I practically ran to where Jake was in the middle of the floor on the main part of the bus. He was sat on the floor bawling his eyes out whilst Jacky tried to console him, but it wasn't working. Jake looked up at me and held his arms out for me to pick him up. I lifted him up onto my lap and let him cuddle into me, but he still wouldn't stop crying. We must have been there for around 10 minutes when the door to mine and Ronnie's room slammed open, and judging by the look on his face he wasn't in a good mood.
"Can someone actually just shut him up?!" Ronnie shouted across the bus, causing Jake to cry even more, and the other guys to wake up. "Honestly Jake," Ronnie crouched down to speak to him. "You honestly need to shut your mouth or you and your mother can fucking leave." I looked at him and glared.
"Jacky, please take Jake out of the way and distract him because this isn't going to be a pretty situation." Jacky did as I said and took Jake to listen to music. "Ronnie Radke what the fuck do you think you're playing at? Threatening my son like that. There's absolutely no need, and honestly if you're gonna behave like that then at the next stop me and Jake will go back home." Ronnie looked at me in disbelief. He obviously didn't expect me to retaliate.
"You want to consider yourself lucky you haven't just been thrown off the moving bus." I glared at him and stood up.
"Trust me mate, I've dealt with worse than the likes of you in my time. You can do whatever the fuck you want when it comes to me - beat me up, kick me off, whatever - but if you dare lay a finger on my little boy I will not hesitate to fucking kill you." He looked at me in disbelief, obviously realising what he had done, and I suddenly saw his expression change. "Not if you'll excuse me, I'm taking my son to bed before we leave tomorrow. Guess you were an egotistical prick like I thought."
Before he could even reply, I got Jake and his zebra teddy from Jacky and took him to bed in the spare bunk. I knew that Jake would be so disappointed to think we were leaving, but it had to be done. No way was I staying around anyone that would speak to my child like that.
"Momma?" Jake looked up at me just before he went to bed. "Why is Ronnie being a meanie?" I looked into his big, sad eyes.
"I don't know kiddo. But it's not like we need him, do we? We managed perfectly fine on our own for seven years."
"I know momma, I just thought he was nice - plus Ima miss Jacky when we have to go."
***
The next morning I woke up still angry from the night before, but I was more surprised to see that Jake was no where to be seen. I tried looking around the bus for him but there was still nothing. This was not good, not good at all...
The only other person that was missing was Ronnie, so I decided to call him even though I hated him from the previous night. He answered straight away.
R: Hey Jade, is everything OK?
J: You know that everything is not OK! Where the hell have you taken my son?
R: I took him out to make up for last night.
J: Don't think that you can just make up for everything you've done now that you regret it. You better bring my son back now or there will be serious consequences. I'm still taking him and going home.
With that, I hung up and just decided to go sit in Ronnie's bunk with the dogs. I didn't care that Ronnie probably wouldn't be happy with me being in there any more, but I just needed to calm down and animals always seemed to help with that. Just as I was beginning to calm down, I heard the bus door open and close again, before my sweet seven year old ran into the room and jumped on me, seeming ridiculously happy and content. It was going to kill me to take him away from this.
"Erm, Jake?" Jake turned to look at Ronnie who was now stood in the doorway. "Fancy giving me and your momma some space to talk?" Jake nodded and ran out, presumably to see Jacky as per usual.
There was no way I wanted to talk to him, but if he was willing to apologise then maybe I could tolerate him until the end of tour, just so Jake was happy for a little while longer.
"Look Jade. I am actually incredibly sorry for what I've done. I don't know what came over me - I think I was just tense because of all of the grief I've been getting in the media later. I've done all I can to apologise to Jake and he's accepted it, but I need to apologise to you."
"In all honesty Ronnie, I don't give a shit about an apology. I'm done with whatever was between us. Over. I just want Jake to be happy so if you're alright with me staying I would like to, for Jake's sake, but I'll just keep myself to myself and stay out of the way." I saw his expression drop. "I'm also not happy about you just taking Jake out and off the bus without even asking me."
"Look I'm sorry. I just wanted to build my bridges with Jake since I know he looked up to me and I didn't want him to think I was an asshole." I rolled my eyes.
"Thought you were aware that you were an asshole?" He chuckled to himself and I realised what I had done. "I didn't mean to make a song reference."
I sighed as he came and sat beside me, putting his arm around me. In stead of pulling away like I knew I wanted to, I just cuddled into him and continued to pet Charlie and Jingo. I don't know what it was about Ronnie, but I did really like him even though I hadn't known him that long. Plus he made Jake really happy, and that meant more to me than anything.
"Can we please just go back to being OK?" I looked up into Ronnie's eyes as he spoke and knew that he wasn't always like this with people. I didn't even think about it before I spoke.
"Of course we can. Just be warned that if you mess up again then I'm gone."
