The Words to Define These Feelings

Paige's POV

“So you guys work for AP, huh?” Jonathan was attempting to make small talk as we pulled out of the parking lot of the airport.

“We do?” I looked at Phoebe in mock surprise, “I didn't know that! Is that why I'm here?”

Jonathan threw me a calculating stare for a moment, then began to laugh.

“Have you guys ever been to Texas before?” He asked.

“Nooooope!” Phoebe exclaimed from the back seat.

“Well, then y'all are in for a good time. We have two days before we leave for tour, so I could show you around a bit.”

“Okay!” Phoebe yelled. I shook my head, my best friend was a nut job.

“That sounds like fun,” I said, “When do we get to meet the rest of the band?”

“You'll meet the guys tonight, we've got to have a rehearsal to finalize everything for the tour. You can tag along,” Jonathan explained, and I grinned.

“Cool. Hey, can we get some food? I'm hungry!” Phoebe chattered away in the back seat.

“Sure. Are you hungry too?” Jonathan looked at me from the driver's seat.

“I could go for some lunch, yeah,” I nodded and my stomach grumbled in agreement as Jonathan pulled off the road and into a Pizza Hut.

“Pizza Hut? I love Pizza Hut!” Phoebe hopped out of the back seat and darted towards the entrance of the restaurant, leaving me alone with Jonathan.

“Sorry about her. She's not always this spastic. She just had a lot of caffeine on the plane,” I offered him an apologetic smile.

“Hey, it's all good,” He answered, “I think she's fun.”

Based on his answer, I could tell that the three of us were going to become fast friends.

After we ate, we went back to Jonathan's house and spent the next few hours goofing around, playing video games and watching movies. At about five o'clock, Jonathan announced that he was going to get his stuff ready for practice and told us to be ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Phoebe and I were left alone in his basement then.

“We get to meet the band now Paige!” Phoebe's ability to state the obvious never ceased to amuse me.

“No, really?” I laughed.

“Really! I hope they're cool,” She jumped up and put on her shoes.

“Me too. I really want this whole tour to go smoothly,” I agreed and I pulled on my hoodie just as Jonathan reappeared at the top of the stairs.

“Are y'all ready?” He asked, and we were, so we left to go to the band's practice space. We walked into the building and were greeted by two guys sitting on a couch on the far wall.

“Hey guys,” Jonathan said, “This is Paige, and that's Phoebe. They're our very own AP magazine reps,” We stood there and waved a little awkwardly, “Phoebe, Paige, that's Marc, he plays guitar,” he pointed to one with curly hair, “and that's Kyle, he plays drums.”

I elbowed Phoebe subtly in the side as we were introduced to Kyle because she had been completely spazzing over him on the plane. She shot me a look that read, “oh sush,” as the door behind us opened and two more people walked in.

“That's Austin, he plays bass, and Kent, he plays keys,” Jonathan continued with introductions as the two began to set up. We sat around for a little while, waiting for the final member of the band to show up. Phoebe was messing around at Kyle's drum kit, and he was showing her all the different parts. I was chatting with Austin and Marc, and based on first impressions, I felt like the tour was going to be a blast.

“Alright, where's Caleb?” Jonathan asked, glancing up at the clock on the wall, “We were supposed to start practice fifteen minutes ago.”

Suddenly the door burst open and a tall boy with flaming red hair sticking out in every direction busted through.

“Sorry y'all, I got stuck in traffic,” He claimed.

“Yeah right, you were obviously just asleep,” Austin yelled over, and Caleb made a face
at him as he went to check his guitar.

“Oh, Caleb, that's Paige and that's Phoebe. They work for AP, they'll be on part of the tour with us,” Jonathan introduced us.

“Sweet. Alright, lets get started,” Caleb said, and the band assembled, leaving Phoebe and I to sit on the couch and listen. After a few songs, I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered a hallway with some skateboards and bikes lying discarded at the far end. When I got back to the main room, the band was having some technical difficulties they needed to sort through, so I grabbed Phoebe and showed her the hallway.

“Oooh, bikes and skateboards!” She exclaimed, grabbing the closest bike and attempting to sit on it, “Ahh, I can't get on, this one's too tall,” She complained, then found a more suitable bike and slid a skateboard my way.

“You should ride the skatebard Paige!” She looked at me, waiting for me to follow her advice.

“Ha, ha, no. I don't even know how,” I shook my head.

“Just try,” She said, and I could tell she wasn't going to give up at all until she had at least seen me attempt. I put my left foot on the board and pushed off gently with my right foot, slowly rolling down the hallway.

“I've seen snails move faster than that,” She laughed. I began to push slightly faster, and soon enough I was rolling quickly down the hall. I looked up at her and stuck my tongue out, but because I wasn't looking where I was going anymore, I hit a cord running across the tile floor. The next thing I knew I was on the ground along with several broken pieces of wood and some strings... what used to be an acoustic guitar. I looked up at Phoebe in shock as I realized I had broken a guitar.

“Oh shit,” I said, gently standing up and looking at the damage.

“I don't think they'll be able to play that one anymore,” She looked grim.

At that moment, Jonathan poked his head out, “Is everything okay? We heard a crash...” He stopped talking as he realized what had happened.

“Whose is it?” I asked quietly.

“Caleb's,” He answered. I nodded and turned to walk back into the main room. This was going to be difficult. Who wants to tell someone they just met that they broke one of their most prized posessions?

“Um, Caleb,” I gulped, looking at the redhead.

“What's up?” He turned and looked at me.

“Could you, uh, come to the hall for a second?” He looked confused, but followed me anyways.

“I was skateboarding, and I fell, and I kind of, um, broke...” I stopped us in front of the tattered guitar.

“My guitar,” The look on his face made me want to go crawl into a hole and die, I felt so bad, “You broke my guitar,” He dropped down to touch the pieces and I looked at Jonathan, silently asking for advice.

“I'm sorry, I didn't see it,” I mumbled.

“How could you not see it? And why were you skateboarding down the hall if you are so bad that you fell off hard enough to completely destroy my guitar?” Caleb looked up at me, and from that one glance, I knew that my hopes of getting through my excursion with Forever The Sickest Kids enjoyably were thoroughly destroyed.