Five Years

It was a few weeks later and we were nearing the end of tour, I was sad to be leaving all of my new friends and go back to Cleveland but a job’s a job and I honestly love what I do. Jenna was frowning and she pulled me close to her side. “What am I going to do without you on tours?” She sighed and stroked my hair.

“What am I going to do without seeing you every day?” I frowned and hugged her tightly. There were only three more nights left on this tour and then we would all head back home, it was going to be a sad few days. We sat like that on my bus for a long time, never wanting to separate from each other.

“Hey, why don’t I just come stay with you in Cleveland for a while?” She asked.

“Wouldn’t that just make it harder for you to leave me?” I frowned. “I love you to death Jenna and I’ll come to every one of your concerts that are in the area, I promise.”

She frowned and fell onto my lap. “Long distance is awful!” She whined into my pants and I only laughed.

“It’s okay, we haven’t even been through the hard part yet.” I laughed and stroked her hair. “But for now, let’s enjoy the rest of the tour! We have to make the best of our time together.”
She smiled and we left her bus, I had to go by my bus and actually get some work done on the article I was supposed to be writing. We stepped onto the bus and I went straight for my laptop, diving into the article and making a ton of progress. Jenna sat beside me the whole time, making comments about what I wrote and giving me advice on what to say next. I would only roll my eyes and tell her that I knew what I was doing, and an editor was going to read over the article anyway. After writing for a solid three hours, Alex walked into the back lounge and asked if he could talk to me in private.

“So I know that you might not want to agree, but I really want to give us another chance, only if you want to.” He said as he sat next to me on the couch.

“Well I have given us another shot, that’s why I agreed to be friends with you at the start of tour.” I smiled.

He nodded with pursed lips. “I know, but I just think that we should take things to the next level. I want to date you again, win you back. We’ve made a lot of progress on this tour and I think this would be good for us.”

I smiled, he was right. I was falling for him all over again throughout the tour and he was gaining his spot as one of my best friends again. I nodded and pulled him into a big hug, “I’d love to.” He kissed my forehead and hugged me close to his body. Jenna came back into the room and chased Alex away, just the two of us again.

“What just happened?” She whispered loudly and rested her elbow on my shoulder.

“I guess Alex and I are dating again.” I smiled like an idiot and didn’t even bother to hide my happiness.

She furrowed her brows and crossed her arms. “Are you forgetting why the two of you broke up in the first place?” She questioned. “Aren’t you afraid that might happen again? I really don’t want you to get hurt, I wouldn’t be able to stand it.”

“Jenna, he really has changed, all right?” I frowned. “I know he won’t hurt me, and I can’t believe that you can’t even be happy for me right now.” I left her on the couch and went to find Alex, I just know that he won’t make any mistakes like that again. I was on my way inside the venue when I heard Jack call my name, he was standing beside Mike and Cam so I walked over to them.

“What’s up Jack?” I looked up and him and he had a small smile on his face.

“Where are you headed to?” He asked.

“I was going to try and find Alex.” I told him.

“Oh uh, I actually need to tell you something about said person.” Jack pursed his lips and the guys walked away.

“Did he tell you that we’re back together?” I asked.

He frowned and pulled me close to him by wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Listen, I was talking to Alex about Jake and he told me something that you wouldn’t like.”

“Jack,” I rolled my eyes. “I honestly don’t give a single fuck about Jake, I’m with Alex now and it really doesn’t matter.”

“I know that’s how you feel but I know why Jake left you that night!” He shook his head excitedly and let go of my shoulders to stand in front of me. “Alex paid him money to stay away from you.”

I furrowed my brows and crossed my arms, getting even more defensive than I was before.

“No, Alex would never do that. I know that he wouldn’t do that.”

“Well you obviously don’t know him very well because that’s what he did.” Jack frowned.

“Look, I think you should go talk to him about this, just to see his reasoning behind it.” I sat down in one of the lawn chairs and thought about what I could say, how I could bring it up and how I could be so fucking stupid to take him back.

I walked into the venue with tears welling in my eyes. It was insane that Jack brought this up, I just had to check in with Alex to make sure that Jack was as crazy as I thought he was. I walked into their dressing room and Alex was sitting on the couch on his laptop. He looked up and smiled, “What’s up Shay?”

“Jack just told me something strange.” I sat down beside him and he looked up with a curious gaze. “He told me that you paid Jake to stay away from me. But that’s insane right? You wouldn’t do anything like that.”

He furrowed his brows while closing his laptop, not saying a word.

“Right?” I asked him again, trying to gain a response. He put his laptop in his backpack and turned to face me.

“Well,” he shrugged.

“Oh my god,” I got off the couch. “You did it didn’t you?”

He got up and made a face to try and gain sympathy. “I just didn’t like how he acted around you, he just didn’t seem like the right person for you to be with. I just did it to protect you.”

“Why? So you could be the big hero and save the day?” I raised my voice. “Am I not allowed to be happy if it’s not with you?”

“Shay, stop trying to make me the bad guy,” he reached out and tried to touch my arm but I backed away from his reach.

“Fuck you Alex,” I furrowed my brows. “You can’t fucking plan out my god damn life if it doesn’t agree with your plan. I’m sick of this, I knew that you couldn’t have possibly changed.”

He grabbed my arm as I tried to walk out the door. “Shay, wait.”

“Get off of me!” I tugged my arm out of his grip. “I can’t date you anymore, ever. I honestly don’t even know what I was thinking.” I shook my head and went out to the buses again, finding Jack standing with Cam and Mike still. By now I really had tears running down my cheeks. He looked up and saw me so he ran over.

“Shay, are you all right?” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side while I broke down. “I’m so sorry this happened, you deserve so much better than this.” I continued feeling sorry for myself that I didn’t even notice the small group of people around me while I was in Jack’s arms. I didn’t even realize how long I had been in there but then I heard a small voice.

“Shay, can you just give me a chance to explain?” Alex asked.

“I think you’ve done enough, Alex.” Zack almost growled, he was almost surprised as I was that this fucking happened again. Alex had always done ridiculous things while we were together and this is up at the top of the list, right next to cheating.

“Zack, please just let me talk to her for a few minutes.” He sighed.

Zack stood up from the couch and guided Alex out of the door, “Come back when you’re not an asshole anymore.” I sniffled and got off Jack, seeing that his shirt was soaked from where I had been lying my head.

“Sorry Jack,” I frowned a little and I wiped away my tears. Jenna was on the bus with us, I felt bad that I didn’t even notice that she was there with me and the guys.

“It’s fine,” he smiled sadly. “I just wanted to make sure that you were all right, I shouldn’t have told you what he did in the first place.”

I frowned and pulled him into a big hug. “It’s not your fault Jack, you were just trying to protect me from getting hurt again.”

“So what did Alex do exactly?” Rian asked.

Jack looked at me to make sure it was okay to tell them what happened. I nodded my head and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders while he explained what Alex did. Hearing it again hurt more than the first time, how could he be so inconsiderate of my happiness? I shrugged out from under Jack’s arm and went into my bunk, closing the curtain and burying my face in the pillow. Jenna came in and wrapped her arms around me, comforting me while I fell asleep.

Notes

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