It was another relatively silent trip. It was something to be expected, after last night, but Rob still loathed the silence nonetheless. Jane had crawled over into the back seat, and Austin held the wheel softly as he drove in silence. Rob was slouched far down into his seat, his feet propped up against the glass, and his eyes closed underneath his dark sunglasses. Sleeping would’ve made the trip’s eight hour duration so much shorter, if he could just pull off passing out. By the third hour he had sat up, stretching his sore muscles and given up on trying. There wasn’t much more point. 

Taking the AUX cable, Rob hooked up his phone and opened his Spotify. “I need to wake up,” he mumbled to Austin. Finding the song he wanted, he cranked the volume and played [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVKedjVxYOA]The Physical World - Death From Above 1979[/url].

The song opened with an assortment of noise; a symphony of beeps and bloops. Austin's head turned to Rob as he muttered something to himself. 

“Wait for it..” Rob said. Suddenly, the electronics dropped out, and the song truly began. As the main line ended for the first pulsing verse and its conjoining, repetitive riff, the car felt alive again. Austin nodded his head to the beat as Rob let out a smile. They hadn’t been nearly as close to each other in recent days, but perhaps just playing a song and listening together would’ve been good for them. He had seen him talking to Jane earlier, but he paid it no mind. Austin was bound by his own respectable morality; his sense of loyalty to both and preference to none. He knew Austin would never breathe a word of Jane’s thoughts to Rob, so there was no point in asking. 

Instead, Rob took the time otherwise wasted on pointless pestering to think slowly and carefully about his present situation. He was an analytical person at heart, it it may have done him a bit of good to take a moment and analyze. 

There was no point in denying the fact that he could not force or persuade Jane to do anything. She was her own person, and Rob his. It was unfair of him to expect her to reciprocate feelings, ease his pains, or to give any other sort of solace to him. It was true that she had hurt him the other night, and for that he was upset, but he had to know who Jane was. There was a balance he needed to strike between denying her of the respect she deserved and the time he so desperately wanted to spend with her, and keeping himself sane without temptation laying around every corner, promising to bite him in the ass if he so much as indulged.

What it came down to was this: he needed to keep some distance between himself and Jane. And perhaps not so much the cold loneliness he portrayed to her at the start of the tour, but if he continued to lay himself down at her feet, there was no reason he should expect to get anything other than trampled. So he needed to find a way to treat her like the friend she felt him to be, without opening himself up further to any misery. He had no reason to think Jane wanted anything other than friendship from him.

There was also his emotions to account for, for the very first time for Rob. He was not a man of passion, but one of logic. So how do you logically deal with emotions? It was a question Rob had been asking himself and had no answers too. The bitter truth was, no matter how much he tried and analyzed, he couldn’t protect himself from…well, himself. And his true self so desperately wanted to be with Jane. No matter how much of a wall he wanted to build, there was always going to be a primary weakness. If she willed it, those walls could come tumbling right back down, leaving him as broken and hurt as the day Anna had left him, and he realized that it was himself to blame.

Rob pushed it all away as Jane spoke, telling them all about the radio station wanting to interview the band, and it made him smile. Beyond what was between Rob and Jane, things had well and truly improved. The life they had always wanted was formulating in front of them. All they had to do was seize it. Rob knew about this, and knew that in order to survive, he would have to be logical. He would have to try. For the sake of everyone, and for the sake of himself. 

When they had pulled over at another mall to eat, Rob had made his way over to a salad bar and gotten a plain salad without dressing, along with an iced tea. In the middle of the stop, Rob had saw Jane. He knew the longer they both ignored the current situation, the worse off either of them would become. 

“Hey J,” he said smiling as he approached her. They were the same first words he had said to her at the start of it all. “I uh, I don’t know what the others had told you, but I didn’t want to feel like there were problems between us.” 

He took a deep breath. “We’re friends, Jane. And I can’t change what I said or how I feel but—I respect how you feel about all of that.” 

He wanted so bad to tell her not to toy with him anymore. To stop the nights they slept together. To stop being so intimate if all she was ever going to be was be a [i]friend—[/i]

“I want us to be normal again. So…I’ll treat you normal if you treat me normal?” 

He put on a smile as he pulled her in for a quick hug. His face brushing against her hair, smelling her for the first time since that night on the pull-out couch, so long ago it seemed. 

“I’ll see you around, then.”

He moved away, sliding back outside to eat his salad as he watched people passing by. It was relaxing for one, but it was also healing. He thought he was strong enough to be cordial with Jane, but he had almost lost his sense again. His resolve was only so strong, and he was only so human. He needed to try to find a way to make this work for her, or else it would eat him up inside. 

So he finished his food, went to the store for a coffee, and met back up with the group. They had arrived at the hotel a few hours later. When they checked in, however, Rob’s ideas seemed less and less likely.

“It’s four rooms,” the man said behind his counter. He held four keys in his hand, “but two apartments; each with two bedrooms. You’ll find a full kitchen and living room inside as well.”

Austin swooped in and grabbed the first two keys, both for the first room, and tossed the other one to Sam. Rob watched in near-horror as the two ran off, smirking at him and Jane as they left. [i]This was just fucking perfect.[/i] 

As soon as Jane and himself entered the room, Rob quickly realized just how close each room was. He’d be just a few inches away from Jane every night for a half-week. 

“I’m going to change real quick,” he said to Jane, dragging his stuff into the first room and softly closing the door without bothering to lock it. He immediately pulled out his phone and texted Harold:

[i]7:37, Rob:[/i] [b]I thought we had four rooms.[/b]

[i]7:38, Harold:[/i] [b]You do. It’s one of the nicest hotels in the area.[/b]

[i]7:39, Rob:[/i] [b]Did Sam put you up to this?[/b]

[i]7:41, Rob:[/i] [b]He tried to talk me out of it. Figure it out, Rob. [/b]

Rob tossed his phone to the bed as he pulled his shirt and pants off, then sat at the edge of the bed. What was the number one rule of unrequited feelings?

No unnecessary contact.

Not even a day in, and his plan was already fucked.