That Girl And The Lost Boy

Chapter 28:

" The show last night was ridiculous. I had no idea a bunch of kids from Kansas could party so hard." Zack laughed out as he sat up on the couch placing a tender kiss on Emery's cheek as he sat up in bed, Emery sleepily smiling back him. Alex was dead asleep, hanging off the edge of his bunk, Lilly climbed over him stumbling out of the bunk and nearly falling only to be caught by Rian. He smiled, "Careful there Princess."

Lilly rolled her eyes and straightened up, "You better not have drank all the coffee."

He made a face, "Sorry, I've been up for about two hours kiddo.." Jack walked by and grabbed his hoodie from where it sat crumpled up on his bunk.

"JACK! Where are you going!", she exclaimed and he widened his eyes, "Whoa. Calm down. I'm going to get coffee and like a doughnut or something, you know get off the bus."

Lilly grinned, pleading, "Take me with you!!"

He tilted his head, "Uh sure."

Shoving her hands into the pocket of Alex's hoodie, Lilly walked beside Jack to the coffee shop a few streets over from the venue. "You are so slow.", Jack muttered

She whined back, "I'm sorry I'm not tall and my legs aren't like the size of a small child. Plus I'm still tired. So deal with my slowness Barakat."

He laughed shaking his head. He bent down and nodded a bit, "I've got you short-stuff."

She laughed, "Are you kidding?"

He shook his head, "Oh come on."

Laughing she climbed onto his back wrapping her arms and legs around him as he held onto her giving her a piggy back ride down the streets. "Hey Jack-o?" , she muttered

He glanced over his shoulder at her as he walked, "Yeah?"

She smiled, "I'm really glad we're friends."

He laughed, "Me too." They neared the shop and he gently let her down and they entered the shop together standing in line and ordering two coffees and two danishes. He smiled carried the coffee's and pastries to a small table in the front corner of the shop, right against the large shop window. They sat across from each other and sipped their coffee's and nibbled their danishes happily.

"You're such a dork" , Lilly laughed.

Jack smirked, "You're so cute when you do that."

She furrowed her brow a bit, tilting her head, "Do what?"

He smiled, "When you do that, you sip your coffee and smile down the floor, it's adorable."

A soft blush came to her cheeks as she laughed out, "Did you just call me adorable?"

He nodded confidently and sipped his coffee, "I did."

She bit her lip and ripped off tiny pieces of her danish poppy the flaky pieces into her mouth. "On the house. Josh, one of the Barista's said he recognized you two..so this is for you guys! We didn't know the band was in town!'" Jack laughed and nodded, saying thank you. At the same moment both of them reached for the warm freshly baked chocolate chip cookie on the plate and their hands touched, lingering there for a long moment. After a moment they parted hands and Jack smiled, his cheeks turning crimson. She'd never seen him so flustered around her. "Let's split it.", Jack suggested and broke the cookie in half, handing her one piece. Silently they ate their cookies, an awkward silence between them as they listen to the chatter of the coffee house patrons.

They left the coffee shop and as they walked out into the brisk mid morning air Lilly asked softly, breaking the tense silence between them, "Can we keep walking? I don't want to go back yet."

He nodded muttering a simple, "Okay." They walked side by side down the empty city streets,as they wandered they seemed to unknowingly draw closer to each other as they walked causing their hands to brush against each other, they brushed against each other several times before their fingers intertwined wordlessly.

The two of them turned a corner and suddenly she was swept up into Jack's embrace, their lips crashing into each other in a passionate kiss. They pulled back smiling softly, "We should head back", he muttered as he glanced up at the dark cloudy skies threatening rain above, soft boom of thunder heard in the distance. She nodded and they slipped their hands into their hoodie pockets, walking back to the venue.

Lilly walked onto the bus, greeted by Emery who was typing, with incredible focus, on her laptop as Zack sat peacefully beside her on his phone. Rian was somewhere on the back of the bus presumably playing Xbox from the exclamations of mixed joy and frustration heard from the back of the bus. Jack walked onto the bus keeping his head down as he walked back to his bunk. Alex came out still sleepy from his morning spent in bed, he walked out smiling and wrapped his arms loosely around Lilly kissing up her neck and pressing a tender kiss on her lips, "I woke up and you were gone..I missed you.", he murmured.

"I'm sorry baby, let's watch some TV?", she suggested. He nodded and they curled up on the couch, turning on the television as they cuddled up to each other, Lilly mindlessly playing with the necklace, a gift from Alex. She couldn't stop thinking about kissing Jack.

The rest of the day was spent lazily hanging around the bus. They had a meet and greet late in the afternoon which Matt had left several notices for taped around the bus. "30 minutes and everyone better be in the van for the meet and greet!" , Matt called out through the bus as he walked back outside. Alex, being the only one not dressed, went to go throw on some clothes and fix his wild bed head. Rian smiled at Lilly and headed off the bus , clapping his hand against the top of thee door frame as he went, Zack lovingly kissed Emery good bye. She smiled, finally looking up from her computer screen at him as they kissed and he said sweetly, "Have fun with the script babe, be back soon.", with that he left the bus as well, going to climb into the van with Matt, and Rian. Alex now dressed in his favorite black and grey skinny jeans, boots and black hoodie, walked out and grinned at Lilly, leaning down he kissed her and smirked gently rubbing a hand against her thigh as he said, "Don't get into any trouble..I love you." She smiled and nodded whispering, "I love you too" as he left.

Everyone was piled into the van...everyone but Jack. Lilly got up walking to the back of the bus to her bunk. In the narrow hallway between the bunks, she caught Jack walking out to the van, he stopped in front of her looking at her with eyes swirling with emotion. Their eyes met and they stood there a long moment before he pressed her slender body against the wall of the hall as they kissed passionately for a long moment before pulling apart.They barely made eye contact as they parted, Jack silently heading off the bus to get into the van to leave as Lilly stood their in utter silence, unmoving, paralyzed in the moment.