Hospitals. I’ve never really liked them, but over the years, I’ve grown to hate them. Then again, I’ve spent quite a lot of time inside of a hospital since then, so maybe that explains my hatred towards them. Every time I’ve been inside one, it’s always been for some horrible reason- well, if you’re not counting that time my sister Jaycee gave birth to my beautiful little niece. Other than that, hospitals and I have never gotten along, and waking up in another one again today was literally so goddamn horrible.

The only good thing about waking up in that horrid place was seeing all of my friends piling into the small room I had been placed in. I had honestly been so scared when I woke up that maybe, just maybe, I had dreamt up these past few months and that I wasn’t actually here on tour with everyone. But most of all, I was scared that I dreamt up Vic. I guess that’s why I asked for the doctor to bring him in first, I really just needed to see that this was all still real.

Of course, proving to myself that this was all real also confirmed that what Ricky did to me was real as well. And I guess that’s why I was also currently screaming my head off in the back lounge.

After holing myself up in the back lounge when I got back onto the bus, I had plenty of time to think about everything that had happened in the past 24 hours, and while I had blacked out for the majority of what I wanted to remember, I was awake for some of it. And those memories were seared into the front of my brain, constantly replaying in my mind on repeat. They were too painful to think about, and I thought that maybe sleeping would get my mind off of those memories, but I should have known better. All sleeping did was amplify them, and it was almost like I was there and it was happening all over again. Everything was played back in such explicit detail, and of course, my mind warped some of what happened into some of my old nightmares. It became too much for me to handle, and when the hellish memories reached it’s peak, that was when I woke up screaming.

I forgot where I was momentarily when I woke, and that just freaked me out even more. The sudden shouting and people bursting into the back lounge didn’t help either, and it just caused me to scream even more. I kicked and swung at the people trying to get at me, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to will my attackers away, but a strong pair of arms soon wrapped around me and a familiar, comforting voice tried to calm me down.

“Dean, relax, it’s just us,” Jaime calmly spoke in my ear. “We’re not going to hurt you, so please, even though he probably deserves it, stop trying to kick Mike in the balls.”

Normally, that would have caused me to laugh a bit, but not today. Not right now. I did manage to calm down a little though and open my eyes enough to take in my surroundings. I couldn’t see Jaime’s face, but I could see his arms were the ones wrapped tightly around me and I assumed I was also being held close to his chest on the small longue couch. Mike and Tony were standing next to us as well looking very distressed and worried. They looked like they’d been woken up from sleep- hell, I probably had waken them all up from their much needed sleep, but here they were. Not everyone was here in the back lounge, though. Chris, the other techs, the rest of the crew, and the person I wanted to see the most right now were missing, and I couldn’t help but feel a little hurt as I stared off into space. He was always here for me, so right now, when I probably needed him the most, why wasn’t he-

“Dean?” a tired voice croaked.

My head whipped towards the voice I had wanted to hear so desperately. I almost didn’t believe that he was there, but here he was. Vic was crouched down in front of me by the couch with his chin resting on my knee. His hair was a unruly, tangled mess and you could already see the bags forming under his eyes from lack of sleep. Yet, he was still sitting there with an alert expression and worried eyes.

“You’re here, right?” I quietly asked, glancing around to all four boys in the room with me with watering eyes. “All of you are actually here? This isn’t some sort of dream, right?”

Vic gave me a small smile and nodded at me. “You’re awake, Dean,” he reassured. “You don’t have to worry about your dreams for right now. We’re here for you.”

I weakly nodded and sniffed, wiping the tears forming in my eyes away before any of them could actually fall. Nobody really said anything, they all just watched me with extreme caution, like I would break without warning. I soon became uncomfortable in the silence and shifted a bit in Jaime’s lap before speaking.

“Sorry for waking you guys up,” I apologise, picking at a loose thread on my jeans.

“Don’t be,” Tony told me. “You’re kind of our priority, Leia, and we have plenty of time to catch up on sleep as it is.”

“I couldn’t really sleep anyway, so it’s not a big deal for me,” Mike added, shrugging a bit as he did so. Vic nodded in agreement and Jaime hummed out his. Either way, even if the guys insisted it was fine, I still felt horrible. I was just being a burden to them, like I always was, I suppose.

I let out a tired sigh and leaned back into Jaime’s arms, shutting my eyes and trying to shut out the world. I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t know what to do. Both my body and mind were exhausted, but sleeping was out of the question at this point for me. All I really wanted to do was just hang out with the boys, but I couldn’t keep them up anymore than I already had.

After several moments of silence on everyone’s part, I finally opened up my eyes and looked at the first face my eyes locked onto. “Do you guys have any movies I can watch?” I quietly asked Vic. “I don’t think I’m going to be going back to sleep anytime soon.”

Vic nodded at me and glanced back towards the entertainment center behind him. “It all depends on what you want to watch,” he said.

I just shrugged and scooted off of Jaime’s lap onto the couch beside him. “I don’t know, I just want to watch a movie that’ll distract me,” I admit, bringing my knees up to my chest. “Like Harry Potter or something like that.”

“Thank God for Mike’s Harry Potter addiction then,” Vic jokes, smiling at me as he pushed himself up from the ground. Mike made a small noise of protest at his brother’s teasing, but Vic just waved him off and started to rummage through the DVD collection.

“Can you put the first one in, Vic?” I shyly asked.

“Of course,” Vic replied, looking back at me to smile for a moment before going back to the DVDs and putting the first Harry Potter movie into the player. Vic grabbed the TV remote and made his way back to the couch, which both Tony and Mike settled into as well with Jaime and I. The only spot left for Vic to sit in was a small space between me and the armrest of the couch, so he squeezed himself in there and pressed play on the movie.

The next few hours consisted of the four of us sitting there on that couch watching the early Harry Potter movies and catching up on sleep. Jaime went back to his bunk to sleep about 10 minutes into the first movie and Tony was passed out before Harry was even sorted in a house. Mike lasted until about the end of the movie, but he was starting to nod off and decided that going back to his own bunk to sleep would be the best. That left Tony, who was still fast asleep on the other side of the couch, Vic, and myself in the back lounge with Harry Potter playing in the backroom. I didn’t know when it happened exactly, but I somehow ended up curled up into Vic’s side with my head resting over his chest and his arm securely wrapped around me. Not that I was complaining of course. Being curled up to next him made me feel safe, like nothing in the world could harm me as long as I was here in his arms. That, and he was just so damn comfortable too. I could easily get used to lying next to Vic like this…

Before I knew it, the second movie had started and I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. I didn’t want to fall asleep again, not if my memories would come back to haunt me, but my body wasn’t giving me much of a choice. My mind was slowly falling prey to sleep’s warm embrace, and the last thing I could remember before finally drifting off was Moaning Myrtle flying into a toilet and the calming sound of Vic’s heartbeat lulling me to sleep.

---

“Dude, you’ve got to wake her up.”

Hearing Mike’s rough voice was enough to pull me out of my slumber for just a moment. I didn’t open my eyes, but I wasn’t exactly falling back asleep either. I was stuck in that awkward state of being half asleep and half awake while I listened to the conversation around me.

I heard Vic sigh from above me and felt his breath rustle the top of my hair. “Yeah, I know, but look at her Mike,” he said. “She’s finally getting a chance to sleep in peace; I don’t want to take that away from her.”

Mike let out a sigh as well and I’m pretty sure he was shaking his head. “I get it Vic, but we’re almost to the hotel and Chris wants us up and ready to unload when we get there,” he explained. “That, and apparently we’re being assigned rooms.”

The vibrations in Vic’s chest from the groan that escaped his lips woke up my senses a bit more, and at the mention of being assigned rooms, I definitely payed special attention to the conversation at hand.

“You’re joking, right?” Vic asked, sounding completely done with everything.

“Nope, I’m dead serious,” Mike replied. “I overheard Chris talking on the phone with the other tour managers; they want us to all be friends with each other like we’re in fucking kindergarten or something.”

Vic mumbled a few profanities under his breath and lifted his hand to wipe his face in frustration. “Well that’s just great,” he stated sarcastically.

“Hey, I’m not happy about it either, but we don’t really have much of a choice,” Mike pointed out. “Besides, this is one of the few times we’re actually getting an actual bed to sleep in, so I’m not going to complain too much anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Vic grumbled. He let out another sigh and shifted slightly underneath me to probably get a better look at his brother. “So I need to wake her up right now?”

“Basically,” Mike said with a sigh. “We’ve got about 5 minutes until we get to the hotel, so make sure you’re both up and have your stuff packed before then.” I heard his footsteps walk away from the back lounge and it wasn’t long until I felt a hand softly shake my shoulder.

“Dean?” Vic softly asked, shaking my shoulder again. “You’ve got to wake up, Darling.”

Even though I was basically already awake, I was still reluctant to get up and actually do something. I let out a low groan and squeezed my eyes shut, curling up further into Vic’s side. Vic chuckled a bit in amusement and tried shaking my shoulder yet again in an attempt to wake me up.

“Dean-”

“Leave me alone,” I whined, still keeping my eyes shut and staying curled into Vic’s sigh. I heard him sigh a bit in defeat, and after a few moments of him not doing anything, I thought he had just given up on trying to wake me up, but that was when his hands traveled away from my shoulder and I felt his fingers begin to lightly tickle my sides.

“Vic!” I squeal, my eyelids fluttering open as my body squirmed out of his hold. In my frantic panic to get away from the tickle attack, I ended up falling straight off the couch and landing flat on my ass.

Vic found this quite hilarious and let out a loud laugh as he watched me fall off the couch. I glared daggers at him and slowly got up from the floor, dusting myself and grumbling angrily to myself. Vic knew I was ticklish, he found that out a few months ago by accident when we both had had a bit too much to drink. He also knew how much I hated being tickled, so using that against me to wake me up was just plain rude.

“Aw, c’mon Dean,” Vic said, looking up at me with an innocent smile. “I know you don’t really like being tickled, but I didn’t know how else to get you up.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes a little and running a hand through my messy hair. My hair had started growing out again, and it was already long enough to put back into a short little ponytail. It was also about time for me to redo the white again, but I didn’t know if I wanted to go back to the white or if I wanted to go to a different color. Either way, it was probably something I wouldn’t worry about until I was done with tour. Or at least all the shit I was dealing with on tour, that was.

“So we’re getting a hotel tonight,” Vic spoke up, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah?” I asked, glancing over at him for a moment.

He nodded at me before continuing. “We honestly rarely get to stay in a hotel on tour, so this is pretty great,” he tells me. “But, with the stay tonight, there’s a bit of a catch-”

“And that would be?” I ask, my words coming out a bit more blunt than I had meant them to.

Vic raised an eyebrow at my tone but didn’t question it. “Apparently, Chris and the other tour managers have been talking, and they’ve come to a general consensus that all three of the bands and crews need to get along with each other, so we’re all being paired up into rooms with people from the opposite bands.”

Even though I already knew this was happening, hearing this from Vic when I was actually awake made it all the more real for me. It tied my stomach up in knots and made me feel sick. I honestly didn’t know if I could handle being separated from the PTV or SWS guys for a single night, especially if that meant being paired up from someone from Deaf Lions. Granted, it wouldn’t be so bad if I got paired up with Alexis, but knowing my luck, I would only be so lucky to get him as my roommate.

“Sounds great,” I say with a sarcastic snort, getting a small laugh out of Vic.

“It might not be that bad,” Vic pointed out. “I mean, for all we know, we could end up being paired up-”

“As great as that sounds, I highly doubt that’ll be happening,” I butt in, turning to give Vic a pointed look. He just shrugged as if to say ‘you never know’ before he got up from the couch and worked out the kinks worked up in his body he no doubt got from me laying on him.

“Hey weirdos,” Mike suddenly called out, grabbing both Vic and I’s attention as he walked through the back lounge doors, “you two better be up by now-”

“Relax, Mike, we’re just about to go pack up,” Vic told him, rolling his eyes at his younger brother as he stretched one last time.

Mike nodded in response to his brother before turning his focus on me. “How’re you holding up, Princess?” he asked, his facial features softening up as he looked me over.

I shrugged a bit and said, “Alright, I guess.” I honestly didn’t know how I felt or even how to feel at this point. I mean, maybe I was handling this all pretty well, but it’s not like I’ve haven’t had to deal with something like this before.

Mike really didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just smiled a bit and gave me another nod. “We’re about to pull up to the hotel, so I’ll just leave you two to pack up then,” he said, turning on his heel and walking back to the front of the bus.

I watched Mike go for a moment before sighing and looking over at Vic with a mild pleading look. “Do I really have to agree to this?” I complained. “I’m perfectly fine with staying on the bus-”

“Sorry Dean, but I’m afraid you have to suffer through this like the rest of us,” Vic joked, looking back at me with one of his goofy grins. I rolled my eyes a bit, but got up nonetheless and stretched.

“Fine, I’ll get packed then,” I grumbled, walking out of the lounge and making my way to the bunks. Luckily for me, I never really unpacked my stuff, so I just shoved a few articles of clothing, my phone, earbuds, laptop, and all of my chargers into my Jansport before I got off of the bus with the rest of the guys. Sleeping With Siren’s bus pulled up when ours had apparently, so we all had basically unloaded around the same time and met up with each other to head inside the hotel we were staying at.

The hotel itself was one of those nice Holiday Inn’s, both the interior and exterior were quite chic and very fancy looking. Several business people with expensive suits were constantly coming in and out of the doors of the hotel, and to be totally honest, our entire group looked completely out of place. The business people seemed to have noticed that as well, because every time one of them caught a glimpse of us, especially the more heavily tattooed members of our group, they would scoff and make disgusted faces towards us. I even had one very pristine business lady pull me aside and tell me I didn’t belong with a ‘group of hooligans’ like my friends were. I didn’t have the energy or the self control to deal with her, so I just kindly rolled my eyes at her and told her to go fuck herself.

A few minutes later, the Deaf Lions band and crew finally arrived at the hotel and Chris finished checking everyone in. Apparently, there were so many of us that we ended up taking up the majority of one single floor, and the few business people left up on the floor we were to be staying on weren’t very happy about that. Sucks to be them, I guess.

We all gathered together in the small lobby once we were all checked in and Chris and the other tour managers headed up our group. They announced that we’d all be bunking with people from separate bands, causing practically everyone to groan in annoyance and/or frustration, and once we’d all settled down, Chris pulled up a list on his phone and started listing off the people being paired up.

“Okay, so we’ve got Jaime and Joe together in 502,” Chris recited. “Mike and Jesse in 503, Vic and Alexis in 506…”

I started tuning out Chris’ voice and let my mind wander off in thought. Pairing us up against our will seemed like such a stupid idea to me; why couldn’t we just pick our own partners? I mean, forget all that ‘friendship’ bullshit, just let me bunk with Vic or Kellin or Tony or someone that I’d be comfortable sharing a room with, not some other random band member I wouldn’t want to be stuck alone with.

Well, technically, there was only one band member I didn’t want to be stuck with for an entire night in a hotel room, and the possibility of possibly getting stuck with him made me want to vomit.

“...okay guys, that should be everyone,” Chris spoke up, making me snap out of my thoughts. “Grab your roommate, come see me for your room keys, and make sure that-”

“Wait, Chris,” I quickly spoke up, suddenly blushing and getting uncomfortable with the various pairs of eyes now on me. “Um, I don’t think you got me assigned to a hotel room-”

A deep chuckle that made my skin crawl and my body run cold sounded from behind me, and I didn’t have to turn around to know who that chuckle belonged to. “Weren’t you paying attention, Darling?” Ricky’s sickening voice rang out.

I had so many sarcastic and spiteful words in store for Ricky, and I had every intent of using them against him, but the moment I turned around and saw that smug little bastard smirking at me, something inside of me was triggered and I shut down. I shrank back in on myself and momentarily lost the ability to speak. My throat felt incredibly raw and I could feel my hands shaking at my sides, and I had to tear my eyes away from his cold, dark eyes before I began to panic anymore than I already was.

“Um, I- uh- I- no,” I stuttered, my voice now small, quiet, and vulnerable as I stared at the intricately patterned carpet.

Ricky chuckled at me again and I shrank back even more. The fear consuming my body at the moment distracted me from the absolute hatred burning inside of me that made me want to tear his throat out, and I absolutely hated it. Ricky took a step towards me before he spoke, and I sincerely hoped my slight flinch wasn’t noticeable to anyone else.

“Well Darling,” Ricky began, the emphasis on ‘darling’ making me internally cringe, “it looks like that as of now, for the next 24 hours, you and I have the wonderful privilege of sharing a hotel room together.”

Well shit.

Notes

Sorry, it's a bit of filler this time around and I was kind of lacking in inspiration for this as it was. The next chapter should have some better content though, I promise :)