Annabelle had her hands stuffed in her pockets, Alex had his arm slung loosely around her hips. She watched people mill around Arrivals, similarly to how they did at her entrance in Chicago. People hugged, cried, kissed; joyful and excited. Rian was hanging over a silver rail, separating the waiting from the tired travellers appearing through sliding doors. Annabelle and the rest of the band were standing around a nearby pillar. A tentative girl approached them. She was shaking.
“Uhm...are you- are you All Time Low?”
The band exchanged glances, as if confirming to themselves that they were, indeed, the pop-punk quartet. They nodded simultaneously.
“Sans a drummer.” Alex waved his hand in the general direction of where Rian was dangling. The girl took a sharp intake of breath, as if swallowing a squeal.
“May I please have your autographs?” She asked, wide-eyed. Annabelle regarded her. She was thin, but not in the way Annabelle was thin, in a pre-teen sort of way. She was wearing clothes that Annabelle regarded as too old for her. Her eyes held a childish glee as she watched the boys sign a shoe which had moments before been tied onto her foot. Just then she noticed Annabelle. The younger girl's eyes narrowed and shot a vehement glare at her. Annabelle moved closer to Alex, who responded by returning his arm to her waist, he smiled at the girl, passing back the shoe. The girl grinned and screamed a thank you, stumbling off in a lopsided gait to show her parents.
“That freaked me out...” Annabelle said.
“What did?” Zack asked.
“That girl...She just gave me the nastiest stare I’ve ever received. But she looked so innocent....”
Alex squeezed her.
“Don’t worry, Annie-bell.” Jack said, “She’s just jealous.”
“Who wouldn’t be?” Alex replied, giving his hair a signature flick. Annabelle raised an eyebrow, and slapped him playfully.
“Ouch!” Alex pouted, rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”
“For being so damn cocky.” Annabelle replied, and then reached up to kiss him on the lips.

“Hey Kara!” Jack bounded over to Rian and a pretty girl who were approaching the group. Jack nuzzled her, and she laughed, patting him on his head.

“Oh how I’ve missed you, Barakat.”
“Not as much as I’ve missed you, my princess.” Jack sighed dramatically, “Every waking hour I think of you! In my dreams I see only your face!”
The group stopped in front of us.
“Born for theatre, this one.” The girl laughed, looking at Annabelle, “Hi, I’m Kara.”
“I’m Annabelle, pleased to meet you.”
Annabelle was about to hold out her hand, but Kara pulled her into a hug.
“Yay! A girlfriend for the tour!” Kara grinned, “We can talk about boys, and nails, and fashion, and tampons!”
At latter statement all the boys visibly receded. Annabelle laughed at their reaction.
“I feel like we’re going to be great friends!” She replied, and the two linked arms and left Kara’s baggage with Rian. Matt rolled his eyes at the band, then ran after them.
“Hey! You don’t even know where we’re parked!!”

***

“Are we going out or what?!” Annabelle heard Zack yell from the lounge. Kara was fixing Annabelle’s make-up and ignored Zack’s pointed complaint completely.

“Man, you have such beautiful eyes.” Kara said, engrossed in dusting eyeshadow over the younger girl’s lids.
“Thank you. You do, too.” Annabelle smiled.
“Oh? Thank you, I grew them myself!” She winked and then moved away, flourishing. “Voila! You are done!” Kara nodded, regarding her work. “Wow, how old did you say you were?”
“I didn’t.” Annabelle replied. She gulped, wondering whether her shallow and sudden friendship would suddenly change due to her age. “I’m sixteen...”
“Hey, wow, you look about 22.” Kara grinned, “All thanks to moi!” She pulled Annabelle off the toilet and pushed her into the lounge.
“Wow.” Alex sidled up to her, “You look amazing.” He glided one hand smoothly behind her hair, leaning down to kiss her.
Kara draped herself over Rian.
“I am an artiste!” She yelled dramatically, finishing off her third beer.

“I can really see how those two get along so well.” Annabelle said under her breath, indicating between Kara and Jack. Alex nodded wisely.
“You should have seen them in high school.” He chuckled, as if remembering some hilarious moment when they were all kids. It was times like this with the band when Annabelle felt completely wrong. She had always hated feeling like she didn’t belong, which was one of the reasons why she could so easily fit in with the group. This group of friends had grown up together, they knew everything about each other. Annabelle was an intruding outsider. She felt like she was watching something that she wasn’t supposed to be watching.
“You okay?” Alex asked, kissed her cheek softly. She nodded, smiling up at him. They wandered down the street, lagging behind the bulk of the group, which consisted of Jack, Kara, Rian, Emery and Gavin. Zack and Carlos had disappeared, Alex assumed it was to purchase some drugs before they joined everyone at the club later on that night. First, everyone was going out for drinks.

Annabelle still hadn’t been ID’d while out with the band, perhaps because it was unlikely that somebody underage would be hanging around with a bunch of 21 year olds. She had a fake one anyway, in case trouble came up. The girl whose ID it was did not look a lot like Annabelle, yet it had worked in the past. Annabelle was still finding it novel that people were not shooting her underage self suspicious looks. Just like Jack, who had recently turned 21, was still finding it novel that he was allowed to drink legally.

“I think its more fun,” He said, in between taking huge gulps of a beer, “drinking when you’re not allowed, because it makes you feel dangerous.”
Annabelle chuckled, then skulled the rest of her glass, “Yeah. Dangerous.” She mockingly agreed, laughing.
Jack glanced down at his Mickey Mouse watch. Matt had bought it for him from Disneyland, to remind Jack of the manager when he wasn’t around.
“Guys, we should get a jiggle on.” He said, badly shimmying. Kara and Annabelle exchanged a look.
“Jack, you have no boobs with which to shimmy, so don’t try.” Kara reached up and patted the tall man on the head. Kara was short. She was more than a head shorter than Rian, and Rian was not tall. Annabelle always thought she was was short until she had met Kara.
“But I want boobs!” He said, leaning down and resting his face on Kara’s chest.
“Oi! Get off!” Rian laughed, pushing him away. They preceded to have a play wrestle, until Alex got involved.
“Alex smells! I don’t wanna fight with him!” Jack complained.
Alex pouted and pretended to cry into Annabelle’s shoulder. Annabelle rolled her eyes, and stroked his back in circles.
“Hey, thats actually quite soothing.” Alex smiled, closing his eyes.
“Can we go dance now!?” Kara whined. Annabelle nodded, ready to let out the excess energy of being on the bus for a long time.

***

Annabelle had spent most of the night dancing with Kara, much to Rian and Alex’s dismay. When they stumbled back into the bus together, they were rosy-cheeked and messy. They fell on the couch, sprawled over one another, talking and laughing.
“I guess we should be glad that they’re getting along?” Alex shrugged at Rian upon seeing them.
“I don’t know what’s worse, cat fights or girl power?”
Alex made a face, clearly disgruntled by the question. “Man, thats tricky.”
Zack waddled up the stairs, after having parted with Gavin.
“Don’t hurt Alex’s brain, he hasn’t got much of it left.”
Alex was surprised he could make coherent sentences. He hadn’t seen Zack this high for a very long time.

“Speak for yourself, Greenie.” He laughed. “Okay,” He turned back to Rian once Zack had stumbled through the curtain. “when they fall asleep, we’ll separate them. Yeah?”
“Duh.” Rian whispered, “You reckon I’m gonna sleep alone when I have the option to have Kara-bear? No.”
“Dude, sometimes you sound like a girl, and it freaks me out.” Alex replied.

The two girls were oblivious of the scheming going on between their respective boyfriends. They were happily chatting, drunk out of their minds. When their eyelids started to droop at about 3.30am, Alex extracted Annabelle, while Rian removed Kara. They silently hi-fived each other, before disappearing into their bunks. Alex undressed Annabelle, and without the passion of the night before, he noticed her bones, how thin she was; her fragile skin pulled across her white ribs, her sharp hipbones trying to break out, her sternum pressing upwards. He swallowed, and couldn’t refrain from sadly kissing her delicate body. He dressed her in one of his own t-shirts, and crawled into bed with her, hugging her tightly to him. He needed to find a way to make her eat more. What she was doing was ruining herself, soon there would be nothing left.