Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 34

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 34
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

I needed some time to myself. This bus was great, because we each had a fairly roomy bunk, so we could each retreat and feel almost alone. I'd put on my iPod and write in my journal… okay, I'd write a letter to Nick that I'd never send. But it was sorta like a journal. It's not like I ever thought he'd read it. It was just… by explaining my life to someone, I figured it out a little more. It didn't have to be Nick.

Yeah, right.

Climbing on the bus, I went straight back to my bunk, dropping my bag and going to my tiny closet to find my pajamas. But Jeremy was at his closet, blocking my way.

I smacked his butt as he bent over. "Shove over, J."

"Fuck off, Rache. Give me a minute."

Okay, maybe the bus wasn't as big as I might like. I'd give anything to have my own bus right now. Just me, and as much room as I needed. I wouldn't have to deal with Jeremy's moods or James wanting to make sure I was okay, or Darien's energy.

"Rachel! Jeremy!"

Speaking of Darien's energy…. "One minute, D," Jeremy called.

"Two," I snapped back. "Jeremy's ass is in my way."

"No!" Darien insisted. "Now!"

Jeremy straightened up, looking at me. Darien never yelled at us like that. So we joined him in front part of the bus, finding him holding on to James' arm.

"Are they my ransom? Are you going to let me go now?" James asked him, and Darien let go.

"Yes. But don't go anywhere. Tell me where you were going."

James gave him a perplexed look. "I was going to drop my stuff in my bunk."

"And then?"

James shrugged. "Get something to eat. Maybe watch some TV."

"In your bunk?"

"Yeah."

Darien glared at him and then turned to me and Jeremy. "What about you two? What were your plans for the evening?"

I exchanged a quick glance with Jeremy. "I wanted to write in my journal for a while," I admitted.

"In your bunk," Darien pressed.

I nodded. I had figured out where he was going with this. He didn't want us in our bunks.

Darien didn't even let Jeremy answer. "You're going off to write something. Probably in the back where you can play the guitar through your headphones."

"I had this riff in my head-" Jeremy started to say, and Darien cut him off.

"Remember when we used to like each other?"

"How many band members do we have?" Lola called, stepping on to the bus.

"Four!" Darien snapped. "Shockingly, we're even all in the same room. We can go."

Lola, followed by Frank, stepped into the living room. She figured out the scene pretty quickly. "Tommy, we can go," she called to the driver. "Frank, let's get out of here."

We were all quiet while Lola and Frank walked by us back to the bunk area. It's not like they wouldn't be able to hear every word once they left the room, but this was a band thing.

It had been a long time since anything was a band only thing. Someone else was always around. We'd all just gotten used to it. Lola was practically a member of the band. But not really.

"Remember when we used to like each other?" Darien picked up where he'd left off, swaying backwards slightly as the bus started to move. "Before Rachel got all caught up with Nick and then moping about Nick? Before James became obsessed with the love that dare not speak it's name? Before Jeremy was constantly talking about our artistic credibility and market share?"

"Jeremy's always been obsessed with our artistic credibility," James corrected.

Darien didn't even laugh. "But not our fucking market share! We used to write songs together! Now he goes in the back and lays something down and none of us get to hear it until he thinks its perfect and if we want to change it, he freaks out! Remember when we'd write songs in the van?"

Yeah. We'd written a lot of songs in the van. Most of them sucked, but we always had fun doing it. Jeremy or I would pull out an acoustic guitar, Darien would drum on the seats or the wall or the roof, and James would sing a bass line, because he didn't have an acoustic bass. I used to love to be the one driving. Staring at the road in front of me, listening to my band all around, I'd come up with some great lyrics.

"I always thought we should find a way to record the drum lines played on the van roof," Jeremy said, and Darien smiled a little.

"We used to have fun. Even that first summer with the bus, we hung out with each other. Okay, Nick was around a lot," he said, looking at me. "But we even had fun when he was gone."

We did. I didn't need Nick to have fun.

Knowing I was okay with a mention of Nick, Darien continued his rant. "When was the last time we played Pounce, people? Remember Nsync Uno?" He flipped open the seat on the bench he was standing near and rummaged around inside. "Here! I brought it!"

He tossed it on the table, followed by four packs of cards. "We don't have to play Uno. Pounce is good. Poker. Hell, I'll play Old Maid. We've got every video game ever created and no one will play with me. I have every fucking high score!"

"You do not," James countered.

"You just think you've played video games on this bus," Darien said. "You haven't, because you're either on the phone with your boyfriend or consoling Rachel about something."

"Hey!" I said, and Darien turned to me.

"I know you're sad about Nick. Hell, I miss him, too. But is moping in your bunk helping? Honestly? Wouldn't a game of Pounce with your best friends help take your mind off things?"

He leaped over to the fridge. "I made tuna, just the way you like it."

"That's not a complicated recipe, D," Jeremy said, and Darien scowled at him.

"Did you do it? Did you go to Trader Joe's today and get everyone's favorite snacks?"

"No," I said. "Darien did, because he loves us."

"I miss you!" Darien said, looking at all of us in turn. "I don't want to turn into one of those groups that has separate tour buses. I want to play with you guys and be friends again."

I sat at the table and picked up one of the packs of cards. "Make me a tuna sandwich and I'll play with you, D."

Darien beamed at me. "Rachel's in!"

"Am I allowed to change my clothes first?" Jeremy asked, and Darien nodded at him.

"But don't stop and write down that riff first. Bring your fucking notebook out here and let us look at it."

"Bastard," Jeremy muttered, but he went back to change and I knew he'd be back in a minute with his notebook.

Darien looked at James. "You can text message him. If you get on the phone with that boy, we'll never see you again."

I snickered and James glared at me. "It's not like I'm the one who started this whole mess."

"Hey, I brought Nick with me for a while. I tried."

Knowing he'd get nowhere with me, James looked back at Darien. "Don't you need to call Mari?"

"Why the fuck do you think I'm yelling at everyone? I already talked to her and she says you all suck."

James sighed and sat down across from me, pulling out his phone.

"Okay, if we're going to play tonight, then you need to dish about Mari, D," I said, shuffling my deck of cards.

Darien put my bread in the toaster and turned to look at me. It was good bread, too, if it was the bread we'd had backstage. It was whole grain, fresh baked at a bakery somewhere in town. I'd put good bread into our tour rider this time. Nothing with a commercial label allowed.

"Dish? About Mari?"

James didn't look up from texting JC. "Dude, it's been over a year."

"Are we so out of touch that you guys just noticed this?"

"No," I defended. "It's just been… there. It's not like she's here all the time, or that you can't stop talking about her… there just hasn't been anyone else."

"Sure there has."

That made James look up. "Who?"

"Um…" Darien thought for a moment. "Well, not this tour. But we haven't been on tour long!"

James looked back at his phone with a smirk. "Rachel's managed to bag a couple of guys already."

I glared at him, but he wasn't looking. I sorta doubted if it would matter if he had been looking. "Oh, wait, she bagged two guys in one night. So does that count as one or two?"

"James!" I yelled, and he wiggled out of my reach when I leaned over to smack him.

"Nicely done, diva," Jeremy said, dropping his notebook on the table before joining Darien at the kitchen counter. "We'll need to hear about the threesome after we stop riding Darien about Mari. Because he's been monogamous for at least six months."

"I have not!" Darien almost sounded insulted that we were accusing him of being monogamous.

"I think the last girl you picked up was on the Nsync tour, D," I said, my cards forgotten in favor of Jeremy's notebook. I hummed a couple of lines to myself. This was good stuff.

We needed to re-record the whole album. Everything we had so far was shit. Heartbreak had inspired some good lyrics from me, and boredom had Jeremy coming up with some really catchy hooks.

"No, I-" Darien started, but Jeremy interrupted him.

"There were a couple of girls on the Nsync tour. Because Nsync has hot fans. But there was no one in LA while we were recording, in New York, you were with her. May, June, July, August, September, October. Six months, dude. Six months of no one but Mari."

Quiet for a moment while Darien absorbed this, and I heard my toast pop up. "Don't let my toast burn, D," I said, flipping to another page in Jeremy's notebook. This one sucked. I hated it when Jeremy got all indie and drew every note out for three bars and only used two minor chords.

"Can we join in?" Lola asked, and we answered 'no' in unison. James and I exchanged a smile at our quick collective answer.

Lola sighed. "Can we at least have some beer?"

"You have supplies in the back room," Darien told her. "I planned ahead. Either I was banishing you and Frank, or I was going to lock myself back there and pout until they played with me."

Lola laughed and left us alone. "When did you do all of this, D?" Jeremy asked, pulling something out of the fridge. "This is totally stocked."

I glanced over and our fridge was overflowing. We hadn't had anything in it but backstage leftovers since we started this tour.

"Did none of you notice I left as soon as we got off stage? I left while you losers were still showering. And I went to Trader Joe's this afternoon before soundcheck."

Darien had gone to Trader Joe's this afternoon? Trader Joe's used to be a band outing when we had the van. We knew where every Trader Joe's was in the country, maybe. Even when we started using the bus, he'd at least take orders from all of us if we couldn't all go.

At least he'd remembered my tuna. He set a sandwich in front of me and I smiled up at him. "Thank you, D. Where would we be without you?"

"On separate tour buses, moping and bored."

"Jeremy would be writing horrible indie rock," I said, moving the notebook so that I could read while I ate.

"Hey!" Jeremy complained. "I'm taking that back if you keep insulting it."

"I like some of it, shut up. Can we re-do the entire album?"

"Yes," all three of them answered, and I looked up. Even James looked up from his phone.

I think I heard Lola whimper from the back, but I ignored it.

"The album sucks," James admitted.

"You're the one that keeps defending it!" I said, and he shrugged.

"I was trying to put a good face on it. It sucks. I know you have decent lyrics somewhere."

I smiled, flipping through Jeremy's notebook. "Keep your drinks, just give me the money…" I sang, and all of them laughed. "I was working on something the other night when I went out with Shirley."

"Yeah, is that the night you ended up with both the boys?" Jeremy asked, sitting next to me and putting a six-pack of beer on the table.

"No. That was the night of feminist outrage."

Because I'd seen Nick the day before and he was haunting my thoughts. But I sorta figured the guys knew that.

"It was the next night that I decided I needed to get laid."

"Is that why you've been so nice lately?" Jeremy asked, and I shrugged.

"It had been a while."

"I told her maybe she should have started with just one and worked her way up to the threesome."

"Aw, jump in with both feet," Darien said, tossing a bag of chips that Jeremy caught. "Anyone else want a sandwich?"

James turned off his phone, getting up. "Do we have any of that good ham left from yesterday's dressing room?"

We had deli platters on the rider. Deli meat, actually, that had to stay in it's wrapping so we could take it with us and it didn't lie out there getting all slimey and gross. Which meant that until today, all we'd had in the fridge was a pile of deli meats and cheeses.

"Yeah, I kept that. Threw the rest of it out," Darien said, pulling out sandwich stuff from the fridge.

"Back to the threesome thing, like you're a fine one to talk, monogamy boy," James teased, and Darien shuddered.

"I didn't… notice. Six months. Really?"

I snickered. "I bet Mari noticed."

"Nah. She's not like that. She's cool."

"Yeah, she's cool. She still loves you. All girls would rather their boyfriends not cheat. Believe me," I said, looking at Jeremy.

He had the good grace to look away.

"What do you think she thinks?"

"She thinks if she mentions it, you'll go out and pick up the first cute girl you see. Don't tell me you're not considering it."

"Shut up," Darien muttered.

"Aren't you glad you decided on band togetherness, D?" James teased, fixing his sandwich.

"Can we stop talking about my love life and talk about re-doing the album?"

"No," the three of us said.

"This is karma for insisting upon togetherness, dude," Jeremy told him. "I'd noticed, but I thought maybe I'd missed some pick-ups."

"No. I just… haven't thought about it. She's been around, it's been… nice."

"See, it's not like she's tying you down."

"She does that sometimes," Darien offered, and James gave him an approving look. Did that mean that James and JC liked to play bondage games? Did I really need to know that?

"Metaphorically!" I said. "Obviously the sex is good. And Mari is super cool. So what are you missing?"

"Freedom," Jeremy answered, and I whacked him.

"You opinion on this matter does not count. Let's all remember what you lost because you couldn't keep it in your pants. Darien, we've all noticed that you've just been with Mari for a while now, and you've always been the hook-up king. You can go back to being the hook-up king if you want, but I bet Mari will go away if you do. Do you want to lose her?"

"No," Darien answered quickly.

"Then keep doing what you're doing."

"If I sleep with Shirley, could I be forgiven?"

"Definitely. But she's not interested."

Darien sat across from me, followed by James. "She's not?"

"Someone get me a water or something. Beer does not go with tuna." James gave me an aggravated look. "Jeremy has me trapped here in the booth!"

James got up to get my drink and I turned back to Darien. "Shirley is swearing off men for the moment. Why do you think I ended up with two the other night?"

"Yes, Rachel, how did you end up with two guys the other night?" Jeremy wondered, and I sighed. I'd asked for that, hadn't I?

Luckily, my phone rang to tell me I had a text message, and I grabbed it. "Anyone know the tabs to Elastica's "Stutter"?" I asked, and Jeremy leaned over my shoulder.

"Shirley?"

"Gwen. Shirley will text me in a moment that she wants "Hit Me Baby One More Time," and Gwen and I will say no."

"Why don't you do a night of songs written by guys that women made famous?" Darien suggested.

"You'll finally be able to do Hole," Jeremy said, and I whacked him.

"Shut up with the Kurt Cobain conspiracy theories. And I might like that idea, Darien."

My phone rang again. Shirley, wanting that damn Britney song.

"Is that how you decide on your set?" James asked. "Via text message?"

"I told them I have to have the songs first thing in the morning, so they usually text me around now."

I told Shirley 'no' for the millionth time and put down my phone, looking at my band. "The Ex-Girlfriends set is okay, right? Is that one of the things driving us apart?" I addressed that question to Darien.

"No, it's totally cool," Darien said.

"It's better that you're singing other people's break-up songs than writing your own," Jeremy said, and I scowled at him.

"What? I'm serious. We have enough freaking break-up songs on this album already."

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