Like Real People Do

Midnight Blue Moonlight

The one with the apology.

//

Jaxon was giving me the cold shoulder. Which, to be honest, I probably deserved. After all, my actions had caused his children to be terrified enough to need comforting hugs for about thirty minutes before they slowly regained their usual brightness.

Children were resilient; incredibly so. And less than an hour after sobbing so much that they shook, they were chasing each other around the dressing room in a game of tag started by their Uncle Peter. They were giggly and joyous and if any memories of the frightening incident which happened an hour before remained, they showed no signs.

If only their father so easily came to forgiveness. I already knew Jaxon wasn't particularly thrilled by my presence in the first place, so after the Paparazzi Incident, I pretty much spent every waking moment wondering when he was going to tell me to pack my bags and head home.

But it never happened.

An entire week had passed and we were now on the road to the another stadium and as far as I knew, I still had my job. The only thing that had really changed was that Jaxon now went out of his way to pretend I didn't exist. Which was a bit irritating and hurtful, but I figured he had his reasons and seeing as I was still employed, I decided not to bring up the coldness channeled in my direction.

We had gotten pretty good at dancing around each other. He would stay silent when I came to help the twins get ready in the morning and pretty much ignored me when he saw me in the dressing room during his breaks. Really, the only time he ever spoke to me was when he insisted that he could get them to sleep on his own if there was ever time when they didn't crash out during the concert.

Tonight had been one of those nights. It was probably as a result of the cupcakes the venue manager had delivered to the dressing room that the twins were still full of energy when the show was over. Once back on the tour bus, they spent an hour chasing each other around the back common area until they were tired enough to fall asleep, but only after hearing a lullaby from their father and their three favorite uncles.

I lay in my bunk, across from Benji's empty one, pretending that I was already asleep, but really listening to their harmonies and reminiscing about how my mother used to do the same thing for me when I was a child and how her voice singing me to sleep meant my dreams were always happy ones.

That trick worked tonight as well, at least, for the first couple hours. But I woke to find the bus dark and reached for where my phone was plugged in beside me to check the time, groaning lightly when I discovered it was just past one in the morning.

I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised, seeing as I still wasn't entirely used to falling asleep on a tour bus. My first night in this position, I had slept a grand total of three hours.

Pushing back my blankets, I decided to make the most of my sudden insomnia and swung my legs to the floor after pushing aside the curtain which shielded my bunk from the aisle. Padding towards the closet where our bags were kept, I rummaged around my duffel in search of my sketchbook and a pencil and headed towards the front seating area.

I hadn't sketched in a while, partly because I had been busy and partly because I had been lacking inspiration, but I so badly wanted to put my pencil to paper once more. Perhaps the odd hour and the shine of the moonlight on the open road would provide me with the muse I needed to get back my flow.

It was an intriguing dream, but one which was dashed when I entered the front room to find Jaxon sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the couch, an acoustic guitar in his lap and a stack of papers spread out before him as he chewed on the end of a pencil.