Chapter 11
(Nonnie)
After we cleared the lines and the concert was over I went back to the bus. Everyone was trying to decide where we would eat tonight. I didn’t really care I was starved and tired. On the bright side tomorrow was an off day. A day when there was no concert, most everyone had interviews to go on but other than that tomorrow was a day of rest.
"Non where do you want to eat?" Callie asked.
"I don’t really care." I said " do you think you can bring something back for me? I really want to just shower and go to bed. Do you think that the FOB guys will let me use their shower?"
"Probably, and I’ll wake you up when we get back." I jumped and hugged her.
"Thank you." I said as though she had just given me the thousand dollar prize.
"Oh you are so welcome. Hurry up and take that shower." she said holding her nose.
"Hey." I said and she started to laugh. "It’s not that bad." I said sniffing my arm pit. It was.
"Yeah I’m gonna go now." she said leaving me alone on the bus. I gathered my toiletries and went over to the other bus and knocked. Patrick answered.
"Hey Non what’s up?" He asked.
"I was wondering if I could use your shower? Our bus doesn’t have one and I am desperate."
"Sure come on in. I’m the only one here everyone else went out for food."
"Thank you so much." I said keeping my distance. I didn’t want him to smell me. I went toward the back of the bus and went into the small shower stall. The water wasn’t as hot as I would have liked, but you take what you can get. I started singing Mary J Blige’s "I’m Going Down". When I finished the song I dried off and got dressed leaving the shower stall. "Hey I thought you left." I said seeing Patrick still sitting on the couch.
"I was going to but then I started listening to you sing."
"Oh."
"You have a beautiful voice." he said. I looked away I didn’t like my voice; singing was just something I did to relax.
"Thanks. Well I’ll be on our bus okay."
"Hey look I’m working on this song and well I was kinda wondering if maybe you would do some back up vocals for me?"
"Yeah… I don’t think so. I really have no interest in singing." I said.
"Well it's only one track and I could really use your voice. Please." I really wanted to say no. "We can do it tomorrow after the press stuff I gotta do. Come on."
"Okay fine." I left the bus mad at myself for not being able to think of a better excuse. I lay down in my bunk and fell asleep. When the others got back, they woke me up to eat but I kept falling asleep with the food in my hand. Finally, Travis told me to forget the food and go to sleep.
The next morning Callie handed me a note. It was from Patrick : Hey we should be finished around 4:30 with the Press so just come to the bus around that time and well lay down the background vocals.
"Callie please help me find away out of this." I said
"Why didn’t you just tell him no?"
"I did but then he said he really needed my help and you know how I can’t turn that down."
"Sucks for you. Next time wait till we get to the showers to shower like everyone else." We had stopped at a hotel, so that everyone who had interviews could get cleaned up.
"Whatever," I said and went to get a bowl of cereal.
I ate my cereal and waited for 4:30 to come no one was really around but crew and they were doing the same thing I was just sitting around. At 4:30 I headed over to the FOB bus I let myself in and sat on the couch in the common area. Then the door flew open and Pete came storming in. he looked really mad. Then the look changed to surprised.
"What are you doing here?" he said. It took me a second to find my voice.
"I…Patrick and …uh… You know what I can go." I said standing up.
"No, wait. I’m sorry, I’m just not having the best day."
"Well what happened." I rushed on, "You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to."
"Naw It’s okay." he said sitting down, "At all the interviews they never once asked about the music all they asked was, 'Why did you and Ashlee break up?' and 'Have you started dating again yet?'"
"Sorry to hear that, I wish I could say I know how you feel, but I don‘t." I said sitting down, "How 'bout we go to Starbuck's and get some caffeine that should cheer you up."
"Weren’t you waiting on Patrick?"
"Yeah, but I’m sure he won’t mind," or at least I hoped he wouldn’t. We went to Starbuck's and got coffee. Both of us were wired so we decided to go find something to do. We ended up at this place that had batting cages. I went first and got 5 out of 10 home runs, then Pete went and got 4 out of 10. "Don’t worry about losing to a girl I used to play softball at my school." I looked at my watch. "Oh shoot we better get back Patrick is going to be pissed."
We arrive back and head straight to the FOB bus. "Patrick I’m so sorry I lost track of time."
"Yeah yeah, yeah, you wanna make it up to me?" he said.
"What did you have in mind?" I said cautiously.
"Well I actually have two songs, and we record them right now while we are on the road." It was time for us to head for the next city. I looked around the room for someone to give me an out. Everyone including Pete looked away.
"Thanks guys," I said, "Okay fine, what am I singing?"
Chapter 12
(Callie)
This was crazy. Here I was finally completely alone on the bus and I couldn’t think of a single thing to do. After wandering around for a bit I finally gave up and settled myself in the front lounge to watch tv. About 30 minutes later the bus door opened and I watched as Travis jogged up the steps. "Hey Callie-Cat."
"Hey, where are the boys?"
"Hanging out with TAI. Where’s Nonnie?"
"Um…I think Patrick sweet talked her into singing on a track for him or something," I replied flipping channels. Suddenly I stopped, cut the tv off, and turned to face him as he sat down across from me at the table. "Is it just me or do we always seem to talk about Nonnie," I asked.
He chuckled lightly. "Yeah I guess we do."
"Well, let’s talk about something else the. How did your interview with mtv.com go," I inquired.
"Eh, it was alright we had a little fun messing with the interviewer. And she kept asking me if I had a girlfriend. The BS answer I gave her wasn’t good enough I guess."
"Was it for her article or do you think she was checking you out," I joked.
"Oh, she was checking me out, obviously," he said laughing, "You know it’s hard for the ladies to resist all of this sexiness."
"Yeah I do," I said without thinking.
He stopped laughing and gave me a puzzled look. "Huh?"
"Uh…it’s your turn. Ask me a question. Anything," I said quickly.
"Ok, um, so…" he thought for a moment before a smile slowly crept to his face. "Are you going to let me come spend a couple of weekends with you at college?"
"Shouldn’t you be visiting your sister if you have a free weekend?"
"I thought we weren’t going to talk about my sister," he said coyly, "Besides, I’m definitely going to visit you too. Just because we’re all splitting up doesn’t mean I’m going to forget about my other little sister."
He got up and moved around the table to sit next to me. We were sitting so close that the right side of my body was completely touching the left side of his. And there was that warmth again. I laid my head on his shoulder. He smelled good; kind of spicy like cinnamon and nutmeg.
I don’t know what came over me but suddenly I felt bold and blurted out. "Do you really still think of me as a sister?"
"What do you mean," he asked innocently.
"Well, I…Travie…the thing is…every time you come back home from being on tour it seems like our relationship changes more and more."
"I told you we would work on that Callie-Cat; if we just spend some time together things will go back to he way they were and we’ll…"
"I don’t want things to be like they were, Travis," I interjected.
"Why not," he asked looking slightly hurt.
"Because…being on tour has made me realize something about us."
"Like what?"
"Like, I’m not your sister and…"
"And…" he prompted.
"And…" I stopped. I looked at him and saw his gorgeous brown eyes looking back at me expectantly. He licked his lips almost in anticipation; like he knew what I was going to do next. Well, if he did, he was right. Before I could stop myself I had moved in just enough so that our lips could meet for a kiss so soft we barely touched. I pulled back horrified. What had I just done?
I waited to see what Travis would do. He looked at me again; straight into my eyes like he was looking for something. What he was looking for, I didn’t know and a second later I no longer cared because he placed his fingertips on the back of my head and pulled me closer so that our lips meshed. Each kiss got deeper and rougher. He moved his hand to just below my jaw and started to delicately place kisses along my jawline.
I knew we shouldn’t be doing this. I knew Nonnie would be pissed if she ever found out. I began to open my mouth in protest, "Travis…" but then he found it. That spot. He began lightly sucking on the area where my neck and shoulder meet and I could no longer think cohesive thoughts. I began to let my hands roam on his chest, his back, and I fingered the tops of his jeans. "We should move before somebody sees us," I finally got out. We stood up and kissed again. I looped my fingers through the belt loops in his jeans pulling his hips as close to mine as possible. He put his hands on my hips and we moved toward my bunk. Travis sat on my bed and let his hands wander from my stomach to my back as pulled me gently into the bunk after him.