I tried to push my hair back multiple times as I walked up the stairs to the glass entrance of the hotel. By now, my hair had gotten to an awkward very short bob length. I had to keep the back short frequently so I wouldn’t get a mullet. These awkward phases made waiting to grow out my hair almost seem not worth it, but I wanted my longer hair back. Not necessarily as super long as before, but I wanted that bob. Anyway, I had spent ages trying to get it to look a little fancy, but the front pieces just wouldn’t go behind my ear, hence why I almost fell down those steps to the hotel.

It was the day of the APMAs and I was the only one making an appearance from our band. John flew back home to see his family, Carter had a wedding he had to attend, and Charlie was sick. Like, not just a cold sick. He looked horrible and had a fever, making him feel even worse in the hot weather. Sometimes he’d be freezing and would cover himself in blankets only to overheat mere minutes later.

So, yeah, I was going to the APMAs all alone. Well, that was until I texted Jack to complain and he told me to meet up with them beforehand. Technically that meant I wasn’t exactly going alone anymore. I was able to go with Jack and, what would be considered that day as, the rest of All Time Low. Only, I wasn’t exactly sure how that was going to go. I wasn’t there as his date, I was there to represent my own band. Getting into the place would already be a hassle. He’d get pulled into all different kinds of direction for pictures and interviews while I’d just be there without much significance. But that was all to deal with later.

I entered the hotel and walked to the elevators without anybody looking up and asking where I was going. While that was quite normal on usual days, there were quite a few bands staying here and many fans that would do anything to meet them. I just knew which room I had to be at and was happy to avoid any extra social interaction. The only thing that sucked was that you needed a keycard to use the elevators, so it seemed like I was going to have to asked somebody at the reception anyway. However, I was lucky enough for some other people to have entered the elevator just before me and happened to have to go to the same floor.

Once I got to the right hotel room, I knocked on the door and waited for somebody to open it for me. I could hear some indistinctive chatting before Rian opened the door.

“Hey!” he greeted with a big smile before going in for a hug despite his black button up still being very much open. Just because I was all ready to go, did not mean that these boys were, as confirmed by what he said next. “Jack’s just coming out of the shower.”

I was let in and found everybody either half-dressed, or in their underwear (bear in mind that this wasn’t your standard two beds-squished-in-a-small-space hotel room). It showed that I was actually fairly lucky with Rian opening the door with his shirt unbuttoned. Alex was trying to fix his hair with literally only boxers on and Zack was doing shirtless push ups for no real reason. At least he had pants on. Jack, however, was the worst. He literally came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and his hair still dripping wet.

He stared at me for a while, only looking me up and down a few times in that time. I was unsure if he was trying to make sure if I really was there, if I looked any different to when we last saw each other, or if he was just trying to weird me out. One thing was sure, I wouldn’t have just stood there if he wasn’t in just a towel. I would have gone to hug him and kiss him if he was dressed a little more appropriately.

“Okay. I don’t know if this is doing anything for you,” he gestured towards his chest and towel, “but what you’re wearing is definitely doing something for me.”

What I was wearing was only because Charlie told me to go all out after I first came out in just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Now I was wearing a cropped black and white striped halter top that would have shown a lot more skin if it weren’t for my short high waisted shorts covering most of my stomach. It might have still seemed like a normal outfit (even though I had actually done my makeup), you may still remember I hated showing off my midriff.

“Well, it was great to see you guys.” I clapped my hand together and started going back to the door to leave. “But I think I’ll go by myself anyway.”

“No,” Jack whined and made grabby hands towards me, “come back.”

“I told you she wouldn’t be into it,” Alex told Jack with a laugh while still fixing his hair.

“If you guys would have let me invite her over two hours earlier, we totally would have had sex,” Jack retorted as if that would change anything. Although, it probably would have been true. I was completely ready to leave and Jack had just taken a shower, sneaking away now meant everything else was for nothing.

“I think two minutes would have been enough.” I scrunched up my nose and sat down on the couch which Rian had made himself comfortable on.

“Umm, offended!” Jack gasped and dropped his towel in the middle of the room, grabbing the pair of boxers that were lying on top of his pile of clothes chosen for the award show. He was way too comfortable around everybody in this room. But I was used to it by now due to sharing a bus with four other guys, excluding crew members with exception to Colton.

“It’s the truth, though,” I said back, grabbing my phone and sending a text to Charlie to tell him I had arrived safely and to check up on him.

“Yeah, but not everybody here has to know!” he squeaked despite only saying it louder himself.

He proceeded to push Alex away from the mirror so he could do his hair instead. Alex complained at first but went on to put his clothes on instead, leaving Jack the space to blowdry his own hair. Oh, and incase you were wondering, Alex spending so much time on his hair made no sense anyway because he decided to cover it with a bandana in the end.

After Jack had fully dried his hair, he tried styling it, however he was having quite a lot of trouble. So, he started singing in a horrible opera voice, “my hair is a mess! I should have gotten that haircut!”

As any good responsible mom-friend, I had a solution to the problem. I picked up my bag, which I was hoping I could keep here during the show and pick up after (If not, I would either leave it behind or just take it with me), and pulled out hair clippers along with the guards of different sizes.

“I might not be able to help with the top, but I can help with the bottom,” I said as I got up and showed him the clippers.

“I would not go anywhere near those clippers without knowing where they’ve been,” Zack snorted, just casually sitting on the floor, not seeming bothered about having to put on a shirt.

“I use it cause my hair is at an awkward growing out phase.” I rolled my eyes and went up to Jack, taking the hairdryer out of the plug and replacing it with the clippers. “And it’s been getting me a lot of free drinks in exchange for a haircut on tour.”

“You see, you’re making friends!” Jack exclaimed while I picked up his used towel from the floor and put it back on his shoulders so I wouldn’t get hair all over him, not really thinking about the floor.

“I’m pretty sure most of them don’t even know my name,” I responded and put the guard on that would change Jack’s hair the least first. “It’s like bringing a tattoo artist for a tour tattoo and suddenly all these people are swarming around. Only, for me it’s because I give quick haircuts. The most fun I had was shaving somebody bald.”

“You’re not making me bald!” he made clear, protecting his hair by covering it with his hands.

“Don’t worry, I like your hair too much.” I removed his hands and ruffled the top of his hair, messing up the one part he managed to make look good.

Before he could complain, I started trimming the back of his head, making sure not to go too far up. Like I had said before, only the mullet had to be prevented. I continued until it looked like a nice gradient again, ending it by using the smallest guard and cleaning up his neck and around his ears.

“There we go.” I smiled and brushed him off, feeling useful for the first time in a while.

“Not bad, not bad.” Jack nodded in approval. “I shall keep you around as my in-between haircuts trimmer.”

“Marry her for her hair trimming abilities,” Alex joked, now the only one who looked fully dressed, only missing his denim jacket that was still hanging on a chair.

“Oh my god, no.” I shook my head with disgust. “Marry me for my mom’s amazing cakes and desserts, stay for my hair trimming abilities.”

“I can deal with that.” Jack said, fixing the last few strands on top of his head and seeming easily satisfied with it. When done, the first thing he did was kiss me before skipping to his pile of clothing and pulling on his pants.

“Anybody else want a haircut?” I asked before I went to clean the clippers and put them away.

“I mean, if you’re asking, sure,” Rian accepted and got up from the couch, taking the place in front of the mirror while Jack rummaged through his backpack searching for, what I presumed to be, deodorant or cologne, and Alex starting asking Zack whether or not to change his outfit.

I took a look at Rian’s hair, seeing Jack drop something through the mirror. He scrambled to pick up the small black box like he accidentally had dropped a condom in front of his parents in high school. Everybody went silent in the room. There was some weird tension. It was almost like Jack had spilled a secret instead of a random object.

“Okay, so…” I started, causing everybody’s eyes to snap towards me, Jack looking at me in panic. “Do you want to keep it one length or more like Jack’s, like a gradient?”

“What?” Rian asked, exchanging a confused look with me in the mirror.

“Your hair. I don’t know how you like it,” I clarified.

“Oh… just do whatever you think is better.”

I started keeping it one length since I could always turn that into a gradient. The only sound in the room was the buzzing of the machine and some occasional shuffling, causing me to say, “god, what’s up with you guys? You’re so quiet. It’s like you just heard somebody here was going to die soon. I thought I was the one supposed to be nervous.”

“Oh, right,” Alex chuckled awkwardly and put on his denim jacket, ignoring any doubts he had before.

Notes

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