I woke up earlier than anyone else. Vic and I were still cuddled together, and I was happy.

I noticed that the bus wasn't moving; we must have arrived in Phoenix last night. I also noticed thunder and heard the sound of torrential downpour, and I shivered. I've never been good in storms.

I wanted to lay with Vic forever, but I figured I should go to my own bunk before the other guys woke up. I gently removed his grasp of me and silently climbed over him, mentally regretting not bringing the high-mee bear. I could only imagine Vic's face when he woke up to a giant teddy bear right in his face.
I chuckled, exiting his bunk.

"Hey," and there was Mike, sitting on the edge of his bunk, which was across from Vic's, staring at me.

"Oh, uh, hey Mike," I stuttered.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He said.

"Yeah, sure," I said softly. He looked sad.

"It's storming, so maybe we can go under the awning at this rest stop," Mike nodded to outside the bus.

"Sure," I said, bolting towards the awning.

When we got there, Mike sat on the ground, so I followed suit.

"Hey, listen. I'm sorry about yesterday and last night. I was being a dick," Mike said sadly.

"Oh, Mike, I really don't care. You're never like that, though," I said. It was true. That was so out of character for him. He really was an angel.

"I don't know what's gotten into me," he said quietly.

I waited.

"I think I'm just really overprotective of Vic," he added. "Even though he's older than me."

"Why?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders. "His last real girlfriend cheated on him really bad, I had never seen him so sad since..."

"Since what?" I asked.

"Well, you know. He had a rough childhood. He was a sad little kid, but I looked up to him as my older brother. So he forced himself to be better, for me, you know? So then that whore comes along, and she broke him again."

"Oh," I said quietly.

"And then you came along," Mike continued. "I've never seen him so happy again," Mike smiled.

"Then why—"

"I think I was subconsciously testing you," Mike admitted.

"Ugh, thanks Mike," I scowled. "I thought you liked me."

"I love you," he said. "I just didn't know about you with Vic. Cause you're younger than him and all."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I dunno," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"And I also was just being an asshole for fun," he nudged me. I rolled my eyes.

"Plus I wanted to know for sure that something was going on with you guys," he added. “Because I realized that I like you for him.”

"You could have just asked," I said.

"Well you could have just told me," he countered. “Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know, we just never really… talked about things,” I mumbled. “It wasn’t really clear.”

Mike squinted his eyes. “I don’t want to know,” I heard him mumble to himself. “Well, maybe make it clear? I’m sick of all this sneaking around!” he said louder.

“Hey, talk to him about that. He’s the boy,” I said. I wasn’t about to go ask him out.

Mike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. His eyes looked sad, though.

“Mike, what’s wrong?”

“What? Oh, nothing,” he said. “I don’t like Phoenix very much,” he said quietly. I was about to ask why, but
then he stood up. “Let’s go back to the bus, the storm is picking up.”

I shivered, looking at the dark sky around us. “You okay?”

“I hate storms,” I shivered again. I always got the chills during storms.

We sprinted to the bus in the rain.

“I need to change,” I said, looking down on my soaked clothes.

“Hey,” Vic nodded to me. “What—”

“It’s raining,” I explained.

“Oh,” he smiled.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Vic bit his lip, approaching me. “Have you ever kissed in the rain?”

I shivered, this time not because of the storm. Our faces were inches apart, and Vic was reaching behind me to open the door. It swung open, and mist from the heavy rain sprayed my back. He slowly kept walking forward, pushing me back out of the bus.

Oh, fuck it, I thought. I grabbed his shirt with my fists and swung him out side with me, and somehow I ended up with my back against the bus. He pressed his body against mine, and one of his hands was against the bus next to my head. We kissed like that for a few minutes, and then a loud crack of thunder shook the bus and the ground. I froze.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his lips still on mine.

“Thunder,” I giggled.

He smiled against my mouth, laughing. “Alright, let’s go inside then,” he chuckled again, smoothing out my hair as we walked.

~

“Phoenix!” the crowd cheered. “What the fuck is up with your weather today?” the crowd booed, also apparently loving the stormy weather.

“Are you really asking them about the weather, Vic?” I mocked. The crowd went nuts over our dialogue.

“Oh, right, well, the reason why I asked is because it’s scaring my girl over here,” Vic clarified, speaking to the audience. I tried to remain calm. I smiled and held my hand up. Like hey, that’s me, the girl afraid of thunder.

“Okay, this is going to be a kick-ass show, I can feel it!” Vic said. “Alright Phoenix, show us what you got!”

Tony started off with a riff, but then Vic held his hand up. “Oh wait, I forgot to say something,” he said loudly into the mic, because the crowd was already screaming.

“Mike, drum roll, please,” Vic turned and spoke to Mike, who winked.

I looked over to him, who was smiling, and then he was walking over to me.

Then, he took my face in his hands and kissed me, in front of the entire venue. He kissed me!

The crowd roared like thunder, but in a good way. I’ve never heard a crowd so loud in my life.

“That is all,” Vic leaned over and quickly said into my mic, then he walked back to his own.

He was right; this was going to be a kick-ass show.

~

Sweaty and exhausted from an amazing show and meet and greet, we finally returned to the bus.

“Sixteen hours to Texas?!” I exclaimed. “Tell me again why we are driving?”

“To spend more time with each other, obviously,” Vic said, pecking my cheek. I giggled.

“Ooooooo!” Tony squealed.

I rolled my eyes.

Jaime sat down on one of the bus couches. “Too bad we don’t have time for an after party,” he said.

“Yeah, this is a jam packed tour to make up for the other one,” Mike said. “But we still have left over from last night,” he offered.

I yawned. “I’m not drinking tonight,” I said. “I won’t be able to function.”

“Guys, look what I brought,” Tony said. “Monopoly!” I don't know why I thought that was so funny.

“Tony, you nerd!”

“What? I figured we’d have a lot of down time. And monopoly lasts for hours,” he grinned.

“I’m down,” Vic said, plopping down on the floor across from Tony.

I was about to join him, but all of a sudden the bus violently shook, and I was thrown to the side, crashing into a cabinet. Gravity was our enemy as the bus shook again, and we were thrown around like rag dolls. Everything was upside down and reversed; I was now sliding around on the ceiling of the bus. Somehow, the ceiling of the bus was now the floor.

There was another violent crash, then a terrible, screeching sound, and then there was nothing but darkness.

Notes

CliFfHaNgEr :O

i'm sorry, i was getting bored so i had to make something happen!
shit's about to go down!