I sat there on the steps of the bus, alone, for a while. The nasty feeling in my stomach wouldn't go away, and I was lost in my own thoughts of doubt. I stared up at the stars. How could Tori do this to Bob? I would never have imagined that this was possible.

My phone began to ring in my pocket, and I stood up to wrestle it out.

"Hello?" I whispered.

"Hey baby," Gerard said.

"Did you find him?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "Um, is she gone?" I sighed and nodded, before remembering that he couldn't see me.

"Yeah, she left maybe ten minutes ago?"

"Alright, then we're gonna head back, ok?"

"You be careful," I said, before adding, "I love you baby."

"I love you too," he whispered, and hung up. With a huge sigh, I got up and stretched, then climbed up onto the bus. Coffee would be in order.

As I started the pot, I heard happy sounding voices approaching the bus. I sighed for perhaps the thousandth time that night.

"So then I was like, did your face get stuck that way or something?" Frank said as he boarded the bus, and the others all laughed. Then Frank looked over at me, and immediately stopped laughing when he saw my face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, rushing into the kitchen area. "Where's Gerard?" Everyone else stopped laughing as well.

"With Bob," I said shortly. "Tori left. She met someone else." The bus became deathly silent for several minutes.

"Are you kidding?" Mikey cried eventually, as Alicia moved closer to him and wrapped her arm around his thin frame. I shook my head grimly.

"Fuck," Ray whispered. Frank immediately dug his phone out of his pocket, and stepped off the bus. I knew he was calling Charlotte.

"They're on their way back," I said softly, turning my back on them and starting the coffee pot.

"Do you think we should, maybe, like, go somewhere else or something?" Ray asked, sounding unsure. I wiped away the tear that had formed in my eye, before turning back to face them.

"I don't know," I replied softly.

"If it were me," Mikey said, as he tightened his grip on Alicia's waist, "I'd want everyone to act normal and stuff." I nodded, and Ray looked relieved.

"In that case, seeing as how it's after two, I'm heading to bed," Ray said. At that moment, the door to the bus banged open again, and Frank bounded up the stairs, looking stunned.

"What is it?" I asked immediately.

"She didn't answer," he said. I couldn't help it, I laughed.

"Frank, it's like, three in the morning in New York. She's probably asleep," Mikey said. "Which is where I should be."

"You all go ahead," I said. "I'm gonna wait up, make sure they get back ok."

Within minutes, I was alone on the couch in the front room, a steaming cup of coffee in my hand, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Tori had actually left. Soft snores soon began to emanate from the bunk area, telling me that Ray, at least, was asleep.

I shifted my position, pulling my knees up against my chest and resting my head on them, struggling to keep myself awake, and wondering why they weren't back yet. Again and again, my mind kept going back to one little phrase: We were falling apart. The last thought that flitted through my head before finally succumbing to the sleep I had been fighting was, would it be Gerard and I next?

Notes

Yeah. They're short, so you get three tonight...