April 03, 2015

"You know, I can't believe I let you talk me into this. We could have just gone straight to the buses, Bella."

The screams on either side of us were deafening and I'd found out through Danny that the band wasn't performing for another half hour. Bella was completely un-phased by my yelling and the only part of her that I could see through the masses of people in the crowd was her bright pink ponytail bobbing up and down. I let out a groan, standing on my toes to see her near the barricades at the front, pushing my way to her as quickly as I could manage. As soon as I grabbed her hand, we were shoved against the metal barricades, the body guards yelling warnings at the kids behind us.

"And I can't believe that you don't like a challenge. Besides, this is payback for not telling me about all of this," She retorted, smirking as a girl let out a scream behind me.

I covered my ears, narrowing my eyes at the shorter girl beside me. Maybe, unconsciously, I hadn't told her because I tried to forget that she followed the band. She was especially consumed with Jack, who she'd met once at a party before the band took off. I doubted that he remembered her, but Bella was someone that you couldn't forget.

I looked around when I heard my name being called, tilting my head in confusion when I saw it was one of the guards from earlier. I tugged on Bella's arm, leaning towards the guard who was trying to get our attention.

"Hailey Abbott?"

I nodded and felt Bella's grip tighten when he pointed towards a petite girl standing near the stage. Danny waved, gesturing for the guard to help us over the gate. As soon as Bella calmed down, we were following him behind the stage where tents were set up next to a parked bus.

"Glad you finally made it," Danny told me with a grin, slipping his phone back in his pocket.

"Didn't really have a choice," I admitted shyly, gesturing half-heartedly at the taller girl next to me. "Besides, I didn't feel like commuting all the way to the first city alone."

Danny looked accusingly at Bella, who offered an awkward wave in return. Bella was the most outgoing person I knew, but when it came to being around anyone slightly older than her, she completely shut down. Then again, Bella got awkward around attractive people, too, so I wasn't sure which exactly was the factor here.

"Hey, kidding, kid. You're fine. I'm going to go get the guys real quick, otherwise it'll be another hour. Anyway, you guys are free to do whatever right now, but when the show starts, I'll move you guys to the side so you can get your pictures."
I mentally rolled my eyes, remembering why I was here in the first place. Right.

"Thanks, Danny," Bella called after him, leading me over to a cooler beneath one of the tents.

I sat on top of the table, watching as she pulled a bottle of water out of the cooler, groaning in disappointment. "Wait, I thought... ugh. What the hell?"

"He's smarter than you think, Bells."

She grumbled, unscrewing the cap and taking a sip before sitting next to me. "So...this is pretty crazy, huh?"
"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're in classes one day and working on getting accepted for internships and then you're suddenly on tour with a band as their photographer?"

"I guess I'm more damage control. Keith wanted me here to help promote their album with my blog, and follow the tour and make sure they don't get arrested. So, technically, yeah. But also no."

She gave me a weird look, shaking her head. "So...you're babysitting grown men?"

"If that's how you want to put it."

"That's how I'm putting it."

I contemplated what I signed up for once flashes started from twenty feet opposite us. I wasn't really sure what tour life and busy schedules entailed, but I was almost positive it was going to drive me insane. And I didn't know if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing. I knew that it was a far cry from what I was used to, considering I hid whenever I could because people just weren't my thing.

"Twenty minutes 'til showtime, guys," one of their light guys announced, walking back towards the makeshift stage.

"Fucking hell," Danny cursed, walking back around to us almost just as quickly as he left.

Zack and Rian were behind him and Bella was trying to play it cool, but I could tell she was about two seconds away from losing her shit. It wasn't like I wasn't, but after completely embarrassing myself three years ago, I swore I'd never let myself act like that again.

The guys almost looked annoyed and even Jack, the one that was always running around or screaming obscenities, looked pretty upset, too. I looked over at Bella and she shrugged, obviously just as lost as I was.

"Alex walked off again," Roxie explained, glancing between the five of us.

"Does he do it a lot?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

"Why do you think we haven't toured in so long?" Rian asked, looking over at me. "Alex can't get his shit together."

"Oh," was the only way I could reply. I didn’t know that things had gotten that bad when Keith mentioned that they needed to reinvent themselves. "I didn't realize. I'm sorry."

And, as if having heard us, Alex walked right past us and near the side of the stage, adjusting his in-ears. The guys were close to follow and the techs handed them their guitars, all acoustic, and Rian grabbed a stool and his 'box'. Within seconds of them stepping on stage, the screams got louder and Bella had pulled me to the side of the stage to watch with her.

The usual antics and banter played out, which honestly surprised me because it was an acoustic set, and thirty minutes in, their set was almost over. In that half hour, I was reminded of how I fell in love with the band and the music in the first place. They ended show with Dear Maria, as per usual, and met back with us over here.

Bella was animatedly talking Jack's head off, who didn't seem to mind, and Rian and Zack had disappeared behind the bus to talk with fans. A pang settled in my chest as I saw Alex standing by himself, a plastic cup in his hand. I hadn't seen him in three years and while I doubted he remembered me, I obviously remembered him.

Naturally, I debated whether or not to talk to him for five minutes before I eventually decided that he'd only gotten worse since we met, so what did I have to lose? His hair didn't have streaks in it like it did before, but I could only see what peeked out from underneath the beanie he wore. He was sporting a pair of ripped jeans and a grey shirt that had small holes in it, with a pair of black boots. He set his phone on the table before taking another sip, raising his eyebrows when he caught me staring at him.

I stuffed a hand in my pocket, rocking back on the balls of my feet. "Uh, hey, Alex, I'm—."

He cut me off, a small smirk on his face. "I know who you are."

I smiled slightly at that, grabbing a sandwich from the table behind him. "Cool. I just wanted to say hi and that it's going to be nice working with you and the guys."

He laughed, leaning against the edge of the table, setting his drink down. When he was close enough to me, he leaned forward, lowering his voice, his breath reeking of alcohol. "It's actually not so nice. See, Danny and the guys are convinced that I need some kind of help and he thinks that's where you come in. But here's the deal, sweetheart, some little girl isn't going to give me anything, other than a good time once or twice on tour. And I'll try to resist it because I decided to start over with my fiancé, but you're pretty hot so who knows?"

"Okay, that's extremely inappropriate and—that's not at all who I am. What's wrong with you?" I blurted, my cheeks starting to turn a light shade of pink.

"That's how they all are, Hailey. And you're no different. I give it a few days, a week or two at most. Nice talking to you."

I blinked as he finished the rest of his cup, throwing it to the ground before he started towards the mass of fans that had gathered. I let his words sink in for a second, pinching the bridge of my nose.

This was going to be too long of a tour.

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