You growled in the bottom of your throat as you tore your way through gathered gawking people as you made your way to the bus. You were beyond pissed and willing to draw blood if anyone got in your way, got in-between you and your goal. Which at this point you didn’t know what that goal was so basically everyone was liable to get hit.

You threw open the door to the bus like you wanted to rip it off it’s hinges and ran up the stairs. You screamed into the empty bus, letting most of it out that you could, trying to release your anger. Screaming done you made your way to the fridge for something to drink, chest heaving and ears ringing. Nothing to suit your fancy as you weren’t in the mood for getting drunk just yet you got a cup down and filled it at the sink.

You leaned against the kitchen area counter and sipped on the water, hoping it would calm you down enough that you could be around Jeph without having to kill him. As each cold sip went down it seemed to be working till you let your eyes wander and you caught sight of a picture of you and Jeph sitting on the counter. It had been taken near the beginning of the tour and you had just finished getting it framed so it still was laying on the counter where you had put it last night. You gritted your teeth at the sight of your smile in the photo as Jeph tried getting a piggy back ride from you, smile just as big as yours had been. The anger wasn’t going away. There were too many things around you that tied back to Jeph someway, and right now that wasn’t the best of things.

Chugging the rest of the water and still angry you threw the cup for no apparent reason, sending it crashing against one of the windows.

“Fuck this,” you yelled at the bus’s walls.

You kicked a lower kitchen cabinet as hard as you could and heard the wood splinter from the hard contact with your steel toed combat boots. Swearing in your head you dislodged your boot, grabbed your smokes and tore out of the bus as angrily as you had stormed on.

Outside the bus you looked around for somewhere to go. The venue was out of the option, the buses were out of the option, so that only left one place. Lighting a cigarette you huffed off to the picnic tables that were stationed a ways away from the concert area on grass.

It was a nice area, with a few trees sheltering the picnic tables from the sun and from view of others. You sat down and pulled severely on your cigarette as your free hand started chipping off pieces of wood from the table.

“What the hell gives him the right?” you screamed inside your head.

“What the hell brought about this stupid fight any ways? He’s fucking friends with all the guys, has been forever. He’s known my relationship with them, or my lack there of in Zacky’s case,” you seethed at Jeph inside your head still

You continued to angrily chip off wood from the helpless picnic bench, taking out your anger on it instead of a person. Instead of Jeph.

“Fuck!” you swore loudly as you felt a sliver of the wooden table slide into the flesh of your finger.

“Stupid table fighting back,” you hissed as you stuck your wounded finger into your mouth trying to ease the pain before looking at the damage.

Taking your finger out of your mouth you stared down at the large nasty sliver now taking up room in your pointer finger. You sighed as it throbbed.

“Just another bit of icing on my perfect day of a cake,” you growled at it, trying to will it out of your finger with the sheer power of your mind.

“Kailey Mae?” you heard a voice question softly.

You shot your head up from where it was trying to bite the sliver out of your body and you glared at the voice. Only one person was stupid enough to call you by your full name.

Bert stood a bit away from you, what looked like a distance he judged to be safe, with his hands raised to show he carried no weapon. Like he was coming in peace. You growled at him regardless from above your throbbing finger.

“I come as a neutral party,” Bert said softly, hands still raised.

You let out a large breath and nodded your head. He always did have an uncanny knack for showing up when needed.

“I got a sliver for all my troubles,” you said, voice sounding heavy as you held out your wounded finger for Bert as he sat down next to you.

Bert took your finger and inspected the damage gingerly, as if trying not to hurt you further. Inspection done you watched Bert rifle through his pockets and then pull out something small and shiny silver.

“Do you always carry tweezers around in your pocket?” you asked as he pulled your finger closer to his eyes.

He paused and looked at you, raising an eyebrow in question as he gave you a look.

“Do you always take out your anger on poor, helpless, unsuspecting picnic tables?” he asked before going back to his task.

You huffed and rolled your eyes, knowing he had you there.

“Jeph’s a tool,” Bert said suddenly and out of nowhere after a moment of silence.

“What?” you nearly shouted at him.

“Got it,” Bert said triumphantly before wiping his tweezers off on his pants and putting them back in his pocket.

“Huh?” you asked confused.

“I got the sliver out and you didn’t even notice,” Bert said with a smug smile, like he had pulled off the greatest trick of the century.

You took your finger from him and looked at it. He had indeed gotten the giant thing out without you knowing. How? Oh yeah...

“He really isn’t,” you said, trying to sound convincing.

“No he really is. He had no right Kailey Mae, no right at all,” Bert said softly as he looked at you with caring eyes.

That was all it took. All your anger drained away and you were left with wanting to cry from it all. You and Jeph had never fought before, before this stupid tour and he had picked a doosey of a first one to start off with. You visibly crumbled next to Bert and were thankful when you felt him scoot closer and wrap his arms around you. You curled into his chest as he brought you close and just broke down, letting it all out onto his slightly crumpled and more than likely not clean shirt.

“Shh” Bert uttered softly as he ran a hand through your hair and rubbed circles on your back.

For a little while you did nothing but cry into his shirt clad chest, glad that he had come when he had so you hadn’t needed to do this alone. Though if he hadn’t come you probably wouldn’t have broken down and let it out, you more than likely would have kept it all inside and bottled it up you figured. After a few minutes you stopped, but still stayed against his chest sniffling.

“We’ve never fought before,” you sighed as you flicked at the discinigrating image on Bert’s shirt.

“I know. I think we were all waiting for it somehow though,” Bert said cautiously.

“What do you mean?” you asked, still keeping your head on his chest.

It was comforting. It was soothing and it felt safe. It was like having Jimmy around. But it was Bert. The second best thing in your book you figured.

“You guys were too perfect without there being any fighting. You seemed like the perfect couple right out of the stories and magazines. Nothing was wrong with your relationship. So we all waited to see the fight happen, wondering if it would bring you closer together or drive you apart,” Bert offered.

You stayed silent for a bit, letting Bert’s words sink in a bit deeper. You reviewed your relationship in your mind’s eye, seeing what it had been like and saw merit to Bert’s words. It had seemed fairly fairy tale like, especially after your last. Especially without any fights. You two really had seemed like media fodder for the perfect couple, perfectly matched, even steven in your popularity with the alternative culture, both famous enough that one didn’t out shadow the other. You sighed.

“I think I’ll just stay here forever or at least until it blows over,” you said as you shifted your position in Bert’s comforting arms a bit.

“Or at least until my manager comes and drags me kicking and screaming for the show,” Bert said teasingly.

“That would be fun to watch,” you teased back, chuckling a little at the mental image.

“You would find that funny,” Bert huffed sarcastically before placing a kiss on the top of your head.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you Bert,” you sighed after a minute.

“Oh you’d probably be a giant wreck sitting in alley somewhere coming down off a heroin withdrawal and wondering where your next meal would come from,” Bert said with a straight face.

“Oh more than likely,” you said as you rolled your eyes.

Notes

Ta-da! Bert to the rescue!
They're relationship did seem a little too perfect if you ask me.
As Chris Rock said. . . "If you've never wanted to kill your mate, you've never been in love!"