Saturday evening, Uncle Matt arrived at our house. He was still as young as ever, especially compared to my mom, his dark hair a little messy atop his head and a piercing in his lip. He was wearing a dark t-shirt, a pair of black shorts and a pair of Vans, a Mickey Mouse keychain hanging out of his pocket. I greeted him with a friendly hug as he walked in, my mother following right after.

“Jesus, kiddo! I can’t believe how old you are! You’re almost my age!” he exclaimed.

“Don’t talk about being old, Matt. Your sister is 15 years your senior,” Mom cut in.

He laughed. “Sorry. So are you mad I’ll be taking your precious daughter away for the summer?”

“I’m a little bummed I won’t get to see much of her, but I think she needs to get out for awhile. Just take good care of her, and keep the hands of those band boys off of her,” Mom grinned.

“Will do. Come on, Maxine. The bus is waiting,” Matt said.

I hugged my mother goodbye and we set off. “Where exactly are we going?”

“The boys have a show tonight, so you won’t get to meet them until well after midnight, so we’re going to the bus to hang out for a bit. I feel like you and I need to catch up a little,” he replied.

I laughed. “I haven’t seen you in like 2 years, and you think we need to catch up? I can’t imagine why.”

The weather was still hot, even though it should’ve started cooling down, and I suddenly wished I had worn something lighter. Holey jeans, a pair of Converse, and a plaid button up shirt turned out to be just a little too much. We climbed into Matt’s car, and were immediately hit with the relief of an AC.

“So knowing you, I take it you looked up the band and know all to expect,” Matt commented.

“I have officially listened to their complete discography, but otherwise, there is nothing. I don’t even know what they looked like,” I said.

“Well there’s definitely enough pictures for you to look at on the internet,” he replied.

“I figured I’d wait and see when I met them. It leaves more to the imagination, don’t you think?” I pointed out.

“You can’t even imagine these guys,” he stated.

“Are you saying they are unbelievably attractive?” I wondered.

He paused, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in thought. “I’ll leave that up to you.”

We got to the tour bus and Matt showed me where I should put my things, where my bunk was, and he let me snoop around as we talked about the last couple of years and what we had missed. He didn’t tell me much about the members of All Time Low, and that made me feel uneasy. If he was such good friends with these guys, why was he so reluctant to introduce me to them?

I changed into a white tanktop and a pair of denim capris, and soon the hour grew late, and I had almost fallen asleep on a plush couch in the bus before the sound of loud bangs and heavy footsteps rang in my ears. I sighed, hoping to get this over with. You can do this, Maxine. I thought.

“Uh, hey,” I greeted. 4 very exhausted boys turned their heads towards me, each with a different expression on his face. Confusion, friendliness, annoyance, and what seemed to be a faint hint of recognition appeared and I smiled nervously. Maybe it was because they were in a band and had the shiny gleam of after-show sweat, but the breath hitched in my throat. They were incredibly attractive.

“Welcome back boys,” Matt said. “I’d like you to meet my niece, Maxine. Maxine, this Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat, Rian Dawson, and Zack Merrick.”

It turned out that Rian was the friendly one, Zack the confused one, Jack the one with recognition, and Alex was the annoyed one. Had he not been told I was coming? Of course, the most attractive one of the bunch would automatically dislike me. Just my luck.

“Hope you guys can handle me. I’ll be with you the whole summer,” I mentioned.

“Great,” Alex said, and then he turned back to his bandmates. “I call the shower when we get to the hotel.” He stalked off to the back of the bus without another word and left me worried.

“Don’t pay attention to him,” Jack said. “He’s just not that great around new people.”

“He’s famous. Shouldn’t he have gotten used to it by now?” I wondered.

“Well, he doesn’t have to deal with them for long. You’ll be here the whole summer,” he replied.

“He’ll warm up to you eventually. Try not to focus on it too much,” Rian added.

“So,” I stated. “Why do we have the tour bus when it would be easier to take an airplane?”

Jack laughed. “We’re too punk to take a plane. The road is where it’s at.”

I couldn’t help but laugh too. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Okay, so maybe these guys weren’t as bad as I thought they might be. Alex was difficult, but his fellow bandmates made up for his shortcomings. “This is going to be a lot of fun,” I thought to myself. But really, was it?

Notes

CONFLICT!!! dun dun dun