Almost Easy

Zack’s POV

“Well we’re here.” Matt announced as we exited the bus in Indianapolis, two days prior to our show. We had travelled straight through a rest day and gave ourselves an extra day to explore.

“It’s surprisingly..” Johnny looked around, “Quiet.”

“We aren’t supposed to get in until tomorrow, so I assume even the radio stations we have interviews with aren’t expecting us a day early.” I shrugged, “We should go find somewhere to get good food though. I’m starving and if I have to eat at another shitty Mexican restaurant because Jimmy can’t make up his mind I’ll strangle myself with a guitar string.”

“Dramatic.” Jimmy rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone, “There’s a few pretty well rated Mexican places-”

“NO!” We all chorused.

“My asshole can not take any more tacos.” Brian grunted, “Hold on....” He disappeared inside of a small coffee shop a short distance that we had walked away from where we parked. We waited outside, all of us in winter clothes as everyone walking by was in sweatshirts and jeans.

“Wow if we aren’t over dressed for the weather.” Matt chuckled under his breath.

“I don’t like when it’s under sixty.” Jimmy cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed in to them heavily as Brian walked out, “And? No coffee?”

“No, I asked the barista where was a popular, non taco related, restaurant was. She said there’s a great steakhouse down the road a little bit.” He gestured, “We can try that.”

“Sounds good here.” Johnny and Brian began leading the way, Jimmy taking the middle, and Matt was beside me at the rear of the group.

“When was the Berry Bus arriving?” He asked, checking his phone quickly as I tried to remember what Jason had texted me last night.

“I think they’ll be here in a little over an hour.” I nodded and peeked at the time on Matt’s phone, “So two-ish. I’m just excited to be off the bus and getting good food.”

“Jesus, same here.” Matt mumbled, “If I ate one more taco I swear I’d start speaking fluent Spanish and making Mole sauce in my sleep.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the comment, it seemed bad to say, but honestly we had eaten enough tacos over this tour after letting Jimmy decide too many times what to eat, that accompanied with them being the only thing we seemed to stumble upon while looking for food. I was done with burritos and enchiladas.

We rounded a corner and Brian pointed out the restaurant up ahead, “That wasn’t far.” Johnny mused as we started to cross the street, being let across the road by a single car while others sped past.

“Jesus,” Matt exhaled as we all waved a thank you in the direction of the white Audi stopped a little far back, “I don’t think they gave us enough space.”

“Probably space for other cars to see around and stop for pedestrians.” Jimmy shouted at a car whizzing by, “Thank you!” He shouted at the car stopped for us as we finished walking. I laughed and pushed him on to the sidewalk.

“We don’t need you getting hit and having to deal with that.” I held the door open as he flipped me off, “Screw yourself Rev.”

“I’ve been on the road almost a month, I obviously do.” He smirked at me as we waited for a host to come seat us.

:.:.:.:.:

We had managed to get noticed only a handful of times as we wandered around the city. Our attempts at staying as incognito as possible was useless. Thankfully, though, no one had recognized us during our meal. We were presently walking through a park passed a school, a loud group of small children were playing outside in snow suits with teachers trying to contain the snowball fight breaking out from a group of older looking kids and much younger ones.

I laughed under my breath, “God, to be a kid again. Maybe we should take them all skiing this winter.” I looked over at Jimmy who nodded, “Ethan sees pictures from vacations years ago up North skiing and asks to go.”

“We should.” He nodded, “Tom would love that.”

“The twins would watch from the comfort of the hotel.” Brian smirked and nudged Johnny, “You gotta catch up man. We’re all sporting at least one.”

The group fell silent as Matt continued to walk away, further down the street, “Smooth Haner.” Johnny glared at him, “What would be weird,” He gestured to the playground that was slowly fading behind us, “Is if one of those was his.”

“Weird? I think possible.” Jimmy shrugged, “We’re here, she’s here somewhere, she’s obviously five years out of having a kid...”

“But we don’t know how many schools are in this area,” I hushed them as we caught up with a silently stalking Matt, he was head down, hood up, power walking, “Dude you’re almost running.”

“Oh,” He mumbled and shrugged, I could hear something behind his voice but fell behind again to the others, “Didn’t notice. It’s cold as fuck I’m just trying to get back.”

“Gotcha.” Brian muttered and nudged his shoulder, “Sorry man.”

“About what?” Matt glanced up, a singular line down his face gave away the fact he was definitely crying earlier. If it was brought on by Brian’s comment I wasn’t sure.

“Earlier, let’s go grab a beer on the bus and relax. We have a ton of press tomorrow.” Brian glanced back at me with a sympathetic frown on his face.

We continued walking in silence to the bus, making it thankfully with no more sightings. My brain was starting to crunch the possibilities of running in to Liz here, or if she would know we were here and come see us. I could bet my life she wouldn’t, but something inside me was crossing my fingers praying she would. Five years and we finally found out where she was. She was so close, right under our fingertips now. Miles, maybe tens of miles, but miles. No longer states away, we were here.

She was married. Fuck. I wiped my eyes quickly as I looked up to see the blurry bus in front of me, I hadn’t noticed tears beginning in my eyes as my mind wandered. I glanced at Matt as he caught my action, he pushed my shoulder.

“Sneaks up on you huh?” He smirked and disappeared in to the bus. I nodded, sniffling slightly and followed, “Are we going to try to stalk her or wait until it’s too late?” Matt asked and sat down, “I really just want to see my kid. Honestly.”

“Yeah I know.” Brian nodded, “We should maybe reach out?”

“How?” I asked as Brian held up his phone, I shrugged and let him type a few things in. He huffed and tried again, “What?”

“I can’t find it.” He mumbled and looked over as the door of the bus opened and Jason walked in, followed by his brother, “Jase, find Lizzy’s profile again.”

“I was just coming to tell you to do the same thing.” He laughed, “Uh... I think we have a problem.”

“Doesn’t the Facebook algorithm tell you in your friend suggestions by people who view your profile?” Jimmy looked up at us, “Because before I actually added Michelle to mine her name always came up and she told me she stalked mine constantly.” Jimmy raised his shoulders, “Maybe she saw?”

“Fuck.” Jason ran his hand over his face, “That could explain it.”

“But we looked a few days ago-”

“She probably saw it and deleted herself.” Matt closed his eyes, pushing away the beer I offered him, “No, I haven’t drank since we left. I’m not starting now. I’m not making a fool of myself right now.”

“Give that five hours” Brian mumbled and put his phone away, “Wait, didn’t you find uhm...”

“Yeah.” Jason mumbled, “I thought about it but I didn’t want to.”

“What?” Matt asked.

We all shared a look, “Message her husband.”

“Right.” Matt looked at his sneakers, “Zack you could.” His eyes locked mine, “It would sound less... creepy. Than her ex-husband.”

“Oh none of us had the intention of letting you do it,” Brian shook his head at Matt, “If anything we’d let Jason.”

“I wonder how much she told him.” I took my phone out of my pocket and opened up my Facebook page, “How about we wait until after the show?”

“We leave the next morning, Z.” Brian widened his eyes at me, pleading on Matt’s behalf for once, “I mean.. That's pushing it.”

“Fine.” I put my hand up and squinted, “What was his-”

“Daniel Heely.” Matt piped up, I raised an eyebrow, “The name of the man who is now raising your child you never got to meet doesn’t leave your mind that easily.” The words I was waiting for left his mouth, “That means more to me than seeing Liz in all honesty and I’m not trying to be rude here. I just want to see my son, even if he doesn’t know who I am.” Tears brimmed his eyes, “That’s all I want.”

“Alright.” I stared at the search bar on my screen, “Alright.”