Be My Escape

Talking

Present Day

Kaelyn's Perspective

I climbed into the last row of the van and crossed my arms over my chest, pouting. Jack was also in the van, doing something on his phone.

"Hey there, grumpy gills." Jack laughed.

"I'm glad you think me being in a bad mood is so funny," I replied.

"Okay, okay, geez. What happened?" He asked.

"Alex is being an overprotective asshole."

"Well, you have to consider what happened with Brandon," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but not every guy is going to be like him!"

"But to Alex, one guy hurt you, so what's stopping another guy from hurting her?"

"But Alex and I are just friends--"

Jack started coughing as if he choked on his own spit.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.

"Oh, I just--I remember when you had a crush on Alex, that's all," he said, recovering.

I glared at him. "We said we'd never speak of that again."

"I know. I don't know why I thought of it." He was refusing to meet my gaze. I had a weird feeling there was something else he wasn't telling me, but I knew I'd never get it out of him.

"I don't know why you did either," I said. "And plus, why is he the only one freaking out? You and Zack and Rian are fine, because you guys actually trust me."

"Alex trusts you."

"He's not acting like it."

"Look, you and Alex have been friends for a really, really long time. You're special to him and he just doesn't want anything bad to happen to you," he said.

I had nothing left to say.

"Just give him a break. He's worried about you. That's partially why he invited you along, so he could always know that you were safe because he was the one making sure of it. He had to charm your mom into it because she wasn't sure about letting you go."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, but don't tell him I said that."

"Right. Because he's gotta protect that delicate masculinity of his."

"Exactly."

I left the van again, this time with a mission.

I found Alex helping Delicious set up merch. I cleared my throat. Alex looked over and frowned.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked.

Alex nodded.

We walked over by the van and he leaned against the side of it, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I talked to Jack. And he made me realize that you're just worried about me, so I'm sorry for snapping at you. I just don't like feeling like a child who needs her best guy friend to protect her," I told him.

"Well, what are best guy friends for?" He asked with a small smile, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

I smiled back, then turned serious again. "Look, Alex. I don't wanna be 'the girl who was in an abusive relationship.'"

"You're not."

"You're sure treating me like it. I thought the whole point of me going on this tour was so that we could hang out together and I could get my mind off of what happened."