“Fuck!” Alex screamed internally as he was being pushed through a crowd of fans blocking the entrance to the building he needed to be in thirty minutes ago.

“Back up!” Brett, Alex’s bodyguard, yelled, his arms encircling his slim body protectively. “Give him some space!”

Alex closed his eyes tightly, trying to stay on his feet while being pushed and pulled. He cringed as a camera flash went off in his face and all the voices screaming his name and asking for pictures meshed into one nails-on-a-chalkboard noise. He finally saw the door to the building and reached forward, ripping it open and didn’t even think to apologize to the girl he’d slammed into the wall doing so.

Once inside the building, Alex let out a breath of relief and check himself for any collateral damage. Thankfully, his clothes survived this time, unlike his favorite vest that lost some patches due to the clawing hands when he was just trying to get some coffee a week ago. He shook his head and started towards the elevator, the camera flashes dully reflecting off the stainless steel doors.

“Who do they think you are?” Brett asked as the door was sliding closed. “Justin Bieber?”

“I couldn’t imagine what that kid goes through,” Alex sighed as he pressed the button to take him to his designated floor.

The ride up was quiet. Brett was a man of very few words, and Alex was just too annoyed by everything to strike up a conversation. The doors slid open and Alex walked down a long hall to the conference room, preparing himself for the verbal bashing from his bandmates and management for being late to this oh so important meeting.

“Dude, what the hell man?” Rian asked as Alex swung the glass door open.

“Why are you late?” Keith asked, but it sounded like a demand.

Alex ignored their questions and helped himself to a cup of lukewarm coffee before plopping down in a chair next to Jack. He ignored the burning stares coming from him and made eye contact with Keith.

Keith glared harshly at Alex and cleared his throat before saying, “Well, now that we’re all finally here, let’s get down to business. First up: Summer tour.”

Alex hated these meetings. He used to love them before the band got too big for his stamina to handle. But ever since they became so famous, the meetings only became a to-do list for him. It hurt him so much to say, but he just wasn’t having fun anymore. He hated doing what he did. He used to live for it.

After an hour of Keith telling them what they had coming up and how much they would be making for it, he looked around the room, stopping on Alex’s disgruntled face. The other guys didn’t give Keith as much trouble as Alex did – they really enjoyed the fame. But, they didn’t get it as bad as Alex. As conceited as it may sound, he was technically the face of the band. The other guys didn’t have to deal with as much craziness as Alex did.

“Now does this seem like something you could do, Alex?” Keith asked, practically spitting out his name.

Alex smiled sarcastically. “Anything for you, boss.”

Rian let out a groan of disapproval at Alex’s tone and stood, walking with a furious Keith out of the conference room.

“Way to go, dude,” Zack mumbled.

Alex spun his empty paper cup around on the table when Rian reentered, huffing as he stood across from Alex.

“Why do you have to be such a dick, man?” he asked. “Is it really that hard for you to cooperate and be respectful for once?”

Alex glared up at him through his thick eyelashes. Rian always was the one with the better head on his shoulders, so it made sense for him to be the “dad” of the band. But at times like this, it pissed Alex off more than he already was.

“To get respect, you have to give it,” Alex said flatly.

Rian opened his mouth to respond but shut it firmly, shaking his head with a sarcastic laugh.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Jack straighten his posture and he leaned a little closer to him as he said, “Dude, is this about Carly?”

Alex slowly turned his head towards his best friend, a look of bewilderment on his face. He shook his head, sighed heavily, and stood, pushing the chair he was sitting in so hard that it flipped over behind him. He angrily threw his cup in the trash can and pushed the glass door open. Brett was sitting in the floor’s lobby waiting for him and was soon hot on Alex’s heels as he walked towards the elevator.

Once they were inside, Alex saw Jack walking quickly to catch up with him. He stared at him as he pushed the button to close the door, hearing Jack yell his name as it slid closed.

It was quiet for a moment before Brett asked, “Everything alright, Mr. Gaskarth?”

Alex let his eyes fall shut as he tried to remain calm. “Brett, you’ve been my bodyguard for a few months now. I know you’re a big guy, but if you call me ‘Mr. Gaskarth’ one more fucking time, I promise, I can take you. It’s ‘Alex’.”

He could see the amused look on Brett’s face as he nodded and said, “Noted, sir.”

The elevator came to a halt on the bottom floor and the doors slid open. As expected, the waiting fans and paparazzi went crazy once they spotted him, screams and camera flashes and all. Alex braced himself for the ten foot trudge to his car.

“Fuck,” he groaned internally.

Notes

Short first installment to a new series.

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