My desperate endeavor to find my whoever

18) Mush

Erin

It didn't feel like it'd been 2 days since my last day off. Not with all the editing, social media posts and Alex I've been dealing with. He's been very quiet the last few days; constantly texting Jack from across the room (or the tour bus, like he was now). Either that, or he was being very lovey-dovey with me. I'll be honest, it was highly annoying. Constantly having him attached to me was like having a 2 year old son, one that was constantly having tantrums or just wanted attention. Today I was sick of being ignored so I stood up to grab his attention. Of course, he was too interested in texting.

"Oi mush," I barked, slapping his leg. "I thought we were going out?"

He looked up. "Oh yeah." smiled Alex. "We better head off."

Luckily, Flyzik was hungover and still fast asleep in his bunk - arse hanging out and all. We could get away with murder if we really wanted to. The others thought we'd gone shopping for food and beer; only Jack, Zack and Rian knew the truth. As we left the bus, I checked nobody was hanging around and grabbed hold of his hand when I knew we were safe. "You drive, right?"

"Uh, yeah." I answered, sounding unsure. "Why?"

"I hired a car for us, thought we could just go wild for a while." He shrugged. "I just want some time alone, and maybe get you used to driving in the States."

I pulled a face. "Why do I need to get used to driving here?"

Alex

"Well," I said, swallowing the humongous lump in my throat. "Move in with me." Shut up, Alex. "While you're working for Adam, you'll probably be here a lot, so you'll have to get used to driving on the 'wrong' side of the road."

"It IS the wrong side!" Erin protested, a slight chuckle to her voice.

"And I agree with you!" I laughed. "I dunno, just thought it'd be a good idea. We can do something else if you want?"

Erin pulled her signature smile. "Alex it's brilliant." She told me honestly. "I don't care, as long as you're there."

Dammit. Now it was my turn to blush; I usually make her do that. We made it around the corner with minimal awkwardness and picked the car up. Luckily I managed to get hold of the same sort of car she drives back home, all thanks to her dad telling me a few days back. I had a drive around first, then we swapped over.

"This is so fucking weird." She mumbled as she got comfortable. "Everything's just so wrong!"

"Yeah, my dad said the same when we first came over." I chuckled, scratching my neck. "He hated driving, but he got there in the end."

I couldn't help but giggle at her as she mumbled "this is so fucking weird" over and over again. We eventually managed to set off and, I have to say, she was doing so well...until she stalled the car in the middle of a turn. Onto a busy highway.

"Oh fuck!" She panicked. "Alex what do I do?! Alex! Do something!"

"It's fine," I said calmly. "Just start the car again, don't worry. Breathe."

She seemed to calm down as we began to move again. I directed her off the highway and down to a little cul-de-sac and she completely flopped back into her seat. "I hate you." She breathed, giving me the middle finger. I laughed; she glared at me.

"Look I'm sorry," I sighed. "I didn't think it would be so different. I mean, you drive one of these back ho-"

I froze. My eyes widened as she looked back at me, while I diverted my attention directly ahead. Her eyes narrowed. "What did you mea-"

"Let's head back?" I said loudly, pulling on the door handle.

"Alex," she boomed. "What did you mean?" She said slowly.

"Fine." I sighed, slamming the car door again. "I was talking to your dad, just asking him what car you drove. I told him what I was planning today."

Her glare softened. "You went to all this effort just for me?" She asked quietly. I nodded. "Muuush..." She giggled, poking my cheek.

"I just wanted to do something different y'know?" I sighed. "Like, I'm really not comfortable with 'dating' because I always get hurt, even with Lisa. I just wanna skip to the long-term relationship part, but girls don't want that. It just seems like you all want the cutesy dates in the movies and dinner...that's not me. Things that aren't the norm for most guys are my thing. I wanna show people I'm different."

"You adorable little mush." She grinned. "Y'know what? I'm sick of the mushy dating scene. Things like this that aren't the norm...the spontaneity of it all...I fucking love it! This has been perfect, even if I did stall in the middle of a busy road."

I couldn't help but chuckle. Erin was absolutely hilarious and that's probably my favourite thing about her. Besides her talents, obviously. We swapped over again and I took us for food. We ended up being removed from the diner for too much PDA (apparently we live in Saudi Arabia...kidding). Erin just assumed we were going back, but I had one last surprise for her.

Erin

"Did you see his face though?!" I cackled. "Oh my god, I thought he was going to punch you! I'm fucking crying!" I wasn't exaggerating either; tears had been streaming down my face since we got thrown out. "Today's been perfect."

"I'm glad you think so." He smiled fondly, resting a hand on my thigh.

It took me a minute to realise we weren't going back to the venue. In fact, we were going in totally the opposite direction. "Alex," I looked over at him, totally confused. "Where are we going?"

"I have just one last surprise." He told me, raising his index finger while continuing to look straight ahead. "We're almost there, so be ready to get out."

I noticed more and more signs for the airport as we left the freeway and down what seemed like a huge country road. It felt like we were heading out to the middle of nowhere, but then more and more hotels popped up and planes got lower as we travelled, so I had a rough idea.

"Are we going away?" I asked quickly. "We can't go away in the middle of a tou- Well, you can't anywa-" I froze. "Arrivals?!"

He started to chuckle at me as I got more and more hysterical. I kept looking between him and the road ahead, utterly confused at what was going on. Alex, meanwhile, was obviously finding this whole thing hilarious as he could do no more than laugh at me.

"We're not going on vacation." He chuckled, finally speaking as we pulled up. "We're collecting somebody. I just can't say who."

"But-" I began to protest.

"It's called a surprise for a reason!" Alex laughed. He began to root down the side of his seat, and pulled out an envelope, handing it to me. "Now don't even try to open this until you get inside. Follow every single instruction to the letter. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir yes sir!" I mocked, saluting him. "I still think you're an arse."

"Of course." He nodded. "Just wait until you open it. Now skidaddle...mush."