“Turn off that fucking music!” Daniel moaned into his pillow the next morning. Ben and Chris were blasting “Do You Think I’m a Whore?” and weren’t being very thoughtful about Daniel’s needed beauty sleep. He groaned as he got out of his bunk and walked towards the back to
1)find out what time it was and
2)kill his two inconsiderate friends. “God, what time were you guys up?” He said, squinting at the clock on the table beside their couch where Ben and Chris were sitting.
“It’s around 2, Dan.” Ben laughed, although he knew that was early for his friend.
“Oh,” he slumped next to Chris. “Did you intentionally wake me up?”
“And why would we do that? Hmm?” Chris grinned.
“Yeah, Johnsy, have you lost all faith in us?”
Daniel rolled his eyes and smiled, “Oh I dunno, maybe because of the title of the song you were playing really loud, maybe.”
“Aha!” Ben stood up pointing an accusing finger at Daniel. “So you have been listening to the CD.”
Chris laughed, as Daniel blushed and looked at the floor. “So?” He mumbled.
“So when’s the wedding?” Chris teased.
“Fuck you both. There will be no wedding. There will be no Morgan Johns.”
“Or Daniel Landers?” Ben added raising an eyebrow.
“Oh ha ha, well if it wasn’t for my never ending love for you, Ben, then maybe we’d have a chance.” Daniel grinned.
“I knew you were after me! This whole time I knew it!” Ben said laughing with Chris.
“I always thought you were more partial to Ben, Daniel. I guess the truth comes out!” Chris added.
“Oh baby, Ben. Ooohhhh,” he tried to say without laughing, a harder task than originally thought. “Oh, I love you Ben.” He added just as Watto walked towards them.
“Um, Daniel, just don’t go around saying that in public. People are starting to wonder.” Their manager laughed.
“Let them wonder, me and Ben were meant to be, baby.” He threw his arm around the drummer, having to lean over Chris to get to him.
“Yeah yeah, just invite me to the wedding,” John grinned, leaning on the small table on their right.
The next day, Morgan was up early practicing a few chords on her guitar for a song she thought up the night before. One of those midnight burst of inspiration things. By this time everyone on the bus had woken up and were complaining about lack of sleep due to her insistent strumming.
“Ugh, I hate sleeping on buses.” Talena moaned to anyone who was listening.
“We’ve only been on the road for two weeks, Talena!” Fallon laughed, heading for the closest thing they had to a kitchen located at the front of the bus.
“It still sucks,” she replied, slumping into the small booth near to Fallon.
“Think we should change the set tonight?” Mercedes spoke up, sitting opposite Talena. Morgan was leaning against the wall in the hallway, facing them.
“Why should we?” She said, folding her arms.
“Why not?”
“Good point.” She shrugged.
“Think we should throw in a silverchair cover?” Fallon joked.
Morgan shot her a glare, “Yeah I’m sure that’d go over well.”
“Lighten up,” Talena grinned. “I think we should play madman in our soundcheck, though. I doubt they’d be anywhere near us then.”
“Yeah,” Mercedes agreed. “Plus it’s a good warm-up song. Why should we change for them?”
“I guess,” Morgan shrugged her shoulders again, trying not to care so much.
“Who knows, maybe they’ll be impressed!” Mercedes added with a laugh.
“Uh huh,” Morgan replied walking towards the back of the bus.
“Watto, we better be in a hotel tonight.” Daniel complained, trying to crack his neck, later that day.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll see what I can do.” The manager said as the bus pulled up around the back of the venue around 4pm. They saw the tour bus belonging to Kittie in front of them, along with people pulling out equipment from a smaller van.
“How they’d get here so fast?” Ben said, coming up behind Daniel at the front of the bus.
“Dunno,” Daniel mumbled, getting up. Chris was still in the back, lounging on the couch.
“Hey,” Ben said, following Daniel, but directing his question to both of them. “Ya wanna go watch their soundcheck?”
“Huh?” Daniel frowned, turning around.
“Do I need to remind you of your girlfriend?”
“Shut up.” He smiled.
“I just want to see them play. So are you two going to hold out on me or what?”
“Uh,” Chris and Daniel said together, as if on cue.
“Come on!” Ben begged.
“Why today, mate?” Chris scratched his head.
“I dunno. Maybe we’ll be late tomorrow and won’t be able to watch it.” He almost whined.
“God, you’re persistent.” Daniel laughed.
“Yeah so? I’m bored. Come on, Chris, I know you want to man.”
Chris hesitated, looking at Daniel quickly, who shrugged his shoulders in response. “Ugh, fine. I’ll go. Just let me get my shoes on.”
Daniel smiled to himself, and went to occupy Chris’s now empty spot. “Have fun.”
“Yeah, you too.” Chris rolled his eyes, while Ben started walking out of the bus.
“Ya know Mercedes, I could really help you beat faster,” Ben winked, jokingly.
“Uh huh, I bet!” she laughed.
Her, Ben, Chris, Talena, Morgan and Fallon were sitting backstage inside the venue. They were taking a short refreshment break during Kittie’s soundcheck. Ben and Chris had a couple beers that they got from their stash in their tour bus and the girls were drinking coke, feeling the need for caffeine rather than water.
“So, you liked the show last night, huh?” Fallon asked, sipping her drink.
“Yeah,” Ben began. “You really know how to put on a show.” He grinned.
“Thanks,” Morgan smiled.
“I think Morgan’s disappointed that Daniel wasn’t watching!” Mercedes said lifting her drink and laughing. She received a firm nudge in the side from her sister, which made the drink spill into a nice circle stain onto the singer’s shirt.
“Fuck!” She moaned, while everyone laughed.
“Nice one,” Chris laughed.
“Yeah, sorry to disappoint, Morgan, but he was sleeping.” Ben laughed.
Morgan was turning red by the second and decided to get out of the ring of abuse she had made for herself, and to go get another shirt, “I’ll be back in a bit.” She admitted and left in a hurry, still hearing giggles from behind her.
“This song is pretty good,” Daniel said to himself about ‘Brackish,’ while taking a chance to listen to the Kittie CD in private, as he was now alone on the bus. He leaned his head back on the couch and turned the stereo up a little, when he noticed a banging that wasn’t there before, he turned it down and the banging got louder. “What the fuck?” He frowned, and looked behind the curtain of the window to see if the banging was coming from outside. What he saw was a frustrated Morgan Landers knocking on the door. “What the hell does she want?” He said, continuing the one man-one man audience-dialogue. “Okay, maybe she’ll go away. Ugh, what to do, what to do.” He found himself standing. “God, this is like out of Ben and Chris’s sick fantasy or something. Might aswell go see what she wants.” He took a deep breath and headed for the side door, looking out the window to make sure she was alone. All the equipment people had already gone inside, and it was a private back lot, which meant no fans waiting outside the bus. He gripped the handle and opened the door, the curtain blocking his view of her before he opened the door.
“Um, hello?” He said opening the door a little, trying not to sound like he didn’t want to speak to her. She took a step back, as if she was surprised.
“Uh,” she looked down. “I uh, um, bus locked, needed help, um…” she paused and then looked at the stain on her shirt and smiled pointing to it. “I needed another shirt.”
“Oh.” He said, letting out a small smile. “Um, do you uh wanna come inside?”
“Sure,” she said, trying to keep a straight face, walking up the step and following him inside, and shutting the door after herself.
“So, your bus is locked, and you need a shirt?” He said heading for the back, remembering he left the CD playing and wanting to turn it off before she realized he was listening to it.
"Um, yeah. Mom’s gone somewhere, and well no one’s on our bus. Um, I actually just knocked on the door because I was wondering if your driver knew where our driver was or something.” She breathed in, “I didn’t know you were on here.”
“Um, nothing.” He walked back, smiling. “You really didn’t know I was on here, alone?”
“Nope,” she grinned, glad things weren’t going too badly.
“Okay, well you proved your case about the shirt,” he looked down at the stain and looked up again. “Well seeing how you need to get back to your sound check pretty quick, before people start causing a riot, do you want to borrow one of mine?”
“Uh, I um.” She mumbled, “if you umm want.”
“I don’t care,” he grinned and walked back down the hall again opening a bag that was behind the curtain to his bunk. “Um, try this on,” he threw her the infamous black, alligator, “Come on in…the water’s great,” shirt to which she received with a blush.
“Thanks, um, now?” She lifted a side of her mouth in an awkward expression.
“Well, if you were planning on flashing the people outside then do it later.” He grinned. “I didn’t mean like in front of me!” He laughed seeing that she was still wearing the same awkward expression. “God, Ben and Chris would love this!” He mumbled, smiling to himself.
“Why?” she frowned.
“Oh, um it doesn’t matter. Listen I’ll be in the back, so just give it back to me whenever.”
“Okay.” She smiled, “thanks a lot.”
“Sure,” he grinned, and then turned around and walked towards the back, out of view of her.
When Morgan got back inside she tried to act like everything was normal, although she knew everyone was going to notice her new apparel and how it wasn’t hers. “Ugh, why did he have to lend me this one,” she mumbled, knowing full well that Mercedes would recognize it off the bat from the pictures she owns of him wearing it. “Hey, I’m back,” she announced to the oblivious group of three girls and two boys who hadn’t moved since she left. Everyone turned around and gave her funny looks.
“What?” She pretended to not see anything wrong.
Ben looked at Chris and then back at Morgan, “Isn’t that um, Daniel’s shirt?”
Too late, she was blushing. “Fuck,” she mumbled rubbing her face with her free hand. “Yes, it is.”
“He lent it to you?” Talena asked, puzzled.
“No, I fucking stole it.” She rolled her eyes.
“So, are you going to explain why you’re wearing his shirt?” Mercedes spoke up, grinning.
“No,” she walked past them to pick up her guitar, throwing her damp shirt on the floor. “We should start playing again, come on.” She put the guitar strap over her head and walked back up to the microphone.
Ben and Chris were now trying to hold back laughter, “We uh, better get going,” Ben said, standing up.
“Yeah,” Chris agreed following his friend’s lead, and then whispered to the girls “Gotta go grill Johnsy on his new found love of sharing clothing.”
“Uh huh,” Fallon grinned, standing up and stretching. “And we have to go plan out what to wear to the wedding.”
Everyone laughed and Ben and Chris went on their way outside of the building. The band picked up their instruments. “Okay,” began Morgan turning around to face them when they all were standing in their positions, “before you say anything, shut up.”
“Oooh someone’s in a mood,” Mercedes teased.
“No, I’m not,” she snickered. “Ugh, forget it,” she turned back around, and started playing the opening chords to madman on her guitar.
They found their blonde haired friend sprawled out on the couch, dozing, with the television on. “I still don’t know how he can sleep before a gig like this!” Ben whispered to Chris as they crept up towards him.
“Jump him?” Chris grinned.
“Nah, he’d kill us, and then go back asleep.” Ben bit his lip, and then smiled. “Water.”
“Huh?” Chris laughed, and Ben pointed to the tap.
“Cold. Water.” He grinned.
“Oh god, he’ll be so pissed off!” Chris was trying not to laugh so loudly, and then followed him out of the aisle and next to the sink.
“Get me a cup,” Ben said, looking back to make sure Daniel was still asleep.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, bossy, bossy, bossy.” Chris mumbled getting a purple plastic cup from the cupboard and handing it to him. He let the tap run for a few seconds, making sure it was ice-cold water, and then filled it to the top without spilling it.
“You know he is going to kill us when he wakes up,” Chris said.
“Just shut up, and let me do it,” Ben whispered back edging closer to the sleeping body on the couch. He got to the side of Daniel, while Chris, who was a couple steps behind him to his right, had to put a hand over his mouth to stop from laughing out loud. Ben slowly started pouring the water onto Daniel’s awaiting head.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” Daniel yelled opening his eyes wide. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU BEN!”
Chris laughed in the background, “Told ya mate.”
“Fuck off,” Ben replied, laughing. “Come on Danny boy, you sleep too much as it is!”
“Ugh,” Daniel moaned noticing the dampness of his shirt. “Great.” He yawned, and then slowly looked up at Ben, “Hey Ben.”
“Yeah?”
He took a deep breath and stood up looking down on him, “You better start running now!”
Ben laughed and playfully skipped down the aisle pushing Chris out of the way. “All his fault, Dan. All. His. Fault.” Daniel smiled, nodding and went after Ben until they were chasing each other around the bus.
Chris walked outside to watch them act like little kids.
Just as Daniel caught up with Ben, wrapping his arms around his waist pulling him to the ground, all four members of kittie--along with Mercedes and Morgan’s mother—walked onto the parking lot a few yards away from the fighting duo.
“Umm,” mumbled Morgan to the others. “I think we interrupted something.”
“Uh huh,” Talena said laughing along with Mercedes and Fallon, while Mrs. Landers rose an eyebrow smirking.
Just then Daniel and Ben turned their flushed faces towards the smiling group, while Chris was laughing.
“Damn,” mumbled the blonde, grinning, and getting up off the floor. “Of all the moments for them to come outside, they pick now.”
“Yeah, and she’s still wearing your shirt!” Ben winked, standing up.
Daniel glared at him, mumbling, “It’s not what you think.”
“Oh, and what am I thinking?” He teased, slowly making his way towards Chris and the group.
“I dunno, but it’s bad, and just…shut up…” He trailed off.
Ben laughed at him, “Uh huh, I’ll save the teasing for later, we better go say hello.” He nodded as a response and followed him to the group.
“I think Daniel won,” Fallon nodded trying not to laugh.
“Nah,” Ben smiled, “You just came in at the wrong moment, I had him the whole time.”
“Uh huh,” Chris laughed. “More like running away from him the whole time.” Daniel grinned at him, chewing his lip.
“So I finally get to meet you,” Morgan’s mother said to the trio.
“Yeah,” Ben began. “I’m Ben, this is Chris, and the blonde is D-“
“Daniel!” The mother grinned, looking at him and then at her embarrassed daughter.
“Don’t mind her,” Morgan managed to get out, through somewhat clenched teeth.
Daniel smiled, and replied, “Um, hey.”
“Have you met Morgan?” She continued, to everyone’s delight besides the persons involved.
“I, uh, well, um-“
,p> “Mom, she’s wearing his shirt!” Mercedes laughed, as their mother let out a confused “oh.”
He smiled, noticing everyone was looking at him for an explanation, “What? I, uh, lent it to her!”
Everyone laughed, including Morgan who was getting more at ease with the conversation by the minute. “Yeah, completely innocent!”
“Uh huh,” Chris said in a father-like tone. “Not what we heard!”
“What?” Morgan laughed, looking at Daniel, who just shrugged laughing.
“Yeah, you came back with that shirt on,” Talena added. “So you must have changed on the bus.”
Morgan rolled her eyes, and grinned, “I guess they’ve found us out Daniel.”
Daniel blushed and tried not to laugh, “Yeah, I guess so. Do you want to tell them about the kids, or should I?”
“I think you just did!”
“I always knew you two were made for each other,” Fallon smiled.
“Oh God, here we go again!” Chris giggled.
“Get off me Ben, and stop looking at me like that!” Daniel pushed him off, grinning. “Don’t make me kick your ass again!”
“Uh huh, don’t you mean me kicking your ass again?”
“Um, no, actually I have no idea what you are talking about,” he smirked.
“Yeah, well maybe this will refresh your memory,” Ben breathed in, “I’ll give you five to start running!” He laughed.
“Oh. I see how it is.” Daniel paused, and then darted around the other side of the bus, Ben chasing after him.
“Okay, let’s try getting on the side they come offstage this time!” Mercedes laughed as they walked up the hall backstage towards the door leading to the stage.
“Yeah, that would probably be better,” grinned Talena.
“Why ya being so quiet Morgan?” Fallon asked, noticing that she wasn’t laughing or joining in with the conversation.
She shrugged, “Doesn’t matter, let’s hurry up and get there.”
“Um, okay,” she replied, as they picked up their pace a bit.
“Glad, Mom isn’t watching this time,” Mercedes smiled as they walked a few yards closer to the entrance.
“Yeah, I know,” grinned Morgan, scratching her head. “I could have killed her today.”
“That was pretty funny though,” Talena laughed along with Fallon.
“Shut up,” Morgan scrunched her nose, “it was embarrassing.”
“At least you and Daniel joked it off.” Talena added. “Damn, that sounds weird. Talking about you and Daniel like that in the same sentence.”
“I guess,” she shrugged her shoulders.
“Gonna give him his shirt back after the show?” Mercedes asked before opening the door.
“No, I’m planning on adding it to my shrine at home,” she rolled her eyes, walking in.
“Use it as a cloth, that thing needs cleaning!” Fallon added, laughing along with the others as they crept up behind the speakers.
“Alright, ready Chris?” Ben asked heading out of the dressing room, after he had changed out of the clothes he had worn during the show.
“Uh huh,” he flung a shirt over his head. “Ya coming Watto?” He turned around facing his manager who was sitting with Daniel in the corner of the room.
"Yeah” He grinned and stood up. “Sure you wanna stay, Daniel?” He looked at the blond haired boy.
He nodded, “Yeah, I think I’m just going to go lay down on the bus or something,” he shrugged.
“Want us to bring you something back?” Ben announced from the hallway.
He stood, “Nah, I’m good.” He picked up his bag and walked out with them.
“Okay, have fun, alone.” Ben teased walking beside him down the hallway.
Daniel smirked, “Yes, alone.”
Chris and Watto shot each other looks like they weren’t too sure what Ben and Daniel were talking about. “Um, I feel a bit left out of the circle.” Chris scratched his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” Daniel smiled. “Ben’s being an ass.”
“What’s new?” Their manager replied causing the group to laugh as they walked outside.
“So, you’re sure you don’t want anything while we’re gone?” Watson asked Daniel before they went in different directions.
“Yes!” He laughed, “I’m fine, I’ll see you later.”
“Alright, alright,” he grinned and followed Ben and Chris towards the lit street.
Daniel yawned when he got inside the tourbus, and noted that the driver was not anywhere to be found. He threw his bag down on his bunk and went to lie down on the couch at the back. Not that comfortable, but less claustrophobic. He was going to put on a video but decided that the quiet would probably be a better idea. Just as he was starting to doze off there was a knock at the door. “Ugh…if Ben forgot something, I’m going to kill him…need…sleep…” He yawned, scratching his head in a very cliché manner.
He looked behind the curtain in the window of the side door where the knocking was coming from. “Déjà vu?” He raised an eyebrow after he saw that it was none other than Morgan, once again knocking at the door. He opened it, “What’s this? Twice in one day?” He grinned.
She blushed slightly, “Yeah, sorry came to give you back the shirt.”
“Oh, yeah,” he opened the door wider, motioning for her to come in. “Sorry I forgot about that,” he stepped back a bit and she came inside. Once again, Ben’s and Chris’s sick fantasy is taking shape, he smiled to himself. All I need now is the background music and Morgan saying she’s here to fix the plumbing.
“Was I interrupting something?” She asked waking him from his thoughts and handing him the shirt.
“No, why?” He frowned.
“You just seem kind of distant.” She chewed her lip.
“Oh,” he paused. “Umm, I’m just tired, I was pretty much asleep when you knocked.”
“Sorry,” she looked down.
“It’s alright,” he put the shirt on his bunk. “It’s kinda funny how you always catch me on the bus, alone. I’m starting to think it’s planned.” He raised an eyebrow.
She laughed, “Yeah, I have this like radar on our bus, it kinda tracks you down when you’re alone.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yup, I got it from Ben.”
“Okay, now that makes sense. I’m thinking of putting a restraining order on that boy, although I doubt that would work seeing how we’re in a band.” He sighed, joking.
“Alright, if you insist,” she said, still laughing. “Ya know, when I came in here before, I heard you playing our cd.”
Daniel blushed, “Um, yeah. It’s cool.”
She hesitated for a moment and then said, “We’re better live.”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “I’ve heard from Ben and Chris.”
“So, um, why don’t you come watch us play? I saw just Ben and Chris tonight, and they were there the day before.”
“Yeah,” he walked towards the back. “I dunno, I was tired. Maybe tomorrow.” He sat on the floor looking through the videos. “Listen, Ben and Chris are gonna be out for a while, ya wanna watch a movie?”
“Got any porn?”
“What?” He blinked twice, surprised.
“I’m kidding!” She burst out laughing, sitting down on the couch behind him, “Sure, I have nothing else to do anyways.”
Ben and Chris stumbled along the sidewalk towards the side door of their bus, Watto walking swiftly beside them. They had just been dropped off by a cab and were surprised that the bus was still there despite their 2am curfew, it was now 2:30am, and somehow 30 minutes was a big deal. On their way to the door they were stopped by a tall girl, who seemed more like a blur than an actual person.
“Ben?” She asked him even though he was giggling uncontrollably.
“Yeessss?” He grinned.
“Morgan’s on there with Daniel, right?” She pointed to the bus.
“Um,” he turned to Chris who was more coherent.
“We, uh, just got back.” He laughed and scratched his head.
“We tried knocking but no one answered and we have to leave soon.” She was a little worried.
“Ugh, great, maybe the bus driver forgot that we need to get going,” Watto mustered under his breath as he walked around the bus trying to find the driver.
,p> “She’s probably on our bus,” Chris shrugged, now holding Ben up with one arm. A few minutes passed and Watto returned with a smile, and a shorter man holding a cup of coffee with one hand. The keys in the driver’s hand indicated that the posing question about Morgan’s whereabouts would soon be answered.
The door opened and the girl and Watto walked in, with Ben and Chris slumping up the steps behind them, now arm in arm, sideways. “Dannyyyy? We’re hommmee!” Announced Ben. No answer.
“I’ll check the back,” Watto said with a serious edge. The manager walked down the aisle and behind the curtain, only to return quickly and a little flushed. “Yeah, Mercedes is it?” the girl nodded, “Morgan’s here,” he let out a breath. “Umm, she’s asleep and she looks pretty flat out, it’s alright if she sleeps on here tonight, if her mum agrees with it.” Ben and Chris were still giggling, and Mercedes had started laughing a little also.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s cool,” she grinned. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, enjoy your hang-overs, Ben and Chris.” She teased.
“Yeah, fuck off,” Ben laughed.
She replied by sticking out her tongue. “See ya.”
To Be Continued
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