A Thousand Times Before
Chapter 3
By: Nicole
We arrived at the venue in time for the boys to do their soundcheck. When they finished we had a good hour to chill out and do whatever. Billy and I were back stage on the sunken in couch, just cuddling and enjoying eachother's company.
He ran a hand through my hair. "So how long are you two gonna be staying?"
I sighed. "A week, you?"
His eyes lit up. "We're gonna be here for a week, and then heading down to Montgomery for a week. We had alot of fans complaining that we didn't do enough shows in the south, so we're doing a small tour of the south finally."
"I live in Montgomery! So that means we atleast get to spend two weeks together, and hey, next week you can see my band perform!" I was grinning ear to ear.
"Your band huh? I'm guessing you sing?" He raised a brow.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I leaned back aginst his chest.
He ran a calloused finger down my neck and traced around the hickey right above my collar bone. "Because your fingers are soft so you don't play guitar or bass and you don't seem like a drummer type."
---At the same----
Kerri was leaning aginst the wall with a boring look on her face. She wasn't afraid to admit she was jealous of Nic and Billy's sudden relationship, or what would probably become a relationship. She sighed and slid down to the floor.
Joel happened to walk by at that exact moment. He seemed to be deep in thought.
"Joel!" Kerri said his name so clearly.
Joel snapped his attention to her, not bothering to look where he was going. His eyes locked with hers and everything around him seemed to fade away...That is, until her colided with the wall. He ran smack into the wall and fell to the floor. "Fuck!" He sat up and rubbed his head.
Kerri couldn't help but break into a grin and laugh a little. "Joel are you okay?" She rose from her position and walked across the room to where Joel was sitting and sat down beside him.
"Yeah..I just uh..didn't see that wall.." He broke into an embarassed grin, still rubbing his head.
"Aww, I'm sorry I destracted you." Kerri reached out and ran her soft fingers across the spot he's hit. "Is that all the hurts?"
Joel shook his head. "No, it hurts here too." He pointed to his chest and then his cheek.
She ran her fingers across his cheek and down his chest. She dropped her hand and scanned him over, getting trapped in his eyes.. "He looked so cute when he ran into that wall.." 'Fuck! I didn't mean to say that out loud!'.. "Uh sorry did I just say that out loud?"
By this time Joel was giving her a curious look. "You thought I looked cute?"
She blushed. "Uh..Yeah I did.."
He leaned in towards her and she leaned in closer to him. They were three inches apart.. Two inches.. One inch.. A third of an inch.. Joel once agian collided with something, this time however it was more pleasnt, lips aginst lips. It was a short kiss, but they would both remember it for a long time to come.
"Good Charlotte members please report to side stage. you go on in 10 minutes!" A man yelled down the hall.
"Guess we better go.." Joel stood up. He held his hand out and pulled Kerri to her feel, not bothering to remove his hand from hers when they were making their way down the short hall.
------Back to where Nic and Billy were-------
Billy and I were standing on the side of the stage, behind the curtain and out of sight of any fans. Paul and Benji had both been outside greeting fans, signing stuff and taking pictures. Billy and Benji were getting their guitars ready, Paul was getting his bass ready, I have no idea who their stand-in drummer was at this point in time, but he was standing across from me and Billy, twirling his sticks. And Joel and Kerri hand just walked in the room holding hands.Wait wait! Since when do Kerri and Joel hold hands?!
"Good Charlotte, you're on in two minutes!" This guy had been walking around for the past 15 minutes shouting stuff out, it was really starting to bother me.
"Good luck!" I kissed Billy, running my tounge along his labret breifly and pulled away.
He smiled and returned the favor. "You better be here when I come back."
I laughed and ran a hand under his shirt. My hands were awfully cold so I'm sure thats why he shivered when I did so. "Where else would I go?" I pulled my hand away and wrapped my arms around my stomach. Cold rooms weren't the best place to have on a wife beater.
"If your cold you can grab my hoodie off the couch." Billy gave me a brief kiss and headed over to the other guys.
----At the same time----
"Good luck Joel, and Please don't fall of the stage!" Kerri gave Joel a small peck on the cheek.
"Just because of that I'll be sure not to." He grinned and sprinted onto the stage. Billy, Benji, Paul, and their stand in drummer followed Joel onto the stage.
----Back to the other time---
I made my way over to Kerri and we watched the guy's show from back stage. They were awesome and the crowd was going crazy.
They had just finished paying their original hit, Little Things. "You guys were great! We're gonna be in town all week!" Joel gave their final good bye and they all sprinted off the stage, handing their guitars, bass and mic to the roadies.
Billy wasted no time in sweeping me up in a hug. "Miss me?"
I laughed and pulled away, handing him a towel and a black wifebeater. "Yes, but you're all sweaty! And you smell bad!"
He just gave me a toothy grin. He dried himself off and changed shirts. "Better?"
I nodded and we made our way back to the van. Unfortunatly Billy got held up by a large group of fans and even a few groupies. He wrapped his arm around my waist when they approached us.
So we were stuck there for about 20 minutes. The other guys were still inside so they didn't have reason to stay any longer. Billy signed god knows how many photos and the two of us took alot of pictures, since he refused to seperate with me. I over heard several groupies talking about me I just didn't hear much of it. But there was one thing I do remember, alot of the fans asked if Billy and I were dating. Well when the first one asked I just looked at Billy, after all it was up to him if we were dating or not. He just nodded and kept signing stuff.
We finally made it into the van and crawled to the backseat. He stretched his legs out, sitting in the corner and I curled up beside him, my legs intertwining with his. I nuzzled into the crook of his arm, laying my head on his chest. I listened to his heart beat, just enjoying behing held. I'm sure he was enjoying being able to hold someone and them not care about his reputation as a 'rock star', they just cared for him as a person.
After about 30 minutes we were joined by the others, who were complaining about the mob of fans that attacked them on their way to the van. Billy and I just laughed, if only they knew what the fans knew about us now..
-----
When we got back to the hotel we decided that Kerri, Joel, Billy and me would stay in our room, and Benji and Paul would stay in the guys' room.
"Well we're gonna go to bed, night Joel and Kerri" Billy grabbed my hand and we went into my bedroom.
Joel and Kerri didn't bother to reply, they just nodded.
Billy and I had both taken showers. I had changed into my usual pajamas and Billy had changed into a pair of black boxers with '100% Yours' written along the waist band and a black wife beater he had brought from his room.
We were both laying down on my bed, me on my stomach with my head propped on my hands and Billy on his side facing me with his head propped on one of his hands, just talking. I sat up and he did the same.
I reached my hand out and ran my fingertips across his tattoos. "Your tattoos are adorable.."
He grinned, grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine. "Do you have any tattoos?"
"Yeah, I have a few" I held my left arm up, showing the bird from GC's first album on the inner-upper side of my arm.
"Hey! It's that bird from our cd cover!" He ran his hand over it.
"Yeah, and I have these.." I turned my hands over where there was two star outlines with Faith written under one and Hope under the other on my wrists.
"Those are like Joels!" He traced the stars with his index finger.
"Uh huh, and these are my favorite." I turned around so my back was facing him and pulled my wife beater off. On my right sholder blade there was a series of quarter-sized star outlines, each with a word written in it. At the crook of my back, right above my waist, I also had a picture of Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas with 'Pumpkin' written on one side and 'Queen' on the other in old english letters.
Billy scooted closer, reading the words from each of the stars. "Life, Hope, Truth, Trust, Faith, Pride, Love, Lust, Pain, Hate, Lie, Guilt, Laugh, Cry, Live, Die.." He through about it for a minute. "Isn't that from a song off our second album? 'Moving On' I think.."
I nodded and put my wife beater back on and turned around to face him agian. "Yeah it is."
"And the Jack face is like Mine, cept why does it say Pumpkin Queen? Jack was the Pumpkin King, not Queen.." He was awfully interested in my tattoos.
I grinned. "I get asked that alot. Okay it says Pumpkin Queen becuase I was born on Halloween and I happen to think that movie rocks."
"I see." He nodded.
We talked for a little longer and decided to actually go to sleep. Billy told me they had an in-store signing to do tomarrow, that should be fuuun.
--------At the same time------
(Kerri's POV)
Nic and Billy just left, they said they were gonna go to sleep, but I doubt they were asleep.
I sighed and turned to Joel. "Whatcha wanna do now that we're all alone?"
He ran his thumb along my jaw. "We can talk or cuddle or talk and cuddle or watch a movie and cuddle."
I faked a pout. "Are those my only options? Okay hmm we can talk and cuddle."
I snuggled into the crook of his arm and curled up into a little ball, my head comfortably positions so I was looking directly at him.
He kissed my forehead. "So when did you and Nic meet?"
"Well she moved to Montogmery two months after I did, and we both ended up working at the same store. After that we just became friends and got closer and closer."
"I see.. Why'd you move to Montgomery?"
"Because, after I finished collage I wanted to move to a bigger city, since I lived in a small town. Nic on the other hand came to Montogmery to persue a career in the music business. I must say for only being around for a year, her band is doing really good."
"Nic's in a band? What does she do?"
"Well she sings. See she moved from a small town, smaller than the one I lived in, right after she graduated from high school. Let's just say she had a rough history like you and Benji. But anyway, how long are you guys staying?"
"We're gonna be here for a week..Then we're going to Montgomery for a week. After that It's gonna be 3 days in Mississippi, and 3 days in Georgia. So there's gonna be alot fo happy fans in the south."
I couldn't help but smile. "You know, if I would've answered the door instead of Nic, you would've thought I was a teenie."
"Oh really? So your a big Joel fan?" His eyes locked with mine.
"The biggest." Yeah I know it sounded so lame, but I could barely think! His eyes were just.. capitavating. His chocolate brown eyes were breaking into my soul and I could tell he felt the same about mine.
He leaned down closer to me, our eyes still locked together, and caught me in a delicate kiss. I could feel his tounge flick over my labret before he pulled away. I smiled and he layed his head agianst mine. He pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around the two of us.
We eventually fell asleep, neither bothering to break contact or suggest going to my bedroom, we were happy and that was all that mattered right?