Lyrical Love Letter

The trouble with shows are that things have a tendency to go wrong. In fact if everything went smoothly it was only the calm before the storm.

Boxes of merch went missing.

Drum sticks went missing.

Guitar picks forgotten at the last venue—or Zack Merrick’s garage.

Kids sneaking into venues early.

Girls hitting on your boyfriend….

“Jealousy is a surprisingly good color on you, love.”

“Bite me.” Juliette retorted as she threw down the box of merch behind the folding table while her eyes glared holes into the back of the ginger haired girl’s head as she retreated back to her giggling friends; a group of sophomores from school that had snuck in and all but thrown themselves at Alex. A little voice in her head whispered He’s not even famous yet and girls are all over him. I don’t want to know what will happen when he is. Because Juliette knew Alex would get famous. It wasn’t a matter of ‘If’ but ‘When’.

All Time Low had yet to play their set tonight, they didn’t go on for another fifteen minutes and Juliette was already glaring daggers at every girl in the room that dared to let their eyes linger on Alex.

Juliette had been spared the previous night when they had played Artie’s and no one under the age of 18 was admitted. It spared her from the giggling fan girls that were present tonight. It spared her from the backstabbing cheerleaders at Dulaney who flaunted themselves at him at shows and snubbed him during Calculus.

Alex grabbed her hips and pulled Juliette to him. “Don’t tempt me.” He breathed in her ear and Juliette just laughed quietly under her breath.

“Hey Romeo you have sound check.” The new voice had Alex growling in frustration as the two turned to see Matt smirking at the couple. He threw them a pointed look and with a sigh and an eye roll, Alex turned to Juliette and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

“See you after the show.” He promised before following Matt to the stage area, leaving Juliette to man the merch table. Juliette turned away, a slightly smile on her face, and her annoyed demeanor gone as she began shifting through merch to fold on the table before her. Larges on the bottom, Smalls on top. Juliette carefully organized the merchandise as she busied herself as much as possible until the doors opened.

”Listen bitch…”

“Oh no.” Juliette knew that voice anywhere. Juliette froze, her ears sharpening, waiting for the sound of a commotion. Abandoning the merch area Juliette glanced curiously around the corner near the exit doors. Lisa and, Zack’s girlfriend, Laura were facing her, Missy and Jonnie had their backs to Juliette but they both had their arms crossed and she didn’t have to guess the expressions they wore.

“Oh crap,” A voice that nearly echoed her own words only seconds before appeared beside her. Kara was beside her, eyeing the scene with uneasy eyes. “So not good for so many reasons.”

“So many reasons?”

Kara turned to glance at Juliette, “Lisa is Jack’s ex, Missy is the running up candidate, you’re Alex’s girlfriend so she’d just love to tear you a new one, and Jonnie? Well I think you know better than I that she’s been looking for something like this for a while now.” In the passing weeks Jonnie had allowed herself to become close to the guys and gals that made up Juliette’s treasured group of friends. Jonnie had grown close enough to defend them and become easily annoyed by relentless ex’s of the band. “As for Laura? Zack’s girlfriend. All time bitch that I only put up with for the soul reason of her being Zack’s girl. Then you have Jonnie who is totally crushing on Zack’s abs and Laura who feels extremely threatened by her.”

“Why the hell does Lisa have a problem with me and why is Laura threatened by Jonnie? Laura has Zack.”

“Lisa’s been trying to get her French manicured nails into Alex forever. She’s wanted to be his girlfriend since like the seventh grade. The fact that you, after however many odd months, have him just has her boiling. As for Laura, she’s not much on confidence plus since Jonnie is your other half and you are always with the guys, Jonnie is around Zack more than Laura is.”

“So what do we do?”

Kara smiled softly and glanced at her with a level of understanding that Juliette didn’t quite understand. “We’re the girls of ATL, we protect each other, we look out for each other. We support our men with the knowledge that they will one day get famous and leave us. But they are ours in exchange that we set certain girls straight—or in this case ex girlfriends.”

“You want to fight her?” Juliette concluded doubtfully. In a fight, Kara was not on the list of people Juliette would look to for help. “Kara you’re a lot of things but I always took you for a lover not a fighter and what about Laura?”

“I’m not going to fight Lisa!” Kara laughed then threw Juliette a look. “but you’re right I am more of a lover than I am a fighter but that is beside the point. What I’m saying is we have to make sure that,” she jabbed a finger in the girls direction “doesn’t turn into a fight. You really think that Jack, Alex, Zack and Rian will be happy to learn that a fight broke out amongst the girls that supposedly love them and support them? I highly doubt they’ll be happy to learn we got thrown out of the bar for fighting. It’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Juliette nodded and with pursed lips ventured closer to the scene that promised a fight with Kara beside her.

“You can’t stop me,” Lisa snapped.

“Get out of my way, bitch.” Laura snarled. “I’m going to see my boyfriend play.”

“You want to bet whore” Jonnie spat, glaring daggers at Lisa and momentarily ignoring Laura. “I know what you did with-“

“Jonnie!” Juliette barked suddenly, her eyes slightly wide. Jonnie had been the one person Juliette had told about finding Lisa in Alex’s bed. Lisa, Laura, Jonnie, and Missy turned to the two new comers, slight surprise evident on all of their faces. Juliette glared at Jonnie, silently warning her before Juliette tore her eyes away from Jonnie and eyed each girl in turn.

“What is going on here?” Kara demanded.

“Kara,” Lisa spoke up slightly relieved. Kara gazed at the girl she once called her friend and Lisa picked up on it instantly—they weren’t friends anymore. Kara had stronger loyalties to Rian then she did to Lisa. “These two bitches won’t let me through.” She spoke up, her voice harder now with betrayal. Kara was basically the matriarch amongst the girlfriends. Having dated Rian since freshman year and being around the longest, Kara’s word amongst the girlfriends meant a lot.

“Correction,” Missy sneered. “You aren’t getting anywhere near Jack or my cousin. But please,” She gestured down the way Juliette had just come. “feel free to see the show.”

“My business with Jack and Alex is mine.”

“Correction,” Juliette took a step closer, her voice cold. “Alex is my business. He’s my boyfriend. Back off Barbie.”

“Let us through!” Laura snarled

“What’s the matter, Juliette? Threatened?”

“Threatened?” Juliette laughed bitterly. “Hardily. I just don’t feel like having you ruin Alex’s night—we’re going out after the show so if you ruin his night you’d be ruining mine by extent, and well, I just can’t have that.”

“We can’t stop you from seeing them play,” Kara spoke up. “But don’t think we won’t try to have you thrown out if you try to see the boys and cause trouble.”

“I’d like to see you try.” She sneered.

“Lisa,” Kara shook her head almost sadly. “you know better. You’ve done it hundreds of times before when you and I came to these shows. You know I can.”

“But will you? What happened Kara? We used to be friends.”

“Yeah? Then you started fucking around with Jack’s heart and nearly tore the band apart with the fights you started between Alex and Jack. We were friends but you almost ruined them. Friends don’t do that.” Kara turned her eyes on Laura, stepping aside to allow her through. “Go,” She told her annoyed. “I can’t stop you.”

“Got that right.” Laura snapped brushing past her and shoulder-checking Juliette. Kara closed her eyes and bit her tongue, holding back whatever she wanted to say to Laura.

“I remember now why we don’t like her.” Juliette muttered sourly.

“Yeah,” Kara grunted. “Come on, we’re going to miss the show.”

“They’d never let us live it down.” Jonnie chimed.

“Thanks by the way,” Missy spoke up. “For...whatever that was.”

“Bail your ass out of shit?” Kara supplied smirking, “Please, I’ve been doing that for years.”

Missy scuffed indignantly but a smile tore across her face knowing the fact to be true.
The girls made it to their rightful place on the side of the stage all the while singing and dancing and grinning through every song All Time Low played. Juliette had past off the job of merching for the night to a boy she knew as Vinny, he had classes with Jack in school and she had hung out with him some when she had gone to see Jack. When he showed interest in All Time Low, Juliette offered up her post for the night.

Juliette smiled every time she watched Rian steal a glance at Kara as though to be sure that she was real, that she was his, and she was in love with him and their music. That she was there to support their music and loving every minute of it. But it wasn’t until Juliette saw Alex’s eyes lock on hers and the familiar cocky grinned broke out across his face that she had reason to smile. He winked at her before turning to the crowd and jumping into the next song. Alex tossed her a guitar pick as the band made its way into the chorus. Examining the small object Juliette saw that it was purple with an alien type face on its smooth surface. She smiled and held the pick tightly until it imprinted on the inside of her palm.

Juliette turned her eyes back onto the boy she loved as she swayed to the beat and mouthed the words to songs written about hips and hearts. Everything was perfect and for the first time Juliette knew exactly where she belonged.

All was right in the world…