Present Day

I kept my head buried in Vic’s shoulder for the remainder of the interview. I was tired and just wanted to go home.
“So I just have one last question. Vic, you said that Noortje was around all the time and can be found in the booklets, but what did you exactly mean with that.” The interviewer said pointing out the previous event.
“Exactly what I said, she’s always been around. It started out with one chord, but it then progressed to helping out with riffs and melodies. Then she started contributing simple lyrics and playing half of the songs. On the last album she had a great part in playing some of the guitar. So we just decided to make her a permanent official member. No more problems with missing one guitar part.” Vic smiled explaining the situation.
“That makes so much sense!” The interviewer exclaimed, “Any last things you would like to say to your fans?”
“Don't be a fool, wrap your tool!” Tony screamed.
“Well, on that note, you will let you go and go home!”

Home. My head snapped up as I remembered the we finally got to go home today. Sure, the tour was only two weeks, but it was my first tour in which I actually had to use up all my energy every night. I was completely and utterly exhausted. I had totally forgotten we played a hometown show today, even though Vic wouldn’t shut up about how amazing the fans at home were. The guys chatted a bit more with the interviewer while I dragged myself of the couch we were sitting on and walked over to my bag. I looked around the table and couldn’t be bothered to but my stuff in neatly, everything was just chucked in my bag.

I was probably staring at the contents in my bag for ages. Vic walked up to me, looking at his phone.
“Our cars are just around the corner, we’re leaving in 5 minutes. Be there, or I won’t hesitate to leave you here.”
“Thank god. I just want to go home! I’m ready to drop on this floor and just curl up in a ball and sleep. And I know you won’t leave me here, you left your keys at home, I’m the only one that can access the house.” I muttered
“Pssshhh… Whaaaat? Nooooo, I did not forget my keys!” I gave him a look, “Ok, yes I did, now hurry.”
“I’m ready! You’re the one that should hurry! I already packed my bag!” I defended
“I’m going to be honest here and tell you that is not packing, but whatever floats your boat.”
“Ugh. Dick. Can we just leave now?”

We walked out of the building joking around the other guys before reaching the 3 cars. Vic and I chucked our bags in the trunk and went over to the others to say good bye. After what seemed like 10 minutes we finally stepped into the cars and pulled away. Vic was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat. There was a comfortable silence surrounding us. I rested my head against the window and looked out into the street. I was always fascinated by the twinkling neon lights and the stories of the many people. Often I would make up stories and wondered how the person could have a large effect on somebody else’s life. But tonight, tonight I wasn’t doing this. Instead I was overthinking my whole life. I thought about every wrongs move, every right move, and all the little insignificant things.
The traffic light in front of us turned red and the car came to a slow halt. I saw Vic look at me out of the corner of my eyes and turned my head towards him, giving him a small pathetic smile. I turned my head back to rest on the window and covered my face with my hair. Vic put his hand on my thigh and asked
“Are you ok?”
I didn’t trust my voice so I just made a humming noise as a tear slowly ran down my left cheek. The light turned green and we drove off again.

The ride home took shorter than normal, but it felt like it took longer. Vic stepped out and went to get the bags out of the car. I stayed seated for a few more seconds calming myself down and putting on my happy and brave face. I grabbed my bag and went to the front door where Vic was waiting.
“Are you ready to enter the house?” I teased
“Yes!”
“Are you sure, you don’t look ready. I think we might have to wait a bit longer.” I stood there looking up at the house number for a few seconds.
“Hurry up Noortje, I have to pee!”
“Ugh, ok. But I tell you, you weren’t ready.” Vic didn’t even listen to me and pushed me away before running inside straight towards the bathroom.

I picked up the bags he left at the front door and walked inside. I dropped his bags at the kitchen counter and continued upstairs to my bedroom. God was it a mess. I should have listened to Vic advice and cleaned my room before we left. It’s never nice to get home to a mess. Oh well, I’ll do this later. I plopped down on my bed and went through my twitter.
It was long before Vic shouted, “Noortje, can you come down here for a minute?”
I huffed and threw my phone on my bed before walking down the stairs towards the living room. There Vic sat on the couch which contained the many memories of that one night. Maybe this was a good time to tell him he saved my life? I sat on the chair furthest away from the couch and asked, “What’s up?”
“Ummm, I just wanted to talk about… Wait can you come sit down here next to me?”
I eyed him suspiciously and slowly moved towards him and sitting a meter away from him.
“So umm…. will you promise not to hate me?”
“Umm… sure? What do you want, you’re starting to scare me.”
“It’s nothing bad, I hope.” He said whispering the last part, “just promise you will always be my best friend, no matter what I tell you now? Ok?”
“Just spit it out!”
he took a deep breath and started, “Ok, so remember that one night, the very first night before I asked you to move in with me?”
“Of course I do, I sorta mentioned it in the interview, which I probably shouldn’t have done.”
“Good. Well, ok, so, umm. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. We got closer to each other and I’ve never had a best friend like you.”
“Yea, I feel the same way, but what’s your point?”

“Ok, Noortje. Just hear me out, and don’t hate me. But I think we should take the next step.”

Notes

Just a short chapter!
I'm working on the next chapter now. It will either be up in the next couple hours or tomorrow. If it does end up being uploaded tomorrow, there will probably be another chapter as well. But I can't promise anything.

-DSN