Stranded

At about one o’clock, we reached the venue. By that time, of course, everyone was up. We met back up with the other bands and just had a blast.

“Whoa, Gabe, Vicky!” Jonathan cheered, “What’s up, guys?”

Alley emerged from the bus and I saw her eyes go wide as she saw the member of her favorite band. I smirked. “And who is this?”
Caleb asked.

“My baby sister!” Sara shouted, right arm slung over Alley’s shoulder.

“Nice to meet you…”

“Alley.” She blushed, taking Caleb’s offered hand and shaking it. Being back to the bus was a bittersweet thing…bitter because of the screaming fans and hot venues (so glad they weren’t my screaming fans. Of course, I worked under a penname). Sweet because of all the people (bands and the not screaming fan girls) and the energy you felt from the crowd. And I didn’t even get to go upstage! I could feel it from behind the soundboards.

Sara was having her pre-show breakdown again. You’d think after a while, she would get used to it…but she didn’t. “I’m fine.” She insisted, pacing backstage and biting her nails. Then, a smile spread on her face. “I’m totally fine.” This was the usual.

I kissed the sweating Jack lightly, careful not to get all sweaty, when he came offstage and Alex introduced ‘Remembering Sunday’

“This song is about meeting a puppy, and going to your parents to buy you that puppy, but they say no. And you’re torn away from that puppy, and it sucks balls.” He said. I raised my eyes at Jack, who shrugged.

“Ever had that happen to you? I cried for a full week once.” He explained. “It’s a tragic experience.”

I nodded, I totally understood how it felt. We’ve all gone through that at some point, Sara and I possibly more. Sara always got this look on her face that was kind of pathetic, AND WE COULDN’T EVER GET THE PUPPY!

“Even more amazing in person!” Gabe slapped Sara’s back when she came offstage, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, those stage lights were HOT! From the corner of my eye I saw Alex watching her as he got out his regular guitar. Sara blushed and I said goodbye to Jack for the time being by giving him a pat on the back. I really didn’t want to kiss him again on account of all the sweat, you know? Sara wandered off, she didn’t take compliments very well at all.

Once the All Time Low boys moved offstage, we went back to the bus. Sara giggled from the little booth-y type table thing. “Okay-dokey, Mikey, I’ll talk to you later, have fun in your classes tomorrow. I hope you ace the Calculus test!” She cheered. Alex had a pained expression on his face when he heard this. Maybe I’ll just buy him a whole bunch of green things, he was so obvious.

“Hey Sara, we’re going to play Scrabble on teams, want to play?”

“Oh, sure.” She nodded, putting away her phone as she ignored another call, probably from her dad by the look on her face. Beforehand, Jack, Rian, Zack, Gabe, Vicky, and I decided we’d force Sara and Alex on a team together.

“I call a team with Makahla!” Jack shouted, hand in the air.

“I’m on Zack’s!” Rian called.

“I get Gabe!” Vicky said calmly, she radiated cool.

“Then that leaves me with Alex.” Sara stated, sending me a glare that said she knew what I had done, Alex sent one to Jack. Dang, they both knew their best friends too well.

We played Scrabble, Jack and I wiping up the floor with them due to my English Major, Sara and Alex were a close second though…by like 50 points. I scoffed as Alex put down the word ‘Goober’.

“Is that even a legal word?” Vicky asked.

“No! It’s totally legit! It’s a peanut.” Alex argued.

“It is!” Sara defended their word. “I went on this vegetarian kick and I totally ate some for breakfast every morning, that is, until I realized I liked steak too much to give it up.”

“It’s true.” I put it, and watched Sara add up the score.

We all had to sit close together due to the tight space on the bus, so Jack ended up sitting on my lap, my thighs being guarded against his bony butt by a pillow. Sara and Alex were shoved shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee. They looked rather…comfortable.

I laughed when Jack curled up against me like a little kid.

“Isn’t that a little backwards? Should you be sitting on him?” Vicky finally piped up about our sitting arrangements, pointing to Jack, who had started to pretend suck his thumb.

“No, I don’t want to break him, because if I did, it would be problematic for All Time Low and for me. I’d get murdered by the Jack fan girls!”

Two hours later and we were on our second game, this time Jack and I weren’t winning. I was growing tired, and left most of the words to Jack, who mainly spelled out as many dirty words as he could. Sara had quickly covered his ‘F’ word with ‘SACK’ when her turn came around.

Sadly, his vocabulary is about as big as his attention span. I still liked him…even if he was kind of simple minded. I was kind of nodding off. I needed caffeine. Towards the end of the game, Sara had fallen asleep with her head on Alex’s shoulder. He looked rather fidgety…

I had just sat down with a can of Dr. Pepper when Gabe jumped up from the table in triumph, “BOO-YAH, SUCKERS!” He shouted, causing Sara to jolt awake. “We win, you wussies!” Sara rubbed her eyes, not noticing the death stare Gabe got from Alex. Jack pouted at me.

“Kay-Kay, we lost!” He whined, burying his face in my hair, pretending to cry.

“Stop gloating, you made Jack cry!” I commanded Gabe jokingly.

“Sorry, Jack. It’s not my fault you suck.” Gabe stuck his tongue out.

“It’s partly your fault, Jack…” I said apologetically, “You kept spelling four or five letter words…” Jack gave me a look that told me he was fake mad, but trying not to laugh.

“I don’t wanna pway tis game anymowe.” He said like a five year old that just got his Tonka truck taken away.

Sara fell back asleep as we dealt some cards and started a game of poker, using Cheetos as our bargaining chips. We had obviously split up into individual people now for this game.