"How do I look?" Jack asked stepping out of the bathroom and into the front lounge. He was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans (the ones that he thought made his ass look extra sexy) and a Raven's purple V-neck. The lounge was filled with groaning band and crew members. They were all extremely hung over, and the last thing they wanted to do was help Jack pick out an outfit.

"Oh my God!! Just pick something that doesn't smell like ass and wear it!" Alex groaned, not bothering to look up since he was draped over the side of the couch.

"Shut the fuck up! Just because you always look like a sack of shit doesn't mean I have to!" Jack spat at the hung over singer. "Does this look alright?" Jack asked, addressing all the men.

"It looks fucking fine!! That's the fourth outfit you tried on! Just put on a JAGK shirt on, throw on some skinny jeans, and leave us alone!" Vinny muttered from the floor with his face buried in a couch pillow.

Jack shot the merch guy a look dirty look and rolled his eyes as he walked back into the bathroom. Sometimes Jack really hated his friends, and right now was one of those times. All Jack wanted was help from his friends to look presentable for a girl that he liked. He changed his outfit for the fifth time and stood in the bathroom in his boxer briefs. He had his suitcase out in front of him with clothes thrown everywhere. There was underwear in the sink, skinny jeans draped over the toilet, shirts hanging out of the garbage, and other various clothes on the floor and in the shower. Jack stared at all of his clothes and tried to figure out what he was going to wear. He didn’t want to wear his Boner shirt because he wanted to keep things somewhat classy, and anything with stains was out of the question. He didn’t want Meg thinking that he was some kind of slob. Even though he was.

Jack finally decided on what he was going to wear. He pulled out the velvety red button up shirt from the bottom of his suit case and the black skinny jeans hanging on the shower head. Jack decided that overdressing was better than underdressing on a date. He put on his clothes and had just one more decision to make. What shoes was he going to wear? This was a very difficult choice to make because Jack probably owned more shoes than most women did. And he brought all those shoes on tour with him. And every tour he regretted it, because he usually wears the same shoes every day or running around naked, which didn’t require shoes.

Jack picked the shoes that he always wore and went pretty well with his outfit. Black Era Vans with purple seams. Plus these were one of the only pairs that had both shoes. Usually Jack spent the last couple of days on a tour looking for all his shoes around the bus. Jack finished getting dressed and put on his shoes.

Now onto his hair. His wonderful and perfect hair didn’t just happen after climbing out of his bunk. That kind of perfection took time and hairspray. Lots and lots of hairspray. Jack stole Alex’s flat iron because Jack’s hair straightener was cheap and crappy because he was bound to break it and didn’t want to buy a super expensive straightener that Jack would break in a month. Jack straightened his hair and reached for the bottle of hair spray. When he lifted it up the can was completely empty.

“Fuck,” Jack muttered when he realized that the can of hairspray was empty. He looked around the bathroom for more cans. None. El-zippo. Goose egg. Of course today was the day that the bus runs out of the aerosol spray that Jack depended on. This was one of the things Alex and Jack feared most as they got closer to the end of a tour, but Jack swore that they packed enough to last three tours. Apparently he was wrong.

‘Now it’s time to freak out’ Jack thought to himself as he began to panic after not finding any other cans of hairspray. Jack stormed out of the bathroom and into the front lounge. No one moved since Jack was in there last. When some of the guys realized that Jack entered the room again, they groaned.

“Jack, you look fine. Now leave us alone,” Matt groaned when he saw Jack in the doorway.

“Where’s all the hairspray?!” Jack yelled at the tour manager, not caring about all of the other people on the bus suffering from hangovers. Jack’s question rewarded him with even more groans, threats, and curses thrown in his direction.

“We had three cans yesterday. They’re in the bathroom.” Matt told the lanky man, then returned to his work.

“No there aren’t any! MATT!! What am I supposed to do now?!” Jack was freaking out and was whining at the tour manager, hoping that the man could magically make everything better. Flyzik did spend a lot of his time at Disney, that place is supposed to be magical. Maybe after spending so much time at the various Disney parks some of that magic rubbed off on the tour manager.

“Calm down, Jack. We’ll fix this issue, just stop acting like a whining little three year old waiting in line at Disney,” Matt was just tired and was busy working, the last thing he needed was a whiny, six foot baby.

“Well then what am I supposed to do? I have a date that I don’t want to screw up and my hair looks like shit!” Jack was SO not having this whole ‘let’s give Jack a bad hair day the one day he finally has a date’ kind of situation he was in. Jack had no idea when Meg was coming into the city, but he hoped she wasn’t on her way already. He didn’t want to look like crap for their date and make her think that he was some kind of loser. Jack sat next to Matt on the couch, accidentally sitting on Grieco’s feet. Jack stopped freaking out and calmed down. A little. “Matt, can you please help me? I really like this girl, and it’s our first date. I don’t want to mess this up. There’s something special about her, I don’t know what, just PLEASE help me.” Jack was pleading, hoping somehow Matt would wave his special Mickey wand (which by the way he does have sitting in his bunk) and things would be fixed.

“Little Jacky’s in love. Maybe now you won’t spend so much time with your hand late at night.” Rian teased from the coffee maker.

“Shut the fuck up, Potato.” Jack spat from his spot.

Rian shrugged, “I’m just saying, you could be a little quieter when you have your… ‘You’ time. And maybe not use MY boxers to clean up your… juices.”

Jack threw one of Grieco’s shoes at Rian. Jack completely missed Rian and the shoe landed in the sink. Rian, Flyzik, and some of the other people who were awake laughed at Jack. Jack shot Matt a dirty look and the man stopped laughing, but still had the stupid grin on his face. “Matt! This is not time to mock me while I’m in the middle of a crisis.”

“A crisis? A little overdramatic don’t you think? You’re acting like teenage girl who is seriously PMSing.” Flyzik found that poking fun at Jack made him even madder, making the situation even funnier.

“Maaaattt!” Jack whined again, he didn’t enjoy having his friends make fun of him while he was freaking out. “Pleeeaaasssse, this is really important to me.”

Matt rolled his eyes and then turned toward Alex, who was sitting on Matt’s other side, still hanging over the side. Flyzik poked Alex’s back to see if the man was up, and after receiving a groan, Matt figured out he was. “Alex, where’s all the hairspray? Jack’s freaking the fuck out, and I know I saw three cans in the bathroom yesterday.”

Alex just groaned again, pissing off the tour manager and the guitarist.

“Alex seriously, I can’t deal with this teenage crisis right now just te-” Matt was not going to deal with two grown ass men who were being pissy and bitchy, but was cut off by Zack walking onto the bus from his run.

Zack was shirtless, like usual, with sweat on every inch of his body. Zack went out before anyone on the bus reached consciousness again and came back from the bus after Jack fell asleep the night before. How did the man do it? He’d party all night with everyone, watching his calories and carbs of course, and then would wake up first and exercise. And he did it willingly, not to lose weight or because it was his job. He did it because he thought it was fun and did it with a smile. No one on the bus understood how and why Zack did what he did, but he was Zack so why question it. And it was ok because while no one understood why Zack did what he did, he was usually confused and clueless about what was happening. He rarely knew what was happening, and now was one of those times.

Zack walked onto the bus with earbuds in, singing loudly to what was playing on his iPod, forgetting that most of his friends were beyond hung over. He completely interrupted Flyzik, not even realizing it. With Zack’s very loud singing, many of the men lying around the lounge groaned and the ones that were awake turned to see the source of the somewhat out of tune singing.

“Hey guys!” Zack shouted over his music. The other guys didn’t appreciate the loud noises and groaned at Zack to be quiet, using some very non-church appropriate words. Zack took out his earbuds and laughed at all his friends who were suffering hangovers. “What’s going on?”

Jack looked at Zack and started talking a million miles an hour. “Remember that girl from last night? Well, I have a date with her today. But I can’t find ANY hairspray so now my hair’s going to look like shit, ruining the date. And she’s never going to want to see me again, and I can’t have that because I really like her. Zack help, PLEASE!”

Zack looked at his friend with a confused look on his face and then just let out a breathy laugh. “Well you can’t find any hairspray because Alex and Vinny thought it would be funny to use it to make a flamethrower last night. Their drunken asses took the three cans of hairspray from the bathroom and went around the streets using a lighter to set that shit on fire. Either they used it all or left it somewhere on the streets. So we’re all out.”

Jack shot Vinny and Alex dirty looks, but they didn’t even see because they passed out again. “Fuck! What am I going to do now?” Jack was now in full freak out mode.

“Calm down, bro. Why can’t you just go and buy more? It’s not the end of the world.” Zack used his most soothing voice to calm down the skunk haired panicking mess.

“Oh, right.” Jack just realized how easy the solution to his problem was, but found a new one. “Where the hell am I going to buy hairspray? I don’t know where anything is. Hello, tourist.” Jack said pointing to himself.

Zack thought for a minute then lit up. “I passed a hair salon right down the block. They’ll sell probably you some high quality stuff.”

Jack turned to Matt, practically shaking the man to get his attention from the email he was writing. “Flyzik, I need money to buy hairspray!”

“Ok, calm down.” Matt lifted his hips up slightly and took his wallet out of his back pocket. He took out several bills and handed them to Jack. “Here’s thirty bucks. It shouldn’t cost that much, but it might be expensive. I want the change back.” Matt sounded like a mother handing her ten year old child money, but on tour Matt was like the mother on the bus.

“Thank you!” Jack said, practically jumping up and sprinting out of the bus.

Zack looked at Matt and they laughed. “He has no clue where he’s going; you didn’t tell him where it was.”

“He didn’t give me a chance!” Zack defended. “He’ll figure it out. I’m going to take a shower.”

Zack walked to his bunk to get clean, or somewhat cleaner clothes than what he was wearing, and walked into the bathroom. Zack didn’t like what he saw; it looked like Jack’s suitcase threw up all over the bathroom. “Dammit, Jack!” Zack muttered to himself, throwing all of Jack’s shit into a pile in the corner.

Jack came back on the bus more than an hour later. He sprinted onto the bus and into the bathroom with a bag with clinking metal cans in it. Jack was in the bathroom for twenty minutes doing his hair. His hair now done and Jack no longer in his panicked state went back into the lounge to get something to drink.

Alex, now up, looked at Jack and laughed at the boy. “What took so long, Barakat? You were gone forever.”

Jack shot Alex a dirty look, and this time Alex saw it. “It’s your fucking fault. If your drunken ass didn’t waste all of the hairspray last night I would’ve been ready an hour ago. I tried to find the hair salon, but I went the wrong way. So I had to run ALL the way back in the opposite direction. Then when I got to the salon I had to wait ten minutes to get anyone to notice I was even there, just to find out that they wouldn’t sell me any hairspray. So they told me where I could actually BUY the shit, which was four blocks away. I didn’t want to run because I’m out of shape and if I ran I’d sweat, then I’d have to shower and put on new clothes. So when I got to the store I found hairspray, and got on the shortest line. Worst fucking idea. There was an old lady in front of me who was buying groceries. She was using food stamps and then paid with a check. A fucking check. Who the hell pays with a check for something that costs fifteen bucks? Then apparently the cashier’s shift was over, so she told me to go to a different line. I showed her that I only had a couple of cans of hairspray, but she didn’t give two shits. New Yorkers can be assholes sometimes. So I had to go to the only other line that was open, which had five people already on the line. After I was finally rung up I left as fast as I could. On the way back to the bus I got lost. Twice. I forgot my phone so I had to ask a homeless man how to get back, but all he wanted- HOLY SHIT!! MY PHONE” Jack was bitching about his day, and then finally remembered his phone.

In Jack’s rush to get ready, he forgot about the most important part. His date. She was going to text him when she was coming into the city. When he rushed out to buy more hair products he forgot his phone. It was sitting in his bunk for the whole time that Jack was getting ready and then the next two hours he spent worrying and trying to fix his hair issue.

Jack looked at his phone to find two missed calls and four new texts. “Fuck!” Jack yelled. He quickly opened his phone and read the new texts. They were all from Meg. Fucking perfect. She probably thought that Jack stood her up or something.

-Hey Jack I’m on the train now, I’ll be in the city in an hour-

-I’ll be there soon. Meet me at terminal 6 in Penn Station.-

-Where are you? It’s pretty crowded. Just meet me at the McDonalds_

-Jack? You coming?-

That last text was sent fifteen minutes ago. Jack just prayed that Meg was still waiting for him and didn’t give up on him. He frantically tapped on his phone to call Meg. While it rang Jack put his wallet in his pocket, sprayed some more cologne on, and ran out the door.

It’s still ringing. ‘Don’t panic. Just don’t freak out.’

Jack was sprinting to get to the train station. It was close enough to run to, but it was still pretty far. He was praying that since he went through so much shit in the morning that Meg didn’t think he was an asshole that didn’t care. Jack was pleading into the phone, “Please, pick up, pick up, pick up. I’m so sorry!”

“Hey. I guess you found better plans. That’s ok. The next train home is in ten minutes so-” Meg’s voice was low and scratchy, like she was crying.

‘Fuck! I’m the worst human being on earth!’ Jack was mentally punching himself. “Meg, don’t go! I’m… coming now!... I’ll be… there… in five… minutes! Just… stay there!! I’m… so sorry!!” Jack was still running as fast as he could, and being the out of shape man he was, he was really out of breath.

Meg sniffled and coughed. “Ok. I’m waiting at the McDonalds.”

Jack smiled and turned the corner, running even faster. “Meg… I’m so… sorry… Please… forgive me… I’ll…. explain what… happened… when I… get there.” Jack ended the call and just ran. Jack felt like he was going to die, but it was ok because it was for Meg. But he made a mental note that he really needed to have Zack be his personal trainer or something because Jack has never felt so out of shape in his life.

After running three more blocks, Jack ran down the stairs that led to Penn Station. He was almost there. He felt like he was going to pass out, but he was almost there. One slight problem. Where the fuck was the McDonalds? Jack stopped and asked directions from a man playing the steel drums in the terminal.

“Where… is the… McDonalds?” Jack panted, trying to catch his breath.

“Over there, my brotha” said the dreadlock haired man with thick island accent, pointing to the corner where all the food chains were.

“Thanks,” Jack said as he ran towards where the man pointed. He was bumping into several people, but he really didn’t give a shit. He turned the corner and saw the McDonalds. It was all the way at the end. Jack sprinted as hard as he could to get to the shitty fast food place.

Jack felt dizzy and light headed. But he was finally in sight distance of the brunette girl. Her eyes were puffy and she looked like the saddest girl on Earth. ‘Fuck and I thought I couldn’t feel ANY worse.’ Jack thought.

He finally got to where Meg was sitting and sat down in the seat next to her. He was completely out of breath and he scared her half to death. She turned around, ready to punch the creep that was breathing heavily down her neck, then she saw that it was Jack and smiled. Her eyes were still red, but her smile sparkled and her face lit up when she saw Jack. “Come… here often?” Jack panted. Ok that sounded WAY better in his head.

Meg just laughed at his stupid attempt to be cool and smooth. “What happened to you?”

“One… second….” Jack panted, holding up his hand to signal that he was trying to catch his breath. That took over two minutes and the whole time Meg softly laughed at the raven haired man. Jack finally looked up at Meg and smiled at her. “Ok first off I’m the worst fucking human being on the planet. I was getting ready, and then I realized we were out of hairspray. If I didn’t have hairspray I couldn’t do my hair and I didn’t want to look like shit in front of you. So I freaked out and had Matt give me money to go buy some more. What I thought would take five minutes turned into an hour and a half adventure. I was in such a rush to get more hairspray that I forgot my phone in my bunk. When I got back I rushed to do my hair and then bitched at Alex because it was his fault that we didn’t have any hairspray. So when I finally got my phone I saw your texts and felt so bad. I sprinted all the way here, praying that you wouldn’t leave thinking that I stood you up. Cause I’d never do that.”

“Aw, Jack. You’re so sweet. I’m glad I didn’t leave.” Meg was so surprised that Jack was actually looking forward to seeing her and cared how he looked for her. Meg leaned in towards Jack and hugged him.

Jack smiled down at Meg. “The thing I’m sorry about most though is that you waited in this shitty place which smells so bad! Good thing you didn’t wait here too long because then you’d start to smell like a hobo.”

“It’s ok, Jack. I’m just glad I don’t smell like a hobo.” Meg laughed and let go of Jack.

Jack was still smiling like a little kid. “No, your hair smells like apples. Now, how about that date?”