The Reckless and the Brave

"You're fucking kidding," Alex heard Lily's angry voice as soon as he walked into the back of the bus. She was standing right in front of his top bunk that he'd claimed as soon as he'd arrived. As he got closer to her, he realized that she wasn't actually standing in front of his bunk at all, she was standing in front of the bunk under his, which also seemed to somehow be the only empty one on the bus.

As he watched her, she looked around at his band mates Rian and Zack and then to hers, Adrian, Jesse, and Nick. Everyone shrugged and settled in for the ride, obviously not willing to help her out with switching at all. She sighed heavily as she tossed her bag into the bunk and slipped in, closing the curtain that covered it roughly.

Alex had been planning on at least trying to say hi to her when he'd gone back, but it was obvious that it wasn't the time. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he slipped up into his bunk and listened to her quiet sounds below him. She was listening to music in her headphones and even though he couldn't make out the words of the song, he recognized the beat and music instantly. He listened harder for a moment, sure he was mishearing it. As he listened, he was sure it was what he'd originally thought. She was listening to his band's song, 'Missing You'.

He was shocked. He didn't even know what to think about the fact that she was listening to the song that he'd never even gotten the chance to tell her was kind of written as a letter to her. It wasn't just to her, of course. It was more of a generalized letter to anyone who needed to hear it. But admittedly, he'd definitely had her in the back of his mind when writing it. Jack had been telling him that she was having a bit of a hard time in her life and he'd felt awful but hadn't known how to approach her, so he'd written to her hoping that she'd hear it someday. He didn't even know what to do now that he was sure she had.

Settling into his bunk and popping in his own earbuds, he lay there awake for a long time, wondering what the hell he was going to say to her when they did finally talk.



As Lily lay in her bunk listening to Alex quietly moving around above her, she couldn't help but take a deep breath. Even being in a completely different bunk, she could smell his cologne. It was the same one he'd always worn and she hadn't smelled it in so long that it almost made her dizzy.

She was still so annoyed that everyone had purposely taken every bunk except the one right below his. They didn't want to admit it, of course, but she knew they did it on purpose. It wasn't necessarily that she minded being below him because she didn't. It was true that she didn't want to be so near to him, but it wasn't really for the reasons she was sure the others were thinking. Mostly, she didn't want to be so near to him because she didn't want what she was already experiencing. She didn't want to smell his cologne. She didn't want to hear his voice.

It wasn't until she'd walked past him in the front of the bus an hour before that she realized just how much she'd missed him. She wished she didn't. She wished that she could get rid of the innate desire to climb into his bunk with him.

A few hours into their journey, the bus stopped at a truck stop for gas and food. Lily listened as Alex climbed out of his bunk and waited a long time before she did so as well. She was only kind of surprised when she opened her curtain to see him still standing there.

"Hi," he said quietly, his brown eyes wide as he looked at her.

"Hi, Ally," she said, instinctively using the nickname she used to have for him without even thinking about it. She could feel her face getting hot as she looked at him and knew she was blushing. "Sorry. I'm sure you hate that nickname," she said quickly, and before she even finished he was shaking his head.

"No worries," he whispered, taking a step toward her. "How long has it been since we've seen each other?"

"Six months. Jack's Christmas party. You got shitfaced and went around telling people you and I were married even though you hadn't even done as much as said hello to me all night. I spent two weeks responding to texts and emails congratulating me on us getting back together," she said, and he could hear the venom behind her words that she was skillfully trying to conceal.

"Shit," he said, looking embarrassed. "I forgot about that."

"I figured," she responded, standing up out of her bunk and walking past him.

"I'm sorry," he said, catching up to her easily.

"Don't worry about it. Doesn't matter," she said, obviously trying to brush him off.

"You know, Lil, if we're going to be spending all summer together we should probably talk," he said, and she nodded.

"Sure. We're talking right now," she said, and she could see him shaking his head out of the corner of her eye.

"You know what I mean. A lot of things went down and we never really talked about them."

"That's because you never wanted to," she all but snapped at him. A glance at him told her she'd stung him. He nodded shortly and then walked past her and off the bus without another word. She watched him from the doorway, the thought occurring to her that this was going to be much harder than she'd originally thought.