MALEIA’S P.O.V
“Come inside.” Connor dragged me to a giant bus with a huge sticker ‘Before You Exit’ on the inside.
“Whoa…”
“Yes, this is our tour bus, or we call it our cribs. Come on in, let’s meet everybody.”
“Um…” I pulled my hand from Connor which made him turned around.
“What is it?”
“I’m not really sure about it…”
“Oh they’re my brothers and best friends! We’re in a band called Before You Exit.” He winked and I was officially dead.
“No I mean, everybody seemed really busy at the back. I don’t want to bother them.”
“They’re busy playing Flappy Bird, yeah.” He rolled his eyes which was really cute. “Trust me. They’ve been waiting for you.”
“Okay… What?” I widened my eyes but Connor didn’t look at me anymore. He focused on bringing me to the last part of the bus.
“Guys, meet Maleia.” Connor introduced me.
“Hey Maleia, welcome to our house, I’m Riley!” One of them hugged me warmly. “I’m the middle one of the McDonough, in case you didn’t know.”
“Hey I’m Toby the last and cutest one of the McDonough.” This tall guy hugged me too.
“I’m Thomas the Italian Drummer and these guys’ best friend!” The Thomas guy gave me high-five.
“I’m Chris the Man.” The nice awkward one greeted and gave his best effort to hug me while we had Thomas in between us.
“So that’s it, this is the band. We had our crew in another bus you’ll meet them later.” Connor smiled.
“Thank…you… I don’t know if this is allowed or not, since I know you’re in a band and…the fans really want to meet you in person like I do…”
“Aren’t you a fan?” Riley pouted, showing me his broken heart expression.
“Nah, sorry I’m not.” I said playfully then punched his arm. “Hey, of course I do.”
“You got the style, Mal. Connor found the perfect one. We asked him to bring us Starbucks but then he came up with a story about y…” Toby tried to speak but Connor covered his mouth.
“Never mind, he didn’t say anything as you can see…”
I was all blushing like this has to be stopped.
“Hey you should come to our show tonight!” Connor said spontaneously.
“What?”
“Yes we’re on tour called The Dangerous Tour. And there’ll be show every night. Come!”
“I…”
“Please Mal,” Connor gave me his puppy eyes look.
“Okay.”
“Yay thank you! Hey guys we’ll meet again in an hour. Or you better call me okay?”
“Okay, love birds!” Thomas teased but barely looked at us.
“Bye Connie bye Maleia, have fun!”
I followed Connor outside with too many expressions on my face. I meant he kept dragging me here and there with excitement like we’ve known each other really well, but you know we just met like 5 hours ago. And he asked me to go to their show tonight not knowing what I would face in there. The one thing I thankful for was how nice the guys up there. They gave me warm greetings and stuff. I didn’t even know if this was the good idea but I liked to be around them…around Connor.
“Let’s sit here.” Connor asked me to sit. We’re in the park by the way. “So, tell me about you.”
“I’m…my name is Maleia and that’s all.” I chuckled.
“Hah you’re funny… But hey I want to get to know you better.”
“Okay what do you want to know? Ask me question because I don’t know where to start.”
“Let’s see… Why did you come to LA from Philly?”
“Oh about that, I just graduated high-school and worked at Starbucks too in Philly for couple years until I decided probably LA is my place.”
“Really, what is it about LA that you like?”
“It’s the weather, the people, everything, I love new challenges. In fact, I think I’m going to go to one of campus here, but let’s see about it.”
“Um…sorry about this but…where are your parents?”
“Hah it’s okay Con, I’m all good. My parents have never really been around me since I was younger. It’s like the last time I checked, they said they were in Paris or something. I don’t really care about it.”
“But do they know you’re in LA now?”
“I don’t know if they did. I told my grandparents about this so I guess I’m okay. They never care Con, you have no idea…”
“Hey Mal I’m sorry…” He held my hands. “I’m not…”
“No it’s fine seriously, it’s been long time since I told people about this but somehow I should face the reality, huh?” I chuckled.
“Yeah and you can tell me everything.”
We had a perfect one minute of silence until Connor broke it again.
“So, do you have any special person in your life?” This time he’s blushing and bowed his head, which I found it really sweet.
“Not really. Yeah I had one back in Philly but it’s like years ago. What about you?”
“I…once had a girl, Megan Mace, she’s my ex but I have never been with anyone else ever since…”
“Oh Megan, I love her, I’m a fan.” I smiled.
“Yeah she’s lovely…” He bowed his head even deeper.
“You’ll get somebody else Con, somebody else better. You can choose anyone you want, like everybody loves you right now. And you’re a good man; you’ll find a better girl.” I cheered him.
“Thank you,” He put his head on my lap which I didn’t expect. “Thank you for being my friend.”
I…friend, yeah, stupid Maleia, what did you expect.
“You’re welcome Connor. You know where to find me.”
“Yeah, I know, in fact I will find you probably every day.” He pinched my nose.
We spent the afternoon together. I have to tell you that I got something inside me which was being shut up during that conversation. I probably expected too much. I wouldn’t get hurt if I didn’t, but in fact, this was my weakness, I did it all the time. Now I didn’t know if I should meet Connor, ever again.
