Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

back on tour

It was Wednesday. The day we officially packed up the tour bus again and left for the road. It all felt like a little too much, but in a good way. I was going to miss my friends, sure, but I'd be back for breaks. And after tour we'd be back home for a lot longer.

Still, it was hard for my brain not to over exaggerate. I felt like I was moving away, that I was leaving beautiful LA behind. But maybe that was because the only time I'd been out of LA was on tour for a brief week or two. Absolutely everything else I've seen, smelt, touched; every memory etched into my head has belonged to this place. It kind of felt like I was betraying that broad-shouldered, father-like city that raised me.

I wasn't quite sure how to apologize to the jungle of skyscrapers, so instead I spent the morning staring out of the huge, all-wall encompassing window in the apartment's living room.

My chestnut hair was pulled into a crude bun on top of my head, and I sat criss-crossed in my pajamas directly in front of the glass, sipping on a mug of green tea. The golden sun crept up over the tops of glass and concrete buildings alike, the streets below already filled with feverishly honking cars. To me it sounded like a symphony. A smile crept its way onto my lips as the sun warmed my bare feet and sweet, steaming tea rolled lazily over my tongue and down my throat.

A familiar figure sat down next to me with disheveled, bright pink hair. The brown-eyed man pulled his legs into a criss-crossed position like mine, and he had a mug of coffee in his hand.

"What're you looking at?" Josh asked warmly, taking a sip of the poignant liquid in his mug as his eyes traveled from the city back over to me.

I shrugged, sighing a little at the comfortable feeling tingling through my toes which I dug into the fluffy, almost-white carpet. "Los Angels," I responded thoughtfully. "I'm just trying to soak it in before we start traveling again."

Josh nodded, looking over at the city slightly differently than before. "I never understood what it would be like, growing up in a big city," he said absentmindedly, his eyes never leaving the skyline. "I grew up in a pretty small town. It was nothing like this."

I shrugged a little, "I don't see how it could be that different. It's just a scenery change."

"Yeah, but it was a little more than that," Josh trailed off, lost in thought.

There was a comfortable, warm silence as our groggy minds took a moment to rest and think. I took a sip from the warm mug in my hands, asking finally, "Do you like Ohio more than LA?"

The pink-haired man mulled it over for a second, adjusting his sitting position before training his warm brown eyes over to me. "Ohio will always be home, so I guess I have a bit of a bias. But if I had to choose, that would be it," he smiled a little.

I nodded, smiling back, "Makes sense." I paused before blurting, "Will I ever get to see it?"

Josh cocked a confused eyebrow, "See what?"

"Columbus," I filled in. "Where you grew up. Will I ever get to see it?"

Josh smiled at that, his eyes squinting happily at the edges. "Yeah, Tyler's family still lives there, and we'll all be over there for thanksgiving. I promise to show you around."

I smiled too, my heart warming like the sun falling on my toes at the thought of it. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't have to know. Some things were much better left off as happy mysteries.