I am woken up by someone vomiting in the bathroom. I look over to Alan sleeping next to me. I quickly slide out of his bunk, and grab my pants that are on the floor pulling them up and buttoning them. I notice the hair tie around my wrist and throw my hair up, it had to be a mess. The bus is in motion, and I know who's throwing up before I even look. Austin. I quietly tip toe up front and grab a Gatorade and Advil from the cabinet and open up the tiny bathroom door.

"Let it out." I say quietly rubbing his back lightly. I hated throw up, but I could always deal with Austin's because he was my best friend. He finishes and starts to rinse out his mouth, then he brushes his teeth. He looks at me smiling weakly.

"Thanks." He says taking the pills and Gatorade from my hand.
"Are you going to bed?" I ask. He shrugs and thinks for a moment.
"I'm going to go sit up front, it's more open up there, just for a little. Join me?" He says in a whisper. I nod following him past everyone already sleeping. I sit with him.

"So you and Alan." Austin says looking down at the Gatorade. It's pretty dark, but I bet Austin knows I'm blushing like crazy. He looks up to me, and I don't say anything for a minute.

"Uh... yeah." I say putting my legs up on him. "That." I bite my lip thinking about what had just happened a few hours ago and I laugh. "Two time thing. I think." I say.
"Really?" He asks. "Twice?"
"Austin... High school... drunk." I say. "That's it." I say.
"You're nuts." He says slightly giggling.
"I know." I say pulling my legs back to myself.
"I just don't want you to get hurt again... I don't think Alan's looking for a relationship."
"Neither am I."
"Well. I know how you are..." I glare at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I roll my eyes. "Austin, I was drunk and I wanted a little fun. It's fine okay." I sigh.
"Sorry, I just." He sits and thinks for a split second. "You're my best friend okay, I just don't want to see you hurt again."
"Austin, are you drunk?" I ask.
"A little." I giggle and nod.

"Okay, well I really appreciate it." I wrap my arm around him and place my head on his shoulder, and he places his head on mine. Before we know it, we both fall asleep on each other. When we're woken up by the bus stopping and kids voices really loud. Austin and I jump and look at each other.

"Morning." I mumble as he looks at me.

"Morning." He slightly grins. Tino is the first person we see, busily typing away at his laptop. He smiles at us when we both stand up, stretching and yawning. I feel good compared to what I thought I'd feel like right now. Austin looks better than he did when I ran into him last night. He takes a large swig of Gatorade. We find clothes and decide to explore the venue together and watch some of his friends.

"We go on at 6 today!" Tino says, as we're leaving the bus.

Another new city, it's already really hot outside. I decided to wear a vintage red polka dot dress with black shorts underneath and a pair of strapped wedges. I felt really girly and cute.

Austin seen some fans and took pictures with them and signed autographs. He hugged them and listened to their story.
"Is this your girlfriend?" a few asked.
"Best friend." I said smiling and feeling my face flush to match my dress.
"Well you're pretty." the fan smiled and got her hug from Austin excited she and her friends walk away shrieking.
"They love you." I say as we head through people.

"Yeah, well, I love them." He smiles. He grabs my hand and we're off to watch some of his friends perform. I watch listening to songs I don't know. But I smile clap and dance around any way. While I'm watching I see a guy standing on the other side of the stage and when we catch each others eyes I notice he smiles at me. I smile back but look away quickly, oh how I hated being shy. He looks at me again, and I notice his eyes are green, he has a beard that's trimmed short. I look away again but I can't get the smile off my face.

When the set is over I follow Austin off stage and I run into the guy from across the stage. I smile and him and he smiles at me.

"Hi my name is Brandon." He holds out his hand. "What's yours?"
"I'm lily." I say putting my hand into his. His smile is flawless, his white teeth are perfect. I feel a little flutter in my stomach as he sticks his hands into his jean pockets. He's wearing straight leg jeans and a tank top.

"Beautiful... just like you." He says. I can tell he's shy too. "Who are you hear with? A boyfriend? or?" He asks. I stick my laminated pass at him.
"I'm a photographer, but I'm here with Of Mice & Men." I smile I glance around for Austin who's in a conversation with someone.
"Nice. I like them." He says. "I'm a tech dude" He makes air quotes. I laugh and nod.
"Nice." I grinning looking down and then for Austin. It's awkward and I'm glad Austin looks like he's trying to get me to come over to him.
"I got to go..." I say starting to head off.
"Can we talk some time?" He asks stopping me. I feel my lips turn into a smile and a nod.
"Of course." I say before walking a little more quickly to Austin.
"Who's that?" Austin asks as we head off.
"His name is Brandon." I shrug. "Just a tech dude." I make air quotes. "Let's go find the guys." I say changing the subject and pulling his arm away. He looks back at Brandon who's watching us walk away, and I walk a bit faster.

The day goes by at a good pace. The signing happens first today, and I get to be there. I snap pictures of the people in line. Girls walking away crying tears of happiness. I see hugs and high fives. I snap pictures of everything. I get under the tent with Austin and the rest of the guys, and get a chair between Phil and Austin. I hear stories from all kinds of people. Some are about them getting through something, some are just funny memories. They're given so much gifts already, and the line is still long. Pictures, food, bracelets, and letters are piling up behind the table. I try to avoid Alan, though I can feel his eyes on me every once in a while. It can't be awkward... I basically live with him until the end of summer.

"I read every letter." Austin tells me, breaking my thought train. "Every single one gets saved too." He says jumping up to hug a girl that's sobbing uncontrollably.
"Y-you're my hero." She says. "Thank you." I see a bit of tears in Austin's eyes too, but he throws on a huge grin for the girl, hugging her tightly. I snap a shot of that too, and sit watching the rest of eager fans get their autographs and hugs and pictures. It was a great feeling to see this.

The show comes shortly after and I'm alone again, more press interviews for them to do. I take out my lap top in the quiet bus and begin putting my pictures on it. I start blogging about my two days so far, and place the pictures up. I'm excited for people to see what I've seen. I hear a knock at the door, and I go to open it.

"Hey." He says with a huge smile. "Just the person I wanted to see."
"Uh... Come in?" I say. He grins and comes in, sits right in the front lounge on the couch.
"This is nice." He says looking around. "Much bigger than mine."
"They worked hard." I say smiling and nodding. "They once had a little white van." I sit next to him on the couch.

"So I want to know more about you Lily, no beating around the bush, that's why I'm here." He says bluntly. I blush and grin. "I'm serious. I am drawn to that smile of yours, those brown eyes."

"Enough." I say, I hate complements. "I'm 22. I'm a photographer. I like The Beatles, they make me smile. My best friend is Austin Carlile..." I start to think about what else to say. "I don't know." I giggle. This has never happened to me before.

"Well, I'm Brandon, you know that. I'm a tech guy... uhm I like the color blue. I like all kinds of music. I love to sing, even though I suck at it." He and I laugh at that. From there, we both begin talking about a lot of other things over beers. It's getting darker by the minute it seems.

"I want to take you out." He grins. "When we have an off day."
"Okay." My lips curl into a smile. I hear noise outside of the bus and soon the boys are all talking loudly on the bus.
"Hey lil." Alan smiles.
"Hey." I say trying to avoid his eyes. I haven't talked to him all day.
"Who's this?" He asks. Austin walks by pretending like he doesn't see us. Aaron nods a hello and Phil and Tino head toward the back too.

"Brandon" He introduces himself standing up and reaching out a hand. Alan nods and shakes his had but doesn't seem to really care. "I gotta go." He says, "See you later." He adds, before sticking his hands in his pockets and heading out of the bus. I stand up to go see what Austin's doing. I find him laying in his bunk, he's scrolling through twitter. I stand and wait for him to acknowledge me.

"How was your day?" I ask. His lips spread into a smile and he moves over signaling me to join him. I scoot into the bunk with him, we squeeze close together and
"I had fun." He yawns. "Very tired though. I think I want to relax tonight."
"Let's have a movie night!" I say excited. "We can like watch something scary and eat food." I grin. He laughs.
"Sounds good to me." He says quietly. I start to slide away from him but he stops me.
"Hey can you be careful." he says not looking up from his phone.
"What do you mean?"
"Well that guy..."
"Austin."
"Listen I know a lot of guys don't want a relationship this summer."
"Austin." I say folding my arms.
"I'm just saying." He says. I smile and slide back into the bunk wrapping my arms around him.
"You're just looking out for me." I say, "I know." His arms finally come around me and hold me tightly.
"Let's pick out something to watch now." He says. I nod and let go and dig through our movies we brought.

We watch a scary movie together, alone because everyone else went out partying for the night. We both have always done this once a week. Just the two of us. It usually ended up with us talking about everything we could think of and falling asleep. Tonight was no different. We began talking about the tour, how happy he was to meet his fans. Everything.

"I meet great people every day." He smiles to himself looking down at his hands. "Today is no different. I love my fans, they inspire me a lot."
"You're like a savior to them." I say. "It's amazing to see these people look up to you so much." I say. "I'm lucky enough to have you as my best friend." I smile leaning my head on his shoulder.
"Yeah I love you to lily." He looks down at his hands.
"Forever and ever!?" I laugh.
"Forever and ever... I'm never going to get married because of you." He says looking up at me.
"Oh be quiet." I say. "I'm never going to get married because I suck." I say drifting off at the end.
"Oh come on." He says. "Don't say that."

I meant it. My last relationship ended horribly. I was dating Derek for two-almost three years, and everything was going good. But when our three year was coming and I brought up marriage he freaked out. It was all my fault. While thinking about this, my heart starts to break all over again. I'll never be good enough. I have to shake these thoughts from my head.

"Lily he cheated on you." Austin says when I draw my knees to my chest.
"Well it's because of me, I wasn't enough." Austin rolls his eyes and sighs.

"It wasn't your fault." he grabs my chin and makes me look at him. "Do you hear me? People cheat because of themselves, it's their fault." He's looking straight into my eyes and for a minute, nothing mattered. Austin's chocolate brown eyes are all I could see... "Please stop blaming yourself." His words come back into play. "You deserve better than that." What made my stomach do flips I don't know, but I brush that off and let out a weak smile. How I wish I could believe the words that come from his mouth. He lets go of my chin and turns back to the movie. But I can't seem to look away from that face.

Notes

Lily's Look