Screaming Saviour

Two

After forty-five minutes of sitting and feeling numb, I saw Austin walking over towards me with Alan next to him.

"Didi? This is Alan. Alan this is Didi." He said, placing his hand on my shoulder and smiling at me.

"Hey, Austin told me what happened," Alan said, kneeling down next to my chair, " I'm so sorry. But you can stay with us as long as you want to. We're good at hiding things from the authorities." He told me with a smile, but his eyes filled with concern.

I nodded and muttered a small thanks. I should be so happy about this. I'm about to be touring with my favourite band- why am I not over the moon? I wanted to be. And I wish they knew how much this means to me.

"Sorry, I really am happy- and thank you so much for this- I'm just a bit... numb right now." I said, looking down at my boots.

"I understand. Really, I do." Austin reassured me. I looked at him, took a deep breath and nodded.

"I know you do. Thank you."

"I take you're saying yes then? You never actually gave me an answer?"

He smiled at me as I nodded. He then took his Ray-Bans shades off his head and placed them on my nose.

"Come on, we'll show you the bus." Alan smiled as he grabbed my bag, and gestured for me to get my board.

I held on to Austin's arm while he pulled me on my board out the back of the Drop Dead store, saying thanks to a few employees on the way. He pulled me through a parking lot until we reached a long, black, single-decker bus with a trailer on the back. It had 'Tillys presents' and then the Of Mice & Men logo on the side. The trailer was plain black.

"Wow." I breathed, taking it all in.

The three of us walked round to the other side and Alan punched some numbers into a keypad. The door clicked to signal it was unlocked, and he slid it open.

Alan walked in first with my bag, then Ausin, then me clutching my skateboard closely to my side.

Austin cleared his throat, "Guys, we have a new bus mate!"

Aaron, Tino, Phil and one other man all looked at me from their places on the bus. Phil and Tino were on the small sofa, on their phones. Aaron was in the kitchen area, grabbing a drink from the fridge and the other man was coming through from the bunk area.

"This is Didi, and she's gonna be staying with us for a while." I gave a shy smile and a little wave. "Didi, this is Aaron, Phil, Tino and our assistant, Josh." He told me pointing at each one in turn.

When no one said anything I felt a bit sad- what if they didn't want me here? What if my favourite band, and my only way out of a foster home, hated me?

I let out an involuntary yawn.

"C'mon Didi, I'll show you your bunk." Alan said with a smile, walking towards the back of the bus. I followed him, and when we got there I saw four bunks on each side of me.

"We have two spare bunks, but one of them has a phone on the wall so it can be a bit uncomfy. This is the spare one, just next to mine." He said pointing to the bottom one on my right. "Aaron is above you, the spare one with the phone is above me. Then you have Austin and Tino on top on this side, Josh under Austin and Phil under Tino."

I nodded and yawned again. "Uh, I'm gonna crash now if that's okay?"

"If course, have a good sleep. Kick the wall if you need anything." He said with a sympathetic smile. He embraced me in a hug.

"Thanks Alan."

"No probs Didi." And then he walked off past the others. I had a look in the telephone bunk and saw some pairs of shoes, so after taking my boots off, I put them and my board in the bunk, took my jacket off and draped it over my bag and the end of my bunk, got in and closed the curtain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again I could hear a very heated conversation happening in the main area of the bus.

"You can't just pick up teenage girls from signings because they're crying, Austin! Damnit! What's management going to say when they find out? And David? Do we even have room in the budget for her?" That sounded like Aaron.

"What was I supposed to do Aaron? She has no family to turn to. I know how it feels to have a parent leave you, but I had people to go to. She has no one. She needs us. Please guys. We can talk to David in the morning. He has a child, I know he'll understand. Didi said she can work at the merch table so she'll be helping us out as well. Just let her sleep for now. We can talk in the morning. I'm going to bed."

As I heard Austin's heavy footsteps come towards me, I turned my back to the curtain and pretended to be asleep.

The footsteps stopped and I heard the curtain open.

"You'll be fine Didi. We're here for you." He whispered. He shut the curtain and I felt the bus move slightly as he climbed up into his bunk.

"She's a nice girl. You'd like her." Alan spoke softly.

"Sure. Night guys." Aaron replied as he got into the bunk above me.

Half an hour later, all six men were in their bunks, while I was silently crying myself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, I was the first up, so I got out of my bunk and walked towards the kitchen. I found some coffee and made myself a cup. I sat on the sofa and stared out the window.

After a while, I heard movement from the bunks, and saw Tino walking towards me with his hair all messed up.

"Morning Didi." He smiled, flicking the kettle on. "I'm making toast if you want any?" He asked.

"Uh, two please." He put four slices of bread in a toaster and turned around to face me.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. We were just a bit shocked. We didn't mean to ignore you." He said as he sat down next to me.

"I don't blame you. You don't know me, and I just walked into your home. I'm sorry." I frowned.

"No, please don't apologise. Me and Josh are fine with it, Phil doesn't really care about anything and Aaron will come around. Any friend of Austin and Alan's is a friend of mine."

I chuckled, "Thanks Tino." He opened his arms and hugged me just as the toaster pinged.

"What do you want on it? We have butter, cheese, marmite, peanut butter, jelly-"

"Jelly? On toast?" I asked shocked.

"Oh, you call it jam right?" He laughed.

"Oooooh! Well I'll have one peanut butter and one 'jelly' then please!" I smiled.

"Coming up!" He replied, spreading peanut butter and jam on my toast and anding it to me on a plate.