“It still hurts.”

“I think it’s supposed to.”

Scrunching up her nose, Keely shook out her wrist as they walked down the road. “But it hurts,” she complained, not caring about the fact she sounded like a whining child.

In a comforting movement Seth swung his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close against his side even as they continued down the road, gaining odd looks from the people littered across it.

Instantly her heart got caught in her throat. Powerless to stop the urge, Keely just turned her face into his side, breathing deeply in. He smelt intoxicating and she just winced at the thought, but didn’t pull away yet, not so secretly being pressed tightly against him though she couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else noticed he smelt good or she was just being irrational.

However the instant his arm shifted slightly around her shoulder, she tugged away, keeping a rather close yet safe distance between them.

Hoping desperately that he hadn’t thought she’d been clinging onto him, she hurriedly busied herself, pulling her hair over her shoulder. Ignoring the constant nagging pain on the sensitive part of her wrist, she began to braid her ginger hair loosely over her shoulder, leaving her bangs shaggily over her forehead.

“I held your hand the whole time and bought you ice cream afterwards,” Seth pointed out, making her eyes snake over to him, looking casually handsome with the dark sunglasses covering his eyes. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be multitalented?” she retorted.

“Oh, you have no idea.”

At the cocky tone she glanced back in his direction, finding an amused smirk stretched attractively across his lips. For a moment she found her eyes falling to his lips, remembering clearly that they’d been soft when they’d pressed against hers.

Shaking her head lightly, Keely looked determinedly in front of her, forcing the thought from her mind. “Then why don’t you use one of them to distract me,” she threw back distractedly, not thinking about the words that slipped off her tongue.

Before her thoughts could waver, Seth quickly gripped her waist, announcing, “Well, if you say so.”

A surprised laugh sprang from her mouth even as he pulled her back against his chest. Elbowing him lightly in the chest so his hands dropped from her waist, because, after all, it was very distracting with the warmth from his large hands spreading through the plaid shirt she was wearing over top of the Muse v-neck she had on.

“Oh, you only wish,” she grinned, stepping forward as she glanced over her shoulder.

With that charmingly cheeky smile on his face Seth answered casually, “Every day.”

Instantly her head swung back around, cricking her neck. Wincing she raised her hand, rubbing her neck as she stepped about the corner. However before she could question him about his words, a blast of noise rounded on her from her new position on the other side of the corner building, causing her to swing her head around again.

“Oh my god,” she said in awe, shrinking back around the corner until she only had her hands on the brick and was peeking about it.

From behind her Seth stepped forward, peering over her head to see what she was looking at. “What are you – oh.”

Unable to help her reaction, she felt her nose crinkle in confusion as she stared at the pulsating crowd charging the gates that held open a pathway to the open hall was. The screaming was deafening if she dared to poke her head out even a little bit further, people were jumping up and own with signs in their hands and Keely was sure that she saw more than a few tears.

However it wasn’t too long until an unpleasant thought occurred to her. That pathway that the crowd was trying to beat down was the same path that she and Seth were supposed to be walking down.

Wincing she just let her eyes travel up and down the crowd, staying blissfully hidden. As much as she liked to meet with the crowds that showed up to the shows and such, this was not one she was looking forward to. First of all because they looked bloody dangerous at the moment. Not to mention the fact that she doubted they were here for her anyways, and walking down there with Seth just seemed like adding fuel to an already raging fire.

“Are we going to risk it?” Seth questioned, still peering over her head.

Thankfully no one was glancing in their direction; the crowd’s attention was zeroed in on the hall in front of them. There were enormous windows stretching across the front of the building, giving a view of the foyer, which probably accounted for the screeching of girls wishing to catch a glimpse of NSR.

Keely snorted disbelievingly, shaking her head lightly. Maybe on the way out it might be a little safer, especially since she couldn’t find any way that would get them through the swarm to the pathway. “Not with you,” she answered simply as she turned on her heel, taking them away from the chance of someone seeing her.

Instead of taking a step back to account for the sudden closeness, Seth just frowned down at her, his brow drawing together from behind the sunglasses. “What does that mean?”

Rolling her eyes light heartedly, she reached up, gripping him by the lapels of the faded jean jacket he had on. “It means we’re going through the back door, rock star,” she told him, pulling them back away from the crowd.

Seemingly coming back around to himself, Seth followed the pull on his jacket easily, grinning down at her. “Taking initiative now, are you, rebel?”

Chuckling lightly in the back of her throat she dropped her hands from his jacket, smoothing it thoughtlessly. When she realized she was running her hands down his chest, Keely hastily dropped her hands, hoping desperately she wasn’t blushing. “That’s me,” she replied easily, hoping he didn’t notice the sudden turn in her tone. “C’mon,” she told him, nodding to the alley way she knew lead to the back door, “They’re already going to kill us.”

Apparently the idea of getting even deeper into Maureen’s bad side was enough to send him walking behind her without complaint. After all the stress they’d caused her, from faux drugs to slipping songs off albums, it wasn’t fair to purposely antagonize her.

Knocking roughly on the solid metal door in the alleyway sandwiched between the two enormous buildings, they were quickly ushered in by a harassed looking member of the security that had been hired for the event.

Instantly they were set upon, Colton and Marco making an impressive two person swarm.

“You’re late!” exclaimed Marco accusingly, glaring at them.

“What is it about you?” questioned Colton thoughtfully, with much less complaint than the other as he looked down at her, pondering through his thoughts aloud.

From beside her Seth sent the boys an incredulous look. “C’mon, we’re not late. We just didn’t show up half an hour early like the rest of you did. What’s the point?”

However Keely wasn’t truly paying attention to the boy beside her, instead she had her head cocked to the side as she looked up at Colton in confusion. Even then, though, her attention didn’t stay long on him, because a movement caught her eye.

Widening her eyes slightly, she straightened up finding herself staring straight into a camera while the two person camera crew huddled around them. Feeling her eyebrows draw together, she asked bluntly, “Who are they?”

This time Colton just shook his head, smiling while Marco gave a great sigh.

“Seriously?” said Seth, his voice painted with amusement. “What were you doing when we were on the phone with Maureen? It was only like three weeks ago.”

Crinkling her nose in thought, Keely contemplated the question for a moment, raking her memory for even the phone call. If it was only three weeks ago, it was right when the tour had begun again, although three weeks seemed like only a short space of time for what had happened since it had restarted. The shows, the traveling, it was enough to bring anyone to their knees in defeat. If anything, she felt it should be more like three months of time would be more appropriate.

“Don’t strain yourself,” Seth put in smugly, pulling her from her thoughts.

Not so much as pausing, she punched him lightly on the shoulder with her left hand, keeping her right hand rightfully guarded. “Don’t be cheeky,” she teased easily. “Anyways, I just got bored I guess… stopped listening.”

Surprisingly it was Marco who laughed loudly. “I swear if you didn’t have Seth or Maureen dragging you around everywhere, you’d be completely lost.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she responded with a roll of her eyes, “Let’s make fun of the poor girl that has to deal with a bus full of boys who she isn’t even in a band with. Anyways,” she began, pulling in a breath to end her small rant with a frown towards the camera and the woman and man who were completely silent. It was rather creepy to her when she thought about it, people standing silently about with cameras? “What are they doing here?”

“Ah, rebel, they’re here about that television show,” answered Seth, someone finally taking pity on her despite her absentminded ways.

“Huh?”

“The television show? Oh, c’mon. They’re with us for four days, taking footage.”

Thoughtfully she bit lightly on her bottom lip. “Four days? But after the show, we’re going on the bus to California.”

“Yes, that’s part of it,” the slender woman finally piped up, making her a lot less creepy than before. Not to mention she sounded intelligent with her sharp grey eyes, which was a relief. “You four are squeezing two more into your tour bus.”

“You’re going to hate it,” Keely warned.

The woman arched an eyebrow, retorting, “We’ll rough it.”

Finally remembering the manners that didn’t always kick in anymore, Keely smiled at them, holding out a hand to the man than the woman in time. “Hi, I’m Keely Staub and you’re going to be very disappointed by us in the next four days. We’re really not that interesting.”

“Except for the bus full of coke and hookers,” added in Seth from behind her.

Her lips twitched but she tried her best to keep a straight face as she followed along with him. “Well, yes, except for that.”

At the very least the two didn’t take it too seriously which gave Keely a little hint of hope that her next few days wouldn’t be absolute torture. Maybe she was finally meeting the good reporters after a stretch of horrid; Peter hadn’t been bad even if he’d been a tad bit self-involved.

And after only a few moments she found that their names happened to be Meredith and Ewan. Although there was the sad fact the man looked nothing like his McGregor counterpart, with his auburn hair with a rather large nose.

Still they weren’t dragged into formality for long since it appeared that Marco was getting a bit restless with it. “We gotta get going,” he announced, reaching out to grab her by the wrist and tug her forward a step.

But Keely gasped in pain, trying to wrench her wrist from his grasp. She hadn’t been expecting it to hurt that much.

“You tool,” Seth snarled suddenly, taking a step forward to yank his hand off of her and shove his best friend back a step.

Holding his hands up immediately in surrender Marco had a bewildered expression on his face, falling back the step. “Shit, I didn’t know it would hurt. I’m sorry, I was barely touching you!” he pointed out, his eyes worriedly scanning over her as if he expected her to burst into tears at any given moment.

Wincing slightly, Keely rubbed her wrist in question tentatively. “No, its fine,” she assured him, “I was being overdramatic.”

“Keely…” Colton began slowly, dragging her eyes in his direction. Her cringe was worse this time when she noticed that his gaze was glued to her wrist, her hand not hiding it well enough. “Why do you have a bandage on your wrist?”

“Uh…” she replied, using the same slow tone, wishing she’d had the forethought to pull the sleeves of her flannel shirt down instead of where they were folded up at her elbows.

“I think you can take off the bandage now,” Seth observed, stepping slightly behind her.

Grimacing again she absently began flicking the edge of the white gauze. “Do you think it’s ready yet?”

“What are you two talking about?”

He gave a shrug. “They said in two hours it should be okay. It’s been three.”

“Seth!”

However they just kept ignoring not only Marco and Colton, but Ewan and Meredith as well. It only seemed to get the two boys more worked up in their worry but it made their little camera crew excited as they huddled closer.

“Have you taken yours off yet?” she questioned, frowning slightly.

“Yeah,” he answered with a shrug, “I took mine off at the ice cream place.”

“Keely!”

Ignoring Colton completely she just looked up eagerly at Seth. “Really, you did? Does it look cool?”

“Yeah, it’s awesome.”

“Hey!”

Pursing her lips together thoughtfully, Keely glanced back down at her wrist; successfully overlooking any attempt Colton and Marco were making to get their attention. “I was going to take mine off too, but I didn’t want to do it in front of cameras in case it was all bloody and gross or something.”

“It’ll be fine,” Seth assured her, the warm smile he sent her enough to make any girl in a twenty meter radius melt. It was a wonder her knees were still supporting her. “Just take off the bandage.”

“Oh my god!” Marco finally exclaimed, getting Keely and Seth to finally glance in his direction. “You two got matching tattoos or something stupid, didn’t you? If you did, I’m going to personally murder you. Why the hell–”

“Well, they’re definitely not matching,” she observed, finally reaching down to peel the bandage off, wincing slightly at the tug on her skin.

She was about to continue talking but the words turned into a delighted sound from the back of her throat. Thoughtlessly, she just tossed the bandage that had a spattering of blood on it to the side, her eyes focused tightly on her wrist.

It had been bloody painful to get the tattoo on the sensitive inside of her wrist, and Seth had warned her before, but that’s where she’d wanted it so desperately. And she didn’t regret it, not to mention that while she’d been getting it Seth had gripped her free hand in his, his thumb rubbing the circles into her palm that she adored. Anyways, the tattoo looked brilliant in her opinion, the simple black strokes on her delicate wrist making up the fine feather and the surrounding circle.

“They’re not matching,” she continued on, her voice a little vague as she ran her finger lightly over the black circle. “We were talking back in New York with Will and Jake about how much we loved Led Zeppelin then in Chicago about how we wanted to get tattoos. So I got the Robert Plant symbol and he got the Jimmy Page one.”

“Oh that’s awesome!” exclaimed a new voice coming into the picture.

Grinning widely, she looked up to find Will peering over shoulder down at the tattoo on her wrist. “I know, it’s great, you just need to John Bonham one,” she joked easily.

Colton rolled his eyes. “Don’t tempt the kid. Now, really,” he started, carefully grabbing her clear wrist this time and tugging her a step forward. “We have to get into this thing, the rest of the guys are waiting for us.”

Even with Colton pulling at her wrist, Keely started chatting good naturedly with Will about the tattoo and if he should get the John Bonham one. A move that she completely supported, not to mention she urged him to text Jake about getting himself the John Paul Jones tattoo, just to make it a complete little group.

However when they reached the in between room, she left the group of boys who had surrounded her, making a beeline for a completely different group of men.

For the first time a thought occurred to her, making Keely look around the small room in surprise. Since Marissa had left the tour, it made her the single girl on the road. There was NSR talking in the corner, Will standing with the other three members of his band – one who standing anxiously close to the door, listening to the angry buzz of chatter through it – while the last group was her back up band, the three older men waiting patiently for her.

Shaking the thought from her head, she tucked her hair absently behind her ear as she moved through the crowded room. Smiling broadly up at them, she clapped her hands together. “You guys ready for this one?”

But instantly John’s eyes zeroed in on her wrist. “What’s that?” he asked sharply.

Sending him a bland look, she stuck out her wrist for all of them to see, her previous reasons for keeping it hidden flying out the window. “If you’re going to give me the old man talk about how I shouldn’t be “defiling” my body or something, I’m going to have a few choice words for you.”

“I was going to say that Robert Plant was a good choice,” he responded through narrowed eyes.

“Oh,” she replied, the look falling away before getting replaced with her previous anticipated one. “Okay, good. Now let’s – oh, wow,” she said in surprise as she spun around, coming to an abrupt halt when she found a camera inches from her face, the mic hanging right above her head yet out of sight.

For a moment she frowned into the lens before her eyes flickered up to Meredith who was looking pointedly at the men behind her. “Yeah,” she said hurriedly, “This is the incredible band, The Bitter Rivals, who have been backing me up for this tour. And, now, I think we do have to go.”

Hurriedly she gripped two of the men’s arms and pulled them forward, away from the cameras. Or, at least, hiding her away from them.

At the door that she came to, Keely found herself sandwiched safely between her band members while NSR stood ahead, The Cavern Jets pulling up the back.

“Ready?” the guy at the door called.

Even as the rest chorused an affirmative, she swivelled her head around to find Will standing behind the rest of his band, looking a little green around the edges. Understanding why he’d be so nervous, she sent him a wink before the door was open and the screeching started.

Without so much as a word, they were shoved into the thick of it.

The fan meet and greet wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. In fact, it felt rather simple, at least for her. She stopped and chatted for a moment with each person that she came into contact with, signing anything they handed her, answering whatever questions they might have even though that was supposed to be held for later on. Although she did notice the fact that the boys were having much more trouble, the guys in the crowd were not even close to as grabby as the girls who were pulling at Seth’s shirt.

Although, Keely really hadn’t expected this part to be that awful since she found lately that she quite liked mingling with the fans, in fact, she still found it a bit odd. The fact that the crowds could sing along to her songs was more than a little surreal, even when someone called her name out on the street she would freeze and ask very suspiciously how they knew who she was most of the time. But it was the casual almost press conference after she wasn’t looking forward to.

Throughout the entire she got annoyed very few times. It wasn’t when fans were asking her about what went on in the tour bus or when a girl asked her if Seth was a good kisser, it was when Meredith and Ewan pressed close to her, invading the personal space she liked to keep away from cameras.

Even though it was almost two hours to just make her way through the crowd, at the very end she found herself almost at the long panel that had been set up at the far edge of the room with Seth’s back almost pressed against hers.

“And your name, sweetie?” she asked, smiling kindly at the girl who’s black hair was far from natural.

“Andrea,” she murmured shyly, surrounded tightly by her friends who Keely had already spoken to.

Sending the girl another smile, Keely looked down; signing her own CD hastily with the sharpie she’d been provided. Not for the first time, she wished that she’d had a better signature but there was no going back now. “Are you coming to the show tonight?” she questioned, handing the CD back to her.

Andrea nodded, despite her nervousness the girl’s eyes were lit up enthusiastically. “Yeah, we all got floor seats for it.”

“I’ll look for you guys then,” Keely responded, sending a quick look over her shoulder to where Seth was talking casually to a teenage boy. It was odd how antisocial he could be when it came to people, but when it was his fans, he at least did his best not to tell them off.

Feeling her mouth quirk up in a small smile, she listened carefully as Seth gave the boy tips on playing the guitar. It was really sweet to be honest, but the moment the thought crossed her mind, Keely winced at herself. She really did have to get a hold of her emotions every once in a while. Maybe it seemed like it to her, but everything he did couldn’t be sweet, cute, funny or sexy to everyone else. That’d just be unnatural!

When she looked back to her group of girls, she found they had huddled close to her, wearing interested expressions. “Are you two dating yet?” a girl with platinum blonde hair that was just as fake as her dark haired friend asked, her eyes flicking up Seth’s back.

“No, actually, we’re just good friends,” she quoted.

It was only then when she felt Seth move from behind her, stepping around so he was instead at her side. Smirking knowingly, he looked down at her, responding with a quote as well. “Do you often see your father?”

“No, actually, we’re just good friends,” Keely repeated, reciting the words perfectly before giggling.

Finding only blank stares meeting the words, she shook her head in mock disappointment. “Discover The Beatles,” she advised them, “It’ll be the best moment of your life.”

Soon enough they were begging for Seth’s autograph as well as pictures where they plastered themselves to his side. Rolling her eyes casually, Keely just bid her farewell to the girls though she was in doubt they’d even notice her absence before heading up to the platform, hopping cautiously up the steps on the sides.

Everyone else was already in their places while Seth was just trying to tear himself away from the girls. Since there were only two spots left beside each other, Keely left the one with Marco and Colton all to their third member, taking up the seat beside John. The line continued on with the rest of her back up band then the Cavern Jets beside them. A quick glance behind her proved that their mini camera crew had decided to follow her, making Keely conclude their heads were probably aching from the squealing if they were leaving Seth.

“Where’s Seth?” questioned Marco, leaning slightly over the last empty chair between them, “I thought he was with you.”

With a shrug Keely just leaned back in her chair casually, her eyes travelling lightly over the crowd, thick with reporters who looked disgruntled from the fans shuffling them about. “He was,” she agreed, sending them a smile as she brushed her bangs away from her eyes. “But now he’s getting his ego stroked.”

Colton, who’d been peering around Marco to listen, gave a loud groan. “He’s going to be insufferable on the bus tonight.”

“Absolutely,” Keely replied with a wide grin, her eyes finding him in crowd as he tried to pull away from the girls.

A glance to the side found the camera lens trained tightly on her face, making Keely give it a distrustful look before she forced her eyes straight in front of her. She embarrassed herself enough around him, she didn’t need to do it on national television, because she had no doubt the producers would show it without a thought.

Hearing steps coming up the podium behind them, she kept herself from glancing around no matter how much she was urged to do so. Although she did finally succumb when she heard the chair to her right being pulled out, the legs scratching against the ground.

Easily Seth leaned back in his chair, apparently completely oblivious to the camera behind them or just used to it by now. “Are we ready?” he asked, his arm swinging over the back of her plastic chair nonchalantly.

Instantly Keely rolled her eyes at him.

And just as silently he smiled, making the gold in his eyes smoulder.

“Just so you know,” he began, his eyes not even flickering away from hers for a mere moment. “You’re doing the announcement, Colton.”

Before the other boy could even argue over the decision, they were called out to from the side where Maureen was standing, telling them that the videos had begun recording. The words making it obvious that their press conference had started.

“Uh, hi,” started Colton awkwardly, leaning into the small mic that was on the table in front of him. Keely couldn’t help the smirk that leapt to her mouth even though she sympathized with him, this was different than singing in front of a crowd, this was just speaking to them. Leaning forward slightly she found him staring above the heads of the entire crowd, his arms propping him up steadily on the table.

“We called this press conference to announce the shows we’re adding onto the tour,” he continued. However Keely’s attention was drawn away from his words for a moment when Seth began playing with the ends of her hair, apparently already bored. Without a glance at him, she just slapped his hand away from her hair, but she didn’t push his arm away, letting him keep it wrapped around the back of her chair. She wasn’t about to admit it to anyone, but she really did like it there.

Yet she forced herself to focus back on Colton quickly. “They’ve been included since all the new shows we’d added since Marissa James left sold out within days. The tour is going to be extended for months; the only show changing dates will be our Seattle show, which will be the final show of the tour. We apologize in advance to the people in Seattle who have already bought tickets, but truly hope they’ll be able to make it to the new show.”

Arching an eyebrow she just stared at him incredulously. He’d memorized the little speech Ms Jones had given all of them word for word and just spewed out the same way.

“And we can’t wait to play every other show we’ve added,” put in Seth, still leaning back as if nothing going around bothered him at all. “We just want to get all over the country and play for as many people as possible. As musicians, it’s the best thing we can do.”

Watching him closely, Keely put her hands flat upon the table, the urge to brush his chronically messy hair from his forehead.

“Keely Staub,” asked a smooth voice from the crowd, “How do you feel about this?”

Her eyes flashing up the crowd, she couldn’t even decide who had asked the question, although she knew it was from the press, the fans had their time for questions after. “It’s one crazy ass tour,” she told them bluntly, lacking the grace of Seth or Colton words.

A titter of laughter rang through the crowd, surprising her but making her shoulders relax slightly as she slouched back.

“Oh so sophisticated, rebel,” Seth whispered from the corner of his mouth.

Snorting she just shook her head. “Yup, that’s me. I’m the picture of class.”

“Have you been writing any new music?”

The questions continued for over an hour, separated between the three bands sitting in front of the press, the fans buzzing with anticipation to ask their own. Once again Keely found she was surprised by the fact it wasn’t as awful as she’d been expecting. But then again, it was most likely do to the fact that the grilling was spaced out between all eleven of them.

Finally they moved on to the fan questions. By this time the tenseness had left the three bands, all having become almost bored with the interrogation. They’d been asked these questions countless times while on the road. Well, besides the questions about the new shows seeing as they’d been forbidden to talk about it specifically by Ms Jones. Plus the creepiness of sitting in front of a crowd of people interviewing them had died down as well.

In fact, it almost left Keely sleepy. Being back on tour hadn’t quite agreed with her sleep yet, leaving it skewed across the hours of the night, although she still didn’t have it as bad as Seth. Who, from her careful observation, slept just barely more than he used to. She was trying with all her might to resist the urge to lean her head on his shoulder and just let herself fall asleep, although drooling and snoring on across the internet and national TV wasn’t quite an appealing prospect.

When the cameras shut off – well, the professional ones – and some of the press shuffled out, they were left to the mercy of their fans that had come to the meet and greet. Although Keely couldn’t help but notice that while the television cameras had left, a lot of the cameras for the gossip websites had stayed.

A microphone was being passed to the randomly chosen members of the audience now, at least letting them who were speaking now.

“Are you coming to Dallas?” asked a girl with pretty blonde curls.

It was Marco who volunteered to answer that question, tipping towards the microphone. “Yeah, we’re actually doing two shows there, I think. But tickets go on sale tomorrow, short notice, we know, but we’ll just see where it goes.”

The microphone was forcibly passed by security along to a man who was maybe in his early twenties that was wearing glasses so thick it was a wonder anyone could even see through them. “You two have a writing partnership, right?”

As the question was clearly directed at them, Keely and Seth shared a quick look before he answered for them. “Yeah,” he replied slowly, shifting slightly in his seat.

To be honest, Keely would have answered with that same questioning note in her voice. It was common knowledge that they had a song writing partnership. Once that picture of them sitting across from each other with their guitars in Vancouver had spread across magazines and the internet, everyone that paid attention to them knew that they wrote together. After all, the best things she’d done musically speaking – and not always so musically – since she’d moved to New York had been with Seth.

Nodding knowledgably, the boy quickly spoke before security could take the mic from him. “Have you been writing anything new yet?”

The side of her mouth quirking up in a slight smile, Keely glanced at him quickly, but this time she was the one that answered. “Yeah, of course,” she replied with a warm glance towards Seth, “We’re always writing something. If it’s good or not is up to debate though.”

“This question is for Keely,” put in a shrill voice, “Are you a virgin?”

If she’d had been drinking a glass of water, she would have spat it out. In her opinion, that would have made a good shot for Meredith and Ewan who were walking around the long table, camera in hand.

However even without the water, she was sure her face made a comical enough expression. Her eyes bulged and with a gaping mouth, she opened and closed it, as if trying to find the words. Apparently it was quite a hilarious expression because of every other person sitting behind the table started laughing at her. Yes, she realized that she was in the public eye and people didn’t respect your private life at all, whether your grandfather was dying or if you had kinky sex in supply closets on your spare time. But still, it seemed a bit bold to ask a complete stranger that question.

“Uh, no… no, I’m not,” she replied, staring at the young girl through her wide eyes. “But,” she started awkwardly, looking at all the young faces around her. Weren’t they supposed to be really impressionable? “It’s not like–”

Thankfully Seth came to her rescue, cutting off what would have only become a long mindless ramble until it had nothing to do with the original question.

“I’m a virgin.”

Blankly Keely just stared at him for a beat.

But then she burst out laughing, clapping her hands lightly in front of her as she slumped back into her seat. It appeared she wasn’t the only one who appreciated the comic relief, because the rest of the table had begun laughing again, although this time harder.

“Hey,” Seth complained, looking between his band, to Keely then down the line. “I find that very insulting,” he informed them, looking straight into her eyes.

Still giggling, Keely just shook her hair lightly away from her face. “Oh, c’mon, Ryan, we all know that you aren’t.”

His mockingly insulted look broke into a grin as he looked at her, still not having so much as moved his arm from its position on the back of her chair, almost wrapped around her shoulders. “Okay, I’m not, we all know it. But still, it hurts.”

Her laughter finally died down completely when the next question was asked, but this time for the Cavern Jets. “Will, I looked up some old YouTube videos of the band a year or so ago, and you used to sing a song every blue moon or whatever. Are you going to be singing anything on the tour?”

Interested Keely finally leaned forward, peering to the opposite end of the long table where Will sat on the very edge. It was true, the boy could really sing. Maybe he wasn’t as good as Seth, but was there any way to even compare voices? All she knew that when they’d been practicing back in New York for the television show, he’d sung a bit, so did Jake, and they’d both turned out to be pretty great vocalists.

But before Will could answer, the lead singer – whose name she’d learnt was Aaron – started speaking. She’s also learnt that she wasn’t exactly fond of him, he seemed outrageously arrogant. In all, she knew she shouldn’t complain seeing as she found Seth’s cockiness charming most of the time, but this was different and she didn’t know why. Maybe because it was Seth and Aaron just wasn’t him.

“He’s a drummer,” Aaron scoffed, making Keely’s eyes narrow on him. “Drummers don’t sing or do anything else, they can’t; it’s one of the number one rules of music.”

Unable to stop herself, she jumped in, snapping at the new lead singer. “Oh, really? I always laugh when people act like that, because they never know how much their band would be worth shit without their drummer. And, drummers don’t sing? Seriously, Ringo Star, Mickey Dolenz, Don Henley, Meg White, Peter Criss, Levon Helm, Phil Collins, Roger Taylor, Dave freaking Grohl. Do I need to go on?”

That successfully shut Aaron up, making Keely raise a challenging eyebrow in his direction.

When he didn’t respond, she folded her arms in front of her chest, flopping back against her chair into Seth’s comfortably warm arm.

“Did you need to scare the child?” muttered John from the side of his mouth.

Scowling, she sent him a quick look. “He deserved it,” she mumbled, making Seth chuckle from her other side.

“Keely, I’ve got a question for you too,” asked a boy this time. Wincing in advance in case she got a question like the last one addressed to her, she nodded, focusing on the guy with the floor. “After everything, your album being at number for weeks and already being the second act in a show, do you think you deserve it?”

In surprise Keely just blinked at him. That wasn’t a question she’d been expecting.

“Um… to be honest, I just don’t know.”

“I think you do,” said Seth from her side, cutting in once again. “I think she does,” he rephrased his words, looking at the boy before turning his gaze to her.

Confused Keely just searched his face as his eyes seemed to bore into her, making the pit of her stomach feel uneasy. “She’s the most talented person I know, and I’d never want to work or write with anyone else the way we do. Plus, she’s humble and far from observant. She’ll be the last one to let fame get into her head, half because she won’t realize it and the other half because she just won’t care.”

When he broke off with his ending word, she pulled in a shaky breath, not pulling her eyes away.

“Thanks for earlier.”

Focused on the straw, Keely just gulped down the slush in her throat, sending Will a bewildered look. “What are you talking about?” she returned hoarsely as they comfortably walked down the hall, completely at ease in the stadium.

With his tell-tale embarrassment sign of his ears reddening, Will in turn looked down, focusing on his drink as well. It was almost odd seeing him like that, at his enormous height it made an odd picture for his shoulders to be slumped like that as they walked companionably. “At the meet and greet press conference thing,” he mumbled, “With Aaron. Thanks for telling him off and – well, just thanks.”

“You don’t need to thank me, the guy was being a dick,” she answered evenly. “Next time he asks you to be quieter when you play or says you shouldn’t be allowed to sing you should hit him with your drumstick. No, no, no, better idea,” Keely said in a hurry, her eyes lighting up. “Pull a Keith Moon, but aim to hit Aaron with your bass drum.”

Will just shrugged, stirring the drink about with his straw. “I don’t know, he knows what he’s doing. I mean, we’re the opening band on a stadium tour not just playing in clubs anymore.”

Keely gave a derisive snort as they moved into the open, but cluttered, backstage. “That means nothing, c’mon, the best punk rock bands are club bands.”

A glance towards the stage made her furrow her brow in confusion, seeing Marco and Colton standing idly to the side. Weren’t they supposed to be on stage? But Will’s dispirited figure caught her attention, making her eyes softened. “You’re a great drummer Will, you’re incredible. And Aaron’s an ass. Now do you want to go see what the hell is going on with the show?” she questioned with a nod in Marco and Colton’s direction.

He nodded quickly, looking bewildered before they headed over in their direction, their ears picking up the sound of Seth’s voice, making it clear he was on stage.

“Why aren’t you guys out there?” she asked, coming up to Marco’s side with Will behind her.

He gave a shrug, sipping on a water bottle. “Seth wanted to do an acoustic song on his own. Where have you been?”

“We went to get slushies,” she told him, gesturing to Will. “To more or less escape the cameras,” Keely added with a glance to their side where Meredith and Ewan were standing there, taking in everything they said. They really did stick like glue.

Deciding that it’d be better not to think about the fact she was on camera at the moment, she took a step forward as Will engaged the other two in conversation. Absentmindedly sipping on the slushy, she leaned her shoulder against the black doorway that gave a view to the stage. The stage stayed rather simple for the entire concert, but instead of the usual way where the whole stage was lit up, there was only a light on Seth.

He was sitting on a stool, one foot tapping along rhythmically as he played the acoustic on his lap, singing into the microphone he’d adjusted to his sitting height. His hair was rumpled as always as he sat in his rather plain clothes beneath the spot light, but the guitar he was playing was anything but plain. His fingers dancing along the guitar, crooning the difficult progressions with such ease it simply wasn’t fair.

Watching him, she felt a shiver run up her spine. She had to say, the skilled hands had to be half the reason why guitarists were so sexy.

As if feeling her gaze on him, Seth glanced quickly in the direction of the doorway. His eyes finding her, he kept his head turned as he sang, not even looking at the crowd with his mouth almost brushing the plain black microphone. “I can’t be her angel now. You know it’s not my place to hold her down. And it’s hard for me to take a stand. When I would take her any way I can.”

Her body tensing up, Keely just forced a small smile at him as she held the drink forgotten in her hand before he turned his attention back to the crowd.

The tautness of her muscles didn’t leave until the song ended and Seth gave a simple thank you, standing up from the stool and placing the acoustic on the stand of guitars. Hastily moving the stool out of the way, he gave a come hither nod in the doorway’s direction.

It didn’t surprise her when Colton took her by the arm, tugging her towards the stage. Ever since the tour had started, she’d play a closing song or two with NSR. It made the crowds go crazy. Sometimes she and Seth would do a duet they’d practised, often Under Pressure, but sometimes she’d just play lead guitar while he sang and played rhythm and vice versa.

“Here, hold this,” she said, pressing the drink into Will’s hands without a glance towards him.

As they walked out on stage, the angry birds in her stomach flapped angrily all the way up to her throat, but she kept her focus as the noise level rose by notches at their reappearance. Smiling, she sent a quick wave to the crowd.

She walked up to the microphone, but not to address the audience but because Seth was pulling it up for an even height between the two of them.

The moment he finished fooling around with it, she placed her hand over the top, muffling all sound so the crowd couldn’t hear her voice. “Which song?” she asked, her voice at a shout that she could barely hear over the crowd. While Marco and Colton wore earplugs to protect against the almost tangible noise, she and Seth refrained, making it easier for him to hear her now despite everything.

“Read My Mind,” he shouted back, his voice sounding used from the show as well, although she couldn’t help but notice that her voice was much raspier although he’d been singing longer than she.

Pushing the worried sensation in the pit of her stomach away, she just nodded, walking over his guitar stand to pick up one of the guitars in question. After a moment of thought, deciding on the Firebird at random. Plugging the guitar in as Seth did the same, although he picked up a classic Stratocaster instead.

They’d practice the song before, but never done it in front of a crowd. And though they were lacking the electronic that made The Killers’ version nothing short of brilliant, it sided onto the punk when they played it.

Closing her eyes, she just tipped her head back as she started with the rhythm guitar, barely having time before she was stepping forward to the microphone, picking up her section of the song. It made her smile when the people recognized the song as she sang, joining in as she played.

“Can you read my mind?” she crooned to the crowd, holding her strumming hand away from the guitar and bringing it into the air. “I never really gave up on, Breakin' out of this two-star town. I got the green light, I got a little fight, I'm gonna turn this thing around.”

The build up to the chorus grew in her body and she began strumming harshly, jumping lightly up and down as the music ordered. “Oh well I don't mind, if you don't mind. 'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine,” she couldn’t help the fact that her eyes met Seth’s as she sang the last line, her stomach jumping pleasantly. “Before you go, can you read my mind?”

When the chorus ended, she hurriedly took a step back allowing Seth to take up his section of the song.

“It’s funny how you just break down

Waitin' on some sign

I pull up to the front of your driveway

With magic soakin' my spine

Can you read my mind?

Can you read my mind?

The teenage queen, the loaded gun;

The drop dead dream, the Chosen One

A southern drawl, a world unseen;

A city wall and a trampoline.”

She couldn’t help the smile that spread to her face as she watched him play, so seamlessly bringing out every emotion that the song provoked.

As the song came into an end, she pulled up on the lead vocals, letting Seth come up on the backup while they sang into the same microphone. Out of breath, she fell back away from the microphone stand, smiling broadly at Seth.

“Highway To Hell?” she shouted.

Grinning back, his answer came simply as he began to play the first chords.

When the show ended, they hurriedly packed their things away into bags, Keely going to her change room while the boys headed to theirs, sending their goodbyes to the rest of the guys until they reached California.

It wasn’t long until she’d hastily swung her bag over her shoulder, heading to the back of the stadium where the tour bus was waiting for them. When she got to the doors, she met Colton, walking out into the desert air with him.

But she hesitated when she saw a familiar woman standing beside the door, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Hey Ms-Maureen,” Keely corrected herself hastily, stepping forward under the street light.

“Keely,” she acknowledged easily, gesturing her forward closer as Colton stuck close to her side. “This is where my trip ends; I’m heading back to New York, UAE and Mitchie.”

Biting back the relieved sigh, Keely nodded understandingly. As much as the woman was great to her, the closest thing she had to a mother figure, Maureen being with them the whole time they’d been in this city had been nerve racking. It was like trying to be responsible, but failing miserably.

Maureen’s lips tipped upwards knowingly. “I just wanted to say today went great, that tattoo of yours is all over the internet already, I’ve got high hopes for ticket sales and I just needed to give you your twitter account.”

Confused Keely looked down at the paper pressed in her hand. “You made me a twitter?” she asked disbelievingly.

“It’s time to get into the twenty first century, Keely. This is how modern society follows their favorite musicians.”

Pursing her lips, she twirled the paper between her fingers. “You could’ve let me make my own.”

“You wouldn’t have done it,” Maureen returned, “Anyways, goodbye.”

Giving the woman an absent hug, Keely stared down at the sheet that held her username and password. It seemed odd, but weren’t most of these things run by the publicity teams or agents anyways? So, she doubted she’d be allowed to change anything about it. “Do you guys have this stuff?”

“Yeah, NSR has their own for tour dates, meet and greets; stuff like that,” answered Colton casually. “Marco and I have our own, but Seth’s got closed down by UAE after he insulted too many people.”

Snorting, she stuffed the slip into her pocket. “That sounds like him,” she returned, hastily pulling the door to the bus open and climbing inside.

“… and this is where we keep the beer, I think that ends the tour.”

Laughing instantly, Keely tossed her duffel bag onto the couch as she watched Seth close the door of the fridge. “You make us seem oh so responsible,” she told him with a grin.

“Oh, don’t worry, I think I did that when I showed them all your bras, one by one,” he replied with a smirk, running his hand through his hair. Going to the counter, he passed a chilled long necked bottle to Colton as he passed by.

Rolling her eyes, she snagged one as well as she shuffled past him, trying very hard to not brush him in the small space.

“Do you guys mind if we ask you some questions?” called Meredith from the front of the bus.

Getting to her bunk, she grabbed some clothes out her bag, not wanting to be stuck in her concert clothes while in the bus. She was supposed to be relaxed there. “We’ve been answering questions all day,” she called back.

“We won’t ask you the same ones,” Meredith reasoned.

Grinning Marco passed by her, coming from the back room and nudging her as he passed. “No they’re just going to ask you when and who.”

“Marco Stevenson, a gentleman if I’ve ever met one,” she said sarcastically, sending him a bland look. But it did help her that when he grabbed a beer from the container that Seth had out, the dark haired boy elbowed him hard enough that Marco doubled over.

Half an hour found Seth sitting on the couch, his acoustic on his lap as he answered the questions. Colton and Marco were sitting to one side, just talking easily with Meredith and Ewan, making them seem so much more charming than Keely felt they were. She was sitting at the table, across from Meredith – although the woman was focused on the boys – and Ewan was sitting beside Colton.

Very comfortable in a pair of grey sweat pants, her black Death Cab For Cutie shirt and her ginger hair tied into a braid that was pulled over her shoulder, she was searching through the internet on her laptop interestedly.

“Yeah that was when we were bored,” Colton answered, chuckling as he relived one of the tour stories.

Keely, having lived these stories first hand, was much less interested in the topic at hand; instead she was in heaven as she looked through the website. She’d never had any idea there were so many people on this site, being quite the cynic when it came to social websites, but she’d moments ago found The Melvins. Yes, she was quite blissful.

“Did you know the Pixies were on here?” she asked excitedly.

Ignoring her completely, Meredith just asked her next question. “You and Seth lived together for a while when you moved out to New York, didn’t you?”

Instantly Keely’s head snapped up, she having no idea. But before Colton could answer, Seth hastily stood up, taking the guitar by the neck and hastily moving over to her. Placing his palm on the table so he blocked her way out from the booth, he looked over her shoulder to the screen. “Really, the Pixies?”

Skeptically she arched a single eyebrow up at him, wondering about his abrupt interest. Yes, she knew he liked the band, but there was something different about this. Just looking at him and hoping he’d get her silent message, she picked her bottle, taking a sip of the yeasty drink as she stared. But his eyes were focused much too hard on the screen than normal.

With a mischievous grin at Seth’s back, Colton replied, “Oh, yeah. That we did, we were roommates for about six months.”

“Why did you guys stop?”

Groaning Seth ran a hand over his face, not even turning back to his best friends. “I swear to whatever you want, but if you answer that truthfully, I will kill you.”

Suddenly much more concerned with the conversation at hand, Keely just peered around Seth to look at the other boy who apparently was very blasé about the threat. “He was a horrible guy to live with,” Colton confessed, looking quite pleased. “I mean, it was the constant stream of women through the door. Seriously, way too many. It was like he learnt how to pick up a girl and he needed to make up for those seventeen years.”

Seth apparently couldn’t follow through on his threat, but he just gave another huge breath, running a hand over his face.

On her part, Keely just felt her eyebrows shoot up as she took another sip of her beer. “So you were a manwhore?” she smirked. It surprised her that she didn’t feel even a hint of jealousy.

Really, the whole day with the fan girls fawning over him and pressing themselves all over him didn’t bother her either, and neither did this. It was odd that she could let it go so quickly, despite the way she now knew she felt about him. But it didn’t take long for her to find the answer.

It was because none of the other girls knew what she knew about him. He hadn’t told them about his childhood, his feelings, nothing. He’d told her. And despite all her insecurities, that had to mean something. Not to mention he’d told her flat out that he’d never loved anyone before. And it didn’t matter that he didn’t love her either, but he trusted her enough to tell her about himself and his childhood.

Wincing he just ran his hand through his hair habitually. “Yeah, we’re done for the night.”

Shaking her head, she laughed loudly, but all the same closed her laptop easily. Unless she was very much mistaken, he was embarrassed, it made her heart melt a bit in her throat.

“Poker anyone?” asked Colton excitedly.

Even though Seth had taught her to play rather well, Keely shook her head, pushing out of the booth, shoving Seth out of the way with her shoulder to his chest. “Not me tonight,” she told them, finishing what was left of her beer as she grabbed her laptop, leaving the table for the poker game.

“Yeah, I’m out too,” Seth told them.

But despite their refusal, Ewan and Meredith agreed to play with the two boys. Keely waited long enough to watch their confused faces as they boys pulled out their currency of twizzlers for their game, but left immediately after to climb out to her bunk.

Instead of crawling up and going to sleep as would have been intelligent, she just traded her computer for her songbook, heading back to where the rest of them where.

Finding the group playing poker had taken up space at their table while Seth was sitting strumming his guitar absently on the couch, she sat down on the couch beside him. She opened the book to the latest song she’d been thinking about as she chewed on the end of her pen thoughtfully.

However the song fled from her mind within moments when Seth laid his head in her lap. With wide eyes, she lifted the book so she could see down to where he’d decided to lay down on his back, his head in her lap as he looked up at her.

“What are you doing?” she asked vacantly, staring down at his shining golden eyes.

Grinning up at her, he just strummed the guitar that was still in his hands. “Getting comfortable,” Seth told her simply, “Now do you want to show me what you’re working on?”

Working on the song was easy; it was as if no one else was in the bus. Really, it felt like there was no one else in the world. The song was lighter than they usually wrote, but that was okay. It gave her a little happy jolt in her chest that they were still working on songs even though her album was finished.

There little situation worked well, and Keely relaxed having his head resting back against her legs like that, it felt so normal. While she jotted down the lyrics, singing them lightly to see if they worked or not, Seth played the guitar, putting in his thoughts about the words and singing back up if she needed it.

“It’s not going to work if you’re flat, Seth,” she teased playfully, looking down at him. With her songbook and pen stuffed in one hand, her other was casually lying across his chest.

His eyes flashed up to her, the gold coming out strongly in a good natured blaze beneath the light and the dimple in his cheek coming out in full force as he smiled up at her, getting an unconscious sharp draw in of breath on her part. “Oh, rebel, I’ve never been flat in my life.”

Chuckling lightly she brought her hand up, not thinking about her actions. “Why do I feel as if that one has a double meaning?” she questioned, letting her hands run into his hair, finding the dark locks once again just as soft beneath her hands as she imagined.

“Everything I do has one.”

Just before she could respond, a coughing sound broke them out their shared protective bubble from the world.

Seth peeked up while her chin snapped forward, only to find three pairs of eyes and a camera lens trained on them, the three people wearing odd expressions. “What?” Keely and Seth asked in confused unison.

- I'll just let you guys imagine where Seth's tattoo is ;)

If you're going to listen to Neon by John Mayer which is the song Seth sings, listen to the acoustic version from Where The Light Is. Seriously, the studio version - in my opinion - is really rather crappy, but his voice and the guitar in that acousitic version... I can't even find words.

Okay, I literally have to go. I'm dressed in party clothes sitting beside Jared on the couch, trying to upload this. Wattpad kept saying it's servers were down. It's messing with my head. And Jared is waiting not so patiently while watching Forrest Gump on tv - they're teaching him how to play pinball. Best movie ever, besides Fight Club and the new 21 Jump Street (it was awesome).

Anyways, I was supposed to be at a party at 9. But it's 10 now, and I really really have to go. 

Me Irish side comes out on Saint Patties.

Me. Of. Direct. Irish. Descent. Me. Must. Drink. On. Saint. Patrick's. Day.

Happy Saint Patricks everyone! I plan to drink and pinch everyone's ass who isn't wearing green.