Justin absentmindedly looked out across the club as he danced with Larissa Montgomery in the middle of the dance floor. He had been talked into coming out with the dancers and some of the crew on the tour but as the night went on, he was beginning to regret coming. He had gone out the past few nights and it was catching up with him. It was only eleven but he was planning to not stay much longer.

When Olivia had invited him, he had thought all of the dancers were going out too, but it turned out that Eva hadn’t. He had been a bit disappointed with that since he wanted to get to know her better outside dance rehearsal and concerts, which seemed to be the only place he ever interacted with her. He had asked Olivia about Eva’s lack of presence and Olivia had shrugged and simply said that Eva hadn’t wanted to come and she didn’t know why.

Justin came back to the present as the song playing ended and Larissa stopped.

“Want to go sit down?” she asked. “Since you’re obviously in another world out here.”

He smiled. “Yeah, sure.” He followed her through the crowds of people to the VIP section where everyone else was. Olivia and another dancer, Sara Robson, were giggling as he approached them and they abruptly stopped when he sat down. He stretched out in his seat. “What?”

Sara exchanged a look with Olivia and giggled again. “We know someone who has a crush on you…” she sang.

He began to smile. “Really? Who?”

“Guess.”

“You.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Keep dreaming.”

“Um…Michelle.”

“She’s married, Justin,” Olivia said.

“So?”

“So don’t be an ass. It’s not Michelle.”

“Then who?”

Olivia looked at Sara and then back at him. “Evaaa…” she said, drawing out her name.

He raised his eyebrows. “Eva?” he said skeptically. “She’s got a boyfriend.”

“Correction. She’s got a fiancé.”

“No, she told me she wasn’t engaged.”

“Then why does she wear that ring on her engagement finger?”

He shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Okay, well that’s besides the point,” Olivia said. “She has a crush on you.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“Oh come on. Haven’t you seen the way she looks at you?” Sara asked. “She looks like she’s always thinking ‘Oooh, Justin, I want you. Make me feel goooooood’.”

He began to laugh. “You guys are delusional.”

“Seriously,” Olivia said.

“Whatever, Olivia.” He leaned back in his chair and smirked. “You know, I’ve actually heard from quite a few people that you like me.”

“What?”

“Mm hmm. I’ve seen how you look at me. And quite frankly, it’s starting to make me uncomfortable.”

She narrowed her eyes at him when she realized he was joking. “Ass.”

He laughed. “Going to start denying it now, Olivia?”

She rolled her eyes. “How about we go back to the discussion we were having before. About Eva having the hots for you.”

He shook his head. “You guys are wrong.”

“Believe what you want,” Olivia said. “All I have to say is that her boyfriend better keep an eye on her.”

* * *

“So you got everything worked out with your boss?” Eva asked James the next day over the phone as she sat in her bunk in the dancer’s tour bus.

“Yeah. Everything’s sorted out. And I got those days off when I’m coming out to see you. He only let me have two days though.”

“Oh. Well that’s okay. At least you got the time off.”

“Yeah.”

Eva stretched out her legs in front of her. “So is anything else interesting happening?”

“Not really. I ran into your mom yesterday at the grocery store.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. She said she hadn’t talked to you in a while.”

“Yeah, I called her before I called you. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her the past couple days.” She leaned back against the wall of the bunk and tilted her head up to stare at the ceiling. She heard James yawn. “It’s late LA time. I’ll let you go.”

“Okay. Call me tomorrow if you have a chance, okay?”

“Sure. Bye.”

“Bye, Eva. I miss you.”

“Miss you too.” She hung up her cell phone and pushed the curtain back that covered her bunk and slipped out. Everyone else on the bus was asleep except for Olivia who was talking to her boyfriend in her bunk and it was almost silent. Eva left the bunk part of the bus and moved to the front.

“Not sleeping, Eva?” Marty, the bus driver, asked when she neared him.

“No, I’m not really tired.” She sat down on a chair near him. “How much longer until we get there?”

“Oh, not for another four hours at least. I have to stop and get some gas in a few miles if you want to get some fresh air.”

“Yeah, that would be nice. It’s getting stuffy in here.” She sat at the front of the bus for the next minute until Marty slowed the bus down and pulled into a gas station. She got off the bus with him and wandered away from the gas station and towards the convenience store a few yards away. Deciding to get something to drink, she went inside.

She had just pulled out a bottle of juice from the refrigerated shelves in the back of the store when she heard the bell over the door ring. Turning around, she saw Justin enter. His eyes connected with hers and he smiled as he came over.

“Hey,” he said when he reached her.

“Hi.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Sleeping.”

“Oh.” He grabbed a bottle of juice from the shelf. “So what have you been doing?”

“Not much. I talked on the phone for a bit but it’s too late LA time to call anyone else.”

“Yeah, it’s like one or two in the morning there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m so bored on my bus. I don’t think I can watch anymore TV.”

“At least you can watch TV. Shane and Sara are both really light sleepers and the TV would wake them up if I had it on.”

“Well that sucks.” He passed the bottle in between his hands. “Hey, want to come on my bus? I’m so bored of being by myself in there. Unless you were going to sleep or something.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Then want to come on mine?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It’s going to be a boring four hours if I’m in there alone.”

“Uh, sure, I guess.”

“Cool. Let’s pay for these then. I think they’re almost ready to go again.”

“Okay.”

They went to the front counter and Eva gave the cashier her money and then stepped to the side so Justin could pay. Once he was finished, they left the convenience store and walked back over to the buses.

“Marty, I’m going to go on Justin’s bus,” Eva said when she reached the bus driver. “Just so you know.”

“Alright, Eva,” he replied. “I’ll see you when we get there.”

“Okay.” She waved to him and then walked towards Justin’s bus where he was standing.

“All good?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

He stepped to the side and she climbed onto his bus, smiling at his driver on her way in. She went to the area where the TV was and stopped.

“Want anything to eat?” Justin asked as he came in behind her.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Okay.” He sat down on the couch and she followed suite and sat down in a chair. The bus began moving and she pulled her legs up to sit cross legged.

“Wanna watch some TV?” Justin asked, picking up the remote.

“Sure.”

He turned on the TV and flipped through a few channels. “You know, there’s nothing on. It’s Sunday.”

“Weren’t you watching TV before?”

“I was watching some DVDs.” He picked up another remote and turned on the DVD machine. She smiled as it turned on.

“You own Judge Judy DVDs?”

He smiled. “Sure. I love Judge Judy.”

“I didn’t even know they had this show on DVD.”

“I had to order it online.”

She laughed. “Oh.” She fell silent as they watched it for a few minutes. “Is it just me or does she have something against males? She always sides with the females.”

“Yes!” Justin exclaimed. “Thank you for saying that! I totally agree. I’ve tried telling my mom that and she says I’m imagining things. But Judge Judy totally has some underlying bitterness towards men.”

She smiled and leaned back in the chair. She was quiet for a minute. “I used to watch this show when I was in university. It would be on at like midnight and then I’d watch Jerry Springer that was on right after.”

“Didn’t you ever sleep?”

She shrugged. “I usually had late classes so I could sleep later in the morning. And I did my homework while I watched TV.”

“Really? You can concentrate on homework while watching TV?”

“Oh yeah. One of my best papers was written during and episode of Springer about grandmas who had slept with their granddaughter’s boyfriends.”

Justin laughed. “That’s funny. I can’t believe you can concentrate on a paper and watch Jerry Springer at the same time.”

She shrugged. “I grew up with two brothers. I’ve learned to have a lot of noise around when I’m working.”

“So when do you think you’ll be done your degree?”

“I’m starting school again in January and I’m hoping to be able to finish that year. It feels like it’s taken forever to get this far.”

“Were you doing ballet while you were in school?”

“I was at the beginning. I stopped ballet around the same time I stopped school for a while.”

“Same reason?”

She took a drink of her juice. “Uh huh.”

He fell silent and they went back to watching TV. After the show was over, he put in another DVD but they ended up talking through a large portion of it.

It was becoming easier to talk to Justin. As different as their lives were, he seemed a lot like her sometimes. It was also nice having someone to talk to. She still didn’t talk a lot to the other dancers and she had been getting lonely for a while. It felt good to have someone her own age to talk to and pass time with. It was better to pass time with someone than to be alone. She got more homesick when she had to be by herself.

They talked for the next three hours until the buses arrived in the next city that they were performing in. Eva got some weird looks from some of her fellow dancers as she got off of Justin’s bus but she quickly slipped past them and back onto their bus to get her stuff. If they wanted to know why she had been on his bus, they could simply ask. She didn’t see the need to supply the information

Once they got to their hotel rooms, everyone went back to bed. Not overly tired, Eva grabbed a book and went to the balcony of the room she was sharing with Sara, deciding to spend the rest of the afternoon reading. She only read for a few chapters though, before her mind got to thinking and she began to stare off into space, thinking about home.