I'm Not In Love - Chapter Nine

The walk back to the buses was awkward because no one would speak to Jamie. They were acting as if she did something horrible to all of them.

Jamie came up behind Andy and grabbed his hand as an attempt to bring them closer. She rested her head on his shoulder, hoping that everything would be alright. But he let go of her hand and brushed away her closeness, forcing her to lift her head.

She mentally admitted defeat and fell to the back of the group, where her only company was Matt and Bob. Jamie was relieved when Matt finally started to talk to her, even if it was about the haunting silence.

“How are you doing, baby?” he asked as he pulled her close by wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“Good, now that someone is finally talking to me.” She smiled up at him, noticing how blue his eyes really were.

Matt kissed the side of her head. “Good. Now, we seriously need to talk about your uniform for working. We got you a couple of presents, they’re back on the bus.”

When they finally arrived there, she saw what exactly he was talking about. They had bought her a couple of pairs of really short, black shorts and a some tight, brightly colored tank tops. All Jamie could think about was how these were clothes that she would have never have bought for herself, or even bothered to look at. She tried them on and they fit like a glove but as she examined herself in the mirror she couldn’t help but notice how much of a whore she looked like.

She pulled her unruly hair into a ponytail and rubbed dark make-up over her eyelids, despite the fact that she always thought she looked better in natural tone make-up. There was a familiar bottle on the sink that Jamie took a couple of pills out of. “Just to hold me over” she convinced herself. After she looked in the mirror a second time, she found someone she didn’t recognize starring back at her. She practically had given up her identity since this whole thing started.

Jamie opened the bathroom door and struck a pose for Jon, Bob, and Matt, who were sitting around the kitchen table.

“Jamie, you look hot!” Jon exclaimed.

“Yeah, almost perfect” Matt started, and finished his thought as he pulled the pony tail out of her hair. “Much better” he said as her blonde hair cascaded down to her mid-back.

Jamie tried to convey a look to him that said something, like “Are you serious? It’s nearly 100 degrees out there and it’s not even 9 am yet.” But when she spoke, all that came out of her mouth was “Whatever”, followed closely by “I’ll be right back”. She moved toward the front of the bus, but paused when she felt someone’s hand on her ass. Jamie turned around slowly on toes, and as she did, Bob’s hand traveled over her smooth legs to her inner theigh.

“Seriously, Bob?! Get off of me” she yelled and backed away.

“What?” he asked, “I figured I’d stake my claim before Andy breaks-up with you. First dibs.” He turned and looked for encouragement from his bandmates.

“One, Bob, Andy and I aren’t that serious. And two, never in your life time will I ever let you do that again.” She heard the guys laughing at Bob as she descended the stairs. Jamie walked right by the TAI bus, and the people sitting outside of it, they weren’t who she was looking for anyway.

Alexis broke Jamie out her trance when she stood to greet her. “Jamie,” Alexis said, waiting for Jamie to stop and respond.

“Oh, hey, Alexis! I didn’t even see you guys there.” Looking around she noticed Mike, Michael, Bill, and Alexcis standing out the bus. “How are you?”

“Andy is in the bus, if that’s who you’re looking for. Why are you dressed like that? You look like a hooker.” Jamie didn’t know what to say, she could only watch as Mike lightly elbowed Alexis in the side. In a hushed voice, as if she was trying to defend herself, Alexis continue, “Well, look at her, she does.”

“Uh…” Jamie didn’t know how to continue, and she was too distracted to notice Bill approaching her.

“I really like your hair down. It’s long,” he said as he grabbed a couple of strand of her hair. Jamie backed away, not wanted to piss off Alexis, but it was too late. Alexis stepped forward and raised her hand. Jamie closed her eyes and waited for the blow, but opened her eyes a couple of seconds later to see Alexis was only grabbed for Bill’s hand.

After deciding that she could deal with these people anymore, Jamie walked away, before anything else went wrong. She walked toward the SofaPunch bus. She heard Andy yell her name a couple of times, but didn’t acknowledge him. He deserved to be ignored after he ignored her that morning.

She boarded the SofaPunch bus and immediately regretted her decision. Jamie was regretted with silent stares and it made her feel self-conscience and uncomfortable. But she knew it was worth it in order to find the one person that could never stay mad at her for too long.

The curtain of Eric’s bottom bunk was partially open, so she didn’t feel back pulling the rest of it back and crawling in next to him, which interrupted his reading.

She nuzzled close to him, taking in his familiar scent. “Eeeeerrrriiiccccc,” she whined, “I miss you. Can we be best friends again?”

Eric put down his book. “Who’s mad at you now?”

“Andy. And Nate…and Sisky, probably Bob, definitely Alexis, I don’t know about Mike,” her voice trailed off, leaving time for Eric.

“You can’t just treat me the way that you did and then assume I forgive you automatically because you come over here wearing black booty shorts.” Jamie look up at Eric and pushed out her bottom lip in a pouty expression. “Butttt, you know that I’ll always love you and of course we’re still best friends.”

“I knew the booty shorts were a good idea.” Jamie responded.

*****
Andy hurried back into the bus to grab some shorts and his phone. He wanted to catch up with Jamie before she got too far away, especially because he didn’t know where she was going. He ran down the steps and looked in the direction she walked, but he could no longer see her.

“I don’t even know why you bother with her” Alexis spat.

Andy was too frustrated to respond to her. He felt someone walk up next to him and from the corner of his eye he saw that it was Bill. “Dude, she went that way” he said and pointed off into the distance.

Alexis rolled her eyes and pulled Bill toward her. “I don’t know why you’re going after her, Butcher. You deserve so much better. I mean, come on, did you even see what she was wearing?”

“No, I didn’t happen to she her outfit, Alexis, and I go after her because I like her! Is that okay with you? I’m tired of having everyone judge her and me, for liking her, but her behavior is just because of the bad influence, and I know she’s better then that.” Andy was about to walk away when he stopped himself, “And Alexis, you aren’t exactly in the best position to give relationship advice. You’re always trying to change Bill and you’re a bitch 90 percent of the time, I don’t know how he stands you. Jamie has done NOTHING wrong to you, so stop treating her this way.”

Andy stormed off, leaving his friends in awe of his behavior.

*****
Jamie and Eric had spent a couple of minutes sorting out their problems and issues when she checked her phone.

“Shit, I need to go” she said as she practically rolled out of the bunk because it was so low to the ground. SofaPunch had had to get a special bus to accomadate all of their members.

Eric walked her out of the bus and pulled her into a tight hug. “It’s good to have you back,” he said and heard her laugh a little, “you know I love you, forever. Call me later.” He had whispered the last part into her ear. She smiled and buried her face deeper into his shirt. She couldn’t get enough of the old familiar smell that brought back amazing memories of previous tours.

*****
Andy was approaching a bus with, what looked like, a couple standing next to it. The girl resembled Jamie, but Andy had convinced himself that she would never wear that outfit in public. He heard the guy whisper and then the girl pulled away from what looked like a pretty passionate hug.

“Okay, see ya later,” the girl said and Andy instantly recognized the voice to be Jamie’s. Then he remembered what Alexis had said about what she was wearing, and as mad as Andy was at Alexis, he couldn’t disagree. She looked hot, but it wasn’t her style at all. He was embarrassed by his stalker-like actions and childishly hid behind a bus.

“Oh, and Jamie?” The guy yelled after her and Andy watched as Jamie turned around to look at him again. “Your ass looks great in those shorts!”

“Whatever, Eric.”

Why did I ever ignore her Andy wondered to himself. She’s already back with her ex-boyfriend and she doesn’t care about me. How could she already be with someone else. I guess I really liked her more then she liked me and she doesn’t care about me. All of these thoughts rushed through Andy’s mind at the same him. It was then that he came to the conclusion that he didn’t need to see her anymore and he wasn’t going to put in the effort if she wasn’t.