Dedicated to Creep_It_Kawaii because she is awesome and one of the best people you will ever meet. Go check out her stories. They're amazing.
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Gem
Swiping the sweat off my forehead, I heave the last box of equipment into the trailer.
"Yo, Gem! Catch!" One of the other MIW crew members shouts. Looking up, I see a water bottle being tossed at me. Just barely seeing it, I fumble to catch it but grab it successfully.
Opening the top, I take a quick sip before bending over and pouring a little on my head to try and cool myself down.
"Fuck this heat," I mumble as Shelby the merch girl walks up to me. She grins.
"I know right. Here, Korel told me to give all the crew members their new shirts." I nod and take the fabric that has MIW CREW MEMBER, YES WE'RE GOTHIC BADASSES wrote on the back with the classic MIW skeleton middle finger on the front.
I laugh at the shirt.
"I know. I did the same when I got mine. Well, I gotta go to the bus. Korel talked to you and told about how you have to sleep on their bus tonight, right?"
I nod. "He did. I still can't believe Eli somehow managed to set my bunk on fire."
Shelby sighs.
"I told them not to play with fireworks inside the bus. But who listens to me?" She throws her hands in the air, exasperated.
Shaking my head, I hug her bye and tell her goodnight. Turning around, I toss the shirt over my shoulder and pull down the door to the trailer. Above, I hear a small rumble from the sky and I shiver, glancing up.
It was going to storm. Frowning, I look back down at my hands. I hate storms. Very few good things come out of them. Taking a deep breath to hide my slowly growing anxiety, I walk up to the front of the bus and knock on the door.
I step back and wait for a second before my boss, Korel, opens up the door.
"Hey, Gem. Come on in." He waves me forward and I enter the bus, clutching my little night pack. Looking back and forth, I see the band members spread about. Vinny and Ryan are on the couches opposite of each other, playing video games. Ricky is on his phone at the other end of the couch Ryan is on, and Ghost is sitting at the little kitchen table, typing away at his computer. Chris is nowhere in sight.
"Well, I'm sure you're tired, so how about I go ahead and show you your bunk for the next few nights?" Korel captures my attention. Nodding, I drop my gaze to the floor as I hear a clap of thunder outside.
Shyly, I shuffle past Ghost who gives me a wave. I may be on tour with the guys but I didn't really talk to them. Being a huge fan of their music, I was too nervous to actually approach them because I was afraid I'd embarrass myself.
"Here," Korel gestures to a middle bunk. "You can put your stuff in the bunk below you since it's empty. If you need anything, Vinny is above you and Chris is in the middle bunk across from you. Night, Gem."
Before I get the chance, he waddles away. Like, literally waddles away. I shake my head.
Men are weird. These guys are weird.
After shuffling into a loose shirt and some shorts, I crawl into my bunk and curl into the covers. Outside, I can hear the rain beginning to pound against the bus. With a silent whimper, I force myself into an unsteady sleep.
Chris's pov
Sighing to myself, I scroll through my emails on my laptop as I lay in my bunk. Outside, the rain pounds against the side of the bus walls. I honestly don't see how all the others could sleep through this. But then again, being on an all around the world tour, you tend to sleep through just about anything when you get the chance to rest.
As I finish up some emails and answer a few tweets, I hear a weird noise to the side of me. Scrunching my non-existing eyebrows, I pull back the curtain of my bunk. The noise seems to be coming from the bunk across from mine.
Looking closely, I notice that it was one of the Merch girls. Gem I'm pretty for sure her name is.
A whimpering noise emerges from her sleeping form and a sad ping shoots through my chest. She's having a nightmare.
Getting up, I walk carefully over to her bunk and pull back the curtain. Behind it lays a restless girl with tears streamed down her bare face. Gently grabbing her shoulder, I lightly shake her, attempting to wake her.
Startling me, I step back as she shoots up with gasp. A small 'fuck' escapes her mouth as she bangs her head against the bottom of the bunk above her. More tears fill in her eyes at the pain.
"Hey, hey, hey," I coo, coming over and wrapping my tattooed arms around her shaking body. "Calm down. It's okay. I'm sorry I woke you."
She shakes her head.
"It's fine. I-I was having a n-nightma-mare any-anyways," she gets out between little cries.
"It's okay," I repeat. Getting into her bunk, I hold her close as she buries her face into my shirt. "Just breathe. Focus on my breathing and copy it, okay?"
Gem nods into my chest, slowly taking deep breaths, one at a time.
"There you go," I coo, running my fingers through her dyed hair. After a few silent minutes, I speak up again.
"What was your nightmare about?"
Maybe if she talked about it, it would make things better.
Gem shivers in my arms.
"The storm. I don't do good during storms," she whispers, shamefully.
I tighten my grip around and rub her shoulder. "Hey, no need to be ashamed. I'm a grown man, covered in tattoos, who screams and scares people for a living, and yet, the moment I see a spider, I turn into a baby. I screamed bloody murder one time because a spider landed on my Starbucks when I sat it down."
She giggles and I smile, happy that I got to make her laugh. Deciding I wanted to hear that cute little noise again, I continue to tell her funny tour stories even if they really embarrass myself... or the others mwahahaha. *cue evil laugh*
"And then this one time Ryan picked up a water bottle and downed it quickly only to find out it was Ricky's piss..." a light tiny snore catches my attention and I look down.
Gem is asleep on my chest. Her hands curled in my shirt and a light smile on her lips.
I smile down at her.
"Sweet Dreams," I whisper, closing my eyes.
*****
1,165 words
I finally completed it! I hope you like it, Gem!
Also, to all other readers, go check out her stories Creep_It_Kawaii. They're amazing!
Xx- Cruelty💋
