Raucous and drunk, the after concert hang out hadn’t turned into its usual evening of naked debauchery. This meant Eric didn’t mind hanging out on the bus with Keira after the show. While they usually headed to their own bus after the show, with their time on Uncharted’s tour coming to an end, he wanted to hang with the guys a bit. Well, not all the guys.

Owen’s surly mood had scared off the usual after show groupies. Well, it was less his surly mood and more so him climbing the steps to the bus and shouting, ‘If you’re not with the tour, get the fuck off the bus’ at the cluster of women who were surrounding the rest of the guys. With the bus nearly empty, it meant a bit more space for him and Keira across from the booth, instead of crammed into the corner.

“Do you want another drink?” Eric said, turning to Keira.

“Sure, I’ll take a cider, if there are any,” she said, finishing the last bit of her drink. Leaning back, he reached for the fridge only to be pushed out of the way by Owen as he flung the fridge door open and gathered up an arm load of beers, slamming the door shut and stomping over to the booth. Eric shot Gray a look and he just shrugged. He reached back again and got the bottles out of the fridge, opened them on the edge of the table and handed one to Keira.

“It was maybe three years ago, I don’t know how many groupies he paid to do it, but they filled Lyx’s bunk with balloons,” Caden said, slapping the table. He could hardly breathe he was laughing so hard. “But they were held in with Saran Wrap, so he thinks he’ll be real smart and pop them to get them out.” His wheezing intensified. “But they were filled with glitter and lube.” He doubled over, head on the table, slapping it so hard the bottles jumped across the table. Lyx scowled and Gray actually cracked a smile. “Oh, I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I think,” he said, stopping to take a deep breath. Looking up, he wiped tears from his eyes. “I think he must have been covered in glitter for a month!”

“Yeah, real funny. I was picking that fucking glitter out of my pubes for weeks. Every blow job felt like my dick was being attacked by a pixie,” Lyx said, scowling and picking at the label on his beer.

“Come on man, it was funny. Admit it, it was funny,” Caden said, punching Lyx in the arm.

“Not as funny as when I put that hemorrhoid cream in your toothpaste,” Lyx said smiling broadly, looking so pleased with himself. Caden grimaced.

“That was wrong man. That stuff messed me up for weeks,” Caden said, shivering. The group fell back into comfortable conversation, retelling stories of their antics on the road. Under the table, Eric rested his hand on Keira’s knee and gave it a squeeze. She turned her head to him and smiled slyly. This woman. He let out a mental groan His pants were suddenly much tighter and the conversation grew boring. Tilting his beer to see it was almost finished, this was going to be the last round for the two of them before they retreated to the safety of their bus for a little—maybe a lot— of alone time.

Sitting in the corner of the booth, Owen downed his fourth or fifth beer from what had accumulated on the table, not including the shots from when he first stormed into the bus. Between him and Lyx, they’d drink the bus dry before the night was through. And the fact that roadies replenished the impressive stock every morning, they’d have accomplished something that didn’t bode well for anyone’s livers in the morning.

Tonight, they’d have a bittersweet celebration on the bus. For him and Keira, tonight was the last night on tour with Uncharted. The guys seemed determined to ensure that no one remembered this evening due to copious amounts of alcohol consumed. The label sent the itinerary over and Smithy finally got in touch with him and they went over the details. They’d leave in the morning and, as lonely as previous tours had been on his own, traveling by himself venue to venue, traveling with Keira and spending more time with her made him excited to get out of there.

Being around the guys had a certain appeal, musically it taught him a lot about band dynamics. As for the after-party part, they ran a tight ship of booze, naked chicks and incredibly inventive ways to divest the women of their clothes. He usually sat back, watched their debauchery and laughed. He and Keira usually headed out before things got too out of hand, but their antics were legendary.

Drinking with them always ended in a level of hilarity, he’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else. These guys knew how to party, but it didn’t make much time to write music. Wrapping his arms around Keira, night after night on tour —no distractions, only them— made him anxious to get out of there tonight. She got him in a way no one had ever gotten him before. He’d spent more than a few nights running his fingers through her hair with one hand, while filling his notebook with pages of lyrics and writing out basic beats and melodies. Her ability to read his moods and express them through her photography, capturing what would normally be a fleeting emotion was equally freeing and panic inducing. She saw through him unlike no one he’d ever been with before.

She could glance at him and know what was going through his head. He didn’t think he wore his emotions on his sleeve, most people said his shyness made it almost impossible to get close to him. But when she took pictures of him or occasionally sketched, he saw things about himself that he didn’t think anyone else would ever be able to see. She got him, plus she was the only woman, other than his mom, that he’d let see him in his glasses since he was sixteen. The fact that she’d still speak to him, let alone want to be around him after that spoke volumes about how she felt about him or her dedication to the paycheck. Either way, he’d use every trick he had to finally get her to admit her feelings for him.

She was a talented, beautiful woman whose soft curly hair he couldn’t wait to wrap around his fist as he took possession of her mouth once again. His solo tour was a chance for them to spend even more time together. She winked at him and turned her attention back to the insane guys surrounding them.

The conversation got louder as the guys all talked over one another. Caden grumbled about not being able to start on their next album yet.

“You beat the sophomore slump with your second album. How can you guys be stuck now? Out of ideas already? Maybe it’s because you’ve already banged your way through eighty percent of the population between the ages of eighteen and eighty,” Eric joked. Caden spit out some of his beer and Gray slapped him on the back. The two were doubled over. Owen shot him a glare and Lyx looked between the two. It seemed the joke hadn’t landed quite right with the entire band.

“You should shut the fuck up about things you know nothing about,” Owen growled, jabbing a finger in his direction, before taking a swig from his beer.

“Owen, come on man. You know I’m joking. I’m your opening act. You’re playing stadiums! It was a joke,” he said, leaning back in his seat.

“It wasn’t funny.”

“Sorry. Maybe you shouldn’t have sent those groupies away tonight. You seem like you need to get laid,” Eric said, taking a drink and giving Keira a look. His eyes promised all sorts of things he’d do to her tonight. And from the way she broke out into goosebumps and her eyes bore into his, his plans and her plans were on the same track.

“I’m sure you could find someone to bang on short notice.”

“Yeah, I’m sure I could. Sometimes they even seek me out when they know they shouldn’t,” Owen said, cryptically, glancing across the table at Keira. She drank her beer like he hadn’t just made that innuendo about her. Had something happened between the two of them?

“Of course, they do,” Lyx said, bumping shoulders with Owen. “I mean Owen would definitely know that. Considering he fucked your girl!” said Lyx, laughing, slapping his hand on the table. Lyx pointed his beer bottle toward Eric, laughing and taking a swig of his beer. Owen glared at Lyx before turning back to Eric.

“What?” Eric said, glancing back and forth between Owen and Keira, barely repressed anger boiling over. Owen was staring at him, not blinking as Lyx laughed about how Eric had been screwed over. He glanced at her and her hooded eyes were now wide with surprise. Keira had fucked Owen?

“What?” Eric growled, whipping his arm from around Keira’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Talia right? You guys were fucking? Well, she walked up to the hotel room and made up some bullshit about needing to borrow some guitar strings. Said you sent her and everything.” Lyx was slapping his knee almost doubled over, sloppy after hours of drinking he hadn’t realized how the vibe in the bus had shifted from fun to tense. Keira sat beside Eric, her hand on his knee. Owen zeroed in on her hand and took that as his cue.

“Yeah, I fucked her,” he said, not breaking his focus on Eric. “She seemed like she was really hard up for it too. I guess you’re not laying it down like you should. Maybe that’s why you’ve gone with someone a bit more vanilla now. But you never know. Maybe I could show her a few tricks and send her back to you,” he said, his gaze moving from Eric’s to Keira. He looked her up and down and she tensed beside Eric.

“Owen, come on man,” Gray said, shaking his head, slamming his beer down on the table. “Don’t do this man.” Owen shot Gray a glare.

“Don’t you talk to her. Don’t you look at her. Don’t you even think about her,” Eric ground out, his hands fisting on his lap under the table.

“What are you going to do about it, song bird?” Owen taunted.

“Come on Owen, stop it.” This time it was Caden that piped up. Standing up from the table, his chair falling to the floor, Eric launched himself over the table and punched Owen with all his might. He might have been shorter than Owen, but he could hold his own. Being the freak on the playground with the big glasses hadn’t leant itself to a nice gentle introduction to fighting. He’d had to learn to defend himself or become the school punching bag. The hard, wet sound of his fist connecting with Owen’s jaw bounced off the tour bus walls. A scramble broke out as beer bottles and other drinks toppled over and spilled everywhere. Owen grabbed him by the shirt and swung his fist for his head. Ducking under the punch, Eric rolled off the table and planted his feet ready to throw another punch. Arms came up and around Owen’s chest pulling him back and another set wrapped themselves around Eric from behind dragging him back.

“Get the fuck off my bus,” Owen shouted, spitting blood.

“Gladly,” Eric spat. “This was our last night on tour anyway. So, you can take your sad, fucking pathetic bullshit and peddle it to someone else,” Eric shouted back. Gray released him and guided him to the front door of the bus. His arms were spread wide making sure he wasn’t going to double back to restart the fight. Eric glimpsed Keira behind the hulking mass that was Gray. She looked drenched in beer and drinks. A small pang of regret hit him about what happened back there. He didn’t normally blow up like that and to blow up like that over Talia. But he hadn’t thought Lyx was talking about Talia. He thought he was talking about Keira. When he saw the two of them in the dressing room, a small bubble of self-doubt had crept in, and made him think this was a Talia situation all over again. He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away, following him off the bus.

The blood pumping through him, slowed and his fight or flight shakes were wearing off.

“Sorry about that, man. I don’t know what’s gotten into him,” Gray said as they reached the bottom of the bus steps. The warm air outside calmed him even more.

“You mean other than his normal asshole behavior?”

“Other than that. He’s certainly stepped it up in the past couple of weeks,” Gray said, running his hand through his hair. “Owen’s, losing it, but don’t worry we’re cool,” he said, extending his hand. Eric shook it. Gray was one of the quieter guys on tour and even though he was huge, he didn’t seem the type to use that to crush a little guy. Evidenced by the fact that he was still walking.

“No hard feelings and if our paths cross on tour,” Eric said, thumping him on the back. “I’ll be sure to get you up on stage.”

“No way man, I don’t know how you do what you do with mixing live on stage. I’d be sure to screw that up and ruin your whole show,” he said, a smile brightening his whole face.

“Next time you have a break and we’re in the same city. I’ll give you a tutorial. It’s not so hard once you get the hang of it.” The crashing of bottles and glasses rang out from the bus. Glancing back, Gray frowned. “I better get back up there before he destroys the whole place. See you later, Eric. And see you later, Keira. I’m sorry about Owen.”

“It’s not your fault, Gray,” she said. He nodded at her, then Eric and vaulted himself back up the stairs. They walked back to their bus in silence. Climbing the steps, dread bunched the muscles in his shoulders as he had the sense he was walking toward his doom. Something was off with Keira, but other than being pissed about having drinks poured on her, he couldn’t think of why waves of anger poured from her.

“I should pack. We’re going to be leaving early in the morning and I don’t want to miss the plane,” she said, walking to the back of the bus.

“It’s a private plane. It will wait for us,” he called after her.

“Still…” she said drifting off. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Keira, what’s wrong?” He reached for her hand, but she brushed him off.

“Nothing.”

“Listen, I’m sorry if I scared you back there, but I couldn’t let him talk to you like that.”

“Is that what that was about?” she said, throwing him a confused look over her shoulder.

“Yeah, what else would it have been about?”

She opened her mouth, like she was going to say something and then promptly closed it.

“Never mind. Let me get to work and I’ll get out of your way so you can sleep.”

“What are you talking about? You’re coming to bed…with me.” He took her hand in his and she pulled it away again.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” She rummaged through the drawers, gathered her pajamas in her arms and slipped out the door before he could figure out what was happening.

* * *

Closing the bathroom door, Keira held her pajamas to her chest and used them to muffle her crying. The jagged edges of her wounded heart were being poked and prodded. Sitting there at the table with the guys as everything unfolded and showed her where she stood in Eric’s life. He was obviously still in love with Talia. He said he wasn’t, but there was no doubt in her mind. A guy didn’t fight over something like that if he didn’t still care. Swearing up and down that he was over Talia didn’t make it any less true.

How did she compete with someone on his level? How did she compete with a fellow musician who spoke to him in a way she never could? She was on tour because Eric had pulled a few strings and gotten her a spot. Who knows if her prints were even selling? She had no idea why she was there. Setting herself up for heartbreak, she needed to pull back. She needed to protect herself. He’s taking off. He’s going places with his music that are unimaginable. It’s only a matter of time before he realized that she’s become one of the hangers on that he hates.

Her chest heaving, she attempted to keep quiet as her grand plans all came crashing down around her. Wiping tears from her eyes, she struggled to get her breathing under control. In through her nose and out through her mouth, she put her clothes down next to the sink and splashed some water on her face. Glancing in the mirror, she sighed when she saw her red eyes and nose. It was obvious she’d been crying. She definitely couldn’t go back in the bedroom with him now. He’d want to know why and she didn’t think she could spill that to him.

Keira found comfort in the knowledge that if she kept herself from falling for him and finished out the tour for as long as they kept her on, she’d be able to take more time for her art when she got back home. Maybe she would be able to produce something that spoke to her and to other people. That hope was the only thing keeping her from falling apart right now. Who was she kidding? Could this be described as anything other than falling apart?