Queen For A Day

The hospital let me out the next morning, and I got Fay to pick me up and take me home. It saved the opportunity for Cooper and Vic to hold more of a grudge against each other. The tour started on the 10th of April, and would finish just in time for Pierce the Veil to go on Warped Tour. Fay and Mariah took turns staying at my house until the tour started, and I decided to not see any of the guys (including Cooper) until we left. Seeing as I was spending two months with them I decided that 5 days without them would be a nice pre-tour-break. That’s a thing right?
We had two busses house all of us for the tour. One for Pierce the Veil, Cooper and I, plus our touring drummer and bassist. Our bus was two stories and there was plenty of room. The second bus was only one story and was housing our guitar and drum techs, plus photographer, merch people and tour manager plus all of our gear.
Fay and Mariah both came to drop me off at Vic’s house, which once again was the meeting and leaving point for the bus. As we pulled up in front of his house Fay squealed and pointed at the driveway.
“Look at that!” I followed where she was pointing to see the best thing in the world. Rayne was carrying boxes out of Vic’s house and putting them into the boot of her. The way she did it was so begrudgingly, she moved with a sag in her shoulders and a sulk on her face.
“So Vic must’ve broken up with her.” Mariah commented, all three of us watching the blonde girl carry her things.
“This is great Carl! Vic’s single, you can have him now!” Fay exclaimed, slapping my thigh with way to much force.
“Ouch! Fay!” I cried out at my smirking friend. “Wait no I can’t have Vic, I already have a boyfriend if you don’t remember.” I myself almost forgot about Cooper honestly. I spotted him speaking with Jaime which is what made me remember.
“Oh yeah...” Fay trailed off, obviously stumped.
“You just need to choose between them Cali. If you want to stay with Cooper that’s fine but you need to tell Vic that. You can’t lead him on like this.” Always the reasonable one, Mariah spoke from the back seat. She was right of course. If Vic was willing to break up with Rayne and possibly ruin his band then he had one of two motives; 1. Because Rayne was a bitch and abusive, and 2. He wanted to be with me. Probably a bit of both. But I silently hoped it was more of the second one. I am such a bad person though... leading two guys on at once.
“I think we better get on out there.” Mariah opened up her door and got out of the car. Fay and I followed suit. I ran straight up to Cooper and hugged him tightly.
“Hey beautiful, I’ve missed you.” He leaned down and kissed me softly, leaving a tingling on my lips as he straightened up.
“Do I get a kiss too?” Jaime teased as I went to hug him.
“Sorry Hime, I don’t think Jess would be happy if I did,”
“I wouldn’t be either!” Cooper put in, faking jealousy. I laughed and turned back to my boyfriend.
“Don’t worry, these lips are only for you.” I stood on my toes and kissed him again.
A young guy with dirty blonde scraggly hair and tattoos approached us and smiled down at my stomach. “Wow, they said you were pregnant but I didn’t imagine you’d be this pregnant.”
I looked at the man, trying to figure out who he was.
“Oh right, I’m Spencer, the tour manager. I assume you’re Cali and Cooper?” He smiled between Cooper and I.
“Yeah, um but my names Cali.” I hated correcting people over it.
“Oops sorry.” He had a big toothy and contagious smile that I couldn’t help but giggle at lightly. He seemed sweet. “Now, Cali unfortunately you are going to be completely outnumbered over this tour, you are the only girl.” No merch girls? Hah. “But the guys have donated the back lounge to be your ‘bedroom’ for the tour. According to them you’d be ‘too fat to climb up into a bunk’. Their words not mine. Plus if you want Cooper can share it with you. I’ll leave you two to figure that out though. We have 12 bunks otherwise.” Spencer informed us before glancing over my shoulder. “No Chris! That bag doesn’t go there!” the man ran off back to the bus.
“I better go get my bags,” I looked at Cooper. C’mon buddy, take the hint...
“Don’t even think about it!” Vic suddenly appeared and strode off towards Fay’s car. Ok, wrong person but that’s still cool. Cooper didn’t even say anything but he watched Vic collect my bags at Fay’s instruction with jealousy written all over his features. He must’ve figured out I’d seen his face because he turned back and smiled sweetly at me.
“Is there anything I can get you Darling?”
“Uh no thanks, I’m fine. When are we leaving again?”
“In about 20 minutes, aren’t we still waiting for your parents?”
Damnit, I’d tried to forget about that. They’d decided to see me off, and knowing them they’d also bring Poppy and Saxon and any other unfortunate family member that was around at the time.
“Yeah, it’s unlike Mum to be late though.”
“Ok, I’m going to go put my bags in the bus.” Cooper kissed my cheek and left.
Just as I said it a car pulled up by the bus, and I pretty much completely expected it to be my family, but it wasn’t. Well, not exactly. Mr and Mrs Fuentes got out of the front seats of the car and Mike got out the back, walking straight around to grab three large bags. I don’t even know how he could carry them all at once.
“Cali, how are you dear?” Mrs Fuentes came and hugged me straight away, without even saying hello to Vic.
“I’m good thank you! The baby and I are just fine.” We had caught up a few times since she’d found out about my pregnancy, and we’d actually grown quite close. She was really sweet.
“Hello Mama,” Vic walked up to my side and kissed his mother’s cheek before standing next to me. I felt his hand come to rest on the small of my back.
“Are you both excited for this tour then?” Mr Fuentes came up from behind his wife and hugged both Vic and I.
“Absolutely, I’m sure it’ll go quickly which is exactly what I want. The sooner I have this baby the better!” I answered for both of us.
“Can’t wait to be parents then?” the white haired woman asked.
“Yep, it’s a bit nerve wracking to think about it, but I think we’ll be ok.” Vic looked down fondly at me. I smiled softly as I met his eyes.
“Cali!” Ugh I would recognise that voice anywhere. My Mum was half running towards us across the road, wearing high heels as usual.
“Um,” I gave Vic a quick look and he understood immediately, pulling his parents aside to explain about the baby-father situation. His parents understood that we weren’t together and that I had a boyfriend but I could see that Mrs Fuentes in particular wanted us together.
“Hi Mum.” I greeted her and looked behind. Her not to my surprise my Dad, brother and sister in law were all with her as well. At least they’re all she brought. I said my hello’s to everyone and introduced the various people around the place until there was a huge mass of people talking. I was feeling pretty lost, seeing that everyone but me was speaking to someone. I felt someone grasp onto my hand and pull me out and away from the group of people.
“Cooper what are you doing?” he kept leading me until we were across the road and brought me to a car I hadn’t noticed before. An older woman with short greying hair got out of the driver’s seat and I knew who she was immediately.
“Cali this is my mother.” They looked so similar. They had the same eyes. And nose.
“It’s nice to meet you,” does this mean?!
Then the back door opened and a dark haired boy got out. “Coop is this your girlfriend?” the boy asked.
Wow.
“Yeah, Arron this is Cali, Cali, this is Aaron my brother.” He coughed a bit. This was his son?
“It’s nice to meet you Aaron, I’ve heard a lot about you.” I smiled down at the boy. He didn’t look like his Dad much, they had the same coloured hair, but Aaron had softer and more delicate features. He was looking up at me with piercing dark blue eyes that popped straight out of his face.
“And I’ve heard a lot about you. Coop talks about you lots and I really like your music.” Aw
“Aw thank you Aaron, you excited for our CD?” I winked at him and he grinned excitedly at me.
“Yes! I can’t wait!” He jumped up and down a few times. Cooper put his hand on the boy’s head affectionately.
“Calm down, you’ll probably hear it before it’s released anyway.” He chuckled.
“Have you thought of a band name yet?”
I frowned, that was one thing we were still unsure of. We were just listed as Cooper and Cali at the moment. But both of us wanted an actual name.
“No, but we’ll think of one soon.” Cooper said confidently.
“We gotta get going everyone!” Someone called from the other side of the bus.
I looked up at Cooper and smiled. This was it.
“Well it was so nice to meet you both, I’ll leave Cooper to say his goodbyes.” I kissed my boyfriend’s cheek and gave one last smile to both Mrs Easley and Aaron before walking back to the bus.
There was a bit of a mad rush, with everyone running around, throwing the last bags into the bus and saying goodbye to family members.
“Cali, c’mere I want you to meet someone!” Mike waved me on to our bus. I had to grab hold of the rail to pull my heavy body up onto the first step into the bus. This was probably just going to get harder as the tour went on..
Mike walked to the bunk area and came back with a cute blonde haired girl, covered in tattoos.
“Cali this is my girlfriend Alysha, Alysha this is Cali. And that is Vic’s baby.” Wow, he even introduced my baby bump.
“So good to meet you,” Alysha had a sweet high voice. I was pretty glad to see Mike had a girlfriend, he had mentioned her a few weeks before sounding super excited to be able to date her. They seemed like they’d be good together.
“CALI!” Fay’s voice screamed from the doorway of the bus.
“Cool it!” I yelled back, raising my eyebrow at her.
“No!” She run to me and hugged me, burying her head into my shoulder. “You’re going to be huge when you come back.”
“Thanks Fay.” I laughed, “I don’t know what I’m going to do without seeing you for two months.”
“You’ll get over it.” Fay winked just as Mariah came up behind her.
“Now Cali, please don’t drink or smoke. Or even be around people when they smoke. And cut back on the Coffee. Also don’t tire yourself out too much-“
“I’ll be fine Mariah!” I laughed, pushing Fay away and hugging Mariah.
She gave me a sceptical look. She’s so damn sweet.
“Don’t worry about her, I’ll take care of her.” Vic walked up and put an arm around my waist.
“Ok, I’ll try and trust you all.” She relaxed a little and gave a laugh.
I looked up at Vic and sighed contentedly. He looked down and winked at me playfully.
“You better go say goodbye to your parents.” Mariah reminded me. Right.
I walked back to the doorway of the bus and looked down. If I fell down these steps….
“Here Cali!” Cooper ran up and held out a hand to help me step down. Was it going to be like this every time I had to leave the bus?
“Thank you.” I breathed once both of my feet had touched the ground.
“Goodbye Love,” Mum came and hugged me followed by my dad, brother and last of all Poppy.
“I’ll probably have a baby the next time you see me.” My sister in law giggled, tucking a strand of ginger hair behind her ear.
“Wow that’s so exciting!”
“We’re both almost there Cali, if it starts to get harder just remember that. You’ll be back to normal in a few months. You can be thin again. Plus you’ll have a little Mexican baby to look after. Life is looking good.” I don’t know what sparked in her to tell me all this, but it made me feel better, even though I didn’t realise I needed it.
“Thanks Poppy, I’ll see you then huh?” I kissed her cheek one last time and made my way over to Vic’s parents, quickly saying goodbye to them.
“Come on Cali, sorry to hurry you up but we should’ve left five minutes ago!” Spencer ran past me, looking stressed. I gave one last wave to the group of my family and friends standing in the twilight before walking back to the bus and climbing up slowly. Everyone seemed to be already here, in the huge front lounge area, shoving things into their places and moving bags around.
“Ready to go?” Cooper kissed the top of my head and held me against his body.
“I think so.”
The bus door slammed shut and the driver turned on the ignition, the bus shuddering to life. A few people around the room cheered.
“I think I getter go sit down.” I told Cooper. All this walking around and climbing up steps had made me tired. Cooper nodded and dropped his hold on me, then grabbing a beer from Mike. Really? We were only just leaving and they were already going to drink?
Now… where was I sleeping again? I wandered out of the main room and down a little hallway. The bus had a big front lounge, kitchen, a small back lounge, a bathroom and 12 bunks. As I was walking past the bunks the curtain of a middle bunk opened. Vic poked his head out and smiled when he realised it was me.
“Going to your room?” He asked, climbing out of his bunk.
“Yeah, is it just down here?” I pointed down the hall.
“Yep, I’ll show you around it if you want.”
I nodded, I enjoyed his company.
He ushered me down to the very end where there was a door and he opened it for me.
“Welcome home.” He teased.
The room was decent sized, with a double bed pushed up against the far wall and two built in dressers on either side of the door.
“It’s not much, but at least you have your own room. Instead of us guys fighting over it we decided it’d be best for you to have it. So I’ve put your bags on the bed there, if there’s anything heavy you want moved just tell me. Um, there’s storage up the back, sorry but you might have us putting things in there, it’s a large space.” Vic walked around the room and explained everything. “There’s a TV up here.”
“Vic,” I placed a hand on his arm. “I can figure it all out.”
He hesitated for a second, “Ok, I think I’m just a little nervous.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I get to spend two months with you, I just don’t want to fuck it up again.” He said softly, slouching his shoulders.
“You won’t Vic. What could possibly go wrong? We’re just friends, unless your bitch of an ex-girlfriend shows up again nothing can stop us being friends. Actually, on the topic… What’s going on with her?” I’d forgotten that we’d seen her packing. She must’ve left soon after we got there.
Vic tensed up. “I broke up with her. She wanted me to block you out forever, but I couldn’t. So I broke it off and now she’s probably going to tell her father and we’ll probably lose our contract with Fearless.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“Oh Vic.” I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight. He chose me over the bands future?
“I’m sorry she brought you into it so much.” He mumbled into my hair.
“Don’t be, whether we like it or not we’re in each other’s lives forever now. Your problems will be mine through our baby for at least until it’s old enough to leave home.” I was weirded out by the thought. “Whoa…”
“What?”
“One day we’ll be like, 40 and married to different people and possibly have other children but still know each other. I just.. I think that’s weird.” I listened to his steady heartbeat as I spoke.
“Does it have to be like that though?” Vic’s voice was muffled in my hair.
“What do you mean?”
“Imagine this instead. I’m forty, you’re 35. Our child will be uh.. 12. They might have a few younger siblings. They live in a big family house on the beach in San Diego with their parents.” What was he getting at?
“Do you mean only one of us has custody?” I was puzzled. Was this his way of saying he no longer wanted to be in our baby’s life?
“No Cali. I mean we’re the parents. We live in that house. Together. We’re the parents of the other kids. Cali, I want to be with you forever. I want to marry you one day.” His stammered words took a moment to soak into my head. Then I got it.
I pulled away from him and stepped right back. “W-what?”
“I want us to be together Cali.” He stared at me with his big brown eyes.
“But I have a boyfriend…” I wasn’t sure if I was reminding him or myself. Did I want to be with Vic? Fuck yes. But did I want to be with Cooper? Yes. Who did I love? I had no fucking clue.
“I know Cali. That’s why I haven’t made a move yet.”
“What the hell do you call this then!?”
“I don’t know… Just.. Please look over your options Cali. That is my baby, and no matter what it always will be. Biologically. And I love you and want to be in you and the baby’s life.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and put my head in my hands. “Vic…”
“Cali do you love me or Cooper?” His voice sounded pained.
“You can’t ask me that!” I looked up, begging him with my eyes to stop this conversation.
“You need to make your decision Cali.” Vic sighed and sat down next to me on the bed. “I’m sorry for all of this. It’s just hard to sit here and watch you with someone else. With him pretending to be the father of my child. I don’t want you to end up replacing me with him.”
I wasn’t replacing him was I?
I just nodded numbly. “I’m going to get some rest.” My voice sounded robotic and monotone.
“Ok baby.” I winced as he kissed the side of my head and walked out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him.
I stood up and took of my t-shirt, bra, hoodie and jeans, changing into an oversized t-shirt and a pair of thin cotton shorts. No matter the weather, I couldn’t bear to sleep in long-sleeved clothes or long pants. I climbed over the four suitcases on the bed and climbed under the blankets of the already made bed, silently thanking whoever did it. The light in the room was off, only a small wall light above the door was on, so it was mostly dark and easy to fall asleep in. But sleep was the last thing on my mind. I was too preoccupied with the decision I had to make. Cooper or Vic? Either way this was going to be a hard tour. If I decided to keep going with Cooper, Vic would have to watch me with him every day, caring for me and kissing me and loving me. But if I chose Vic, Cooper would end up so uncomfortable over the tour, having to see me with Vic. plus Cooper and I were supposed to be in a band together. Things would just be awkward.
I sighed and closed my eyes, this is impossible.

Notes

love you all!

Beth xx