Lyla's P.O.V:

I had been sitting in the back of the bus alone for a few hours at least. I needed time to think, alone, and luckily Austin could sense that, and he let me be.

I couldn't do this thing with Austin anymore....whatever the hell it was. It wasn't fair to either of us, and it definitely wasn't healthy for our friendship. These things always ended the same, with someone getting hurt, and Lord knows Austin and I have hurt enough already in our short lives.

My mind kept wandering to Vic: facing him today was weird. He had just stood there and stared at me, never saying anything but letting my name softly slip from his mouth. I hadn't felt how I thought I would: seeing him brought back a lot of feelings; he was gorgeous.....he didn't look much different except for the fact that he had aged a little. His big, brown eyes were still captivating. I still missed him, I still loved him, but I was also angry. After all this time, after everything he did and everything we've been through he couldn't even say anything to me, and frankly that pissed me off.

I sighed and put my face in my hands, something I seemed to be doing too much lately. I needed to clear my head and remember why I was here: I was here for my career and to spend time with my best friend, and damnit that's what I was going to do no matter how much I was breaking on the inside. I was determined to have fun because who knows when I would have another opportunity like this again.

I stood up and walked down the small hallway, past the bunks, and into the front lounge where Austin, Alan, Tino, and Phil were seated, taking turns playing Call of Duty. I walked up behind Austin, putting my hands on his shoulders. He tilted his head back, looking up at me.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked quietly. He nodded his head and got up, following me to the back of the bus, shutting the door behind us. We sat down on opposite ends of the couch facing each other.

"Austin, I love you, and having sex with you is great but I think we probably shouldn't do that anymore," I said, laughing a little despite my attempts to remain serious. He started laughing and suddenly couldn't stop, a few adorable snorts making their way out. I leaned over and punched his arm. "Okay it isn't that funny!" I shrieked at him, laughing along.

"Yeah, Lyla, we probably shouldn't" he managed to get out despite the fact that he was still laughing.

"Okay so I'm turning over a new leaf.....no more moping or crying or bitching. I'm ready to be fun Lyla! I'm ready to take some kick ass pics of your beautiful face, and I think I'm ready for that music education," I said winking at him.

"Bout fuckin time, Lyle!" He said, reaching out to high five me.

We were already back to how we were just 2 days ago before all of this, and it felt good.

I wasn't really okay, but I was good at pretending. I hoped that after pretending for so long it would come true.

"Okay so you ready to get your ass beat in Modern Warfare?" I asked getting up and racing to the front of the bus, Austin running behind me.

"Only in your dreams, darlin'," he said as he handed me a controller, grabbing one himself. I smiled as we began to play the game. Things were already looking up.

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Vic's P.O.V:

The interview was finally over and I got up rushing out of the building back out into the hot evening. I couldn't even pay any attention to the interview; I couldn't stop thinking about Lyla. I was confused first of all, and my mind was swirling with questions. I heard Mike shuffle out of the building, and I turned around to face him.

"Okay are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?" I yelled at him a little. He sighed before obliging to my request. He leaned up against the back of the building, putting his sunglasses on.

"I saw her last night. Austin came over to the tent to chat and he wanted to introduce us to his friend, and when she turned around I saw it was her." He paused, leaving the statement hanging in the air.

"She literally ran away before I had a chance to say anything. You walked up shortly after that but I didn't say anything because I wasn't really sure what to think myself. I went to find her today because I needed to talk to her."

"Okay....you couldn't have told me maybe that my ex girlfriend was here? Why is she here anyways?" I asked, my voice angry, hiding my true feelings of guilt and love for her.

"She's with Austin and the guys. She's their photographer for Warped," He said. The first thought that ran through my mind was how happy I was that she had followed her dreams.....soon followed by my questioning whether she was dating Austin. My face obviously revealed what I was thinking as Mike responded.

"No they aren't dating. Apparently he's her best friend," Mike said, and I could sense pain in his voice; that used to him until my stupid ass ruined everything.

"How is she?" I asked after what felt like hours of silence.

"She's changed a lot, Vic. She's different, and not just on the outside. I mean sure she looks completely different..." I cut him off.

"Yeah she used to hate tattoos!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah. I mean she smokes now, another thing she used to hate, but inside she's not the same. She's.......broken," he muttered and my heart fell. I knew I was the cause for that; it was something that haunted me still to this day.

Truth is there hadn't been a day go by in the past 7 years that I hadn't thought about her, about how stupid I was to throw someone as amazing as her away and never look back. I know I didn't deserve these thoughts, I was awful to her.

I still loved her......and when I saw her today I fell in love with her all over again.

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Lyla's P.O.V: (A little more than a week later)

It had been a week and a half since my little run in with Vic.

Things were going amazing! I was having the time of my life; we were all getting along, there had managed to be no drama recently, and I was getting incredible pictures of the guys.

And I had somehow managed to avoid Mike and Vic the entire time since that day. I saw Mike once but I walked off before giving him a chance to speak. I wasn't ready for this yet; I was tired of the drama.

Our bus had just made it into Dallas, Texas. Today was an off day in Dallas and we decided to get a hotel room tonight, several other bands and friends of the guys's decided to do the same and I was really excited, mainly for the opportunity to sleep in a real bed again. We were going to spend the day shopping and eating and just hanging out and having fun. I was the first one awake, of course. After getting up and putting on a pair of skinny jeans, a tank top, and my vans I decided I was bored so I went to wake Austin up.

I pulled the curtain back on his bunk and he was sound asleep. He looked cute. I lunged at him, landing on his stomach.

"Wake up sleepy head!!!!" I yelled. I scared Austin shitless and he screamed a little. I errupted into a fit of laughter.

"Ohhhhh my god!! The look on your face!!! That was awesome!" I yelled, clutching at my stomach as I continued to laugh.

"What the fuck, Lyla? God damn I have a heart condition for crying out loud!" He said as he clutched at his chest dramatically. I knew he was faking but I went along with it. I stopped laughing and pouted out my bottom lip.

"I'm sorry, Austy.....forgive me?" I smiled a little. He opened his arms to pull me into a hug, but as I moved towards him he flipped me over, sitting on top of me, and started to tickle me. I was extremely ticklish. I started screaming and laughing.

"Au-au-stiinnnn!!! Quit it!!!! Stop!!!" I sounded like a little girl. He didn't stop and I felt like I was going to pee myself. He finally quit, but didn't get off of me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You're such a liar Austin Carlile! You used your heart condition to trick me!" I said, giving him a look, faking anger.

"Say you're sorry for scaring me and waking me up." He stated.

"Hmmmmm no." I replied, shaking my head.

"Okay fine!" He said and he started to tickle me some more.

"Okay, okay, okay fine! I'm so-sorry!!" He quit tickling me and bent down kissing me quickly on the cheek.

"Thank you," he said as he climbed off of me and out of the bunk. I got up and noticed Alan, Tino, and Phil standing in the front lounge staring at me.

"Well thank you for waking us up, Lyla. Sooooo kind of you," Alan said dramatically.

"Oh shut it, Ashby. You're just mad I didn't wake you first." I stuck my tongue out at him as I walked past him, stopping to kiss him on the cheek.

"I love you." He said dramatically. Tino and I burst into laughter.

Austin, Alan, and I decided to go get breakfast, while Tino and Phil climbed back into their beds not ready to begin the day yet.

We walked down the street from where the bus had parked; we couldn't check into our hotel until later in the afternoon. We spotted an IHOP halfway down the street.

"Race ya!" I said smirking as I took off running down the sidewalk.

"Gah you are ridiculously fast for a short person!" I heard Alan yell after me. We reached the restaurant and went in, taking our seats in a booth. We ordered our food; pancakes for Austin, french toast for me, and an omelete for Alan. We were chatting about stupid stuff when Austin's phone rang.

"Hello?" He answered. "Hey what's up man. Oh yeah? Dude that sounds sick. Count me in for sure! Yeah I'll talk to everyone else about it. Yeah, okay see ya later dude." He hung up and looked at me, a smile spread across his face.

"What's with the creeper face?" I asked and he mocked me before answering.

"That was Kellin Quinn himself. Apparently a bunch of people are getting together and heading downtown to hit up some bars and clubs tonight and we were lucky enough to get an invite. You guys in?" He asked.

"Hell yeah!" Alan yelled, a little too loudly, attracting unwanted attention to us. "Sorry," he muttered. "I mean hell yeah," he whispered and Austin and I laughed at him.

"Lyle?" Austin asked, turning towards me.

"Have you met me before? You know you don't even have to ask if I wanna go out." I stated, Austin putting his hand on my head, messing up my hair. I slapped his hand away and fixed my hair.

I was so excited for tonight; all of us together, drinking and dancing and having a good time.

Nothing would mess this evening up........I hoped.

Notes

Shit's about to go down! I hope you guys are ready! This is just the beginning of this wonderful tale, so don't worry! Also, for anyone wondering, I originally wrote this story last summer when PTV, SWS, and OMAM were all on Warped together.

Let me know what you all think! xxoo

I'll post at least one more chapter tomorrow seeing as I'll be going out of town on Friday and won't have my laptop for a week!