separation//[t.j.]

getting ready.

"mommmm! wake uppp!" i woke up to riley shaking me with a huge smile on their face. i groaned.

"what time is it?" i asked.

"it's 4:30! you gotta get up, we have to be to dad's at 6." they reminded me.

"ugh i set my alarm for five. did you even get any sleep last night?"

"honestly? nope. i'm too excited!"

that was fair.

"okay, okay, let me get some coffee." i said, getting out of bed.

"mom, you don't drink coffee." riley stated. i chuckled.

"that's besides the point."

i got out of bed and made my way to the kitchen, riley following at my heels.

"shouldn't you be getting ready instead of bugging me already?" i joked.

"wow mom i love how you're such a morning person." riley replied, sarcastically. "but no, i'm already ready."

"jeez, okay. but i'm not ready so maybe you should make sure your phone is charged and what not. it's a bit of a ride to denver, even though we're gonna be on a tour bus."

"okay."

finally, riley walked away giving me some peace and quiet while i tried to wake up. i loved them to death but when they were excited for an upcoming event, they were very...enthusiastic. it definitely wasn't great at 4:30 in the morning when you haven't even been up for five minutes.

after i woke up completely, i went to my room to get ready. i got on a black t shirt with light blue ripped jeans with black and white checkerboard vans. i also put my hair in half space buns and half down. i applied a bit of lipgloss and then decided i was ready.

"mom, i love your hair." riley told me when i walked into the living room. their hair was freshly dyed light blue from a few days ago. they just kept it down because it was too short to do anything with it.

"thanks, kid. i like yours too." i smiled.

"figured you would, considering you dyed it." they replied. i nodded.

"ready to go? we gotta be to your dad's in a half hour."

"yup, i've been ready."

i grabbed my keys and locked up our house. my aunt agreed to make sure my house was fine and not broken into once a week, and i appreciated that. we didn't have any animals or such, so that wasn't a problem.

we got in the car and started driving to tyler's.

"you get to meet josh again. josh is dad's best best best friend." riley informed me. sometimes i forgot they fangirled over their dad before they (officially) knew that tyler was their father. so of course, they'd know how close tyler was with his bandmate.

"oh yeah?" i asked. riley nodded.

"there's even people that think they date. it's so funny." they told me. i laughed.

"you're joking?"

"most people are, but some genuinely think they're secretly together or wish they were together. even though josh is married to this super pretty actress, debby. you'll probably meet her."

"have i seen debby in anything?"

"she's in jessie, radio rebel, and- oh yeah! mom, she's patty in insatiable!"

"oh!" i realized who riley was talking about as we had both watched insatiable together. "i know who you're talking about."

"yeah that's josh's wife."

"that's pretty cool."

we pulled up to tyler's and there were a couple cars and a huge bus. i realized the bus was the tour bus and i was impressed by its size. it was like a house on wheels.

we parked and riley practically flew out of the car. i got out and walked after them, but they were already standing with tyler,
two other guys, and a girl. i recognized the guys as josh and mark.

"hey, guys." i greeted everyone with a smile. "sorry about them, they're excited."

"you don't have to be sorry. we're all excited too." josh replied. he then turned to the girl by his side. "by the way, this is my wife, debby. debby, this is tyler's kid we were talking about about and their mom. riley and y/n."

"it's a pleasure to meet you guys. i've heard so much about you both." debby smiled. "especially you, y/n. even before you and tyler reconciled."

"alright, alright, we don't have to talk about that." tyler said, with an uneasy expression. i became a bit flustered too, so i was glad we were changing the subject off of that. "is everyone ready to load up the tour bus?"

we all agreed to load up the bus because it was already after 6. riley and i only had a few suitcases but tyler and josh had a lot more. but that was fair, considering they were the ones performing every night.

it took us about twenty minutes to load up everything into the back of the bus. when we were done, tyler turned to riley and i.

"want a bus tour now?" he offered.

"sure." we agreed. we followed him onto the bus and we went inside.

the bottom deck of the bus had a small den area, a bathroom, and two rooms for sleeping. one was for josh and debby and the other was for mark. then, we headed upstairs and there were two rooms for sleeping. one was on one end of the bus and the other was on the other end. tyler showed me his and then he showed me mine and riley's which had a bunk bed. surprisingly, riley was stoked to be sharing bunk beds. i didn't really mind it either so there was no issues there.

"so that's the bus." tyler said, after giving a tour. "mark usually drives for us. he's the only one with a bus license."

"sick." riley replied. tyler smirked.

"as frick?" he asked. they smiled.

"yup."

"is everyone ready to go? do you all have everything?" mark asked us. we all looked around and nodded in agreement.

"well then," he said. "to denver we go."