Maybe if My Heart Stops Beating It Won't Hurt This Much

“Guys, Denny’s is take out,” Hayley shouted over Zac’s and Rhyder’s whining argument. “We can just go get the food and bring it back here, ok?” Her suggestion stopped their arguing in it’s tracks and they nodded, instantly forgetting that it ever happened and started talking about their favorite bands. “How do they do that?” Hayley asked no one in particular.

“We’re boys, we don’t fight about something for too long,” Josh replied, stretching his arms over his head. “Let’s go before they start to eat their arms.”

“I’ll come too, so the guys can take a break from me,” I said as I started to follow them.

“No. You must be tired too. You stay, we’ll just get everything off the menu and you can eat whatever,” Hayley said with a smile.

“Umm, ok, thanks,” I mumbled, following them to the hotel room door and closing it behind them.

One after another my guys fell asleep. I tried to go to sleep but it’s hard when you’re stuck with the loudest group of snorers you’ll ever meet. That, and they kick in their sleep too. I was this close to shoving them off of the bed but I decided to just leave them alone. They don’t get that much sleep anyway.

The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake. I groaned and tried to shove the hand that was shaking my shoulder but it wouldn’t stop. “Whaaaat?” I groaned without opening your eyes.

“Mack, you gotta see this!” Rhyder practically yelled into my ear.

“Can it wait?” I replied.

“No! It can’t!”

“Fiiiine!” I forced my eyes open and yawned. I moved back so I was on my knees and stretched my arms out above my head. Once my eyes were finally opened they widened in shock and disbelief. Silly string was everywhere, along with crepe paper and set mouse traps on the floor “What…the…hell,” I muttered.

“Read,” Evan said as he held out a strip of crepe paper. I took it and read the message: Welcome to tour life! ~Hayley, Josh, Zac, Jeremy, Taylor

I crushed the crepe paper tight in my fist. “Oh, we’re not going to let this go hands down,” I said as I slowly shook my head.

“What do you have planned?” Austen asked excitedly.

“Nothing yet. Lie in the weeds, don’t let them think anything is wrong,” I responded as a slow smile came onto my face. “But for now, clean everything up and pretend that nothing happened.”

We spent the next few minutes rushing around and cleaning up every piece of evidence of their prank. We greeted them normally when they came back into the room. I could tell by the look on Zac’s face that he was expecting something else. That and he was pouting for the rest of the morning.

“When’s soundcheck?” Jeremy asked in a bored tone as he flipped through TV channels. He would leave it on one channel for a few seconds before pressing the next button.

“In about two hours,” Hayley responded from the chair where she was braiding her hair. “I’m so bored!” She groaned. “Someone think of something to do!”

“You don’t have to wait in here much longer,” Rhyder said as he looked at his watch. “We’re going to see our busses soon. After that, then you can be bored.”

“Oh, sweet! I hope we have a bigger back lounge than before,” Taylor commented as he back rolled off of the bed and punched his fists into the air.

“Well, we’ll never know until we see it.”

We entertained ourselves the best we could as we waited to get to our busses. When the time finally came Zac and Taylor raced each other out of the hotel and to the rental cars that was waiting for them. Our stuff would be moved to the busses after our show tonight so we can leave right after the show.

“We call the red one!” Hayley announced once we got out of the cars.

“Because it matches your hair?” I asked as I tugged the braid she had put in it earlier. “Why don’t I find that surprising?”

“Hey, I gave you the blue one ‘cause I know it’s your favorite color. If you don’t want it–”

“No, I want it,” I said quickly before I ran over to the open doors and got onto the bus before the other guys got on.

“Nice TV,” Austen commented from behind me.

“What’s this?” I asked, pointing to two large double doors.

“Open it,” he replied. I shrugged and pulled it open. I could tell that Austen’s eyes were wide as he looked over my shoulder. “Damn, that’s one big refrigerator for a tour bus,” he commented. “It’s bigger than normal tour buses. We can hold more food in here! A lot more food!”

“Look at this!” Rhyder said from my right. “We have a washing machine!”

“And a dishwasher!” Evan said with a sigh. “No washing dishes for us. But this is kind of odd. The only other person who had a bus like this was Av.”

“Maybe they did this on purpose,” I said with a shrug. “I mean, I’m technically taking the same path as her so they gave me a bus that would make me get used to tour life easier? I don’t know, I find it kind of strange though.”

“DUDE! We have showers in here!” Spencer shouted from further back in the bus. “Also, the bunks have awesome TV screens and bunk lights. I’m going to love living here.”

“What’s in the back?” I questioned, pointing at a closed door.

“Iiiiits…a huge bed,” Rhyder replied.

“Oh, that is so mine!” I said as I ran into the back and jumped on it. It felt like lying down on a bunch of pillows, the bed was so comfortable. “Look at that TV!” I practically shouted as I pointed.

“Ah, no fair!” Austen pouted.

“Hey, we can have sleepovers every night,” I told him with a big smile. “Now, onto our payback plan.” I waved my hands at them to motion them forward. “Our equipment trailers are right over there,” I continued as I pointed out the window. “Once they’re gone for sound check, we can put my plan into action.”

We waited on the bus, grinning to ourselves as we thought of how their reactions to our excellent prank. Once we pulled into a parking lot I looked out the window and watched as they moved around. I tapped the guys to grab their attention and they ran around, grabbing the supplies we needed. Then we hopped off of our own bus and waited.

“Sssh!” I hissed as I placed a finger to my lips to signal the boys to be quiet. They hugged our equipment to their chest and pressed their backs against our bus. I peered around the corner and saw that the Paramore bus doors were wide open. Hayley jumped off followed by her guys and they moved across the parking lot towards the venue. We were to go to sound check first, which worked towards our advantage, but they wanted to check out the stage as soon as possible. “Go, go go!” I hissed, waving my arm to move them forward.

We ducked behind some cars as we moved towards the Paramore Equipment Trailer or PET as they affectionately called it. I chuckled when I saw that they had left the key in the back. They were only making our job easier.

*~*~*

“Ok guys, let’s try Sadly from the top,” I said into my microphone. I looked at each of the guys and they nodded at me, signaling that they were ready. Spencer counted us in and the guys began to play the power ballad melody to the song. I tapped my foot and adjusted my grip on my microphone as I waited to come in. When it was finally time for me to sing I opened my mouth and let it out.

“Sadly I still miss you
It seems it's been so long
Would you take me back
If I admitted I was wrong?

I wonder if you think of me
Maybe every once in a while
Do you hear my voice?
Do you miss my smile…”

I opened my eyes and looked back at the guys, wondering why they had stopped playing. I turned around and hid my smile. I only turned around when I was able to force the corners of my mouth down. “What’s up?” I questioned casually.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know anything,” Hayley responded as she jumped up onto the stage.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I denied.

“Well, we were going to get our things for sound check, but we couldn’t,” she explained as she eyed us. “Somebody filled our trailer with helium balloons. So much, in fact, that we had to pop them all just to get all of our stuff out.”

“Whoever did something like that is a very devious yet very creative person,” I said as I fought the smile that tried to come to my face. I could hear the guys snickering in the background.

“This has your name written all over it, Desrosiers,” she said as she squinted her eyes at me.

“What makes you say that?” I questioned.

“You said it yourself. Whoever did it has to be very devious yet very creative, i.e. the person has to be a girl. Who else would think of something more creative than that?” She questioned.

“Are you accusing me?”

“Are you denying it?” She chuckled and stepped closer. “Just know this, I never back down from a challenge.”

I smirked. “I accept your challenge, Ms. Williams.”