"I want to teach you a lesson in the worst kind of way still I'd trade all my tomorrow's for just one yesterday."
------- Just One Yesterday - Fall Out Boy-------
A shower. A real shower, not one of those in and out in two minutes things I was pretending qualified as a real shower every morning we were in the bus. No, I'd waited until well into the night, specifically when I knew everyone was asleep and now I was going to enjoy a nice quiet shower.
Two days ago Nolan and I sat on top of a moving bus and he kissed me. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't seem to clean myself from it. It wasn't as though it was a bad kiss, it wasn't as though I was disgusted by it, I just couldn't. Not with Nolan. For so many reasons. I'd avoided him as much as a person could possibly avoid someone they were sharing a living space with. It seemed necessary to keep our boundaries clear, now more than ever. We'd been through a lot and...well...I couldn't be his conquest and I couldn't give him the wrong idea.
Boundaries. We needed boundaries.
I sighed heavily. The tour might sometimes be hell but this was heavenly. I pulled all my hair to the top of my head letting the warm water assault the back of my neck I needed this. Peace. Quiet. And most importantly no-
"Nolan!" I screamed when the shower door came open abruptly. I pressed my front against the shower wall immediately to ensure he couldn't see it.
"Sup." He said casually with a yawn and stepped into the shower with me.
"Nolan James Doufer you get out of this shower this instance!" I yelled and pressed myself even further into the wall to avoid touching at all. This was not a big shower. It was designed to take up as little space as possible, the bus itself was decently sized, but for the six of us, no. This didn't work.
Even with myself pressed so far against the wall that my breasts were painfully smashed I could feel there were mere inches between us and when he moved his elbow bumped me.
He laughed, apparently thinking I wasn't be serious. "This is not a joke Nolan! I'm naked." I hissed.
"Don't flatter yourself. I've seen better."
And here it was. The most humiliating moment of my life. Hands down. And I puked in my prom date's lap at an after party I had been pressured into drinking at that nearly resulted in losing my virginity.
"Don't look!" I screeched.
"Relax baby, I've seen worse too. God this feels good." He muttered enjoying my warm water. The hot water tank on this thing was pathetic, this is precisely why I was showering in the middle of the night to avoid something like this!
"You are incorrigible!" I yelled.
"You've mentioned a time or two." He said calmly. "Come on Red. I'm filthy. It's been days."
"T-that is not my fault!"
"Yeah but seeing as you're in charge of me shouldn't you want me clean on stage?"
"Get out!" I yelled again.
"Thirty seconds."
"Nolan!"
"Thirty seconds!"
Defeated, knowing I couldn't turn around and shove him out without flaunting it all I had to cave. "I'm counting!" I warned in what I hoped was a threatening tone.
I heard him chuckle and suddenly he reached around me, I jerked backwards to avoid his hand at my stomach and bumped into him, he took my loofa and I immediately forced myself against the wall again. "Hey!" I mistakenly glanced over my shoulder to see him washing his filthy crotch off with my loofa. I turned my head away so quickly at the sight that I smacked it off the wall.
"We have a color system!" I yelled.
"Yeah?"
"What color is that?"
"Oh shit, it's turning brown."
"Nolan!"
He laughed again. "Quit being so uptight. It's called a joke."
"The color system Nolan. I explained this to all of you! You are green! Pink is mine!" I had possibly over stepped my boundaries in creating the color system, I was worried the guys would think I was nuts but as it turned out they loved it.
And now my loofa was on Nolan's...his...well, his dick.
"Oh yeah. That shit's so stupid."
I popped my foot up and kicked him in the leg.
"You just bought yourself fifteen more seconds."
"This is sexual harassment."
"So sue me." He muttered.
"I-well-I- Maybe I will!"
"Cool. I'll pay you the thousands you've earned already and you can use it for a lawyer and I'll go ahead and use my millions for an even better one. Let me know how it works for you. You know what else doll face, this is my shower and my tour. There was nothing in your contract about us providing transportation, or hospitality anyway. If you wanted to be technical, I'm doing you a favor by letting you ride here and use my shower. You'd be mighty screwed if we decided to go ahead and let you provide your own transportation. A lot of showers you'd get then spending all your time driving or at the show. You'd probably be so sleep deprived you'd crash your car. Unless you want to pay for your own driver." He snorted. "Because you can afford that, huh?"
When I had nothing to say in response to say in response he simply kept it going himself.
"In fact, while I'm here I might as well claim my five minutes."
I wished I was as small as I felt. There really wasn't anything I could do here. I could turn around and force him about but then he would see all of me. As it was now I could hardly breathe. I felt tears prickling in my eyes and being wet but out of the stream of water I was freezing and shivering.
"I'll scream. At the top of my lungs." I threatened.
"Yeah. You could do that. Won't make a difference to me. Everyone would come in in no time that's for sure. But I suspect you don't really want everyone to see this cute little dimple-" When Nolan's hand brushed lightly along my rear end in a gentle caress I could take no more.
"Get out!" I screamed much louder than I had intended, my voice breaking as the humiliation and frustration at having no control over such a situation was simply too much.
"Chill out, I'm just fȕcking with you."
"Just go." I pleaded.
"Not with you shítting yourself in here. You honestly think it's that big of a deal? It's a pėnis Carter, I'm sure you've seen one before even if just in some high school anatomy class and I know I've seen plenty of pȕssy."
I groaned in frustration and moments later the door came crashing open followed by the shower door.
Nolan was dragged out of the shower in a mess of yelling and cursing.
"What the hell is going on here?" Someone demanded.
"Calm the fȕck down." Nolan's easy voice cooed back.
"Shut the door!" I yelled but no one paid attention. Looking over my shoulder it was Holden who had drug a sopping wet and still painfully naked Nolan out of the shower.
"Honestly Nolan? Enough is enough!" He yelled.
"What's going on?" Finn's head popped in the door and I smacking my head off the wall repeatedly. This was just my luck.
"Could someone please-" I started etching along the wall to get closer to the shower door without actually having to turn around.
"Nothing." Nolan said sharply.
"I knew this tour was a bad idea!" Holden continued and threw his arms into the air.
"So quit? I don't fȕcking care." Nolan shrugged and crossed his arms over a chest. He was getting the floor soaking wet. What a mess.
"Do you even give a dámn about anyone other than yourself? You don't pick up enough women on the road as it is now you've resorted to assaulting women to get your rocks off? What are you even on?"
"I didn't assault anyone." Nolan snapped his calm composure drying up instantly.
"Assault? Nolan for heavens sake, what did you do?" Finn asked his temper immediately risen.
"The door-" I started.
"What's going on in here?" Derek poked his head in over Finn's shoulder to look into the bathroom as there was clearly no more room for him to fit in.
"Look at her she looks fȕcking terrified! I heard her screaming!"
"Or you could not look at me?" I piped up.
"Chill the fȕck out I didn't assault anyone. I hopped in the shower for thirty seconds. So back up." Nolan said and shoved Holden.
With so little room in the bathroom Holden bumped against the back wall and knocked down the color coded bags.
"What the hell is going on in here?" Gunner asked peaking over Finn's other shoulder.
Thank God no one had listened to my attempts at getting the frosted glass door shut because when Holden lunged at Nolan and tackled him they both fell into the still running shower, heads and shoulders hit the wall dangerously close to me, had the door been closed they would have come right through the glass.
Finn is in the shower next trying to pry them apart, somehow Gunner fit into the bathroom too. He grabbed my elbow and pulled me backwards. Bless his shaggy haired heart he was holding a towel in his hand and cloaked me with it immediately.
I stumbled backwards over the mess of bodies on the floor Gunner's hands manage to keep me upright and as soon as I'm close enough he wraps an arm around my waist and with only a one armed hold lifts me easily over the mayhem, through the now cold stream of water and out of the bathroom.
Derek puts his towel around me too, it's dry and once I'm under it I let Gunner's wet towel fall.
Neither says anything to me as they steer me away from the bathroom and to the living area.
"Stay here." Gunner tells Derek when I flop down on the couch. I'm wet. It's leather. I shouldn't be sitting here.
I watch Gunner head back to the bathroom where I can still hear grunting and banging.
"Are you okay?" Derek asks sitting down beside me.
"I'm naked."
I scan his features briefly. His pajama bottoms are wrinkled and his hair a mess, if we were seated closer together I would be able to smell sleep on his breath, but he looked wide awake. "What the hell happened?"
"I'm fine." I finally say pulling the towel closer around me with color rising to my cheeks.
"Are you?"
I open my mouth to answer but a particularly loud thump draws my attention. Finn comes out of the bathroom with his hand on the back of Holden's neck forcing him to follow the small walk way. They're both soaking wet.
"Nolan?"
"Gunner is getting him dressed." Finn grunted and let Holden go with a slight shove.
"Man fȕck you!" Holden yelled to Finn. Finn raised a brow and Holden began grumbling under his breath.
"You're getting the floor wet." I said in the most lame way and all sets of eyes turned to me. I shrunk back in the seat.
"Are you okay?" Holden asked with sympathy written all over his face.
"Of course she is I didn't do anything." Nolan said.
Holden turned around immediately in fury and tried diving past Finn to attack Nolan who had a pair of jeans hanging a bit too low and was rubbing a towel back and forth on his head. Finn caught Holden easily.
"Tell them." Nolan said to me and let the towel fall over his shoulders.
"Don't you talk to her!" Holden gasped.
Finn pushed Holden off with a sigh. "Carter just relax. Don't let anyone pressure you into saying anything you don't mean."
"I just want pants." I blurted out.
"Okay guys, let's give her a bit of space. Everyone gives her space." Finn said taking command. "Come on, let's all get back to our beds until she's ready to talk."
I sighed heavily as they milled through the small walk way into the hole in the wall beds and shifted uncomfortably in my spot for a few minutes to ensure that no one was coming back out before tying the towel around my body firmly.
I waited another few more moments still expecting someone to pop out. When again no one did I took out my laptop and immediately skyped Ace not really giving a damn how late it was. When he didn't answer I did it again, and again, and again.
"Jesus." He finally said opening up facetime. "What time is it?"
"I quit."
"Carter?"
If the caller ID wasn't enough of a give away and seeing my face right in front of him hadn't cleared that up, maybe he was just as stoned as Nolan was all the time. "I quit."
He ran his hand up and down his face several times. "You..."
"Quit." I nodded.
"At two in the morning? In a towel?"
"Your precious money maker just climbed into the shower with me."
"Alright."
I threw my hands up. "Do you not see how that could possibly be crossing a line Ace?"
"Yeah, yeah, of course." He muttered and rubbed his eyes. "Jesus Carter this couldn't wait a few hours?"
"No! It absolutely could not! He is out of control Ace!"
"I know. That's why we hired you."
I pulled back. The conversation had shifted rather abruptly. I could tell already. Ace was blaming me for this. "This is not what I signed up for. Personal assistant Ace. Not babysitter. Not house cleaner. And certainly not shower buddy. I don't know what kind of girls you're used to-"
"Listen, listen, I'm sure you're right. I'll talk to him. We will discuss this in the morning. Now get some sleep, I need you to keep Nolan sober and maybe not quite as miserable as usual. Try to make him happy, yeah?"
"What part about quit do you not understand!"
"Goodnight Carter." He said and ended the chat.
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This chapter has me all sorts of cringing...gah.
I updated again because I received the first piece of fan art ever for HWTC and I really wanted to show case it lol. So this chapter is dedicated to the creator of the current cover, ixiolite (should the cover ever so happen to change it'll be the image at the top along with the song chapter)
Also I've had this chapter written for so long now, it was actually the third thing I wrote for the whole story (fun fact, I don't write in chronological order, so I don't write chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. I write a whole bunch of random scenes and eventually they piece back together as a cohesive story) so being it was already written and waiting, why both holding off until Friday.
I MAY or MAY NOT still have a Friday update for you, depends how the writing week goes :P But definitely give this chapter song a listen, I've had it picked out for this chapter for ages. There are a number of really great lyrics from this song that I felt related directly to Carlan and the story. "I want to teach you a lesson in the worst kind of way" and "Letting people down is my thing baby find yourself a new gig this town ain't big enough for two of us" I feel like fits Nolan sooo well.
Anyway...sorry for the super long author's note on this one it just appears I had a lot more to say. Make sure to vote and comment! (: