I blew my overgrown bangs out of my face, dragging the toes of my vans against the concrete of the sidewalk. I sighed obnoxiously, catching the attention of the boy walking ahead of me.

“Keep up princess!” Rian called back to me over his shoulder.

“I can’t believe you got us lost.” I grumbled, trotting to catch up with him.

“We’re not lost, we’re just…Seeing the sights.” He chuckled, reaching over and ruffling my hair.

I groaned in exhasperation and began sorting my strawberry blonde hair back into order.

We had been out for two and a half weeks now, and Rian had finally decided to stop resenting my presence. Although I wasn’t sure I was much better off, because all he did was pester the shit out of me. At the moment we were lost in downtown Phoenix. We had gone off in search of ice cream and had somehow gotten turned around. We had been lost for a good two hours, and I was just as much to blame as Rian. However, at that point I was so grouchy that I just felt like blaming it all on him.

“Ah ha!” Rian burst out triumphantly, throwing his fists into the air. “Found it!”

I looked up hopefully and sure enough, there was the venue we had left nearly three hours earlier.

“Dudes! Where the fuck have you been?” Alex yelled from the van as we approached. “Zach has been going crazy calling you guys.” He added when we reached him.

“Didn’t have my phone.” I stated, crawling up into the van to grab my blackberry out of the cup holder.

“Mine’s dead.” Rian shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I looked down at my phone and saw that I had about 30 missed calls from my cousin.

“Oh hey, about time you guys got done fucking in some alley and joined us.” Jack teased upon exiting the side door of the venue and seeing us by the van.

I rolled my eyes as Rian’s face turned red. The boys, Jack especially, got some sick amusement out of joking about Rian and I having a secret relationship behind their backs. It embarrassed the shit out of Rian, but I just found it annoying.

“I should go talk to Zach.” I muttered, knocking on the side door of the venue for the guard to let me in.

“Lynn, where the hell have you been?”

“Rian and I went for ice cream.” I shrugged, trying to play it off.

“Yeah, like three hours ago.” He said skeptically, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Ok, so we got lost.” I mumbled, plopping down on an amp and crossing my arms defensively.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone? Lynn, I’ve been worried sick.”

“I didn’t have my phone with me, Rian’s was dead.”

“I don’t want you going off alone again.”

“First of all, I wasn’t alone, I was with Rian. Secondly, you’re not my mom, Zach. I’ll go off if I want to.” I hissed, standing back up to face him.

Zach had become increasingly protective over me as their tour progressed and it was honestly starting to irk me. I was 18 years old, I didn’t need a guardian constantly.

“While you’re here, you’re my responsibility. What if something had happened to you? What would I tell your mom?”

“But nothing did happen, Zach!” I seethed, turning to walk back outside.

“Lynn, don’t walk away from me!” He shouted after me.

“Walking away!” I called, dodging between crates, amps, and guitars to reach the door.

“LYNN!” Zach yelled.

I raised my right hand in the air and flipped him off before walking out the door onto the sunbathed street.
I made my way to the van but found my way blocked by the boys. I glared up at them all, Rian in particular. It was his fault we were lost in the first place.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” I spat venomously.

“What the hell is your problem?” Rian growled, his face going red again, this time from anger.

“Whatever, leave me alone.” I uttered, shoving past him and climbing into the van, slamming the door behind me.

RIAN’S POV

I stood next to the van in silence. I had really been trying recently to be nicer to Lynn but she made it difficult sometimes. It wasn’t my fault we had gotten lost, at least not entirely. And it certainly wasn’t my fault that Zach was so overbearing.

“Well someone’s PMSing.” Alex commented as Jack blew his cheeks up with air and then blew it out awkwardly.

“Fuck this shit, man.” I burst out angrily, raising my hands to rub my palms across my eyes. “I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to have done.” I sighed, gesturing to the van before dropping my hands.

“I’ll talk to her.” Jack offered, turning to open to door of the van.

“I don’t know why you bother.” I grumbled, stalking away into the venue.

JACK’S POV

I slid the door of the van open and closed it behind me, making my way to the very back seat, where I knew Lynn would be sprawled out. I sat in the seat in front of the one Lynn was laying on and propped my chin on the back of the seat.

“What’s wrong?” I asked bluntly.

Over the past couple of weeks I had found that it was better to be blunt when talking to Lynn about something serious. The longer you beat around the bush, the less likely she was to talk to you.

“Zach. Rian. Life.” She sighed, turning onto her stomach and burying her face in her arms.

“Let’s start with Zach.”

“He needs to stop treating me like a little kid! I’m 18! And he’s only a year older than me, so it’s not like he knows any better than I do.” She burst out, propping herself up onto her elbows and turning her head to look at me.

“Ok, and how does that make you feel?” I questioned in my best therapist voice.

“Jack.” She whined, pouting up at me. “This is serious.”

“Ok, ok. What about Rian? What’s up with that?” I continued.

She groaned and dropped her head back into her arms.

“Why does he hate me?” She questioned, her voice muffled by her arms.

Rian wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Lynn had really grown on him over the recent weeks. And I saw the way he watched her when he though no one was looking, I knew that look.

“He doesn’t hate you.” I said simply, deciding to keep my theory to myself.

“Well he sure as hell acts like it.”

“You know, you’re not always so nice to him either.”

“He doesn’t always make it so easy to be nice to him.”

“Just give him a chance, alright? He’s really a good guy, I think he’s just scared he’ll get cooties if he hangs out with you too much.”

I heard her giggle and smiled, knowing that I had done my job. I crawled over the back of the seat and lowered myself onto Lynn, laying so that my body was sprawled over hers.

“Jack. You’re too fat.” She whined, wiggling underneath me.

“I know, all this junk food is getting to me.” I snickered, smacking my stomach that was, in reality, just as flat as ever.

“Can’t….breathe….” Lynn huffed dramatically.

I squirmed until I could slide down between Lynn and the back of the seat. She turned to face me and I pulled her into my chest, cuddling my face into her hair.

“Jack?” She uttered just loud enough for me to hear.

“Hm?” I replied simply, letting my eyes drift closed, ready for a nap before everything got hectic.

“Thank you.” She sighed, and I felt her lean up and press her lips to my cheek briefly.

I smiled and kissed the top of her head before snuggling closer to her.

“Any time.”

The little redhead had us all wrapped around her finger, even if some of us were more reluctant to admit it than others.

Notes

WOW. It's been a while! Sorry this took so long. I had the SHITTIEST semester ever. Broke up with my boyfriend of 2 and 1/2 years after finding out he cheated on me, so that sucked. And I made the decision not to return to university in the fall, after three years of study. I just can't afford it, maybe I'll get to go back someday. Anyways, let me know what you think!
Sorry this one was a lot of dialogue.