The Sound of a Ghost

"Thanks again, Mike." I mumbled as I curled up next to him around 6 am, a movie flashing on the tv screen and Vic's head resting on my legs. They had politely given up their beds for my boys in the backroom. Tony was already out so we let him lie.

"Mhm." He hummed back, his finger tapping lightly on my shoulder. I sighed.

"Go ahead and ask it." I groaned.

"You and Hi-me?!" He exclaimed quietly.

"He didn't clear it up for you?"

"No. He came back to the bus and went to his bunk and hasn't come out. Probably asleep by now." Figured we'd do the exact same thing. Damn our simularity. Vic rolled his head on my knees and looked up at me.. I missed my best friends, to be honest. And speaking of honesty, I was ready to be honest with them.

"Remember the night we found out about Tony's show and i went AWOL for a couple hours?" they both nodded.

"I met him that night." I mumbled. Mike raised an eyebrow at me.

"Ok, fine. I slept with him." I grumbled.

"Oooh, and then he tried to steal your job an-ouch. That's gotta suck." Vic murmered.

"You think? Oh, and in your basement, too" I added. Mike's jaw dropped.

"You fucked on our couch?! OUR COUCH?!" He gasped.

"It's your fault for locking us down there." I replied.

"Oh my God, I'm so burning that." Mike breathed.

"I kinda wondered why he came upstairs shirtless." Vic mused.

"Ok. I'm over it. Go on." Mike said, taking a deep breath and sinking down a bit to get my head in a more comfortable spot.

"It was such a spiral, guys. Like, I swore that emotions wouldn't get involved except for hate and lust but then I had to go and do something stupid." I said against Mike's shoulder. Vic raised his head to look at me.

"Which was?"

"I went and fell in love with him." I whispered quietly. Vic rested his chin on my knee and stroked his thumb against my calf comfortingly.

"Then why'd you leave?" I sighed again.

"I almost didn't. But when Jaime and I talked the night I decided to go, the only thing he could've said to make me stay is that he loved me. But he just said he 'liked me.' It wasn't enough to pass all this up, you know?" I looked down at my phone, which now read 8 am. I was tired of talking about this. I tucked my phone into my hoodie pocket and pulled myself off the couch.

"You just called him Jaime..." Mike trailed off. I looked back at my best friends with a sad smile on my face.

"Who said I didn't love him anymore?"

*********

If there is one place in this world where I could make me feel on top of the world and forget all the bullshit that was going on it was on stage. I shook my head to the drum beat as Theo and I sang together. I hit the last chords of our set with about as much emotion as I possibly could.

"Thank you, loves. You've all been absolutely smashing. Pip pip!" I called into the mic.

"Wannabe," Theo retorted. The crowd laughed and I shot a peace sign at them before hopping off the stage and tossing my bass to Cam.

"Hey, Perrita! Awesome set." Vic, who had been leaning against the back wall during our show, said, wrapping his arm around me. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hi...what do you want, Victor?"

"You know what you're doing after this tour?"

"Nothin' until Warped, why?"

"Well we've been asked to do a headliner, but we want to do a co sooo..." Vic trailed off.

"Why are you asking me? Theo's the front man." I stated. I didn't want to make this decision. I love my friends, and I love my brother, but I don't know if I can be around Jaime for that long.

"Please, Perrita, we all know you hold the puppet strings." Vic stated. I sighed.

"Vic, you know I love you. I really do. But now that you know everything, you can understand my hesitation, right?" I asked, looking at him.

"I was afraid you'd say that. Just think about it, ok? We're still basically family even if our bassist can be a dick." I laughed and pulled him into a hug.

"I always loved you best, shorty." Vic drew back and frowned.

"Same fucking height!"