We've Got Unfinished Business

Just as I had finished setting each different piece of clothing up on a rack Sam came over with a box of her own in her hand.

“Hey you don’t mind if I set up next to you right?” she asked as she set the box down on the counter.

“Nope there is plenty of room here.” I said motioning my hands to say ‘go right ahead and take the space’.

“Thanks Casey” she thanked as she jumped up on the counter then swung her legs around to my side. I watched as she put the box on the ground and opened it to reveal tons of All Time Low shirts of one kind. Then Vinny came around with another box in his hand telling Sam that it was the pillow cases. I just watched as she set up each shirt and Vinny coming with box after box telling her what shirts it was, me not understanding as he briefly told her what ones they were until she hung them up.

“So, Sam have you talked to Cobra’s merch guy?” I questioned remembering what she had told me quite awhile ago while sitting up on the counter.

“Oh, Adam? Yes I have” she replied with a smirk.

“Cute huh?” I laughed.

“Very! And I find it funny how he thinks he’s all that.” She smiled, but then I guess realizing that she needed to get back to work when she saw Vinny she started to open another box.

“Are you two” I paused “Ya know on one of the bases?”

“What?!” Sam shrieked turning a deep red “Were only friends!”

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realize.” I laughed turning a light pink I’m sure from embarrassment.

“No that’s fine” Sam sighed pinning up a shirt on an empty rack. That was the end of our conversation, but I stayed and watched as she set up the shirts. I figured it would be nice to have a girl friend to talk to rather then get distracted and caught up with Jack again and just have a big mess in the end with Martin.

After about a minute or two, Vinny came with one more box and started to help Sam with everything. He took out one of each shirt that still wasn’t up and threw them at Sam making her giggle. Then he started to place a few of each different sized shirt around the box. They really had the system down perfectly. I could defiantly learn from these two.

Next I watched Vinny take a poster out and a sharpie. He placed both to the side of me since I was still sitting on the counter and tapped Sam on the shoulder.

“Hey you still wanna do this?” Vinny snickered.

“Hell yeah their album is called Nothing Personal!” she laughed as she picked up a sharpie and Vinny continued doing her job.

“Alright, but I call Alex” Vinny smirked as he picked up a pin that was on the ground.

“What are you doing?” I questioned truly curious.

“Oh just helping promote the new album” Sam smirked as she started to draw something on Jack with the black sharpie marker. When she was done I started to laugh and Vinny came rushing over laughing too. Sam had drawn a mustache on Jack’s face with round glasses. Vinny and I watched then as she drew on Rian next. I then asked if I could draw something on Zack and she gladly handed me the marker.

I then unskillfully started to draw tiny flies and stink lines coming from Zack’s shoulders. Sam held up her hand to give me a high-five so I gave her one. I then handed the marker to Vinny laughing as he headed that marker tip right to Alex’s face seeming to already know what he wanted to draw. It took only a few seconds to finish what he wanted to draw and when I saw it I rolled my eyes lightly laughing. He drew a cigarette bud coming out of Alex’s mouth and smoke lines.

“What do you think they will say when they see this?” I chuckled hopping down off the counter since my ass hurt.

“I don’t know, but they’ll probably get a laugh out of it.” Sam smiled looking at the poster over again.

“Or we could get Case here to deliver the picture to show them.” Vinny suggested with a big grin.

“Don’t mind if I do!” I shouted picking up the tarnished poster with both hands.

“Off you go then!” Sam laughed waving goodbye as I held the poster up facing me and they shoved me to the right where the exit was. It was just easier to go on the counter and outside, but I didn’t want to damage the poster. With a big grin plastered to my face I knocked on All Time Low’s bus with confidence.

“Casey!” Jack shouted enthusiastically as he threw his arms up in the air and embraced me in a hug.

“Ah! Jack your crumpling the poster!” I gasped pushing him back while laughing.

”Oh! Let me see the poster! Who is it of?” Jack questioned grabbing the poster and turning it around so he could see it. He paused for only a second before he started to crack up saying “This is genius! Who came up with such a brilliant idea?!”

“Well Sam, Vinny, and I drew this masterpiece, but I believe it was Sam’s idea.” I replied with a smile.

“Bravo! I’ll have to praise her later!” Jack laughed “So who did you draw on?”

“Zack’s” I smiled happily and Jack gave me a hard pat on the back.

“This is great! You have to show Alex, Rian, and Zack! They aren’t here though so I’ll make sure they stop by the shirt stand.” Jack stated handing the poster back to me.

“So then you’re busy?” I asked “You of all people are busy?”

“Not busy enough for a quick thrust.” Jack happily stated as he quickly thrusted the air.

“And on that note I’m leaving!” I shouted coving my eyes. I walked away still covering my eyes and hoping that I don’t run into anything. However it never works that way and I ran into someone as they grunted with an ‘oomph’. When I took my hands off my eyes I looked up to meet Martin’s face.

“Hey Martin” I smiled as I held the poster in just one hand and hugged him with the other. He kissed the top of my head before letting me go.

“So what’s that in your hand?” he asked pointing to it and I handed it to him. He chuckled rolling his eyes and handed it back to me saying “Did you do that yourself?”

“Actually I just drew on Zack. Sam and Vinny were really the culprits. I just helped a bit.” I said with a smirk.

“You’re a little devil.” Martin said laughing and giving himself horns with his fingers. I rolled my eyes at how corny that was and patted him on the back. He grabbed me and planted a sweet kiss on my lips making me giggle. I covered my mouth when I giggled and sighed. I started to head toward where I knew Sam and Vinny were waiting for the news, but Martin was following me.

“Is there something that you need from me mister?” I asked placing one hand on my hip stopping and facing him.

“Yeah I want to hang out with my girlfriend!” he shouted as he clung to my free arm. Was I really not hanging out with him that much? I thought as we started to walk again. The last time I talked to Martin was late last night because I hadn’t seen him this morning when I had that little episode with Jack. Matter of fact this was the first time I really saw him today and what was it? Well past lunch time? This reminded me, I’m hungry!

“Hey Martin do you want to go to get some lunch?” I questioned as we entered behind where our merch was set up.

“Yeah sure want to go now?” Martin replied and I nodded, but added “Just let me give this poster back to Sam and Vinny”

When I got where I had left them last they were laughing about something. I wondered what, but I didn’t question them about it. I just simply handed the poster back with a huge smile.

“So what happened?” Sam asked immediately taking the poster from my hand and handing it to Vinny to hang up.

“I just showed it to Jack, but he loved it.” I laughed “Oh and by the way Sam he said he was going to praise you later. What are you a dog to him?”

“Oh no he’s going to praise me later? I better hide while I still can.” She laughed while covering her face which was a light pink.

“Why what does he do?” I said almost scared to even ask knowing Jack.

“He follows me around for at least a good two minutes thrusting the air behind me.” She sighed, but also was lightly laughing.

“But you love it Sam!” Vinny shouted messing her hair up as she squealed covering her head.

“You love it Vinny! You love it so much you’re jealous!” she retorted.

“Yeah cuz I wanna fuck that shit” Vinny joked winking. We all had our laughs for a bit, Martin putting in a word or two. Then we left to go get some lunch and or dinner since it was now some time around three in the afternoon. We didn’t drive or anything since the town was close so we just walked. We had a few laughs before we found a cute little diner stuck in between a hat store and a comic book store.

We went inside and it was quite warm from the cool air outside. It was seat yourself so I let Martin pick a spot in the way back that was secluded from the few people that were here. Martin and I exchanged a few words before really studying the menu for something delicious. By the time we had picked out what we wanted the waitress came to see if she could take our orders. So we did and she was gone and then back in a flash with just our drinks.

For some reason I just didn’t know what to say for once with Martin. It was really strange and I think that there was something he just wanted to burst out and say, but wasn’t. I scratched my head awkwardly in the silence.

“Martin is there something you want to say to me?” I asked not looking at him. Instead I was looking down into my glass of Pepsi stirring the straw.

“What do you mean?” he said playing dumb.

“Come on I can tell you just want to say something to me!” I smiled thinking maybe it was something childish instead and he was embarrassed to say something.

“Ah, it’s nothing” he said waving me off. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Really?” I sighed brushing the hair out of my face as the waitress came with our orders.

“Well” he paused looking at his food “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I laughed “Come on you can tell me! If it’s a secret I’ll be sure to keep it” I winked.

“That! That right there.” I shrugged and I gave him a confused look leaning back in my booth seat “I don’t know you’ve just been acting a little different is all.”

“Oh.” I mumbled. So this is what it was about. I knew he was noticing me and Jack being real friendly with each other even though it was only day two of the tour with All Time Low.

“Yeah don’t worry about it though.” He mumbled back picking up a fry and putting it in his mouth.

“Well I just want you to tell me all your worries Martin just get them all out and we can work them out!” I exclaimed giving a small smile as I picked up my grilled cheese sandwich and took a bite.

“Alright” Martin shrugged “I guess.”

“Yeah so go on tell me anything on your mind.” I reassured taking another bite and then a sip of my drink.

“Well it just seems like you’ve been acting like a different Case that I know and are dating. Then there’s you and Jack. When did you become such great friends? Last I heard you were fighting pretty badly! Man and I didn’t realize you were so outgoing and I didn’t know you could come up with such stuff for that prank bullshit you started with Gabe.” He paused to take a gulp from his soda “I’ve been learning a whole mess of new stuff about you too, I looked you up with your former band. Why didn’t you tell me about that?”

“Wow yeah that’s a lot I don’t know where to start Martin.” I sighed not looking at him. He had so many things I had to explain to him. I thought he knew me pretty well already, I guess I was wrong.

“I’m sorry” he mumbled also looking down and not at me.

“Well I realize I’ve been acting different. Tour has just brought the real me I think out I mean when I get caught up in work I can still be like this, but not to such an extreme since its my job.” I explained “Then I didn’t really tell you that until like a day before you left because you guys wiggled it out of me! I didn’t really want to say anything because it was my past and I just wanted to forget most of it. Wait you looked me up?”

“Yeah I did I just wanted to know more about that and what you looked like back then.” Martin said scratching the back of his neck and lightly blushing but added “Anyway what about you and Jack?”

I was hopping that he didn’t realize that I hadn’t answered that question, but apparently it was most likely his number one on his imaginary ‘got to know’ list in his head. I didn’t answer his question right away I just ate some food as if to say ‘I’ll get to the question in a moment’. I really was just trying to think of what I was going to tell me. Its not like I was doing anything wrong with Jack, but I was just sure Martin would be upset since in fact he was my ex and I was getting friendly with him again. Why me?

“Jack and I huh? Well I talked to him over the phone a few times last month and we patched things up so were going to try to be friends again.” I answered truthfully.

“It seemed like you guys were never fighting the way you were yesterday and today.” Martin commented.

“What is that suppose to mean?” I asked slightly raising my voice.

“Oh I don’t know all the hugging and hanging out with him-” I cut him off.

“Alex was there too!”

“Not today! I saw you talking to him and laughing and tickling each other while he was in his underwear this morning! And I saw you go into the tour bus with him with his arm slug around you!” Martin said a bit fumed.

“Martin we went in his tour bus because he dropped a heavy box on his fucking foot! I was helping him!” I replied.

“And when did you start using foul language? I mean I use it but you?” he complained.

“I’m just a jumble of problems aren’t I? I’m a big girl Martin I can fucking curse if I fucking want to!”
“Why are you acting this way?”
“This is me Martin. Me.”
“No. This isn’t.”

And with that I slid out of the booth shoving my hand in my pocket. He just watched me as I pulled some money out of my pocket and threw it on the table paying for my own food. I grabbed the remaining half of my sandwich and started to walk away. He didn’t even try and stop me! It made me even madder until I heard Martin start to call my name. I was glad he at least was chasing after me it made me feel a bit better, but I was still pissed at him.

“Case!” Martin shouted again, but grabbed my wrist “Hold up.”

“What?” I rudely asked not fighting his grip on me.

“Is this our first real fight?” he said with a heart warming grin as I looked up at him. I processed what he had said in my head and lightly giggled. This was in fact our real first fight.

“Yeah it is. Look I’m sor-” Martin cut me off.

“No I’m sorry I was getting to suspicious I have to trust you if this relationship is going to work out” Martin said.

“Thank you.” I smiled and hugged him. I was glad things were patched up that easily, but it was our first fight they were suppose to be like that especially when you realized it was your first. However I knew when the next fight broke out it would be different and I was really hopping that next fight wouldn’t be anytime soon.

“Hey wanna get out of here?” he asked and I nodded as he left me to go pay for the remaining food and tip. When he came back he took my hand and my sandwich in my other and took a bite out of it.

“Hey! That’s my sandwich!” I shouted childishly trying to grab it from him.

“Don’t start fight number two now” Martin stated with a wink. I laughed and let it drop as I watched him eat my yummy sandwich. Luckily no one had noticed I was with Martin from Boys Like Girls, but just as I thought we were out of the rough a very shy girl came up to us asking for a picture. She just so happened to have a camera with her. Maybe she was going to the concert tonight? I asked her before she left and she said that she was. Even though we were stopped that one time she was nice to we hadn’t noticed.

The trouble started when more girls noticed him as we started walking back to the building. We were screwed, but he had a fun time with it because after Martin signing a few things for girls we started to ditch them by running down the nearest ally. Martin shouted back apologies and waved as we escaped from them. As we got back to the buses laughing we ran into Jack walking around.

Quickly I looked at Martin and he had a straight face on. Something was telling me that Jack and Martin weren’t going to get along that great during tour. I bit my lip as I looked between the two and noticed Jack was weakly smiling while looking at us both and our intertwined fingers.

“Hey Case, Martin.” Jack greeted with a smile. Boy was he good with those fake smiles. I knew deep inside it hurt him to see us together and I can understand why, but he lost his chance and I had found another fish in the sea. I kept telling myself though that I was with Martin and that that was final, but then I couldn’t help but also wonder why I had to tell myself that so many times.

“Hey Jack Attack” I said with a short wave. As soon as the words had left my mouth I felt Martin’s hand and fingers shift uneasily and I instantly knew what I had done wrong. I called him by a nickname that I just used occasionally when I felt like it and here in this situation I just had to use it didn’t I?

I was just making things worse and things wouldn’t get better if I couldn't just stop and think before I go and say something. But I couldn’t help I seemed to be getting mixed feelings lately. There I said it. I was getting mixed feelings about them both.