Ross Gets Dumped (An R5 Fanfiction)

Chapter 4

“So, can I ask a question?”

“That’s a great idea! Twenty questions!”

We just got back on the bus after the first gas stop, about two hours from when we left the hotel. Buses burn through gas like it’s lighter fluid, I swear. I always feel like whenever we’re on tour we’re personally responsible for a hole in the ozone layer.

I told my family that I’m having fun with Sophia and I’m going to stay on the Line Drive bus for a while longer. They don’t seem to care that I’m missing. I think they’re more glad that I’m acting like myself again than worried that I’m spending so much time with the opening band instead of my own band. Rocky, who had been scowling at me a lot after the incident with Sophia, even smiled when I admitted that Sophia is awesome.

Sophia and I threw around some chords at first, but once we broke the ice, Sophia and I mostly just jammed. She sang me another one of her songs and I sang Free Falling by Tom Petty because it’s one of my favorites. Then we just started covering songs together until the bus stopped and we looked out the window to see a gas station. Now we really need to get to work.

“Twenty questions? I only wanted one.”

“It’ll be fun! Plus maybe the more we learn about each other the easier this will be.”

“Fine,” I say because I’ve learned not to argue with Sophia. “Me first.”

“Shoot.”

“Why do four sixteen to twenty year olds get to tour without any parental supervision?”

Sophia laughs. “My parents don’t even notice I’m gone. Not that I left without telling them or anything, I told them of course, but they just gave some noncommittal grunts and told me that they’re not going to bail me out of jail. And Toby’s folks don’t care as long as he checks in. We’re the only two under eighteen. Allen and Rory don’t live with their parents anyway.”

Hearing her talk about her parents like that makes me sad. I’ve always thought my mom and dad were a little overbearing and overprotective, but at least they care about me and they always wanted to watch my siblings and I live out our dreams. The way Sophia talks about her parents shows me that she doesn’t want my pity, though. She might want her parents’ love, but she definitely doesn’t want – or need – my pity. So I don’t give it to her.

“Now it’s my turn!” she says excitedly. “What really happened with you and your ex-girlfriend?”

I put my hands over my heart and feign being wounded. “Ouch. You hit right where it hurts.”

“Well if the tabloids are to be believed, you cheated on her with like all of your Teen Beach Movie and Austin & Ally costars. But I’m pretty sure that’s not true.”

“Why?”

She goes pale. “It is true?”

“No, of course not!” I say quickly. “I was just wondering why you’re so sure that it isn’t.”

“Two reasons,” she says. “First: if you cheated on her, you wouldn’t be so heartbroken and you wouldn’t have acted like such a douchebag when we met. Second: you just don’t seem like a cheater to me.”

I blush. “Thanks, that means a lot,” I say. “Hopefully my fans don’t believe the rumors either.”

“I’m sure they won’t. Now tell me the real story.”

“There isn’t really one,” I say. “She was supposed to go on tour with us while her parents shot a movie in Zimbabwe but the morning we left she texted me saying it was over between us and she was in Africa with her parents.”