Not This Time

Jon: January 30, 1987

     Pit stop. The buses needed to refuel, so everyone was allowed off for some snacks. Richie and Alec were in the store stocking up for the second half of our journey from Washington to Texas. David was still snoring in his bunk, completely unaware that we'd even stopped. I watched through the bus window as Tico negotiated with The Bozz, both of them standing in the middle of the parking lot.
     He was trying to convince the tour manager to let Nina ride the rest of the way to Texas on our bus. Even from where I was, I could see The Bozz's reluctance. Tico said something that made The Bozz laugh. Then the tour manager shook his head, still grinning as he spoke.
     It was driving me crazy not knowing what was going on. Tico pointed toward the store. The Bozz and I both looked over to find Nina talking to one of the crew members on their way back to their bus. My eyes stayed on her, so I wasn't sure what Tico said to The Bozz to get him to agree, but then next thing I saw was the drummer approaching Nina with a vague gesture back toward the band bus.
     At first, Nina hesitated. The crewman said something to her and she smiled a little before responding with a small nod. I watched Tico say something as both he and the crewman continued back toward their respective buses. Nina watched the crewman walk away for a moment before turning and following Tico.
     I couldn't believe that had actually worked! It kind of made me wonder what Tico had said to The Bozz. I guess it didn't really matter, though, as long as it wasn't the truth. It wasn't long before Tico was climbing up the stairs.
     "So no fucking in those bunks," Tico sighed as he stopped in front of where I'd sat down just seconds before he'd gotten on the bus. "Partially because I promised The Bozz, but mostly because I don't want to hear it." I laughed at his comment and he grinned in response, but then, with a glance over toward the door, he leaned toward me a little. "Jon, she looked exhausted," he added in a quieter tone.
     "She doesn't sleep well on the bus," I informed him.
     "She's coming up the stairs and she can hear you," Nina grumbled as she made her way onto the bus. She smirked a little and then yawned, "Stop talking about her."
     Tico retreated toward the back of the bus as I got up to greet my girlfriend. Nina brought her hand up and gave my forearm an affectionate squeeze when I planted a kiss on her cheek. Despite her smile, I could see that Tico was right; Nina did look tired. I brought a hand up and rubbed the dark circles under her eyes gently.
     I was just about to say something, but voices just outside the door beat me to it. Nina stepped away from me sharply. The space she instinctively created between us was more than enough to convince just about anybody that we were nothing more than friends. Richie and Alec appeared in the stairwell, bags of snacks in hand. Nina let out a sigh of relief and sank onto one of the couches. We both watched Richie toss a silent salute in Nina's direction before he continued past us without another thought.
     Nina closed her eyes and leaned back against the back of the couch. She then proceeded to ignore the rest of the people on the bus until Pete got back in the driver's seat. As soon as the bus doors were closed, Nina's eyes were open. She sat back up and looked around as the bus started to move. Richie had long since returned to his bunk, and Alec was on his way back to his. I glanced up at him as he disappeared down the short hall. Then I looked back over at her.
     She yawned again. I grinned as I got up from where I was sitting and dropped down next her. "You wanna squeeze into my bunk with me?" I asked quietly, putting an arm around her shoulders. She leaned on me and shook her head against my shoulder.
     "I can't sleep here any easier than I can on my bus," Nina mumbled, even though her eyes were closed. She looked like she was already asleep. I didn't know what she was talking about; she didn't look like she was having any trouble drifting off.
     "Can't you sleep with me here?" I challenged.
     "Not in there," she retorted quickly, "They're too close."
     I thought about it for a second, and then I let go of her. Nina opened her eyes and stared at me with slightly disappointed indifference as I laid down on the couch next to her. I waved her over silently. I could see Nina trying to decide if it was worth the effort of moving. Her other option was probably to lean back against the corner. After a minute, she shifted around and laid down on the couch, pressing close to me so that she wasn't right on the edge. I guess I was more appealing than that corner.
     "How about this?" I whispered.
     Nina smiled at me and shrugged a little. "They're still right there," she breathed.
     "But I'm right here," I reminded her. I put my arms around her waist comfortingly, very aware of how tense she actually was. She snuggled as close as she could, but didn't say anything. I could tell she was trying her hardest not to be uncomfortable, though. I wasn't sure how to help. I'd never had to face this problem. After a minute, I started humming. It wasn't anything in particular, just some random tune I was coming up with as I went along.
     Then Nina started humming too. The weird thing, is that the tune she was humming really worked; like we were both humming the same song. The longer I hummed in her ear, the more she seemed to relax. After a while, I realized that she'd actually fallen asleep. Eventually I did too.
     When I woke up a few hours later, Nina was not laying next to me. She and David were playing a card game. How she'd gotten out of my arms without me noticing, I would never know, but somehow she had. Richie was reading a magazine lazily, sitting on the bench couch across from me. Alec was awake, but curled up in his bunk with the curtain was pulled back. Tico was nowhere to be seen, but his bunk was empty, so I knew he wasn't asleep. I sat up and stretched, drawing attention to myself.
     "Good morning," Nina greeted with only a momentary glance in my direction.
     "Happy birthday," I replied.
     That earned me a wry look. "Oh," she scoffed, "Is that was this is about? Why do people insist on making a big deal of my birthday?" She put her cards down and turned to face me, shaking her head. "Gunther said he and the crew on our bus got permission to take me out when we get to Tyler. Now you guys kidnap me!" she joked.
     "We didn't kidnap you," I scoffed, heading toward my bunk. Alec looked up at me and smiled. He knew what I was going for. I smirked back, but looked over my shoulder at Nina before reaching into my bunk. "I got you something and I wanted more time to enjoy your reaction than the few minutes we get after show," I explained. I picked up a small, flat box with a red ribbon tied around it. Trying not to crush the ribbon, I hid the box behind my back as I straightened and turned back to Nina.
     Nina raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh," she chuckled, "So this is actually all about you."
     I nodded, unable to keep from grinning. Alec rolled out of his bunk at the same time that the toilet flushed. I stepped into the main part of the bus and Tico joined Alec in the hallway. Nina glanced around as everyone looked up to watch what I was doing. The band all knew what was going on. It was just Nina who was out of the loop.
     "I bought this for you," I told her, "But it's pretty much from all of us. They all helped me figure out how to get a hold of this gift without anyone suspecting that it was for you." Nina stared at me as I said all this. She looked like she wasn't sure whether she should be nervous or not. Without any further ado, I held out the little box in one hand. "Happy birthday."
     Nina's gaze dropped to the box in my hand. As everyone watched, she took the box and turned it a few times in her hands. I rolled my eyes. She was just being annoying now. I knew from her expression that she knew it was jewelry. I should have known she'd play it out as long as she could. I crossed my arms as she fiddled with the ribbon. I'm glad it had come with a ribbon; I couldn't have tied one like that in a million years.
     Finally, Nina tugged on the end of the ribbon, yanking the knot free. She smiled at each of us as she lifted the top of the box. Then she looked down and stared at the necklace that gleamed back. A single droplet-shaped garnet pendant hung from a delicate silver chain. Nina blinked at it and then up at me like she was going to say something, only to drop her gaze to the necklace again and smile. Carefully, she picked the necklace up at the clasp and let it hang from her fingers as she admired it.
     "This is gorgeous," she whispered. Her eyes shifted from the pendant to me. "Am I going to be able to wear it?"
     "I hope so!" I grumbled, arms still crossed, "I bought it so you could wear it."
     Nina lowered her hand a little, giving me a look. "Who knows about it, Rockstar?" she retorted. I pointed at her and smirked a little as I stepped back and sat down on the couch across from her. I'd thought ahead. I'd thought like her.
     "The boys and I planned everything," I assured her, "I saw the necklace in a Tiffany's catalog.."
     She cut me off. "What were you looking at in a Tiffany's catalog?"
     I frowned at her interrupting and rolled my eyes. Leave it to Nina to pick out the most pointless detail. I glanced around. Everyone was looking at me. What was I supposed to say? I didn't have a lot of options in my parents' guest bathroom. 
     "I picked it up from my parents' house when I was there for the holidays!" I defended, "It was the only thing to look at on the toilet." Someone snickered and even Nina grinned a little as I went on, "I figured I could find something in there for your birthday since you didn't give me any ideas."
     "Because I didn't need you to buy me anything!" she countered with a laugh. We were getting away from my story and I knew she would just love all the thought we'd put into it.
     "Anyway," I resumed, "I saw the necklace and ordered it under the name Francis Sharkey for shipment to a store in San Diego, since I knew we were gonna be there." Nina nodded, knowing that there had to be more to the story than that. I smirked. "At first, I wasn't sure how to get to the store and pick up the necklace without someone recognizing me. Tico offered to go, but then we realized that we were only gonna have the one day in San Diego, so we'd be at the venue all day. It couldn't be any of the band," I explained.
     Nina leaned back in her seat, the necklace chain still resting in her fingers elegantly as she listened. "So who picked it up?"
     "Al suggested I send The Bozz to pick it up," I said, glancing over at my bassist. Nina followed my gaze with a frown, but I spoke up before she could scold Alec for offering such an idea. "I knew that wouldn't work," I stated, bringing her attention back to me, "I didn't want him to see the box and then see you walking around with a new necklace. Anybody could connect those dots.
     "Rich had the brilliant idea of calling the store and asking them to put the necklace in a watch box," I went on, "Then I could tell The Bozz I'd bought a watch and he could pick it up thinking it was just a watch."
     Nina cut me off. "But if there wasn't a watch for The Bozz to see you with later, he'd wonder what had happened to it. It wouldn't take long, from there, for him notice the only new piece of jewelry on tour," she reasoned, holding up the necklace again. I nodded, holding out a hand to make her stop.
     "Yeah, I told them that," I agreed. I motioned around the group, "Didn't I say that?" Nina and I both looked around as each of my bandmates nodded. I brought my gaze back to Nina with another smirk. "I was thinking like you," I snickered. Nina smiled, but it was Richie who spoke next.
     "So I told him to buy a watch," the guitarist said.
     "And I pointed out that we'd just have the same situation all over again with how to get the watch," David chimed in, bringing everyone's attention to him, "So I thought, when you call the store to add the watch to the purchase, just arrange for it all to be put in the watch box so that The Bozz never had to see the necklace box."
     Nina held up the little box. "You think this would fit in a watch box with a watch in it?" she scoffed. David shrugged, but didn't seem too bothered by her tone.
     "That's not what we ended up doing," I said. Nina looked back at me with an exasperated sigh. She probably hadn't slept long enough to put up with my dragging the story on and on. I smiled a little. "After all our discussion about it, Pete, out of nowhere, said, 'I can pick it up for you,'" I laughed, "So I gave him the money for it and he went to pick it up during the show. I don't think The Bozz ever found out about it."
     Nina smiled and twiddled the chain in her fingers absently as she looked around the bus again. "Thanks Pete," she finally called out, looking beyond us at the driver.
     "Happy birthday, Madame Sound Tech!" he called back. Nina laughed at that, shaking her head. Then she leaned on the table where the cards were and glanced at each of us.
     "Thank you, too, guys," she said, speaking to us collectively, "All of you. Thanks for helping him with it," she wrinkled her nose at me when she added, "Even if I didn't ask for it." I gave her a wry expression. What kind of person didn't like birthday gifts? She smiled at my reaction and then returned to speaking to the group. "I'm sorry it was such a hassle."
     "Not a problem."
     "Don't worry about it."
     "You're welcome."
     "Happy birthday."
     Nina shifted uncomfortably. After a moment of slightly awkward silence, she held the necklace up, gazing at me. "Help me put it on?" she asked.
     I jumped up with a smile as Nina got up to meet me halfway. Tico plopped down where she'd been seated and picked up the cards she'd abandoned. David picked his cards up as well so they could finish the game he and Nina had started. Alec went back to his bunk as I struggled to get the tiny clasp to work. When I did finally get the stupid thing clasped, Nina dropped her hair and turned so that I could see what my gift looked like on her.
     "That's what it was missing," I mumbled, staring at the necklace. Nina raised an eyebrow questioningly and I smiled in response. "You. It looks so much better here than it did in the catalog," I whispered.
     Nina closed her eyes and grinned at me, wrinkling her nose again. She claimed that she hated when I said cheesy, mushy things like that, but I knew she secretly loved it. All she could do was snicker at me and shake her head. With another grin, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug.
     "Why did you get me a gift?" she asked, pulling away from me. She was already fiddling with the pendant, though her fingers seemed confused about whether they were reaching for the stone or the pick. I brought my eyes up from her hand at her neckline to her pretty blue eyes. She was still waiting for my answer.
     I shrugged. "It's your birthday. I wanted to get you something."
     "Well what do you want for yours?" she asked.
     David butted into our conversation before I could respond. "Nina," he snickered, "We all know what Jon wants from you for his birthday!"
     "Shut up, Lemma!" Nina scoffed, though she clearly knew it was a joke. David grinned and laughed, but went back to his game. Nina turned back to me with an amused smile and leaned on my shoulder. "But really," she said, resuming our conversation.
     I smirked. David wasn't wrong. I would have been just fine with sex. I was always just fine with sex for any occasion. When I didn't answer right away, Nina looked up and scoffed at the silly expression on my face. She smacked my chest gently to get my attention. Snapping out of it, I blinked and shrugged.
     "You don't need to get me anything," I sighed, shaking my head a little, "Don't worry about it, babe." Nina frowned at me, but I didn't let her argue. It wasn't worth it. Not on her birthday. We only had a few more hours until we got to Tyler. I wasn't gonna waste it talking about something that didn't matter. I held her away and smiled. "Let me see again," I said, "It looks great on you."
     Richie dropped his magazine and groaned. "Why you acting all cute and sappy!" he complained, looking over at us, "Stop it! Stop it now!" Nina and I both looked over at him. He was pretending to be disgusted, but it was kinda obvious that he was messing with us because he smirked and scrunched up his nose. "You're making me sick."
     All we could do was laugh.