I'll Paint You Wings.

KAY

"No, no, no, you're totally wrong, Kay!" Alex playfully yelled at me. "Batman could never out-drink the Joker. The Joker is one crazy motherfucker!"

I'm not even sure why we were arguing about this, but we had been for half an hour or so. We had been on the road, en route to the next venue, in Chicago, for just under an hour. I was between Jack and Rian on one couch. Alex, Zack, and Matt were on the one across from us. We were all drinking, arguing over nonsensical things, and having an all around good time. I had only known the majority of the guys for roughly a day, but I already felt like part of their odd little family. It was great.

We sat and talked for another good hour, until finally, Matt stood up, being the responsible big brother, and said, "I'm going to turn in. You all should too. I want you all up early for soundcheck in Chicago before the gate opens."

"But Matt! I don't wanna go to bed!" Jack, the obvious baby, whined.

I yawned, saying, "I'm going too."

"Well, I guess I will too." Rian said. Alex and Zack stood up, nodding in agreement.

"You guys are no fun." Jack pouted, but stood up anyway. He helped me up, then snaked an arm around my waist. I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek. A chorus of "Aww!" came from the rest of the band. My cheeks flushed and I stared at my toes.

"You guys are too cute!" Alex grinned at us, causing Jack and I to mutter various yeah's and whatever's. We all made our way to our respective bunks and said goodnight to one another. I climbed into my bunk and slid the curtain shut. Thankfully, the ceiling was high enough to allow me to sit up, so I flicked on a little lamp I brought and grabbed my sketchbook. I flipped to a blank page and began to sketch Jack.

I drew him for a while until I heard the real thing whisper across the aisle.

"Kay. Psst. Kay. You still awake?"

I peeked my head out of the curtain. "Yeah?" Jack had his head sticking out of his bunk.

"Can I come over?"

"What?" I asked in slight shock.

"Not like that! I wanna talk to you! And I can't sleep."

"Neither can I. Come on, I guess." I pulled my head back inside the curtain. I heard Jack climb down, step across the aisle, and climb up into my bunk. I quickly shoved my sketchbook behind my pillow. I wasn't ready to show him my drawings just yet.

Jack poked his head inside the curtain and whispered, "Hi." A dorky grin came across his face, making me smile. You're so freaking adorable.

"Hi." I smiled. "Come on in."

He climbed onto my bed and I pulled my legs up to give him room. Even then, we were in close quarters. I couldn't help but notice he was only in a t-shirt and boxers. When I noticed this, I blushed slightly, but I prayed he didn't see.

Once he got settled, I put the light between us so I could see his face and asked "What's on your mind?"

"Oh, I just wanted to talk. " He smiled.

"Oh. Cool."

"Let's play the question game!" He whisper shouted.

"What's that?"

"Its fun. I ask you a question about anything. You answer it. Then we switch. I used to play it with Alex a lot." He laughed.

"Okay. You ask first."

"What's your full name?"

"Katherine Nicole Meyers."

"Okay, now you ask me something."

"Okay...What's your favorite band?"

"Blink and Foo Fighters! Same for you."

"Besides All Time Low? Sleeping With Sirens and Blink."

This kind of meaningless questioning went on for quite sometime, until Jack asked, "Why do you not ever talk about your family?" This kind of question is what I was trying to avoid.

I sat and thought for sometime, trying to compose my words. Finally, I said,

"Well, you see, my mom died when I was fifteen. Cancer." I rolled up my left shirtsleeve to show the tattoo on my upper bicep of a pink ribbon with "3-10-04 L.A.M." written inside of it. "My dad got remarried a year and a month later. He didn't even seem sad." I could feel the tears welling up inside of me. "My dad was a son of a bitch. He didn't even care about me after he got remarried. He only cared about his new wife and their kid. My brother, Jason, and I were left to each other, most of the time. Jason was the only thing keeping me safe. He watched out for me and made sure I did well in school and applied to colleges and all that stuff. We both agreed to stay at my dad's house because we both had only a short amount of time left before we could go off to college and be free." I looked up at Jack, tears threatening to spill over. He raised a hand to my left cheek, wiping away a few tears that had managed to escape.

"Then why don't you ever talk about Jason?"

"Jason and Sean were classmates in high school. They didn't hate each other, but Jason was fully aware of how Sean treated his girlfriends. When we got together, he tried to tell me to get out while I could. I refused and Jason tried to accept it for a while, but my dropping out of school was his last straw. We got into a huge fight and haven't spoken since." This was too much for me. The tears I had been holding back since my mom's death came to the surface, emerging in body racking sobs.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. Don't cry. That's enough question game for tonight." Jack said as he crawled towards me. He lied down and grabbed my by the waist, pulling my down next to him. I let him under the blanket and I rolled to face him, burying my head in the crook of his neck. Jack stroked my hair and comforted me by humming various chill songs. I continued to cry until I fell asleep, still burrowed into Jack with him folded protectively around me.

The last thing I remember is Jack saying, "It's okay, Kay. I promise. I'm here."

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Whew! Writing that was pretty intense. Anyway, I don't own Batman, The Joker, Blink-182, Foo Fighters, or Sleeping With Sirens.

-Sammy

XOXO