Soul Speaker

Chapter 3

He comes out of the shower no more than 7 minutes later. He's smiling widely, clearly proud of himself, "See, I told you that wouldn't take long."

"I never had any doubt. You feel better?" you ask as he crosses in front of you over to his trunk. God, he smells good. It's that unmistakable sandalwood and just, man-smell that just smells so... 'Keep it together', you think to yourself and school your facial expression, hoping he didn't notice your exaggerated inhale.

"You have no idea. I probably sweat out at least a pound of sweat and grime during each show," he says as he crosses to different parts of the room, throwing his belongings into a backpack. He grabs his cell phone, shoving it into his pants pocket and comes to stand in front of you.

"Ready to go see our super cool bus?" He's teasing, but you stand and smile back anyway.

"Duh," you tease back, "I've only been looking forward to it all day." Throwing his backpack over his shoulders, he sweeps his hand, palm up, across and in front of you, motioning toward the door. "Well, after you, Madam." You grin and roll your eyes, and head to the door, Josh right behind you. He clicks off the light just as you're exiting the door, but then he reaches out and grabs your arm, effectively stopping you. You turn, looking up at him in question.

His facial expression is notably serious, and he talks in a very hushed tone. "Seriously, I just wanted to say thank you for waiting tonight. It really means a lot that you would stick around to talk with me some more." He reaches up and cups your face with his hand. Your eyes flutter closed as you feel the warm heat from his palm. His thumb starts to rub across your cheekbone and you softly gasp, feeling the soothing buzzing coming from where he touches you. You open your eyes and look up at him to see him staring right back at you. His eyes are deep and full of hidden meaning. The spark you saw earlier is still in there, dancing playfully behind his gaze. Your stomach flips and you're suddenly nervous, not sure how to react to such an intimate moment.

"O-of course;" you stutter out, "you are worth the wait." Oh my god, lame. Laaaaaaame! Why did you say that?! You mentally kick yourself. Josh must not think it was so bad. He drops his hand from your face and hooks his thumbs under the straps of his backpack. He's smiling and looking down at his feet, but his cheeks are flushed, beet red. He glances back up at you, catches your eyes for just a second before dropping his gaze back down. He's bashful and it is the cutest freakin' thing you have ever seen.

"Thanks," he whispers so low that if you hadn't been looking directly at him, you wouldn't have heard it. You take pity on him and finally link your arm through his, pulling him to the hallway and letting him direct you the rest of the way.

***

By the time you get down to the buses, there's only about an hour and a half or so until they're scheduled to leave. He punches in the code and opens the door, stepping up into the bus before turning around and offering his hand to pull you up. You immediately walk into the larger of the sitting areas. Both sides have longer, cream colored leather couches along the walls with a long coffee table in the middle. Each side has two large windows above the couches.

"Well, this is it," he gestures toward the sitting area. "This is where me and Ty spend most of our time while we're traveling." He points up to the tv, where there's an entertainment center of sorts built into the wall. You can see a satellite receiver, dvd player, and several game systems. "Most times we just watch junk tv or play video games. Or youtube. Youtube is a good time killer." You nod in agreement and wait for him to continue.

Behind the larger sitting area is a smaller love seat across from a restaurant booth style table and chairs that match the couches and coffee table in the sitting area. "Sometimes we sit here and eat, but mostly it ends up being just a catch-all table and we eat up the on the couches."