"A Sanctuary Safe and Strong"(Marianas Trench)

Chapter 35

Even with spending the hour in the hotel, it was still only a little before eight o'clock and Matt wouldn't be at his house until ten. The blond pouted as he slid into the driver's seat of his car after giving the key back to the skeptical, confused hotel manager who stood watching with a raised eyebrow as the singer exited the building. Josh shifted his body closer to the ignition and slid the key in, starting the car while he tried to figure out where to go from there.  

Nothing came to mind. Not a single idea hit him as he drove aimlessly around the city. There was a surprisingly large amount of traffic for that time of day. Being someone who generally wasn't up and around until at least noon, he'd expected the roads to be much clearer so early in the morning. It was a bit of a shock that the world didn't exist on the same schedule he did.  

Josh rolled up to a stoplight behind a truck that made his car look like a Matchbox toy in comparison. The advertisement on the back was for some bread company that he had never heard of before, but just the same, his stomach rumbled at the idea of food, making it obvious that he was once again hungrier than he'd realized. In fact, aside from that pretty major meltdown the night before, the blond had only left the studio long enough to get food twice each day over the entire weekend. Eating just hadn't been something that was on his mind as much as it should have been. 

Pressing harder on the gas pedal, he made the decision to spend the next hour and a half or so in a restaurant, wasting as many minutes as he could in the company of strangers he'd never see again. If he was slow enough about it, it would consume a good amount of time while still allowing him to be at his place by around nine-thirty to switch out his old clothing for new and then meet Matt out front on the curb by ten. 

He pulled his car into a parking space at a chain restaurant called Ricky's All Day Grill. He'd never been there before, but "all day" surely meant breakfast, right? It had to be open to serve all the people who should have been heading to or from work right about now. Luckily enough, life worked out in his favour as he stepped into the building. The feeling of warm air against his chilled skin wrapped around him in a comforting way.  

"Table for one?" the waitress asked, grabbing a menu and leading him toward a small both in a corner. A blue and white tablecloth wrinkled a bit under his hand as he slid across the seat, preferring to sit with his shoulder to the wall, as far away from the open area as he could get. 

Josh quickly skimmed over the options, ordering orange juice and the biggest meal on the breakfast menu that he could find, even though he knew he'd never be able to eat it all, nor would he even want to try. But at least it would give him a reason to linger as long as he needed, if it looked like he had a lot to try to choke down. 

When the waitress brought the steaming plate to the table and set it down in front of the blond about fifteen minutes later, his jaw nearly dropped. Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, toast and some kind of potato filled the space. "A second stomach?" he joked, smiling weakly up at the woman when she asked if there was anything else he needed.  

She smiled back at him and lightly touched a hand to his shoulder. "Just yell if I can bring you anything, honey." 

Picking up his fork, he fiddled with it until it settled itself properly in his hand. As skilled as he was at landing his fingers exactly where they needed to be on the neck of a guitar, having to eat with his non-dominant hand made him feel like a recovering brain injury patient. He still hadn't been able to figure out how to do it properly and continually managed to spill most of what he tried to eat straight down the front of his shirt. Prior to today, he'd had people around to help him, or he'd simply eaten things that didn't require much effort. Hell, even his mother had cut his waffles into bite-sized pieces, the same as she had when he was younger. 

Josh huffed and tossed the fork back down onto the table in frustration. Using a couple of napkins, he wiped several drips of sticky syrup from the shirt he'd been wearing for less than an hour and gave up. He'd eaten enough to sustain him, but had lost his appetite for the rest when it became more trouble than it was worth.  

He shoved the remainder of what was left aside and picked up his phone instead, checking in on Twitter to leave another vague, yet true update of his life for anyone who might care. The blond turned the camera toward himself, snapping a hasty picture of the smeared syrup across his chest, being careful to move his arm and the sling out of the shot. Posting the picture to his page, he captioned it, "Just can't win." Josh had made mention of being the clumsiest member of the group during several different band interviews in the past, so it was completely believable that he would either injure himself with a utensil (which had happened before, and he still had a small scar on the palm of his hand as proof of an argument with the dish washer), tip over a full plate, or dump food all over himself. 

For the next ten minutes, the singer replied to a small handful of people who had left him a couple of messages making fun of him, asking random questions or just generally trying to get a rise out of him. He responded with a couple of sassy retorts, giving it back just the same as he received it, if not even a bit stronger. Josh couldn't help it; fans seemed to love it, and not-so-secretly, he got off on it, too. 

The waitress stepped up to the side of table, offering a doggie bag to the singer so he could take home what he couldn't finish. Josh flinched, nearly dropping the phone and she laughed lightly, apologizing for startling him. It wasn't her fault, he knew, but it didn't stop the blond from rolling his eyes and glaring down at the table as her giggling slowed to a stop. "No. Thanks," he declined, sliding out from the table and brushing past her to go pay for his half-eaten meal. Credit card be damned. 

It was time to get the hell out of there anyway. It would take about half an hour to drive back to his house and maybe another thirty minutes inside the condo to grab some things he needed, then toss it all into his car, hidden away from Matt. Josh didn't need the guitar player to know that he wasn't currently staying there. That was his little secret, and it was one he intended to keep. Hopefully not for long, though. With any luck, he'd work through this whole problem and be back in his own home soon enough, but until then, he didn't need people worrying about him any more than they already were.