Just What I Needed

Just What I Needed (44)

Yet before the floor could make rather damaging contact with her nose, she was dragged up by the back of the flannel shirt she'd changed into after the show.

“See,” said Marco, wearing a triumphant smile as he let go of her shirt. “You should be nicer to me, I saved your nose.”

Finding herself laughing again, Keely just gave him a light peck on the cheek thoughtlessly. Still chuckling when she proclaimed, “My hero!” and then turning back to the tour bus, but watching where she stepped this time.

Hitching up her bag and guitar case, she made her way around the couches, as well as the miniscule dining table that turned into a bed when needed, towards the back of the bus. The tour bus wasn't exactly luxury, but it was still one hundred percent better than some of the horror stories she'd heard from other artists about their first tours. Colton had told her as that NSR had been shoved inside a literal hippie bus along with all their instruments for their first tour, and they'd barely had anywhere to move around. Apparently she was lucky Maureen owned UAE now.

In any case, the bus still smelt alright, but she was warned that was subject to change over coming months. It was clean though, the couches, chairs, table, their bunks, the appliances; all clean, for that they could be grateful.

“If Dave could have left without you, he would have,” pointed out Colton.

The boy was slouched on one of the couches, looking straight to the television in the corner – Keely had little conscious nightmares of it falling from it's perch and hitting them – that was playing some sport. Colton had a drink in hand and had piled the pillows behind his back, the seats and beds not being the most comfortable.

“We weren't that late,” she answered, hopping carefully over the long legs that were stretched across the walking space.

Colton grinned up at her, biting down on a twizzler. “You have an addiction.”

“It's a sickness!” she protested, laughing as she moved towards the four bunk beds.

“You keep telling yourself that!”

Turning her head back to the narrow path, her smile slid from her face when she reached their beds as Seth was leaning against them, his eyes on her.

And instantly came the tension shooting through her shoulders.

Pulling in a deep breath Keely fought to keep her face at a neutral expression as she brushed past him to her bed, and let out sigh when she heard his socked feet making muffled steps across the floor away from her.

Swinging her things up onto the top bunk that she had above Colton, she simply leaned her head against the guitar case for a moment, an enormous sigh escaping her lips. For a moment she let her eyes wander to the back of the bus, where a long couch turned with the corners of the vehicle so it covered all ends, pillows carelessly already thrown to the ground and scattered about. For the most part people would simply go to the end where no one was if they wanted to be alone, plus there was a door they closed for that end which was a plus.

She could go there, Keely considered as she stared, but almost as suddenly as the thought passed through her mind, she straightened her back and turned to where the boys were sitting.

Just because she and Seth were speaking outside of the studio didn't mean she was going to run and hide. It wasn't her fault! Well, maybe half of it was, when her emotions took over she couldn't stop them, but that didn't mean she regretted it. At least from that she got to see that people weren't always what you thought they were, despite how much time you spent with them.

So she just flopped down onto the couch beside Colton, stealing a twizzler from him as she did so. There would be no running on her part, she didn't need to be speaking with Seth to talk to her other friends in the bus.