The Unexpected

Bicker Away In Darkness

"Tour is today!" Kyle sings, waltzing into Dan's flat.

After months of preparations, it was finally time to travel Europe. Bastille and Woods taking the stage all over the continent. It wasn't something I had expected to be doing in my life time. Spending the past couple years watching Dan with Bastille had made me give up on performing my music. But it was also because of them that I was back at it.

"Good lord, Emma! What the bloody hell are you doing there? Come on, we've gotta get downstairs! Where's Dan?" Kyle asked, grabbing my suitcase.

"I don't know. He didn't come home last night," I said, taking an advil, before grabbing Dan's suitcase and my backpack.

"Seriously? I thought he would've come back by now." Kyle continued to rant about how irresponsible Dan was being as we took the elevator down.

I was extremely pissed at Dan. At four-thirty, am, he looked at my messages, started to respond, and then didn't. Not to mention, I got no sleep, other than slipping out of consciousness at one. My head hurt like hell and I wanted to stab someone, particularly Dan, but I'd settle for anyone.

"Where's Dan?" Dick, the tour manager, asked as we got on the bus. He was fairly alright, but I wasn't in the mood to answer that question. We had only met a few times, but he seemed okay with my silence.

I ignored Dick's question and sat down next to Will, leaning my forehead against his shoulder.

"We have no idea. Emma spent the entire night trying to find him," Kyle explained. "It's like he disappeared.

"How does he just disappear, though?" Dick says, looking exasperated. Kyle shrugged and sat on the other side of me, rubbing my back.

"Poor thing got no sleep," Kyle spoke softly.

We all sat in silence as they each tried to contact Dan. Out of nowhere, there was a tapping against the bus door. As the doors opened, asshole of the day entered.

Dan ran up to us apologizing profusely to the guys, but when he came over to talk to me, Kyle grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the front of the bus. Will grabbed my hand and ushered me to the back of the bus where the bunks were. I felt a stab of sadness for pulling everyone else into our problem. None of them deserved this on day one of tour.

"Pick one. Take a top one," Will suggested. I took his advice and tossed my backpack into one on the left side. I clambered up into it and sat awkwardly on the edge, as to not hit my head on the ceiling. Will sat on the one across, but on the bottom bunk. "You should get some sleep. Kyle and Woody will make sure Dan stays out there for the time being."

I shook my head gently. "I can't sleep. At least not now," I sighed. I was angry, but I didn't blame anyone, but Dan.

"Then let's chat. What's up with the headaches?"

"I dunno. They started happening a bit before tour and it's almost every other day now." I pull my hair out of my face, tying it into a bun.

"Do you know what causes them?" Will looked concerned, rubbing his calloused hands together.

"Again, I have no idea. It feels completely random as to why, but now I've got a bottle of advil in my pocket at all times."

"If we get a chance, we should get someone to make sure there's nothing wrong with you," Will said.

"I'm sure it's nothing. It's probably not going to kill me," I shrugged.

"Doesn't make a difference to me, we're still going to be absolutely positive."

I smiled at Will. He was always a voice of reason. "Alright, alright," I surrendered. "What about you? How have you been?"

"Same old, same old," he smiled.

We talked for another hour or so before I felt tired enough to try and sleep. We still had a couple of hours till our destination. I shoo'd Will out to go talk to the lads.

Once he was gone, I pulled the cigarette case Matty had given me out of my bag. I twisted it around, admiring the rose carving. The steel was cold to the touch but the weight of it felt good in my hands. I slipped my phone out of my backpack and texted Annie. They were in a bus right behind ours, being that we all can't fit in one.

We texted back and forth, talking of anything we could find to talk about. I ranted to her about Dan and she told me about her and Finn. Sometime during our messaging I fell asleep.

"Emma, it's time to get going," Will said, waking me up. "Everyone's already checked out the venue but now it's time for sound check.

I groaned and jumped down from the bunk and followed Will into the venue. I had absolutely no idea where we were. I scolded myself for not looking at the tour dates more closely.

Once we were inside, my band mates surrounded me, as if they could act like a human shield. It wasn't on purpose, only Annie knew that I was avoiding Dan. Arthur and Lane needed fashion advice, while Finn and Annie just wanted to talk about the set.

"Arthur, Lane, guys. Calm down. Just wear black. It's easy as that. Now help us with the set." I spoke quick and efficiently to try and get as much done as possible in the short amount of time we had left.

We had two versions of our set that we needed to decide on which one we were going to perform. After we did pro's and con's, it was decided that we would perform the shorter one for the first couple gigs.

"Woods is needed for sound check!" Cooper shouted. Cooper was the sound engineer for Bastille, but was also gracious enough to take on our band.

Together we approached the stage. The venue was huge. Amazingly, my bandmatee held it together, not losing their minds over how big it is.

"I'm internally screaming," Annie whispered into my ear while shaking me, before heading off to her keyboard.

Lane handed me my guitar and pushed me towards the center of the stage. I thanked whatever god there was that I knew how to do a sound check. I knew what to listen for and what needed to be changed. Perks of taking sound engineering classes in college.

"Whenever you're ready guys," Cooper called out to us.

We were done with our sound check in less than twenty minutes, leaving Bastille a considerable amount of time. Annie began talking to me as we passed Bastille, probably to make an excuse for avoiding Dan.

Instead of waiting for Bastille, Dick told us we could go to a nearby restaurant or cafe, but we had to be back by seven. We sprinted off, enjoying the freedom we had been granted.

A/N

Here is book two! I'm so excited for this book! It'll be hard without The Unfamiliar, but it's time for a new start!

This is also starting on the anniversary that I released The Unfamiliar. Just a random fact.

PLEASE COMMENT AND VOTE!!!!! TELL ME YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS TOUR?