The Mess I Made

"Holy cow, this place is packed!" Katrina called out loudly, her mouth agape as she stared at the crowd that pulsed and swarmed in front of her. The Musicility Festival definitely had its share of participants this year. Katrina had been calling to her best friend, Briana, who stood next to her in the mix of the horde but she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the crowd now that she'd seen it. It was beautiful in all the wrong ways. She could have sworn she saw We the Kings gliding their way through the small splits in the jumble of people, but that was impossible--Mostly because there couldn't possibly be a space that wasn't occupied by a body. There didn't seem to be a single place in the whole building that the festival goers weren't; of course, this was only her first glance. But man, it was an eye-full.

"How are we supposed to make it to the back room, Bri?" Katrina called out again, waiting for her friend's familiar voice to rise above the mixed yowling of all the music lovers in the world combined. It might also be an impossibility that she could hear her, but Katrina still couldn't pry her eyes away to try and find Briana's face in attempts to read her lips. It was just too bizarre a sight to give up watching... She also had seen when browsing YouTube that a favorite channel owner of hers would be attending this year and she was keeping an eye out for the two. Just as she was about to turn her head to look to her friend, she spotted a duo-tuft of brown hair. Could that be LIVELAVALIVE?

"I have no fucking idea," Briana shouted to her friend as she, too, stared at all of the chattering people. This festival was already insane and it hadn't even officially begun! She was silently congratulating the hotel for its proper advertising but also cursing them; everyone was going to try and get bedrooms at this specific inn because of the way it had been publicized on the website and many brochures about the festival. If she listened hard enough, she could hear many different dialects being spoken; from Western to Southern, there was no one state that was left out. There were even some foreign accents that she picked up from the chatter. New York was the melting pot of the U.S. and this was definitely evident in the people that were standing in this building.

But she couldn't dwell on the beauty of it all too long. She had been given some backstage passes and a hotel key by her cousin that the two girls were supposed to use, but with all of these people here it was extremely difficult to get to the doors that led to the room they would be staying in. She knew that if she pushed through, people would think she was rude and post random vlogs about her whenever they got to the nearest webcam and computer. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed in a number, putting the phone back up to her ear. Hopefully Victoria could hear her over the prattle.

"Hello?" Vicky-T answered.

"Hey, it's Briana. We're in the building but I have no way of getting to the back room from where I am. Is there like... some secret doorway that only you guys are supposed to know about or something?" Briana asked as she glanced around, hoping her voice was loud enough through the phone.

"I can have someone come out and get you. Where are you?"

"We're somewhere in the middle. If you send someone out, just have them look for Katrina's poof." She heard Vicky-T laugh on the other end before asking someone to go out and grab the two of you. "Gabe and Ryland should be out there in a minute. They're wearing sunglasses and hats though because they don't want to be recognized," she said. Briana could hear the mocking tone in her voice and nodded with a small laugh of her own. Those two were too tall to not be recognized.

"Alright. Can't wait to see you!"

"You too. See you in a bit," Vicky-T said before hanging up. Briana did the same and put the phone away, now looking for the two tall rock stars coming from any direction.

"Can't wait to see who?" Katrina asked, sort of subconsciously. She didn't know if she had missed out on part of a conversation, just missed out on part of what Briana was telling her, or was just hearing things and that was that. But what she did know was that those tufts of brown hair sticking up just a centimeter higher than the rest of the crowd was most definitely her idols, Mitchell Davis and Kyle Sibert from LIVELAVALIVE. The evidence was undeniable—those were Mitchell's spikes and Kyle's Jew-Fro—it was them.

"You know what, Bri? Never mind!" Katrina sprung forward, her red hair blowing back and springing forward once more. She nudged her way between two heavily-cologned bodies with equally heavy accents, thankfully squeezing through without too much of a hassle. The boys dodged away from her as if her floof were really made of fire. "I'm thinking that I'll just make my own path! Cummon!"

Briana had no idea where Katrina had decided to go, but she followed along anyway. Hopefully Gabe and Ryland would be able to keep up with Katrina's bouncing fluff. As she followed the path that the red-head had cut for herself, Briana muttered apologies for the people that they had been pushing out of the way; she didn't want to seem like the mean one so there wouldn't be any angry videos.

And then Katrina sprung again, leaping clumsily into a group of chit-chatty girls that were undoubtedly stalking behind everyone's favorite YouTube hosts. Again she received the same reaction; the girls shrieked and scooted away from her curls like they were vipers. But then again, they may have just been scooting away from the lunatic that was jumping around like a kangaroo through a music festival. But whatever, as long as it kept them from confining her. If everyone reacted this way, she would be able to get to Mitchell and Kyle in no time! As long as she kept track of them.... where had they gone?

"Excuse me, please," she said quickly, hippity-hopping on tip-toe to try and see over the head of a blonde haired girl that had fumbled away from her, but somehow gotten right in her way. The girl stared at her with wide eyes, as if she didn't understand this tidbit. "I need to go this way," Katrina explained, not as politely as she should have. The girl shrunk away from her, spurting out some Finnish dialect in a scared tone, but Katrina ignored that. She could see over the girl’s head at long last, and she made good use of it.

"Eye spy with my little eye," she laughed to herself, peering into the dense crowd once again. The path to Mitchell was blocked and then lost. But not for long. Because right over there, less than two hops away, two tall male forms were trying to push through a crowd of shrill giggling fans. They'd pulled hats down over their hair, but a few brunette strands still popped out. And their thick-rimmed sunglasses just screamed LIVELAVALIVE.

"...Mitchell freaking Davis!" Slightly shoving the blonde out of her way, Katrina made one last pounce.

Finally, they came to the end of their path. Katrina shouted out the name of their beloved LIVELAVALIVE creator and pounced on someone and, just as she did so, Briana realized exactly who it was. She hadn't seen them in awhile, but their looks were unmistakable even when trying to hide from fans. That definitely wasn't Mitchell Davis.

"Whoa there!" Ryland said as he held his hands up as if being held up by a robber. Katrina's arms had wrapped around his torso and he glanced down at her. "Looks like they found us."

Just as Katrina felt compelled to scream "Gotchya!" she looked up into the face of... not Mitchell Davis.

Not Kyle Sibert, either. It was someone completely different...but she recognized the musical voice almost at once. And then there was his face.

"Ryland!" she gasped, letting go of him immediately. "I'm so sorry, I thought it was someone else! Why're you with--" She looked over and saw that the other capped man wasn't Mitchell or Kyle either. It was "--Gabe?!"

"Well, he's often with me. We're kind of a thing," Gabe smirked, taking off his sunglasses and leaning forward so that his face was at the same level as hers. He patted Katrina on top of her head, slightly squashing down the fuzz, and grinned. "It's actually not called a thing, though, it's called being in a band. And being sent to pick up two girls who were invited to stay with said band. That also makes him kinda with me."

"OK, fine, Mr. Smarty-pants," Katrina furrowed her eyebrows into a little angry face and stuck out her tongue, almost licking his nose by accident. It quickly dissolved into a sheepish smile, especially since Gabe didn't even flinch, but especially, especially, especially toward Ryland. Now she felt guilty. "Sorry for molesting you."

"He liked it," Gabe interrupted. As usual.

Ryland laughed at Katrina's apology. "It's fine. I did quite enjoy it. Not every day that you're mauled by a red-headed wonderball."

"But while that's all and good, where's the other half of your little duo? We were sent to pick up girls, not girl. Where's Briana?" Gabe spoke once more.

Katrina stopped for a moment, frozen in thought.

"...That's a good question. –BRI!" Katrina called, spinning around to search for her. Her hair whipped around and smacked Gabe in the face due to his close proximity, but it also skimmed across Ryland's neck and chest because of its ability to un-twirl and stretch. It stopped flipping around when her head stopped, though, since she'd found her target. Briana was right there, slowly and politely edging through the crowd. Ryland had spotted her when he had successfully ducked out of the way of the whipping curls, waved and smiled at the shorter of the two girls. Always nice to see old friends.

"Oh. Found her."

"Thank God," Gabe grumbled, reaching out a hand and magically finding Briana's shoulder. "Briana, you're sane. Help me. I think my eyes are bleeding."

Briana smiled a little at Ryland, waving to him before she saw Gabe. She reached up, cupping his face in her hands and looked at his eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary; just those same beautiful brown eyes that she'd always loved staring back into her own. She blushed a bit, but leaned in to press a gentle kiss to his cheek.

"You're fine, babe. No battle scars today," she said as she pulled away. "Glad you guys could find us. Or... Katrina find you guys rather. There's too many fucking people here for my liking." She glanced around at the crowd and noticed that a few people were beginning to stare and point fingers. "Uh-oh. I think they may have figured out your identities. We better hurry before we're mobbed." She took a hold of Gabe and Katrina's hands, beginning to pull them away from where they had been standing. Katrina started giggling when Briana grabbed her hand—another epic run for them.

It was still so weird, being slightly famous and having to worry about mobs. Whenever she was invited to come along with Briana and her wonderful cousin's crew, she always thought about how hard it must be to be a full-fledged Cobra. Victoria had told some stories that could get your heart pumping.

But not pumping like hers was right now, as Ryland grabbed her hand. He hadn’t wanted to feel left out of the hand holding business, so he had quickly grabbed onto her pale fingers before they had been pulled out of his reach.

Maybe it was just the adrenalin rush of having to tumble their way through a mob to get to safety, or maybe it was just the thrill of rushing in for a hug to find that it was him in the first place... Either way, Katrina's face flushed with the happiest feeling she'd felt all day. And, compared to how happy she'd been just coming to Musicility, that was epic.

Gabe rushed to the head of the group, followed by Briana. She had started the run, but of course he would take the lead. He had to knock people out of the way with his shoulders—or even with a swift head butt—so that the path was clear for the others. He would never let Briana do that, out of courtesy; she might get hurt. And Vicky-T's little cousin was NOT allowed to get ANY battle scars! Gabe wouldn't allow it, not on a sweet thing like her.

"Get the fuck out of the way!" he called once, seeing a big black man up ahead. Better to shoo that guy away with words. The crowd around him bustled out of the way, swarming him so that he, too, was eventually moved out of the bee-line Gabe had visually made toward the back doors. There we go. That battle scar would've hurt.

And finally, after a few more shouts and a lot more crashing into people, they made it to the back hall. Gabe shook off his "disguise hat" as they passed by the security guards, giving them a cheeky smile.

"Hey, we're back. These girls are with Ry and me, but make sure no one else gets in. I'm pretty sure we pissed some poor bastards off," he laughed, looking back at his line of buds as they crept wearily into the hallway that led to the back room. It was quiet and safe back here, but after Gabe squeezed Briana's hand and gave her a smile, he didn't let go.

They passed through the threshold and entered the hallway. Briana felt a squeeze on her hand and dropped Katrina's from her own grasp. She blushed a bit as Gabe continued to hold onto her hand. Why did she feel like this? She knew it was bad for her. She was probably just over thinking things; she tended to do that. It was a habit that she needed to stop though because it always got her hurt in the end.

"Thanks for that, Gabanti," she said with a smile as she slowly intertwined their fingers.

Gabe grinned widely at the fond nickname being used. Only his true friends ever called him that—and it was good to know he had such a close friend among them. Such a pretty friend.

He felt their fingers intertwine, and things got a bit hectic. He knew that he couldn't make a move here, even though his body was telling him now was the perfect time. First off, two friends were behind him—that meant nothing to him, but probably killed the atmosphere. Girls cared about atmosphere. And secondly, Briana wasn't just any girl—hell; he couldn't even call her a girl: She was a woman. He had to respect that.

And the only thing he knew about respecting women was not to touch them. But God...that was going to be hard. He clenched his other hand into a fist to keep it from reaching around. He almost set his jaw, but they'd come to the end of the hallway and to the open doorway to their relaxation room. And right there inside was Vicky-T, Nate, and Alex, all staring at them with curious, greedy little eyes.

"Hey," Nate bobbed his head upward and smiled in greeting. His eyes held a look of knowing that Gabe wasn't happy with. It was unsettling that he could tell just by looking... Crap, wait. Gabe looked down. No, he was good.

"There's a goddamn mob outside. It's a good thing Briana brought Katrina, or we might not have found them," Gabe said, just to break the awkward silence that came between hellos. He squeezed Briana's hand again. He didn't want to let go... If the others wanted to give her a hug or something, they'd have to come over and take her away from him.

Further down the hall, Ryland had slowed his pace down to a walk. He’d never let go of Katrina's hand once they had finished their adventure, wanting to walk beside her and give Gabe and Briana a chance to catch up. Ever since they had first met, Ryland had had a little crush on the woman. He had a feeling it was her red hair... or maybe the piercing blue eyes? Maybe even the freckles. Or the laugh. No, he was pretty sure it was everything about her that made him feel the way he did now. He was so glad that Vicky-T had offered to have them stay in their suite. He knew it was only because she had wanted more girls around so that she wouldn’t be stuck with the four men for the next three weeks, but he appreciated it all the same. Now he could have her check and make sure he was all good before they went out on stage.

"How was your trip up?" he asked, glancing down at her.

"Oh...it was ok, I guess," Katrina tried to think back to the bus ride up. It had been uncomfortable to sit all that time, of course, but Briana had been there, so she'd been fine... She couldn't think of any details worth discussing. She couldn't think of much at all, really. Not with Ryland so close, and still holding her hand. She felt her other hand dangling free, and realized that Briana had let go. And had moved on ahead, walking side-by-side with Gabe. Katrina gave them a silent cheer in her head—she’d always known they'd end up together. Hopefully now THEY would figure it out.

She turned her eyes back onto Ryland—Oh God, he was gorgeous. And he smelled like a mixture of citrus fruit shampoo and rugged old spices. She found herself leaning in toward him without even thinking; eventually she noticed, though, because she felt her hair press against his body. She looked down and saw her curls rubbing up against the front of his shirt. And then her cheek came to rest on it as well. She looked up into his eyes again quickly, her eyebrows rising to furrow together. Is this alright? she asked without a word. He looked so calm and inviting. She couldn't help herself—she just wanted to snuggle with him, right then and there.

"Well... what if I said that it wasn't any fun? Not at all. Except for thinking about how I'd get to see you..." The 'guys' that she meant to be on the end of that came out silently.

He smiled a bit as he looked into her blue eyes. She was as gorgeous as ever, but even more so than she had been the last time he saw her. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

"I... I'm glad you came," he said after his voice passed the lump in his throat.

"Briana!" Vicky-T exclaimed as she got up from the couch she was seated on, heading over to her cousin and throwing her arms around her neck. Briana smiled and wrapped her free arm around her; Victoria had always been her favorite cousin. The fact that she was in one of the most awesome bands in the world only added to her incredibility. That and the fact that she was the one who introduced Briana to Gabe. If it weren't for her... Briana wouldn't have been holding hands with this sexy beast.

She hoped that Vicky-T would understand her not wanting to release his hand. She had expressed her feelings for the Cobra front man to her cousin a little while back. She hoped that she had kept it a secret though; it would be nice for Gabe to know her feelings for him, but if he didn't feel the same way and only saw her as 'just a friend', Briana wouldn't even know what to do with herself. She already knew how badly it hurt to have to deny someone and she didn’t want to put Gabe through that.

Alex, who had been playing with the game system the hotel had hooked up to the TV, paused his game and placed the controller down. He stood from his spot on the ground, dusted off his pants before joining the hug between the two females, turning it into a group hug.

"Glad you guys could make it. It'd be nice to not be the only girl around for a few weeks," Vicky-T commented as she squeezed Briana. As the hug ended, Vicky-T gave her a small wink before looking over her shoulder. "Where are Ryland and Katrina?"

Briana glanced over her shoulder and saw the two had stopped in the hallway and were holding each other in a warm embrace. She smiled happily; she had this sense that Ryland and Katrina had a thing for each other, but never had any proof until now.

"Let's leave the two love birds to themselves, hm?" she commented. Gabe looked back over his shoulder and out the doorway.

"Whoa. Never saw that coming," he said with a low, shrill whistle. And he hadn't—maybe he just didn't have that intuition. It was supposed to be a girl thing anyway, right? The way Briana and Vicky-T were smiling at each other, it was.... But then why Nate seemed to have it was beyond him.

If Alex had it too, he was going to have to sue somebody.

"You sure we shouldn't break it up?" he asked with a joking smile. "Don't want them making babies out in the hallway—that's what we have this room back here for."

"But then again, I wouldn't want anyone making babies in here either," Nate said with a wink. Damn him, that man knew too much.

"Well I say the more the merrier," Gabe threw out.

"Oh, then you don't mind if I get a turn for a hug," Nate smiled slyly, his piercing twinkling in sync with his mischievous eyes. They softened up when he looked to Briana, though. "Hey, Briana. It's good to see you again," he said, enveloping her in a hug. "I wanted to wait my turn, save the best for last. Haha"

She smiled at Nate as she wrapped an arm around the man. He was the closest one to her height and she didn't feel small next to him. That and he was also the one she would talk to when she was thinking of getting a random piercing and he would have the good sense to talk her out of it.

"In that case, you should have gone first, little fucker..." Gabe grumbled under his breath. But that was OK. Try as he might, Nate hadn't gotten them apart. Gabe squeezed Briana's hand again, and coughed after a moment of awkward standing by. He was the jealous type when it came to her.

Vicky-T could sense that something was brewing between Gabe and Briana and she figured it would be best to stay out of it. She made her way back to the chair she had been seated on before. As she got comfortable, she heard a few barks from her black Pomeranian, Gizmo. She figured he was just excited to see Briana. She felt something run across her foot and glanced down. Chilling right next to her foot was a small, grey mouse that was squeaking a bit as it skittered away. She let out a squeak of her own and lifted her feet onto the couch next to her. Alex turned around to look at Vicky-T, wondering why she had made the weird noise.

"You alright?" he asked as he glanced down at Gizmo, who was continuing to bark and chase something around the room.

"There's a mouse!" she shouted, her voice higher than any of them had ever heard.

By this time, Briana had let go of Nate. When she heard the word 'mouse', she made a small noise before clinging to Gabe. She wasn't too fond of mice. She was fine with hamsters and guinea pigs, but mice were just weird to her; it was probably the tails.

Gabe couldn't resist acting like the action hero--Not only was Briana clinging to him like a damsel in distress, Vicky-T was acting strangely girly. Extremely girly. Apparently they hadn't knocked it out of her yet.

"Here Briana, hop on up," Gabe bit back a laugh behind his smile. He squeezed her hand again to reassure her, and then let their fingers slip apart so that he could turn around. "Hurry hurry, piggy back ride to safety." He bent his knees so that she could climb aboard, fitting his hands underneath her thighs, right in the niche where they met her tight tushy. Briana hopped up onto Gabe's back, glad that there would be something separating her from the mice on the floor. He had to redistribute his weight to stay balanced, so bent his head forward a bit—and found the little devil right underfoot.

"Agh, little bastard!" he shooed it away with the toe of his shoe, sending it squeaking away toward a hole in the wall. "Nate, get a broom or something, there's probably a few of them if they have their own little hole."

"Already on it," Nate called back, sweeping underneath the couch that Vicky-T had climbed upon. Another little mouse scurried out in fear, almost all white as if it had never seen the light of day from underneath that place. "Poor little things. But they shouldn't be here—we'll get them out, girls. It'll be ok."

"Yeah, we'll exterminate them!" Gabe said proudly, adjusting Briana on his back again. He grabbed a handful of something he honestly shouldn't have, and adjusted his hand further down her legs. "Whoops..." he murmured, settling his hands about mid-thigh. He had to be careful...

She felt his hand wandering, but surprisingly didn't mind. If it had been any other guy, she probably would have hit him over the back of the head. Somehow she found it slightly endearing and rested her head onto his back, her arms wrapped loosely around his neck.

"My hero," she whispered into his ear, a small giggle following it. She tried to keep her eyes from looking down and seeing any scurrying, white creatures.

Gabe grinned widely. Then he realized; the door to the hallway was still open.

"...Hey, Nate, do you think the little rascals are just in this room, or everywhere?"

Nate looked up from swatting at another mouse that had popped out shortly after the white one.

"Well, with the concentration of mice I've been finding under this couch, I'd say they're all hiding out in here. But I could be wrong—"

"No, no, I trust you man. You know these things," Gabe said, actually very serious. "What I'm thinking, though, is that we don't kick these mice out. We just switch out."

"...Get a new room?" Nate asked, leaning on the broom. Another mouse escaped while he wasn't on the prowl, making it to the mouse hole and fitting its large, worm-tailed derriere into the hole. "...."

"...We need to get a new room," Gabe stated firmly.

"Agreed."

Briana heard the sound of people entering the room and thought that Ryland and Katrina finally decided to rejoin the group. She turned to look and see who it was.

Standing in the doorway was the most beautiful man she had ever seen in her entire life. His high cheek bones, dark hair, bright blue eyes and slim figure—shown off by the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt—all put together created one of the most perfect images. She knew she had seen him somewhere before, but she was too dumbstruck by his attractiveness to put two and two together.

“—Tyson Ritter?!” she heard Katrina’s voice echo through the hallway. Her eyes widened even more. In the doorway was none other than Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects.