Second Chances

I woke up and stretched before noticing that someone was sleeping next to me. I turned over and smiled at Elk. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep, so I tried not to disturb him as I crawled out of the bunk. I put the wolf that he gave me earlier on the pillow and went up to the front lounge. I sat next to Jazz and leaned against him, my head on his shoulder. “Looks like the princess is up. You feeling any better?” I looked up at Jazz when he spoke and nodded.

“Yeah, I just…panicked I guess.” I sighed and looked down at the light gray carpet.

“A lot has happened to you kid, you’re scared. It’s understandable, you just have to relax.” I sighed and snuggled closer to Jashire.

“I know, but I don’t want to face my past right now. I just want to forget that ever happened…” Kaos moved from the table and sat on my other side.

“I know you don’t want to think about it, but your past is what made you who you are. Without that do you think that you would have met us? This amazing band wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

I smiled and took Kaos’s hand. “Thanks love. Do you guys know when we’ll be getting to the venue?”

“Jinxx said tomorrow night, the show is at seven.” I nodded and looked up at Clair. She looked worried, but didn’t say anything.

“You can ask whatever’s on your mind Clair.”

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay? I mean you look like shit.” I laughed, surprising the guys and Clair.

“I feel like shit too, but I’ll be okay. Kaim want to get Elk out of my bunk? I’m going to shower, change and go to bed. I need to think about how I want to do this…”

“No one is going to force you to do anything other than get on stage and singe your heart out.” I smiled and got up, heading back to the bunk area with Kaim following me. He picked Elk up and moved him to his bunk.

“You sure you’re going to be okay? You don’t usually freak out like that.”

“Kai…I’m terrified, but I’ll be alright. I always knew I had to face him again, I just wanted it to be on my terms.”

“And you know that with how you are, you would never talk to him. Sleep, maybe you and I will go over to their bus tomorrow and talk to them. But for now, sleep.”

“Yes mom.” I smiled as Kai glared at me and got into the bunk with Elk and shut the curtain. As usual I lied to them saying I was tired. For the past few weeks I didn’t sleep. Instead the memories from when I was taken while I was just a kid kept playing over and over. With my mind racing, there was no way in hell that I was going to be sleeping.I pulled my kindle out from under my pillow and started reading, and must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up with my head under one pillow and curled up to my blanket. I got up, grabbed some clothes, went to the bathroom and changed to the outfit that Jazz bought me. I straightened my hair and put only my eyeliner on, making my eyes look more lupine.

Stretching I made my way to the front lounge area, and started on making breakfast for the seven of us. I only counted the driver because he was nice enough to drive for us. One by one, the guys and Clair stumbled out from the bunk area, all focused on food. Or so I assumed since that’s all the guys cared about. I made up the plates and handed each of them one before bringing one to the driver.

After we ate, Kaos washed the dishes while the others got dressed. Clair sat next to me and leaned against me. “You sure you’re alright?”

“I will be, really you don’t have to worry about me.”

“You know the most common lie a girl tells is ‘I’m fine’ come on, tell me what’s wrong.”

“After everything that happened when I was a kid…I am actually scared to talk to my brother, I mean what if he hates me because of it? That’s not something that I need…”

“I saw him when he came over here after Elk scared the shit out of the other two members. He looked like he wanted to see you. I’d say give him a chance. You should talk to him, maybe after the show tonight?”

“Clair…you’re right. God you have no idea how long I’ve needed a girl to talk to. I mean yeah, Elk is pretty understanding and all, but I needed a female to talk to.” She laughed and hugged me, and for the first time in a really long time I felt that everything would be alright.

“So it’s agreed that after the show, I’ll go with you to talk to him just so you’re not alone.”

“You’re a bossy one aren’t you?” She smiled and nodded.

“I have two older brothers, and I learned how to handle myself around others. I talked with Clair for a while before she went to her bunk and grabbed her camera, wanting to take more pictures for fun.

“Really? Didn’t you take enough yesterday?”

“No, this is just for fun. You know pics to go on twitter and Instagram. So sit against the arm of the couch and look right at me as if you were bored or sick of being here.” I smiled and did as she said, about an hour later she uploaded the pics to her laptop.

“You sure you’re done abusing me?” She laughed and hit me with her pillow.

“Yes, geez you are a big baby when it comes to this.” I hated cameras so I always made a fuss over it. She sent a few pictures to my cell and put some on her own twitter and Instagram. I followed suit and put my favorite pic up. It was just me staring at the wall behind her, and with how I was, it looked like I could have smiled at any second:

HavicFortuna @lonewolfhavic
This is what happens when our photographer says she wants to have a photo shoot… thanks @ClairSutton actually had fun with this.

She laughed when she check her cell after it went off, and must have commented instantly since mine went off as soon as she set hers down.

Mystic @ClairSutton
@lonewolfhavic you are so dramatic.You act like the camera was going to steal your soul or something.

Elraishi @ElktheLoneWolf
@lonewolfhavic @ClairSutton now you see what I have to deal with every day XP love ya sis!

“Elk you’re an ass!” I yelled him and threw Clair’s pillow at him as he got out of his bunk. The pic was retweeted a few times and I stared at my cell when a few people favorited it. I looked at the list of people who favorited the pic and smiled a little when I realized that Jinxx was one of the few who favorited it.

“Aww what’s our alpha so happy about?” Elk asked as he walked up behind me and rested his chin on my shoulder. I blushed lightly and put my cell in my bra.

“Absolutely nothing.” I leaned against him and sighed. “I want to go for a walk, but we’re not even at the venue. You think we’ll be able to or do you think we’ll be stuck on the bus?”

“We might be able to, but I’m sure fans will block our path.”

“I doubt it, I mean no one knows that we’re touring with Black Veil.”

Clair shoved her phone in my face, “I wouldn’t be so sure.” I pushed her hand back a bit and looked at a tweet that Andy sent:

Andy Biersack @AndyBVB
So glad this amazing band decided to tour with us!@TheLoneWolves welcome to the tour life!

I stared at it in shock, “Seriously?” She nodded and went back to scrolling through her twitter.

“I don’t think that you should consider it a bad thing, I mean now people will look into our music and our fans will come out to the shows. They’re doing us a favor.” I knew Elk was being realistic about it, and as happy as it made me to be on tour with my favorite band I couldn’t help but regret agreeing to this.

“It sucks, I can’t even go anywhere to think.” I sat on my bunk and sighed.

“Well none of us use the back lounge, we could make that our…I don’t know writing spot? You’re usually chilling in the studio back home when you need to think, we can do the same thing here.”

So that’s what we did. We spent a few hours setting up the back lounge to be our temp recording studio for the road. Jazz never went anywhere without his recording equipment so he hooked everything up. The only things we didn’t have set were Elk’s drums since there wouldn’t be room, and we wouldn’t have time to get them from the bus to the venue every night. But the guys had their guitars and mics set up so if we had any ideas we could work on writing and recording.

Yeah it was going to be a long tour, but I decided that since I was stuck on a bus with my best friends I’d make the best of it since this is what I’ve always wanted to do. “Guys, let’s record some acoustic shit and burn it onto a few CD’s. I want to be able to give something else to the fans aside from the twelve songs we already recorded.” So we spent the remainder time on the bus writing and recording acoustic tracks while Clair took a few more pictures of the recording process.

Notes

Starting to have a lot of fun with this story. I know it's moving a little slower than I'd like, but I'm enjoying it. Thanks so much to those of you who've commented.

@Lucas_lakoya1015
Thanks so much for saying you love my writing, it means so much! I try to make it as relatable since my pack used to be just like this.

@jacklepenguins
Your comment legit made me so fucking happy! Thanks for saying that!!!

You guys are the reason I'm constantly writing and updating! Fucking love you guys, you're all awesome!!!