Chapter 2
Lily sighed in content as she laid in her bunk on the moving bus. The bunks were a bit small for a average person. Thankfully Lily was small enough to stretch out and lie flat. She didn't think her bus mates would be so lucky.
As if to prove her point, she heard a faint clunk from the bunk below her, followed by an angry whisper of "Ow! Shit!" She knew immediately who had spoken- James.
Chuckling to herself, she shifted, attempting to get cozy. It was difficult to find a comfortable position on the moving, rocking bus, but once she did, she knew she wouldn't be moving for a while. She glanced over at her alarm clock. 3:24am it read, it was early, yet she still wasn't tired. She glanced back to the book she was currently reading, Fahrenheit 451.
It was a curious little thing, this book was, pondering on the topic of books and technology, and how society would be if we were to just get rid of books completely. But that wasn't even what captured Lily's attention. It was the fact that if you looked deeper, you could see the underlying themes of happiness vs. sadness and how maybe something that society deems right isn't so right after all. It showed that ideas have power, and when those ideas are taken from the people, so is that power.
It was confusing to her at first, but it made her think, and that was exactly what she wanted.
As she read on, she felt the whirring of the wheels slowly roll to a stop. Curious, Lily sat up (well, she pushed herself up onto her elbows. It was all she could manage inside the bunk.) and went to pull back her shade when it was ripped open, light pouring in and blinding her.
"What the hell?" Lily exclaimed angrily, looking for the evil scum who had caused her such a great misfortune.
"Hiya, Lily-bean!" Sirius beamed at her, barely noticing her discomfort.
"What do you want, Sirius?" she huffed.
"We're at a truck stop, and I was wondering if you wanted to come get an ice cream with me." He said innocently.
Lily thought it over for a moment before conceding and agreeing to go with him.
As she hopped out of her bunk, she noticed that Remus' shade was still closed, and there was a loud snore, alerting her that he was still asleep.
"Sirius?"
"Yeeeesssss?"
"Why didn't you wake up Remus to go instead of me?"
"Because, my darling flower, if I did, he'd bite me and turn me into a werewolf." Sirius said seriously.
"You are the most absurd person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting." Lily said.
"He isn't lying you know, Remus is a beast in the mornings." A new voice chimed in.
Lily turned to see James, in all of his early morning glory.
And when Lily said early morning glory, she meant glory.
That look of casual elegance that James possessed was ever present in one of the most wonderful ways now. He stood in the doorway, leaning against it with one arm on the threshold above his head. His black tank top had ridden up just enough to reveal a strip of tan skin, and his grey sweatpants had ridden down enough to show the band of his Calvin Klein boxers.
It took everything in Lily's power to look back up at his face.
And she regretted it when she did, because not only was his hair all mussed up in the most attractive way, but he had a glorious smirk on his face as he took in what she was currently wearing. Her dark auburn hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and her dark green tank top revealed the straps of the grey bra she was wearing. Her top perfectly matched not only her stunning emerald eyes, but also the light grey of her sweat shorts. Her clothes were tight in all the right places and flaunted her curves perfectly.
"Like what you see, Evans? Cause personally, I'm enjoying the view myself." He commented cauckily.
"You wish, Mr. Arrogant." Lily rolled her eyes, but could feel her ears tingeing pink.
"How about… Mr. Sex Appeal?" James asked slyly.
Lily's jaw dropped open, and she heard Sirius say, "Gross! Get a room, you two!"
"Sounds good to me."
Lily was still shocked into silence.
"What do you say, love? You, me, a dark room with a bit of mood lighting? We can-"
Lily was finally knocked out of her stupor and screamed "NO! Ew, god no. Never in my life. Not even in my dreams."
"Come on, Lily, it'd be fun, like a roller-"
"Shut up! You're disgusting!" Lily yelled.
"What? I was going to say rollerskating because that's something I genuinely enjoy! And I enjoy hanging out with you! But clearly you were thinking something else, but we could do that too." James tried to cover up, but Lily could tell he was getting a kick out of this, seeing the twinkle of mirth in his eyes.
"That is not what you were going to say James Potter and you know it." She seethed out of embarrassment.
James smirked and simply lunged at her, wrapping her in a bear hug as he laughed gleefully. Lily struggled and finally pushed her way out of his arms.
"JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER! Why do you feel the need to sexualy harrass me every chance you get?!"
Her scream had elicited a thud and a cry of "God dammit," from Remus as he sat up in is haste to see who had made that awful sound. He should have known it was James and Lily, he could cut the sexual tension between those two with a knife.
"Will you guys shut up? Sirius, why aren't doing anything to fix this?" Remus asked, aggravated.
"Because it's hilarious to watch them. It's like a bad rom-com." Sirius chuckled.
"Ugh! I'm leaving, you can follow if you want, but I think I deserve ice cream after all this torture." Lily said icily, stomping off towards the front of the bus.
"I think I will follow you, because let me tell you something Lily, you sure do put the ass in embarassment." James sniggered.
"Oh my god! You are so dead when we get back!" Lily screamed, hitting James' shoulder.
"Assault! I'm being assaulted! Padfoot help me!" James screamed as Lily hit him repeatedly, swinging at any part of him she could reach.
Sirius just followed them like a dog following it's owner.
As they walked out, Remus rolled over, pulling the blanket above his head and wondering how in the world Peter slept through all that.
"Ok Lily, let's get you some ice cream," Sirius said running up to them inside the truck stop.
"I want that one and James has to buy it for me." She said, pointing to the biggest carton of cookie dough ice cream.
"Why do I have to buy it?" James protested.
"Because you jumped me you twit!"
"And you hit me! So why do I have to buy it? Make Sirius do it!"
"Because Sirius didn't assault me!"
"Oh, honey, I assault you with my devilish good looks every day." Sirius purred.
Both Lily and James turned to look at him, a temporary truce in their argument, marveling at the strangeness of his comment.
"You are so weird." Lily rolled her eyes, going back to glaring at James.
"I just don't understand why it's my job to buy you ice cream! And before you say it's 'because I jumped you' allow me to remind you that I have a bruise on my bicep because you kept hitting me!" James exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Oh my god James! We ha-"
Lily was cut off by a rugged, deep voice saying, "If you don't mind, I think I'll buy the lovely lady some ice cream."
Turning to the voice, Lily's face broke into a blinding smile, and James' contorted into one of loathing.
"Tyler! What're you doing here?" Lily asked, walking over to hug him.
"The crew bus got here about five minutes before. I wasn't planning on coming in but I saw my favorite gal get off and knew I had to come say hi."
"I thought I was your favorite gal, Ty. I'm wounded." A female's voice said.
"Camryn!" Lily exclaimed, happy to see the only other female on the tour other than her.
"Hey Chrysanthemum." Camryn said, causing Lily to laugh at their inside joke. Camryn thought it would be the funniest thing in the world to call Lily by any other flower name other than her own, and at first Lily hated it, but the terms of endearment had grown on her.
Lily smiled at Tyler and they went off talking. James glared as Tyler put his arm around her and reached up to grab her ice cream off the top shelf. He wished it was him in that position, the one making her laugh, and squeal when he tickled her side. Sirius was the only one who knew how he felt. But as he turned to Camryn, he didn't notice that Lily had turned abruptly and fixed Camryn with that same look of jealousy that had graced his handsome features not only a moment before, the same thoughts going through her head.
Oh how they wished they could swap places with those that were currently making their love interests happy. But that was the thing, they could hardly be in the same room without some argument taking place. But with Camryn and Tyler, they were happy, and that was something the other couldn't do.
James watched as Lily yawned and snuggled into Tyler's arm from where it rested across her shoulders. They sat on the floor of the truck stop laughing and enjoying both the ice cream and each other's company. James continued to watch as he saw Lily close her eyes and fall asleep. He watched with envy as Tyler picked her small frame up and carried her to the bus.
She felt herself being lifted up. Her mind still not fully awake yet, she cuddled up to the warmth that seemed to be radiating off the body carrying her.
"Lily," The voice said. "Come on Lily flower I need you to help me." She opened her eyes to see Tyler. He smiled at her when he saw she was awake and set her down.
"I didn't want to wake you, but I'm not allowed on your bus." He said with a smile.
"Thank you" Lily said giving him a tired hug. He placed a small kiss on her cheek before sending her onto the bus. He waved to Remus, and stalked off towards his own bus. Where Lily would occupy his thoughts for the rest of the trip.
Lily yawned and all but collapsed into her bunk. Glancing at her clock she saw it was just after six. They had spent the rest of the morning teasing and devouring ice cream, before it came time to leave again. The next stop on the tour took them to New York, and they were on their way to the airport. It would be another two hours before they got there. And so Lily let sleep take her into a dreamless state.
His heart beat wildly. He quickly glanced around the bus making sure they were all asleep before sneaking off with a quiet air. His mind whirring as he walked past the truck stop to the location he knew was only about 100 meters away.
He took a few more steps before his foot collided with something hard causing him to let out a painful squeak. He knew he had to hurry. Glancing at his watch he saw it read 3:24am He needed to be back on the bus by five or it would be trouble for him. He couldn't chance them leaving without him, that would cause trouble he had no idea how to fix.
He bent down and picked up what he had kicked. A small metal box with a lock. He opened the box with a quick combination and placed inside of it what he carried in his pockets. Pictures, blackmail more like it. He smiled sneakily and couldn't wait to see what the next week's paper, magazines, and tabloids brought him. He placed the box back where he had found it and moved on to the next location, placing something equally incriminating inside of it. He continued on filling maybe eight boxes full before heading back to the bus. He looked inside the small store at the truck stop.
How could they be so happy. Smiling and laughing and carrying on like they thought they were God's gift to the world. His thoughts made more depressing when he realized that they were. They brought joy and laughter and happiness with them wherever they went, even when they were fighting, they were happy. All while he was miserable, he was angry. He looked one last time before climbing onto the bus and getting into his bunk. His indignant mind not realizing one very important thing. He wasn't the only one on the bus.
A/N: Yoooooo what up friends, it's Lil. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! So, I was having pretty bad writer's block (avid writers, you know how frustrating this is) this week, and Twil wrote a lot of this chapter! I love it, and think the way she's taking the story is pretty cool. I'm sort of finding my inspiration again, so hopefully I can write some of the next chapter, and keep it up to my personal standards for writing. See y'all soon! (Yes, I am southern.)
Sup once again from another chapter. I'm sure you are all wondering why it takes us so long to update. We decided that we won't update til we get a few reviews. As you all probably know it's pretty much pointless to publish anything if no one is going to read it. Anyways that's pretty much it for now. Hope ya'll enjoyed this chappie! xo- Twil