His Priority (Book 1)

Chapter Ten

10 - The Face

          "I can't believe you actually punched me - in the face." Thomas moaned into his hands as he paced the room.

"I said she was off limits." Jack grounded out.

         "I said she was off limits," Dane mocked, "What is she, some new car prototype or something? Get over yourself." Dane laughed loudly, "What are you going to say next? Kaitlyn, get in the chopper now?" He said deeply, copying the terminator voice. Jack sent him a look that immediately shut him up. Dane raised his hands, "Sorry, got a little carried away," he chuckled, sitting down on the couch in front of him.

Thomas dropped his hands to reveal a dark circle forming around his left eye. "I wasn't even being serious." He exclaimed.

Jack glared. "Well, it's a little hard to tell when you're being serious when you joke all of the time."

"Well, maybe you should pay closer attention."

"Well, maybe you should stop being such an idiot all the time and we wouldn't have these problems in the first place." Jack shot back.

Dane took this moment to add his input. "Dude, you kinda look like the human version of Scooby doo, but with only one spot." He said, doubling over in laughter.

Thomas quickly pulled out his phone and switched on his front camera. He fell back onto the couch. "My beautiful face!" He cried, "Do you know how much my face is worth? A lot of my fans pay good money to see this face." He gazed off into his phone, poking at his already black eye. "I can see it now, all my followers slowly leaving because I can't post a new picture until my face is healed. What will I do without my followers?" He wined.

     "Stop being so dramatic." An annoyed Lee commented as he stepped out of his room to see what all the commotion was about. "I promise, I can never get any sleep with you guys around."

     "That's because Thomas doesn't know how to take things seriously."

"Trust me. I could be serious if I wanted to." Thomas argued, "I just don't see the need to." He finished before sticking out his tongue like a child.

"See, this is what I'm talking about, you need to,"

      "Okay, okay, enough fighting." Charles's interrupted as he stepped on the bus. We're already at the plaza. We go on in an hour. Rick is checking us in now, so please if you all don't mind, I would like to be off this bus in the next two minutes."

The guys looked at one another. Dane and Lee shrugged and grabbed their things while Jack headed to grab his guitar. Thomas stepped in front of him, blocking his way. He stood frozen with his arms laid firmly across his chest. "Well?" He quirked an eyebrow.

       "Well, what?" Jack looked at him dumbly.

"Aren't you going to say something?" He questioned.

"Yeah, get out of the way so I can get my guitar."

Thomas didn't budge. "Something else."

Jack tried again. He was beginning to grow frustrated with the man before him. "Get out of my way so I can get my guitar, please."

Thomas frowned. "Now you're doing it on purpose."

Jack rolled his eyes and shoved him out of the way, grabbing his guitar and shooting a look in Kaitlyn's direction as he stepped off of the bus.

"Lets go."

Kaitlyn shot a glance in Thomas's direction to make sure he was alright and to her surprise he actually laughed.

"Well, why are you looking at me? You heard the man."

- - -

         It was only a few seconds before the group would go on. They had all changed into their stage attire. Charles was off to the side talking to Dane and Lee while Thomas was peeking through the curtains to look at the already packed auditorium.

      "You going to be alright back here?" Jack's deep voice pulled her from her thoughts. She shifted her head to the side and nodded. The two of them still weren't of speaking terms and she kind of felt like she was to blame. It wasn't like he had intended to offend her, he was just making an observation, which was true.

She lifted her gaze to his, green eyes connecting with her own. She licked her dry lips. "Look-" they both began.

Jack smiled. "You first."

She let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry about earlier. You were just telling the truth. Those girls..they aren't my friends."

Jack shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even brought it up. It was none of my business anyways, so sorry for making you upset."

Kaitlyn felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Thank you." She replied quietly, "I hope you have a great show tonight."

Jack smiled, a dimple gracing his cheek. "If there's one thing you should know about us, it's that we always put on a great show."  He said confidently.

Kaitlyn shrugged. "Actions speak louder than words."

Jack found himself holding back another smile. He laid his large hand on her wild mass of curly hair and ruffled it. "Guess you'll just have to see for yourself."

She glared at him as she tried to fix her already unmanageable hair. Charles said something before shouting that it was show time. Jack threw his guitar over his shoulder. "Looks like its show time." He announced before running off to join the stage with the other guys.

As the curtains slowly rolled back, the crowd erupted. Thomas took the mic. "How are all of you lovely people out there tonight?" He asked loudly and the crowd yelled once again. Lee and Dane settled themselves in the back while Jack adjusted his guitar.

"Tonight I got into a little accident as you can all see," he said pointing to his eye, signaling for all of the girls in the crowd to 'aw.' He blew them a kiss before continuing, "You see, some drunk guy was trying to beat up on his girlfriend, so of course, being the kind man that I am - I stepped in to stop it. So while I'm comforting the young woman, her ex sneaks up while I'm not looking and plants a fast one on me, but it's okay because as soon as his fist left my face I knocked him right out. So never stop doing the right thing. Stand up for the others around you." He ended and everyone shouted again. Kaitlyn could see Jack rolling his eyes at Thomas's obvious lie and she smiled.

Lee started hitting the drums and Dane and Jack began joining in. The music was fast, but not too fast. Thomas waited a couple of counts before coming in, his angelic voice filling the entire auditorium. The crowd jumped and hollered as they sang along. Kaitlyn found herself tapping her foot as they went on. She could see why they were one of the hottest bands out right now. They were actually good!

As the tempo got slower, Thomas started to sing in Spanish. Jack leaned closer to his own mic, his fingers still strumming on the guitar strings. His voice was rougher, more demanding, yet so mesmerizing that she couldn't turn away. She felt her cheeks grow hot as she realized how long she had been staring and forced herself to look out at the crowd. Everyone was smiling, some actually crying as they listened to the men before them. She smiled and looked back at the guys from behind the curtain. Lee and Dane were still jamming out, while Thomas was dancing around the stage like his pants were on fire. She rolled her eyes. Typical.

She turned her head, expecting to see Jack looking out at the crowd like he had done earlier, but when she turned his way his emerald green eyes were locked on hers. Her face heated up for a second time and she expected for him to break eye contact, but he didn't.

He leaned closer to the mic, watching her as if she was the only one who existed at that moment, each word of the song falling beautifully out of his mouth.

"And it's crazy,
Because I hardly even know her,
But every time I see her,
I only want to be near her."