"Hey Salem?" I glanced up from my writing to see Zack standing over me. I was sitting in the library after school with an half an hour to kill before I had to head to Jack's house for rehearsal.

"Mind if I take a seat." Zack pointed to the empty chair across from me.

"Go ahead." I said, picking up my pencil and continuing the paragraph I was writing. I felt his eyes boring into the top of my head as I wrote, I sighed and put the pencil down.

"What's up?" I asked with a smile.

"Well, I've been trying to ask you something for what feels forever but has only been a few weeks. " He explained, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. I went to say something, but he stopped me. "Hang on, if I don't do this now, I'm never going to get it done. I was wondering… if well, you might want to go to prom with me?"

What did he just ask?, came a small voice from inside my head. Did Zack Merrick just ask me to prom? What? When, what how, why? WAT. "Um, sorry what was that?" I asked. A worried look crossed his face, "Well, I get to go to prom this year and I was uh.. wondering if you maybe wanted to go with me? As my date?" I felt a blush creep into my face as he said that last word. Me? As a date? Zack was a good-looking guy, why the hell did he want to take me? Oh, save that for later, a boy just asked you to PROM! Say yes, bitch!, for some reason I imagined Hope giving me this inner pep talk. Look, he's cute, sweet, and have you seen him shirtless, no you haven't but you might! Go for it kid, get that ass! I giggled at the last bit, blushing even deeper when I realized Zack heard it. "Look it was stupid of me to ask, I know. Just please, don't laugh at me! I thought it would be cool for the two of us to go together is all."

Zack started picking his stuff up and turned to go when I grabbed his wrist. "Don't you want my answer?"

"You were just laughing at me, I think that's answer enough." He tried to pull away, put I was able to keep my grip.

"Zachary Merrick, will you wait a minute, please?"

He sighed and sat back down. "Well?"

"I would love to go to prom with you."

A grin burst across his face, giving me a glimpse of Zack I had never seen before. His hazel eyes lit up, a kaleidoscope of blues, greens, and greys. I was taken back for a second.

"Awesome! We'll work out the details later. We're going to be late for band practice, here I'll carry your bag." He grabbed my backpack and my hand and out the door we went.

***
"Took you two long enough! Where the hell were you?" Hope asked, pulling me unto the couch next to her. We had made it only seconds before band rehearsal was supposed to start. Jack looked between me and Zack and wiggled his eyebrows. I flipped him off before settling into the couch. Hope pulled out her notebook and scribbled something while the boys tuned everything. She handed it to me with a grin. Where were you seriously?, she had written at the top of the page. Zack asked me to prom, I wrote underneath. Hope read the message with a little squeal before writing back, Alex asked me this morning. She grabbed my hand and pulled me off the sofa. "We should go prom dress shopping together! Just think of how much fun it will be!" We squealed and jumped around a bit before feeling stares on our backs. All four guys had stopped what they were doing to stare at us.

"What's up with you two?" Alex asked.


"I was just showing Salem a design I made for a cd cover, if your lazy asses ever make one." Hope said flipping over a page in her sketchbook before handing it to Alex. The four crowed around to get a better look. I snuck behind Zack and peered over his shoulder. It was an outline of the city, with details shaded in to show how the buildings lit up. The background was a faded red with white, black, and red paint splatter edged the city. At the city's base "All Time Low" was written in Hope's swirly script. Underneath that, "Three Words to Remember in Dealing with the End," was written.

Zack gave a low whistle before glancing up at his cousin. "Nice job, you're still a bitch though."

Hope stuck out her tongue and took her notebook back. I was laughing at her face when I felt my phone go off in my pocket.

A familiar number lit up the screen. "Guys! Shush, it's Joey."

Hope mouthed, you're in so much trouble while I flipped my phone open.

"Hey Joey! What's up?"

"Salem! Hey kid, great set the other night by the way, those boys are killing it! Anyway, I've got big news!"

"Oh?" I asked, raising my eyebrow towards Hope.

"Yeah! There's some rep here from...sorry, what was it again?" Another voice came through the phone. "Just give it to me!"

A female voice continued the call. "Miss Carlile?"

"Yes, that would be me." I began tugging on a piece of hair that had come out of my ponytail. What was this all about?

"You are the manager of a band known as All Time Low?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, good, my name is Brielle Young and I'm a representative from Emerald Moon Records, perhaps you've heard of us?"

"I believe so, what is this all about?"

"Well, Miss Carlile, your band has recently been placed on our radar after a rep took in the past three of their shows. Upon seeing the performance quality of these young men, our company would like the gentlemen in your band to consider making an EP with us."

"I see well, I am currently with the "gentlemen," would you mind being on speaker phone so we could discuss this as a team?"

"Not at all."

I fixed the phone on speaker and Ms. Young explained what was being considered.

"Just one quick question, Ms. Young." Rian said.

"Yes?"

"Can we pick the cover art for the EP?"

We hung up a few minutes later with the plan to meet first thing Saturday morning in their studio. "I'll be right back." Jack said as he hurried up the stairs.

"What's that about?" "We aren't entirely sure." Rian said. We heard a crash and then Jack's mom scream, "Jack Bassam Barakat! What are you doing?" We all rushed upstairs and nearly slammed into Mrs. Barakat. "He's out front doing who knows what." She said, pointing towards the front door.

Outside we go, Hope leading. Jack is standing in front of the van, surrounding by what appear to be empty spray paint cans. One topples unto it's side and rolls across the lawn, before stopping at my feet.. I scooped it open and read the label, "Crazy Ray's Spray Paint. Guaranteed Never to Come Off or Your Money Back!" I looked up as he attempted to spray more paint but ended up only producing air. He spun around to face us with this huge grin on his face, bouncing excitedly on the balls off his feet. "Ready? After 15 minutes, four cans of spray paint, and one death threat from my mom, the All Time Low mobile is finished!" He proudly stepped to the side, allowing a full view of his creation.

The upper right side of the van now featured "ALL TIME LOW" in block print. At the base of the "A" there were two small misshapen stars, while in between the "E" and the "L" was a tilted exclamation point.

"Uh Jack? What is this thing?" Alex asked, pointing towards a space in between the "L" and the "T".

"Oh that? It's a skull and crossbones, I thought our logo needed something more."

"It look like is was drawn by a five-year-old." Alex said. Jack's face fell and he looked hurt.

"I worked really hard on this." He mumbled.

"Well I think it looks great!" Hope said, putting her arm around Jack.

"Yeah! People are going to know about you guys now! Hell, maybe if you guys get big enough, someone will one day have this tattooed." I said.

"Only an idiot would get that thing tattooed any where on his body." Alex said, pointing towards the skull and crossbones.