“I’m so exhausted.” I moaned to my band mate Jeri, stumbling onto the tour bus with difficulty in the dark. She gave me a weak sympathetic look before collapsing on our black and blue bunkbed. Jeri had even slept with her fucking clothes on. What a freak.

Her long peroxide blonde hair spread all over her satin pillow and her black eyes shut for the night, leaving me all alone. Damn, now who am I going to whine to? I sighed, taking a vitamin water out of the portable fridge.

“Great job out there, babe.” Rastaz said to me and nodded appreciatively while heading to the end of the bus. I repeated the gesture while stripping off the shiny layers of clothes my assistant shoved at me pre-concert. There was no enjoyment strutting around in those tight black jeans and shimmery silver halter tops. Half the time, I think the crowd comes so they can watch my boobs bounce out of my top. It wasn’t that hard to see, with the tiny fabric covering them. Whatever, it’s not like they’re anything to be ashamed of.

And also, half the world has seen them anyway from those sex tapes of my ex, Justin and I. That was a fun year, facing the press while they practically shit themselves over me and Justin fucking in some sketchy motel. Let me tell you this; the video camera? Like, so not my idea.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have done that. Oh, well. Too late for regrets. I scoffed to myself, tugging on some comfy plaid pajamas that if anyone saw, they’d accuse me of being a hobo and a fashion crisis. Whoopee.

“Don’t you ever get cold from stripping all the time?” My guitarist Seth scowled and I sprung up my middle finger to greet him. Like he’s not used to me getting undressed. He’s just jealous because I don’t fuck him anymore. I’m sorry that I have other things-or people- to do than him. Loser.

“Just like how you always get hot when I take off my clothes?” I replied testily and climbed neatly up the bunkbed ladder, roughly yanking back the covers and settling myself in. Seth looked up at me from below, his dark blue-black hair falling into his eyes as he studied me. God, it’s like called a haircut. Fucking get one.

“Well, it’s hard to get hot anymore, since you seem to be taking your clothes off every two seconds. Wait, I’m sorry. Was I supposed to get the video camera?” Seth smirked at me, his lips curling into a shape that our fans lusted over. Well, excluding me, because I’m, like, the main component of this fucking band. Without me, they’d totally spiral and crash.

“Oh come on.” I leaned out of the bed, holding onto the bedpost so I could tilt my face closer to him. Seth’s eyes blinked, cold blue eyes frozen on mine. Oh, ice, ice baby. You might freeze my heart with all your impassiveness. “You know that you still want me. I saw you looking at me earlier on stage. You wish that I was in your bed right now, with my legs wrapped-“

Seth interrupted me, completely furious. His eyes darkened to a black and he glared at me. “Fuck you, you stupid slut.”

I smiled cruelly. “A slut you want to fuck.” He stomped off, heatedly moving to the back of the bus where my bassist Paul and the drummer Nick resided because the manager was all ‘boys and girls shouldn’t sleep in the same area. It’s inappropriate.’ Yeah, this is coming from, like, the most stuck up prudish bitch I’ve ever met. I’ve seen 3rd grader girls get more interaction with boys than her. Hag.

Damn. I feel kind of bad. Should I apologize? Never mind, he so deserved it. Just because I like the occasional roll in the hay doesn’t mean that I’m a slut. If anything, he’s the slut, bringing back the skimpiest girls from the backstage to seduce and ditch. It’s pathetic. At least I have class. Nixing the thing of the video camera. God, it’s like that incident won’t fucking go away. Jesus.

Take a breath, Harper. Calm down. I shuddered all over, trying to rid myself of all the negativity. The bed shook when Jeri rolled over and I had to grip the bedposts with vigor. Next tour, I’m so going to dibs the bottom bunk.

After an hour of undulating in the small bed, I exasperatedly got up and quietly traveled down the ladder. There was no way I’d get sleep tonight. That’s fucking great; I’m already tired as it is. And this might affect the performance tomorrow.

Grabbing the previously abandoned vitamin water, I sipped it and carefully walked to the couch, planning on watching TV. Maybe laughing at someone else’s problems would make me sleepy.

Before I went to sit down, I luckily noticed a large lump underneath a stash of blankets. Who the fuck was taking up my couch?

I prodded it with my drink, curiously trying to see who it was. The body shifted and the blanket fell to reveal Seth’s sleeping face. Why was he sleeping here? Doesn’t he remember that he has his own bed way the fuck over on the other side of the tour bus?

I started to reach for him, preparing to remind him of that, until he rolled over onto his side, moaning someone’s name. My name. My eyes shot to his face in shock.

He said it so longingly and Seth’s face was so childlike…it was almost cute. And kind of creepy. Was he dreaming about me? I sat absentmindedly at the opposite couch, thoughtfully observing his form. I couldn’t help but remember all the good times we’d had before our band became, like, superstar famous. I’d known him since, I think, 7th grade. He’d been such a dork. I snickered under my breath, thinking of the time when he’d tried to kiss me at some sock hop. What’s funny is that I wasn’t hot then. It wasn’t until 9th grade that boys started to notice me, really notice me. Getting big tits and longer legs will do that for boys.

But anyways, in the middle of 8th grade, puberty struck Seth and suddenly he was the hottest guy in school. And poor me was left behind in loserdom until it got me too. But for awhile, it was just me suffering alone because no one wanted to talk to the boobless Harper. And he ditched me, probably the best friend he’d ever had, for some bastards with a thing called ‘popularity’ taped to their asscheeks.

Save for when I did grow, automatically it was imposed upon us that the best looking people had to be together and being the easily imposable, we did. And it didn’t suck. In fact, to tell the truth…I kind of fell in love with him. Like, madly in love. I was so crazy about him that if you’d thrown the hottest guy in the world at me, I’d just brush him off for a smile from Seth. And Seth, well, he being the bastard that he is, cheated on me senior year with some sophomore with red hair. Yeah, still rooting for Seth? Thought not.

However, eventually I got over it (yeah, right. Resentment lingers) and we became timid friends. Then our friends, Rastaz, (short for Ricky. How he managed Rastaz from Ricky is fucking beyond me) Paul, (if he weren’t gay, I’d so do him. Hottie, hottie. He was Seth’s friend from middle school) Jeri, (if I were gay, I’d do her. She’s practically my other half, if I were actually nice and not completely evil, according to Seth) and Nick (Total ladies man, even worse than Seth. Well, Seth doesn’t even have to try, whereas Nick throws himself at girls like they’re trampolines) started a band after much complication. And then suddenly, we got a break at some contest and we grew a large fan base, until our songs played on the radio so much that even we had to turn it off.

Seth’s and my relationship at the moment could be described as…shitty. Not that I’m one of those therapeutic defining women who like to talk about these things for cash. Our little rendezvous started probably when we got our first award at the Grammy’s. I was so happy and mindless that I kissed Seth and of course as everyone says, it progressed from there. Plus, since that sporadic night was full of surprisingly amazing sex…that it happened again. And again. And then a daily thing. It was almost like we were back together and stuff. Except the whole dating thing. We skipped to the sex part.

Nevertheless, it ended after I cheated on him with Justin. Yeah, so there’s that story. The end.

I kept my eyes on him, waiting to see if he’d moan my name again. It’d been awhile since I’d had sex, so I couldn’t help but slide my fingers into his hair with longing. It was as soft as I remembered and smelled the same. Without notice, Seth’s eyes opened and his hand covered mine, heat radiating onto my cold fingers. I stilled from gently caressing his hair and there was a moment where I didn’t breathe. I only focused on the dark crevasses of his eyes and the way they seemed to stare right into my everything.

“What are you doing?” Seth finally whispered, any type of anger or resentment absent. I quickly removed my hand from under his and stood up, startled by the increasing intensity of his gaze. His bare torso gleamed in the moonlight and I could tell he’d need to shave tomorrow, from the shadow on his jaw. Some of my past lust from him swarmed in my stomach, but I shook it off. Ew, it’s Seth.

“I…” I looked away and picked up my drink. “Was getting something to drink.”

Seth nodded sleepily, his gorgeous blue eyes hooded sexily. “Alright. Night.”

He rolled onto his stomach and I stared at him, confusion and bewilderment coiling in my stomach. With one last gesture, tugging the blankets so they covered him entirely, I went back to bed, collapsing onto it and pondering what that thing back there was.

I woke up by Jeri roughly shaking me. I sweetly restrained from punching her in the face. I wasn’t a morning person and in order to wake me pleasantly, you needed a shitload of coffee. Besides, I felt like shit. Headache, stomachache and ache just fucking everywhere hurting worse than a hangover.

I lurched down the ladder and staggered a couple feet until I crumpled onto the dining booth. Paul, Nick and Jeri greeted me sluggishly and I grunted in reply. While resting my head on the table, I felt the vibration of an object being placed in front of me. I turned my head to see a giant cup of coffee.

“Whoever gave me that is my god.” I mumbled and the trio shot me amused looks. Seth leaned against the counter, pouring coffee into other cups. I groaned and stuck to inhaling the coffee out of the cup. Never mind then.

“Hard night?” Paul asked, his concerned eyes searching my haggard form.

I grunted again and he reached over to place a cool hand onto my forehead. Ohhh…that felt good. He retreated and I moaned.

“No…cool hand back…I hot.” I whimpered. Ah, my head. It pounds.

“Shit. You’ve got a fever.” Paul said in surprise and the rest of the band turned to look at me in a mixture of astonishment and pity.

“That’s nice.” I muttered into the table. Just kill me. Please.

“Aw, fuck. We’ll have to cancel the show now.” Seth sighed. I stuck up my middle finger. Asshole.

“Here…” Jeri helped me up, practically dragging me back to the bunkbed. I fell onto her bed and she growled. She was for some reason, really possessive over her bed. Something about having older siblings stealing it all the time. Yeah, not gonna lie. That’s pretty sketchy.

Thoughtfully, she tucked me in and I clawed the tight covers off, burying my head under the pillow, searching for the cold side of it.

“Fuck me. Look at you.” Jeri murmured with concern. “You look like you have some type of plague.”

“Call home?” I asked childishly and with a slight smile, she got the phone to dial my house.

I watched her bleakly. “Hello? Hi, Mrs. Roulette. I’m sorry to wake you up so early…yeah she’s fine. Except she has a bit of a fever and wanted to talk to you. Alright. Here she is.”

The cold phone was rested against my ear and I weakly clutched it. “Mom?”

Mom’s soothing voice floated out of the phone into my ears. “Harper? Are you alright?”

“Mom…I’m sick.” I said piteously, missing home with a great amount of emotion.

“I’m sorry to hear that, baby. Did you eat?” She asked me and I could almost feel her stroking my hair like she usually does when I’m sick.

“I had coffee.” I sighed and she tutted.

“You know how I feel about you drinking caffeine. Ask Jeri, or even Seth to get you something to eat. You need something in your stomach in order to take Advil.” She reprimanded. I didn’t want to ask Seth for anything. For some fucked up reason, my mom loves Seth. She thinks the sun shines out of his ass. It’s weird.

“Okay, mom. I miss you.” I said to her and I heard a sniffle.

“I miss you too, baby. Come home safely and soon. I hope you get better.” Mom replied and I gave the phone back to Jeri. She hung it up for me.

“Food.” I said to Jeri. “Mom wants me to eat. Could you…?”

“Sure.” She nodded, heading towards the tiny kitchen.

I heard mumbling of voices and soon one by one, the entire band came over to check on me. Bar Seth.

Soon after whining to the band about my sickness, I fell asleep without eating.

I smell waffles. My nose eagerly sought out the smell and I opened my eyes to see Seth holding a plate of smothered waffles, uneasily.

“Waffles.” I breathed, riveted on the plastic plate. “I love waffles.”

Seth’s eyebrows rose, clearly entertained. “I know.”

I sat up on the bed and he handed me the plate and a fork. I dug in, wolfing down the mass of waffles in five minutes flat. Then, feeling sick, I jumped up, racing to the bathroom to throw it all up. Seth followed, holding my hair back.

I moaned, leaning against Seth when I finished. “I want to die.” I told him, closing my eyes. He handed me Scope and I gargled it feebly.

“Don’t gorge the food so fast then,” Seth chastised lightly, helping me up back to my bed. I shuddered, feeling cold. Snuggling into the heap of blankets, I struggled to warm my suddenly freezing form.

“Seth…” I wheedled and Seth turned from walking away to look at me questioningly. Seth and I both knew that if I asked him for anything, he’d do it. Same with me. I’d help him if he were sick. Even though I have a grudge against him, it doesn’t stand against the long time I’ve known him.

“I’m cah-cah-cold…” I stuttered. He came back and sat on the bed, resting a warm hand on my damp forehead. I took it, moving it to my left cheek and sighed. Warmth…

He tried to take it back, but I wouldn’t have it, instead tugging him until he was on the bed with me, holding my body and warming it.

I tucked my head into the crook of his neck and wrapped my arms around him. He awkwardly draped an arm around my side and held me close, waiting for me to sleep.

“Don’t go.” I commanded him softly into his neck. He nodded, fidgeting for a pose that was comfortable.

“Okay.” He consented and I exhaled, happy.

a/n: Yes. I know. I started a new story. And yes, I know. It's related to bands, but I couldn't help myself. Harper was just too much fun not to put down on uh...worddoc. So, I hope you don't totally hate Harper, even though she's a total bitch and makes you feel like slapping her at points. Don't worry, she'll grow up. And what about Seth, eh?

Okay, I hoped you like it! And don't worry-to the ones that came here from Guitar Lessons, I'm working on chapt 13!

REVIEW!

-RAR