A lot can change in one month. That became perfectly clear to me as I stood in front of Chris and the group of four boys that I called ‘friends’.

“You can’t be serious?” I asked, standing there with my mouth agape.

“Dean, I’m being completely serious,” Chris told me, a bit of a smile forming on his lips. “I’ve talked it over with the guys and they’ve all agreed to it. Besides, they don’t want anyone else but you to do it.”

Maybe I should back up a little bit and explain to you what’s going on. A few weeks ago, Johnny, the guitar tech I filled in for at the PTV concert, had to officially resign from his job as the touring guitar tech due to his family problems. Apparently, his wife had been diagnosed with cancer, and while he did need the job to pay for the medical bills and support his family, he also needed to be there for his wife and take care of her during this time, which was totally understandable. Everyone in the band and the crew was devastated by the news and was sad to see their friend go, but they wished him the best and hoped and prayed for his wife to get better. Since then, Chris and the guys have been in search for a new guitar tech and, well, that’s what I was doing here today. After much deliberation, my best friends apparently wanted me to go with them on their spring tour and be the new guitar tech.

“But- but I’m not even qualified!” I protest.

I heard Mike snort and I saw him roll his eyes. “I have a hard time to believe that,” he stated in a flat tone.

“I worked as a guitar tech as a side job in a venue,” I elaborated, trying hard to not get too annoyed or frustrated. “While I’m extremely flattered you guys want me to take the job, I can’t. I wouldn’t know the first thing about doing this type of a thing on a tour!”

“It shouldn’t be that much different than doing what you did at the show last month,” Chris told me.

“Maybe, but who knows?” I say, throwing my hands up in the air. “Besides, why would you want me, a girl who worked as a guitar tech in a small town venue, over someone who’s been doing this professionally for years?”

“Well, for starters, we already know we could handle being with you 24/7 for two months,” Jaime speaks up. “That, and we’ve all already seen what you can do. What you did when you filled in for Johnny was incredible and we want someone like that on tour with us.” The rest of the guys, Chris included, nodded in agreement and gave me encouraging smiles.

I looked back at all of them and let out a sigh. “I- I just- it’d be a bad idea to hire me,” I say quietly, scratching the back of my head nervously as I stared at the floor. “I mean, I know this is a job offer, but what about the job I have right now? Also, I have little to no working qualifications, I don’t have a passport, my funds are pretty low and I don’t know if I could afford to live on tour, you guys could all get tired of me, I’ll probably screw up at some point and then you’re going to want to kick me off the bus somewhere in the middle of Kansas or something and I don’t think I could handle that-”

“Woah, Dean, calm down, alright?” Vic suddenly says. “I think you’re overthinking this just a bit. Listen, a passport’s not a big deal right now, this first part of the tour is in the states, so we can worry about that later, okay? As for your job, well, this is a job offer like you said, so you’d probably have to quit the one you have right now, but on the off months of us staying in town, you could always talk to Rosie and she’d probably hire you again. And really, you think we’d get tired of you? You’re probably going to get tired of us and then ask to move onto Sleeping’s bus before that happens.”

I lightly giggled at that remark and I could tell Vic and the rest of the guys were smiling at me. I finally got the courage to look back up from the floor and saw the bright, smiling faces of Mike, Tony, Jaime, and of course, Vic. Chris was smiling too, but I could also see that he was becoming a little impatient with all of this.

“So what do you say, Dean?” Chris asked. “Are you ready to become apart of the PTV family?”

I looked from Chris back out to the four smiling goofballs in front of me. You know what, maybe touring with them wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. Besides, how could I say no to those adorable faces?

A bit of a smile spread across my face and I looked back over at Chris with a raised eyebrow. “I thought I already was?” I asked in a joking matter.

“Well, I’m just going to take that as a yes,” Chris says with a bit of a relieved chuckle.

“It better be!” Mike exclaimed. “I need a new drinking buddy on tour-”

“Really?” Tony asked as he looked over at Mike with a strange look. “That’s seriously all you’re worried about?”

Mike looked back at Tony and just shrugged. “I mean, for the most part, yeah,” he admitted.

Tony leaned back and rolled his eyes while Mike tried to defend himself. Vic just shook his head at the whole thing while Jaime awkwardly sat there in between Mike and Tony. Chris decided to step in at that moment and say, “Mike, Dean’s going to be doing a lot more than just drinking with you-”

“Yeah, I’m aware-”

“Good, now stop obsessing over it,” Chris firmly stated with the roll of his eyes. Mike huffed in response, mumbling a few profanities under his breath, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Don’t worry Mike, I’ll make sure to fit in some time for drinking,” I reassure him, giving him a bit of a smile as well.

Chris chuckled a bit next to me and added, “You’re going to need those drinks too, especially after being stuck inside of a tour bus with these assholes for several hours on end.”

I giggled in response and looked over at Chris with a slight smirk. “And don’t I know it too,” I joked.

Loud shouts and complaints came from the four boys sitting on the couch and I couldn’t help but laugh at their protests. “You guys, chill!” I say. “It was a joke.”

“It better be!” Jaime said with a pout. “That was really mean.”

I looked back over at Jaime and I had to bite my lower lip to keep myself from smiling. “Well it’s not my fault you’re so sensitive,” I tell him, shrugging a bit as well.

Jaime let out a mock gasp and placed his hand over his chest in offense. “Me? Sensitive?” Jaime snorted and shook his head. “I am no such thing.”

I just gave Jaime a pointed look and shook my head in response. “Uh huh, right,” I sarcastically state. Jaime started shooting off more indignant cries of protest and I rolled my eyes a bit before looking back over at Chris. “When do we leave for tour?” I asked him.

“We leave for Tulsa in a week-”

“A week?” I shout in surprise. I mean, I knew the guys were starting the spring tour soon, but I didn’t realise it was coming up so fast. “Jesus, you guys could have least given be bit more of a heads up and time to prepare.”

Chris gave me a shy, apologetic smile and said, “We would have, but we were still in the process of looking for a guitar tech and the possibility of you coming on tour was still up in the air.”

“And I get that, I really do,” I tell him, “but now you’ve got me stressing out because I don’t know how to pack or get ready for this sort of thing.”

“I’ll help you out,” Vic suddenly speaks up, causing practically everyone to look over at him with curious eyes.

“You will?” I asked.

Vic just shrugged and said, “Why not? It’s not like it’s a big deal or anything. Besides, I have to go out and get some stuff for the tour tomorrow anyway, so you can just tag along and I’ll help you get all the stuff you need.”

A bit of a smile spread across my face at the offer, and quite honestly, I kind of liked the idea of getting some alone time with Vic tomorrow as it was. “Sounds like a plan,” I say with a nod.

Vic nodded back in response and gave me one of his signature smiles. “It’s a date, then,” he said, winking a bit as he spoke.

My heart fluttered at the word ‘date’, but I quickly pushed that aside. It had been over a month since I’d finally admitted to myself that I liked Vic, but I was still wrestling with those feelings. I knew it was a bad idea for me to like someone, especially someone like Vic, and I just didn’t want to be in the position of liking someone again. It never really worked out for me.

Although, a ‘date’ with Vic wasn’t that bad of an idea. Or at least that’s what my heart kept telling me.

---

“So where did you want to go first?”

True to his word, Vic had taken me out to go shopping with him for the tour we had to leave for in a week. Currently, we hadn’t exactly gone to any of the shops yet, but Vic had been explaining the basics of what I would need on tour as we walked through one of the various shopping malls San Diego had in its possession.

“I don’t know Vic, I thought you were supposed to be the expert here,” I said with a bit of a laugh.

Vic rolled his eyes a little at that and just looked over at me with a smile. “Yeah, but I can’t exactly read your mind and know what you need or where you want to go shop at,” he pointed out.

“Okay, true,” I admit, looking over at him as well and returning the smile. I thought to myself for a few minutes about what Vic said I would need before I spoke again.

“Well, you said I needed clothes-”

“Yes, clothes are preferable for the tour,” he joked, smirking a bit at me as well.

I couldn’t help but laugh at that and blush a bit as well. “Okay, smart ass,” I say with the roll of my eyes. “Um, I do need some new clothes actually, so maybe we could look at a few clothing stores- oh! I also want to check out Hot Topic so I can get some of your guys’ merch,” I add, looking back over at him with a bit of a shy smile.

Vic chuckled a bit at that and smiled. “Dean, if you want merch, you could just talk to Chris and-”

“Vic I’m not going to be begging merch off of you guys,” I firmly state. “That’s not fair to you guys or the crew, and this way, I also have an excuse just to go into Hot Topic anyway,” I add, partially joking with my last statement.

“Alright,” Vic said with a bit of a shrug. “Just thought I’d offer.”

“I appreciate it,” I say with a smile.

Vic smiled back his response before his face brighten up in realization. “Hey, do you own a swimsuit?” he suddenly asked.

I couldn’t hold back my soft giggles as I looked up him with a bit of a questioning look. “Um, that’s kind of an odd question Vic, but for your information, I actually do not own a swimsuit,” I told him with a bit of a teasing smile. “Why do you want to know?”

Vic laughed a bit and I swore I could have saw his cheeks heat up a bit, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. “Yeah, sorry, that was kind of weird,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head nervously. “But the only reason I’m asking is because we might go to a beach or something on our off days and I was going to let you know to pack your suit or something. Since you don’t have a suit though, maybe we should start with that.”

“Okay, sounds good to me, but you have to help me pick it out,” I joke as I give him a playful wink.

This time, Vic’s cheeks definitely went red and he glanced down at the ground momentarily before looking back at me. “Um, yeah, sure, I guess,” he stammered out.

“Then let’s go!” I say with a light laugh, grabbing his hand and dragging him off towards one of the swimsuit shops in the mall. I honestly hadn’t planned on grabbing Vic’s hand, it was really just on instinct, and I didn’t actually notice I was holding his hand until we were about to enter the first shop I could find. Personally, I thought it was kind of embarrassing that I just did something like that, and I was all for letting go of Vic’s hand as soon as we entered the shop, but I felt his fingers intertwine with mine and the butterflies I was feeling in my stomach made me think twice about letting go of his hand.

“So, uh, what do you think I should buy?” I asked him, looking at all of the swimsuits hanging up in front of me.

I heard Vic laugh a little and say, “I don’t know Dean, I’m not the one who has to wear the thing-”

“Hey!” I said with a light laugh, looking back over at him with a pointed look. “You said you’d help me pick one out, remember?”

“Alright, alright, calm down,” he said as he shook his head. Vic slowly let go of my hand as he started to sift through the swimsuits on the rack, and I couldn’t help but frown a bit at the loss of contact. I mean, him holding my hand wasn’t a huge deal, and it probably didn’t mean anything to him, but that didn’t mean the cold, empty feeling in my hand felt wrong...

“Do you want a one piece or a two piece?” Vic asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

“Um, it doesn’t really matter,” I admit, picking up a yellow polka dot bikini and looking it over before putting it back on the rack. “But I’m thinking I’ll probably go for a two piece.”

Vic nodded his response and kept looking through the various swimsuits with me. There were so many swimsuits to choose from, but I was soon finding it difficult to find something that I liked. For the most part, everything that I saw on the racks either screamed ‘tacky’ or ‘slut’, and neither option really appealed to me.

After a few moments of searching in silence, Vic pulled something off of the rack and held it up for me to see. “What about this one?” he asked.

I looked over in his direction and saw the swimsuit he’d picked out, which was a simple white bikini with a gold trim. While the suit itself didn’t look terrible, my face scrunched up a bit in disgust and I shook my head at the option. “Nah, it’d clash with my hair too much,” I told him, looking back through my rack of suits.

Vic didn’t question it or protest at my dislike of his choice, he just simply shrugged, put the suit back and looked through a few other ones. Not long after, he picked up another swimsuit, a floral print high-waisted bikini, and held it up for me to inspect.

“What about this?” he asked me.

“Nah, not my style,” I admit, going back to my rack yet again. The two of us kept on looking through the swimsuits, and just as I found a teal colored bikini that I was willing to try on, Vic spoke up again.

“I think this one might be nice, Dean,” he said, causing me to look back over at him and at the swimsuit he hand in his hand.

And by swimsuit, I mean a stringy mess of practically nothing.

In his hands was literally the skimpiest swimsuit I’d ever seen. Just by looking at it, I knew the suit barely covered anything in both the upper and lower regions, but due to the fact that it was literally just a bunch of strings loosely woven together, I knew that it would barely cover anything even then.

Still, it didn’t fail to cause me to blush and break out into a fit of nervous laughter. “Please tell me you’re not serious,” I said through my laughter.

Vic gave me an innocent shrug and said, “I don’t know Dean, I don’t really see any problems with it.” Though, by the mischievous glint in his eyes and the playful smirk plastered on his face, I knew he wasn’t actually serious about the swimsuit...or at least I hoped that he wasn’t.

“Dude, with that thing, I might as well just show up in the nude,” I say with another laugh. “Besides, if Mike ever saw me with that, he’d have a field day.”

Vic chuckled, obviously agreeing with my statement about his younger brother. “Honestly Dean, I’m pretty sure all of the guys would have a field day if you showed up in that,” he admitted, putting the skimpy thing back on the rack and going through more suits.

“Even you?” I teased, lightly nudging him the side with my elbow.

This caused Vic’s cheeks to turn a rather bright shade of red and his eyes immediately shied away from me. He stayed silent, refusing to answer my question, and I sort of felt stupid for asking that. At the same time, the fact that he wasn’t saying anything kind of hurt. Was I not attractive enough for that or did he just not find me attractive at all?

“Well, on a more serious note, what about this one?” Vic asked after a few moments of not talking to me. It took me a moment, considering I was looking at my own swimsuit choices and picking out another one to try on, but when I looked over at the suit, my eyes lit up a bit. The suit itself was simple,a blue and white striped bikini, but I really liked the way it was cut and I just thought it looked it pretty.

“I like it,” I told him, smiling and reaching out for the suit. He passed over to me and then noticed I picked out a few suits myself.

“Ready to go try them on then?” he asked.

“Yep,” I say, popping the ‘p’ and heading over to where the dressing rooms were located. There was a small waiting area and viewing area in front the dressing rooms themselves, so Vic plopped himself down onto one of the chairs and pulled out his phone while I went to one of the rooms to change.

The first suit I decided to change into was the teal one I found earlier. There were no fancy designs or sequins or anything of that sort, it was just a plain, strapless, teal-colored bikini. I discovered that it was one of those push up ones as well as I put it on, but it really didn’t do much for me. I had a rather small cup size, and while the push up did make my boobs look slightly bigger, it wasn’t much of an improvement and they still looked tiny.

After a bit of adjusting, I stepped out of the dressing room and into the waiting area where Vic was. “What do you think?” I asked, biting my lower lip out of habit.

Vic looked up from whatever it was that he was doing on his phone and broke out into a large smile as soon as he saw me. “Wow, I mean Dean, you look great!” he exclaimed. “And it really brings out the color of your eyes, too.”

I felt my cheeks heat up at the compliment and I instantly turned around to not only try to hide the blush but to inspect myself in the mirror. “Thanks,” I tell him, looking my suit up and down. I must have started frowning at some point, because out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vic look at me in the mirror with a curious expression.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I let out a bit of a sigh and looked myself over in the mirror. “I don’t know,” I admit. “I mean, the suit looks nice and everything, but I just don’t think it really fits me. That, and the top feels kind of funny.”

Vic gave me a casual shrug and sat back in the chair he was sitting in. “Then try a new one,” he told me. “If you don’t like wearing it now, you’re definitely not going to want to wear it later.”

“And how would you know?” I asked with a teasing grin, looking at him through the mirror.

Vic returned the grin and shrugged. “It’s common sense, really,” he told me. “That, or my feminine side’s coming out again.”

“Shut up, Fuentes,” I say with a laugh, shaking my head as I started to walk back into the changing room.

“Make me, Manchester,” Vic shot back.

I whipped around to face him and saw the biggest smirk spread across his face, almost like he was challenging me to do something about it. I crossed my arms across my chest and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well maybe I will,” I sassed.

Vic just laughed at that and shook his head. “Maybe another day,” he joked. “Now go get changed, you dork.”

A chuckle escaped my lips and I left the waiting area with a smile plastered on my face. That smile was quick to fade though. A pattern had developed between Vic and I; I’d come out in a new swimsuit, he’d say it looked great, and I would find something about it to dislike. By the time I finished showing Vic the 5th swimsuit I’d tried on, we were both a little tired of this process. As I stripped out of the newly rejected swimsuit, I had half contemplated giving up on finding a suit, putting my clothes back on, and then leaving, but then I realized that I still had yet to try on Vic’s choice, the blue and white striped bikini. I looked the suit over for a few moments, chewing my lower lip in thought.

Should I try it on? I mean, with my luck, that suit would end up just like the others in the reject pile and I would end up giving up on finding a swimsuit to wear for tour, but after a few moments of my internal debate, I decided to try it on anyway.

I exited the dressing room for the 6th time that afternoon and went out to where Vic was yet again. At first, he didn’t notice me coming out due to how absorbed he was with whatever it was he was doing on his phone, but after a moment or two, he finally looked up and smiled when he saw me standing there.

“I was beginning to wonder what happened to swimsuit I picked out,” he joked, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

I giggled a bit at that and said, “Yeah, it sort of got pushed to the back of the pile. But anyways, what do you think?”

Vic looked me up and down for a moment before his eyes landed back on my face. “Well, I mean, it looks great on you and I personally think it’s the best one you’ve tried on so far, but that’s just me.” He paused as he looked me over again before asking, “How do you feel in it?”

I looked down at my body and smiled a bit at what I saw. I had to agree with Vic, it did look great on me and it was the one I liked the most out of all of the suits I tried on. Plus, it had an amazing fit and the little bit of white didn’t clash as much with my hair as I had expected it.

“Honestly?” I ask, looking back up at him with a smile. “I really like it.”

Vic broke out in a wide smile and looked pretty relieved when he heard me saw that. “That settles it then, we’re buying this one,” he told me.

I nodded but then remembered that I didn’t have a whole of lot of cash on me and had to be careful with my spendings today, especially if I planned on buying some merch at Hot Topic. “How much is this?” I wondered aloud, searching the bikini for a visible price tag.

“Don’t worry about the price, I’ll take care of it,” Vic told me, standing up from the chair he’d been sitting in and stretching.

I looked up at him in mild confusion as my eyebrows furrowed together. “You don’t have to pay for this, Vic-”

“Nonsense,” Vic said with the wave of his hand. “It’s no big deal.”

“But Vic-”

“No buts, I got this Dean,” Vic insisted, looking at me with a reassuring smile. “Just go get dressed, okay?”

I huffed a bit in annoyance at his persistence at wanting to buy my swimsuit, but the gesture also made me smile a bit. “Alright,” I say, accepting the fact that my swimsuit was being bought for me as I marched back into the dressing room and changed back into my street clothes.

After Vic payed for my swimsuit and bought me a pair of sunglasses, because apparently it was bright outside and I should be wearing sunglasses like he was, we continued on with our shopping. We went to a few clothing stores, for both my needs and his, and also ended up at a Vans store at one point. Vic claimed that he needed a new pair of shoes and I decided to pick up a new pair for myself, because why not?

Throughout the entire day, Vic ended up buying most of the stuff we had picked up in the stores. It wasn’t that I wanted to him to pay for me, it’s just that he kept insisting on paying me for me and I got tired of arguing with him about it. The only things I ended up paying for was lunch for two of us and some new underwear sets for myself.

After several hours of shopping, Vic and I had taken care of all the things we needed to pick up for tour and I was still left with cash still in my wallet, seeing as Vic had spent what I felt was an unnecessary amount of money on me. However, we had yet to visit Hot Topic, and since I had hardly spent any money today, I had plenty of cash to buy all of the merch I wanted.

“Need me to carry any of your bags?” Vic asked as we made out of the store we had just visited.

“Nope, I got it,” I reassured him. “Besides, don’t you already have a lot of bags?”

Vic gave me a bit of a shrug and said, “Not really, but even then, I’d probably still offer to take your bags.”

I couldn’t help but blush at his statement and, out of habit, I tucked some loose hair behind my ear with my free hand. “Um, thanks I guess,” I say a bit shyly.

“No problem,” Vic replied with his award winning smile. We soon made it to the Hot Topic we were looking for and Vic held open the door me as we entered.

“Welcome to Hot Topic!” the cashier greeted as I thanked Vic for getting the door. “Can I help you guys out with anything today?”

“No, I think we’ve got it, thanks,” I say to the cashier with a smile.

He nods back his response and adds on, “Well, if you guys anything, just let me know. Also, we have a buy one, get one 50% special today and all of the clearance is marked down as well.”

“Okay, thanks for letting us know,” I tell him, nodding a bit at him before going over to the side of the store where Vic had wandered off too. He had been looking through some of the band shirts, and currently, he was holding up one of his own.

“Is it weird that I didn’t know this design existed for this shirt?” he asked me, looking over at me with small smile.

I giggled a bit at that and shrugged. “Not really,” I admit, taking the shirt from him and inspecting it myself. The shirt itself was grey with the band name surrounding a coffin that had a rose growing around it. The design was really pretty and I thought the shirt looked cool, so I decided to buy it.

Vic had taken to looking through more shirts, some of Pierce The Veil, some of other bands he liked, and I did the same. I found a few more PTV shirts I wanted, including the famous black shirt that had the Collide With The Sky album cover with a galaxy overlay on top, and even found a cool Sleeping With Sirens top with an anchor on the front.

My next stop was the tank tops, because since this was a spring tour, I knew some of the places we’d be visiting would be rather warm and I didn’t feel wearing a t shirt all the time either. As I browsed through the tank tops, I caught Vic out of the corner of my eye thoughtfully browsing through the snapbacks the store had on display and I couldn’t help but snicker.

That man and his hats, I thought to myself with an amused expression.

To my dismay, there weren’t as many tank tops that caught my eye or that appealed to me, but I did end up deciding on a white Pierce The Veil tank top with the state of California on it, a green tie-dye tank with a skull on it, and a black tank top that had the words “I’m with the band” written on the front.

Happy with everything I picked up, I made my way over to the cash register so I could actually pay for my stuff without Vic insisting on buying it, because really, I felt bad that he kept spending all this money on me when I was more than capable of paying for my own things

“Find everything okay today?” the cashier guy from earlier asked me.

“Yep,” I tell him with a small smile, placing my stack of merch down on the counter for him to checkout.

The cashier smiled back at me and started ringing up all the shirts and whatnot. “So I take it you like Pierce The Veil, then?” he asked, looking at all of the PTV shirts in my pile.

A bit of a smirk spread across my face and I giggled a bit. “You have no idea,” I say, biting my lower lip to keep myself from laughing even more.

“Nice, I like them too,” the guy told me, nodding as he did so. “Their music is pretty awesome in my opinion- hey! Did you go to the concert about a month ago?”

“Yeah, and it was pretty sick,” I say, my smile brightening as I looked back on the concert. Of course, I had a different perspective of the concert than most other people that went, but still!

The guy’s face lit up as well and I could see the excitement flash through his eyes. “I know right? It was hands down one of the best nights of my life,” he gushed, folding up all the shirts and tanks and beginning to bag them up.

“Same,” I agree. “I can’t wait to go to the next concert.”

The guy smiled at me and nodded in agreement. He then paused momentarily from ringing me up before he spoke up. “Um, well, I’m not really supposed to be doing this, but we just got in a new shipment of Pierce The Veil merch in the back, and if you want, I could let you take a look at some of the stuff and buy some if you want,” he tells me, scratching the back of his head nervously.

I returned his shy smile and awkwardly shuffled my feet as I stood there. “Well, not that I’m not flattered that you’d allow me to do that, but I’m going to decline,” I say. “I’m pretty happy with the stuff I have here.”

“Are you sure?” he asks me. “We actually have some stuff that’s going to be sold on their spring tour-”

“I think I got that covered for her,” Vic spoke up as he walked over to where we were.

The cashier guy turned around to look at Vic and had to do a double take once he saw who was standing in front of him. “Holy crap,” he breathes, “you’re- you’re-”

“Yep, that’s me,” Vic said with a light chuckle. He stuck out his hand to shake and added, “It’s nice to meet you, man.”

“Oh no, believe me, the pleasure’s all mine,” the cashier said, letting out a nervous laugh as he shook hands with Vic and tried his best not to flip out. “I- I just can’t believe it and- oh crap, I’m so sorry,” he adds, looking rapidly from me to Vic. “I didn’t realize she was with you, I just-”

“Dude, there’s no need to apologize,” Vic reassured him, laughing as the guy tripped over his apologies. “You were just doing your job.”

The guy nodded quickly and gave Vic a nervous smile. “Well, um, do have anything that needs to be rung up or are you paying separately?” he asked.

Vic shook his head and said, “No, but I am paying-”

“Vic!” I hissed, lightly hitting him on the arm. “You are not paying for me!”

“But I am,” Vic told me with a sly smirk and a wink. As he pulled out his wallet and card, I rolled my eyes at his actions and began grumbling under my breath.

“You’re spending too much money on me,” I mumbled, not even bothering to argue at this point.

Vic chuckled lightly and shook his head at me as he handed over his credit card to the cashier. “Yeah, but you see Dean, I’m really not,” he tells me, looking down at me with that same smirk still plastered on his face.

“Yes you are,” I grumble, looking up at him and giving him a pointed look. “You’ve practically bought everything for me today and it’s not like it’s a small amount of money you’ve dropped on me either.”

Vic just shrugged and brushed off what I said as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Maybe, but I honestly don’t care. I wanted to do this, Dean,” he explained. “Also, if it makes you feel better or whatever, you could look at this as a bit of a ‘work perk’.”

I rolled my eyes a bit at that, but smiled nonetheless. While it annoyed me to no end that Vic insisted on paying for everything, it was still kind of sweet. And yes, I probably should have been acting more grateful, not that I wasn’t grateful or appreciative, but thanks to my hard headed, stubborn nature, my annoyance won out more so than anything else.

Once Vic finished paying for all my Hot Topic stuff and signed something that the cashier asked him to sign, the two of us left the store and started to make our way back to the parking garage where Vic’s car was at. We engaged in a bit of casual conversation as we walked, talking about random things for tour and poking a bit of a fun at each other as well, and it wasn’t long until we were back at his car, piling all of our bags in the backseat and driving back to the apartment complex we both lived in.

“So,” I spoke up during the middle of the car ride, “I never really thanked you for today and for buying all that stuff for me either, I kind of just bitched about it really,” I added with a bit of a laugh.

Vic laughed along with me and glanced away from the road for a moment to smile at me. “You’re welcome, little Miss Independent,” he replied in a teasing tone.

“Hey!” I protested with a laugh, shifting in my seat so I had a better look at him. “I’m trying to apologise here, you know.”

Vic chuckled a little and smirked a bit. “I know-”

“And it’s not that I was trying to be ‘Miss Independent’ either,” I added on, wringing my hands together out of a bit of a nervous habit. “It’s just that...well, I’m not used to people buying me stuff like that. I’ve always had to buy things for myself and everything else outside of that is just kind of a foreign to me.”

I started chewing my bottom lip after my confession and looked outside the car window momentarily to watch the San Diego scenery (and a glimpse of Sea World) fly past us. Vic seemed to be mulling over my words for a few moments as the silence passed between us and it took him a minute before he started speaking again.

“I get that,” Vic finally spoke up. “Honestly, I was like that for awhile. But now, it’s just gotten to the point where I’m kind of the opposite and I buy stuff for my friends.” Vic let out a bit of a small, nervous laugh with his last statement before continuing. “And I get that it might make you uncomfortable when people start buying you stuff because you feel like you’re not worth it, but just that you are, okay Dean? I wouldn’t be saying this if it wasn’t true.”

I couldn’t help but blush at words. He basically had hit the nail on the head with that one; all of this did make me uncomfortable, because quite frankly, I really wasn’t worth all of this attention or love that I received from everyone. Or at least that’s what I’d been told for years. Either way, no matter what I believed, Vic believed I was worth something, if not just a little bit special.

And that meant more to me than words could ever say.

Notes

This is definitely the longest chapter I've ever written, and honestly, I had a lot of fun writing it. I'm still kind of suffering through writer's block, but luckily this chapter kind of helped me through it. Also, I'm excited to say that the next chapter will be the start of the tour, and that's where all of the exciting stuff should start to happen for you guys ;)

Hope you guys are still enjoying reading this! Don't be afraid to talk to me or leave your comments down below, I love hearing from you guys and you honestly make my day.