Insert Romantic Title Here

The music blasting through my headphones drowned out any thought I had. Thank God, because I’ve been thinking too much lately. So listening to this really helps. It even drowns out my surroundings, so I could have a group of people around me talking and I’d still be in my own world.

Like right now. That was exactly what was happening.

Everyone was in their bunks chatting and I was just laying here with my music blasting so loud I’m sure everyone could make out the lyrics.

I closed my eyes for a bit, so I could truly drown out everyone. I did such a good job of it that I didn’t hear everyone leave. So when I opened my eyes five minutes later, the empty room surprised me.

Well, almost empty. In the bunk across from mine was Gerard sitting in the corner with a sketchbook on his lap with his hand moving vigorously across the page.

I sighed. I was thinking about taking my music off but since it was just us alone in the room I left my headphones on even though my CD was pretty much over. He might not notice, anyway.

So I closed my eyes again and let the sound of Gerard’s pencil scratching across the page slowly rock my thoughts to an end, for the first time.

My mind was a complete blank. Nothing was floating through it. I was finally at peace.

And then, before I knew it, I was sleeping. I was sleeping in a dreamless state, so it was hard to distinguish if I was actually, truly sleeping. I wasn’t for sure about it until I felt someone shaking me awake.

“Yeah…?” I mumbled as my eyes fluttered open.

“Katie? Can I show you something?” Gerard asked holding the sketchbook he was just drawing in, in his hands. I also recognized it as the one I peaked in the first night we called Jackie.

I sat up, took my headphones off, and put them under my pillow.

“Um, not right now. I’m actually kind of hungry.”

I got up off the bed and went to the front of the bus. I wasn’t really hungry. It was just an excuse to get out of there. But I rifled through the fridge anyway, just in case Gerard came out. He didn’t.

“No, Frank, I keep telling you, we repeat the chorus and then go into the bridge,” Ray was explaining.

“What’re you guys doing?” I asked with a bottle of water in my hand.

Everyone was sitting around the table hovered over some lyrics or sheet music.

“We’re working on a new song,” Mikey said without lifting his head. “It turns out Melissa’s quite the lyricist.” He gave her a pet on the cheek and she smiled and continued writing.

“How about that?” She suggested as she shoved the paper around the table.

“Does Gerard know?”

“He suggested it,” Jackie informed me.

I snapped open my bottle of water and sat down at the over crowded table. Everyone contributed to the lyrics of the song and it turns out Jackie’s really good at it too. Sure I tried to help, but I wasn’t as good as most of the others. So I guess I’ll just stick to the piano.

“So now that we have the lyrics down, you wanna go work on some of the music?” Bob eagerly jumped up from the table.

We all migrated from the small table to the small recording studio in the back of the bus.

After that the song just formed on its own. It didn’t take more than an hour. I was so excited because it called for a little bit of piano in it as well.

“Hey Gerard! Get your ass in here!” Frank called.

A weary Gerard appeared in the doorway and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Yeah?”

“We have a song, wanna hear?”

“Don’t you need me to sing?” He asked.

“Melissa’s doing that just for the run through, you know until you know the rhythm and things.”

Melissa smiled and Gerard took a seat by Bob’s drums.

The song took off and I was kind of taken aback by how well put together it was for just working on it for about two hours.

Gerard seemed impressed by what we put together. He had a slight smile on his face the entire time and his foot kept the time. When it ended he gave us all a full smile and applauded us.

“Good job guys!” He beamed. “Now, teach it to me.”

He pulled up an empty stool and Melissa helped him get the rhythm and notes down. Every now and then he made a slight adjustment for his voice or because it sounded a bit better.

Finally by the end of the night, well early in the morning, we got the entire thing down.

“Great, happy, happy, joy, joy!” Frank declared at the end of the last run through. “FINALLY! Can I go to bed now?” He pouted like a puppy dog, with droopy eyes and everything.

“No you have to stay awake forever,” I joked.

Frank growled at me.

“What the-? I was just kidding!”

He smiled and skipped happily off to bed.

Soon everyone else followed and so did I. I was brushing my teeth when Bob came in and grabbed his toothbrush as well.

“I think Santa left you a present,” He muttered.

“What?”

“Go see.”

I rinsed my mouth and headed off to my bunk where I saw a black sketchbook. Gerard’s sketchbook. The one he was drawing in earlier.

I wrapped my hands around it and turned to look at Gerard, sound asleep in his bunk, curled up with his knees almost to his chest.

“Open it,” Bob demanded with the toothbrush still in his mouth.

“Maybe tomorrow,” I faked a yawn. “I’m too tired right now.”

Bob gave me a suspicious look and shrugged. Then he went back to brushing his teeth.

I put the sketchbook into my bag and made a mental note to forget that it was there. Then I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to my eyes. It took me a while before finally
drifting off to sleep.
-----
“God, I’m so fucking excited!” Jackie cried as she finished putting her clothes into a suitcase. “EUROPE!”

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fun,” I half mindedly said as I zipped up my suitcase.

Melissa shook her head and turned to Jackie.

“We still have to get through this show, so don’t got getting all excited yet.”

“I can get excited whenever I want to.”

Jackie put her hands and her hips and sighed.

“Well, I’m done. Now what do I do?”

“Go call Shelby,” I suggested. “You probably won’t be able to talk to her for a while.”

“Good idea!”

She skipped off and out of the bus.

“You almost done?” I asked Melissa.

“Almost,” She said trying to stuff in her last stuffed animal.

“I told you, you shouldn’t have brought those,” I laughed.

“I can get it!” She grumbled. “Ha, there.”

Melissa pointed to her suitcase that was just barely zipped and was near bursting. I laughed at it and opened mine back up.

“Want to put something in here?” I asked her.

She grabbed her toiletry bag and pair of formal shoes and stuffed them into the top of my suitcase. We closed up together and went outside to meet the guys at the arena for the last show in America.
-----
“Now Jackie,” Melissa told Jackie as we worked out way backstage. Jackie seemed confused for a moment. “Now you can be excited.”

They squealed together and I covered my ears.

“Oh, come on Katie! Don’t tell me your not excited at all!”

I smiled.

“Well…” I shrugged.

I screamed and jumped up and down, they soon followed and we all skipped to the backstage where we were meeting Chad with a van to drive us to the airport.

“Great last show!” Melissa hugged everyone and gave Mikey a quick kiss when we were getting ready to file into the van.

“Yeah, way to end with a bang! Literally…” Jackie added, giving Bob a bear hug.

“Just… One thing,” I began. “Why didn’t you tell us that you were going to play the new song?”

“We didn’t,” Gerard snapped.

“Not the one we wrote last week. The other one.”

“Oh yeah, well, I guess we just thought we’d surprise you!” Ray said grabbing my shoulder and pulling me into a hug.

“Well, it worked,” My words were muffled in his hair.

“Excuse me!” Chad climbed out of the driver seat and pointed at his invisible watch. “Let’s go! We have two hours to get to the flight! We don’t wanna be late do we?”

We all filed into the van and headed off for the airport.
-----
“I hate this,” Ray muttered as he fastened his seat belt around his waist. “Stupid planes, they make me want to puke.” He held his stomach and closed his eyes tight. “And the fact that we’re flying over an ocean makes it worse.”

“I know how you feel,” Mikey muttered putting his hand over his mouth. “That’s why Melissa has the window seat.”

Melissa smiled and tightly held Mikey’s hand.

“It’s gonna be okay,” She comforted him.

“Yeah,” I agreed and gave Ray a small hug.

He twitched and held his stomach tighter.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

The pilot soon came over the speakers and said we were third in line to take off so it won’t be long until we’re in the air.

Melissa, Jackie, and me exchanged smiles. We were going to Europe. We were going to see it all. Spain, England, France, Italy! I just hope that we don’t get too lost between the different money and the language barrier.

Once again the pilot came spoke to us and told us that we were charging the runway. And before I knew it, the roar of the engines pounded my ears as we gained speed.

Ray was clutching the armrests with his shoulders almost pulled up to ears.

“Hey,” I said to him. “Take this.”

In my hand was a pack of Juicy Fruit. He took it graciously and shoved three sticks of gum into his mouth at one time.

“Thanks,” He smiled with bits of gum sticking out of his teeth.

I giggled and leaned my head back with my eyes closed.

My stomach jumped when we were in the air. And Ray did a little whimper.

“Oh! Ray!” I squealed. “It’ll be okay.”

Ray gave me a look of despair and grabbed my hand for support. He squeezed it harder and harder the higher in the air we got.

When we finally leveled out Ray skeptically let go of my hand and lowered his shoulders. He took some deep breaths in as if he hadn’t since the moment we got on the plane.

“It’s only seven hours, it’s only seven hours. You can do it.”

I smiled and looked over my shoulder to see how Melissa and Mikey were doing. Melissa was all smiles and Mikey was only a little jittery.

“Just don’t look out the window,” She tried to reassure him. “Or you could just sleep. And all this will be over in no time.”

Mikey pushed up the armrest and laid his head down on Melissa lap and shut his eyes.

Melissa pulled out her Ipod and started listening to it. Then gently she stroked Mikey’s light brown hair.

After a while everyone started falling asleep. Especially Chad who barely ever gets a break from driving to sleep. So he took quite a liking to the reclining airplane chair.

I also soon found the reclining feature useful. And I followed the others in drifting off into a steady sleep.
-----
The jolting of the plane forced my eyes opened and thrust me forward in my seat.

“What’s going on?” I grumbled still drowsy from my sleeping.

I looked over at Ray who was clutching the seat arms again as if the plane was falling out of the sky.

“Ray?” I nudged his shoulder. “Ray, are you okay?”

But he just kept looking ahead. He was doing that little whimper of his again and every now and then he closed his eyes tight and opened them as if to shake something away.

“What’s going on?” I asked again.

I finally gave up trying to get an answer from him so I got up and looked around at everyone else.

They were basically all doing the same as Ray. Mikey seemed to be the only exception.

Instead of trying to stay calm, he had his knees pulled to his chest and was rocking back and forth. Tears were endlessly dropping from behind his foggy glasses.

I looked over at Chad who, surprisingly, was still sleeping.

Still trying to contain composure I went over and tried to shake him awake. He, like the others wouldn’t budge.

“What the hell is happening?” I yelled to everyone.

Then, abruptly, the plan jerked to one side and we were leaning to one side. I lost my balance and fell to the floor, while everyone remained in their trances.

Soon we were balanced out again, but then I noticed something else was wrong.

I rushed to a window and threw open the shutter.

My heart stopped for an instant. Then it immediately went into survival mode.

The plane was head directly for the ocean. I needed to something to save my friends. To save me!

Frantically I stumbled to the front of the plane were the pilot’s door was locked. Or there was something blocking it. Either way I couldn’t get it.

I could feel the altitude dramatically changing and my ears popped and began ringing, causing my focus to be scattered. A massive headache followed.

I grasped my head just to try and stop the pain, but to no avail.

Trying to walk in a straight line, well, just trying to walk is more apt. Because of this headache I could barely see. But I needed to do something to save us. Or at least try. I wasn’t about to let my friends die.

I reached underneath the nearest seat, for those floatation devices that they teach you to activate at the beginning of each flight. Unfortunately for me, and everyone else here, I wasn’t paying attention when they’re explaining it. Hey, who does?

This was when I knew that we were all going to die. Not just because of my inability to work the floatation devise. But because I felt the plan give another jolt, and I knew that the plane had hit the water.

Soon enough water had begun filling the plane. First in the back, and it slowly made it’s way to the front.

Storming through the water I made my way to each of my friends, giving them a hug, even if they didn’t respond.

After I got through everyone I stopped again at Gerard. If I was going to die, I wanted to do it with him, even if he didn’t love me.

I unbuckled his seatbelt and sat on his lap. I placed his arm around my shoulder and put his other on my knee. Leaning my head against his shoulder I let the tears come down my face. The panic was gone and the dread was taking its place rapidly.

The water swallowed Frank first, then Jackie and Bob, Chad, Melissa and Mikey, and Ray.
Just before the water took Gerard and me I titled my head up at his and got one last look at his perfect face before the water swept me from his arms.
-----
Gasping for air I jumped forward in my seat again.

I put my hand on my heart and fiddled with my hair and fingers, just to make sure I was
really alive.

With a sigh of relief and a smile I leaned back in my chair and turned to face Ray. He was looking at me with worry in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” He questioned.

“What? Oh, oh yeah. Just- a bad dream.”

“Oh… Okay.”

He turned back to the window, which he seemed to be comfortable with looking out of now.

I looked around the plane. Everyone was sleeping, reading, or listening to music.

“That was intense…” I whispered to myself and put a hand on my head.

“What happened?” Ray turned back to me.

“We were falling. And everyone was in some kind of trance, so I was the only one that could save us. The ocean basically swallowed us. And even though I knew somewhere that it had to be a dream, it still seemed so real.”

“Yeah,” He voice trailed off. “I hate it when that happens.”

I played with my fingers again and twirled my necklace around a few times before Ray
spoke again.

“It explains a lot though.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm,” He nodded. “You were crying.”

I looked at him in shock.

“I was?”

He nodded again. “It was kind of scary. Seeing you like that.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you…”

“Naw, it’s fine.”

Ray looked me over again. I was still a little shaken from the dream.

“Do you need a hug?” He asked with a playful smile spread across his face.

I laughed. “That’d be great!”
-----
Thankfully the plane got to Ireland without any hiccups. We landed smoothly and we kept a low enough profile that no one in the airport knew we were there.

The bus got packed quickly and thoroughly and within an hour of landing we were headed off to the hotel where we got to stay before the show tomorrow in Dublin.

It was a good thing we had that day for recovering because we really needed it. Everyone was exhausted. You’d actually think that seven hours of doing nothing and sitting around
wouldn’t be tiring, but it surprisingly took a lot out of you.

We divided the rooms up. Naturally all the girls together, then Gerard, Mikey, and Ray in one room, and Chad, Bob, and Frank in the other.

Everyone trudged up to the rooms and whished each other good night, even though it was four in the afternoon.

Melissa was the first in our room so she was the first in the shower while Jackie and I lay lifeless on our beds.

“I can’t believe I’m really here,” Jackie muttered into her pillow just loud enough for me to hear.

“I know what you mean,” I muttered back at her.

“I just have this feeling,” She began again. “That this is going to be something bigger than everyone expects it to be. Almost as if we’re starting over. It’s a cool feeling. What do you think? Do I make any sense?”

She looked over at me with hopeful eyes.

“Yes,” I whispered. “I think I know what you mean.”

Jackie smiled and soon fell asleep. It was just me and Melissa awake in our room. But it was just going to be Melissa soon, because I was falling asleep faster than I thought I would. But I knew I needed to take a shower.

After I was finished I came out of the bathroom to find Melissa gone with a note on the table saying:

“Hey Katie,

I wasn’t really tired. So I went to go visit Mikey, he actually phoned the room while you were I the shower and told me to go see him. I think we might be going out somewhere.
Enjoy your sleep! You really need it.

Melissa”

I sighed and planed the note back on the table. I looked over at Jackie who was sleeping in a little ball under a blanket that Melissa must’ve put on her.

I collapsed on my bed and hugged on of my pillows.

“This is going to be a long two weeks.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-
So... This computer thing didn't take as long as I thought it would!

^_^

Or maybe I'm just a fast writer! Oooh you'll never know!

But anyway, this chapter may not have been the "exciting" event I promised but it WILL happen within the next two chapters. And if it doesn't you can hang me by my toes in a tree with a jump rope.... Or... something a little less... painful.

^_^ Thanks for reading!