Zack’s POV
I walked into the venue with Rian. We saw Jack, Alex and Summer standing next to the stage. I looked at Summer and I immediately felt horrible. How could she be with someone else? Why did I never let her know how I felt? Now she’s gone… I’m such an idiot. I don’t know how I’m supposed to face Summer knowing that she’s in love with someone else.
‘I can’t go over there’ I told Rian.
‘Dude, I’m sorry, but you can’t avoid Summer for the rest of the tour. I know she hurt you and you have the right to be upset, but you’re stuck with her for a couple of weeks. Don’t make this harder than it has to be’ Rian replied.
I sighed.
‘I know, but I can’t take this right now… I need to be able to focus on our set, not on her. I will think this over tomorrow, but right now I can’t do this.’ I said, hoping Rian would understand and wouldn’t make me go over there.
‘Fine, but you’re gonna have to talk to her eventually. If you don’t she’ll know something is up anyway’
I nodded.

Jack, Alex and Summer then came walking up to us. Fuck, I thought. I don’t wanna talk to Summer right now. Judge by the applause, I figured the support acts were done playing. We would have to play in about 30 minutes. Our crew and some guys from the venue went on stage to clear the stage from the instruments of the second support act, which was Donna’s band Coldhearted. Jack couldn’t stop talking about the performance he just saw and he kept going on about how Donna was such a great singer.
‘Jack, just admit that you like her and stop whining about her voice. We all know that’s not what matters to you’ Alex said.
Jack was about to defend himself when Donna came walking up to us, and he shut his mouth.
‘Hey’ she greeted us, looking at Jack. ‘So what did you think?’
‘I thought you were great’ Jack answer with a half-smile. ‘You have a great voice’.
Alex shook his head laughing. ‘The voice again, really Jack?’
Jack looked at Alex destructive, while Donna looked confused.
‘Just ignore him’ Jack told her.
Summer then came up to me. Oh god no, not now, I thought.
‘Why didn’t you guys come watch them perform?’ she asked curiously.
‘Oh, we just had to take care of some things’ I said vaguely.
Summer raised one eyebrows. ‘Clearly’ she said, and then joined in on the conversation Jack, Alex and Donna were having.
‘Smooth’ Rian whispered to me.
I looked at him and rolled my eyes.
‘What do you expect me to say? “Oh, I was just crying about the fact that you’re in love with someone else”?’ I asked sarcastically.
Rian shook his head.
‘No, you’re right, that might have given her the wrong idea… Or not… You would be honest. She knows that you’re keeping something from her anyway now.’
I didn’t reply and just looked at the stage. If only we could just start playing already. I felt like I needed this more than ever. Performing was one of the best ways for me to relax.

Alex’s POV
I looked at my best friend talking to Donna. Does he really expect me to believe he doesn’t have a crush on her? Not that I could blame him.
Our tour manager Matt then came walking up to us.
‘Guys, you’re on in a couple of minutes’ he informed us.
I nodded. Zack, Jack and I went to get our guitars while Rian was still talking to Summer and Donna. I had noticed Zack’s been acting weird. I decided this was the right moment to ask him about it.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked Zack.
Zack looked up to me. ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay?’ he asked me.
I shrugged. ‘You don’t seem okay. You’re even more quiet than usual’
Now it was Zack’s turn to shrug. ‘It’s nothing, man’ he said.
Zack walked back to Rian. I knew him longer than this, and I knew that something was up, but I decided to drop it for now.

I then heard the beginning of State Of The Art through the speakers, which means we have to go on stage soon. Jack and I rushed to the stage and waited on the side of the stage till State Of The Art ended. We then walked on stage. A wave of warmth, sweat and noise hit us, but it felt awesome. As soon as we got on, we started playing Do You Want Me (Dead?), one of my favorite songs to play live. I had a feeling this was gonna be a good night. I turned off my thoughts and worries about Zack, and just played my heart out and had a great time. A couple of songs and some dirty comments later, we went off stage, like we always did before the encore. Everybody was screaming either ‘we want more!’ or ‘All Time Low!’, it sounded weird together anyway. They probably knew we would come back to do Weightless and Dear Maria anyway. We changed guitars and went back on the stage. We then played the crowd favorites Weightless and Dear Maria Count Me In. After the show we threw some picks, bottles of water and Rians drumsticks in the crowd and eventually left the stage. This had been another great show.

We all went backstage and handed our instruments to the crew members. I saw Jack walking towards Donna, who was apparently still backstage. Summer came walking up to me. I saw Zack rush to Rian from the corner of my eye. Strange, I thought, Zack usually would never pass up on a chance to talk to Summer.
‘Well done, Gaskarth’ Summer told me smiling, and she hugged me. ‘God, you’re so sweaty’
‘You should be used to that by now, my friend’ I joked. ‘And thanks’
Summer and I started walking towards Jack and Donna. I could hear Jack invite Donna to come hang with us in our tour bus.
‘Dude, we’re not gonna disappointed our fans. We gotta hang with them first’ I told him. ‘This concert was fucking amazing, we owe them’.
‘You can just wait in our tour bus with Summer’ Jack told Donna. ‘You can bring your band as well, by the way. Sorry, I didn’t think of that’
‘It’s okay’ she replied.
I looked at them. Donna didn’t seem as head over heels as Jack was. Well, Jack will get over it since there’s a big chance he’ll never see her again after today.

Donna’s POV
I still couldn’t believe we had just been the support act for All Time Low, and that I am now standing here talking to them! Jack even invited me to come hang with them in their tour bus. He had to hang out with their fans first, but their friend Summer would take me and my band to the tour bus. I gathered my band members and ask them if they wanted to come. They did, obviously.
‘See you in a bit’ Jack said smiling. I only nodded with a smile.

This still didn’t feel real… I felt so star struck. We followed Summer to the tour bus.
‘How long have you known them?’ I asked her.
‘Way too long! No, just kidding, I totally love all of them’ she replied smiling. ‘Ever since we were 14, so about 9 years. I’ve seen the band grow from nothing into what it is now.’
‘Well, that’s a long time indeed’ I agreed. ‘They do seem to be awesome friends though’
‘Yeah, they are. When I’m with them it’s never boring. They’ll just come up with some weird thing to do, like kicking over things or trying to find out how to jump into a pool from the balcony. It’s crazy’
‘Haha, I’ve been a fan for years. They inspired me to start a band, and now I am here, supporting them. I still can’t believe it’
Summer smiled at me. We arrived at their tour bus. Well, this sure was better than our small van.

Summer opened the door and we all got in the tour bus.
‘This bus is huge compared to ours’ Pete said. Pete was our bassist.
‘Make yourself at home’ Summer said. ‘The guys will be here in about 20 minutes. If you want something to eat or drink, just go get it’
None of us moved. I felt kinda awkward. I wouldn’t just go and get something out of the refrigerator of someone I just knew a couple of hours. Summer didn’t seem to have a problem with it, but she’s been friends with them for years after all. Summer was looking in the refrigerator and looked at us. I guess she figured that we felt kind of awkward.
‘Do you want a coke?’ she asked us. We all nodded. ‘Yeah I’m sorry, I’m used to just taking something out of their refrigerator but I guess it’s weird for you’
Summer grabbed 5 cans of coke. One for herself, Pete, Matt, Nate and me.
‘Have a seat’ she told us. We all sat down and Summer handed each of us a can and sat down next to me. Now we would just sit there in awkward silence and wait for the band to return.

Rian’s POV
We were outside talking to the fans who waited outside for us. Some objects were signed, some pictures were taken and Jack kept on talking about wanting to sign boobies and penises. An average after-show hang out it was. When all the fans that were still there had pictures and autographs, we went back to our tour bus.

Considering the fact that I was quite tired, I wasn’t so happy about the fact that Jack asked that supporting act to come hang with us. I wanted to sleep really. But well, maybe they were cool. We entered the tour bus to find Summer sitting with Donna’s band. We went over to them and sat with them. Jack grabbed some drinks for us, and threw them our way. He hit Zack’s head with a can because Zack wasn’t really paying attention. His mind was with Summer obviously. Zack looked annoyed at Jack who shrugged. Donna’s band then introduced themselves. By Zack’s face I could tell he just wanted to go to sleep as well. We would just have to make the best out of it. Alex and Jack, who somehow were still as hyper as they always were, just kept on talking to them, while Zack, Summer and I were just sitting there quietly. I caught Summer staring at Zack a couple of times. She obviously knew something was going on and she seemed worried.
‘I’m gonna go to sleep’ Zack said when he finished his coke. He stood up. I followed this lead.
‘Yeah, me too, it’s been a long day’ I said.
‘Are you sure?’ Jack asked us amazed.
Zack and I both nodded, and we started walking towards our bunks.
‘You okay?’ I asked him whispering.
Zack shrugged.
‘She’s worried about you, you know’ I told him. He looked at me quizzically. ‘I can tell by the way she looks at you… Constantly’. Judged by Zack’s face, he didn’t notice she’d been looking at him.
‘I’ll talk to her tomorrow’ he told me, probably just to stop me talking about it. I doubted whether he was actually gonna talk to her. Zack wasn’t that much of a talker.
‘It’ll be okay’ I told him. It was the only thing I could come up with. I’m not really the comforting type.
Zack shrugged. I could tell he didn’t have much faith in everything being okay.
‘Summer cares about you, and she hates seeing you like this’ I said.
‘How do you know?’ Zack asked.
‘I just do’ I answered. ‘Goodnight man’
‘Goodnight’ Zack said.
We both changed and went into our bunks. It didn’t take long before I fell asleep.

Notes