Lennon hit her third week on tour and had settled into a routine. She had gotten used to falling asleep to the rocking of the tour bus and waking up in a new city. The size of the arenas didn't feel overwhelming now that she had played in several.

Her interactions with Kade were neutral, he ignored her for the most part, until they were on stage and they were focused on one another, singing out the loving words to each other.  It all disappeared once Lennon left the stage but she had adjusted to it.

****************

Lennon was walking into the arena in Washington DC with a fresh cup of coffee, having just gotten back from a radio interview when Noah came running towards her, an urgent look on his face.

"Will wants to apologize in advance for what's about to happen," he said.

"What?" She asked, confused.

Noah nodded his head in the direction he had come. She looked past Noah to see Will walking towards her with an apologetic look on his face, his hand attached to a brunette wearing an excited smile.

"Hey I'm Jessie. I love your music!" the girl said, her words tumbling out of her mouth.

She had dark laughing eyes and olive skin.

"This is my girlfriend," Will explained.

"It's so nice to meet you," Lennon said.

"Can I just hug you?" She asked.

Lennon laughed and accepted her hug.

"I'm not gonna lie when I heard a girl would be opening for my boyfriend I was jealous. I went online to make sure you weren't pretty and you were so pretty I was mad. I was determined to hate you. I listened to one of your songs ready to hate it but then I loved it and I listened every single one of your songs."

Lennon tried catch all the words that were coming at her lightening fast.

"Will is so embarrassed by me," she laughed, giving him a gentle slap. "But I can't help it. I love all your music and I'm not gonna lie I might have stalked you on the Internet a little bit."

Lennon let out a small laugh, trying to hide how overwhelmed she felt. This is what Noah had been talking about.

"But I'm not crazy!" Jessie said more calmly. "I just get super excitable."

"I didn't even know Will had a girlfriend or I would have done my own internet stalking," Lennon joked.

"Well, now that you know, feel free to stalk away."

"There is a lot you can find on this one," Noah said.

Noah and Will were called over to the stage. Jessie dropped Will's hand as he started to walk away and looked at Lennon.

"Would you mind if I hang out with you while they do boring band stuff?" Jessie asked Lennon.

Lennon could see a worried look on Will's face but she could tell Jessie was really sweet.

"Of course," she said.

"But you just got here. You haven't even properly said hi to me," Will complained.

"I see you all the time," Jessie said, shooing him away.

"Sorry about kind of exploding on you," she said once they were alone.

"No worries," Lennon said. "But to be honest I don't really have anything interesting to do."

"Oh, that's ok. I'm use to the down times on tour."

"How long have you and Will been dating?" Lennon asked.

"Almost three years now" she said.

They naturally gravitated towards the back row of chairs and sat down. They got lost in the conversation and were surprised when Will sat down next to Jessie.

"Hey babe," she said, her hand finding his.

"What did you guys talk about?" He asked.

"You, of course!" she said, kissing his cheek.

"I told you she's not crazy," he said.

"I'm still not sure..." Lennon said, and Jessie gave her a surprised look. "Kidding, we're pretty much best friends."

Jessie tried to hide her excitement and buried her face in Will's chest.

"She's pretty great, isn't she?" Will asked.

"Stop! Now you're just embarrassing me," Jessie said.

"Wanna grab some dinner?" Will said, standing up and pulling her with him.

"But isn't Lennon going to sound check?" she said.

"Do I need to remind you who you came to visit on this tour," he said disgruntled.

"I know, I know but I haven't heard her live."

"You'll hear her live tonight," he argued.

"But..."

"You're my girlfriend," he said, putting on a convincing pout.

"Like I could forget!" she said, jumping up on his back.

"To dinner!" he yelled, galloping away.

************

"Do you mind if we join you?" Jessie asked, popping her head into Lennon's dressing room after dinner.

She pulled Will in after her. Within ten minutes the dressing room was filled with all of Lennon's band plus Will, Jessie and Noah.

"The monuments are so pretty lit up at night!" Jessie said. "We should go and see them."

"And I don't think it's that long of a walk to see all of them," Max added.

"I raced Will to the top of the Lincoln memorial and won!" Jessie said proudly.

"Of course you did baby," he said.

He mouthed the word "no" and shook his head once she turned away and Lennon laughed.

"But you didn't beat me," Noah said.

"And we can change that tonight," Jessie said.

"Not to boast or anything but I did beat these two," Lennon said, pointing to Ace and Max, "to the top of the arena in St Louis."

"I wasn't racing," Ace corrected her.

"Not to rain on anybody's parade but I've run a marathon," Max said proudly.

"Yeah I've run a marathon," Ace said, making fun of Max.

Lennon could sense a fight was about to break out and she had to get ready for the show so before Max could retaliate, she kicked everyone out of the dressing room.

***************

Lennon was running around a corner when she bumped into someone and stumbled backwards. The concert was over and the crowd had gone home. She was rushing to meet everyone outside so they could go see the monuments.

"I'm so sorry," she said, looking up to see she had bumped into Kade.

"It's fine," he said, straightening.

"You going this way?" She asked as they walked in the same direction.

"Yeah."

"You coming to the monuments?"

"Is this going to become a habit?" He asked.

Lennon gave him a confused look, unsure what he was talking about. She had just asked him a friendly question.

"Bumping into you?" She laughed.

"I mean tagging along."

"I have to walk this way too," she said.

"No, tagging along on everything we do. You seem to be everywhere we go."

Lennon felt like laughing but she didn't want to make the situation worse. Kade clearly wasn't in a good mood.

"I wanted to go to the monuments before every decided to join me."

"Sure."

"Do you honestly believe I would want to hang out with you when the best you've done is tolerate me?"

"I've done better then that. Don't act like I haven't played my part," Kade said.

Lennon found it infuriating that his tone sounded so removed and bored.

"You have, but when the cameras aren't on, you don't even say a word to me."

Lennon was getting more worked up then she wanted to and she tried to take a deep breath and calm down. She didn't have to rise to his taunts.

"We aren't friends," he said coldly.

They had stopped walking.

"I got that," she snapped back. "But would it be so horrible. Here's a crazy thought, maybe you should try to be on friendly terms with the person you have to spend the next year with."

"Why? So you can fall in love with me and act all hurt when the contract ends?"

"Get over yourself. You're not that great."

Lennon turned and quickly walked away. She could hear his foot steps behind her and she picked up her pace, trying to gain some distance before she met everyone else. She let Kade pass her once they got outside and she stopped and took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "It's just a year, it's just a year," she told herself.

Then she switched her thinking to "It's the rest of my life." She needed to focus on the reasons she was doing this instead of the reasons she shouldn't. If putting up with Kade's little remarks meant she got where she wanted to be then she would smile through it all.

"Kill him with kindness," she thought.

Charlotte would approve of that and that is what she would do.

"Lennon, are you excited?" Jessie asked as she approached the group.

"Let's go say hi to honest Abe," she said.

Lennon smiled as Jessie took her hand and pulled her towards the van.

"Does anyone care if I film this? I'm documenting my time on tour," Jessie asked the full van.

"I'm actually on the run from the law so please keep my face out of it," Ace said.

"And touring with Hey Farewell won't get their attention?" Noah said.

"Will I get paid?" Max asked.

"You can film baby and if anyone has a problem they can deal with me," Will boasted.

"I could take you," Ace challenged.

"Hey!" Jessie yelled as Will tried to smack Ace.

"So back to the question, will I get paid?" Max asked again.

**********************************************************************

Hi everyone!

So yup! That's my chapter, I hope you liked it! Any thoughts? Because I have none, I'm a boring potato, one day hoping to be a boring small fry! 😉 (Is it obvious that I am odd?)

Vote, comment, follow, you know the usual! ;)