“So little lady,” Seth grinned at me and pulled me over to the shop’s couch. We plopped down and I giggled.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Well, since we’re on break, I was wondering…”

“Go on,” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Can it be story time, please?” he asked like a child, turning his head in anticipation.

“Story time?” I laughed.

“Will you tell us how you met Vic?” he grinned like a schoolgirl.

“Oh, guys,” I groaned when Fallon and Lacey crowded around on the couch, too. This was the beginning of my third week working here, and we were already very comfortable around each other, considering the amount of time we spent together. It was very refreshing, having real friends. Not only were they great company in general, but this was all a nice distraction while Vic was away. We talked on the phone as much as possible, but I tried not to bother him too much. Actually, he was the one who was probably bothering me too much (not that I minded); I smiled at the fact.

“C’mon,” Seth whined.

I frowned slightly. “It’s not a very happy story,” I said.

“Aw, sweetie. Why? You don’t have to talk about it if it makes you sad,” Lacey said, picking up the ends of my hair.

“No, I want to tell you guys, I think,” I nodded. “But I’m keeping it the short version,” I said.

“Sure,” they said understandingly.

“Er, I used to live in Santa Cruz. Two months ago I lived there. And I was walking home from work one day…” I bit my lip.

“Babe, you don’t have to tell us if it makes you upset. I’m sorry I asked,” Seth said warmly when he noticed my eyes well up with tears.

“No,” I sniffed. “You’re fine. I just… I don’t think about it anymore, but I never really realized how much it affected me…I’ve never actually talked about it…” I said lowly. “But anyway… I’ve always been the strong, confident type, y’know? I carried pepper spray in my purse and I took shit from nobody,” I said. I saw their eyebrows furrow, as if they knew where I was going with this.

“They grabbed me from behind, and they took me onto their boat,” I rushed into my story. Seth’s arms wrapped securely around me as I started to cry. I wasn’t embarrassed for crying in front of them, though; they were more than just my colleagues… they were my best friends.

“‘Don’t fight back, baby. You’re dead, anyway.’That’s what they said to me when they r-raped me,” I breathed. My face hardened at the memory.

“Jesus Christ,” they all hissed. “Charlie…”

“I don’t remember much. They tossed me over the side of their boat when they had all had their turn…” Seth’s arms went rigid. Lacey continued to play with my hair in comfort and Fallon rubbed my back soothingly.

“I woke up in the hospital. I genuinely thought I was going to die, but I didn’t. I turned my head to see Vic sitting there awkwardly. He had been walking on the beach, apparently, and spotted me,” I said. I smiled slightly at the thought of him.

“Oh, my God, Charlie,” Lacey said.

“Yeah. It was a few days after he had tried to, y’know. So we were both damaged beyond belief. We just sort of, I don’t know,” I shrugged my shoulders. “We clicked,” I said. I hated to be cliché, but it was true. We needed each other; we would both be dead without each other.

“That is so… so… tragically beautiful,” Seth whispered. I smiled softly at them all.

“Are you okay now?” Lacey asked. I sniffed and nodded.

“I’m more than okay,” I smiled. “We both are,” I said.

“Aw,” they grinned. “They finish their tour soon, right?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “One week. But they have a San Diego show as their last show, so a little less than that,” I realized.

“Aw, yay! You get to see your man!” Seth exclaimed.

I chuckled. “Yeah, I do…”

“And you get to tell him how you feel,” Lacey whispered in my ear. I turned my head and grinned at her with a nod.

“We love you kid,” Fallon said. “Things were getting boring here. We’re glad you joined the team,” she shot me a playful grin. Lacey smacked her arm, but nodded in agreement.

“Me too,” I said softly. “Now enough about me, please,” I chuckled nervously.

“Eh, back to work mi—”

“Call me a minion one more time and I swear to fucking god…” Fallon started, her voice trailing off and letting Lacey think about that for a moment. I shook my head and laughed, standing up to go work on some designs.

VIC’S POV

The rest of the tour was easy. I talked to Charlie often (I was probably being annoying, but then again I didn’t think she minded) and the rest of the shows were great. Tomorrow night we were coming home for our San Diego show, and we were beyond excited. We were all itching to be home—it had been a while since we’ve last toured, so we weren't used to all of this traveling—and we were also excited to see Chloey and Zoe from the diner and, of course, Charlie. I also was a little nervous, because I knew I was going to let slip that I loved her and I just wasn’t sure how she would feel about that.

“Earth to Vic,” I suddenly saw Tony’s face in front of mine.

“Hey,” I laughed. “Zoned out. Sorry,” I ran my fingers through my hair.

We were currently on the bus, en route to San Diego. In just a few hours, I would be able to see Charlie again. I could hardly wait.

I sunk back in the leather couch, watching as Mike and Jaime violently played video games against each other. Adam, Casey—Mike’s well-known drum tech and close best friend, and Dave and Matt—the two guitar techs for the tour—sat around them, hooting and hollering at the game. I was never into video games, myself, though, so I just laughed watching them get intense over it.

I then realized that I was accidentally ignoring Tony. Before I met Charlie, I did that a lot. He always tried to be a good friend, but I would ignore him and brush him off. That was when I also realized I never really apologized for all of that.

“Hey, Tone?” I asked, turning back to him. I saw that he was now across the way, his elbows on the table as he typed furiously into his phone. I walked across the aisle and slid into the seat across from him.

“Writing a novel?” I raised an eyebrow.

Tony looked up and grinned and then looked back at his phone, continuing to type. “Hm,” I said, sitting back. I decided to take my own phone out—I’d talk to Tony later, maybe. I still felt like I had a lot of things to resolve with my band mates, even though I have apologized for the things I’ve done.

Tony looked really happy though with whatever he was doing, so I just stood up and decided to let him be in his own peace. I grabbed my headphones and retreated to the back of the bus where the bunks were—having to slap my hand on the wall for support when the bus shook a little as we passed a bump in the road—and went into my bunk. I slid my headphones on and turned on some music, but as I laid there I realized I wasn’t tired enough for a nap. I sighed and flipped through my phone, while music remained blasting through my ears.

I checked instagram out of boredom, sighing when I clicked on one of my own pictures to see the comments. Most of the comments were nice, but there were a few cringe-worthy ones. I shrugged my shoulders, closing the app and then opening twitter. I did the same, sifting through my mentions and smiling a little at some nice tweets. I didn’t tweet often—usually it was just links from instagram posts—but I occasionally tweeted a few personalized things. I always wanted to respond to some fans, but I felt guilty when I couldn’t get to everyone, so I usually didn’t.

I wrote a tweet—Can’t wait to be back in San Diego soon. Who’s coming out? I added a smiley face emoticon and a party symbol, and, with a grin, I submitted the tweet. My eyes widened when I instantly received several mentions, favorites, and retweets.

I settled back, deciding to respond to as many fans as possible—quoting their tweets and adding words of thanks and excitement for the show or simply putting a heart or smiley face if there wasn’t enough room. I tried to answer as many fans as possible—especially the ones who weren’t expressing their eternal love for me. I spent probably thirty minutes online, knowing that I was probably making a lot of people’s day. I smiled softly to myself, though, realizing how happy I felt and how I haven’t felt this way in a long time. If only the fans knew that when I supposedly made their day, they were making my day. When I finished, I sent out another tweet: That was fun. I need to do that more often. See y’all soon—with a goofy smiley face at the end.

As I went to close the app, a notification popped up on my screen. I had notifications for all of my social media apps turned off, with only selected users turned on—like my brother, Jaime, Tony, and other people I knew. I rolled my eyes, seeing that Tony had tweeted me from the other room.

“@piercethevic loser.” I laughed and responded quickly.

“@Tony_Turtle says the guy who’s tweeting me from 10 feet away. Get your cute little butt over here”, I said with a winking smiley face attached. I grinned to myself, knowing that our interaction was going to drive some fans into hysterics.

Moments later, the divider on the bus slid open and there appeared Tony, wiggling his eyebrows and grinning largely at me. I turned my music off and pulled my headphones down around my neck. “Hey buddy,” I grinned, sitting up and swinging my legs to the side of my bunk.

“What’s up?” he asked. He sat down on the edge of his bunk, which was directly across from mine, hunching into the aisle.

“Just wanted to see your pretty face,” I grinned, raising my voice about an octave.

“Freak,” he laughed, running his fingers through his hair. He gazed at his phone and started typing away again.

“Who are you texting?” I asked curiously. I tried not to sound too nosy, but, honestly, I had no idea what was going on in anyone’s life anymore. I was too selfishly caught up in my own. Tony gazed up at me and smiled softly.

“This girl I’ve been talking to,” he said shyly.

“You’re cheating on me?” I gasped.

“You have Charlie. Shut the fuck up,” he laughed, shaking his head.

I chuckled. “Who is she?” I asked casually.

“I met her a few weeks before we left for tour. Her name is Faith,” he grinned.

“You going to ask her out?” I asked, ignoring the sad, guilty feeling that stirred in my chest—where was I when Tony was trying to move on with this life?

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve gone on a few dates, and we talk all the time. It’s kind of an open relationship, though. We’ll see,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I kind of would like to snag her as mine, but I decided to wait until this tour is over. I didn’t think it would be fair of me to call us exclusive and then ditch her for tour,” he said, shrugging his shoulders again. “We’re just going with the flow.”

“That sounds really nice,” I smiled. “You seem really happy,” I noted.

He smiled back. “So do you,” he said. I nodded.

“Yeah,” I breathed. “Hey, Tony…” I started slowly. He raised an eyebrow over his largeframed glasses for me to continue. “I, uh, I don’t remember if I ever apologized to you,” I said. “You’re a really great friend and I’m sorry I used to ignore you. And I’m really sorry for causing all sorts of pain and putting strain on not only the band but also our friendship. You and the other guys mean the world to me.”

Tony was quiet for a moment, looking down at his folding together hands. He sighed lightly and then looked up at me, his face unreadable. He stood up, and for a second I thought he was just going to leave, but I immediately felt like an idiot thinking that Tony would do that when he walked over to me and pulled me into a much needed embrace.

“I love you, man. I hate to see you hurt. But I’m glad things are better,” he said as he patted my back.

“I just realized that I never really paid any attention to what was going on with yours and the others’ lives. I feel really bad,” I sighed, scratching the back of my neck.

“Vic,” Tony said. “We understand. You’ve had a rocky road. But you’re better now,” he said. “Well, at least you seem better. Are you?”

I nodded. “I am, Tony,” I said, nodding again. “I think… ah, nevermind,” I shook my head as a thought that I never expressed outloud started to creep on my tongue.

“What? What is it, Vic?”

I bit my lip. “Just tell me. You know how you get when you bottle things up,” he said. I nodded.

“Yeah, well, I was just thinking a lot, lately… and… I don’t know,” I sighed. “I think the reason why I was so depressed after Spence died was because… well, yeah, I loved her. We had a real connection I think. But I wasn’t with her for that long. I know that doesn’t matter, though. I just was so depressed because I still felt so unresolved after everything that happened with Drew Sanders—” I shuddered at the mention of his name “—and she and I were really connected in the sense we both… endured tortute from him… I don’t know if I’m making any sense, Tony. I just think I had a really hard time because I had all of those memories fresh in my mind, and not enough happy memories with her, even though I adored her, y’know? Like, on top of me knowing what I was missing out on, I still had him in my head...” I shook my head, knowing I wasn't making any sense. I didn't know why I was even talking about this now, though. I had Charlie. I guessed my brain still needed to work some things out.

Tony nodded, seeming to understand despite my ramble. “I get it, dude. We all loved her, and I think you know that.” I nodded. “But I thought about that too. The pain you felt was a lot worse than what we could have imagined because, even though we all loved her the same, you went through a lot worse than us with Drew Sanders. I don’t even know what happened there, but I know it was bad. If you’re hinting that you didn’t try to kill yourself just over the death of a girl—no matter how wonderful that girl was—then, don’t worry. I knew that already,” he said.

“You really are the best, Tone,” I sighed.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to any of us, Vic,” he said softly. I nodded, pulling him in for another hug.

I heard the divider slide open and then the telltale sign of a picture being snapped. Tony and I pulled away from each other and glared at Adam, who was looking at us with a cheeky grin.

“It was a beautiful moment that I happened to catch. Just doing my job,” he said innocently. I laughed and rolled my eyes, flicking the camera off—something we all seemed to do a lot. I knew Adam wasn’t listening to our conversation and he had just ran into us hugging by accident. I trusted him. “I actually was running back here to get some new lenses. We are almost there,” he said, confirming my thoughts that he wasn’t trying to intrude. We gave him a thumbs up and stood up to go back to the front lounge.

“Hey, Adam,” I said. He looked up at me with wide, expecting eyes, and I grinned, winking at Tony as I spoke. “Send me that picture soon. I need to ‘gram it and show the world my love for Tony’s cute little butt.”

Notes

Hey! I can't decide if this chapter is short or long, but I kind of like it either way. I think I like writing in Vic's pov better. Maybe I should throw in some Jaime and Mike povs, though--check in and see how they are doing?
I'm feeling better about this story, though, despite the long writer's block I had for it.
Thanks for all of your patience and thanks for reading! I hope you are enjoying :) <3