“I just got an interesting phone call.” Jc smiles as he enters the back of the bus and plops down next to me.

He’s smiling, so I’m taking that to mean interesting in a good way. Or he’s just major fucking with me and I am in some serious, serious trouble.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They’d like you all to perform at the Grammy’s. I went ahead and told them yes.”

“And we’re talking about this because…”

“I do like to keep you informed, ya know.” He smirks and rolls his eyes. “That… woman, is releasing a statement in the morning. Figured you should know ahead of time.”

“Right.”

I don’t know why, but Jace is none too pleased with Frankie and the work she’s doing. Personally, I don’t see the issue. She works out of the offices in L.A and Jace is here with us. Anything she does has to go through Justin first, and after the first initial incident with Lucas, she’s done everything we’ve asked.

Honestly, I think he’s just jealous. He feels like some of his responsibility’s been taken away and I guess I can’t really blame him. But still… she does all the grunt work while he gets to have fun with us all the time. I may be biased, but I think he’s definitely got the better end of the job.

“I think they’d prefer you to do one of the singles, but it’s up to you guys.”

“Actually… I’ve got something new I’ve been working on.” I grab my notebook from the floor, flip to the correct page and pass it to him. “It’s not done, but I’ve been playing around with it the last couple weeks.”

He nods slowly, his eyes scanning the page. “Looks good. You write the music yet?”

“No. I’m gonna have Ryan work on it with me.”

“Well… get on it. You’ve only got a few months.”

I nod and close the notebook quickly as Justin enters the room and throws himself into my lap.

Yeah… he definitely doesn’t need to see that song yet.

“Ok fatass… you cannot sit here. You’re gonna suffocate me.” I push on his back, but he doesn’t budge.

“You sit on me and I don’t complain.”

“I’m smaller than you!”

“And your point? You sit on me… I get to sit on you. It’s only fair.”

“Jace… help… please?” I pout and he rolls his eyes.

“I, unlike the rest of you, have actual work to do. You two have fun.” He chuckles and heads for the front of the bus.

You know what I haven’t quite been able to figure out… nobody’s asked us what’s going on. It’s like we’ve been together all along and no one seems even remotely phased by it.

Not that I want to answer the same fifty questions over and over again, but these are my friends we’re talking about here. They’re all nosey as shit, and if something’s going on… you better believe they’re going to ask about it.

But not this time. None of them has so much as even batted an eye at what’s been going on the last few weeks.

“So…I’m allowed to jump you now, right?” He smirks down at me, pushing my hair out of my eyes.

“Fraid not. There is a very strict no bus sex rule.” I nod as he rolls his eyes. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re crushing every single one of my internal organs right now, and well… you just can’t have sex like that.”

“Fine.” He sighs and slides onto the couch. “You are seriously no fun sometimes.”

“Oh I am lots of fun.” I smirk at him and he frowns. “Anyway… I think you can restrain yourself until we get to the hotel. If not… you should probably seek professional help with that.”

Sometimes, I’m amazed at my own stupidity. The last three weeks with him have been so incredibly easy. I know I can’t expect things to be like this all the time, but I think this is good for us.

And after the shit we’ve had to deal with, I think we deserve to have it easy for awhile.

*******************

“Wake. Up.” I demand and slap his face gently. He grunts and rolls away from me.

And he bitches about what a heavy sleeper I am.

“Justin… I’m bored.” I whine and shake him roughly. It’s almost noon. He doesn’t need to be sleeping now anyway damnit.

“Leave me alone.” He mumbles and pushes me away.

“If you don’t wake up now, I’m gonna…” I begin, quickly trying to think up something that will get his attention. “Do something really bad.”

Ok, I suck at this game. I’m aware of that.

“Madison… just sleep. Please. It’s your day off.”

“My point exactly. It’s my day off and I’m bored and you need to entertain me.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so. Now….get with the entertaining.”

“Yeah… lemme just hop right out of bed and do a fucking jig for you.” He mutters and finally turns to face me. “I’m tired. Go annoy Trace.”

“You really want me to ask Trace to take me on a date?”

“What?” He rubs his eyes and frowns. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re gonna take me on a date.” I nod seriously. “Because in almost four years, you never have, and I happen to think I deserve it.”

“If you recall correctly… we haven’t been together for four years. It’s more like… two.”

“Yeah well… get dressed. We’re going out. And I better be impressed.” I slide out of bed and make my way into the bathroom.

See, sometimes being a demanding little brat gets you exactly what you want.

*****************

When I told Justin to take me out, I expected the full treatment. Dinner, maybe a movie… you know… normal date-ish things.

What I did not see happening was sitting in a rental car for almost two hours, being forced to eat snack crackers. He’s got money… he could have at least sprung for dinner.

“You plan on feeding me, right? Cause I’m fucking starving. And I get really mean when I don’t get food.”

“I will feed you. Eventually.” He grins, keeping his eyes on the road. “Just trust me, ok? You’re gonna dig this.”

“For your sake, I certainly hope so.”

Despite the fact that I’m stuck in a car and bored shitless, it’s kind of nice to just hang out with him. We don’t get a whole lot of time to ourselves, and we sure as hell don’t get to go anywhere. So this is a very welcome change of pace.

I’d just prefer to know where the hell I am and what he plans on doing.

After another fifteen minutes or so, Justin pulls into a large parking lot. It isn’t until he passes a sign that reads Menlo-Atherton High School, that I have any idea where we are. Granted… I have no clue why the fuck we’re here, but it’s at least nice to know a location.

He brings the car to a stop and kills the engine, quickly climbing out without a word. I follow suit and watch as he pops the trunk, pulling out a bottle of wine.

“Umm… ok… what the fuck is this?”

He slams the trunk shut and hops up on the back of the car, patting the space beside him. “This… is your date.” He grins, and uncorks the bottle.

“You’re kidding me, right?” I stare at him dumbly.

This has to be some kind of sick ass joke. There is absolutely no way he would think sitting in some random ass parking lot and getting drunk is even remotely acceptable.

I’m a simple girl. And I don’t ask for much when it comes to this kind of thing, but I do expect to be treated a certain way, and this sure as fuck ain’t it.

“You don’t know where we are.” He laughs and takes a drink straight from the bottle before passing it to me. “Name doesn’t ring a bell or anything?”

I glance back at the sign and frown. I quit school when I was sixteen, then got my GED. And I most definitely didn’t go to school in California.

I’ve never been here and there isn’t a single time in my life I can remember ever even hearing the name of this school.

“No. So… explain.” I mutter and hop up on the car beside him. He throws an arm around my shoulders and stares up at the building in front of us.

“Never thought I’d see the day where I knew something about them that you didn’t.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “But… since someone clearly doesn’t know her Fleetwood Mac trivia…. This, is where Lindsey and Stevie met.”

“You are so full of shit.”

“Am not.” He laughs, taking another long swig from the bottle. “She was at this Young Life dance or something, and he was playing. She just hopped her ass up on stage and started singing with him. He called her a couple years later to join some band he was in, and the rest is history.”

Ok. He wins. Because this is so much better than dinner and movie ever would have been. I mean seriously… how many guys would actually do the research on this sort of thing?

This is exactly why I never completely gave up on him. This is why we’re still trying to straighten this out, even after we ran it into the fucking ground.

And yeah, it’s really cheesy and maybe a little odd, but the point is… he did this for me. He made sure to go above and beyond generic date guidelines and took me somewhere that actually means something.

“Thank you.” I lean over and kiss him, a wide smile breaking out across my face. “This is awesome.”

“Yeah well… I’m pretty awesome.” He shrugs and passes me the bottle.

“So… what are we gonna do now?”

“We’re gonna sit here and drink, and probably make out.” He nods. “And you’re gonna tell me you love me, and how I plan the best dates ever.”

“You are such an idiot.” I giggle and roll my eyes.

“I’ll take it.” He beams at me before pressing his lips firmly against mine.