Happiness and Heartbreak

I turned my music up louder as my mom yelled my name from downstairs.

“Caitlin Amanda Gaskarth! Get down these steps right now or we’re leaving without you.”

“That’s fine with me!” I yelled back, annoyed that we were leaving for four weeks on the road for some good old family fun. I would be with my mom, dad and brother Alex. This was going to be hell. Alex I didn’t mind; he was one of my closest friends as well as my sibling. My parents on the other hand, don’t even get me started.

I guess I should introduce myself before I get too far into the story, shouldn’t I. Well, my name is Catie Gaskarth. I’m seventeen years old and spending my eighteenth birthday in this stupid van with my family. I got up and somehow managed to drag myself downstairs. When I reached the bottom of the stairs however, I was very surprised to see my brother and our three closest friends- one of them being my boyfriend, with suitcases.

“Surprise!” They all yelled as I looked around still trying to figure out what was going on. There was no way that the six of us and my parents could fit comfortably in the small van.

“We decided that for your birthday we would let you and the boys have a vacation of your own, sweetie. You just have to promise us that you’ll call and check in every other day and don’t get yourselves into trouble. We’re not coming to bail you out.” My parents said, smiling at me.

I ran forward and gave them a hug as my brother grabbed my things and took them outside. I looked around smiling as my boyfriend, Jack, came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I smiled up at this tall, lanky boy with brown and blonde hair, silently thanking whoever it was up there that sent this lifesaver to me. Alex came back around smiling, telling us all to hurry up and get this show on the road. I gave my parents one last hug and then climbed in, waving as Alex backed the van out of the driveway.

For four weeks I was going to be on the road with my brother and his band, All Time Low. My brother Alex sang and occasionally played guitar, my boyfriend Jack played guitar, Rian played the drums and Zack played bass guitar. Together, they formed a team to be reckoned with. They had been signed to Hopeless records and I had just found out that for my birthday, my parents were letting me travel with them to shows that they would be playing. This would be my last bit of summer fun before I went back to school to start my freshman year in college and the boys continued their life on the road.

“So Catie, are you surprised?” Rian asked as he sat in the backseat putting his headphones in his ears.

“Yeah! This is amazing! You guys have no idea how awesome this is, I thought I was actually going to be stuck with mom and dad.”

“Well, it won’t be too fun for long, babe. Trust me. You’re going to find out that sleeping in a van with four smelly guys gets pretty rough.” Jack said, leaning over and kissing my forehead.

Just then, an extremely long stream of curse words flew out of my brother’s mouth.

“We’re fucking stuck in traffic already. God damn it this fucking sucks. I’m already pissed off and we’ve been on the road a total of ten fucking minutes. What the hell!”

“Alex, calm down. Just breathe, relax” I said, trying my best to lighten his mood.

“I fucking hate traffic. This sucks ass. MOVE!” he yelled over and over again, louder each time.

“This is when you put your headphones in and sleep.” Jack said to me as he slid his Zune headphones in his ears, pulling me closer to him.

I did the same, and sat listening to Blink 182 for an hour before I finally dozed off. The next thing I knew Jack was shaking me, telling me we were at a rest stop.

“Come on babe, get up. We’re going to grab some food and stretch. I’m driving next so I wanted a kiss too.” He smiled at me, winking.

“Oh, fine.” I said, giving him a peck on the lips before taking his arm and skipping into the gas station.

Alex was filling up the van and yelled for me to grab him a soda inside. I nodded and continued skipping. Once inside, Jack got some food while I got three redbulls, one for me and two for Jack since he was driving for another six hours and I was planning on sitting shotgun to keep him company. The rest of the boys would get some sleep for their next shifts. We were driving from Maryland to California and planning on only stopping occasionally for showers. Now I realized what I was in for.

When we made it back to the car we took our seats and pulled out. Within half an hour the boys were asleep, leaving me and Jack to talk.

“I’m so glad that your parents agreed to let you come on tour with us before you have to go back to school,” Jack said, moving his free hand to place over mine. “You have no idea how much I am going to miss you when you go back to school and the guys and I start touring full time. We’re going to be gone for months at a time. In a way, I guess this our last hoorah, because then everything’s going to change.”

“I don’t want everything to change.” I muttered, upset that he chose now to talk about it.

“We still have four weeks left together babe.”

After that, things just grew quiet. Not an awkward silence, but a comfortable one. I opened my Redbull and took a gulp, Jack mimicking my actions.

“How much longer do we have?” I asked, curious as to when I could go back to bed.

“Catie…it takes around 43 hours to get to California. We have been driving for eight. Don’t even start asking that yet,” he laughed. “I still have four more hours left to drive.”

“Oh god…I have to sit up with you for four more hours.” I joked.

“Hey…I never said you couldn’t sleep.”

“Jack, someone has to be awake to give you directions otherwise we’ll end up in the middle of nowhere.”

“True, true.”

It was hard not to doze off, the music was playing softly and it was dark outside the car. Jack was tracing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb and I was slowly falling asleep. However, I somehow managed to force myself awake by asking Jack to play Would you Rather with me. This was always a fun game that we loved to play when we were younger.

“Ok Cate you go first.”

“Would you rather…swim in a tank of mad, hungry sharks or never have been a part of ATL?”

“I’ll take the mad sharks any day,” he laughed, “I have a good one, would you rather be with me forever or finally get your date with Craig Mabbit?”

“As much as I love Craig, I would rather be with you forever.” I said, honestly.

“Then what do you think about this?” Jack asked, holding out a box with a ring in it.

“What!” I exclaimed, in utter shock.

Of all the places to propose to a girl, leave it to Jack to ask it in a van filled with four smelly boys at nine o’clock at night. I was completely fine with it though, that was just the way Jack was. He always takes you by surprise.

“Before you say anything, no, it’s not saying we have to get married right away. You’re not even eighteen yet for god’s sake. One day though babe, it’s going to be you and me. Forever.”

“Wow…Jack I really don’t know what to say.”
With that, he smiled the goofy grin that was all his own, knowing that I could never in my life turn him down, and slid the ring on my finger. I heard shuffling in the backseat and then Alex sat up.

“I swear if you hurt my sister Barakat, I will not think twice about fucking you up.”

“I promise Alex, I will never hurt her.”

That was two years ago, and now Alex may finally have his chance to kill Jack Barakat.