistic, as they sat down in the group and fixated on the movie, like the last comment hadn't been made. Looking around the group, I saw that no one else seemed to care either, or at least did a bang-up job hiding it.

I exhaled a breath in repugnance, swung my feet to the floor, ignored the shouts to quit blocking the screen, and leapt down the bus steps. Slamming the door behind me, I pulled out my phone and pressed a palm to my eye.

"Well, aren't you the prompt one?" Beth said jokingly once she picked up. I choked in an attempt to laugh and gripped my hair tightly, eyes squeezed shut. "...Oh, love, what did that bastard do now?"

The world swimming before me, I started walking towards some other bus. One, maybe, with very few people. "Which one are you talking about?" I asked scathingly.