"This isn't right. Where the hell is he?" Brian asked, again looking at his watch.
"What do you mean this isn't right?" AJ asked lazily, leaning up against the bus. "This is Kevin we're talking about. Of course he's going to be late. It's morning time."
"Not on the first day of the tour. He's always on time for the first day." Brian muttered to himself. He seemed to be the only one out of the four of them that were worried. Or angry. If Kevin didn't hurry up they would get a late start and not get to Montgomery on time. He hadn't mentioned to anyone the conversation he'd had with Kevin about whether or not he was doing the right thing. He didn't tell anyone that he was scared silly that Kevin would decide to give up touring and the band.
"There he is." Nick said, pointing across the parking lot to where Kevin was slowly walking up and Brian heaved a sigh of relief. As he approached, Kevin stopped only momentarily to deposit his bags, say a few words to the man that was loading them, then continue toward the bus.
"It's about damn time." Brian said angrily as he passed him. Kevin didn't say a word, didn't even acknowledge the four of them's presence before climbing on the bus.
"We're getting old." AJ muttered to himself then elaborated at Howie's questioning look. "This used to be the most exciting day of the entire tour. Now we're all griping and the only one bouncing off the walls is that one." He nodded toward where Nick was bouncing on the bus, already heading to the back to play his Playstation 2.
Kevin barely heard any of the guys. After he got on the bus, he immediatly went to the front seat by the driver, hoping for a little bit of quiet. His head was pounding and he'd had very little sleep in the last two nights. But most of all, he just needed time to think. He was trying so hard to keep a very tight rein on his emotions.
"God, I miss her already." he whispered to himself as he slipped his hand under his sunglasses to rub his eyes, trying to rid himself of the aching behind them caused by his unshed tears. He missed her that much. Already. "How am I ever going to get through this?" he asked himself brokenly as a single tear slipped from his eye. He wiped his eye and slid his sunglasses back down, looking out the window.
He stayed that way for hours before he finally left the seat and went to his bunk where he stayed for the rest of the trip to Montgomery, Alabama.
******************************
Drew finally woke up a few hours later. Her first thought as she came fully awake was that he was gone. He was really and truly gone. She wanted to cry, needed to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. She was too numb to cry.
Silently, she got out of bed and made her way to the kitchen. Every room she went in to , every room she passed, reaked of Kevin. The couch where they'd watched several movies together, the kitchen they'd cooked dinner together in several times.
Once in the kitchen, she put on a pot of coffee and sat at the table to wait for it to finish. When it finally did, she poured herself a cup and walked back through her house with it. Her plan had been to go back to her room and get dressed but she halted at the door.
With her coffee cup in her hand, she leaned up against the doorframe and gazed into her room. She just stared quietly at the Queen sized bed that held the evidence of their passionate night together. Her throat ached with unshed tears but she swallowed them as she discarded the idea of getting dressed immediatly and went back to her livingroom.
After a while, when she was finished with her coffee, she got up and went to her laundry room to get some clean clothes, not yet ready to re-enter her room. When she went back to her living room she suddenly thought that she had to get out of there. Striding toward the door, she didn't hesitate as she went through it. She didn't get in her car, choosing to take a walk.
As she walked through Orlando, seeing all the places she'd been to with Kevin, she realized that when she said she had to get out, she didn't just mean her house. She had to get out of Orlando. She couldn't stand the thought of being in that house day in and day out. Or the thought of being in the city where Kevin lived. The thought of being here every time he came home only to see him leave again.
Determindly, she made up her mind and by night fall she had her bags packed. She slept on the couch that night and the next morning she was on a plane to Michigan.
