It was eerily quiet on the tour bus. The five of them had decided to ride on the same bus this year considering what happened last time when they had split up. They figured that this time if something were to go wrong, they’d rather be together. Not that they were expecting something to happen, but there is always safety in numbers.

Everyone on the bus was off doing their own thing. JC was lying in his bunk trying to get more sleep. Chris was glued to the Playstation2 that was in the back of the bus. Joey was on the phone talking to his wife, Kelly. Lance was busy working on reading scripts for his movie company. Justin was sitting on the couch listening to the eerie silence recalling what had happened a few hours earlier before everyone got on the bus.

Chris still had a bunch of energy left over from the show for some reason and he was running up and down the hall just outside of where the dressing rooms were. He was running down the hall just as Joey came out of his dressing room still wiping the sweat off of his face before draping the towel around his shoulders. Chris wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and he slammed right into Joey throwing him backwards into the wall and himself onto the floor. 

Chris got up laughing. “I’m sorry, man.” 

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” Joey yelled. 

Chris’s eyes narrowed. “I said I was sorry. It was an accident.” 

“I don’t care. You shouldn’t be running down the halls anyway.” 

“I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died,” Chris said, “but I don’t like this new attitude you have. You’ve been bitchy all day long. What’s wrong with you?” 

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Joey shouted. By now Justin, Lance, and JC had joined them out into the hall drawn out of their dressing rooms by the shouting. 

“Something is wrong with you. The Joey I know wouldn’t freak out on someone because they accidentally ran into them. He would’ve laughed it off. You’re different, man,” Chris said. 

“You’re an asshole,” Joey growled. 

“I’m an asshole? I’m not the one making a big deal about nothing. That’s you.” Joey let out another growl of frustration before throwing up his arms and stalking onto the bus. JC and Lance had raised eyebrows as they looked at each other briefly before following him onto the bus. 

Justin, Lance, and JC had stayed out of it because they knew it would’ve been worse if they had gotten involved. They chalked Joey’s short temper up to the fact that he hadn’t gotten as much sleep as they thought he did. They just ignored the argument and got on the bus as if nothing had just transpired.

The more Justin thought about it though he realized that Chris was right. Joey was a mess. He didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it sooner. He always seemed to be tired and his temper was a lot shorter than it used to be. He was grumpy more often than he was happy, which was what he was known for. It made Justin wonder exactly what caused Joey’s attitude to change. He didn’t know, but knew that he would have to figure it out if he wanted things back to the way they were before.

If he wanted things back to the way they were before he would also have to deal with Lance and JC. They were bad, but the funny thing was you never would have noticed it if you weren’t looking for it. It was just recently that Justin picked up on the fact that they weren’t as fine as they appeared to be.

Justin looked over his shoulder to affirm that Lance was still sitting at the kitchen table typing away on his laptop with his glasses perched on his nose. It seemed that Lance had taken up that stance more often than usual. Justin had asked him about it a month after what happened and he insisted that he had so much to catch up on. Justin was beginning to question whether that was really true or not.

As for JC, Justin had noticed that his friend had been looking a little worse for the wear. He looked thinner than usual, which was significant considering how skinny JC is to begin with. He also noticed that JC nearly always had his notebook and pen attached to his hands. Normally Justin wouldn’t question this because JC is always known for constantly writing in his notebook, but it was the dark circles that appeared under his eyes and could only be hidden by makeup that made him question it.

The only ones that didn’t seem to have something wrong with them right now were Chris and himself. It seemed to Justin that Chris was still his normal self though one could never know with Chris. He was a master at hiding his feelings when he felt like it. That was an advantage Chris had from dealing with the hardships life had dealt him and his family.

Justin sighed as he watched Joey head into his bunk after hanging up his phone. He could only begin to wonder how everyone became so messed up. Deciding that he should go to bed as well, Justin stood up and stretched before heading over to where Lance was.

“You should get some sleep.”

Lance, having been startled, quickly looked up at Justin before breathing a sigh of relief. “I didn’t know you were still up.”

“Yeah, well, I was doing some thinking,” Justin said.

“Anything you want to share with me?” asked Lance.

“Not unless there’s something you want to share with me,” Justin answered.

“No, I’m good.” Lance paused before looking at Justin. “You would tell me if it was something serious, right?”

“Yeah, as long as you do the same, Lance.”

“Always,” Lance replied.

“Well, I guess I’m going to head to bed. It’s getting kind of late,” Justin said pointedly looking at Lance.

“I’ll go to bed in a few minutes. I’ll just finish up here real quick,” Lance said.

Justin crossed his arms. “Lance, if you do that you’ll be sitting here all night.”

Lance sighed knowing that Justin was right. “All right. Just let me save and close down everything. I’ll go to bed as soon as I’m done with that.”

“I’m holding you too that. Good night.”

“Night, Justin.”

Justin climbed into his bunk, which happened to be across from JC’s. Justin noticed that JC had his curtain closed. Joey was snoring in his bunk beside Justin while Chris was sleeping under JC’s bunk.

Justin lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t get himself to fall asleep if he tried. He continued to lay there for five minutes before he heard Lance walk by and slip into his bunk underneath Joey.

Justin slowly began to drift off to sleep hoping that he could find out what was up with his brothers and somehow help them get back to normal. Just as he was about to fall asleep he heard light whimpering. It took a few minutes for his brain to realize through the hazy sleep that it was JC who was whimpering.

He gently eased himself out of his bunk and onto the floor. He didn’t want to wake any of his band mates except for the one who was currently in the middle of a nightmare. Justin softly padded over to where JC’s bunk was before pulling back the curtains to find JC with tears rolling down his cheeks and trying to move in the small space.

Justin stretched out his hand and clasped it around JC’s shoulder before he began to shake him. “JC, c’mon wake up.”

“C, it’s time to wake up. You’re fine. Everyone’s fine.”

He gave up shaking JC and gently smacked JC’s cheek instead. JC woke up with a start. His blue eyes that almost looked black in the dim lighting of the bus were wide with terror.

“It’s okay, JC. It was just a dream.”

JC nodded, but Justin knew that it felt so real to him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I’m all right, Just. Thanks though.”

“All right. I’m heading to bed. If you need anything, you know where to find me,” Justin said.

“Good night, J.”

“Night, JC.”

Justin didn’t feel that great leaving JC to just deal with that dream by himself, but he knew better than to push JC. He was such a private person even from those that knew him best. However, that didn’t stop the curiosity Justin had for wanting to know what the dream was about because it seemed to upset JC.

He could hear JC moving around in his bunk and could only wonder what he was doing. About an hour later Justin heard JC’s breathing slow down and smooth out signaling that he was asleep. Justin fell asleep shortly after him, but not before vowing to get to the bottom of everything that was going on with his friends.

The rest of the night passed with no more disturbances. It allowed the five occupants of the bus to sleep peacefully while the bus kept on rolling to their next destination. About three hours later it reached that destination.

Lance woke up as the bus came to a halt. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear the sleep out of his eyes before looking at his watch. Lance unwrapped himself from his blankets and stood up to stretch. He was glad that he took Justin’s advice and went to bed when he did. He just had this weird feeling that it was going to be a trying day.

He didn’t let his thoughts linger on it for too long though before he moved to wake the rest of the guys up. He shook each of the guys and called their names.

“C’mon, guys. We’re at the hotel. We need to get moving.”

Slowly the other four men got out of their bunks and gathered their things before heading into the hotel. Luckily for them they didn’t have to worry about fans because it was still early in the morning.

They reached their designated floor before splitting up in separate directions to drop off their things in their rooms. They were going to meet in JC’s room for breakfast.

Justin set his duffle bag and suitcases down by the foot of his bed. He knew that today would be the best day to try to find out some answers about what was going on. He could only hope that he would be able to help them fix it.

He walked a couple doors down the hall until he reached JC’s door. He stood in front of it for a few minutes trying to steel himself for what he knew was about to take place.

“C’mon, Justin, you can do this,” he said to himself.

Justin took a deep breath and let it out. He knew that it had to be now or never. He just hoped it wouldn’t be a complete disaster.