Almost Easy

Zack’s POV

“Are you sure you’re doing ok? The doctor said the last time we conference called with him that you could go any day now.”

I was prying Jacky on the phone at an ungodly hour of morning as we had finally managed to sync our schedules to talk on the phone today. We had been on tour for a week and a half and two days ago, when we spoke to her doctor, he said she was dilated and ready to go as soon as her water broke, something that concerned me because we had planned this to happen in two weeks, not now. This was less than ideal timing.

“I’m fine, Zack. Even if you don’t make it home because the schedule is off, it’s fine. It’ll all be fine and work out. My parents are going to be here in a few days and we’ll be alright.”

“Promise?” I sighed, trying to be as quiet as I could to not wake the rest of the guys.

“Promise babe. I gotta go before Lid wakes up ok? She hasn’t been sleeping super great since you left. We’re fine, I’ll call you tomorrow ok? I love you.”

“I love you too baby. Talk to you then. If you feel anything though-“

“I know, call Michelle immediately and then an ambulance. Liddy’s going to be so excited to ride in an ambulance.”

“Well, let’s hope this little man can hold himself of until your parents get there so they can drive you.” I ran my hand down my face, “Ok babe, love you. Get some rest.”

“Love you, bye.”

I groaned after hanging up and looked at the favorited contact under Jacky’s name: Liz. I slowly hovered my thumb over the number I had called so many times per day in the last two months and took a deep inhale. I clicked it and pressed the red highlighted delete option and watched it disappear in front of my eyes. She was going to be ok, just as ok as Jacky was. I knew it, she was my sister after all. She had that determination about her and I knew she wouldn’t have left if she doubted her ability to handle this. I just doubted our ability to let Liz’s due date go by without someone crying about missing it, mainly Matt, but I had some money bet on Jimmy too.

Shaking my head I stood up from the couch in the front area of the moving bus, we were old school traveling this leg and it was kind of nice to be driving but at the same time I would kill to already be in a hotel in the next town already after a quick flight, but I definitely enjoyed watching the sun rising in the sky out the bus window. I was the only one up so far, that I knew of, and I made myself a cup of coffee and stared off out the window. Jacky and I had briefly talked about baby names.

The first one she came out with was Leonard and honestly it was hard for any of us to keep straight faces, even Jacky. We narrowed it down to Ethan or Owen, I left the final decision up to her. She said she would know when she saw him, and I had all the faith in her with that. She was definitely becoming more accustomed to this lifestyle and day by day we solidified our stance in the music scene and honestly we weren’t going anywhere any time soon. The only thing that was slightly concerning was-

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know anyone else was awake.”

I looked up from my thoughts as Matt walked in from the bunk area, rubbing his eyes slightly as he reached for a water from the fridge. Surprisingly he had been sober since we left, “It’s fine, I was just talking to Jacky.”

“How is everything?” He leaned back against the small counter area and looked over at me as I shrugged, “Her parents fly in…?”

“A few days, I’ll definitely be less stressed then. I just hate the thought of her having to do this alone and on top of it not have anyone there if they aren’t here yet.”

“Yeah, that must be a hard thought.” He nodded a little and glanced at his watch, yawning.

“How’d the sleep battle go last night?” I asked, it wasn’t really a secret but not something we all talked about much, but it was obvious Matt hadn’t been sleeping well.

“I couldn’t fall asleep for shit last night, I took melatonin too and it didn’t do shit.”

“Melatonin? Since when did you start trying to combat the insomnia?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, he had never been one to try to fix something. I would know.

“Michelle told me to try it, apparently she’s been researching a lot of homeopathic stuff with Leana lately and she said it would help. It did for like, two nights. But last night did nothing.” He shrugged, “I feel like I haven’t slept in ages.”

“Well it can’t help the fact all you did was sleep back home.”

I avoided eye contact, the obvious jab at his drinking was probably unnecessary but it slipped, “So have you heard from your dad at all?”

“Yeah, last night actually, surprisingly, we managed to get a call in. Mom’s good, doing ok actually. Which is nice to hear.”

“It is.” Matt nodded, something about him not bringing up Liz felt nice again. As much as I hated to acknowledge she was no longer a part of our lives, having him back as my friend and not the asshole hurting my sister was nostalgic. Also a good vibe for the band because so far there hadn’t been one emotional breakdown from anyone.

Which Brian and I had a running bet on who went first, Jimmy or Matt. So far they had lasted way longer than I predicted.

“So when do you think everyone’s going to wake up? Last night seemed rough.” Matt sat down finally, grabbing a granola bar from the cabinet before doing so.

“I give them three more hours before Brian’s up, then it’s a toss up between Jim and Johnny.”

Matt nodded with a chuckle, I sort of felt bad for all of us drinking after the show last night as he disappeared off to bed. That was something we should probably have a conversation about at some point. Not waving it around in his face that we could drink without becoming shut ins.

“So anyways…. I was thinking the other day, what about rolling this tour in to something longer? Y’know, more than the beginning of summer? Maybe roll up to Thanksgiving?”

I blinked a few times as the words left his mouth, nodding a little, “I’ll have to run it by the woman shoving my kid out of her body, and then Leana too, but I don’t think that sounds too bad.”

“We do our best writing when we keep our minds busy so.. I figured we could start throwing ideas down for a new record too?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, watching the inevitable expression on his face, “That sounds like a solid idea. We can kick it around when everyone’s in a good mood all at once.”

“Cool. Thanks man.” Matt thanked me then dove into a conversation about the show last night and how he wanted to work in a few more older songs on a future set list, and that small glimpse of normalcy was turning in to something larger and it was finally nice again.