‹ Prequel: Pictures on Silence

If Only Until Morning

Chapter 20

"Principessa!" Aero sang, coming into the lounge. "Andiamo!"

"Firstly," I said, not looking up from my computer screen, "Don't call me that; Charlie was bad enough and now Bill's started to love it, and secondly, my grandfather used to say that to my grandmother when they were out to dinner parties."

"Usciamo per lo shopping oggi!" he whined, flashing his pearly whites at me.

I blinked and snapped the laptop shut. "Right. Forgot about that." I grabbed my red leather jacket. "Would explain the Italian."

We had to be very careful about discussing our girls' day out, especially on the bus. The last thing we wanted was any of the guys-- whether from Victoria's, Hayley's, or my band-- finding out and raining on our parade. Especially mine, because there was a certain other female they'd insist on inviting for us.

Unfortunately, as we were casually sneaking out the door, Matt entered with a suspicious look on his face. "You're going shopping?" he inquired, overly relaxed.

Damn. Forgot that he could bridge the language barrier.

"Yep," Aromi said with a smile. "Bye!" Then he practically picked me up and dragged me out the door before Matt could say a word. I snickered as we strolled through the buses towards the venue entrance, where Vicky-T and Hayley were already waiting.

"I see you escaped pretty well in tact," Hayley greeted with a grin.

"And without Super Slut, no less," I added happily.

Vicky laughed. "Do you have a superhero fetish you need to talk about?" she asked. "It's like you're always talking about them."

"Everything can be put in terms of superheroes," Aero said with as much dignity as he could muster.

One thing that can be said for the general middle of the country is that, even though driving through it is deadly boring, the college towns are always fun. Lots of interesting things to look at, places to shop and be unnecessarily girly, and attractive boys whom we don't have to see, hear, and smell the rest of the time.

"Ooo, hello," Vicky purred about a trio, all of whom had terrific smiles, passing in the opposite direction.
Scoffing, I shook my head and sipped my Thai iced tea. Unhealthy, but delicious addiction. Hayley elbowed me. "Like you weren't looking too," she argued.

"Might've glanced," I replied nonchalantly, shrugging.

Aromi blew a raspberry. "This is girls' day, Pen. That means window shopping for pretties."

I laughed. "Aero, everyday is a day you can window shop for pretties."

"Ooo, sweet shoes," Hayley announced, looking into a store window. We all followed her in and split off in three directions, Hayley towards shoes, Vicky into the jungle of racks, and Aero dragging me towards accessories.

Damn the man. He knows I'm a sucker for hats. And scarves. And anything vaguely original.

And the thing about Aromi is that, while being gayer than Lance Bass, he really knew how to dress females. He could spot a great outfit from across the street into a store.

Which is how I ended up in the dressing room.

"You're taking an awfully long time," he complained from the other side of the curtain.

I didn't reply, still staring at my reflection, hands on hips. "Come out and show us!" Victoria urged.

"...One question," I said after a pause. "Hayley, how the hell do you wear pants this tight to your legs?" I heard her snicker. "I feel like I'm wearing knee-high boots, but it's just these damn jeans!"

"Skinny jeans are hot right now, Pen," Aromi announced, jostling the curtain. "Come on! We want to see!"

Rolling my eyes, I threw the barrier aside and struck an anorexic-modelicious pose. "Wow, you've got long legs," Vicky observed, head tilted. Hayley gave me a thumbs-up.

"See," Aero said with a smile. I shushed him shortly, crossing my arms. "You should get them. It'd drive a certain skinny guitarist crazy."

"Even if I say no, you'll buy them anyway, so I don't have much of a choice," I reminded, "And said certain guitarist is crazy enough without my dressing to match his indieness."

Vicky turned to Hayley. "Who're they talking about?" She sent me a conspiratorial smile. "Has someone got a little crush on someone on tour?"

"Oh no, they got past crushes last autumn," Aero put in helpfully before Hayley or I could.

I heaved a dramatic sigh. "Why must my personal life be such a fascinating topic for conversation?" I wondered lightly. I quirked an eyebrow at Vicky. "Did you know Ryan has a girlfriend?"

"We kind of figured," she replied with a shrug. "He always got phone calls and got as far away as possible to answer them. Never got her name though. D'you know?"

"Yep." My lips curled up into a smirk and retreated into the dressing room to change into normal clothes. Oh hell, I thought, glancing in the mirror. These would look great with my boots. Damn you and your style radar.

"How long have they been going out?" I heard her ask as I pulled on my shirt.

I slid out of the dressing room and handed the pile of clothes to Aero, who happily toddled off with them. "Six months in a few days," I said after a moment of calculation.

She stopped me as I tried to pass and a smile grew on her face. "Is he a good kisser?"

I laughed and put a conspiratorial arm around her shoulder. "Truth?" She nodded. "Ill rogazzo é multo fantastico."

Vicky cracked up. "I dunno what that means, but it sounds delicious!"

We headed back to the venue after a few more stops, as the three-fourths majority of us had to perform. All laughing at a story Aromi was telling, we strolled among the busses and did not notice the tall, green-eyed young man leaning against a bus door.

"Have fun?" Matt called, catching our attention.

I winced slightly and said goodbye to Hayley and Victoria, who luckily could escape the impending wrath of the jealous drummer. Keeping the smile on my face, I led Aromi to him. "Incredible fun," I replied honestly. "Our manager convinced me yet again to submit myself to a fashion trend."

Matt quirked a grin but smothered it to look miffed. "You went out with the girls and didn't invite Ali."

Before I said, Yeah, what of it? which is what my mouthy response would have been, Aromi cut in. "Matt, do you really think Ali would've had a good time with us?" he asked sincerely, nudging him aside to open the door. "You know she and Penelope don't get along, and she doesn't really seem fond of Vicky-T or Hayley either. So what would've been the point?"

Blinking at Matt, I followed Aero into the bus and began pulling my new clothes from the bags. "You still could have offered," Matt protested, swinging in after us.

"Did she complain?" I asked, whirling around to face him. He started and slowly shook his head. "No harm done then."

Aero looked at his watch. "Hurry up. You two have warm-ups in ten minutes."

I had already begun changing as I walked to the bunkroom. Not sure why, but touring made my modesty around the guys practically nonexistent. I didn't care about changing in the same room as they or sitting around in my sleepwear if we were moving and didn't have guests.

Matt adjusted his top hat in the mirror and came back into the room. "I've decided that as punishment, you two have to take care of the booth for the rest of the day," he announced.

I raised an eyebrow at him, clapping shut the electric turquoise eye shadow I'd drawn across my lower eyelid. It also matched my new jeans, tucked into my riding boots, but that was just convenient. "Like we wouldn't have to anyway?" I asked, swiping mascara on.

He shot me a dark look. "What've I told you about being nice?"

I got to my feet and strolled towards the door. "I don't do nice," I said, kicking the door open. "I do polite and honest, but not nice. And I only give respect to those who prove they deserve it, so don't even bring that up." I turned to bat my eyes at him sadly. "You haven't even told me what you think of my new outfit."

Matt scoffed in laughter as I twirled around. "If you're going for indie equestrian, you hit the nail on the head," he laughed, wrapping an arm around me. I raised my eyebrows at him, and he grinned. "I like it."

Apparently there was nothing Alison would rather do with her time off than watch our set. Questionable taste, once again. I would've gone for The Academy Is or All Time Low, personally. But since shewas the fucking queen of the tour bus got whatever she wanted-- with the exclusion of the interior of Matt's jeans (to my knowledge)-- she got to come backstage with us.

And she reacted like most teeny fangirls would: spastically. While I retreated as far into a corner as Sean would let me (since he had the same idea), her mouth moved a mile a minute and her eyes seemed to want to take in everything at once.

This chick is twenty? I wondered, trying to ignore her fawning over Jesse, who seemed quite adverse to the action. Could'a fooled me.

"Good luck, Penny," she simpered as we made to leave. "Hope you don't almost fall off the stage again."

"It's bad luck to say good luck," I said bluntly, watching the techies finish up and come off stage, "My name is Penelope, and I only slipped because someone threw a shirt at my feet."

"I know," Alison whispered sinisterly in my ear as we went on.

A second later, I felt her shove my back hard, and instead of falling face-first into the stage like most people, when I hands went out to catch me, my legs swung up and I had enough momentum to walk on my hands across the stage.

I swear I'm not a show-off.

But people seemed to like it. "Hello!" I greeted, laughing slightly. "That is not how I'd intended to make an entrance, but whatever." I glanced over to the side of the stage to see Alison glowering at me, and I grinned at her. "This first songs about not always getting what you want."

Later Aero and I were both sitting, incredibly bored, at the booth. Ali and the guys had gone off to get food. Not that she would eat any, or if she did, she'd just throw it up later when the guys weren't around.

You think I'm just being spiteful. I'm not. Apparently because I'm female, I'm supposed to grasp that bulimia is not a problem and don't tell the boys because they won't understand.

So I'm good for something to her.

I tipped back Matt's hat, which I'd stolen in the middle of the set when I jumped off the bass drum, and smiled at our first customers in about twenty minutes. The two girls asked for shirts, telling meat length how much they enjoyed our playingand staring at the rest of the band. I thanked them as Aero took their money and scrawled my name on the shoulders of the fabric.

When I turned to the guy with them, he merely looked at me a moment. "Do you dress like that all the time?" he asked conversationally.

"Pretty much," I replied with a shrug. "I figure if I'm genetically predisposed to standing out, I might as well embrace it."

The guy nodded and waited another moment. "Can I have one of the black shirts in a medium?" I retrieved for him the shirt and laid it on the table. He was pushing buttons on his camera, scrolling through the pictures. After a minute he turned it towards me. "I took this earlier and wondered if you wanted a copy."

I felt a smile tug at my mouth: taken in the middle of "Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf", the picture displayed the entire band playing and having the grandest time imaginable, and I actually didn't look like shit, despite the fact that I was belting into the mic.

I smile up at the guy. "That's fantastic. I would love one," I said, grabbing a silver sharpie. I signed the t-shirt with a flourish and handed it to him. "Email it to me on the website."

Once the group had disappeared, Aero turned to beam at me. "He was totally checking you out," he piped definitely. "He just offered to give you the picture to cover for it."

I snorted, adjusting the top hat on my head. "Right, and if I put this hat on a snowman, he'll come to life." Seriously. What was whoever came up with that nonsense smoking at the time? And where can I find some to experiment on people?

Aromi tilted his head at me, confused. "But... it's almost July."