When Layla Jones is invited to tour with up and coming rock band, Greta Van Fleet, she is ecstatic for the opportunity, especially since the band members just happen to be her childhood best friends. She has never known life without them, and she is...
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Once we made it to the airport and through the check-in line, I was relieved to find that I was assigned the seat next to Sam on the plane. It meant that I didn't have to feel nervous next to Josh or anxious about what had been bothering Jake, but it also meant I could finally talk to Sam about it. We all filed onto the Boeing airplane, each of us stowing our carry-on bags in the overhead bins as we found our seats. Josh, Jake and Danny were seated all together several rows back. I slid into the window seat, settling in place and buckling my seat belt. Sam plopped down beside me, careful not to drop the smoothie he had purchased in the airport.
"You two be good." Josh chuckled at us, ruffling Sam's hair as he walked by our seats and further back in the plane.
"Lay, can I have your book?" Danny leaned over our seats as I handed him my well worn copy of a C.S Lewis book. Jake grabbed Sam's smoothie and took a quick sip before giving it back and following the others.
"No respect." Sam shook his head, smiling. I opened my phone to check my notifications before having to put it on airplane mode, and I was shocked at the amount of texts that had flooded in. I checked the first one from a crew member. It was a link to a video of the Phoenix show that someone had titled 'Greta Van Fleet Replaces Jake Kiszka With Ugly Ginger Wannabe'. I felt the blood drain from my face. I flipped back to my messages before the video could load. Scanning through the other messages, they were all warning me of several videos and comments that were similar, and even an entertainment news article about it. I didn't click them. There was a message from my mom, steeped with anger about the videos and article. Then tears stung my eyes as I made it to a message from Ronnie that said 'I love you, are you okay?'.
"Sam..." A tear rolled down my cheek. He instantly turned to me and took my phone from me, realizing something was wrong. He scrolled for a moment, his expression morphing into anger, then hurt, then back to anger. He suddenly clicked my phone off and stuffed it in his bag under the seat in front of him before turning back to me and wrapping his arms around me. The tears flowed freely then. I wanted to think I was stronger than that, but I had always been sensitive to rejection and hurtful words. Danny always told me it was because I was tender, and that it was a strength in and of itself, but it felt like weakness.
"They're liars, Bug, don't listen to those fuckers." Sam straightened me back up and swiped his thumbs under my bleary eyes.
"I shouldn't have played." I sniffed, Sam shook his head.
"Bullshit." He smiled at me, pressing his thumbs to my tears one more time before the flight attendants began their safety demonstrations, the pilot greeted us over the speakers, and we were soon on the runway taking off. I kept to myself for a while, my head leaned to watch through the window. It wasn't much to look at, as we were flying through a mess of clouds, but I was trying to blank my mind and not think about the videos. I began to feel antsy. Sam was watching something on his phone, so I tapped him to move his legs so I could get out and go use the bathroom. I didn't really need to, but I did need something, anything to distract me that wasn't my phone. The others spotted me as I walked towards the back of the plane. Danny was reading my book in the window seat. Josh was in the aisle seat and reached out for me, smiling. Something told me that none of them had seen any of the commotion yet. I took Josh's hand easily, and he kissed it, then patted it with his other hand. It made me feel so much better, so I smiled and squeezed his hand, but my smile faded quickly when I looked to Jake. He had put earphones back in and closed his eyes, a slight scowl to his expression. I frowned as soon as I let go of Josh's hand and continued to the bathroom. Something was wrong and I had to figure it out. I splashed some water onto my face in the bathroom and beelined it back to my seat without another interaction with the others. Sam made a noise as I hurried into my seat, not giving him enough time to fully move out of my way.
"What's up with you?" He pulled his earphones out of his ears.
"Sam. What the hell is wrong with Jacob?" I faced Sam, looking into his eyes with determination. I saw something flash there, like a slight panic, something I hadn't seen before.
"What do you mean?" He cocked his head slightly, his eyebrows pulling together, but there was that something in his eyes. He was pretending.
"Don't do that." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Do what?"
"Don't protect him. What the hell is going on? Why is he being so damn cold towards me?" I took a shallow breath and Sam faked bewilderment.
"Is he?"
"Samuel! I swear to God, I will march over there right this second and point blank confront him myself if you don't tell me what's happening right now." I started to stand.
"Don't!" He quickly grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back down into my seat. I felt anger swelling within me.
"Then talk." I sat back, waiting. Sam sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, and motioned his hands in a way that conveyed 'calm down'.
"It's... complicated, okay?" He looked straight into my eyes.
"Go on..."
"Look, Jake's... going through some things. I don't know what to say, Bug, you need to talk to him, but it needs to be at the right time, not now... on a plane." He shrugged and I grumbled.
"What does that even mean? Is he upset about me playing for him in Phoenix?" I was desperate then, needing to know what I had done wrong.
"What? No. No, that I can tell you for sure." He shook his head in certainty.
"Ugh... Sammy, I can't handle this. He and Josh are my best friends. You guys are part of me, you know that. I don't know, I feel off balance when he's mad at me." I flopped my head back against the seat and shut my eyes tightly.
"I know..." Sam's voice softened, "I think Jake feels off balance too."
"What do I do?" I turned my head towards Sam and opened my eyes.
"Talk to him. Do it alone, in a place where he can breathe." I desperately wanted Sam to tell me what he knew was going on, but he was right. I closed my eyes again and thought about it. I could talk to Josh anywhere, in the middle of a roaring crowd if I needed to. Jake was soft and quiet, the moon to Josh's sun, he did need space to breathe if he needed to really express something that was bothering him. I suddenly thought of the night in the tent again, face to face, when he asked me if I needed to talk about anything deeper.
"The camping trip." I resolved. He would talk to me out in the trees with the stars and the river nearby.
"That's my girl." Sam smiled like I had cracked some sort of code. I spent most of the rest of the flight watching grey clouds through the window while Sam napped.
