[Joel] Whoever She Is

[Ryan James O'Neil]

Ryan was super stoked for a variety of reasons. One, he was engaged to Madeline, and every day that he woke up and remembered that he smiled. Two, he was back on their North American tour, which was exciting because they were finally playing all their new music live. Three, he was back in LA, the last place he was with Joel before the accident. And he was here with Joel. Joel had had a show tonight and Ryan and the guys were off for the night, to go see Joel's show. They were all on the bus for the night, Joel's show had went awesome, as always. Ryan was sitting beside Joel, watching the music video for Mike Posner's video 'Looks like Sex'. Ryan was trying really hard not to laugh at the fact that Joel was checking out the chicks in the video, especially the ones that were all in silhouette. Which happened to be Madeline and Rosie. Ryan thought it was hot too, but neither of them was his sister. But anyways, Ryan was just really looking forward to talking to Joel about things. Like his tour, and his music direction, the wedding, being brothers, asking Joel once and for all about this girl that was supposedly the reason Joel ran off the bus in the first place. Joel himself had said that in an interview recently, and Ryan had been on tour, so they hadn't really talked about it. Even when they were both still home there was that grace period of just being glad they were together at all without talking specifics of what happened. but if Joel was talking about it, even briefly, in interviews, Ryan wanted to clear the air.

Ryan laughed when Joel was still going on about the hotness of the girls on the screen, saying blatantly, "Yeah Rosie and Madeline did a nice job." After laughing at Joel's reaction, Ryan sat back on the couch, resting his hands behind his head, "So, we haven't talked about this at all, but you ran off the bus because of a girl? First of all, I'm just saying this to ease my own mind, it sort of bothered me not knowing. And second of all, she has got to be gorgeous if you of all people were chasing her down," he grinned. It was common knowledge that Joel hit on a lot of girls, but he never really gave two shits about them. He didn't want a relationship. He was too work focused. For him to run off a tourbus into a crowd of screaming fans just to get to one girl, that was saying something.

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel was still making a disgusted face, dealing with the fact that he had just checked his sister out. “So.Gross.” he said before shivering a bit at the disgustingness of it. He looked up, watching as Justin leaned down, slamming his own fist against Joels’ before he leaned down and patted him on the back. ‘Later bitches’ he said as he made his way off the tour bus. Joel cleared his throat, staring down at his bottle of water as he tore the label of into little bits and pieces. There wasn’t any drinking tonight, at least not on his part. He had an interview in the morning before they got back on the road and he was all for partying, but not at the expense of his career. He looked down at the piece of paper that was laying against his knee before he scribbled back on it. He had been listening to a lot …. a LOTof acoustic work from the Maine lately. He sort of had a man crush on Ryan’s voice. And Shane’s. Without a doubt he had a man crush on Shane’s voice. Like got all excited in his pants, lets rip off my prom dress and have a few wine coolers so I can pretend im drunk and sleep with my boyfriend, ‘no baby I don’t think youre a slut’ sort of crush on his voice. He was working on some lyrics for his new sound and he puffed out his cheeks. So far he’d written one song for this chick. Boyfriend. It was a good song in his opinion, but he wanted something a little more acoustic to be able to play for her.

Joel tightened the cap on his water bottle before he looked away from the music he was writing and looked at Ryan. The girl. He nodded. Fair enough, an explanation was needed. Joel was smooth with girls. That didn’t mean he wanted one. Then he was running off a bus to chase after one? He licked his lips, turning his neck to the side and let it pop. “ Yeah she was beautiful,” he said. He lifted his butt off of the couch they were sitting against, digging his phone out of his back pocket. ‘ RYAANNN!” Dani called out from the other end of the bus before she came and sat down next to him. People could think the friendship between him and Ryan was strange. He thought the one between Dani and Ryan was. Joel looked away as Dani leaned in to Ryan’s ear and was whispering to him about something. She was talking to him and Logan more and more about stuff. Whatever that was about. He looked up, watching as Dani made her way off the bus and then turned to look at Ryan. “ Alright here,” he said, scrolling through the pictures until he came across hers. He leaned back in his seat, looking back at his lyrics before he absentmindedly added , “ So what’s going on with your wedding? …Logan or Shane gonna be your best man?”

[Ryan James O'Neil]

Ryan thought it was hilarious that Joel had a 'swag coach', but honestly he understood it. It was really just another pair of eyes making sure Joel was safe all the time. He smiled when Dani came in though, sitting down and whispered in his ear while Joel pulled his phone out. Dani was dealing with a lot still, what with her dad and all. Ryan had to hand it to Jake though, he really did a good job keeping her sane. As much as they fought, it didn't take a fool to see the way Jake looked at her. The way he looked at her like it was one thing if he was yelling at her, but if someone else did he'd rip your head off. Ryan only really knew what Dani told him, but Ryan figured he'd do the same for Madeline. After Dani had left Ryan looked at Joel, "Yeah I'm sure she is, but I really need more details than that.. oh you have a picture? That's perfect." he mumbled and waited while Joel scrolled through his pictures to find the one he was looking for. "Wait is this the same girl you talked about from New Year's Eve? The one you didn't know her name?" Ryan remembered Joel talking about this girl from the New Year party, some girl he'd talked to and hit it off. Apparently he'd never caught her name but all he ever said about her was that she was beautiful and wished he had. In fact, Joel had mentioned her more than once, but it didn't seem like she was ever going to just waltz back into his life. But how else would Joel have a picture of the girl he ran off the bus for unless he already knew her before that? And Joel wouldn't just have some girls picture in his phone, not like that. Had to be the same one.

Ryan leaned over and looked at the picture, recognizing her instantly. He didn't even really know how he recognized he so fast, but Joel was right, she was a beautiful girl. She was definitely a face to remember. Which was why when he did, he practically jumped off the couch to his feet, pointing at the picture excitedly, which was more activity than he ever had unless he was with Madeline behind closed doors. "DUDE. I know her! I met her in New York, seriously." Ryan was practically overcome with excitement, just because Joel was so taken by this girl and he had always mentioned her on occasion and got hit my a car trying to get to her and now it seemed they had a way to find her. "Really, get this, her mom was your nurse in the hospital in New York. She brought her mom lunch like, probably at least twice a week. She usually read stories to the kids in pediatrics. Nicest girl. She even asked if she could read you the newspaper, she said she had been at the LA show. I was kinda sketchy about letting her, but we saw her around so much and she was really nice, so I let her a few times. I never put two and two together..." Ryan was pacing now, trying so hard to remember what her name was... he could just barely remember it, right on the tip of his tongue... "... Ugh what was her name..."

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel made a face as he watched Ryan jumping up off the couch. He never reacted to such measures. He was in like a permanent state of high. But as he listened to him speak he felt his body tensing up as he watched him. She was in his life? What in the hell was wrong with this girl? Why was she putting herself in his life but keeping herself just out of reach? Banter with him, not give him her name. Read him the newspaper, not try to get into contact with him. What sort of game was that. “ Dude…” Joel said as sternly as he could, shaking his head slowly as he looked at Ryan He leaned forward, running his hand over the back of his head. “ Yeah I’m guessing Madeline wasn’t there when you let her do that”. Madeline sort of had an overly protective mama bear attitude in regards to Joel. He was pretty sure she would sink her teeth into someone before she let them come within a fifty foot radius of him if she was in a bad enough mood. “ You smoke way too much weed,” he said as he stood up off the couch. Her name wasn’t a huge deal right now. It wouldn’t be hard to call the hospital, ask who the charge nurse was and talk to her. It was just a matter of deciding if that was what he wanted to do. Maybe she was making herself unattainable for a reason.

Joel paced the bus, pacing pacing pacing. He always paced when he was anxious. “ Why in the hell would she do that if she won’t just come forward and say who she is?” he questioned, before he turned to look at Ryan. “ I don’t mean to sound cocky,… if I want a girl bro..” he said, making a slight face that sort of finished the statement for him . So why was she being so difficult? He flirted with girls like he needed it for his survival. But he never actually pursued after a girl. Big difference. Maybe she didn’t want to be. But that didn’t make sense either. If she didn’t want to be then she would have just stayed out of his life. Joel started texting Logan. He just needed to figure out who his nurse was. What were the fucking chances that her mom was his nurse. That had to be fate or something, if he believed in such a thing. Joel paced for a few more minutes before he sat back down , bouncing his knee as he looked down at his phone. “ If you had to choose… love or fame. Which would you pick?” he asked before turning his head to look at Ryan.