AllFreeNovel
Share Us
West’s bandmate Ryan and the bus driver Denver came around the side of the bus. “Sorry, man,” Ryan said, glancing from his friend to Lauren. He held out a hand. “I don’t think we’ve met, and that had to be the worst way ever to do it. My apologies. My name is Ryan.”
All she could hear was Ethan saying “my apologies” in that wounded tone over and over again in her head.
She shook his hand and quickly let him go. “It’s okay,” she said, turning to rush up the steps into the bus. “Sorry, nature calls. Be right back.”
Rushing toward the bathroom, she passed the others in their bunks and in the small kitchen area and paid them no mind. Thank God the bathroom was empty. She shut the door behind her and tipped back her head to stare at the ceiling.
This was her new reality. She was now the current bus groupie, and she probably didn’t have a best friend anymore. Her project was in flux, and her parents would hate her even more when they found out how she was spending her weekend.
Yet somehow she still managed to grin as she looked at herself in the mirror. Even with her leftover makeup still around her eyes, they had a sparkle she hadn’t seen in…well, maybe ever.
Two guesses why.
She rooted around in the cabinet until she came up with a jar of makeup remover and went to work with some tissue and cold water. The cream was miracle stuff. She didn’t even look that tired anymore.
A few moments later, a knock sounded at the door. “You okay, Lo?”
She blew out a breath and opened the door. “I’m better than fine. Just needed a minute. And some cold cream, which I did borrow from someone. Sorry!” she called out, knowing the owner of the jar was probably listening.
Even the cramped quarters of the bus didn’t bother her. Sharing space with West’s bandmates—even with their eclectic personalities—was fun.
An experience.
The best one ever, and it had just begun.
Chapter Nine
Why don’t you stay…
Those words had been going around his head for the last twelve hours. Pretty much from the moment he’d taken her to the bowling alley. Asking her to stick around had been an impulsive moment outside the bus, but it felt right. Now she was sitting on the couch with Juliet and Elle looking through a pile of girl magazines. They were everywhere on the damn bus. With the amount of iPads between them, he figured they would turn to the e-magazines like the rest of the world.
And yet not.
Evidently, girls still
liked to flip and rip out pages. Not to mention the damn subscribe cards that fell out of the things were everywhere. Three hundred pages of ads and twenty of content. Totally worth the eight bucks each.
Molly was holed up in her bunk with some sort of beautification process going on. Special tea, some sort of mask junk that smelled like ass, and her headphones. After the way she’d tried to help the Ethan situation in her own inimitable style, she needed alone time. He didn’t ask questions. It was far easier to just keep to his side of the bus most of the time.
He was glad that Juliet and Elle had taken Lauren under their wing so quickly. Juliet had given her a pair of leggings with some wild pattern. They were the ugliest fucking things, but Jules wore them every damn day. She had to have fifty pairs of the stupid things.
Denver also kept hollering her two cents on the current season of Gilmore Girls that was playing on the main screen in the living space.
Mal crushed a beer can against his thigh. He sat on the other side-by-side couch, keeping his distance from the girls. “Why does this Lorelai chick keep getting so much ass? She’s a flighty bitch who can’t make up her mind.”
Elle was on the floor, three magazines around her with one on her lap. “Because her crazy to hot quotient is still in her favor.”
Mal grunted. “That’s true. I’d fuck her.”
Juliet flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You’d fuck any girl.”
“Not any.” He thunked his boots onto the scarred wooden coffee table that had taken up residence on the bus by the first week.
There wasn’t enough cup holders for all the people crammed on the bus. Not to mention that Michael and Mal had a tendency to spread out with drinks and food. It was safer to have a place for their shit.
West sat on the window seat above the couch closest to Denver with a huge jar of sun tea between his booted feet. The layout of the bus was fairly open, so though Denver had her own area that she could semi-cordon off if they got too rowdy, she could also take part in the conversations without much effort.
He was halfheartedly watching the television, but Denver was far more entertaining. She knew every line from the show and explained her extensive love for Luke—the diner owner. Apparently, cranky men turned on women. Certainly explained why Malachi got more chicks than any of them combined. The more rude he was, the harder they clung to him.
