I Will Make You Believe....

Josh kept eying me throughout the main course of our dinner. He must've been waiting because no sooner than was the check delivered then did he stop everyone from getting up.

"Hey, I have something I want to tell everyone." Everyone looked down at the end of the table at him and subsequently me. He didn't look at me this time before he spoke.

"I don't want you to think there was anything being hidden from anyone here because we're all so close, but I needed time to figure out if it was right. So please don't be mad or upset with either of us." He stopped and took a deep breath.

"Us? What's going on?" Everyone instinctually looked to the end of the table at Tyler causing me to laugh.

"I actually am not the other party in this for once." I chuckled again as he smirked at everyone.

"Were you replaced?" Simon asked causing everyone to laugh.

"Well, Josh isn't a third wheel anymore if that's what you're asking..." Just like that, Josh had our joined hands up and on the table and everyone was staring at us.

"When the heck did that happen?" Everyone seemed dumbfounded. Jordan knew exactly what was going on.

"You're that Chips? I didn't think you really existed!" He laughed loudly, which I joined.

"Whoa whoa whoa. What's going on here?" I sighed and opened my mouth to tell them the story, but Josh got to it first.

"We've been dating for four months. She has had some not so welcoming experiences about relationships in this industry and I agreed to keep it between us until she gave me the ok."

"I knew though, naturally." I chuckled at the smiling boy on the other end of the table.

"This makes a lot of sense now..."I just nodded to Mark.

"Yeah, you almost broke us up, you jerk." I joked, referring to the Europe tour. Josh chuckled with me.

"What?! How did I do that? I didn't even know this was a thing!" Everyone laughed at the near conniption the brown haired videographer was having.

"I was joking."

Just like that, everyone accepted it though. No one batted an eyelash, except Jordan who was now enthralled at the prospect of getting dibs on having his own room since that had been me before.

Speaking of rooms, Josh and I had arrived back in ours.

"God it's so nice to not have to sneak around." I told him as I threw myself across the far bed, taking up almost the entire space of the bed.

"I can't even begin to think of the possibilities..." Josh crawled over me until I could see is his smiling face.

"Those better be some innocent possibilities, Little Drummer Boy..." His response was to kiss me. Deeply, in the kind of way that just drips desire.

"I love you," I push him off and to the side before straddling his waist,"but if you prevent me from sleeping tonight knowing that I have to do you lights tomorrow and possibly for the entire tour, I'll throw you off a moving bus." He chuckled and sat up on his elbows.

"I love you even more. I wouldn't dare get between you and sleep." I smirked and leaned down to kiss him again.

"I wouldn't be opposed to a shower before bed though..."

The next morning, I left for the venue around 8. Josh was even still asleep when I left. All of the merch had yet to be set up and I was having to find vendors for all of the shows in case I am in fact doing lights on this run. I also wanted to get a little practice on the lighting board since I haven't done lighting in awhile.

I started with the merch. Counts were simple, but I didn't bother with the display. If there would be a vendor every night, it would be easier for me to let them do set up and know where everything is. My bigger worry was the lighting since I hadn't been on a board in nearly two years. The easiest thing for me to do was to just go for it. I ran through the setlist while going over the cues that I remembered and wrote down the ones I would have to call Shap about. Around 10, I had almost all of it down. That's when everyone else showed up.

"Look at you, it's like riding a bike?" Andrew joked as he came to front of house with two coffees.

"Mostly, I love lighting. EDM shows were my favorite." I smiled as he handed me one of the coffees.

"Yeah? When was the last time you did lights?" I looked up in thought while my hands curled around the warm coffee. The very was a steamy 65 degrees in the venue.

"Probably two years ago. I did a tour doubling as merch and lighting. It was for this metalcore band that was all about their lighting show." He smiled.

"Thanks for the coffee too." He gave me a thumbs up as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Well, gotta keep foh caffinated." I chuckled and ran my right hand gently over the faders on the board in front of me. I really did miss this.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You ok?" He asked me after a calm minute.

"Yeah, I do really miss lighting though. Actually, I just miss tech in general." I chuckled nervously.

"Why don't you see if you can get on doing tech then?" I shrugged.

"Honestly, I wouldn't make enough. I also have another person to consider now..." I looked up and saw the two boys of the hour walking on stage and examining everything. Josh stood there in skinny jeans and a very loose hoodie with holes in it. He lifted his hand to tousle his hair while Jordan said something and I couldn't help but smile when he laughed at something Tyler said.

"Chips," I snapped out of it and looked back over at Andrew," Josh is a great guy and I'm sure you're happy, but you gotta make yourself happy." I shrugged.

"I'm happy. I'm still doing what I want to do, just in a different tier. I'm sure life will send me back this way, but for now I'm ok."