Two days before tour. Oregon. Some diner on the side of the road somewhere. I had slept the entire eight-hour flight and the two hours on the tour bus, but I was still the only one that couldn’t keep their eyes open as we waited for the headlining band to show up. There was another support act, but we were only going to meet them later. I just wished that I wouldn’t seem like such a buzzkill to the band that actually pushed us to achieve something. While I knew my reintroduction wasn’t going to be greatest due to my social awkwardness, I at least imagined myself to warm up as time went by. But, no. I was struggling to stay awake despite my own band members being so fucking loud it hurt my ears.

We didn’t have menus yet, waiting for Pierce The Veil to show up before we would start. However, we did already have drinks. You couldn’t exactly sit in a restaurant without buying anything, drinks were the least you could do. At least they understood because we were such a large group. Not only had we taken up a booth, but we also had to move two tables to the end of it to make space for more people. Not all the crew might have been there, but the tour managers were definitely coming as well.

I was sitting in the booth at the very end, so I was sat at the head of the table. Why? Because I was forced to sit there. The others came from either side and trapped me there, not letting me get out. So, I was practically the center of attention while also not really being able to join any conversation properly. I was in the limbo of the booth, John and Carter blocking my ways out.

After a little while, four tanned guys came in along with a couple of other people. They looked around the place, trying to find us until they saw the table obviously set up for a large group and us already sitting at it. The tallest, who I knew was Mike, nudged the others and gestured to us before they started walking in our directions. Everybody already at the table stood up except for me, since trying to get out of the spot in the booth was going to be a clumsy and humiliating task. I’d rather seem a little rude by just waving.

“Hi.” I smiled as their eyes wandered to me, but I was failed by my body decided to yawn. Great. Well, that didn’t look disinterested at all. I shook my head to try and wake myself up a little. “Sorry about that. Welcome to my wonderful throne of tables.”

More greetings and introductions were exchanged and eventually everybody was finally sat down at the three tables we had claimed. I, of course, was still sitting in the same spot as before, only this time Carter was replaced by Vic and Tony was sitting beside him. It was all about trying to mingle and get to know each other a little better since they usually already knew the bands they toured with.

I really did try to seem enthusiastic and take my time to join in on conversations, but it was just impossible. Slowly but surely I was starting to fall asleep, my head propped up by my arm and my eyes starting to shut over and over again. At least my head wasn’t rolling yet and hitting the table. I could still avoid some sort of embarrassment that way. However, John still nudged me to wake me up, causing me to nearly give myself a concussion anyway.

“Falling asleep there, are we?” Charlie chuckled, shaking his head at me in disapproval from his seat three people down.

“Yeah, well it’s your fault.” I glared and pointed at him accusingly. “You’re the one that forced a sleeping pill down my throat!”

“I don’t believe ‘force’ is the correct word to use in this context,” he replied snobbily.

“Oh, it so is. You pinned me down in the airport while we were waiting, pried my mouth open and pushed the pill inside, and then left me no choice but to swallow it down with the water you poured in! How is that not forcing me to take it? I can accuse you of drugging me!”

“I didn’t think you’d be such a pussy about it, otherwise I would have never given it to you.”

“Then why did you give it to me in the first place.” I took a piece of bread from the bowl provided to us and threw it at him, surprisingly still having enough strength to make him yelp out when it hit him.

“To make sure you wouldn’t whine about not being able to get any sleep,” he stated matter-of-factly as if it was going to help his case.

I frowned, his reasoning not making any sense to me. “You’ve never been on a plane with me before, how do you know I would whine about that?”

“How about we don’t argue before we even started touring?” John suggested before our ‘playful’ dispute was going to escalate into something way larger. I wasn’t exactly sure what it looked like to other people, but to me it was us teasing each other rather than really hating each other. Of course, I was annoyed by what Carter had done, but it wasn’t a reason to fight before we even got to do something.

“I’m just telling him to watch his back because I will be getting him back,” I threatened, full on intending to start a prank war.

Charlie stared me down while Vic whispered beside me. “What are you going to do?”

“Something that will make him want to hide for a little while,” I answered in the same quiet tone, already knowing my exact plan. I just wasn’t going to risk telling anybody just yet, but I might have needed some help later on when I actually wanted to execute it. It involved some blue Gatorade and a blue pill.

“Should we also be afraid that you will do something to us?” He asked next, a hint of fear and amusement in his eyes.

“Depends…” I smirked back. “First I’ll need to come up with something good, or you’ll have to give me a reason for me to do so.”

Soon after, we all got to order our food. Of course, it wasn’t something fancy, but there was food for everybody. We didn’t need to worry about any shortages, especially with a big group like ours. It wouldn’t have surprised me if somehow all the guys surrounding me would eat half of my food despite me telling them to bug off. However, before any of that could happen, I needed to go to the bathroom.

Nobody wanted to stand up for me so I could easily get out, but they offered to make enough room to let me climb over them. So, I stepped over John and Charlie, really tempted to ‘accidentally’ hurt Charlie while I was doing so, but I had something else for him planned. I couldn’t risk not being able to execute my prank because I already gave him pay-back. No way, not in my book. So, I held myself back.

I rushed to the bathroom, leaving all my belongings behind, knowing that it probably wasn’t a good idea. There was quite a high chance the guys would think it was funny to look through my belongings. Jokes on them, because I had nothing to hide. The only stuff they’d find was boring. I wasn’t hiding any drugs (except for my medication) or any other illegal substances, and nothing that was particularly embarrassing.

Turns out I actually should have brought my bag with me, but not for that reason. As if the day hadn’t been shitty enough. I was also blessed with getting my period. Such a great way to start a tour. I knew nothing about tour life except for the stories and the short time I spent with Jack, and now I had to deal with this shit as well. What made it even worse was that I was practically stranded. I brought stuff with me, but they were in my backpack and I no way in hell was going to go back just for that. Not everybody needed to know, right?”

I slowly moved open the door from my bathroom stall and was relieved to see another woman at the sink. Maybe it was an awkward question to ask, but it was a lot less awkward than having to make that whole journey climbing over the guys another three times. So, I kept the door ajar and tried to get the girl’s attention.

“Psst!” I whispered, hoping she’d see me. After spotting me in the mirror, she turned around and frowned slightly out of confusion. “Do you maybe have a tampon I could use? I brought some with me, but I left my bag at the table. I’m the only girl at that table full of guys.”

“Oh my god, yeah, let me check.” She nodded, understanding where I was coming from, and searched her handbag.

When she finally pulled something out of her bag, she quickly handed it to me and I couldn’t stop thanking her. Closing the door, I did what I had to do, and was so relieved that there was actually somebody who helped me. I didn’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for the stranger.

When I came out of the stall, she was still at the mirror applying her makeup, so I took my time to show my gratitude again. “You really are a lifesaver. Honestly, I probably would have stayed here for hours if it weren’t for you. I don’t even know half of the guys properly and I’m going to have to spend a couple of weeks with them in really close quarters. You saved me some major embarrassment.”

“Oh, no, it’s ok. We girls got to have each other’s backs, right?” She nudged with a smile.

When I arrived back at the table, John held up my phone and gave me an accusing glare. I was about to ask him what he found and how he even got access to what was on my phone, when he already started explaining. “The second you left, your phone started blowing up with a shit-ton of messages.”

“What? Really? Who’s trying to contact me?” I asked as I grabbed the device from him, looking at all the notifications.

They were all text messages from Jack, taking up more than just the screen. I was about to start getting worried, thinking that something bad had maybe happened, but that wasn’t it. He was actually the one worried about me. All the messages were him reminding me to take my medication. I checked the time on my phone, thinking that he was really off, and was about to send him a message back that I still had three hours. But then I remembered the three hour time difference. I still had to take my medication at six-pm, but that was the time at home. Here, that meant three-pm.

I quickly messaged him back, thanking him profusely, telling him that I had forgotten about the different time zones. Now I was going to remember to check every time we went somewhere new. I could hardly ask Jack to remind me every day, especially since he was going to Europe. This was going to be a large responsibility to take on.

Without thinking much, I reached down for my backpack and put it on my lap. Although I didn’t have much in it--most of the items were left on the tour bus--it still took me a while to find what I was looking for. I pulled out the orange pill bottle, forgetting that some people could have judgments about items like that, and took out one pill before returning the bottle back to my bag. Taking some large gulps of my drink, I swallowed the capsule and hoped I wouldn’t regret finishing almost my whole drink in one go. Tony and Vic, who were still next to me, were giving me some glances, but I wasn’t exactly sure what they meant.

I just hoped it wouldn’t change anything. Our reintroductions hadn’t been the best already, so I really didn’t want something like this screwing up the future of our band. But they probably understood, right? For all they knew, it could have been some simple painkillers for the slight migraine I had from the sleeping pills.

Notes

Another shitty chapter, but a filler needed so introduce what's going to happen next.