In This Starless City

Banner by Kelso. I can't tell you how much I truly love that woman.

It was remarkable how quickly time flew by when I was with Brendon and his friends that he took the time to introduce me to. However, with none of them being members of his band Panic at the Disco, I found it much easier to talk with all of them without fretting over what was being said being posted on Friends or Enemies or their MySpace pages or something.

Looking at my phone, I realized that I had only an hour to get back to the hotel before I, along with my bandmates, had to get a move on toward our tour manager's office.

"I must bid all of you adieu," I say as I stood from my seat. All of guys sitting around sighed and made sad faces. I joked before placing my phone on the table. "Here, give me all of your numbers and I'll text you mine later."

Since Brendon was closest he snatched up my phone the quickest and quickly entered his number into it before passing it to his right. Brendon then looked at me. "Where do you have to scurry off to so suddenly?"

I sat down and watched as my phone made its rounds around the table. "My friends and I have a meeting in an hour and I need to get back to our hotel and gather them all up."

Brendon nodded and watched as my phone was handed to me again. I thanked the boys for their company before heading out the door, turning and giving them one last wave and the heading down the sidewalk.

About half a minute later, Brendon had followed me out of the ice cream parlor and caught up with me on the steaming hot Las Angelas sidewalks. I looked at him. "Don't you have anything else to do other than follow me around?"

He blinked a few times, squinting up at the clear blue sky while thinking critically. Then, he beamed at me. "Nope," he says cheerfully. "Besides, I just happened to have 'follow pretty girl with English accent' on my agenda for today. And I follow my schedule religiously."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Well I'm not about to go do anything special," I half lie. "And you didn't have to ditch your friends for me."

A pair of hands suddenly appeared on my shoulders along with light pressure, scaring the ever living shit out of me—which resulted in me jumping, yelping, and turning around quickly. The boy standing there, grinning adorably, was none other than Alex Marshall.

"New rule," I state as I turned around and began walking again, footsteps falling into rhythm with me. "No scaring the girl with the English accent."

Alex laughed. "You know, there are a lot of loopholes in that decree,"

I looked at him from the corner of my eye. "Because I'm just begging someone to try and use one of those loopholes," I say enigmatically. "My reaction will not be a pleasant one."

Alex's grin widened and I could tell the wheels in his head were already turning. His eyes flashed to Brendon's and a sinister twinkle appeared in both boys' eyes. Brendon then had a thoughtful look on his face as well and I could tell that I would have to do as much as I could to keep these two from being together when I was not around.

"So where exactly are we going?" Brendon asked after a moment.

We got to the corner and I waved down a cab. "I am going to my hotel to pick up my friends and then we're going to speak to our manager," Alex and Brendon's expressions turned to curious ones and then to pouting ones.

"You mean you're leaving us here on this hot street corner to roast until there's nothing left but dust and empty clothes?" Alex whimpers, his face heart breaking to say the least.

"You can walk to your next destination," I say briskly as I sat down in the cab and made to shut the door, but as I did, I caught sight of the two standing side by side, their dark eyes sulking and their bottom lips puckered out. My heart wrenched and for a second I thought that I was going to give in to their pleas, but instead, barked a laugh and slammed the door shut on the cab. "Puppy eyes don't work on me, boys," And with that, the cab sped away.

I had hardly gotten around the corner when my phone began to buzz wildly in my pocket. I pulled it out and held it to my ear. "That was uncalled for, Charlotte!" Brendon wailed through the speaker and I had to keep from laughing.

But I did feel a little sorry for leaving them there, so I decided to make it up to them. "Hey, are you two doing anything tonight?"

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I walked into our hotel room to find that all of my boys had gone the block to enjoy happy hour at a bar. I changed clothes again—due to the sweat that I knew had absorbed into the outfit that I had been wearing—and then made my way toward the bar down the street. When I walked in, I spotted my friends easily.

I walked over to their table. "Guys, you know we have to be at our manager's office in fifteen minutes, right?"

The guys all nodded and continued to drink their beers. I eyed them enviously, scratching at the "underage" bracelet on my wrist and wishing that I didn't have to wait another month to turn twenty-one.

Finally, Oliver finished his bottle and slammed it back on the table. "Okay then, let's go,"

"Okay," I say exasperatedly, jolting from my seat and making my way toward the door. I got a cab and the four of us climbed in. Then, all eyes were on me.

"How was your little adventure today?" Nathan inquires.

I gave a nonchalant shrug. "It was alright," the six prying eyes staring at me requested more detail. "I met Brendon Urie and Alex Marshall at an ice cream parlor downtown." I added as a side note.

Everyone's gaze became blunt and gawking. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Oliver asks and I knew he'd be the first to react. He had, for lack of a better term, a man-crush on Brendon Urie. I shook my head and he looked at the ceiling of the cab, groaning. "That's unfair!"

I smirked as the cab rolled up to the front doors of a very tall building, covered with reflective glass windows. I stared up at the huge structure; the top of the antenna that was on the roof was not visible because it went all the way into the clouds in the sky.

I gulped, hoping our manager's office was not near the top, for I had an irrational fear of heights.

We walked into the obscenely large building and straight to the desk that was placed between the two elevators. There was a man and woman sitting at the desk, both looking rather tired and like they had both been working there for far too long.

"Hello," I say in a friendly tone. "We're here to see Mr. Flyzik. I'm Charlotte Connery,"

The woman nodded and picked up the phone, dialing three numbers quickly and then holding up one finger, signaling us to wait just one moment.

"Hello, Matt, sorry to bother you but Miss Charlotte Connery is downstairs," The person on the other end of the phone spoke quickly and the woman nodded before hanging up. She then looked at my bandmates and me. "Top floor," she says dismissively and my stomach was immediately pile driven to my pelvis.

The elevator doors shut before us and we waited—not so patiently on my part—to reach the top floor. With each floor that we passed and each ping that sounded as we did so, I could feel my breathing getting more and more unstable and my pulse racing more and more rapidly. I thought for a moment that I was going to pass out.

Fingers slid between mine suddenly and they gave my hand a squeeze. I glanced sideways to see Oliver smiling consolingly at me. He knew I had a fear of heights. I didn't even try to smile back; my entire body felt cold and rigid like I wouldn't even have been able to move if I wanted to.

The elevator stopped ascending and the doors slid open again, revealing a large, open office. My eyes scanned the room quickly and I forced myself to ignore the wall that was made up entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows.

Then, a man walked into my view. "Hey guys," Matt says. "Please, come in. There are some people I'd like you to meet waiting for you."

My fear frozen brain melted slightly as I wondered who he wanted us to meet, but then, my terror disappeared entirely when my bandmates and I rounded the a corner of his office and spotted four very familiar faces.

"What the…?!" I say, utterly stunned to see the four boys of All Time Low standing in front of me. Matt stood beside me, confused. "Are you kidding me?"

"Hey guys!" Alex says, smiling from ear to ear. My boys all smiled as well, walking forward to join Alex, Zack, Rian, and Jack in front of Matt’s desk. "What're you here for?"

Brandon grinned. "We're planning our summer tour. What're you doing here?" he asked.

Alex made an odd face. "The same thing," He looked around at his fellow bandmates, all looking thoroughly confused. "Wait, you guys are in a band?"

Oliver nodded. "Yeah," he answers. "Charlotte Melancholic."

The faces of half the boys in the room lit up. Alex and Jack and Rian and Zack were all smiling ridiculously at each other and at Oliver and Nathan and Brandon. Then, eyes turned to me.

"You're the Charlotte Melancholic?" Alex asks, utterly stunned but also completely enthralled. I nodded bashfully. "Oh my fucking God!" He sang, blubbering to himself not so subtly about how he couldn't believe he hadn't recognized me before that moment. Then, he turned to look at Matt. "Please tell me we're touring together."

Matt smiled and nodded and the room erupted in excitement as the boys beamed each other and spoke eagerly of what touring would have in store. I could only stand there and stare at the carpet beneath my feet, completely baffled.

We had been signed to a label just months before and now we were going to be on tour with one of the biggest bands in the country and even the world today. It was a dream come true for me and I couldn't find the words or emotions that could fit the moment perfectly.

Then, to my shock, I was being scooped up in someone's arms. I looked down to see Jack Barakat holding me close to him, smiling joyously. I wrapped my arms around him in return and squeezed him back. Then, Alex wrapped his arms around the two of us. Then Rian did; then Zack; then Oliver and Brandon and Nathan and before I knew it, I was on the carpet of the floor, being smothered by the weight of seven boys. Luckily they were all basically weightless.

Jack smiled down at me. "You looked like you needed something to break you out of your shock,"

"And you immediately thought that a hug was needed?" I ask with a slight laugh. He nodded, causing the ends of his hair to tickle my face. "You're absurd," I say as I wiggled my way out from under the boys that were now trying to climb back to their feet. I helped Jack up and we all smiled happily at one another as Mr. Summer's walked to his desk and pulled out some papers.

"Here are the tour dates," he handed a form to me and I scanned it as everyone huddled around me, eyes peering over my shoulder.

The tour was a long one. We were scheduled to play in every major city in the United States and a few cities in Europe, one of which was London. My heart skipped a beat and a smiled idiotically at the paper.

"Okay, what do we have to do?" I ask, allowing the paper to be snatched from my hands by Zack.

Matt walked back to his desk and picked up a stack of papers. "Read through these, sign them, and bring them with you Sunday,"

I nodded and took a form from him, as did the seven boys that stood behind me. After that, Matt dismissed us and we all walked to the elevator together, climbing in and waiting as it began to descend. I thought momentarily of how bizarre it was that my fear of heights had completely vanished the moment I saw Rian, Zack, Alex, and Jack standing there.

I had a feeling right from the get-go that those boys would have a weird effect on me.

"So, it's Friday night and we're all strapping single gents in Las Angelas," Alex began, stopping when I looked at him pointedly. "And we're in the presence of a fucking beautiful young woman," I rolled my eyes at him and he blew kisses at me. "So what say we all go out and get some drinks?"

Of course, my fellow bandmates were all for it seeing as they were all of legal drinking age. I, however, narrowed my eyes at the idea. I had issues with being out of the loop, especially when it came to my age.

And as if being the only underage person on the lift wasn't enough to make my mood shift noticeable, being the only woman also added to the obviousness of there being something bothering me.

"Charlotte, don't even try to convince us to let you stay at the hotel all night tonight," Brandon says sternly. "You're coming out with us."

I crossed my arms across my chest and locked one of my knees involuntarily, striking a typical upset girl pose without even realizing it. The guys in the elevator snickered together.

"Look," Rian tries. "We know all of the good bars in town and we've got friends on the inside. We can get you in easily."

I looked at him, almost interested in tagging along now, but I changed my mind before the change of thought could fully blossom. I was steadfast in my plan to be unwavering. I knew the clubs and bars in Las Angelas were top notch when it came to security and preventing underage persons from getting past the front doors and I saw no point in trying and failing and unavoidably embarrassing myself.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened and the eight of us were back on the bottom floor of the building. I stepped out of the elevator first, walking briskly toward the doors where I could see a cab waiting on the street outside.

I was almost to the cab; almost home free.

"Come on, Char," Nathan calls from behind me. "When's the next time we're going to be in Las Angelas with these guys?" I knew he was talking about Alex, Rian, Zack, and Jack.

"Yeah," Alex chimed in behind me and my insides squirmed. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to say no to any of those boys without feeling like a total bitch. My conscience had something against me, I swear. "Who knows when the next time an opportunity like this will present itself?"

Not much for persuasive arguments this kid was. "We'll probably have the same opportunity tomorrow," I laugh, turning to look at all of them. "I'm going to the hotel. Have fun tonight. Oh, and say hi to Brendon and Alex for me." And I climbed into the cab and told the driver where to take me.