Eight Dollars (Trixya)

Day 6

Today we were in Manchester, and Brian had a business meeting, so I was left with the bus crew. I was lounging around, on my phone, when Kyle came and sat across from me.

"How're you doing?" he asked with a smile.

"Fine," I carefully replied.

"We haven't really had a chance to talk or get to know each other at all yet, so I thought I'd join you if you don't mind?"

"Thats... Fine. I didn't want to get in way of... Business, or whatever," The double meaning of my words wasn't lost on him, and he smiled, leaning back in his chair. I was starting to question my initial judgement a little, but not enough to change my standoffish behaviour. I returned to scrolling through Twitter, half ignoring him again.

"This is ridiculous. When are you two getting together, then?" he asked, after a moment of silence.

"Sorry?!" I looked up from my phone, the suprise on my face making Kyle burst into noisy laughter. He was the last person I'd expected to jump on the shipping train, and I didn't know how to react.

"Brian, have I ever mentioned my fiancé to you? He's called James, and we've been together for seven years now,"

"Oh, um... Congratulations," I offered, embarassment tinting my cheeks.

Damn, I supposed that meant I had to find someone else to fling a constant stream of curses at in my head. It felt like a small weight was lifted away, as jealousy had weighed me down for the last few days. It always made me feel that, which was unfortunate really, since in the last year I'd had quite a few men to be a little jealous of.

Kyle gave me an amused look.

"Thanks. So the question still stands, you and Brian?"

"I... I, um... Don't know," I was still so suprised by the revelation about Kyle that I couldn't quite coherently answer his question.

Amy appeared from the bunk area, smiling widely.

"You know you like him," she teased in a sing-song tone.

"And he likes you!" Kyle finished. "Seriously, he's either with you or bringing you up in conversation,"

"And he was totally down when I told him to wink at Kyle that one time to see what you did," Amy told me. That made sense of a few nights before, when Kyle had stood with me during the show. Was that really what was going on?

The pair nodded at me. I wasn't sure if I was being stupid, but at that moment it felt like my body was ninety precent fulled by the pure hope they had given me. Maybe, just this once, I wasn't doing stupid, impulsive things for no real reason. Maybe Brian would notice the reasoning behind the gesture, bizzare as it was. Until then, I couldn't really be sure.

"That's still a question I can't really answer on my own, you know?"

The pair gave each other knowing looks, and I felt slightly out of the loop. This was my potential love life we were discussing, after all.

My phone buzzed in my hands.

1 new message from Barbie 💕

I quickly unlocked it, opening my messages up.

This is the most boring meeting ever please save me

I smiled affectionately, making the mistake of looking up before responding.

"What's he said?" Amy asked, her smile knowing.

"It could be anyone. Maybe my mom texted me," I deflected, trying not to show anything on my face.

"But she didn't, so come on, what's he said now?" Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Nothing really. He just said it's just a boring meeting,"

"Oh fuck, you're totally head over heels," Kyle remarked.

Claire wandered in, at that moment, looking around at everyone.

"What are we talking about? The lovebirds?"

"Yeah," Amy confirmed.

"It'll happen, some day soon, I've said it before. All I want is an invite to the wedding," Claire told me, and the amount of certainty in her voice had me almost convinced.

Maybe I just had to wait a little bit longer.