Ch 20

The boys played a great set for the Pittsburgh fans.

Jon’s voice was bothering him again. He had been overdoing it, but realized that he had one more show to do in Hershey before he could take a rest. His voice bothered him so much that he couldn’t reach a single high note. Richie, Dave and Alec took over for him effortlessly. Jon seemed grateful that thankfully no one seemed to have noticed that he was having a problem tonight. He’d leave it at that.

Because it went so well the night before and the arrangement was better for his voice, they ended the show again with acoustic versions of “Prayer” and “Never Say Goodbye.”

The crowd went nuts as Jon and Richie took their bows and exited off the stage.

Trina briefly noticed that she hadn’t seen Ally since the in-store appearance earlier in the afternoon. She had heard about the argument she’d had with Richie earlier in the day and assumed she needed some space.

Jon and Richie came from the stage. The usual well wishes and congratulatory hugs were given to each member. As Jon got to Trina, she threw her arms around him. He laughed as he returned the embrace. Richie and Obie looked at him and simply shook their heads, they appeared to be amused by Jon’s continuous flirtations with Trina. Jon ignored them both. He was having fun.

She could feel his heart beating furiously under his vest.

Since she only came up to his chest, she couldn’t help but bury herself into his soft fur.

For a minute, the two of them had forgotten that there were other people backstage. Jon was happy to see that Trina was warming up to him. He kissed the top of her head and began to separate slowly from her.

Trina felt as if she were in a daze. She looked over at Jon. He winked as he and moved onto the next person. He began to laugh with delight. Richie looked at Jon and shook his head.

Richie looked over at Trina; who just lifted her eyebrows and shrugged. She seemingly began to know now the game Jon was playing with her.

No one said a word as the bus took them to Hershey. Ally, fresh from reading scripts and setting up meetings via a conference call with her agent for most of the day, looked out the window. She appeared to be sill aggravated over what happened with Richie earlier. Tina wrote a quick review of the show so that it’d be ready to file before they reached the hotel.

Richie looked over song lyrics he was working on in his notebook. During their brief break before performing at Giants Stadium, he would try for his own record deal at Polygram.

He had spoken to Jon about it and Jon couldn’t be more supportive of his friend and his solo efforts. Jon basically watched Trina write in her journal. He was exhausted but sleep wasn’t coming as fast as he wanted it to.

His throat was hurting as well and it worried him greatly that Hershey would be the 3^rd night in a row where he would not able to rest his body and voice. .

Trina walked over to Jon and sat next to him.

He yawned as put his arm over his eyes. His eyes burned from exhaustion.

Trina tenderly put down his arm. His eyes were red. “Can’t sleep?” she whispered.

Jon nodded “No. Overtired I guess.”

He rubbed his temples in a futile attempt to remove the stresses of the day. However, the usual tension headache he got almost every night, had begun its journey creeping from his shoulder blades to the back of his neck.

She took down his hands. She closed his eyes gently with her index finger and thumb.

“Relax.” She whispered as she began to massage his shoulders with her hands.

He winced his pain.

She continued to rub his shoulders. His muscles were hard as a rock. Her fingers tried to move from his shoulders to his neck muscles.

Kneading gently, his neck muscles slowly loosened as the tension began to lift. As he relaxed, his head exploded in pain. He suddenly pulled away from her, rubbing his temples again.

“I’m sorry.” She told him. “I was just trying to-” Jon interrupted her.

“I know. It’s ok.” He told her as he lay back down in the seat closing his eyes.

“I’m sorry Jon. I only wanted to help. Do you need aspirin or something?”

He shook his head. “No. Just stay with me. Please?” He said softly. Trina sat next to him until they both drifted off to sleep.

~

Meanwhile, as Richie finished up editing his lyrics for his demo, Ally plopped down next to him.

She was smiling and surprisingly very alert after being up since the crack of dawn.

“Almost done?” She asked.

Richie looked surprised that she was acting as if nothing happened and put away his notebook. He leaned back against his seat, figuring he’d get some sleep before they hit Hershey.

“Yeah I am. I’m tired Al. Been up since early this morning.” He groaned.

Ally put her head against Richie’s chest. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier.”

“Ally, I love you. I don’t understand why you can’t believe in that.” Richie told her.

“I do. I know you love me, but for how long today? An hour? Two hours? Eight? You were more into your phone conversation today than I’ve ever seen you into anything we’ve done.”

Richie rolled his eyes. Ally touched his shoulder.

“I don’t want to fight about this anymore. All I want is that kind of attention put on me.” She said.

Richie had nothing to say. He knew she was right, but he was tired of the same argument. The more she fought with him over his friendships with other women, the more he thought that maybe things should end.

He meant what he said. He did love her. Everything about her. But he was too tired to deal with this now.

He lowered his head and brushed his lips softly against hers.

She smiled warmly at him.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

Ally got her purse that had been sitting on the side of her lap. She took out a prescription bottle and opened it. She took out four small pills. She put two in her hand and passed the other two to Richie. Richie had never seen the pills before. He looked at her curiously.

“They’ll help you sleep.” She said.

Richie looked at them for a second. He took them from her and popped them in his mouth.

Ally popped the other two in her mouth. She closed the cap on the bottle and placed it in her bag.

She laid her head against Richie’s waiting for sleep to eagerly arrive.

~

The next day in Hershey was a light day for both the band and Trina.

As soon as they arrived at the hotel, she filed her review and checked into her room.

She slept for what felt like days. Again, Jon flooded her thoughts. She had been very concerned about his voice and his head. His muscles were so tight that they barely moved, and when they did, it made the problem worse.

Trina looked at her clock; it was only 9 am. She turned around and closed her eyes. She didn’t have to be anywhere until after 3 pm.

The two of them were seated on the bus next to one another. The others had gone to get something to eat. She was initially going to go with them, however, he had asked her to stay. After being on the road with all of them for a bit, she was so worried about how all of this was affecting him that she needed to tell him how she felt once and for all. .

“I’m worried about you.” She told him.

“I’m fine Trin, I’ll be okay.” He told her.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“No you’re not. Jonny. Please tell me what’s wrong.” She pleaded.

He took his hand and wiped away her tears.

She held his hand against her face. She continued to cry.

“Babe, don’t…Don’t.” He told her.

“You take such good care of everyone else, who takes care of you?” She asked.

She took his hand and brought it to her lips.

“Now, who’s teasing whom?” Jon joked.

She began to cry.

“Jon, it’s not funny. I think I’m falling in love with you.” She told him.

“Oh you are?” He teased.

He looked at her. He tried to be sympathetic towards her, but he was elated.

She put his hand down. She began to cry even harder. She looked at him angrily. He tried to muffle his laughter.

“Oh no. Don’t cry.” He told her.

She pulled away from him and began to turn towards the window.

“Jackass!” She yelled.

Jon continued to laugh. He tried to turn her around.

“No, you don’t understand. I’m sorry Trina, please. Baby, please.”

She turned around and slugged him.

“I love you too.” Jon told her.

“Such an ass! How could I be so stupid? I shouldn’t have come.” Trina said.

She looked strangely at him. He was no longer laughing.

“I love you. I love you so much. You’re so cute when you’re mad that I can’t stop laughing.” He said pointedly.

She wiped the tears from her face.

“Oh.” She said. Jon snickered.

“See, even looking all bloodshot and crazy. You’re beautiful.” He told her.

He bent down gently and kissed her. His lips were warm and soft; he parted her lips gently, tasting the fullness of her mouth.

She wrapped her arm around his waist, holding on to him for as long as he wanted her to.

He began to kiss the nape of her neck, loving her smell, taking in every part of her.

She was drunk with happiness, letting her senses take her where they needed to go.

She felt his hand moved up her sides and over her chest. He took out her breast from her bra and cupped it in his hands.

She gasped. He moved from his seat, to gently straddling himself on her lap.

He continued his descent, moving down her neck and down her chest.

One by one, the buttons on her blouse opened. Without thinking her fingers began to unbutton his jeans.

His eyes were glazed over as he moaned her name…

~

“Trina, Trina? Darlin’ Wakeup!” The voice said.

Trina turned around and there sat Juanita on her bed with coffee in hand.

She briefly was never more ticked off at anyone for waking her up like that in her life.