Stealing Glances

Boston, MA

Tour had been smooth sailing thus far—shows going extremely well, meeting fans, and all the fun in between. It had been a little over a week since Jamison and John’s St. Patrick’s Day fiasco, much to Jamison’s luck John hadn’t remembered a thing and she had pretended the situation had never happened.

Eric and Molly were arriving to join the tour for the week (Eric for 2—helping Peter with merch) along with Nick Santino coming out for the show—it was a reunion of sorts.

The guys had finished loading in and just then a taxi had pulled up by the parking lot where all the buses were. Moments later, Eric and Molly came out of the car and began unloading their luggage. They walked up to the bus to be greeted by the guys who were waiting outside for them.

“Hey you.” Molly said, going up to John and embracing him.

“Good to see you.” John said, happily hugging Molly with every fiber of his being.

“Hey man.” Eric said, smirking at the couple as he broke up their moment.

“Hey.” John smirked, pulling Eric into a hug.

“Hey guys.” Molly said, greeting the rest of the band with hugs. “Thanks for letting me come on tour for the week.”

“Of course.” Pat said, with a smile.

“I just realized the bus must be full—“ Molly said, looking over at John with concern.

“We took care of that— or Jamison did.” Garrett gave a half smile. “Jared and I are crashing Jamison’s bus.”

Molly looked surprised and a bit sorry. “Oh, she didn’t have to—“

“She insisted.” Jared said, giving her a reassuring look.

“Sweet Jamison…” Molly said, with a chuckle.

“Is something wrong?” Jamison asked, as she walked by Garrett and Jared who looked deep in conversation.

“We’re trying to figure out our bus situation, Molly is supposed to come down but Halvo also is making a trip down starting in Boston with us and we’re short a bunk—“ Garrett began explaining.

“Dude, we have room on our bus. You guys can crash there if you want…” She said, like it had been the most obvious solution they hadn’t thought of.

“You sure?” Jared asked, giving her a hopeful look that 2 of them would have to crash the front and back lounge.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I mean we have the spare beds and it’s already max cap on your bus.” She said, “It’ll work out fine.” She assured them.

“We’ll let John know…” Garrett said, giving her a nod. “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Yeah… sure.” Jamison’s eyes averted as she heard John’s name. “I gotta get going but I’ll see you guys later.”

“Speaking of…” Kennedy said, as he saw Jamison walk out of her own bus that was parked next to The Maine’s bus.

“Jamison!” Molly yelled, gesturing Jamison to come over.

Jamison hesitantly walked over to the group. “Molly…” She greeted, giving a weak smile. “Eric.” She looked over at him.

“Good seeing you.” Eric smiled, feeling a sense tension arising.

“You guys too.” Jamison gave another smile.

“You’re joining us for lunch, right?” Molly asked, looking at her hopefully. “Jake too? You guys have to, it’ll be good all of us catching up.”

“I guess?” Jamison said, cursing whatever higher power that kept making her spend more time with John. “I’ll let him know…”

The Maine, Eric, Jamison, Jake, and Molly had all gone down to a restaurant not too far from the venue where they had met up with Nick who had been waiting for them. Conversation and food were exchanged along with laughs amongst the friends—old and (somewhat) new.

“Molly, you’ve met most of the 8123 crew but have you been to an official 8123 gathering?” Nick asked, as he took a sip of his coke.

“No, but Tim was telling me I should be getting an invite for the holiday party you guys are infamous for.” Molly said, giving a smile.

“Those are fun.” Eric nodded, “The best. I always kill it during karaoke.” He bragged, causing everyone to laugh.

“We’ll haze you, you know officially make you apart of the group.” Jared said, look at Molly in mock seriousness causing everyone to laugh.

“It’ll be like Jamison coming to her first 8123 party when she spent Christmas at John’s.” Nick said, as everyone besides Molly threw him a look of unease.

“You’ve had Christmas with John and his family?” Molly asked; looking over at Jamison who was drinking her lemonade hoping that would ease the tension but mostly to think of an excuse for Nick’s slip of tongue.

“It was—“ Nick began, trying to fix his words after realizing the can of worms he had opened.

“I was spending Christmas alone and John being the gentleman he is, insisted I join him and his family.” Jamison explained. “I’ve never had a real Christmas, so John made that come true.” She smiled, as everyone had a look of relief wash over them. Jamison always knew how to fix a situation with her words.

Molly looked over at John and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “How sweet.”

“He’s a good man.” Jamison said, glancing over at John.

“That he is…” Molly said, looking at him in admiration causing Jamison to look away.

“Look at the bright side Jae, you got a lot of good men.” Jake said, looking at her with a smirk knowing she was probably feeling awkward and out of place..

Everyone began laughing at Jake’s comment. “You make it sound like a harem.” Jamison said, giving him a perplexed look.

“Who says it isn’t?” Jake said raising an eyebrow while Jamison rolled her eyes.

“We got to get going… I promised Brendon I’d practice that dance or whatever with him for tonight then we have that in-store.” Jamison said, looking at her phone to see the time.

“Right.” Jake shook his head and started getting up from his seat. “We’ll see you guys later.” He said, walking out with Jamison.

After practicing a synchronized dance with Brendon that would be Kid ‘N’ Play to shame and doing an in-store performance and signing. Jamison was now doing a video update with Jake that had been a bit different than the tour updates and interviews she had been doing along with Peter.

“Whenever you two are ready…” Peter said, looking through the camera screen.

“Hey guys, Jamison here.” She waved into the camera. “I am here to do a video update of sorts a bit different than the tour updates we’ve been posting… I’m here with—“

“Jake Sinclair!” He yelled, happily causing both of them to laugh.

“So, there’s that YouTube tag going around “Boyfriend Does My Makeup Tag” or whatever and you guys asked me to do it and I’m all for doing what you guys want. Sadly, I don’t have a boyfriend—but I do have a Jake.” Jamison said, gesturing over to Jake trying to hold back a laugh. “So, he’s going to do my makeup. We did decide of ground rules though—I already did my foundation and eyebrows because I really don’t want to take that chance.” She laughed, covering her eyebrows.

“I have to at least make an effort and try to make her look presentable, whatever look I finish with she has to wear on stage during our set, and I have to use eyeliner in the look, I can’t wuss out and not attempt eyeliner.” Jake said, laughing into the camera.

“Man, that almost freaks me out as much as you doing my eyebrows.” She chuckled, looking over at Jake.

“You already have pretty filled in eyebrows, you only fill in the ends…” He pointed to the ends of her brows.

“Man, maybe we should have switched eyebrows and eyeliner.” Jamison said, laughing.

“It’s okay, I can do this…” Jake said, in mock confidence. “I watched a few video tutorials before this.”

“A few?” She looked at him curiously, with a smirk.

“A few.” He said, jokingly.

“Alright, so we’re going to try this?

“Let’s do this…”

“Make me look decent.” She said, with a sheepish chuckle as she watched Jake look through the makeup that was in front of him.

“Girl, you’re going to be the prettiest.” He said, in a girly high-pitched tone. “BrenBren is going to be mad jealous.”

“Gosh, I’m already terrified.” She laughed, looking away from Jake.

Many laughs and sassy remarks to one another, Jake had finished his mission of doing Jamison’s makeup.

“Done.” Jake said, sounding completely proud of himself.

“I’m scared to look.” Jamison said, as she closed her eyes feeling a bit nervous about the outcome.

“Open your eyes.” He said, placing a mirror in front of her.

“Dude, not bad at all… I think you put on eyeliner and eye shadow better than I do.” She examined herself in the mirror, completely surprised and impressed by Jake’s attempt.

“What can’t I do? He said, proudly folding his arms over his chest in triumph.

“So, this is my makeup look done by the Jake Sinclair for the Boston show tonight for the “These Friends Are…” tour.” Jamison said, holding back a laugh while looking into the camera. “I hope you guys enjoyed this video, now we’re going to go eat some catering and do ugly vocal warm-ups.” She pointed to Jake and herself before waving to the camera.

Peter ended recording and signaled the two that they were done causing them to let out a fit of laughter.

“Dudes, good job…” Peter chuckled, “I think everyone will enjoy this video quite a lot.”

“Hopefully.” Jamison laughed, giving Jake a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Who isn’t a fan of the Jamison and Jake dynamic?” Peter asked, as Jamison and Jake just laughed pulling each other into a side hug.

-----------

Philadelphia, PA

It had been early morning load-in and John was walking down the hallway of the venue to head to the dressing rooms. He saw Jamison on a ladder by her dressing room trying to fix something and as she was going down the high ladder she had missed a step causing her to fall but John had quickly ran over to her and caught her in his arms.

“Are you okay?” John asked, as he watched Jamison let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah… I just need to gather my wits.” She said, taking deep breaths. “Thanks for catching me.”

“No problem…” He mumbled, “You should be more careful.” He said, looking away from her.

“I’ll do my best. No promises.” She said, chuckling sheepishly.

“Don’t you have your own boyfriend Ms. Jamison?” Molly said, with a smirk causing both to stray back into reality.

“Molly!” Jamison said, quickly jumping out of John’s arms and back onto her feet. “John just saved me from my own death.” She gestured over to John who gave a weak smile.

“Always the knight and shining armor.” Molly teased, looking at John with a smile as he chuckled sheepishly.

He had never felt more awkward having his past and his present girlfriend in front of him happily conversing with one another.

“I gotta get going to film some stuff with Peter but good having you on tour with us.” Jamison said, giving Molly a weak smile.

“Good to be here. Thanks for making room on your bus so Eric and I could join in on the fun.” Molly pulled John into a side hug.

“No problem. Jared and Garrett are stoked to be rooming with The Widows.” Jamison gave another weak smile. “I’ll see you guys.” She began walking off.

Peter and Jake had been inside the dressing rooms recording footage for Jamison’s possible DVD. Jake had sat on the stool in front of the camera mentally thinking of his answers of possible questions Peter would ask him about Jamison. Somehow Jake knew this would be an emotional time for him as it had been when he had done stuff for Butch’s DVD.

“Who is Jamison Song to you?” Peter asked, from behind the camera looking into the screen to make sure things were in focus.

“The last time you asked me this about Butch, I teared up…” Jake chuckled, sheepishly. “I might do that again and you’ll have to cut it out again…”

“I might just keep it in this time around.” Peter smirked, causing Jake to laugh sheepishly at the thought of him crying in front of the camera..

“Jamison Song—born in 1989; she likes whiskey, carbs, and motorcycle rides.“ Jake said, half jokingly. “No, but honestly she’s my favorite Song. She’s Jamison… there’s no explanation needed for me. But I guess if that isn’t enough, she’s my soulmate.” He smiled. “I think soulmates don’t have to be in a romantic sense… it’s just someone who is your kindred spirit and that’s who she is to me. We’ve learned so much to each other, in life and our work… we’ve been together through the hardest times and happiest times of our lives. Our friendship, our bond… it means the world to me—she means the world to me.” He looked into the camera with sincerity that matched his words.

“How did you get involved in making Jamison’s album?”

It had been another night in Australia during Jake’s visit, the two were drinking Jameson excessively before Jamison had excused herself to go to the bathroom. Far too much time had passed before Jake went in front of the bathroom door to check if Jamison was okay.

“Jae—“ Jake said, through the door. “You’ve been in there awhile, I’m going to come in…” He began opening the door slowly as he saw Jamison sitting next to the bathtub in silent tears.

“Make it stop.” She mumbled.

“Jae…” Jake said, crouching down and holding her into his arms. “What’s wrong?”

“Make it stop.” She repeated, as Jake looked inside the bathtub to see her phone shattered into pieces.

Jake recalled Jamison telling him John had been calling her without saying a word. He knew it had been eating up inside of her and making her feel insane.

“You’re okay… you’re going to be okay.” He said, pulling her into a tighter embrace.

“We started writing together when I went to visit her in Australia, the ones we wrote together actually ended up on our Sin & Song EP. But I think that jumpstarted Jamison writing her album and got her to this point. I tricked her to let me be apart of it all cause… I am her favorite Sin.” Jake said, with a smirk while nodding his head.

“How does it feel being on tour with her and performing with Jamison every night?”

“It’s amazing. I couldn’t be more proud. It’s such a privilege to be on stage with her every night and be apart of it.” He said proudly.

“Do you have any hopes for Jamison?”

“Honestly, I just want her to be happy… and that might sound so simple. But that’s what I want for her.” Jake admitted, with a small smile. “Jamison Song, I wish you nothing but love and happiness in this life and until you find that person who’ll give you all the love and happiness you need and deserve. I’ll love you and make you as happy as I possibly can. Even when you find that person, I’ll still love you just the same and all the while…” He said, looking straight into the camera like he had been talking to her.

Jamison walked out of her bus and began walking towards the venue to prepare for her sound check. She was looking through some emails through her voice till she heard a voice call out from behind her.

“Jamison!”

Jamison turned around to see Molly walked up to her. “Hey Molly.”

“Can I ask you something?” Molly asked.

“Of course.”

“I’m here for the week and I was hoping since you’re the only other girl on tour, I thought it’d be fun to maybe have a girl’s day of some sort on the day off coming up?” She asked, “I feel like I haven’t hung out with you in a while. I think the last time we really hung out was doing some publicity for your album before it was released. It’d be nice to you know, have that bond going again… so, what do you say?”

Jamison wanted to say no but Molly had been such a nice person and friend to her. She felt weird saying no to her, especially since Molly still had no idea about her past with Molly’s current boyfriend. “Sure…” She nodded.

“Great.” Molly smiled. “Can’t wait to see you play tonight, as always… don’t tell John but you’re my favorite set to watch on this tour.”

“Thanks.” She chuckled sheepishly.

“I’ll see you later.” Molly said, before walking off the opposite direction towards the buses.

“I am getting in over my head.” Jamison mumbled to herself, running her hand through her hair.