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- The Tour Bus ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᶜⁱᵗʸ, ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ˢᵗᵃᵗᵉ
Light snores come from the Irish boy as he slept in his tour bus bunk. Messy hair covering his freckled face as he slept peacefully on his stomach. The tired boy had no idea about the secret photo taken of Grace and him as they were at the karaoke bar. If you asked Eli he'd tell you he was too drunk to remember anything that happened that night, that you can't blame him for being so touchy when he's drunk.
Eli knew this was anything but the case though, he remembered everything including being so close to Grace. He didn't feel weird about it though, Grace was his friend and only his friend.
The feeling of a feather pillow hitting his face wakes Eli up, only to see his best friend standing right in front of him. "Finally, God. Do you know how hard you are to wake up?" Grace crosses her arms as she stands in front of a tired Eli. "What do you want Grace?"
Grace immediately grabs out her phone and shows Eli the photo that she's been tagged in a million times. From an outsider's point of view, it does look like they are a couple. Eli grabs Grace's phone in disbelief. The original post already has half a million views on Twitter.
Eli frantically grabs his phone only to see three missed calls and one new text message from Anna. shit. There was a three hour time difference meaning that it was already getting late in New York. Nonetheless Eli quickly responds back to Anna's message.
"We need to talk. -Anna"
"Plz call me! - Eli"
"You look stressed." Grace says breaking the silence between them and causing Eli to look up at her in annoyance. Eli tosses his phone on his bed as he leaves him bunk, moving into the lounge area where all his bandmates are sitting. "...oh...is this about your girlfriend..." Grace asks as she follows him, raising her eyebrows up and down as a way to taunt him.
The lads looks up from what they're doing to look at Eli and Grace. "Eli, mate, don't beat yourself up about it. I'm sure Anna knows Grace is just a friend." Ryan says looking up from his book causing Josh and Robert to break out laughing. Eli looks at them in disbelief.
"You all saw the photo?" Eli says getting up from the small couch. "Saw the photo mate? We were there!" Robert's laughter comes even louder as he messes with his best friend. Eli storms out of the tour bus annoyed, grabbing his leather jacket before the door slams behind him.
While Bobby is laughing his ass off, Josh, Ryan, and Grace look at the door concerned. Grace couldn't help but feel somewhat hurt by how the older boy was reacting. Was it really so bad for everyone to think they were dating?
Grace hesitates for a second before going after him. If she knew anything about her best friend, itʻs that heʻs definitely having a smoke right now. Grace finds him in the back of the venue for the show tonight, cigarette in hand. The boy looks sad as he takes a puff of his cigarette. He looks at the ground kicking a small rock back and forth.
"Hey..." Grace slowly approaches him, trying not to scare him. Eli looks up at the brunette, his eyes red like he'd started to cry. "Eli...What's wrong..." The brunette stops to the side of the other, scanning his face to see what's wrong.
"...I don't-...I don't want to mess it up..." Eli's tone is quiet as he takes another puff of his cigarette before blowing out the smoke again. "Mess what up Eli?" Eli takes a seat on the curb of the pavement, his cig dangling between his fingers.
"I really like Anna...I think I love her." Grace finds herself taken aback by her male counterpart's words. Love? He loves her? Eli keeps his eyes on the ground, not wanting Grace to see his tears start to reform.
"Eli...I'm sure everything will be fine. You just need to talk it out." Grace sits down next to her friend, only a couple of inches between them. This time Eli is the one to scan Grace's face. "How about we go back to the bus and I make you some cocoa?" Grace stands up, extending her hand to her best friend. Eli drops his cigarette and smushes it under his shoe before grabbing her hand.
As the hours passed Eli's phone didn't ring, it didn't buzz, it was only silent. Eli felt sad but he knew he had to put up a front during the show. As he faked his smug smile on stage, he found himself forgetting all his problems. The more he played and sang along to the songs, the more he wasn't faking his smile. The gig went by fast, before he knew it another show was done.
While Eli was playing his gig, Anna was at the club with Alexis. Dancing to the music, getting hit on by guys, showing off her new hair. She felt free, so free in fact that she didn't realize that her phone was still in her apartment, on her bed.
The pair, while seemly miles away, had forgotten about their problems with each other for three hours before going back to the revelation. They were on complicated terms, they both knew that. But for three hours, they could distract themselves and feel a temporary release of dopamine.
