Terrible Things
Chloe's Smile.
Vic had invited our newly established band, Chloe's Smile, to travel on the Pierce The Veil bus to Sacramento, the second to last destination on Warped Tour. We auditioned bassists and drummers with Vic yesterday and settled on our picks relatively quickly. Jemma was a small girl with bright purple hair and dark chocolate eyes. She could play the drum line to Highway To Hell backwards and was extremely loud and funny when she wanted to be, she reminded me of Jack. Our bassist was a guy called Lee who looked a lot like Zack, but darker and with bleach blonde hair. His fingers moved so fast I couldn't pick up on the notes he was playing. We had agreed on the band name after I explained my history with Alex, the reason why I wouldn't ask to open for All Time Low. The tribute to Chloe felt nice, even though she had treated me like shit, no one deserved to go through what she did. Tony slid a plate of tacos onto the table and we all dug in. Vic had agreed to let us play two songs to open for them on their set in Los Angeles so we could get our name out there and hopefully get noticed by a record company or two. The songs were quite easy to put together, one acoustic and one heavy that Caleb and I had already written, I'll Be Waiting and Jump If You Need To.
“Dude, your tacos are amazing.” Lee laughed between bites. “What the fuck did you put in them?”
Tony and I exchanged a knowing glance and laughed as Tony rambled off this batch's recipe.
“Uh, I think there's eggo waffle, mince, hot sauce, some vegetables I found, and chicken nuggets.” The whole bus erupted into laughter as Lee, Jemma and Caleb all stared at their tacos, not sure if they wanted to eat any more. “Tacos in this bus are never the same and never normal.” Tony laughed at the concerned newbies. “But they always fucking taste good that's for sure.” Melody leaned over and took a taco off the plate, another aspect that made her so attractive to Jaime, she ate like a guy and could drink Jaime under the table. I helped the girl dye her hair green yesterday and Jaime had argued that if anything it should be jet black, like the characters.
"Seriously, how do you come up with the combinations!" Jemma laughed as she took a sip of her beer. Tony pointed to the pantry and fridge and then to the frying pan. "You just put anything in?"
"Hasn't failed us yet!" Mike cheered and he produced yet another bottle of Whiskey. His ability to stash without being noticed was getting ridiculous. The sun was going down and we were only about half an hour from Sacramento. "Oh yeah," he pulled out multiple shot glasses from under the sink. "Mom's coming out to see us play in Los Angeles, I told her about Chloe's Smile and she's adamant she'll be attending the first gig." We all laughed as the image of her determined face popped into our heads and the Chloe's Smile guys sat there, looking as confused as they always did when the Fuentes kids found something entertaining.
"Good!" I squealed as I picked up the other bottle of Jack and helped Mike fill the shots. "I haven't seen her in ages."
"We haven;t seen her in just as long." Vic raised his eyebrows, a slight chuckle to his voice. "And we're actually her children." This time the entire bus laughed and we all toasted the bands and downed the whiskey.
"We should run through a quick acoustic of Jump If You Need To." Caleb was quickly established as the responsible member of the band and it was obvious that my years with Vic and Mike had wiped that aspect of my personality clean. The boys grabbed the guitar and bass from the back room and met Jemma and I on the couches. I cleared my through and began the accapella opening.
"Well, fuck, if you want, I suppose go ahead.
It's not clear to me anymore, why you would need to."
Jemma hit the table with her sticks and Caleb and Lee jumped in with the music, the Pierce the Veil boys dancing like idiots in the spaces between the bunks. I belted my heart out and tried not the laugh like Jemma and Lee as Mike and Vic whipped their hair round in the corridor, banging Jaime and Tony into the bunks. The song wasn't too long, only about three minutes and it was totally dark outside as I sang the final chorus and outro.
"Jump if you need to,
I don't think it's fair.
There's people who suffer
much more than you.
Honey, I know,
that the pain it sears through.
But take it away
and the scars they remain.
It won't fix anything.
But jump if you need to.
I don't want you to,
but jump if you need to.
Think of the good times baby,
but hell,
whatever you do,
don't jump."
"Oh, Piggy, you write the most conflicting songs!" Mike fell onto my lap, his hair now a knotted mess. We all laughed and played Mario cart until we arrived in Sacramento. As we drove in we watched the hundreds of workers rush to get the stages up for the next days acts.
"Holy shit," Jemma mumbled. "They do this every stop? Fuck that shit!" She flung her arms in the air and picked her sticks up off the table. "I call the couch in the back room!" Caleb and Lee groaned as she skipped down the bus to claim her bed. It was by far the comfiest and was definitely the biggest, but tiny Jemma didn't care about the boys need for leg room. She worked strictly on a 'you snooze you lose' agenda. I watched out the window as the All Time Low bus drove past us to it's lot and frowned as I saw Alex chase back a shot with a can of beer through the window before the bus parked too far away. I groaned and all the boys looked at me but I waved them off, telling then I was going to bed. I couldn't be bothered with my thoughts and building guilt right now.
“Dude, your tacos are amazing.” Lee laughed between bites. “What the fuck did you put in them?”
Tony and I exchanged a knowing glance and laughed as Tony rambled off this batch's recipe.
“Uh, I think there's eggo waffle, mince, hot sauce, some vegetables I found, and chicken nuggets.” The whole bus erupted into laughter as Lee, Jemma and Caleb all stared at their tacos, not sure if they wanted to eat any more. “Tacos in this bus are never the same and never normal.” Tony laughed at the concerned newbies. “But they always fucking taste good that's for sure.” Melody leaned over and took a taco off the plate, another aspect that made her so attractive to Jaime, she ate like a guy and could drink Jaime under the table. I helped the girl dye her hair green yesterday and Jaime had argued that if anything it should be jet black, like the characters.
"Seriously, how do you come up with the combinations!" Jemma laughed as she took a sip of her beer. Tony pointed to the pantry and fridge and then to the frying pan. "You just put anything in?"
"Hasn't failed us yet!" Mike cheered and he produced yet another bottle of Whiskey. His ability to stash without being noticed was getting ridiculous. The sun was going down and we were only about half an hour from Sacramento. "Oh yeah," he pulled out multiple shot glasses from under the sink. "Mom's coming out to see us play in Los Angeles, I told her about Chloe's Smile and she's adamant she'll be attending the first gig." We all laughed as the image of her determined face popped into our heads and the Chloe's Smile guys sat there, looking as confused as they always did when the Fuentes kids found something entertaining.
"Good!" I squealed as I picked up the other bottle of Jack and helped Mike fill the shots. "I haven't seen her in ages."
"We haven;t seen her in just as long." Vic raised his eyebrows, a slight chuckle to his voice. "And we're actually her children." This time the entire bus laughed and we all toasted the bands and downed the whiskey.
"We should run through a quick acoustic of Jump If You Need To." Caleb was quickly established as the responsible member of the band and it was obvious that my years with Vic and Mike had wiped that aspect of my personality clean. The boys grabbed the guitar and bass from the back room and met Jemma and I on the couches. I cleared my through and began the accapella opening.
"Well, fuck, if you want, I suppose go ahead.
It's not clear to me anymore, why you would need to."
Jemma hit the table with her sticks and Caleb and Lee jumped in with the music, the Pierce the Veil boys dancing like idiots in the spaces between the bunks. I belted my heart out and tried not the laugh like Jemma and Lee as Mike and Vic whipped their hair round in the corridor, banging Jaime and Tony into the bunks. The song wasn't too long, only about three minutes and it was totally dark outside as I sang the final chorus and outro.
"Jump if you need to,
I don't think it's fair.
There's people who suffer
much more than you.
Honey, I know,
that the pain it sears through.
But take it away
and the scars they remain.
It won't fix anything.
But jump if you need to.
I don't want you to,
but jump if you need to.
Think of the good times baby,
but hell,
whatever you do,
don't jump."
"Oh, Piggy, you write the most conflicting songs!" Mike fell onto my lap, his hair now a knotted mess. We all laughed and played Mario cart until we arrived in Sacramento. As we drove in we watched the hundreds of workers rush to get the stages up for the next days acts.
"Holy shit," Jemma mumbled. "They do this every stop? Fuck that shit!" She flung her arms in the air and picked her sticks up off the table. "I call the couch in the back room!" Caleb and Lee groaned as she skipped down the bus to claim her bed. It was by far the comfiest and was definitely the biggest, but tiny Jemma didn't care about the boys need for leg room. She worked strictly on a 'you snooze you lose' agenda. I watched out the window as the All Time Low bus drove past us to it's lot and frowned as I saw Alex chase back a shot with a can of beer through the window before the bus parked too far away. I groaned and all the boys looked at me but I waved them off, telling then I was going to bed. I couldn't be bothered with my thoughts and building guilt right now.
Notes
I couldn't be bothered writing a whole song for this chapter so I just jammed some shit in there.Sorry about the terribleness XD It is 2 in the morning :P
How do you like it? xo
This story is so good! OMG. I just found it and started reading it yesterday, and haven't stopped. I just caught up with all of the updates you have of it and really love it.
It's a very dark fan fic. Specifically with the first half, honestly one of the darkest I've read actually... like with that curse of everything happening on Sundays? Man... and you just kind of kept it up too. It was just very dark, and sad, but... different. And I really like that about this.
The second half seems to be deviating from that a little bit, but I sensed that coming back with the babies thing. I mean, not that I want anything to happen, but I almost feel you had something bad happening planned with the pregnancy. Perhaps not, perhaps that was just to raise some of the tone as opposed to keeping it happy go lucky, who knows. But I found it interesting how you did that.
I'm glad that Alex and Carrie finally got together, with the first part of this I was just screaming GET TOGETHER until they finally did. lol. And I was happy. :)
I found it a bit odd how they just took in those fans though. On a realistic writing level, the oddity of this story was the curse thing. But adding the fans thing in too, it just... it didn't really fit. Especially considering legalities and all of that. I feel like it was a little too easy that they gained guardianship.
But overall, I have enjoyed Alex and Carrie's love story. I'm sad to see it was never finished, so I'm leaving this comment to let you know if you ever do choose to finish it, I will be here to read, for sure. I'd love to see how it all ends for these two. Even if it's just a final chapter wrap up or something; I understand what it's like losing inspiration.
But yeah, sorry if this comment sounded harsh at all, but just wanted to leave my honest thoughts. I think you're a truly great writer, though, and hope you have at least kept up with it in your free time. :)
7/12/16