Infatuated

I continued to pace the length of my living area. I shouldn’t be the nervous one, but I couldn’t help but be. My hands kept flattening out the edges of my shirt out of impatience. I groaned inwardly but jumped as I heard a car horn. I looked out the window just in time to catch the flash of the BMW logo. My eyes lit up upon seeing Alex step from the driver’s seat and flash me a toothy grin. I bounded over to the door, grabbing my bag off the sofa along the way and dashed out, jumping to hug him. He stumbled a bit which worried me at first but as he gained balance I squealed into his shoulder making him giggle.

“Well, someone’s even more excited than me,” he chuckled returning my bear hug before letting me down. I smiled before wrapping him in another quick hug and bounding to the passenger side to his car. As the locked pushed up I carefully took my seat and did up my seatbelt. The door next to me opened and Alex stepped in, eyes fixed on the road in front of us as he bit his fingernails. He let his hand drop, letting out a shaky sigh. I grabbed the hand closest to me that had fallen causing his eyes to look to mine.

“Alex, you’ll be fine,” I assured him, more serious now. He simply nodded and took his hand from my grasp. He turned the key in the ignition and began our drive to the carnival.

When we arrived there were few people scurrying around. Some set up stalls whilst others were set to work on the stage and lighting. A white van was parked up a few meters from the stage, back doors wide open and two boys were loading various black cases from the back. After pulling up a small way from the van Alex turned off the engine. In what seemed like one swift movement Alex had gotten out of the car and made his way round to my side. He was now holding my door open for me, a wide smile on his face. As I stepped out I wrapped him in a hug and gently kicked the door shut.

Hearing the door shut the two boys turned around. Rian straightened up from putting a black box on the ground and waved, a smile breaking onto his face from seeing me and Alex. Jack however had turned and broke into a huge grin. He carelessly dropped a large box to the floor much to Rian’s horror and bounded over, engulfing us both in a warm embrace.

“It’s the A team!” he exclaimed as Rian frantically made sure his drums were fine from the box Jack had dropped. I giggled and pulled away from the skunk’s hold on me and Alex.
“A team?” I asked through my hysterics.

“I dunno,” he shrugged, “Autumn, Alex... Whatever,” he replied before turning away and heading back to the van. I kept laughing as he looked over his shoulder and flashed me a smile. Alex grinned and put an arm round my shoulder leading me to their van.

“God damn you if you’ve done anything to my snare,” I heard Rian growl as we got closer. Jack just shrugged before grabbing one of the last boxes and unloading it.

“Dude what’s this?” Alex asked going up behind him and grabbing a sports bag from off a shelf inside the van.

“Dude! They’re my snacks!” Jack exclaimed attempting to grab the bag from Alex who simply turned his back on him and held it from his grasp.

“Jeez, thanks!” Alex joked, taking off at full speed holding the bag under one arm and grabbing my hand in his other. As I was jerked from my spot I stumbled but quickly snapped round and got dragged along.

“Alex!” I yelled. I looked behind us to see Jack gaining on us and began laughing. Just as Jack was about to pounce on Alex we took an unexpected and sharp turn round the corner of a stall and kept running until we were completely clear of Jack. When we finally came to a halt we were a fair distance from the carnival. We settled on some grass in front of a small area of trees. Alex had sat the bag down next to him before dragging me down next to him. I picked at some grass strands as he crossed his legs.

“How long do you think we should leave it before the lack of sugar drives Jack insane?” He teased. I giggled and put on a thoughtful face.

“I’d say two hours or so. That’ll take us to five pm,” I nodded. He watched me intently as I spoke before smirking at the end of my sentence.

“And with it only being another hour before we play I think he may well be tearing his hair out,” he finished causing me to giggle.

“We’re too harsh on him,” I concluded before lying on my back.

“Not possible,” he argued shaking his head and lying next to me. I poked him once in the side before he turned his head to me and pouted. Poking me back I squirmed and turned onto my side to face him.

“If you keep your face like that it’ll stick,” I warned him propping my head up on my palm to which he rolled his eyes.

“Sorry mom, when’s dinner ready again?” He replied causing us both to laugh. We stayed there just talking for a couple more hours before Alex finally sighed and looked at his watch.

“Well, we stayed thirty minutes longer than planned. I think good old Jack will have just about died by now,” he concluded.

“Yeah, I suppose we should head back,” I nodded as Alex got to his feet and offered me a hand. I quickly gained a vertical position and brushed off my clothes. We then headed back, not forgetting the bag, and made idle chat along the way. When we turned back into the grounds of the carnival we saw Mr Phillips, organiser of the carnival, an anxious look on his face as he chewed his fingernails and paced the dirt terrain he was stood on. Two men I didn’t quite recognise stood nearby attempting to create conversation with him looking and looking less than pleased. We carried on walking towards to group, thinking it best to walk past before something was mentioned.

“I can’t believe this, they’ve headlined every year! They were our main act and they’ve just fallen apart? I don’t understand it! We need someone else, we need an emergency meeting with all the acts and find All Time Low as soon as possible,” his words were rushed.

“Is there a problem sir?” Alex chirped up as all three of the men turned around.

“Alex, dear boy you have amazing timing. I need a huge favour of you. Something’s come up and, well, Last Academy can’t play tonight. They just didn’t turn up and then the bassist, Jean, called to say they weren’t coming. The thing is, we need to reschedule all the acts playing tonight,” Mr Phillips began. Alex’s face was slightly shocked but serious. His brows were furrowed and his full attention was on the slim, bald man in front of him. “Alex, would it be possible if All Time Low would headline tonight’s carnival?” He finished. Alex’s mouth hung open and his eyebrows rose. The news had left him rendered speechless as he looked from Mr Phillips to me and back again.

“I, well, yes of course it’d be a privilege, but how long do you expect our set to last? Like, how many songs?” He asked, wary of the fact that All Time Low had only arranged few of their best songs to play in front of the crowd. Now that they were going to play a longer set, they would need a total rethink of their choices.

“About an hour? Say fifteen songs, possibly more, do you think you can do that?” He replied.

“That’s double the set we were originally assigned,” Alex responded.

“Yes but if it’s a problem we could cut the show short,” the older man reasoned. Alex bit his lip, dropping his gaze to the floor before looking up at me. His eyes remained on me as he gave his reply.

“No I think we can do that,” he answered in little more than a murmur.

“Great! Right, now while you settle that I should inform the other acts their sets need to be longer as well. Contact me if you have any problems,” he answered before slightly turning and turning back, stopping himself. “Don’t need me,” he answered before turning away with the other two men. Alex’s eyes were still on me, his expression was unreadable as he took my hand and lead me quickly off towards All Time Low’s van.

“Alex, this is great, you’ve got your first headliner spot. Everyone’s gonna love you,” I assured him as he sat in the back of the van.

“I suppose, but, I need you to help me choose these songs, Autumn,” he answered looking at me serious. I opened my mouth to object but realised there was no better person to give a better opinion than me right at this point. I simply nodded before he walked over to his car, grabbing a bag out of the back seat he made his way back over to me and pulled out his notebook. I sat down next to him and glanced over the pages. We decided on several songs I’d heard the band play before which I knew the crowd would love. We were now down to the last few songs; we’d decided Coffee Shop Soundtrack should be in there as the band had been working like hell on it since I’d approved of Alex’s lyrics down by the stream.

The notebook was now in my hands as Alex scribbled down a line-up on a blank sheet he’d ripped from it. I turned one more page and looked at the lyrics in front of me. I bit my lip, I hadn’t heard it since I’d first seen them but the meaning behind the lyrics was so personal I couldn’t help but nudge Alex. His eyes wandered up to mine and I pointed to the sheet.

“I-I think you should play this,” I stuttered pointing to the title: Break Out! Break Out!