You'll Be Fine • {Remington Leith}

o - n - e

"Remington fucking Leith!"

Blake Deprisco's voice shrilled through Palaye Royale's tour bus, making many heads turn towards her, none of which was the one she wanted.

"Remington!" she yelled his name again and his head popped around the corner of his bunk. He rolled his eyes, pulling the curtain closed to conceal himself. She shook her head, moving to his bunk and throwing the curtain right back open.

"Did you give merch away again? I'm missing five t-shirts and a hoodie," she informed him, and he rolled his eyes again.

"It's not a big deal, Blake," he said, and she sighed heavily, annoyed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, pushing it in his face to display the text she'd just gotten from Palaye's manager.

"Hey, B. Merch inventory is low again. Any idea why? Five t-shirts and a hoodie is over $150 we're out. Let me know if you find it/figure out what happened."

Remington read the text, shrugging.

"I gave it to a few kids who were at the venue a few days ago way early. They'd waited for us all day and still couldn't get inside. They deserved it," he said nonchalantly, and she nodded.

"I'm sure they did but someone's going to have to pay for it, and it's not going to be me this time. You know it got me in trouble the last time you did that shit," Blake told him and he rolled his eyes yet again.

"Don't shit your pants. I'll pay for the fucking merch, okay? Leave me alone," he told her, pulling the curtain shut on his bunk again.

She heaved a big sigh at him again, sitting down heavily on the bench seat at the front of the bus with Remington's youngest brother and the drummer of their band, Emerson. Em smiled cheekily, offering her the bag of chips he was eating. She reached in for one, rolling her eyes at him.

"What are you smiling at?" she grumbled, making him laugh quietly.

"You two should really just hate fuck and get rid of all that animosity between you," he said, and she rolled her eyes once more. It wasn't the first time he'd said those exact words and every time they just annoyed her.

She'd been working merch for Palaye for almost two years, and in that time she'd formed very close bonds with two out of three members of the band. Emerson and their oldest brother Sebastian were like brothers to her, but Remington... Remington was different.

They'd butted heads since the moment they'd met. They didn't agree on anything and argued almost constantly, sometimes escalating to full-on screaming matches. Both the other two boys and pretty much all of the band and crew insisted it was because they were in love with each other, and Blake always insisted that that definitely wasn't the case, but the more time that passed the more she wondered if in some twisted way it could be true.

She didn't hate him anywhere near as much as someone who argued with him constantly should, and her feelings towards him were definitely different than her feelings towards his brothers. He was gorgeous, of course, anyone could see that, but she also knew that he was one of the sweetest and kindest people she'd ever met when he wasn't being insufferably annoying.

Maybe she did have some sort of romantic feelings for him, but whether she did or not she felt like she could kill him in that moment. Him giving away merch to fans, whether they deserved it or not, had become a habit and every single time she got her ass chewed by the band's manager about it, even though she tried her best to watch the tubs the merch was stored in as closely as she possibly could. For the life of her she wasn't even sure how he kept getting past her to get it without her noticing.

"I don't want to hate fuck him. I want to stab him," she told Emerson, snapping back to reality. He laughed again, giving her a playful look.

"But like in a sexy way, right?" he asked, and Blake groaned loudly, unable to keep a grin from spreading across her face.

"You're a bad friend, Emerson Barrett, you know that? The absolute worst," she said, making him laugh.

She stood, kissing the side of his head and then making her way back out to the gear trailer that was parked behind the bus. She sorted through the merch, making absolute sure there wasn't anything else missing.

She had loud music playing in her earbuds as she went, and so when she turned around to see Remington leaning against the doorway of the trailer with a smirk on his face, she about flew through the roof she jumped so hard. He laughed, stepping inside and approaching her. She pulled her earbuds out of her ears, scowling at him.

"Sorry," he said, his tone telling her he definitely didn't mean it. She rolled her eyes, shaking her head, going back to her counting and doing her best to ignore the fact that he was still watching her with an amused look on his face.

"Why do you have to be such a shit all the time?" she asked him, knowing full well her tone wasn't quite as biting as she wished it was. He scoffed lightly and she heard him pulling himself onto one of the instrument cases to sit.

"I'm sorry I took the merch. I'll PayPal the money to the Palaye account, okay?" he asked, his voice softer than she would've expected it to be. She let her eyes float to him, expecting to see some sort of sassy expression. Instead, he looked sincere. She nodded.

"Thanks," she said quietly, directing her attention back to the t-shirts in the box in front of her.

"You don't have to be so cold with me, you know," he said quietly, in a tone she wouldn't have expected. He sounded almost... wounded.

"What?" she asked, sure she'd heard him wrong. Her head snapped in his direction and he shrugged.

"Nothing. I've gotta go get dressed for the show," he told her, slipping to his feet and walking away.

Blake watched him go, a pit in her stomach. She'd had no idea that he felt like she was too cold. She'd kind of always assumed they both had a general dislike or whatever it was for each other, but... maybe the other boys were right. Maybe their conflicting personalities meant something more.