Diana heard the movement around her and the sound of bags being removed with light chatter and tried to pry her eyes open. The light added to her headache and she pulled the sheets over her head.

“You need to get up sleepy head. Everyone is ready to hit the road and you aren’t even up. There’s a cup of coffee and your clothes in the bathroom so get up.”

“Not my mom Valarie.” Diana mumbled back. She felt the cold sting of air hit her as the sheets were ripped off her.

“I’m not but you guys can’t function without me either.”
Valarie turned back to moving bags and packing while Diana forced herself to her feet. She groggily trudged to the bathroom and straight for the coffee. After a sip she set the cup down and stripped out of her clothes and looked in the mirror and gasped. She ran her fingers over the dark marks on her chest and neck and tried to recollect where the marks could come from.

Diana gasped as she looked Zacky in the eyes and confessed in a single word what she held in for years. He stared at her for what probably was a few seconds but felt like hours. Before she had the chance to say anything else he had come around the hockey table and had grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her. It startled her at first since she didn’t expect the reaction but quickly snapped back into the reality of what was happening before her.

Before she realized it he had pressed her against the wall and was unbuttoning her shirt. His kisses traveled down her neck and as they went down they got harder and rougher and Diana’s breathing got heavier. Diana didn’t know if it was the pills stepping in or her breathing but she was getting light headed and was having problems keeping her eyes open. “Zacky stop.”

He pulled away from her body and looked at her.

“What’s wrong?”

Diana chuckled. “As good as this is getting I think I’m going to pass out.”

Zacky sighed as he helped her button her shirt back up. She felt her eyes getting heavy and leaned on Zacky.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“Come on let’s get you upstairs.”

He helped her back into the elevator and to her room. He got the key out of her pocket and opened the door for her and walked her to her bed and she promptly crawled under the sheets.

“Zacky.” She whispered not to wake Michelle.
He bent back down to her level. “Yeah?”
“I was serious what I said.”
“I know. Get some sleep and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

Diana couldn’t help the slight smiled that was on her face as she put concealer on some of the marks. Valarie knocked and told her she had a few minutes to get downstairs or she was going to be left. When Diana made it downstairs and out to the buses she wasn’t exaggerating that she was the last one to get there and ready. They quickly got the final details in order and hit the road.

The next location was only a few hours away so everyone ended up hanging out together and talking. Once there everyone scattered along the venue, the bus, and the city itself. Diana stayed on the bus with her song book and one of the guy’s guitars to work on a song. She sat on one of the open bunks strumming the same chords trying to figure out whether to start the chorus or see if there could be more before it. However, a shift of the bunk and someone crawling in behind Diana startled her. When she turned to see who it was she smiled and let him adjust to sit more comfortably behind her. He wrapped his arms around her body and held the guitar and started strumming what she had just been playing.

“You hold the guitar too far away from your body which means you strain your fingers and hands more to switch notes.”

“I know how to play Zacky.”

“Sure you do.”

He held his hands onto hers and moved them with his to the notes that sounded the smoothest.

“Do you have lyrics yet?”

“Some but not much but I’m thinking about calling it buried alive.”

“Deep.” Zacky chuckled before taking his hands off hers and pushing her hair to one shoulder and resting his head on her shoulder.

“Can we talk about last night?” he whispered.

“What do you want to talk about?” Diana stopped playing.

“No keep playing it’ll be harder for anyone to ease drop.”

Diana shrugged and started playing again.

“Were you serious about last night? What you said to me?”

“Yes I was and if you aren’t serious I want you to tell me now.”

“It’s hard because everyone knows that Brian likes you but at the same time if any of us were to date you and it didn’t work out that it could hurt the group and I’m not saying as a band but these are my best friends and your brother.”

“I said all that to Brian when we were drunk in my room. But I knew that if I slept with him or dated him that it would end up like that. And besides, I know Michelle loves him because he led her on and now look at them. But Zacky I’ve been like this since high school but I knew the consequences so I did what I have always done for my brother and this band. I buried it and made sure everyone else was good.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“The same reason I didn’t tell anyone about my sleeping problems or any of my problems because it’s never been about me.”

“Well let me be there for you now. Open up for me and let me support you and help you.”

Diana stopped playing and turned to face Zacky and kissed him.

“I don’t want anyone to know. Not yet at least to make sure we can do this.”

Zacky nodded and they kissed again before he broke off and climbed off the bed and off the bus. Diana ran her fingers over her lips and smiled as she started on the guitar again.

Notes