BloodLust // yungblud fanfic

Chapter 15

He woke when the bus stopped and rolled over to check his phone. It was noon; they had probably stopped for lunch. He had been asleep for nine hours. He had that murky underwear feeling that came from sleeping too much.

He rolled out of his bunk and went to the front of the bus. The door was open, and the driver was gone. A quick glance out the window indicated that they were at a truck stop.

Tom was the only person in the front lounge. He was sitting on the couch looking at his phone, and he glanced up when Dominic stumbled in. "Look who's finally up."

"I need my beauty sleep," Dominic said. He yawned, and his jaw cracked. "Where are we?"

"Central Oregon." Tom said. "Just south of Eugene. Hungry?"

"Yeah." Dominic said. He yawned again and scratched his face. "Where's everyone else?"

"Loitering in the parking lot." Tom said. "Gavins rounding everyone up."

"Is Michael out there?" Dominic asked. He wanted to remind Michael of his promise to talk to Gavin. They would be in Portland in a couple of hours. Michael was running out of time.

"Yeah," Tom said. "He was up really early this morning. I got up around 10 and he was already up and drinking coffee."

Weird, but not unheard of. Michael kept strange hours. "You're not eating?"

"Yeah, i'll be there in a minute." Tom said. "I'm replying to comments on instagram."

"You're obsessed." Dominic said. "Let it go, man."

Tom frowned at him. "Someone has to do it. Social media is the primary way that we can develop relationships with fans - "

"Yeah, okay, you're right," Dominic said. "I do instagram lives all the time, does that count?"

"You have the social skills of an eggplant," Tom said. "Don't worry, you're all good."

Dominic flipped him off and climbed off the bus.

The sun was directly overhead, and so bright that Dominic raised one hand to shield his eyes as he scanned the parking lot. Michael was standing in the shade toward the rear of the bus, looking at his phone and oblivious to his surroundings, like an unsuspecting antelope in one of those natures documentaries Gavin liked to watch: defenseless, isolated from the herd.

Dominic moved in for the kill. "Morning, Michael."

Michael's head jerked up, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What do you want?"

What a friendly and delightful person. Dominic cut to the chase. "Have you talked to Gavin yet?"

Michael didn't bother playing dumb. He hunched his shoulders, drawing them up toward his ears. "I said i would."

"But you haven't yet," Dominic said. "You're almost out of time - "

"I know," Michael snapped. "Back off, okay? I'll take care of it."

"Okay," Dominic said. "Whatever you say."

Gavin emerged from the other bus and waved one arm toward the truck stop in a sweeping 90 degree arc. Time to eat.

He located Holly in the crowd of musicians and roadies moving toward the restaurant. She wasn't hard to spot: there were only four women on the tour, and Holly was full head taller than any of them. He looked for the chestnut sweep of her hair and headed in that direction. He had already given up on the pretense of coincidence, the stupid little fancy-running-into-you-here games that were such a staple of the early stages of flirtation. Holly knew it wasn't a coincidence, and there was no point pretending otherwise. It was sort of a relief to dispense with all that. Under any other circumstances, he would have had her in his bed forty eight hours ago. They would spend a few more days dancing around each other, but at this point it was a foregone conclusion that they would end up screwing like bunnies before the tour was over.

Yeah, he had promised Tom that he would keep it in his pants. But Tom didn't need to know.

He caught up with Holly just as she was walking through the truck stop's sliding doors. He moved in beside her, set his hand on her lower back, and leaned down to murmur, "Good morning, gorgeous."

She flinched away from him. "Jesus! You scared me." She flipped her hair back over her shoulders and shot him a stern glance, the curl of her lips betrayed her amusement. "You should know better than to sneak up on unsuspecting women."

"But you're so cute when you shriek like that," he said. "No, you're right. Sorry. Let me buy you breakfast to make up for it."

"I thought all my meals were covered on tour?", she said.

"You don't believe in making it easy for a guy, huh?" he asked. "That's fine." He let her draw ahead of him so that he could admire her ass in her little cut off shorts. "i'll let you buy your own pancakes."

She looked back at him over her shoulder, her expression rich with teasing invitation and promise. "You only get to sit by me if you're nice."

Jesus. What a woman.

They didn't sit alone; that would have been too conspicuous, and Dominic didn't see any reason to tempt fate. Instead they sat with some of the roadies, who were primarily interested in cramming their faces with as much food as possible. Still, he and Holly kept their conversation strictly business: song arrangements, upcoming meet and greets, potential changes to the set list. Holly kept bumping her feet against his beneath the table, just infrequently enough that it could plausibly be accidental, but he knew from the wicked look in her eyes that she was doing it on purpose.

After a while, he realized that he hadn't seen Gavin, Michael, or Tom come into the restaurant.

It probably meant nothing. Maybe they were out in the parking lot having a nice chat about solipsism.

He gave it a few more minutes, listening to Holly with half an ear while he watched the front door for any developments. Nobody came in but a few truckers.

"You aren't listening to me," Holly said mildly.

He snapped his eyes back to her face. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Is something going on?" she asked.

He shrugged and slid his chair back.
"Maybe. I'll be back soon. Probably."

"Okay," Holly said. "Good luck."

Dominic went out into the bright sunshine. He should have worn his sunglasses, but it was hard to make good decisions like that before his first cup of coffee. Even squinting and half blind, he spotted them right away; Gavins bright yellow shirt was hard to miss. They were clustered around the bus's open door, Gavin and Tom standing on either side and Michael sitting on the steps between them, his shoulders slumped.

Dominics first impulse was to turn around and go right back into the truck stop. Gavin and Tom obviously had it covered. There was no need for him to poke his nose in.

His second impulse was to curse himself for being so damn cowardly.

He crossed the pavement, and Michael looked up as he approached. Michaels eyes were red.

A low buzzing started up at the base of Dominics skull. He didn't want to deal with this situation, but he was committed now. They had all seen him. It was too late for him to bail.

"I told him." Michael said. "So you can get off my back now."

Dominic drew in a deep breath and let it out again. He could be the bigger person. "Glad to hear it."

Michael didn't reply. He folded his arms, cupping each elbow in the opposite hand, and drew in on himself.

Gavin and Tom were looking at eachother over Michaels head, exchanging some wordless message with their secret, shared language of disapproving facial expressions. Then they turned to look at Dominic, and even he could read the fear scrawled across their faces: What are we going to do?

He didn't know. And he didn't know what to tell them, or how to pretend that everything would be okay. He wasn't sure it would be okay.

Gavin took Dominics silence for the answer it was. His sunglasses were perched on top of his head, and now he slid them down to cover his eyes.

Dominic turned around and went back to the restaurant. He had a meal to finish.