Besitos

23

Stepping onto the patio I feel like I'm right back on tour. Lila and Mac decided to throw a little party since we're all back together and not on tour. Theres so many musicians here, some that we've played with, some that we haven't even heard of. As musicians you kind of tend to stick together since you have so much in common and already know all the same people. Its just more convenient to keep to the same group of people.

"Wren!" I hear my name shouted across the crowd.

Lila comes running to me, clearly already tipsy and excited to party. I can't help but grin at how normal this feels.

"I'm so excited for tonight!" she says as she reaches me. "It'll be just like old times."

I'm honestly excited as well. I was looking forward to this all week, but I would never admit just how excited I truly was.

"Are you drinking tonight?" she asks me, which catches me off guard. Usually she just tells me that I am drinking no matter what.

"A little." I say. "I don't wanna overdo it."

"Good." she says and magically pulls a cup out from behind her. "I mixed white wine with sparkling water."

I cock an eyebrow at her. Since when does she provide me with something other than hard alcohol?

"Thanks, thats exactly what I wanted actually." I say. "I can't believe so many people came."

"No ones really touring right now." she says. "Most bands just finished their tours like weeks ago."

"How was the end of ours by the way?" I ask.

"Weird." she says. "It was weird without you. Didn't really feel like us."

"I'm sorry." I mumble.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just mean it didn't feel like how it should." she says. "We really missed you. It drove Mac crazy that you were gone."

"I bet you loved that." I say referencing their relationship.

"I did actually. Showed me just how caring he is." she says.

Against my better instincts, I decide to ask more in depth about her and Mac.

"So how did you guys end up together?"

To my surprise Lila actually blushes. Hard.

"I've been into him for a long time." she admits. "Since I was 23."

"No fucking way." I say, genuinely shocked. She played it off well.

"Yeah." she says with a laugh. "Remember that day where we were all talking and he said he was into me awhile ago? Well, I decided to tell him a little after that, that I felt the same, but I was still into him. At first he said it was a bad idea and all that but then the next day he came back and said he felt the same."

"Thats actually really cute." I say. "I'm glad its working out for you guys."

"Me too." she says with a sweet smile that only lasts a second. "Now lets get back to the partying, yeah?"

I roll my eyes at her, but I still oblige.

See even though I'm not huge into the whole partying thing, I still need to do it every once and awhile to let go. Especially when I'm with my people. It just feels natural, like its what we were meant to do.

Looking around it seems like everyone else feels the same way. Caro from Ashes to Dawn has a bottled taped around her hand, Beck from Pressure Temperature is already almost passed out, and from across the yard I can see Jax and Paul from Burn It Down doing a competition to see who can take the most shots in a row. Honestly I don't think anyone wins in that game, but who am I to judge. They're having a great time and are safely surrounded by people so theres no harm. Well, to their liver yes, but thats nothing new.

"Lets go challenge Jax and Paul." Mac says from behind me, a devilish grin on his face.

"Dude, no." I say with a laugh. "They wont be able to handle it, they just did like ten shots each."

"Exactly, we're sure to win." he says.

I turn to him and give him a little smack in the arm which just makes him laugh harder. His laughter fades and instead one of his rare serious faces is on.

"I missed you Wren." he says. "A lot."

I can't help the look of shame and guilt that appears on my face. I put them through hell by disappearing, I know that. I also know that they're trying to not guilt me but make their feelings clear at the same time. We all feel guilty for something in this situation.

"I missed you too." I say finally. "It was - I didn't know how much I was missing you guys until we saw each other again."

"The rest of the tour was nice because of Lila, but it sucked because we were missing you."

"I know, Lila was saying the same thing yesterday."

"At least we're all together now." he says.

From behind me somewhere I can hear a bunch of people rejoicing super loudly as if they've just won a touchdown or something. Mac's eyes look past me at the commotion, then quickly at me, before looking there again.

"Please tell me Lila isn't like taking her shirt off." I say with a laugh before turning my head.

I don't see Lila anywhere, instead I just see a group of guys on the patio outside. I recognize most of them, like the Ben, Nate, Craig, and Patrick from Baseline of Affliction. There's also half the band of Mazo there and at least two members of N20.

"They're getting fucking wild." I say, turning back to Mac.

"Yeah, they are." he says, that weird look on his face.

"I'm so sorry." Lila says as she slides up to us.

"What'd you do?" I ask with a laugh.

There's a crash from the patio again. I turn to look and see what's going on. Someone dropped an alcohol bottle and now everyone is trying to move away from it.

In the midst of this, I see the thing Lila is apologizing for, I see something that makes my heart beat so fast.

I lock eyes with Vic who is staring directly at me.