If Only Until Morning

God, was I glad to get off that damn bus. Between Alison hitting on all four of the guys-- yes, even Aromi-- and Matt bouncing around like a crackhead, I had developed a splitting headache; it didn't help that she kept shooting me vicious sneers, easily mistaken by the guys for smiles. Alison spoke every word like she was almost out of breath and laughed at everything like she'd never heard a joke before.

I bolted off the bus, leaving the guys to their own devices. In the drawing dusk, I slipped between parked busses and around the edges of groups, blending in with the reddening gold of the light. I quickly made myself scarce when William tried to wrangle me into 'helping him with something'.

I spotted Jack the Camera Guy; I wasn't stupid. No TAI TV appearances for this redhead.

Around the point that I started to get nervous about being lost, a door opened andmy hero Spencer stepped out. "Oh hey," he greeted. "I was just going to go look for you."

"And now you won't have to," I observed, hopping up the steps. Luckily, no one else had yet infiltrated the bus, leaving me to casually stroll over and sit next to Ryan. "Buona sera, mia amore."

Not having noticed me, Ryan jumped, but a grin soon spread across his face. "Ciao," he replied cleverly. I sent him an impressed look, and he pulled my face close to his, stopping just short of my lips. "Am I finally allowed to kiss you?"

"I'll have to think about it," I teased.

How had I survived so many months without those mind-blowing, limb-weakening kisses?

"I forgot how disgusting you two were," Brendon voiced somewhere behind Ryan.

"I forgot how you like to make pointless observations," I retorted smoothly, drawing back for a moment before pressing for another kiss.

Jon laughed. "How we lived without your wit, I'll never know," he joked.

Ryan put an arm around me, and I leaned my cheek onto his shoulder, wearing a content smile. "So you said you'd explain later," he reminded me. "That was now, and this is later. So explain."

I gave a wry smile, both at his attempt and Spencer's bemused expression. "You're not going to out-talk me, Slim," I assured him. "But yes, I did." I cleared my throat and sunk into the couch. "I don't think we should advertise our relationship." Ryan frowned thoughtfully. "To people who don't already know. Anything could get out to the press, and I'd rather not deal with tabloid gossip about tour babies."

All four of them burst out laughing. I didn't see what was so funny. Frankly the idea of tour babies scared the hell out of me. Mainly because of who was on tour. Think about it: little Pete Wentzes or Alex Gaskarths running around. I shudder to imagine.

"Tour babies aside," Ryan chuckled, "I think you're right, but how are we going to do that? People are always in and out."

"Well, we won't have to sneak around if only people who know are around." I shut my eyes, focusing my attention on his hand on my shoulder. "So who knows?"

"We do," Brendon put in, sipping a Red Bull.Addict. "And obviously, Sean, Jesse, and Matt do too."

"And Pete," Jon added.

"So that's maybe all of FOB," Ryan said, somewhere between annoyed and amused.

I winced. "And The Academy Is," I relayed hesitantly. I opened one eye to find Ryan looking at me. "Beckett made me tell, and he was kind enough to repeat 'You're dating Ryan?!' loud enough to catch everyone's attention." Spencer and Jon snickered. "So much for subtlety."

"Well, alright. Is that everyone?" I squinted at the ceiling for a moment and nodded. "Okay." He looked down at me and smiled. In a split second, lips were reattached.

Several groans lifted into the air. "Not when we're in the room, please," Spencer requested. I waved a hand at him, telling him to get lost. "Uh, I live on this bus and you don't." Then I'm pretty sure Ryan removed his hand from my shirt to repeat my gesture.

Jon laughed shortly. "C'mon, guys," he said to his singer and drummer. "Let's... not witness this."

"Make good choices!" Brendon sang on his way out the door.

"Get a life!" I sang back as the door closed. Then I accidentally fell off the couch, taking Ryan with me. Naturally, I burst into laughter even before he landed on top of me, which completely killed the 'omigawd must suck face' mood.

He snorted, smiling, and helped me up. "It can wait, I guess," he said. "We've got all of tour, anyway." I grinned mischievously. He jerked his head towards the door. "Wanna grab some food?"

"I thought people were supposed to be hungry after sex," I laughed.

Ryan shot me a flat look. "Har har."

We exited the bus and navigated the living graveyard of tour busses to a section where barbeques flared and tables of musicians made riots of noise. We picked through the line between Paramore and the Matches, filling our plates with food.

"Are you a vegetarian?" Hayley asked, eying my plate, completely devoid of meat.

"Nope," I replied, munching on a stalk of cauliflower. "But I figure since it's here, I might as well eat healthy food."

"Meat's healthy," Ryan argued as we walked to a table.

"Meat also breeds things if you leave it unrefrigerated," Shawn put in, taking a seat between his guitarist Jon Devoto and me. "Little wriggling, creepy wormies." Most of our company made disgusted faces and eyed the food on their plates. I just laughed and started humming "Little Maggots". Shawn grinned and tucked in to his plate.

"Thanks for ruining my appetite," Zac grumbled, picking at his food. I beamed at him from down the table.

"Hey." I, along with several other people, turned around to face Alex Gaskarth, flanked by his apparent wingman Jack Barakat. Unfortunately he was looking at me. Smiling charismatically at me, to be specific. "I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier."

"Possible," I replied lightly. "And if that rings true, all fault, with gathered recollection from the event, would indicate in the direction of your possession."

Barakat tilted his head at me. "Uh, what?"

"I assume that you request to understand the implication and meaning of the sentence prior," I continued. "And I shall conclude by saying that it means not whether the member of the first party participated in the incident in question, but the diminutive equivalent of our unspoken contracted agreement."

Beside me, Ryan grinned and shook his head. Utterly confused, Gaskarth turned to the rest of the table. "What the hell did she just say?" Those who understood, by far outnumbered, only laughed, while the others shrugged, just as lost as he. He turned back to me and returned to flirtatious smile to his face. "What's your name, sweetheart? Gorgeous girl with a brain like that has to have an awesome name."

I glanced at Ryan: pointedly returned to his food and trying desperately to ignore them. Why not give him some entertainment?

With a smile, I stood and looked at the two for a moment. Both smirked. "Permit me, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona."

With a flick of my hair, I passed between the two boys and stepped onto a vacated section of the table opposite ours. The occupants there-- of Escape the Fate and Bad Religion, I believe-- looked up at me, puzzled. Smiling, I made a sweeping bow.

"Voila! In view, a humble vestal virtuoso, cast vicariously as undividedly the vulnerable victim by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox adulescentulorum, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition."

I jumped off the table, with more than half the whole tour watching me, and landed directly in front of Gaskarth and Barakat, who still stared googly-eyed. "Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply say that it does me little honour to meet you and you may call me Penelope."

To cheers and whistles at my performance, I returned to my seat and recommenced eating. Ryan was smiling secretly into his plate. I think the two from All Time Low were too dumbfounded to form a subsequent response and just left.

I won't lie. I felt proud of myself for altering that on the spot.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Devoto joked.

"I'd kiss her with that mouth," Zac added, grinning at me.

I merely rolled my eyes. The problem with exuberant exhibitions of my intelligence and ability to imitate beloved anarchists, was that it often went misunderstood. And I sure as hell wasn't repeating myself for the likes of him.

"Omigawd, Penny!"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Alison bouncing down the row towards us. Bouncing a lot. Distracting everything male within fifty feet. I cringed across at Hayley, who rolled her eyes in disgust and poked Josh with her fork. He smiled innocently and kissed her cheek.

Alison halted behind me and flung her hands around my neck, nearly choking me. "Penny, I've been looking for you everywhere! I wanted to eat dinner with my new best friend!"

"Well, here I am," I said with forced enthusiasm. Why the hell is she calling me Penny? I wondered. I noted the lack of plate in her possession. "Um, where's your food?"

"Oh, I already ate," she said, blowing off my question. "C'mon, move over!" With that, she pushed me over and wedged herself between Ryan and me. I smiled apologetically at Shawn, whose shoulder my face got smashed into, and glared subtly at her.

Alison's attention, however, was focused on Ryan. "Hi, I'm Ali. You're Ryan Ross; I'm such a big fan!" He smiled awkwardly and shook her hand. "I've loved you guys since, like, before you went on MTV." She giggled. "How can someone so talented be so attractive?"

He laughed, trying to be friendly, but a little uneasily as he knew I was listening. "Luck of the draw, I guess."

Alison, smiling a perfect gloss-lipped smile,shoved her boobs in his face hugged him tightly and then went on to hit on Zac across the table, every so often throwing Ryan and suggestive comment or smile. Ryan looked around her at me, and I forced a convincing smile. He smiled back and returned to his food and conversation.

I leaned onto an elbow, covering my eyes. This was going to be harder than I thought.