C'Mon, Would It Really Be So Bad?

Meteor Shower

Adam was reluctant to let me go, but he understood and we parted ways on good terms. My family and friends were sad that I was leaving LA for an unknown amount of time, but it wouldn't be forever. They were happy for me. And I was happy for myself too. I mean honestly, it couldn't have gotten any better. I was very, very lucky at that point in my life and made it a point to enjoy every second as much as possible because I didn't know how long it would last. 

I absolutely loved traveling. I loved being on the road for work and I loved being on the road with Ed. We grew very close very fast. We both had significant others waiting for us back home, so we were close in more of a sibling way or a best friend way. We knew that's all it was and we didn't want to disrespect each other's SO's, so we never crossed the line...but sometimes we definitely got close to the line. Being out there on the road and so far away from our homes was like living in a completely different version of the world. A version where we could flirt with temptations without any real-world repercussions.

I didn't stay on his bus. I had my own bunk and all of my stuff on a different bus with some of the road crew. I was a young (and the only) girl grouped in with a bunch of old dudes who could be pretty vulgar and who smelled like ass. I never complained or asked to move buses because I was so grateful to even be there, but I tried to hang out on Ed's bus as much as I could. We usually watched movies and pigged out on terrible gas station snacks. 

One night I had been hanging out on his bus while we were waiting for bus call to head to the next city. He was sitting on the couch watching some movie that I wasn't paying any attention to. I was laying stretched out with my legs over his lap while doing something on my laptop. He absentmindedly rested his hands on my legs and then began to let his hands wander underneath the loose fabric of my lounge pants. He grazed his fingernails across my skin and I got goosebumps. 

He noticed and laughed, "Feel good?"

I had leaned my head back against the arm rest and closed my eyes. "You don't even have to pay me with money anymore, you can just do this every night instead," I joked.

A couple of minutes went by without either of us speaking and then suddenly his hands stopped moving and he turned away from the TV to look at me. "Didn't you say that you're originally from the San Diego area?"

I looked up at him from my laptop. "Yeah, that's where my parents still live. Why?"

He gave me a look like it was so obvious. "Uhh...that's where we're headed for the next show." 

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? Invite them to the show!"

I crinkled my nose up and my shoulders rose into a half-assed shrug. "Maybe just Matt."

"Who's Matt?"

"My boyfriend."

"How come I didn't even know your boyfriend's name?" He looked at me a little skeptically. 

"I don't know?"

He sat up more alert and now his focus was entirely on me and not at all on the movie. "No..you never talk about him. I never even see you on the phone with him or anything."

Right then I got an alert on my phone and looked down to see that it was a weather update. I opened it and my eyes got wide. "Oh my God!" I looked up to Ed excitedly. "There's supposed to be a meteor shower here! In like -" I looked back down at the time, "- like, fifteen minutes! Let's go!"

I slammed my laptop closed and went to get up, but Ed grabbed one of my legs and held it where it was. "You can't just change the subject like that!"