Down With Love

Fuck, this is the part of my job I hate the most, I thought to myself as I lifted a few boxes from the truck and made my way towards the merch table Katelyn and I had unfolded minutes earlier. I smiled at a group of kids who were pressed against the fence, obviously hoping for a peek at their favourite bands before gates opened.

“Hey, did you hear he’s got a new girlfriend?” I overheard one girl in an all Time Low shirt say to a friend as I passed. I closed my eyes, praying that they weren’t talking about me and Alex. Bad idea. The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air, before I landed roughly, shinning both knees and hitting my stomach against the box of shirts, now dented. That’s going to leave a bruise, I thought. My untied shoe, obviously the culprit of the fall, lay a few feet away. Katelyn continued, not having seen the crash. The kids, on the other hand, including the girls in the All Time Low shirts called out, asking if I was okay. A couple of overly-skinny ‘scene’ girls were giggling. I nodded in response to the others, still unable to breathe. A lanky boy of about seventeen in a Madina Lake shirt looked left and right for security before scaling the fence and landing close to where I’d fallen. He put one arm around me, and with the other on my arm, slowly pulled me up. I felt all eyes on me as he picked up the merch box, handing it to me with an ‘are you all right?’ I nodded. “Y-yeah, thanks.” I stammered, still in shock from the fall.

“Anyway, new girlfriend?” The hall Time Low girl looked at her friend. I stayed, wanting to hear what they had to say.

“Yeah!” the other replied. “Apparently, she like, used to hook up with Shads from Avenged Sevenfold, before he got together with Val. And then she like, came to warped to hook up with him again, but, like, he’s engaged to Val and everything now. But then Alex asked her out, I hear she’s gorgeous. So yeah, she stayed on Warped, with him.”

I wanted to vomit. Seriously, how the fuck did rumors like this even start?

“Anna?!” Katelyn was coming back, having deposited her box. “What the hell’s taking you so long, dude?!”

“Oh, I fell,” I aimed the box to show her one of the dents.

“Wow, no kidding,” she pointed at my knees. “Go to the bus and get cleaned up, I’ll get the rest of the boxes.” She pointed back at the truck.

“You sure?” I asked. “I mean, I can help you get boxes and then…”

Katelyn shook her head. “Getting boxes is the easy part. Just make sure you come back to pin shirts up and stuff!”

I nodded. “Sure thing!” I ran as fast as my skinned knees would permit.

“What the hell happened to you?” Matt asked when I got into the bus, after doing a double take. He and jimmy sat on the couch/my bed, playing video games.

“What are you doing up?” I countered, taking a paper towel from the counter and pouring water on them.

“Y’woke up Jimmy when you guys left. He got bored and woke me up to play video games.” Matt hit pause and turned to watch me wipe the blood and bits of asphalt from my knees. “So, what happened?”

“I got distracted by some girls telling some bullshit rumor and tripped,” I said, taking out the box of oversized bandaids that every bus with drunkards like ours had to be equipped with, and carefully applied one to each knee.

“What rumor?” Matt asked as I smoothed the bandaids out.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know…” I told my cousin truthfully.

“Please?” he whined, pleading and doing puppydog eyes. “I would tell you!”

“That’s the problem,” I muttered. “Apparently, I’m your ex girlfriend, from before Val, and I came to warped to hook up with you again. You turned me down because of Val, but then Alex asked me out and I just couldn’t resist so I stayed on Warped.”

“You what?!” Val asked, emerging from the sleep area.

“Heard a funny rumor,” I answered, which caused her to let out an ‘ah, right.’

“Shouldn’t you be working?” She asked. “Sorry, that came off bitchy… I just meant…”

I couldn’t help laughing at the flustered look on her face. “No problem,” I replied cheerfully, “Nah, when I heard the rumor, it distracted me, and I fell,” I pointed down at my bandaged up knees.

Val laughed, “Ah, right,” she stepped over to the ‘kitchen,’ and I moved out of the way so she could pour herself a glass of water.

“Well, I have to go, Katelyn needs help setting up and then I’ve got morning shift,” I announced, “I’ll see you guys later,” I waved at them and was about to leave but had to stop myself. “Jimmy,” I started, “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, referring to the fact that the drummer appeared to be attempting to forcefully insert the video game controller into his left nostril.

“Huh? What?” he asked, pulling it away, and feigning ignorance.

I rolled my eyes “See you later, guys…” I chuckled and left the bus.

----------

An hour later, Katelyn and I had finished setting up, and she’d gone off, leaving me to my shift. The gates had just opened, and when I looked up at my first customer, I was surprised to see the young boy in the Madina Lake shirt from earlier.
“Hey,” he smiled, “I just wanted to see if you were okay… and also, my girlfriend wanted an Avenged Sevenfold shirt, but she couldn’t come on Warped…”

I chuckled, touched by how sweet he seemed. “Which one?” I Asked, and took the one he pointed at from a box. “You can have it free,” I informed him with a smile, and handed him the shirt. “For helping me.” He grinned, and thanked me several times, before running off.

“How come I never get anything free?” I heard the next customer whine as I moved some shirts that were in the wrong box. I was about to snap before I looked up and realized it was Alex.

“Because, I’m your girlfriend, and you’re supposed to spoil me, not the other way around!” I joked, and kissed him briefly. “What do you want?” I asked.

“You, “he replied simply, and I had to smile.

“Either you buy a shirt or you get out,” I informed him. Alex climbed onto the table.

“Can’t I just sit back there and watch you?” he asked, pointing to a chair in the corner.

I felt my stomach flip. He was so sweet. “Fine,” I sighed, feigning reluctance. “But no distracting me,” I added as he slipped down on my side of the table.

“Promise,” he answered, kissing my cheek softly.

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“So, can I come over later?” Anna asked me once I was sitting on a chair behind her, as she handed a kid a shirt. I racked my brains, looking for an excuse. “I think we have a photoshoot later…” I said off the top of my head. She pouted. I hate it when she does that. “No, don’t pout, baby,” I pleaded, checking my watch. Hours left. “Here, how about we grab dinner tonight, at a restaurant, not just at catering but like, go out for dinner, and then you can come back to my bus, and, uh, we’ll…” I trailed off in what I hoped was a sexy way. It must have worked, because Anna smirked.

“It’s a deal,” she said, and took advantage of the lack of customers to come sit on my lap. “How long can you stay today, baby?” she asked, putting her hand in mine and playing with my fingers, nibbling and kissing the skin. I checked my watch, which was on the other hand. Three o’clock… plus an h our to get ready… plus half an hour to eat- no, better make that an hour, I always get distracted…

“One o’clock,” I said out loud. “So in an hour.”

“Awh,” she whined, letting go of my hand and crawling off my lap despite the lack of clients. “Will you bring lunch to eat with me?” Jeez, she does this whining thing a lot. I groaned.

“No, Anna, I told you!” I snapped, fed up. “I told you!” I repeated. She stood there, glaring at me.
“I think you should go,” Anna said quietly, dangerously.

“Why, because I don’t have twenty-four hours a day to spend with you?! Jesus Christ, Anna, get some friends or something!” I shouted before I could stop myself. Anna’s eyes welled with tears, and she looked as if I had just slapped her in the face. And I felt as guilty as if I had. “Anna, I-”

“She told you to leave,” A deep voice said. I turned around to find myself face to face with a man whose muscular arms were probably bigger than I was altogether. I gulped, and the fear must have shown in my face because he took a menacing step forward.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, I took off in the direction of the catering tent.

----------

“Shads you ass!” I shrieked, punching his chest but to no avail. In fact, he just grabbed me and hoisted me up, tossing me over his shoulder. This, of course, only made me shout more. We were making quite a scene, attracting a large group of Avenged Sevenfold fankids. “SHADS! PUT ME DOWN!” I shouted at my cousin, squirming.

“Which shirt do you want?” He asked the next kid in line, ignoring my protests. He did this for the next three of them in line, before I decided that a well-timed kick in the stomach was in order. One swift blow to his abdomen later, I was free.

“Why’d you do that?!” I demanded.

“Because you’re hilarious,” my cousin retorted after recovering from the kick. He went over to sit on the chair.

“No, I mean to Alex,” I insisted. “Why’d you chase him off?”

“Oh, right,” he said. “Because, Anna, he’s a prick,” Matt said simply, as if informing me of the weather, or reading the newspaper headlines. I opened up my mouth to protest, but he held up his index finger to stop me. “No, he is,” Shadows continued, “What the hell was that line, ‘you need friends?!’”

I shook my head. “He gets short-tempered sometimes,” I said in Alex’s defense. “Just like I get really whiny and clingy,” I paused. “It’s things we’re both working on,” I finished, but Shads was shaking his head.

At that point I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I spun around to see none other than Alex there. “I really do have to go, honey, I really am busy,” he said quietly in that voice I’m sure he knew perfectly well I couldn’t resist. “I brought you a sandwich,” he said in the same town, holding up the lunch food.

I grinned and threw my arms around him, my mouth latched onto his, and the sandwich fell to the ground, unnoticed.

He looked at h is watch once we broke apart. “I have to go, babe,” he announced. I looked at my own, which read 12:38.

“But you said you could stay till one, that’s another twenty-two minutes,” I complained. I was sick of him always ditching me. I was about to say more when I felt a hand on the small of my back.

“How’s my favourite little merch girl?” a voice asked in my ear.

“Fuck off, Johnny,” I said without batting an eye. I turned to say more to Alex, but he was already gone. “What a prick, I muttered under my breath.

“Who’s a prick?” Jimmy asked behind me. I turned to tell him to fuck off, when I saw Syn and Zacky behind him. Was there a signing I hadn’t been told about?

“Nobody,” I shrugged the matter off. “Why are you guys all here?” I demanded.

“Signing,” Zacky answered, crunching into a strawberry poptart. “Wanna go get us some chairs, love?”

I was confused. “Nobody told me…” I started, but Gates answered:

“It was supposed to be this afternoon, during Katelyn’s shift, but the magazine interview from this morning had to be pushed back to this evening, so we switched them.”

“Oh, okay,” I started unfolding chairs from the stack in one of the corners and putting out five of them for the guys. I was wrong, this was the part of my job I hated the most: signings. I hated all these kids who kept shouting, trying shirts on of sizes, counting handfuls of small change, realizing I’d rung up more than they could actually afford in the end… I mean, I got enough of these during the day, but when there’s a signing, you get fifty at once, all wanting something, quick, for the band to sign.

It was probably better that Alex had left when he did. Katelyn ended up coming to help, and the signing ran over- way over: we were there until the doors finally closed and kids were kicked out, even after the band had long left and finished their set.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Katelyn said as we were packing up the truck. “We both worked off our shifts, at least we’ll be paid overtime.” I nodded dumbly, too tired to speak, Katelyn giggled. “Just wait, you work morning shift tomorrow…” she laughed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Whore,” I joked, pushing her slightly, and she shoved me back with a “Skank!”

We were still laughing as we climbed into the bus, before collapsing in our respective beds.

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Fuck, I loved days like today. Honest to god, best days ever: getting to meet fans for hours, playing an amazing set, a fun interview, and then topping it off with an all-night drinking fest with my friends. Could life get any better? I think not. As we stepped into the bus, and made our ways drunkenly and sleepily to our bunks, my foot hit against something. I leaned down and picked up what turned out to be a phone. But not just any phone, Anna’s phone. Anna’s phone with eighteen missed calls from Alex. Of course. My eyes darted back and forth between the phone and Anna’s sleeping form on the couch. In one swift movement before I changed my mind, I pressed delete, put the phone on the table, and crawled up the ladder and into my bunk. I was positive I wouldn’t regret this tomorrow, even when sober.

----------

Obviously, I was wrong. I woke up at five that afternoon, eleven hours after coming in, to the sound of screaming.

“WELL YOU OBVIOUSLY DIDN’T CALL!” Anna was shrieking.

I poked my head out of the bunk and almost crashed into Alex, who was near tears. What a pussy.

“I swear I called, Anna, I swear!” he pleaded. “Please, please, you can’t end this…”

“I’m so sick of being your last priority,” she said coldly, but you could see her swallowing back her tears.

“You’re not, baby, you’re not,” he sniveled. I swear I called you, a hundred times!”

“Well, I didn’t have any missed calls, and you just took off yesterday!” Anna shouted. “Jesus Christ, Alex, just give up,” she said, no longer trying to hold her tears back.

I felt sick to my stomach. “Anna?”

“Just a minute, Jimmy,” she waved me off.

“Anna, I’m so sorry I took off yesterday,” Alex continued. “I had to go and you were talking to Johnny, and I Didn’t think you’d notice and…” he trailed off miserably.

“Anna?” I tried again.

“Not now, Jimmy, this really doesn’t concern you,” she snapped, neither of them looking around.

“ANNA!” I boomed, leaning half out of my bunk and interrupting whatever it was she was about to say. Both of them looked up, and I cleared my throat. “I accidentally hit the wrong button on your phone last night. I was drunk, you left it on the ground, I picked it up for you, I probably hit delete or something…” What was I doing? “I’m sorry,” I choked.

Both of them were silent. “It’s okay, Jimmy,” Anna said quietly. I pulled back into my bunk, but I could still hear them. “I’m sorry, Alex, Anna whispered. “I should have listened, I should have listened…” she told him quietly. Alex said nothing, but I soon heard the sound of lips against lips. Dreading what I would se, I peeked out from behind the curtain, just in time to see Alex push softly Anna against the wall. I bit my lip, and crawled out of my bunk.

“I’m going out,” I announced quietly, miserably, but obviously, they didn’t notice.