The next two weeks flew by. Jack and I had been arranging the tour for Stella, and finally got Oriol to come with us, him being a recognised professional who would check Stella. Plus, I’ve missed him.
We met two days before leaving and he stayed in the guest room and kept Jack entertained whilst I was at work. These weeks I’ve also been doing the night shifts, trying to payback in advance to my boss for missing work, although he didn’t actually mind, he was delighted and wished me luck. Jack and Ori were really getting close, not Jack-and-Alex close, but I think he was becoming one of his close friends, although I didn’t doubt it, Ori was easy to get on with. However, Jack did set a golden rule which was: no spanish until he dominated the language, so Oriol and I had to stick to speaking to eachother in english. Some nights Jack would go to bed early and we’d talk in spanish, but while he was present it was forbidden. I may add Ori had signed me up to three competitions according to the locations we were going, to spice things up, and the thing he and that Laura girl had didn’t exactly work. That bitch cheated on him and, although Oriol wasn’t that attached to her, it still annoyed me.
Back to the date we left for Warped, I was suddenly woken up by Jack at 3:30am.
“Morning, sweetie” he kissed my forehead, “Get up, we have to leave to prepare Stella” he reminded me.
I groaned and rolled off bed, landing face down to the floor.
“Jack, it’s not even morning, let me sleep” I whined when Jack helped me up and threw my outfit on the bed.
“Someone’s gotta prepare Stella” he replied as I changed and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and do my makeup. Thank god I showered yesterday. I brushed my hair a bit and put it in messy bun.
I bumped into Oriol walking out of the bathroom.
“Morning, sleepyhead” he said, already dressed.
“Morning” I let out a groan.
“Someone’s grumpy” he chuckled, squeezing the toothpaste on his toothbrush.
“Don't” I simply replied, walking down the stairs and grabbing an apple as a breakfast; I already brushed my teeth, I wasn’t going to eat cereals right now.
Jack had already carried our stuff downstairs, just in front of the door and was sitting on his bag, focused on his phone. I sat on the floor next to him, eating my apple, when he put a hand around my waist and pulled me on his lap, still on the phone. I finished my apple and stood up and walked to the kitchen to throw the remains of the apple to the bin, when two arms wrapped around my waist.
“We’re gonna have so much fun, I promise” Jack kissed my neck from behind.
“I never doubted it, Jacky” I turned around and kissed him slowly. He kissed back and we started to make out until Ori walked down the stairs.
“Well, we’re set” Oriol said, bringing both us down to planet Earth and we pulled away, both of our faces turning red.
We got up and put our stuff in our car and Jack drove us to the equestrian center.
I asked to a man working there where the trailers were and headed to that direction, Oriol behind me and Jack talking to Stella’s vet, Mrs Harmonn.
We got Stella's trailer and carried it to the center’s entrance, just behind the main gates, and started to look for Stella’s stuff: bridles, saddles, headstall, brush box, saddle pads, leg protectors and leg bandages. We got it all inside the trailer’s ‘cupboard’ and once her stuff was in, we waited for the bus to come. Jack told us the bus would pick us up at 5am, and it was already 4:45 sharp.
“I love you, baby” Jack nuzzled his head in my shoulder and kissed the crook of my neck.
“I love you too, Jack” I ruffled his hair as he pulled out his phone and took a photo of us. I buried my face in his chest so my face wasn’t visible, I didn’t do my makeup very good that morning.
The vet then walked with a happy Stella next to her.
“So, I expect this lady to come on August 10th here to start the revision sessions, and I hope you all have a very good time at Warped Tour” she smiled at us, giving me the end of the rope that had Stella tied to her headstall.
“Thanks, have a nice summer, Mrs Harmonn!” I hugged her and waved her, two buses and a van already stopping in front of the center. The bus driver of the biggest bus went out and helped me carry the trail to the back and Oriol helped him out as Jack opened the door for me and I walked Stella in the trail.
“Now, you missy will have to behave. When we get to-“ I turned to Jack, “Where are we going first, Jack?” I asked.
“Ugh, Pomona, I think” he answered.
“Thanks” I smiled at him and turned to Stella again, who now looked half asleep, “So when we get there, we’ll do something to resemble a paddock so you can run around and kick everything, alright? But you have to behave in the trail” I think she rolled her eyes at me, like an ‘Alright, mom, shut up’ way. I patted her neck and walked down the small platform of the trail and closed it, opening the windows in her trail while I was doing so.
“All done?” Jack came behind me.
“All done” I nodded nervously.
“Hey, it’s gonna be alright, just chill” he smiled, “And if you need to take off some stress from your shoulders, you can always come to me” he added ina suggestive tone.
“No sex on the bus, remember?” I chuckled. Jack’s face instantly fell, but soon a devious smirk replaced his sad expression.
“On the bus” he pointed out.
“Come on, you two!” Matt shouted.
“Nice to see you again, Matt” I hugged him once we were all on the bus and the door was closed.
“Hey, María. How have you been doing?” we walked to the small living-room area.
“Quite good since Jack came from tour” I sat on said man’s lap, “Yourself?”
“Trying to make these kids grow up for once” he sighed with a smile.
“That’s an impossible mission, my friend” Jack chuckled.
Matt an I exchanged a look, his showed a joking ‘I give up’ expression, and mine a more sympathetic expression.
In a matter of minutes we stopped and picked Rian and Zack up.
“I saw a horse trail attached to the back of the bus! Where’s María?” Zack shouted, a very unusual thing in him.
“Zack what happened to you?” I asked and turned to Rian, “Rian, have you been giving him drugs or something? He’s being loud!” I chuckled and hugged both guys.
“Hello to you too” Rian said to me.
We sat on the couch in front of the TV and talked about what we’ve been doing these past weeks, Jack and I leaving the gun situation aside, when we stopped and Alex jumped in the bus.
“I saw Stella! I saw Stella!” he screamed like a little kid, “Where is she?!” he spotted me and I got up before he could tickle me out of Jack’s embrace.
“Hey, Alex. Nice to see you’re high already” I joked, giving him a hug.
“Of course I’m not” he started to talk with a thick, very thick, british accent, moving to one side to the other, acting like he was drunk or something, “A few smokes aren’t that bad”
Everyone laughed and I returned to my spot on Jack’s lap and he started to kiss my face whilst I remained my face buried in his neck.
“Hey, Mary, guess what?” Alex started.
“I’m guessing if you call me Mary once more I’ll make sure you walk behind Stella at least once during this tour” I tried to sound innocent.
He laughed at me and continued, “Guess who has been training very hard to beat you in Cheat?” he smiled proudly.
“By the way you’re saying it and with that pinch of enthusiasm you have in your voice, I think it’s obvious you’re talking about yourself” I looked at him, he had his mouth open and I think he was about to pout at me because I ruined his not-so-surprising surprise.
Jack laughed and I heard how the air filled up his lungs and made his chest vibrate with the sound. “That’s my girl” he kissed my hair and then the tip of my nose.
“Guys stop being to cuddly, please” Zack whined.
“Hey, shall we watch a movie?” Rian chimed in.
“Yeah!” Jack cheered.
We all gave him a look.
“We’re not watching Home Alone” we almost side in unison.
He pouted and tried to bury his face behind mine but ended up kissing my head as Alex and Zack chose Finding Nemo. Rian was texting someone, probably Cassadee.
“Hey, Rian” Jack called him.
“Yeah?” he replied, his eyes not leaving his phone.
“Is Cass coming this year to Warped?” he asked.
“I think so” he looked up and looked at me, “She’s awesome, I think you’ll like her” he tried to reassure me.
I just nodded and played with Jack’s hair.
“You look like a kitten when you move your hands like that” he chuckled, leaning closer to me, “Like little kitten paws” he started to give me eskimo kisses, making me giggle.
“HOW CAN YOU GIGGLE WHEN NEMO’S MUM JUST DIED?!” Alex yelled at us, “You are a pair of emotionless human beings” he muttered under his breath.
Jack just looked at me with loving eyes. I bit my lip and returned the eskimo kisses, ending them with a soft kiss on his lips.

---

We were already halfthrough the movie when Oriol and Matt’s conversation started to be heard.
“So, you’re like María’s manager, then?” Matt asked, taking a sip from his water bottle.
“You can say that” Oriol chuckled, “How old are you, Matt? You pretty much look the same age as these guys, to be honest”
“Just turned 30, I’m getting old” he sort of whined.
“You’ll see when you get to 34-almost-35” they laughed and everyone on the couch -well, not everyone, just Alex, Jack and I- turned to them.
“You have 35?” I asked. “Since when?” I scoffed.
“34” he corrected.
“It’s the same!” Jack protested.
“I haven’t been here 24 hours and you’re already adding me more age!” Oriol complained.
“Get used to it, buddy” Matt patted his shoulder.
“I honestly thought you just turned 40 or something” Alex scratched his head, the movie long forgotten.
“Not that much!” I explaimed, “I thought you were 38”
“How can you say that, when the first day we met I told you I was 28!” Oriol scoffed.
“I thought you were joking!” I heard Jack chuckle behind me.
“Well, I wasn’t!” he said like that was final.
“Wait, how long have you been riding?” Zack chimed in, more interested in sports than age.
“I started when I was 21, it took me 7 years to get the teacher degree” he answered shortly, and quite proudly.
“Shit, that’s cool!” Jack exclaimed.
“Actually, María has almost all the Gallop exams, so she technically could teach some classes” Oriol pointed at me, “And if she did two exams more, she could substitue me sometime” he laughed.
“I know, I’m working on it” I stuck my tongue out.
“I think you should go for it” Zack said more quietly this time, more to his normal state.
“Yeah, babe, I agree with Zack” Jack kissed the back of my neck.
“Guys, are you gonna watch the movie or not?” Rian asked.
We all laughed and Matt and Oriol returned to their conversation whilst Zack, Alex, Jack and I turned to the TV. We just got to the part Marley and Dory find those turtles, which they all seemed to be high.
After that scene with the turtles, I turned to Jack and stared at him, contemplating him and taking in his features and slowly drifting to sleep.

Notes

Jajá!
Third update!
I'll try to upload more, but I strongly doubt I will today, so yeah...
By the way, after Warped Tour, I'll write a few more chapter about the summer holidays and stuff and then there'll be a two-year-anniversary chapter, but I need ideas to fill a year more in this story.
I don't care how crazy, smutty, triggering your ideas are, I need to write something more before getting to the third year anniversary and getting to the biggest part of the story.
Have in mind Mikel has been quiet for a long time, so...

Comments? Please?