Split The Seams

What now?

So that was it. No more tour, I sat back on my chair and let it sink in.

"What now?" Gary asked.

"We go home?" James said, unsure of what to say.

We sat in silence, staring at the phone. Seb and Jahvie excused themselves to go for a cigarette. After what felt like hours, we returned to the bus. Barely a word passed between us for the whole walk back.

The bus felt colder, empty somehow despite having ten people in it. I opened my emergency bar of Hersheys and passed it around. Seb started to strum his melancholy song on his acoustic, it was slow, beautiful and fitted the moment perfectly.

What do we do now? With no tour? I thought to myself. Feeling empty I zoned out and didn't realise that Seb was speaking until he asked me a question.

"Hello? Are you awake?" He asked. Someone elbowed me in the ribs.

"Yes! Yes!" I came out of my daydream.

"James just said that he's expecting a call from Sam. Maybe he can get us on another tour...." Seb trailed off, not used to doing the talking.

"Really? When's he expecting the call?"

"Imminently." Seb answered. That could be good. He did get us on this tour, so maybe he could find us someone else. I had to hope.

We waited in silence for what felt like hours. Until finally the call came.

They chatted for a few minutes, we all tried to read James' facial expression to see if what Sam was saying was good or not. But his face remained blank as he listened.

"Yeah... I had a feeling you'd say that... Yup...Okay...Bye." He ended the call, dropping his phone onto his lap. His Motionless In White phone case scratched from being in the same pocket as the spare key to the tour bus. The screen went black as it locked.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Jahvie cleared his throat, urging James to speak. "He said that he would try to get someone else, but it could take a while." He sighed.

"How long?" Seb asked.

"As long as it takes."

6 hours later

Every one had gone home, Scott, the twins, Jahvie, Ricky and Sydonie had all gotten on a train back home. So it was just Seb, Gary, James and I left in our crappy, beaten up tour bus. After stopping at a petrol station we hit the road. We listened to I See Stars on the maximum volume, singing and screaming along. Then came Asking Alexandria's turn. We got stuck in ugly traffic. At one point two drivers got out of their cars and started fighting. We watched, cheering and 'ooh'ing everytime one hit the other. I was so bored I found a fight between two grown men entertaining. I shook my head at myself and rummaged through my bag, searching for my new Stephen King novel. I didn't find it for what felt like ages.

The vast traffic seemed to sit still, we stayed between a crappy old Rover and a Honda for an entire hour. Time went by with a depressing slowness. Eventually I got so bored that I cleaned the tour bus from top to bottom, in that time the van did not move once.

I heard my Falling In Reverse ringtone faintly somewhere. Searching everywhere I couldn't locate my phone, it soon went silent. Only then did I find it. Typical. I had a missed call from an unknown number. Shrugging my shoulders I locked my phone and put it in the pocket of my extreme skinny jeans.

It was only an unknown number, so it was probably nothing. I laid on my bunk and imagined what we could be doing if those idiots we were touring with hadn't started a riot!