Promise Me | Noah Sebastian

Chapter Six

We'd been on the road for a solid thirty minutes when I hear someone bust out the PlayStation in the back. I'd chosen to stay in my bunk to read because I was still dog tired and because my mood was shifting between wanting to be okay and not actually being okay. It was one of those random moments where you get unbelievably sad for no reason and have no clue as to why. Just another tick in mood swings, I guess? Whatever the case may be, I didn't want to bring everyone else down on the first day of tour. They'd been waiting and preparing for so long that it wasn't fair to have me drag them down.

My bunk was conveniently right above Noah's and right across from Nicholas', the two bickering back and forth till finally Nicholas threw his bag on one to stop the debate. I'd merely thrown my bag in a compartment and rolled in while I listened to them go back and forth for a few minutes. Why it was a big deal, I didn't know, but what I did know was Noah taking the bottom was going to suck for his joints since he was so tall. He should have just taken mine rather than telling me to choose this particular one.

With my curtains pulled to close off the rest of the bus, and the overhead lights illuminated so I didn't completely strain my eyes while reading on my phone, I allowed for myself to get comfortable as we drove on. Nicholas had been looking at me from time to time the past couple weeks, still curious what happened and how bad it was. He had an inkling but didn't have the evidence; he was always observant since the day we met him. Nick was the type to observe quietly before piecing it altogether and bringing it up. This was probably the longest I've gone without him calling me out for something I was trying to hide.

Well, 'hiding' was a strong word for it. It wasn't like I was trying to hide it. I was merely keeping it to myself so I didn't disturb anyone else or make them unnecessarily worry. Because that's exactly what would happen. If it didn't matter to me, it shouldn't matter to them. Even though it did matter to me and I was lying through my teeth. Now that we were out of the house and in a tour bus, it would be a bit harder to hole myself up somewhere and not have people question me twenty times about it. At least in Noah's room they wouldn't question it because I could have been playing games or something. I couldn't get away with that here, which is why I said I would be reading and or sleeping.

An hour had passed when there was knocking on my bunk, my hand reaching out to slide the curtain open. It was Nicholas, his hair down and slightly knotting around his shoulders as he looked to me expectantly. "And how is my favorite red head doing?"

My eyes squinted a little at him, wondering what he wanted. "Fine, just catching up on some reading."

"Mhm, you said that earlier. But how are you doing?" He tried again, hands moving to shove me toward the wall as he began climbing in my bunk.

"There is literally no room. What the hell are you doing?" Scolding him was getting me nowhere because he'd do as he pleased anyway. It was like him and Noah had been cats in their past lives, always doing what others didn't want you to do and laughing about it while still doing it.

"Reading with you," His gray eyes looked over to my phone, a sigh escaping my nose. Not saying anything, I continued from where I left off till he said, "You know I'm always here, right? Ever since we were eleven, I've never once judged or questioned you, Jess."

Locking my phone in defeat as his reasoning finally came out, I stared up at the ceiling of my bunk. "I know, but you're really worrying for nothing."

"Don't think I don't know your tells, missy. Especially since Noah seems like he's guarding you from the rest of us half the time."

"Oh, he is not."

"He is, because any time any one of us does or says something, we get flicked for it. And I'm fucking tired of him flicking my forehead." There was silence as I knew he was partially correct, but it wasn't as if I asked Noah to do that for me. "He only ever does shit like that when he's trying to protect you, which if things are supposedly fine, there would be no need for protecting. And the perpetual bruise on my forehead."