Chapter 38

"You miss me?" Richie asked skeptical, he hadn't exactly heard much from Jon in the last couple of months. Then again, he hadn't contacted Jon either.

Jon shrugged, not knowing what else to say as Richie sighed and looked back up at him. "I miss you too."

They met eyes, "Yeah?" Jon asked.
Once again, he leaned back in his chair along with a sigh. "Yeah man, you've been my best friend for the last 30 years, of course I miss that. You know me better than I know myself sometimes."
"Same here." Jon agreed. He shook his head before taking a drink from his water.
Richie sat up and waited for him to finish before he spoke. "You know what, you were the one person I wanted to talk to the most and you weren't there." He sounded more angry than he intended but he did not care, he was honest.
"I know." Jon owned up.
"Those six weeks, I just wanted to be able to talk to you about how stressful it's been and how scary it was. It fucking scares the shit out of you when your son that's hardly even 6 months old gets so sick that he needs help to fucking breathe. Who do you talk to that about?"
Jon nodded. "I understand. I know. I was dealing with my own shit, with Steph, and your solo album-"
"My solo?" Richie cut him off. "How was that hard for you?" He realized he was sounding harsher than he intended.
"Because I wanted to work on the band's album and get on the road for that but I didn't want to force you into that either because I knew the solo was important to you which was why I tried not to show that I was excited for this new album we made and take away from your solo." Jon rambled his explanation. "I felt bad for being so excited about it so I avoided having conversations with you. I thought you might think I wasn't happy for your solo. I didn't want you to think," he made air quotations, "I wasn't allowing you to pursue your own music."
As Richie listened he ran his hand over his forehead, into his hair, where he ended up scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't have thought that. I was excited for the band's new album too."
"And then with all of Steph's stuff, I just wanted to ask you for all this advice about what to do and how to handle it and..." He trailed off in thought, "I just needed to talk to you but I couldn't because that'd be inconsiderate."
Richie frowned at him. "How so?"
"'Cause you've dealt with going to addiction counselling and I didn't want to be the asshole that brought it up."
"Fuck man, if you needed to talk about that, I would have talked to you about that."
"So..." Jon started, "basically we were both too wrapped up in our own issues, not wanting to depend on or hurt the other to realize we needed each other?"
Slowly Richie nodded, a grimace forming on his face, "Sounds like it." He agreed.
"We're both fucktards." Jon concluded.
"Assholes." Richie agreed.
"Fucking cunts."
Richie laughed at that one.
"Oh!' Jon exclaimed, his mood changing entirely. "Jake told me of this one, douche canoe. what the hell is a douche canoe?"
Richie looked at him with a frown, but answered him trying to sound as serious as he could. "Obviously it's a douche that owns a fucking canoe." He pointed out.
"'Cause that's an insult." Jon said sarcastically.
"It just is." He shook his head, knowing it was a dumb insult but Jake was 11, at least he wasn't using his father's foul language. "Just like twat waffles."
Jon burst out laughing. "What?"
"Twat waffle." Richie repeated. "Kids are way more creative with insults than we were."
"Guess so."

Their conversation stalled, realizing it, Richie checked the time on his watch. 5 o'clock was approaching, dinner would be soon and he still had to start the barbecue as well.

"Wanna head downstairs?" He asked Jon, figuring he could help him cook the meat. At least that would be manly, unlike going to buy it from the grocery story according to Noah.
"Maybe in a minute."
He could sense there was something else Jon wanted to talk about but nothing was coming forward and he didn't want to continue to wait for it, besides that, he was getting hungry. "So..." He started, making Jon look up at him. "What's up? What are you thinking?"
"I was thinking of the tour, we head out again in two weeks to South America for a short stint down there."
Richie nodded in thought. "I'd have to talk to the missus but yeah." He shrugged, once again Jon watched him closely as if inquiring if he was sure. "Do you have the itinerary?"
"Yeah, I've got it." He wrestled his phone free from his shorts' pocket and unlocked it to search for it in the files he had stored on the device.

Once he found what he needed, he passed the phone over to Richie.

He grabbed the phone from Jon and enlarged the print so he could read it more easily.

As he read, he chuckled. "Liar." Rehearsals would start next week, then they'd be off to South America for two weeks. "Sure the South American leg is short but then it's straight to Canada and the rest of the country a week after that."
"It's a little over a month." Jon tried to sound more optimistic to make it look more appealing. "But then most of November we're off and then just a little trip to Japan and Australia." He said. "It'll be warm there."
"It'll be warm here too." Richie pointed out.
Jon shrugged.
"Vancouver sounds like a good plan and I could visit Caleb," he looked up at Jon with a shrug, if he was there, why not. "Tacoma show will be on Ava's sweet 16 though." He frowned at the schedule, starting to remember it. "L.A. and Las Vegas shows are the weekend between Ava and Daniel's birthday." He thought out loud, wondering what to do with that and feeling a little torn. 

He also knew these dates last year when the entire tour was being planned. A year ago he was happy with having the weekend between their birthdays, that way he was fair to both of them but now he wasn't sure and felt divided on a decision.

Richie gave Jon his phone back. "Send me the schedule and I'll talk to Sarah about it. See what she thinks as well."
"Sounds good." Jon selected the file and hesitated to send it off, "Text or email?" He asked.
"Fax it to me man." Richie laughed at his own joke. "Email." He clarified as he got up from his chair. "Now let's go cook us some meats."
"Sounds good." Jon got up and followed him out to the hallway.
"I'll meet you downstairs, gonna go get Noah before he finishes the entire Harry Potter series."