COLLIDE ✰ BLAKE RICHARDSON

I.

I.

"We're on a tight schedule here, people. Let's get this show on the road... ha, get it? Because we're actually getting a show on the road.... because we're touring.... no? 'Kay..."

Leah just laughed to herself, shaking her head at the man's craziness before reaching down to grab her guitar case off the ground. Everyone was loading onto the busses now, and she couldn't help but feel her stomach doing flips. It still hadn't really sunk in that she was actually going on tour — a real tour with tinted-window busses and huge arena venues, not pub gigs with no one really paying attention, like she was used to. With a tight grip on her guitar case (if anything ever happened to that thing she didn't know what she would do), Leah adjusted her bag on her shoulder and started to head towards the massive tour bus she would be calling home for the next several months.

She was snapped out of her daydreams of where she would sleep and what food she'd get for dinner each night by a voice coming from behind her. A male voice... oh, crap. It wasn't that she had been avoiding thinking about the fact that she was forced to share a tour bus with three (attractive) guys, but... she had totally been avoiding thinking about it. Obviously, she had understood why, after all, they were both the opening acts, but Leah just felt so awkward around everyone all the time that she had no idea how she would survive constantly being around them.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Joe. I think that was the worst one yet." The voice's owner remarked and Leah could sense there was a smirk on his face without actually seeing him.

"Nah, I think the one he said the other day about Brad sleeping through his alarm was worse... it was so bad I think everyone around him cringed." A second voice replied, laughing.

She had been so focused on eavesdropping on her new "roommates" that Leah didn't even realize she had completely frozen in position.

"Hey!" The first voice called, and Leah immediately tensed up because she knew its owner was talking to her. Here comes the awkward...

"Uh, do you need help with that?"

"W- uh- no, I'm okay," Leah replied, cringing at how her voice always seemed to crack when she was already embarrassed enough by an awkward encounter. She felt her cheeks redden -- even though she couldn't see them, she just knew her usually-pale face was on fire.

"Are you sure?" The voice asked again. Getting more embarrassed by the minute, Leah finally turned around to look at its owner. Once her body was turned, however, the petite girl could only see the boy's chest, he was that tall. Scanning her blue eyes upwards, she bit the inside of her cheek.

Oh crap.

This boy was cute.

He had on a white button-down shirt with the top buttons undone and a cross necklace hanging from his neck, along with dark brown hair styled up with just one strand falling down over his forehead and deep brown eyes that were looking right into her's.

Leah was startled out of her trance by him clearing his throat, one eyebrow raised as if he were amused by her staring. "I'm Blake," He stuck out his hand for her to shake, and she noticed the silver rings on his fingers.

"R-right, sorry. I'm Leah," The brunette replied, feeling so embarrassed she wanted to run onto the tour bus and hide under a pile of fuzzy blankets.

"That's a pretty name for a pretty girl." Blake mused casually, causing Leah's brain to fog up. What the f-

Leah scrambled to find something to respond with that wouldn't cause her to sound totally stupid, but her thought process was interrupted by Marie's voice approaching the two teenagers.

"Oh, L, I see you've already met one of your tourmates! That's excellent. After all, you two will be living in extremely close quarters for the next couple of months..." The blonde woman slung her arm over Leah's shoulders, winking at Blake, who just chuckled.

"Yep..." She replied, cringing internally at her manager's interruption.

"Long time no see, Blake! Oh, how's Soulla? Send her my love, will you?" Marie focused her attention on the boy who was now stood with his hands in his jean pockets.

"She's good, we're all good. How are you, Marie?" Blake smiled politely, kissing her on the cheek.

Oh my God, he was REALLY cute.

"Well, my newest client just booked a tour with one of the hottest bands right now, so I'd say I'm doing fabulous! But I can tell I'm getting on her nerves right now, so I'm going to take this as my queue to leave."

Leah just rolled her eyes as her ever-so-lively manager finally walked away. She loved Marie, she really did, and she risked so much for her when no one else wanted to take a chance on an unknown artist, but sometimes that woman could be a lot to handle... and now, at eight o'clock in the morning in the middle of nowhere, New York, was one of those times.

"Sorry about her." She turned to Blake, kicking the dirt beneath her with the toe of her sneaker. Somehow, a surge of confidence had found her and she suddenly had the courage to talk to him without stumbling over her words.

"No, Marie's great." He chuckled, picking up the suitcase he'd dropped beforehand. "Anyway, I think we'd better be getting on the bus now before both Marie and Joe chew our heads off. You sure you don't need help?"

"Yes, Mr. Gentleman, I'm sure. But thank you."

"You're quite welcome, Ms. Sassypants."

"What did you just call me?"

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