Ur Boi & Dollface

As Reggie woke up, she could hear the silence of others sleeping and the bus coming to a shaky halt. There was a muffled voice spitting out curses in the front, and Reggie contemplated whether to go back to sleep or fight against the war in her head, putting off her routine for the second morning in a row and go see what had caused the bus to stop before they reached Phoenix. The itch on her skin wasn't as bad as it had been the morning before as she left Austin, so Reggie pushed thru and rolled out of the bunk, her feet making a soft plop sound against the carpeted flooring. Slowly, Reggie made her way to the front to see what was causing the muffled voice's curses.

A dark gray smoke was suddenly filling up the front lounge, and the shrill of the fire alarm was going off. Reggie stood frozen, staring at the smoke, suddenly unable to breathe. Travis stumbled from the bunks to the front, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"What the hell?" he mumbles, pushing his messy hair from his eyes as he took in the sight. "Holy shit."

"Get off the bus!" Ben, the driver, yells as he jumps on to the stairs. "The engine is on fire! Get off the bus!"

Reggie continues to stand there, staring at Ben as he yells, but she couldn't move. She couldn't think. Everything was dark and suffocating and she couldn't control any of the chaos around her. Linda was standing in front of the blonde, trying to shake her from the stupor. Her lips were moving rapidly and her vocal chords were vibrating to make sound, but Reggie couldn't hear anything. She was in a thick sound proof bubble that was slowly filling with more and more dark gray smoke.

"Reggie!" Linda yells one last time, slapping her blonde friend, hard. The shrill of the fire alarm starts again and the bubble pops.

Reggie begins to gasp for breath and her feet are finally unglued from the floor. Linda pushes a small bag into the blonde's arms and later she will learn that it is her purse, carrying her wallet and phone and a single pair of clothes. Reggie stands with the rest of the occupants of the bus about thirty feet away, watching as the front of the bus is slowly encased in flames.

"My laptop!" Reggie screams, suddenly remembering the thirty-something number of forms she still had to input and her laptop that had all the information she already had put in and would need later on when making calls and emails.

"Reggie, no!" Ben yells, pulling his phone away from his ear and interrupting the conversation between him and Kevin Lyman. Bert and Paul rush after her, trying to grab her away before she reaches the burning bus. Sadly, due to her small frame and lean legs, Reggie disappears into the flickering, growing inferno of metal.

She takes a deep breath once inside and coughs out smoke, ducking below the hanging cloud of ash and soot. Reggie moves quickly, being careful of where she steps due to her bare feet. Something metallic, and already hot from the heat quickly spreading through the bus, happens to come underfoot, causing Reggie to slowly limp, hissing at the burning sensation of the soft skin of the heel of her foot.

The door to the bunks is open. Reggie moves quickly, fumbling through her blankets and finds her laptop and the file-folder of her applications. Her other things are packed away safely in the trailer that is being carried along by another bus. Reggie turns, her belongings in hand, and finds the front lounge nothing but flames and fire.

"Fuck," she says under her breath, backing up as the flames start to catch on the first of the bunks and spread into the bathroom. The blonde takes refuge in the back lounge, closing the door to block out the heat and smoke. Reggie takes a few deep, clean breaths, clutching her things to her chest.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Reggie continues to say, getting louder as the smoke begins to roll in through the cracks above and below the door.

There's a sudden banging coming from the right side of the bus.

"Reggie!" The blonde goes over to the small window on the right and quickly opens it. Through the dim headlights from another bus packed not far away, Reggie makes out a tall figure banging on the side of the bus. "You idiot! What do you think you're doing!"

"Austin?" She yells over the sound of the fire, recognizing the voice of the figure.

"Climb out the window!" Ben yells from behind him. "Quick, the fire is spreading!"

Something from the front explodes, causing Reggie to scream and drop to the floor. Austin starts yelling again, asking if anything happened to her.

She takes a few moments to herself; deep breaths and closed eyes. Reggie grabs her laptop and files, only to scream when a flame has caught on the corner of her folder. She blows and pats away at the flame, burning parts of her hand, and rushes back to the window.

"Catch!" she yells before dropping the laptop and files to open arms below the window. Reggie listens closely, and thankfully doesn't hear her things crash to the ground.

"Reggie, c'mon!" Linda yells and the blonde begins to climb out the window head first. When Reggie drops from the window, three strong bodies helped soften her fall. The early morning sun is rising, painting the sky soft pinks and yellows as the night disappeared for another sixteen hours as the summer day played out on the open road.

"You idiot!" Linda screams, just before the back lounge of the bus is engulfed with flames. The change in air pressure causes another small explosion, this one causing shattered glass to start flying through the air. Plenty ducked; a few were startled and yelled out in shock. Reggie was carefully protected, covered by a large, muscular body that did not put too much of his weight on her as they waited a few seconds so the glass would settle.

"Are you okay?"

Reggie looks up at him. He's got soft brown eyes and a smile that could outshine Austin's. His hair is long and messily getting in his eyes. Reggie just nods silently.

"Good."

He stands, wiping his hands off on his black gym shorts before helping Reggie up.

"You're in Austin and Alan's band," Reggie says bluntly, and he smiles again, nodding.

"Yeah. I'm Valentino."

Reggie nods this time, having suddenly lost her voice once back on her feet.

"C'mon. Let's go over to the others while we wait on Kevin to get here."

The blonde hair in her face is moved to the side, away from her eyes, and she is still so shaken from the events that just happened that she nods once more. She is quiet, that is, until she sees his back as he turns and starts walking.

"Oh my god!" Reggie says startled, gathering attention to the two. She has him stop so to take a better look at the cuts made into the back of his shirt and the bright red lines that are scattered across his back. "You've been cut."

Valentino turns his head to try to see the cuts, trying to put off the sudden pain he feels and smiles, but his tan skin becomes white washed as the blood slowly drains from it.

"Please don't faint, please don't faint," Reggie mumbles as she glues herself to his side and slinds his right arm over her shoulders. He chuckles shakily and shakes his head to the side.

"Nah, I won't. I feel the glass now."

"Tino!" Alan yells, running over to the two once he says Reggie helping his friend walk. He takes Tino's other side. The blonde and the ginger help the drummer off to the side away from the burning bus. "Damn, Tino. You look like you just spent a year in Alaska," Alan comments on Tino's pale skin tone.

Tino laughs as he carefully sits down on the edge of the road. "I'm going to ship you off to Alaska for a year if you don't shut up."

The ginger laughs back him, knowingly heard worse threats.

"Are you okay? Does anything hurt? I can go grab some water or something," Reggie begins to spout out. Her skin itches, and her hand and foot still burn and sting. Tino pats her shoulder and motions for her to sit beside him.

"Lemme lean on you," he says, closing his eyes and resting his head on top of hers when she does sit by his side.

"Don't fall asleep," Reggie warns, moving slightly so to keep him awake and his eyes open. "C'mon, Valentino, you have to stay awake."

There is a distant siren and flashing red and white lights.

"See, Valentino? There's an ambulance. They're going to fix your back."

He hums softly at her. "Call me Tino."

"What?" she asks before she understands what he told her, but he doesn't open his eyes.

"Tino!" She says loudly, moving to kneel in front of him and gently shake his shoulders. His brown eyes open slowly stay half-lidded, showing he'll fall asleep any moment. His adrenaline rush has calmed and all his energy is spent up. Alan helps her stand him up and, carefully, the trio walk the drummer toward the rectangular vehicle that is spouting out the red and white light.

"Where's he hurt?" the paramedic asks, slipping on a pair of gloves.

"He's allergic to latex," Alan says quickly before the medic touches his friend. He stops, nods, and pulls off the cream-colored rubber before pulling out a bright blue pair.

Reggie watches the procedure, the routine, and realizes she should have went into the medical field.

"It's just some minor cuts, he won't need stitches," the paramedic says, bandaging up the splatter of scratches across Tino's back. Reggie stands still, not too far away, watching with keen eyes.

"Is he going to be okay?" Austin asks, running up behind the blonde. She does her best not to jump in surprise, and catches her barrings before nodding.

"Yeah, just a couple of cuts," Reggie says, quietly, stepping a couple inches away from the too-close-for-comfort body of Austin Carlile. He notices, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

"Hey, are you okay? Your hand..."

Reggie looks down at the red blistered skin on the palm of her left hand. She had completely forgotten about it and the pain had numbed out. One of the paramedics comes over, much to Reggie's dislike, and looks at the burn.

"Does it hurt?" he asks and she shakes her head. "Let me wrap it and give you some ointment." He leads her over to the open back of the ambulance; Valentino is sitting beside her still getting the last of his cuts cleaned. "Anywhere else?" He asks.

Reggie raises her leg to show off the bottom of her feet. They're dirty from walking outside, but the burns and cuts of glass are still there.

The medic cleans and wraps them snugly before handing her a small blue tube.

"Put this on the burns twice a day. Should be healed in no time. If they aren't healed in a week you need to see a doctor. Try not to be on them too much, okay?"

Reggie nods but stays sitting there as the man walks off, grabbing a clipboard to start filling out forms on the incident.

"You got burned?" Valentino asks. Reggie looks to him and slowly nods, pulling at a stray strand of cotton from the gauze wrapped around her hand.

"How's your back?" Reggie asks. Tino gives a small, yet weak, smile. (Reggie realizes then and there that he should only wear a big, happy smile, not the sad one he has on right now.)

"I've felt worse," Tino says, and Reggie returns the small smile.

"Thank you," she says.

Tino just smiles a little bigger and pats her knee. She notices the slight cringe when he stretches his arm a little too far.

"Don't mention it, dollface."

Notes

sorry for the extremely late updated.
college is kicking my ass.
never grow up, kids. it's a trap.

have a better day than I'm having!