It Was The Roar Of The Crowd That Gave Me Heartache To Sing

Present Time | May 29, 2015

"What if they don't want to do it?" Sam asked. I opened my mouth to reply, but I heard a door open. Aiden, Sam, and I turned our eyes to the entrance and waited. Everyone else had things to do today, to get ready for the tour we were preparing. Everything was set up, we were only missing the bands.

"What if we don't want to do what?" I looked up at Bert McCracken, lead singer for The Used, and smiled. Jeph, Quinn, and Dan were with him, and together they all walked over to the table.

"Something," Sam said with a smile.

"Which one of you is the Angel chick I talked to?" Bert asked.

"Angel couldn't make it," I said.

"So you get us instead," Aiden replied.

"Ignore him; he's just being an ass," Quinn said and sat down.

"Am not!" Bert yelled and crossed his arms.

"You should've been on the plane with him," Jeph mumbled.

"Fucking nightmare," Dan said.

"You try talking to a random person and have them tell you to come to wherever we are without a reason," Bert said and finally sat down.

"It's nothing bad, we promise," I said.

"Yeah, you just might thank us," Sam added.

"And you're not wherever. It's called California," Aiden said.

"Yeah, okay. We're in California with three strange chicks who won't tell us anything," Bert said.

"I'm Aiden."

"You can call me Sam."

"I'm Tara, and we'll tell you what's going on just as soon as the others get here," I said.

"What others?"

"Bert?"

"Well, there's half of the others," I said and pointed at the five men who walked in.

"Gee?" Bert asked and stood up. All of the guys grouped together and welcomed each other, and then talked as if they hadn't seen each other in years. Which was possible, in a way.

"So, what's going on?" Ray asked and looked down at us.

"A meeting. I'm going to get the drinks," Aiden said and walked off.

"A meeting? For what?" Frank asked.

"You have to wait until the others get here," I said.

"So that we only have to go over this once," Sam said.

"Who'd I talk to?" Gerard asked.

"That'd be me," Sam said.

"It's nice to meet you, Samantha," Gerard said and smiled. Well, he seemed more at ease than Bert did.

"Sam, please."

"Why would someone invite us to a restaurant?! Admit it! You wrote it down wrong!" someone yelled.

"I didn't write anything down wrong!" someone different yelled. Five more men walked into the room, and I watched as they stopped arguing and looked around.

"Hi, boys," I said and gave a little wave.

"See? I told you I didn't write it down wrong," Matt said and walked forward.

"This time," Zacky mumbled from behind him.

"Which one of you called me?" Matt asked. He braced his palms on the table and stared down at me and Sam. I'm not exactly sure if it's possible, but he looked...bigger than he did before and a lot scarier. Aiden chose that moment to walk in and place pitchers of drinks on the table.

"Tara, you called Matt, right?" Aiden asked and looked over at me.

"Yeah, that was me," I said.

"I'll be back with the glasses, guys. Make yourselves comfortable," Aiden said and disappeared again.

"Well, I'm here now," Matt said.

"We're still waiting for one more band," I said, almost in a whisper. Has the man done nothing but work out for the past five years?

"Psst! Tara!" Sam whispered in my ear. I leaned towards her and watched the three bands talk.

"Yeah?" I whispered out of the side of my mouth.

"He's freaking huge! Did you see that?"

"It was kinda hard not to."

"I think he could bench-press both of us."

"I know I can." Sam and I both froze, and Matt winked at Sam. Well, that was embarrassing.

"I have arrived!" I looked and saw Craig run in, with Max right behind him. They stopped right in front of the table, and they were followed by Robert and Bryan, who were holding onto each other as they laughed.

"Can we finally know what's going on?" Bert asked.

"I've got two trays left, and then we'll talk," Aiden said.

"I'll help!" Jimmy yelled.

"Jimmy, the waitress," Johnny said and smiled up at his taller friend.

"Johnny, the gnome," Jimmy said and walked off. Aiden and Jimmy returned a moment later, and everyone fixed themselves a drink. I watched as the four bands got settled around the table, and then they all looked up at us. Here goes nothing...

"I can do one of two things. I can either give you a long story about how all this came about, or I can cut straight to the point. Which one do yall want?" I asked.

"Straight to the point!" Bert yelled.

"There's a reunion tour scheduled to start in about a week. If none of you are interested, then there's plenty of bands out there to replace you," I said.

"A what?" Mikey asked.

"I think she said reunion tour," Robert said.

"That's what I said. You four have been chosen for the reunion tour. We've got venues, busses, and more fans than you can possibly imagine. Everything has been taken care of. None of you have to do anything except come," I said.

"We've worked really hard to bring all this together," Sam said and leaned forward.

"Because we believe that the fans need you back," Aiden added.

"So, what do you guys say?" I asked.

"How long? A couple of months and then we're gone again?" Matt asked.

"One year, and we'll show everyone that getting rid of yall was a mistake," I said.

"A year of touring?" Quinn asked, more to himself than anyone.

"I'm in," Gerard said and looked over at his bandmates.

"I'm definitely in," Mikey said and smiled at his brother.

"They'll need guitarists," Ray said and looked at Frank.

"Then I guess we're in," Frank replied.

"I'm too old to get a day job, so I'm in," Bob said.

"Anyone else?" I asked.

"It beats sitting around the house, right, guys?" Craig asked and looked beside him.

"Totally. I say we do it," Max said. Robert and Bryan exchanged a glance, and then they both turned to look at us.

"We're in," they said in unison.

"Matt?" Sam asked. They had been talking quietly together, and now Matt was looking back at us.

"We're in," he said.

"Bert?" Aiden asked.

"I've only got one question," Bert said as he looked down at us. His elbows were propped on the table and his laced hands were less than an inch from his face. He looked really...serious.

"What's that?" I asked.

"What took you so long?" His face broke out into a smile, and I felt myself sigh with relief.

"You're an ass," I said as the rest of the table laughed.

"But I'm a loveable ass," Bert said and leaned back with a smug look.

"So, is it just going to be us on it?" Zacky asked.

"You four and us girls. We decided since we arranged and paid for the whole thing, that we could tag along and make sure everything goes as planned," I said.

"Some of us will help with the teching and managing, and maybe help set-up some interviews or something later on," Sam said.

"In other words, we've got you covered," Aiden said.

"How many of you are there?" Max asked.

"There's eight more, besides us three," Sam said.

"You'll meet them when the tour actually starts," Aiden said.

"And right now, I just need everyone to go back home and get ready. Pack up everything you'll need and be back here Monday," I said.

"You girls ain't wasting any time, are you?" Jeph asked.

"Nope," we all answered. We said goodbye to all the guys and told them where to meet us the following Monday, and then we watched as they all left.

"This tour is going be badass," Sam said.

"Epic," Aiden added.

"The badass epic reunion tour. I like it," I said with a smile. Now it was time to give the girls the good news.