How Many Times Can You Race Around the Tree Before You Catch Me?

I yelled while walking into the bus.

"Andy called?" Mikey asked from his spot mixing drinks.

"No," I grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge," I was commenting on his lack of call. I'm going to see the boys. I'll be back around bus call."

Motionless had parked farther from us today due to the drive. Everyone had left at really weird times and the drive was over twelve hours long.

"Jax, killer set today!" I smiled and thanked AJ as I entered the bus.

"Any calls from the label yet?" Josh asked from behind his computer.

"Nothing yet, but we know what's coming." I chuckled as I sat next to him.

"Somehow, Nikki pulled us into three tours supporting Amity for their headliners." Josh looked thoroughly impressed, as did everyone else sitting in the front lounge.

"Well I came for Vinny, where is he?"

"He went to get food, should be back soon." Ryan chimed in.

"Awesome, so what's Australia like?" Everyone kind of just looked at me.

"You've never been?" I shook my head.

"Nope, every time a band I worked with went I have another gig. Timing was just off I suppose."

"Well you're gonna love it. It's just amazing and I don't really know how else to explain it." I smiled at Ricky.

"I've always dreamed of going there. With how this year has been going, the only down time I had turned into work time and now I'm going for work too..."

"You'll still have a blast and there's going to be at least one off day to do whatever." Ghost was right, but it was still weird to me even

"Yeah I'm just bummed kind of still. I can't even go to the Bleeding Through show now. I have to go home with the guys." Ghost understood how upset that made me.

"There's always next time after the bands has its second coming with it's amazing new lead singer."

"Thanks Ryan," I laughed loudly at the thought," We are far from that paycheck though. We don't even know how it's going to pan out."

"Honestly, It's probably going to do amazing. It's different and-"

I apologized to Josh and took out my phone as it rang.

"Aussie, It's a little late here." I chuckled.

"Well Casey just made food so It's only like evening time." String's response made me laugh.

"Fair enough, do we have business to attend to?" I heard a quiet meow on the other end of the phone.

"Yes Quincy wants to know when he gets to meet his second god mother."

"Never" He laughed.

"No but really, Joel says he hasn't heard anything about those tours coming up. You stallin' or not coming out?" A deep frown set on my face.

"We just got the email today dude, I need to run some numbers but I don't even think everyone knows about it yet..."

"You just got it today? Nikki emailed us two weeks ago. We're trying to put out a finalized flyer for the shows down here."

"Two weeks?" I looked up at Josh and gave him a questioning look.

"Yeah man,did he not tell you?"Shaking my head, I sighed again.

"No, he didn't. I think he knew I was stressed about performing."

"Performance anxiety? I never took you for having performance anxiety," He chuckled," Every show is perfect because of you. The guys wouldn't be a band without you." I made another face.

"I take it Nikki didn't tell you about the lineup change then?"

"Lineup change? Did you lose someone?" This time the groan that left my mouth couldn't be stopped.

"Yeah, Jake OD'ed and he is fine but I replaced him." He didn't even try to hold back the shocked sound he made.

"YOU singing?" I scoffed.

"I tell you our friend OD'ed and you're more shocked about me having some skills. Ouch String."

"That's not what I meant. But seriously? You?" I nodded.

"Yeah we actually started writing and we have Three new songs and a few almost done. I can send them to you if you want?"

"You can email them to me along with your formal yes for those tours, you're not allowed to say no now. I wanna see you on stage."

"It's nothing special, I swear. Yeah I can send those to you, but honestly I need to look into this tour some more. We're getting dropped from the label and everything is gonna be DIY. I need to make sure we have money for recording first." He scoffed this time.

"You'll record down here at Troy's, money problem solved. Now send me a yes."

"Wait, really? Don't you think you should clear that with Troy first?"

"Nah, he's probably just as interested as we are at hearing you sing," I heard some talking on the other end of the phone, "Oh! KC said you can do a guest track on the Royal Family song." I chuckled.

"You get me a yes from Troy and you have your yes about tour. I don't rap though." We both shared a good laugh about that one.

"Fair enough, Alright. Lemme give Troy a ring and I'll call you back." He hung up without letting me answer but I didn't even care.

"Holy shit." I beamed.

"What?" Vinny walked in to the bus at that exact moment with food.

"I guess we're recording the new album in beautiful Australia." I did a mini dance in my chair next to Josh, almost hitting him in the face with my casted arm.

"How the fuck did you go from sad and not seeing it to that?" I shrugged to Ryan.

"String is asking Troy as we speak. They want to hear what we have and they needed an answer about those tours. Apparently, Nikki has had the emails for two weeks or something. I'm a bit confused about that but yeah." Vinny walked over to the kitchen area and put down the food bag.

"Congratulations." He kissed my cheek before retreating to the bunk area.

"When is he gonna call back?" As if on cue, my phone screen lit up.

I answered it with a smirk.

"Jax' whore house, how may we service you today?"

"My wife probably wouldn't approve but Troy is single." I chuckled.

"Hey guys, What's up?"

"String called and told us about your demands." pfft was my only response.

"You make it sound like I'm holding your tours hostage."

"Seems like it but that's ok because you are always welcome here dude." I smiled widely at Troy's words.

"I fucking love you guys right now. I'm going to Finland for two weeks right after this tour is over but I can there as soon as the 20th. Is that ok?"

"How are you going to finish an album in a week?" I paused.

Those logistics had not crossed my mind yet. We had a few songs done so we were only looking at maybe 7-8 more. That's a song a day to finish. I was crazy if I thought I could write, record, mix, and master in that little time.

"Fuck, I'm do a few festivals with HIM in Europe is the problem. Ville pulled a lot of strings to get me in as an SM and LD."

"It's up to you but you know you're always welcome and we're always here to help."

"I'm saying yes to the tour at this point but I need to talk to the guys about what we want to do for recording. I'm saying that week for sure." The two of them had a side conversation on the other end of the phone.

"That's true." I heard Joel answer Troy's silent statement.

"What?"

"There's two weeks after the tour too. You guys could always fly back with us in one big caravan."

"That's true..."

"Still up to you guys though. I don't have anyone booked through here until we leave for that tour."

"I mean that's not the issue at this point. I'm still kind of in TM mode and planning things around the guys," I chuckled," Christian specifically would kill me if I kept him away from home for that long after we've done all these tours. We haven't been home in five months."

"Jesus kid. Well go ahead and talk to them I guess. We're gonna post those flyers in the morning though alright?"

"Yeah, thanks again guy. Troy, I'll call you tomorrow night with a schedule."

We said our good byes before I placed my phone on the table.

"One problem solved and fifteen you didn't know you had pop up." Josh chuckled.

"Yeah I hate being the responsible one sometimes."

Before he could respond, Vinny had come back.

"Babe." He motioned for me to follow him towards the back lounge.

"I'll see you guys later."

After saying bye to the guys I followed Vinny to the back to the lounge. He had set up a table and gotten us food.

"Are we celebrating?" I chuckled as I sat down.

"I just wanted to have a nice dinner with you before tour ended." He gave me a quick kiss before sitting down opposite of me.

I still had a nagging feeling that this was supposed to be something special that I was missing, but I made the small talk while we ate. We talk about the album and the bands touring plans and what I wanted to do about everything. He was telling me about the cool things he had coming up, various endorsements and such. After he and I threw away our trash he looked at me.

"Is there something on my face?" I asked after he had been staring at me for awhile.

"No, you're beautiful." I couldn't help but blush.

"Cheesy ass mother fucker." I grumbled causing him to laugh.

"You know you like it." He pulled me towards him and we laid on the couch together. That's when I saw the time.

"I have to go Vinny, bus call is in 15 minutes...." I tried to get up but he stopped me.

"Just wait a second, I'll be right back." He got up and left me in the back lounge. I watched him grab something out of his bunk and then run back. He closed the door behind him. He kneeled down in front of me.

"Ok so I was thinking about after tour, and I know it's gonna be tough but-"

"Vinny what are you doing?" He waved me off.

"I'll do anything to keep you with me. Say it's too soon but I love you and I mean it," I watched him open the box in his hand to reveal a beautiful ring. It looked to be white gold with a few solitary dark purple jewels in it," It can be a promise ring or an engagement ring. But I want you to be with me and keep it that way."

My jaw dropped and my mouth immediately covered it. We've been together for a month and a half! What was he thinking.

"Vinny, we've only been together for a month and a half!" I whispered yelled so the others wouldn't hear me.

"I know, but you're going away for so long that I just want you to know how serious I am about this..." I hook my head at him.

"No Vinny I can't do that. You're making this too complicated for me." I stood but he grabbed my wrist.

"It's a serious situation that I want to keep us serious. Look at least take the ring and you can think about it..." I looked down at Vinny. He was still kneeling on the ground, one hand on my wrist and the other holding the box open to me. One look into his eyes let me no choice. I held out my left hand and he smiled when I let him place the ring on my finger.

"Jax," He stood and grabbed both of my hands," I really do care for you and I want this to work. I wouldn't have offered up something so serious if I didn't..." He gave me a light kiss.

"I know, I just have a lot to think about..." He gave me a small smile before letting me go.

"I'll see you tomorrow, have a good night."