Noortje’s POV

We were once again on a tour bus, but this time in Europe. It was decided that we were going to travel around in a bus, instead of taking a plane every single day. I hadn’t been here in ages… since I left actually… I was afraid of bumping into someone I knew, even though we were in France, not in Holland. You might say ‘Oh so lucky, you get to go to France!’. No, that was not how I felt. We were in France, more specifically Paris. I had a weird feeling in my stomach… something that suggested fear. This is where it all happened, this is where the school trip was.

I gulped and tried to ease the feeling.
“Are you ok, Noortje? You’ve gone pale.” Mike asked with a worried expression.
I nodded my head and saw Tony giving me a concerned look just before I closed my eyes.
“Just bad memories.” I mumbled.

I kept my eyes tightly shut and felt somebody sit next to me. They pulled my to their side and hugged me tightly. I held on to them and tried to suppress the memories. I opened my eyes and saw I was clutching on to Tony. The others looked at us confused and hid hid my face in Tony’s chest. For some reason I had been spending a lot of time hugging Tony… He was always there to comfort me and he knew exactly how to do it. I slowly pulled away and sat up.

I took a deep breath, “I should stop causing too much drama. I’m sorry guys.”
“It’s ok, we know what happened.” Jaime whispered.
“What?”
“You told them the first night we were back from the hospital…” Tony slowly mumbled.
“Oh… Ok. I’m still sorry though. I was never the one who was like this. I’ll just have to get over it.”
“No, you’re fine.” Mike gave me a sad smile.
“No, is was fucking ages ago! I just need to forget about it. I’m just bothering everyone. You see I’m causing even more drama right now.”
“Ok, well… We have an interview to do and then we can go around a bit and explore. Our first show is tomorrow.” Jay, the tour manager, interrupted, not having heard any of the conversation.

We continued down the busy roads of Paris. There were tall old apartment buildings everywhere and the roads kept getting narrower and narrower. Eventually we had to drive really slow so we wouldn’t hit anything and could safely go around corners. Here’s a tip: Don’t use a tour bus to get around Paris, it doesn’t really work, especially in the smaller, older parts. Eventually we stopped a building that had been completely renovated and looked so much better than the buildings surrounding it.

“We’re here!” Jay called out.

----

We walked to through the modern interior and ended up at the reception. The petit French girl pointed us to the direction of the room we were going to be interviewed in. We walked in silence. The building was so quiet, you could hear the radiators heating up the rooms. We entered the room and saw our interviewer. I clenched my jaw and glared at him. This is not who I expected to see. And I never wanted to see him again.

“Hi, I’m Rick. I’m going to be interviewing you today.” He introduced himself.
Everybody shook his hand and said their name. He then got to me. He looked me up and down and I started to get uncomfortable. But he wasn’t going to win this time. No fucking way I’m going to let him get to me again.

“I’m Noortje”, I smiled, “What was your name again. I’m sorry, I forgot.” I grabbed his hand really tightly.
“It’s Rick.” He acted like he didn’t know me, but I could see in his eyes he knew exactly who I was and what he did to me.
“I’m sorry, but why are you interviewing us?” I tried to say as innocently as possible.
“Noortje!” Vic scolded. I scowled at him.
“It’s ok. Should we get started?” Rick suggested.

Everyone nodded at took a seat. Rick sat on the left in a chair and Vic, Jaime, Mike, Tony, and I sat down on the two couches placed to face the chair. Of course I was sat closest to Rick and next to Tony. Just my luck right?

“What was that all about!” Tony whispered to me.
I shrugged and did not answer him.

Rick proceeded to ask us some questions about how we liked it in France and then continued with some questions about the new album. Surprisingly there weren’t any questions about me. However, when a question was directed towards me I would only answer in short answers. I didn’t feel like giving him the answers he wanted. Tony and Vic kept giving me stern looks, but I wouldn’t let them guilt trip me.

Then the perfect question was asked, “So I know you guys all when to France before, but what about you, Noortje?”
I laughed, “Yea. I’ve been here before. It was like 16 years ago though. It was cool.”
“Do you mind telling us a bit about that?”
“Sure. You know just the usual school trip. Visiting all the landmarks and boring museums. Oh wait, I actually have a really funny story. You were there as well actually. Nice to see you again, Rick.” Rick laughed nervously and everybody gave us questioning looks. I continued, “You know. One day we were all having fun and we went back to the youth hostel. And here comes the funny part. You tried to rape me! Isn’t that hilarious!”

I felt Tony tense up beside me. Rick was desperately trying to find a way out of the situation, but couldn’t find any.

“Should have thought about that before agreeing to interview us. Shouldn’t you have, Rick?” I blinked.
“Umm…” He was still trying to think of something.
“That’s what I thought.” I stood up and left the room. But for some reason I didn’t stop outside the door. Instead I continued and left the building. I ignored the calls of my name and kept on walking. I didn’t want to be around Rick’s bullshit anymore. But, hey, am I really to blame?

I stood outside in the cold, waiting for the others to finish off the interview. I probably ruined everything. I should have just kept my mouth shut… just like my Mum and Dad always said. People will think I’m some crazy bitch who’s trying to ruin Pierce The Veil. I sighed and looked at the road. I was still trying to calm down from my outburst. My foot was tapping and I had my arms crossed. Just take deep breaths and you will be fine.

I was interrupted by shouting coming from the door.
“Tony! Calm down! She’s probably fine!”
Tony came running out of the building and looked around frantically. He locked his eyes with mine and rushed over to me. He grabbed my face and looked at me. I nodded and he enveloped me into a hug.
“You see she’s fine!” Vic called out.
Tony flipped him off and continued hugging me.

I didn’t want to let go.

Notes

Are my chapters too short?

- DSN