More Than Friends

I Am Mine

Victoria's POV ~a month into tour

"Rise and shine!" Jeff yelled, slumping his arm over the bunks and trying to hit me.
"Go away." I laughed lazily, turning over and tucking myself into the corner.

"High five Vicky." He said.
I poked his hand and he tried to grab my finger.
"Go back to sleep you two." Stone complained.
"Its Jeff, not me"!" I argued.
"I don't care if its the queen of England, go to sleep." Stone said, which made Jeff an I giggle.
After a while Jeff was silent and I was able to go back to sleep.

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"Boo." Someone whispered, waking me up again.
"Chris?" I asked.
"Yes." I opened my eyes to see Chris' lively light green eyes and his happy grin.
"I'm still tired." I complained.
"Are you feeling okay? Jeff said that you have been wanting to sleep all day." Chris said.
"What? What time is it?"  I asked.

"Uh, like 3pm." He answered.
"Jesus." I muttered, "PJ goes on in about an hour, huh."

"Yep." Chris answered. "You coming out or what?"

"Dude I just want sleep." I said.
"Okay whatever, I'm gonna be on the couch over there if you need me." He said.
"Why'd you come in here?" I asked him, I figured he would be in there talking with people.
"Eddie told me to come out here and check on you. He'll be out here after the show." Chris explained. I nodded and he walked to the couch while I laid back down.

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I woke up again, and decided I should stay awake and function as a normal human. I checked the clock, it read 4:30pm.
"Damn." I mumbled to myself. Soundgarden hit the stage thirty minutes ago.
Where was Eddie?

I paced on the bus until I decided I was fully awake, then I walked out and went the short distance into the venue.
I saw Mike first.
"Eddie?" I asked him.
"No clue."

I nodded and walked around some more.
"Hey Jeff, any clue where Eddie is?" I asked after I caught the blonde.
"Not sure Shorty." He grinned.
"Okay, I'll just hang out back here and wait for Chris." I shrugged.

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Chris eventually came backstage and found me.
"Hey Vicky. Ready to head back?"
"Yeah. Can't find Eddie though." I shrugged.
"Oh cheer up, he's somewhere." Chris grinned.
"Yeah, you're right."

"I like that one song of yours." I told him.
"Oh yeah? Which one?"
"Hm, the one where you went:" and then I imitated his stomp thing.
"Outshined." He said laughing at my impression.

He pushed the door of the venue open and we were blasted by paparazzi.
"What's her name!"
"Is that Eddie's girlfriend!"
"Does she know that Eddie cheated!"
"Hey he cheated on you!"
"Is she cheating on him too!"
Chris covered my face with his arm and rushed me to the Soundgarden bus.

"What the fuck was that!" Matt yelled, slamming the door.
"Paps." Chris mumbled.
"Are they right? Did Ed-"
Chris stood up angrily and flung the door open and searched for whoever was shouting at me. Matt closed the door before I could see what was going on.

"Hey why'd you close that!" I yelled at him.
"He's taking care of it." Matt said, crossing his arms.
I started to think of all the things they were yelling. My vision was quickly blurred with tears and my lip quivered. My throat ached.

"Hey, now don't cry please," Matt cooed, kneeling down to look at me.
"No, don't do that-shit I'm not good with this, okay come on." He said, pulling me to the back of the bus. There was a few bean bag chairs and some guitars thrown wherever.
"Sit." He told me, gently nudging me toward a chair.

I fell into it and looked at him through my limited vision.
"It's going to be okay. Don't listen to those assholes, they do nothing but try to get a reaction. What Chris is doing is stupid. That's the reaction they want." Matt rolled his eyes at his bandmate.

"He's not the greatest example." He added.

"Is that why I can't find Eddie? Is he cheating on me? They asked if I was cheating on him too. Why would I do that?" I asked all at once.

"Oh Vicky," Matt sighed, hugging me.

Chris came back in and wet straight into the bathroom.
"You wanna go back to the Pearl Jam bus?" Matt asked me.
"But Chri-"
"Screw Chris, you need to see your friends, especially Eddie." He told me.

I nodded and he walked me over to the Pearl Jam bus.
"Thanks man," Jeff told Matt as he pulled me up onto the bus.

"Okay what happened." Jeff demanded.
The others were listening in, but still Eddie was nowhere in sight.
"Chris and I were walking out and all these assholes were waiting, and they were yelling at Chris and I, asking if I knew that Eddie was cheating, and if I was cheating on him with Chris." I said quietly.

"I don't think Eddie would cheat on you," Stone said.
I looked down at my hands and stayed silent.
"Wanna get to bed?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah, but Chris," I said again.
I sounded like a helpless toddler babbling nonsense.

"What about him?" Jeff said.
"He went out there to see the Paparazzi again but Matt wouldn't let me see what was happening, then Chris came back and locked himself in the bathroom." I explained.

"He probably needs a second to calm down, why don't you talk to him tomorrow?" Stone suggested.
"No, no I want him now." I said.
"Okay, he wouldn't lash out on you anyway. Go on, just come back, or tell us if you're staying over there. Meanwhile, Im gonna go look for your lost lover." Stone said, walking off the bus.

"I should be back." I told them as I left too.

I knocked on their bus door, lord knows what's going on in there
Their voices became hushed and Kim- the guy I met earlier- opened the door.
"Hey Vick. Come on." He smiled, letting me on.
"He's in his bunk." He winked. I assume he was talking about Chris.

I walked down the tiny hallway and searched each bunk for Chris. He was in the top one, of course.
But since there were only four members of Soundgarden, it wasn't that high up.

He had his back to me, and I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not.
"Chris," I whispered.
"Are you awake?" I asked, putting my hand on his bicep.

He rolled over slowly, tired green eyes met mine.
His lip was busted.
"Jesus, Chris what happened?" I asked.
"Nothing, don't worry about it. What are you doing here?" He said.

"I was worried about you." I told him.
"You don't have to be. Did you find Eddie?" He asked, sitting up and making room for me.
"No," I sighed after I got up on the bed.

"Why aren't you sleeping? I figured all four of your dads over there would make you." Chris chuckled.
He's right, they did kinda act like parents for me.
"I don't know, I convinced Stone to let me come over. He said he's going to look for Eddie." I explained.

"You wanna lay down and catch some sleep? I've got plenty of room," he said laying back.
He's right, there was tons of room.
"Okay I guess."

Chris let me sleep on the inside, because he was "worried I'd fall".
"Night Vicky."
"Goodnight Chrispy."