It's Always Been You

LA Part 3

I woke up right before we were about to land. I shake Zach awake and we get off the plane. We take a taxi to the address Zach was given.

The house is huge with lots of windows. "This place is amazing." I whisper. Zach nods and we hop out of the car. We walk up to the front door and knock. We're greeted by a lanky boy with blond hair.

"Hey guys glad you're here." He tells us and waves us inside. I follow Zach in.

"Did you tell them I was coming?" I whisper to Zach.

"Well yeah, it's not like I've never talked to them before. They know who you are."

"Aw you talk about me."

"Don't flatter yourself." I punch him in the arm and we laugh.

"I'll show you guys where your rooms are." The blond says. We follow him through a living room passing two other guys. The other boy stops at the end of the hallway. "These two rooms are yours." He points to the doors across from each other. Take your pick." He walks away to let us choose.

"It's your trip so you choose." I tell Zach.

"Alright." He chooses the one that's towards the back of the house or on the left. So I open the door to the right room. Inside is a bed and a couple of dressers. I lay my things on the floor and look out the window. I have a view of the driveway but I don't mind. I walk back to Zach's room. I whistle at the view out of his window.

"Alright I think you got the better room." I state. He turns around and smiles.

"I know this place is amazing." I sit on his bed to talk to him while he unpacks. I'll do mine later.

"So who's who?" We talked about the guys briefly before we left but I still don't know faces.

"Okay so the guy who met us at the door is Corbyn, the one with the curly hair is Jack and the other one is Jonah."

"I'll never remember that." I sigh and he laughs.

"I know." He closes the last drawer and sits on the bed with me. We both lay back on the unfamiliar mattress. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"One hundred percent." We sat just thinking to ourselves for a moment. Our thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hey we're going over some stuff in the living room you coming? Er am I interrupting something?" The boy with curly hair asks looking between us.

"Not at all." I answer him first. Zach and I both follow him to the living room. I sit in an open chair and Zach joins the other guys on the couch. I know this doesn't involve me so I don't pay too much attention. They talk about doing a performance with another man who I assume is the manager. Jack the one who came to the room picked up the conversation when the manager paused, "we're missing someone I want to invite Daniel Seavey." The other boys nod with him. The manager complies and Jack leaves the room probably to call Daniel.

"Alright once Daniel gets here, you guys are going to be performing. This is serious no goofing off." The manager continues. After their conversation the manager leaves the guys to talk. I wasn't paying attention to the conversation. I was thinking about what to go explore later when I hear Zach say my name, "Blake."

"Hmm?" I turn and realize the other boys are looking at me too. I feel my cheeks turn red, "um what's up?" I look back to Zach.

"I was just saying that you do music too." Zach tells me.

"Oh not like you guys though. He gives me too much credit." I glare at Zach and he just smiles at me.

"I told her to come with me so maybe she'd get her chance."

"That's not a bad idea, plus if we get big we can help." The boy Jonah I think says.

"That's really sweet of you but I mostly came to support Zach." I admit.

"Oh so are you two-?" Corbyn leaves the question open. Zach and I look at each other and laugh. "I'll take that as a no then."

"Nope we're just friends." I confirm. "But I'm going to go explore LA." I announce and stand up.

"We'll join you, I mean if you don't mind." Jonah says.

"Sure, I mean you guys probably know it better than I do."

Jack comes back and tells us that Daniel will be here next weekend and we all get ready to go out. We take the 'band wagon' and drive around until we find a place to stop and eat. We pull up to a small diner that I hope isn't as expensive as I know the rest of LA will be. We got lucky.

The day was filled with good food and street performers. That might be me here soon. It made me a little sad that I might've come here for no other reason than to support Zach. Not that I don't want to support him but I want to believe him when he says I have a chance here. When we got back to the house I was worn out. "I'm gonna go on to bed." I whisper to Zach when we walk in the front door.

"Okay goodnight." He hugs me and I walk back to my room. I tried to sleep but I couldn't I didn't even feel tired at that point. So I got out my guitar and played around for a moment. I quietly sang to myself experimenting with some new lyrics. I've written a couple of my own songs but I've never performed them for anyone but Zach and my parents.

When I hear the other boys go to bed I put away my guitar and try to do the same. I laid in my bed for almost thirty minutes. After staring at my ceiling contemplating I got up with a sigh. I quietly opened my door and looked down the hallway. Everyone else's doors were shut so I tip toed to Zach's door and knocked on it softly. "Zach?" I whisper. I don't hear a response so I walk in.

Zach is laying in his bed looking at the ceiling. His bed side lamp is still on and he has ear buds in. He takes them out when he sees me walk in, "hey Blake everything okay?"

I shut the door behind me and bite my lip, "I uh can't sleep." I look down at the floor I know it sounds dumb.

"I can't either. You want to come lay with me?" He offers. I nod and start towards the bed but he holds up his hands, "hold on I need to uh- put on clothes." I look down where the blanket had fallen off his chest when he sat up. He's not wearing a shirt and it wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't wearing shorts either.

"Oh yeah I gotcha." I turn around and face the door. I hear the bed creak and his bare feet padding on the floor.

"Okay you're good." I turn back around and he's wearing basketball shorts and a tank top. I'm in a loose t-shirt and my sleep shorts. He climbs into the bed and holds out his arms. I slide into the bed and under his arms. He puts in one of his earbuds and holds out the other. I take it and put it in. He's listening to some soft song I haven't heard before. I drift off to sleep on his rising and falling chest.