All Time Loss

"Hello everyone this is Melissa Rivers from MTV news here with All Time Low." The light haired reporter sat directly adjacent to the four young men who made up the popular band. This was her second time interviewing them, and her subject matter had barely changed, but their setting was drastically better.

Before both had been low end bands coming from the same place, trying to get to bigger and better things, and both did. Melissa was specifically chosen to interview All Time Low for their vague history.

The cheers finally died down and Melissa continued to smile, her attention turning to the guys on the couch. Three of the four had dark brown hair, with varying lengths, and the last had a light shade, closer to her own blonde hair.

"Well, here we are again boys." She laughed to the guys, who added their own laughter though it seemed forced.

The one in the middle was picking at his fingernails as if he was nervous, after a moment of thought Melissa remembered that this was Alex Gaskarth, the vocalist for the band. Beside him, slightly bouncing in his seat was Jack Barakat. The calmest of the quartet was the golden haired Zack Merrick. Rian Dawson looked tired, as if ready to pass out, his shaved head helping his appearance.

"Your album, Nothing Personal, hit the top of the charts last year; may I ask what inspired this title?" Melissa began with standard questioning, hoping to get something out of the guys. Jack nearly jumped out of his seat in readiness.

"So Nothing Personal came from a saying that an old friend of ours used to say." Alex looked up in alarm as Jack spoke. But when Jack didn't add anything else, he relaxed a little.

"Oh, interesting. That must have been an important friend for them to have the ability to affect the name of your album."

"Yea, she was quite the girl." Rian looked off into space, almost as if he was not aware that he spoke. Alex glared at Rian, trying to get his attention.

"Oh, it was for a girl?" Melissa asked, now excited that she was getting to question them about something so good, so quickly. "Who is this girl?"

"She's no one." Alex tried to cover it, but even he knew now it would be impossible. One mistake....

"She's no one, yet you name your album for her?" Melissa questioned.

"Not only did she have an effect on the album, but she was the inspiration for most of our songs, even from albums past." Zack pushed. He couldn't let this stay inside Alex and torture him as it had for the past two years. It was time for Alex to let it out, and he didn't care that Alex was stabbing him with daggers from his eyes. He needed to let the world remember her.

"Oh, this couldn't be the same one that Alex supposedly has been apologizing to every time he sings Jasey Rae, could it?" Melissa was getting more excited now.

The rest of All Time Low focused on their singer. It was time. Time for the world to know the truth behind the blurry lyrics of Jasey Rae. The 24 year old vocalist cleared his throat.

"First off, Jasey Rae, is an apology, but not to one girl, but instead, two of the most important girls in my life..."

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[August 1999]

Alex Gaskarth was made for high school, and the big dream was only a year away. The thirteen year old slacker grinned as he walked to the bus stop. His plain white tee shirt was clean and his jean fit nicely. He was readyfor disaster .

Alex began to look around the bus stop and eventually spotted a girl with dark black hair, cropped to her shoulders with medium length bangs swept to the left side of her face that looked like she had just rolled out of bed.

"Excuse me, you do realize we're going to school, right?" Alex asked the figure crouched over a fairly large book Alex was sure was on their summer reading list that he had definitely not read.

"Yes. And if you even think about making a comment about my hair, don't. Look at your own brown bush before saying anything about mine." She straightened her Metallica shirt, returning to reading the book whose title Alex could now read.

"War and Peace?" he asked, now just wanting to get another look at the girls face, he was sure he had seen her somewhere before. She sighed, looking back up at him.

"Yes, it’s a book. A fairly good book too, one I would like to finish reading. Now excuse me." she looked back down and Alex was about to speak again when he heard:

"Hey Alex!" and was knocked to the ground beside the mystery girl by none other than Jack Barakat. Jack looked over at the girl and twisted his face in confusion.

"Jasey?" he asked and it clicked in Alex's head.

"Holy shit, Jasey Russo! What did you do over the summer, get a makeover?" Alex asked, astonished at the change from the geeky girl she was in last year to hot girl he now saw in front of her. She once again sighed.

"Alex Gaskarth, if you don't stop staring I'm going to deck you." Jasey stood up as the bus came to halt in front of the sign.

"Dude, wow I bet you feel bad about everything you ever said to her." Jack shrugged, grabbing his book bag and jumping on the school bus, making sure Alex was trailing behind him.

"You have no idea."

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"Jasey was a girl we had known for years, I knew her even before Jack, which is hard to beat." Alex shook his head.

"Yea, we all grew up together, but Jasey was never a looker, and Alex frequently told her, but apparently that summer she had finally gotten fed up with her super long hair and chopped it all off." Jack bounced at every word on the couch.

"So you wrote a song about a girl you used pick on about her looks turned beauty queen?" Melissa was disappointed with this, and didn't fight to hide it.

"Oh, there's more to this, you see, Alex here decided it wasn't good enough for him to just look at Jasey, he had to find a way to make it up to her all those times he messed with her." Jack laughed.

"Can I just explain, because when you explain, you make it seem like I was evil to her." Alex rolled his eyes. "All I did was told her that her hair was too long."

"So, Jasey was a friend that you bullied?" Melissa did not like this, it would be a wasted tape and this whole episode would have to be cut out.

"Oh, no! Alex and Jasey ended up dating! I'll never know what he did to charm her, but he did." Jack was wide eyed and ready to explain.

"Was it serious?" Melissa asked, seeing a lifeboat had been thrown in the water, just barely in time to save this segment.

"Yes! It was super serious!" Jack exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his seat.

"Jack!" Alex nearly yelled at him.

"What? It was..." Jack said, looking down.

"Well it was serious enough for you to write an apology song for her." Melissa pointed out and Alex sighed.

"Fine...you're right. We were serious, with Jasey, life was easy, breezy, beautiful..."

"COVERGIRL!" Jack, Zack, and Rian exclaimed in unison, breaking the serious moment their vocalist had been having. He glared at them, and they all looked away.

"Life with Jasey was wonderful. She loved hanging with the band, watching us practice. She came to early shows and watched us, promoted us no matter where we were performing and always was our biggest fan." Alex smiled as he remembered Jasey.

"And....she never forgot Alex's birthday, whether he did or not." Jack had to add with a smile

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December 19, 2001

"Thank you guys for coming out tonight, we're All Time Low and we'll see you again next week!" Alex yelled into the small crowd of people at the park where they had performed that night. As people began to leave a voice in the back called:

"Sing one more song!"

The people turned back to the four guys on the stage, looking to see if they would reply to this request. They looked at one another as Alex whispered to Jack.

"Do we have another song?" Jack's grin was all Alex needed.

"Just follow my lead."

Jack began to pluck out some chords, as if joking and then he began picking at a near familiar tune to Alex, one he couldn't quite place the words to. From beside him he heard an unmistakable singing voice begin to sing the well known lyrics:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Alex.
Happy Birthday to you.

Jasey appeared side stage with a cake, ablaze with seventeen candles.

"Alexander William Gaskarth, make a wish." She smiled at him, making him grin. She was almost a good six inches shorter than he, so it was slightly difficult for him to blow out the candles, but he accomplished it.

Jack leaned over and whispered into his microphone.

"Hey Alex, what did you wish for?"

"I didn't wish for anything. I have everything I could ever want right here." He hugged Jasey close to him, both smiling bright, Jasey looking up at him with her emerald eyes.

Jack laughed and everyone began filing out as the guys began to pack everything back up as Jasey put the cake down and ran around doing her own duties. Before long, everyone except Alex and Jasey were gone.

"Hey." Alex snuck up behind Jasey, scaring her.

"Alex! Don't do that to me!" She held her heart as he laughed.

"I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized, pulling Jasey into his arms.

"Good news Alex." Jasey said, turning herself so she could look at him.

"What are they?" Alex asked, happy where he was.

"We have enough money now to leave."

"Really?"

"Yes. That means we only have another week in this town!" Jasey was excited and Alex could tell. Finally, we can leave this town and be together. Alex thought as he kissed her on the lips, soft at first, then harder. Jasey kissed back with her own amount of passion.

"It's time for you to get your birthday present." Jasey whispered, kissing Alex again and he smiled, knowing what she meant. Barely, the two made it to Alex's car before their clothes were gone.

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"So, Jasey was your girlfriend, and you two were going to run off together?" Melissa asked, now interested once again in this story.

"Yea. We had everything planned. Jasey and I had saved every penny we made for the last year so we could rent an apartment somewhere, anywhere away from that town." Alex remembered and the other guys sat in silence, even Jack couldn't comment about that.

"Well, what happened?"

"Obviously, I didn't go pick her up that night."

"Why not?" Melissa asked, alarmed.

"We had gotten signed and we were slotted to go to the recording studio to get our asses kicked by our producers and to write our own songs in LA, leaving the day before Alex was to get Jasey and skip town." Zack spoke up.

"You're saying that if Alex had followed the girl, that there would be no All Time Low?"

"That's exactly what we're saying." Rian replied, even adding a head nod.

"Wow. But Alex, you said this was not about one girl, but two." Melissa inquired, trailing off to let Alex continue with his story.

"When we left, I thought I would never hear from Jasey again. By the time we had come back from the short recording time we were on, she was gone." Alex recalled.

"How long were you recording for?" Melissa asked, timelines were always essential.

"About four months or so." Alex replied, he was the only one who ever remembered.

"Four months, four songs." Jack said in a sing song voice.

"So you never saw Jasey Rae again?" Melissa asked and Alex looked at her funny.

"Her name was just Jasey, not Jasey Rae."

"Well then where did the Rae come from?" Melissa asked, now extremely confused. Alex sighed. But Jack answer.

"Jasey Rae is really someone." This statement only confused Melissa more.

"Would you like to meet Jasey Rae?" Alex asked, knowing now that there was no real way to avoid this.

"Yes." Melissa replied.

"Jasey Rae, come on out here sweetie." Alex called, and everyone in the crowded room turned to look towards the doorway, expecting to see another girlfriend of Alex's.

Alex stood up and walked behind the couch All Time Low was sitting on to walk towards the approaching female. When he came back, Melissa and everyone in the room, except All Time Low gasped.

In Alex's arms was a young girl who looked no more than six years old. Her head was adorned with brown hair the exact shade of brown as Alex's, but in curls that bounced as he walked with her on his hip. Her eyes looked like two large emeralds and she wore a pair of jeans, tiny converse and a child's All Time Low shirt.

Alex carried the child all the way to the couch and sat down as Jasey Rae looked all around and then focused on the cameras.

"Hi! I'm Jasey Rae Gaskarth."

Sitting side by side, it was easy to tell how similar this child and Alex looked, and it was no mistaking that this child was an offspring of Alex Gaskarth. She turned the other males on the couch.

"Hey Uncle Jack and Uncle Zack and Uncle Rian!" she waved at the other three guys who had helped to raise her. Melissa Rivers was still frozen, but very slowly she began to thaw.

"This...this is Jasey Rae?" she finally asked.

"Yes." Alex replied.

"She's your daughter?" Melissa asked.

"Mine and Jasey's." Alex replied, bouncing Jasey Rae on his knee.

"How did you find out about her?" Melissa finally asked.

"Rae sweetie, sit down beside daddy." Alex whispered to his daughter and she stopped jumping on his knee and sat beside him, calm. Alex turned back to Melissa.

"Jasey was in a car wreck and killed. Rae would have gone to the State if someone hadn't looked at her birth certificate and seen that I was the father. I was contacted and have been taking care of her since she was four." Hot tears were welling in Alex's eyes and he knew they were probably spilling over, but it didn't matter.

"Jasey Rae is my biggest responsibility and even though she has made me grow up quickly, I don't blame her, she's the best thing that could ever have happened to me. She's my baby girl."

Rae looked up at her father and brushed away a tear.

"Daddy, don't cry. I'm here, and I won't leave you like mommy. She didn't want to go Daddy; she loved you even after you left her alone with me. But she told me to tell you, she's watching from heaven." Rae hugged her father and it was easy to see that there were no dry faces in the entire building.

Slowly, Jasey Rae stood up and grabbed her fathers hand. Together they walked out of the building, their future together not completely clear, but they knew that no matter where they went, Jasey was with them, in their hearts.