Queen For A Day

I didn’t even remember getting into bed, but when I woke it was light and I was tucked tightly into my bed in the back of the bus. Judging by the slight shakes I was feeling we were moving, probably heading to the next venue. I got out of bed and noticed I was wearing my usual sleeping clothes. Did someone help me get changed or did I do it myself? Wow I must’ve been tired. I pulled on a pair of track pants and my Ugg boots then headed out of my room. I was feeling a little bit dizzy, but probably only because of the moving vehicle I was in.
“Morning Cali,” I looked up to see Kellin sitting at the table, on his phone.
“Good morning, I didn’t expect you to be here,” I said in surprise.
“The flight I’m catching is leaving from the city where the next venue is, so I figured I might as well catch a ride with you guys.” He shrugged. I sat down across from him. Apparently we were the only two awake.
“You excited to see your family?”
The smile that grew on his face answered the question for me. “Yes, I can’t wait. I miss them so much. I haven’t seen them in almost two months.”
“Wow, that must feel like forever.”
He nodded, “It does, but they all understand.”
“Good morning!” Jaime burst into the room with a huge grin.
“I think you just woke everyone else up Hime.” I laughed at him.
“Good! It’s about time they got up,” he walked to the fridge and pulled out an apple.
“It’s only 7 in the morning, you realise?” Kellin laughed.
“Seriously?!” why was I up so early?!
Kellin nodded.
“What the hell is going on up here?” Mike walked in, wearing only boxers.
“Dude I do not want to see that.” I snorted, glancing away from his tattooed body.
“You love it Cali,” he winked at me playfully.
“What does Cali love?” Cooper walked in, wearing the same amount of clothes as Mike.
“Dude! We’re almost matching!” Mike exclaimed, pointing at Cooper’s boxers.
Ohh man…
“What are you two doing?” Vic appeared behind Mike and Cooper, looking at them with wide eyes.
“Mike and I are wearing the same boxers!”
“Alright then..” Vic turned to me with an amused grin.
“Who put me to bed last night?” I asked suddenly.
Cooper raised his hand slightly, “I did, you pretty much passed out from exhaustion,”
Ok, that’s alright then.
“You assholes are so noisy.” Tony stumbled in, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“Blame Jaime,” I pointed to the black haired guy who had a mouth full of apple.
“Yeah, it was him who woke you all up.” Kellin backed me up.
The guys all stared at him.
“What the fuck are you waiting for? Go attack him.” I broke the silence. Then all hell broke loose. Mike and Tony launched themselves toward him first, followed closely by Vic and Cooper. In a matter of seconds a squealing Jaime was lying underneath the other four men. Kellin couldn’t stop laughing but he got up and dropped down dramatically on top. I stood up and walked slowly towards them. Jaime caught sight of me first and his eyes widened in fright.
“No, no, no.. Cali! I can’t take anymore!” he yelled frantically.
I carefully climbed up and sat directly on top of the pile, and all the guys groaned in objection.
“That’s not fair! You count as two people!” Jaime’s voice came from the bottom.
“I probably still weigh less than each of you guys.” I retorted with a laugh, jumping straight back off the guys.
“You probably do, you’re small and you were thin to start with.” Vic let out a groan as he pushed Cooper and Kellin off of him.
“Wait hold up!” the other’s clambered off and Jaime stood up. “It’s Vic’s fault that Cali is so heavy.”
Vic smirked and glanced at me, “guilty as charged.”
“Jeeze Vic, why’d you have to fuck her?!” Mike yelled, a playful smile on his face. Really Mike….
“I just couldn’t help myself.” Vic sidled up beside me and kissed my cheek. I noticed Cooper watching us carefully. His face was impossible to read.
“I’m just too hot to miss out on.” I joined in, wrapping an arm around Vic’s waist.
“Exactly.” Vic put his arm around my shoulders.
The others looked away awkwardly.
“You guys are so weird. I’m going back to bed.” I laughed, turning back to my room.
They started speaking amongst themselves as I walked back in. I decided not to close my door completely, just in case anyone decided they wanted to keep me company. I lay down in bed and closed my eyes. I was too awake to sleep, but it was too hard to stay standing. Also it was a little exhausting to be around the guys all day, and I’m fairly sure we were going to be driving for a while.
After a few minutes I heard footsteps come into the hall between the bunks. Maybe it was Vic coming to chill with me?
“I don’t really know how to say this,” it was Cooper. His voice was hard to make out, he was only speaking quietly. But who was he speaking to?
“What’s up?” shit, he was talking to Vic.
“I don’t want things to be weird between us, and Cali.” Cooper sighed. I lifted my head off the pillow, trying to hear as well as I could.
“It doesn’t have to be.” Vic sounded like he didn’t want to talk to him.
“I’m just going to say this as straightforward as I can. I love her, but I know I’ll never be with her. We need to just be friends and bandmates, nothing more.”
My mind was racing as I heard his words.
“Take it from me Vic, a child needs both their parents. My son’s grown up without two parents and he still doesn’t know that I’m his Dad. It is so important that both parents are together and take care of the child together. As hard as this is for me I can see that you and Cali need to be together. For your kid’s sake. So, just don’t let me get in your way anymore.”
Tears were dripping down my cheeks. I honestly felt so bad for Cooper, but he was right, and it took a lot of guts for him to say all that. Especially to Vic.
“Thanks Man, that means a lot,” I could hear the smile in Vic’s voice.
“Just promise me you’ll look after her ok?”
“I swear on my life,”
I squeezed my eyes shut and turned over so my back was to the door, silently hoping that neither of them would walk in and try and talk to me. I needed to be alone at that moment. I just couldn’t believe Cooper would do that. He’s letting Vic and I be together. And we both want to be together finally, this is exactly what I’ve wanted. So why was I not excited right now? I wasn’t feeling any emotion in particular. It was almost apathy. But I did care, I love Vic.
“Cali?” Cooper whispered from the doorway.
I froze in place and tried to ignore the tears on my face. Please go away..
“I know you’re awake, I heard you moving. You don’t move in your sleep.” Damnit
“If I wasn’t pregnant I would move.” I murmured with a sigh, I was going to have to face them at some time or another.
“But you are pregnant. So you are awake.” I heard him come in and close the door. The side of the bed shifted with his weight as he sat down.
“Cali I-”
“I overheard your conversation.”
He was silent.
“I’m so surprised you did that.” A whole lot of new tears pressed against the back of my eyes.
“You need to be with him, I can see that you two love each other, and I know how important it is for a child to have their own two parents.”
I rolled over. He looked worn out, but he was sporting a smile. Although it looked a little forced.
“Thanks Cooper, I can see how hard it would be for you.” I put a hand on his arm and gave him a genuine smile.
“The thing is, it was going to happen anyways. And I don’t blame you for breaking things off with me, if it wasn’t now it might’ve been later. And then it could’ve been messier and we would’ve been more established as a band and, yeah.. this is probably just easier.”
He was right. What he said made me feel better.
“I guess that’s true.” I pulled myself up into a sitting position.
“I might leave you now, you probably need to rest. Do you want to talk to Vic?” Cooper asked gently.
“No, I think I might wait before I speak to him, but I do want to get some rest.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“Ok,” the man stood up, walked to the door and then hesitated and looked back at me. “I still care for you ok Cali? Even if we’re not together I still want us to be close. And I will kill Vic if he ever does anything to hurt you or your kid.” He said defensively.
“Alright, thanks Cooper.” I giggled, brushing my hair away from my face.

I ended up falling asleep for about an hour, but cheering in the front of the bus woke me up. I got out of bed and stumbled through, in desperate need of something to eat.. Something like ice-cream..
The guys were all crushed around playing a video game on the flat screen TV. There wasn’t even enough room for all of them to sit on the couch, so Tony and Cooper were sitting on the floor with their backs against the other guys’ legs.
“Take that!” Mike screamed as he shot Tony’s character.
“Fuck you!” Tony yelled, even louder.
I rolled my eyes and shifted through the fridge, trying to find the ice-cream.
“Cali, the ice-cream is in the freezer,” Vic mumbled, not even looking away from the screen. Right.
I murmured a thanks and opened the freezer, finding it right away. To my delight we had a brand new two litre vanilla flavoured container. Someone was keeping it stocked up for me. I took out the whole container and grabbed a spoon from the drawer before looking around for a place to sit.
“Hey are one of assholes going to give up their seat for the pregnant chick?” I put a hand on my hip and looked at them expectantly. Someone paused the game and everyone turned to look at me.
“You can have mine Cali,” Vic stood up straight away, watching me carefully with his big brown eyes.
“Thank you,” I smiled and sat in his place.
“Don’t worry, there’s plenty of room.” Jaime, who was sitting on my left, shoved his whole weight away from me which pushed Mike and Kellin further along in the seat, which gave enough room for another person to sit in between us.
“Sweet,” Vic sat down in the spot and put his arms over the back of the couch. Tony un paused the game and immediately killed Mike’s character with one gun shot.
“Not Fair! I wasn’t ready!” Mike screamed, making the rest of us laugh. I dug into the ice-cream, eating only small spoonsful at a time. I did not want to give myself a brain freeze.
“Can I have some Cali?” Jaime looked over with a pout.
“Nah, I need it.” I shoved another spoonful in.
“But if you eat more you’ll get fat, and you’re already pretty big.” Jamie continued, his dimples showing with his cheeky grin.
“You can’t call a girl fat Hime!” Vic exclaimed, hitting his friend over the back of the head.
I nodded, “Now I’m definitely not going to give you any.”
He let out a whine and folded his arms over his chest, turning back to the TV screen.
“Am I allowed some?” Vic looked down at me with a chuckle.
“Nope.”
“But I stuck up for you!”
“Too bad, I need it.” I repeated.
“Please,” he drew the word out in desperation.
“Ugh whatever.” I grabbed a spoonful and fed it to him.
“Thanks!’ he said, around the cold food in his mouth.
“Not fair,” I heard Jaime mumble.
I sat silently and watched the guys play their game for ages, they were all talking and yelling profanities because of the game, but neither Vic nor I said a word. Vic let his arm fall from the back of the couch and rest over my shoulders at some stage, and eventually I noticed that I was slowly cuddling into his side. It was nice, we weren’t meaning to be this close, but it just happened. And I enjoyed it. I just wasn’t sure if we could be together at the moment. The reason? I wasn’t even sure myself anymore. Maybe I was scared it would all come shattering down again. There’s no way I’d be able to handle that, especially with the baby being due so soon.
A ringing phone brought me out of my thoughts.
“Is that mine?” I realised with a groan.
“I’ll get it,” Vic volunteered, getting up and running to the kitchen bench where it was lying. “It’s your mother.
Oh no… I caught Cooper’s eye for a split second. How was I supposed to explain the situation to Mum?
I pressed answer and pulled myself to my feet. “Hi Mum.”
“Cali! How is everything?” her voice boomed out, and I saw a few of the guys smirk. They all heard her too.
“Um, everything’s good, I’m feeling fine,” I walked down to my room and carefully closed the door.
“And how’s Cooper?” There it is. Help me..
“About that…” I coughed awkwardly, “I kinda.. broke up with him.”
“WHAT?! Cali why?!”
I cringed, immediately regretting telling her. “I needed to ok, things weren’t working out.”
“But the baby!? You can’t be a single mother?!” she sounded so worried. I don’t even know why, does she not think I’m capable?
“It’s not like I’d be alone anyway, I have heaps of people to help me.”
“You two need to be together! He’s such a lovely boy. And what will you do; have joint custody?”
This is not the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
I sighed and rubbed my face with my free hand, “Cooper wasn’t the father in the first place.”
Silence.
I would’ve preferred her to be yelling. But her voice came monotone, and scarily emotionless.
“What do you mean?”
“There was another guy, but he and I couldn’t be together. Then I ended up with Cooper so we just said that he was the father.” I explained calmly.
“Oh.” She sounded defeated. I’d lied to her though, of course she’d be upset. “I’m going to go now dear, talk later.”
I threw my phone on the bed and walked back to the guys, trying to sort through what I was thinking. They all looked up expectantly, waiting for me to say something.
“She’s not happy.” I sighed, glancing between Cooper and Vic. They both gave sympathetic looks.
“There anything I can do?” Vic asked carefully, coming over to me.
I forced a smile, “can you go back in time and not let me get pregnant?”
He faltered a little and looked at the ground, “well..”
I gave a weak laugh, “Don’t worry Vic,” tears pressed at the back of my eyes. I didn’t need this stress right now.

Notes

Here's a kinda long chapter to make up for the last short one.

So.. a lot went on in this chapter.. exciting stuff

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Beth xx