When I awoke a few hours later I felt a lot better and climbed out of the bunk noticing that the bus seemed deserted. So I decided to get a bit of fresh air and left the vehicle to take a walk. I had only taken a few steps when I noticed a familiar figure approaching me.

"Easy, stop! I have to talk to you." The infamous Ben Bruce. What could he possibly want?

"What?" I snapped, I had no reason to be friendly.

" Calm down okay. I'm sorry . It's about Danny. He has been in such a bad state since we started this tour and we have to deal with his temper, he has barely been sober and he fucks up on stage as well."

"And why would I care exactly?" I did not want to make this easy for him.

"Well because it's mostly your fault." He replied exasperated.

"What? That's great, of course blame the stupid girl for everything. Your frontman is insane! It is weird that you haven't noticed that before. But I don't see what I have done to make this worse."

" It's just your personality, we have never met a girl like you, you don't take nobody's shit and you are not intimidated by his attitude. Danny can't handle that, he just can't comprehend you, that drives him nuts. You are just not the American average."

"Maybe because I'm not American, duh?" I still did not understand what he was up to. "So what do you want from me? Miraculously heal that bastard?" I snorted unhappily.

"Well for a start you could maybe try and NOT drive him up the walls whenever you two meet. Maybe just have a quiet conversation once in a while instead of screaming at each other. You know normal human interaction." He really sounded a bit desperate and he looked at me with genuinely pleading eyes. Apparently he was worn out by Danny's behaviour as well. I thought about it for a moment. It sounded like a good idea to finally stop fighting with Danny, the sooner the better.

"Okay, let's do this right now." I grabbed his arm and dragged him towards our bus. We noticed the rest of the band were standing outside the door, their faces turned towards the bus. Wait, no. Not all of the band. Danny wasn't with them. When we came closer I heard a banging noise from inside the bus. Oh no this idiot is not just thrashing my bus! I headed for the door when James turned around and noticed "No way, don't go in. 'e is goin' berserk in there." I shook him off and went in.

The bus actually didn't look that bad, Danny had concentrated on only one closet that he currently hit to pieces. He didn't notice me at first.
"DANNY, what are you doing?" I shouted above the sound of him slamming his fist into the broken door.

He stopped in the middle of his swing and looked at me in surprise, staggering, obviously drunk again. "You" he slurred, "of all people I didn't expect to see you here."

I noticed there was blood running from his knuckles. "Danny, let me see your hand, your blood stains the carpet." I didn't want to sound too emotionally affected here.
I went back to the lounge to get the emergency pack and when I returned Danny had sat on the lower bunk looking at his hand as if he had just noticed. I sat down beside him taking his hand and searched for the antiseptic in the pack. He did not move but just stared at me. I poured some of the fluid onto his hand and it bubbled up immediately, he didn't even flinch, he must be really drunk to not feel this. Then I took some bandage and started to wrap up his hand. "Lucky you don't play the guitar, aye?" I tried to lighten the atmosphere.

Still no reaction from Danny but more staring. What is going on in this head of his? Then suddenly he took his free hand turning my face towards his and placed a sloppy kiss on my lips. "I bet you didn't expect this now, did you?" He snickered.

There is no reasoning with a drunken man so I just held the bridge of my nose taking a deep breath and tried to sound nice. "No Danny, I did not expect that. You got me there. Maybe just lay back a little and get some rest, how about that?"
To my surprise he nodded and did just what I suggested. I put a blanket around him and bend down to stroke the hair off his face.
He closed his eyes and I couldn't help caressing his cheek with my fingers. "Danny, you need to stop drinking, you can't drown your demons, they know how to swim." I whispered before leaving him.

When I got out of the bus, you could see relief on the rest of the bands faces. " Oh my god" Ben blurted " it was silent in there for so long, we feared he either killed or raped you, or both".

I ignored this. "I got him to sleep, so don't fucking wake him up unless it is absolutely necessary. I am so done with this band right now." I turned to finally commence my walk, all I wanted was some fresh air.
....

Later I was sitting in front of the bus in one of the fold out chairs, my feet on top of the table, a gaslight by my side, strumming away on the ukulele I had borrowed from one of the tech guys. I loved that little instrument but I hadn't played in years.
Bus call was one and a half hours away so after-show parties were still in full swing. I could hear them from the distance but it was quiet were I sat and I enjoyed the cool night's breeze.

Then I noticed a tall, lanky figure departing from one of the buses and come in my direction. The person was swinging a bottle, staggering across the open space and talking to himself. At first I thought it could be Austin, but then the figure went past a lamppost and I saw his skunk hair. As he came closer I heard him babble. "Where is she, have to talk to her, poor Alex, such a bitch"

Oh no! I thought, my body growing tense, do I have to deal with a jealous drunken boyfriend here?

"Ah, there you are" Jack Barakat had found me, still swinging his half empty bottle around. He collapsed into the chair beside me. "Good! We have to talk".

"Okaaay?" Could this day get any worse?

" I hate you." Jack simply stated staring into nowhere. I did not respond, what could I have said? " You broke Alex's little heart and he is sad because of you. That's not fair. He is like my bestest friend and this is all your fault."

Wait, what is he going on about? No boyfriend problems but broken hearts? What did I even do?

"Ahem, Jack " I started cautiously because he seemed really drunk and I wasn't sure he was able to comprehend what I was trying to say " I don't know what you are talking about. It couldn't be me that broke Alex's heart because he himself told me it was just a thing between friends."

"Pffft, everybody knows Alex does not just sleep around" Jack snorts, taking another sip of his bottle " he always tells me 'I can't do this Jack, I don't want to do it, I have to fall for the girl first'. That's our little romantic Alex."

Now I was really confused "That is so stupid, how could he fall for me? The bus girl. Ridiculous."

Jack crooked his head towards me looking through his fringe. "You really don't know what effect you have on guys do you? You really didn't notice that half the guys try to score with you."

"Haha, Jack very funny indeed. Well if that is so, then why are YOU not hitting on me?" I played along.

He checked me out for a second, the bottle pausing on his lips "not enough tits and ass" he stated taking a sip.

"Hahaha, you're such a dick, Barakat." I shook my head at this oh so typical comment.

There was a long pause in which Jack seemed to intently stare at a nearby tree. "Or maybe I should thank because you seemed to have cured him of his writers block he battled for months now." Jack staring at the sky now. Pause. "Since you guys fucked he hardly leaves the back lounge writing songs." More staring. Another Pause. "Speaking of fuck, hey those bites look awesome." He nudged me grinning.

"Oh please stop, that is so embarrassing" I hid my face in my hands. I decided that all he just told me was drunken nonsense and that it would be better to talk again when he was sober. "Hey Jack it's close to bus call I think you should get going"

"Right" he says struggling to get up "or maybe not" and slouches back into the chair.

"Come here Jacky-bear let me give you a hand" with this I pulled him out of the chair and put his arm around my neck. Holding him around his waist to try and steady the both of us. He leaned onto me quite a lot. "Let's get you into bed"

We walk in silence, both of us concentrating on not tripping over until we approach the All Time Low bus. He turns around to me before opening the door. "Or maybe, just maybe I don't hate you that much anymore."

I follow him to his bunk when I notice light coming from the back lounge and hear the faint sound of an acoustic guitar.

Notes