Cause a Scene Like You're Supposed To

Katherine Murphy laughed; she laughed a lot harder than she had in the past week or so, and she didn’t even know why she was laughing in the first place. But she didn’t care. She was laughing, and it felt good. Walking through the countless clothing racks, Katherine continued to smile, for the bright shades of clothing made her feel bright as well.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she needed Hollister at that moment. Who hadn’t ever worn Hollister? She knew she did when she was thirteen. So many memories lied in that store; so many memories lied in the age thirteen. She missed being thirteen. Everything seemed so easy in retrospect, though, she knew it really wasn’t. The little drama meant just as much to her back then as big drama did to that day.

She smiled, looking through the music player in the store. There were so many old songs that she used to love, even some current favorites, as well.

And then she found All Time Low.

She stared at their album cover, not having the strength to resist the urge to press it. She picked a random song of theirs, sighing, and waiting for it to play. Surprisingly, it played a lot sooner than she would have expected, and she smiled softly, hearing Alex’s voice blast throughout the whole store.

“Do you need help?”

Katherine shook her head out of her gaze, realizing she was standing in the middle of the store, staring into space. She turned around slowly, coming face to face with a boy. He looked up at her, waiting for her to answer his question. She didn’t care about his question.

“Alex?” she asked, her eye balls nearly bulging out of her eye sockets.

But it wasn’t Alex.

She turned away from his gaze abruptly, ignoring the weird look he was giving her.

There was another Alex to the left of her.

There was another Alex to the right of her.

It was like a whole store filled of Alex’s.

And suddenly, there were no more Alex’s. Suddenly, there was no more mall; there was no more anything. There was only blackness replacing it all.

-----

Alex Gaskarth rolled to his side in the bunk he lied upon and stared at the empty room that stood in front of him, minus his sleeping band mates, of course. He sighed, hating his inability to fall back asleep. He slowly closed his eyes again, just to be jolted forwards. And then there was a piercing scream. Alex glanced inquisitively at no one in particular, then glanced at the clock on his nightstand reading “12:57 AM” in electric red. Wiping his eyes, he threw his legs over the side of his bunk and stood up.

“What the hell was that?” Alex asked as he made his way to the front of the bus, alert present in his voice.

No one was awake, except for the bus driver who continued to drive through the dark alleyways. He just shrugged towards the boy, making Alex throw his hands up.

“Am I the only one that heard that?” he asked frantically, “Stop!”

The bus driver sighed, still not speaking, but he obeyed nonetheless.

Alex rolled his eyes at him as he walked down the steps of the bus slowly. He peered out the doors of the bus, just to see a girl sitting on the edge of the street, a single tear sliding down her porcelain cheeks as she winced, playing with her ankle.

Why did she have to be crying? Alex sighed, realizing his weak point.

“Maria?” he asked softly. She looked over at him, smiling softly in the darkness. She wiped her eyes gently, just staring at him as he stepped off the bus and closer towards her. “What are you doing here?”

“Getting beer,” she smirked slightly, and Alex nodded. He skipped out on the party that night because he was exhausted. In a way, he wished he didn’t; it wasn’t like he was going to get much rest, anyway. “Does your bus driver know what the fuck he’s doing? He was this close to hitting me,” she exclaimed with a smile to her voice, using hand motions and everything. “I screwed my ankle up jumping out of the way.”

“Obviously, he doesn’t,” Alex smiled a little, “Sorry ‘bout that,” he apologized, scratching the back of his neck. “You want to come in our bus? You should get your ankle checked out.”

She nodded, and Alex turned, leading her into the All Time Low bus.

“Uh, Alex?” she asked softly. He turned to see her hobbling towards him, barely being able to walk. He smiled softly, putting his arm securely around her back, helping her up the stairs and through the bus. She mumbled a simple “thanks” as they made their way into the bus.

Reaching their destination, Alex was surprised to see Jack’s figure maneuvering around the kitchen area of the bus, making himself a bowl of fruit loops. Alex almost wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl at his antics, but he didn’t; no one questioned his midnight snack at all. They knew they were the ones that were going to get questioned this time around.

Jack poured milk into his cereal, then turned around to put it back into the refrigerator. Hearing a slight sound of footsteps behind him, he turned slightly as the words came out of his mouth.

“Alex? What are you doin— Oh, hey Maria,” Jack replied as he fully turned around, seeing the two in front of him. He glanced oddly towards his friend, and Alex followed his eyes to his arm that was still around Maria’s waist. Alex let go of her quickly, placing her gently onto the closest chair. “What are you doing here?” Jack asked her skeptically.

“Our bus almost hit her on her way to the convenience store to get beer for the Warped party tonight,” Alex answered for her, shaking his head. “She screwed up her ankle jumping out of the way. Our bus driver doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, evidently.”

Jack nodded slowly, sitting down at the table near to them, as he dug into his cereal. Alex got up, bringing Maria a bag of ice, and sat it on top of her ankle, propping it up as well.

“So… what now?” Maria’s soft voice cut the awkward silence like a knife.

Jack grinned. “How about we get that beer you wanted?”