I Had It All

-Present Day-

“Finally!” Jack yelled, plopping onto the bus couch. “I fucking hate press. I feel all… awkward, and shit.”

“You’ve sure got a way with words, Jack,” Rian teased, earning a proud smile from Jack.

We somehow made it through our week filled with photo shoots, interviews, and radio promotions. Today was Thursday, which meant we began our interviews and photo shoots for our Alternative Press cover story since we had arrived in Cleveland.

“I’m so glad this is the last thing we have to deal with this week,” I admitted.

-Flashback-

“What time do they want us to start putting our equipment together on Friday?” Zack asked from my couch.

“They didn’t fucking book us, Zack. We don’t have a fucking gig,” I complained, tossing him a can of soda, only because my parents were home, so we couldn’t get away with alcohol.

“So we’re not playing Friday? We don’t have anything to do at all?” Jack whined. “What am I supposed to do?! I can’t sit home all night! I’ll rip my hair out!”

“Shut up, Jack, we’ll hang out or something. We know better than to leave you alone at your house. Your house may end up being at risk,” Rian said nonchalantly.

“Yeah… Wait! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Jack could be really dull sometimes.

“Anyway,” I sighed, “maybe we could… I don’t know… go to the football game? We are seniors, after all. When have we ever actually gone to a football game? You know maybe just to see what we’ve been missing, since we’ll never get a chance to see our high school team play again.”

“You kidding me? We’re not missing anything. No offense, man, but your school’s team sucks,” Zack laughed, knowing full well that his school, Towson, was undefeated and ours clearly wasn’t.

“That’s true,” I agreed. “But hey, it’ll be something to do.”

-------

“Hey Alex,” Kelsey greeted sweetly, kissing my lips. It had been a while since she had been in high spirits, so it was nice to see her so happy.

“How are you doing, Kelseykins?”

“Pretty good,” she replied sincerely.

“So, what’re we doing Friday night?” I inquired, hoping she said “nothing”.

Kelsey shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Well…wanna go to the football game with Rian, Kara, Jack, Zack and I?”

She looked taken aback. “You don’t have a gig?”

“Nah. They didn’t book us.”

“Bastards,” she breathed, then laughed. I had to laugh too; she seemed so serious. “Well then yes, I’d be honored to accompany you to our losing football game Friday night.” She smiled and latched her arm with mine jokingly.

“Great.”

-Present Day-

“Come on, get your asses in there,” Matt demanded, his eyes on his watch as he propped the glass door to the building open with his foot. We all filed in and stood by the front desk. Posters, set lists, calendars, schedules, and ticket stubs lined the walls, giving it a relaxing vibe, even though it was an office building.

The lady at the front desk looked up at us and smiled sincerely. “Ah, All Time Low! You’ll be doing your photo shoot today. We’re going to do a few frames of each of you separately for the spread, and a few of all of you together for the cover. You’ll get final decision on the cover shot, but the rest will be done in the editing room. Then, you’ll each be separated for individual interviews. Tomorrow, you'll all do a final interview together.”

“Great, thank you,” Matt told the woman with a grin. Something said he liked her a little too much.

“Oh Matt, you’re such a flirtatious little bastard,” Jack teased with a grin, earning a blush and a nervous laugh from Flyzik. If the receptionist hadn’t been there, Jack surely would have been called a “fucker”, “shithead”, or something else along those lines.

“Alright boys, your photographer’s office is right around the corner. Pleasure meeting you,” she said kindly.

“Thank you,” my bandmates and I said.

“Uh, I think I’ll just wait here for a few minutes…” Matt said.

We laughed and slapped his back encouragingly as we headed for the photographer’s office.

In a matter of a few hours, the photos were complete, and we were all pretty pleased with how they came out. The polite photographer pointed us in the direction of our interviewers and we headed down the hallway.

“I hope I get a chick interviewer with a nice rack,” Jack mused seriously. He opened the door to the room he’d be doing his individual interview in, took a peak with the door ajar, turned around, and gave us a thumbs up. I guess he got what he wanted.

Soon, Rian and Zack went into different rooms for their interviews as well. A fourth door swung open, revealing my interviewer.

Her brown hair hung in loose curls on her shoulder and they swung forward when her head snapped disbelievingly in my direction. Her familiar intense blue eyes widened in shock and horror.

“Alex?”