Manage Me, I'm a mess

I smiled widely as we all exited the bus. The two buses had people exiting them as well. I gasped and clutched Sophie’s arm.

“Oh, God. It’s Gabe. Just look at him, isn’t he amazing?” I said. She squealed in response. “And…OH DEAR LORD IT’S TRACE,” I said. She screamed…loudly. The members of both buses (including Gabe and Trace) looked towards us.

“Shit, think fast.” She said.

“Um…SORRY! SHE’S MENTALLY UNSTABLE!” I screamed. They all laughed, knowing I was joking and turned away, and I sighed in relief.

“Oh my God. Did you seriously just do that?!” Sophie hissed. I shrugged apologetically.

“You know…it’s not exactly a turn on when you scream for other men.” Rian said.

“Aw, Ri, Don’t worry, I love you too!” she said, pecking him on the cheek.

“Too?” he squinted his eyes at her.

“We’ll you can’t not love Gabe and Trace, it’s just…impossible.” She said, almost apologetically. Rian huffed and walked away, dragging away Sophie by the waist who kept her eyes lovingly on Gabe the whole time. I followed them, feeling quite sad that I had nobody to drag me away by the waist.

We walked into a fifties-style diner. I took a seat between Alex and Jack who was drinking the little cream cups for the coffee. We’d joined about six tables so everyone fit. I was looking at the menu trying to concentrate and ignore the fact that Gabe Saporta was sitting right across from me. I looked up unwillingly and caught him staring at me with a curious expression. When I looked at him, he smiled.

"Sorry...it's just you look so familiar," he said.

"I'm Alex's best friend..." I said.

"Oh! So you're the infamous Serena."

"That would be me," I smiled.

"Yeah, he showed us a picture of you on his phone once. You're all he talks about when he's on tour. Serena this, Serena that. I feel like I know you better than you know yourself," he laughed.

"We'll, Alex does know me better than I know myself so you probably do." I giggled.

"How long have you two been friends?"

"Since we were four. Pre-k." I said. His eyebrows rose.

"Wow," he said as I laughed. We talked until we had to go back on to the buses and drive to the hotel. Then, after the boys played their set, we were going clubbing!

I was in the crowd waiting for the boys to come on. Thanks to my 'connections' I was right in the front by the stage. I could've been backstage but I wanted to be in the crowd.

Then Jack came on, clutching his guitar. The crowd like me went absolutely wild; I was screaming my butt off. I continued screaming while Rian and Zack entered. They started the introduction to Coffee Shop Soundtrack and then we heard Alex's voice as he walked out onto the stage. I cheered as loud as I possibly could.

I could see Alex smiling down at me as he sang. Then I felt a sharp pain in my side. I looked over and the girl beside me was glaring at me.

"Do you have a problem?" I asked.

"Stay away from Alex, he's mine." she said. I laughed.

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm planning on bagging him after the show," she said, a smug smile on her face.

"Alex is my best friend, I know him well enough to know he'd never like you,"

"Psh, yeah right he's your best friend. You’d be back stage. You’re delusional..."

"If you say so," I said. She'd see after the show, when I was with the band. I noticed Alex
looking at us curiously. I smiled reassuringly and shook my head. The song came to a finish and to my surprise Alex walked over to where I was standing.

"Hi, Alex!" the bitchy girl chirped. He sort of just looked at her weirdly. He must’ve seen us arguing.

"Come backstage. I don't want you here, you could get hurt." he said, looking pointedly at the girl,

"I'll be fine, now go play!" the other girl was watching me in shock and anger as I smiled triumphantly at her. He stood up and offered both hands to me. I rolled my eyes but took them and he hoisted me onto the stage. He took my waist and walked to the microphone. He had his hands around my waist from behind, my back pressed against him and his chin on my shoulder.

"So, most of you don't know who this is!" he said, pointing at me with his index finger. "This
is Serena, and she's my best friend, pretty much my other half."

"I thought I was your other half!" a voice said from deep in the crowd. Alex laughed.

"We've been friends since pre-k, and she's pretty tight with the rest of our band too. They all love her." he said.

Jack leaned into his microphone and yelled, "Were BFF’s!" I giggled and blew him a kiss. He blew one back.

"So just earlier today, we had a little fight. You see, turns out, Serena loves to sing and write songs but she never told anyone." I looked to Alex in shock. What was he doing? "We only found out because Jack heard her singing in the shower," he said. I turned the mike to me.

"Apparently, we don't knock on tour," I said as the crowd laughed.

"So, I was thinking, maybe Serena will sing for us, you know if we're lucky." At this, I tried to run away, but Alex was anticipating that. He grabbed my hand and held me there effortlessly as he continued to speak into the mike.

"Cause I hear she's fantastic, and I'd love to see for myself. What do you say, guys?" I was still struggling to get away from him. The crowd cheered loudly. "Nah, I think she needs a bit more convincing..." they cheered even louder, "Okay, were pulling the Jack card." Jack walked up to me then.

"Please Serena? Please sing for us?" he had this adorable look on his face that reminded me of a five year old. I sighed. How can you say no to a screaming crowd and Jack Barakat?

"Fine!" I threw my hands in the air. Someone immediately came from backstage and put a stool in front of the microphone. "I don't even know what to sing," I whispered to Alex.

"Sing what you sang today, the guys and I already know the beat, we’ll I showed them as much as I could…" Jack said.

"I can't do this..." Jack took my shoulders.

"You can, S. You can do this, because if you don’t, I will do something very bad," I laughed.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to...eat a monkey.” He said. I took a deep breath and walked to the stool.

“Ew.” I made a disgusted face.

"Hey guys," I said, quietly. "So, I guess I'm going to...sing. It's an original, so don't hate me if you don't like it," I took another deep breath, it was shaky. Then I looked back at the guys. “I’m going to start, and you go in once you know the beat properly.” I said. They nodded.

"And it's a sad picture, the final blow hits you, somebody else gets what you wanted again, you know it's all the same, another time and place, repeating history and you're getting sick of it..." I started to get more into it, but still nervous. Rian started in on the drums, giving the song a beat.

"But I believe in whatever you do, and I'll do anything to see it through," I went to the chorus, taking a big gulp of air. The guitars started in then, making the song sound fantastic.

"Because these things will change, can you feel it now? These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down, it's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win..." I dragged out the last word.

"We'll sing hallelujah! We'll sing hallelujah! Oh," This part I belted out as hard as I could.

"So we've been outnumbered, raided and now cornered, it's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair, we're getting stronger now from things they never found, they might be bigger but we're faster and never scared..." All my nerves were gone now, just me and the song.

"You can walk away and say we don't need this, but there's something in your eyes says we can beat this...'Cause these things will change, can you feel it now? These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down, it's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win..."

"We'll sing hallelujah! We'll sing hallelujah! Oh," I tapped the beat onto my knee as I sang, moving my shoulders as well. The guys added their own stuff in the pause, making the song sound even better.

"Tonight we stand, get off our knees, to fight for what we worked for all these years and the battle was long, it's the fight of our lives...will we stand up champions tonight?"

"It was the night things changed, can you see it now? These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down, it's a revolution, throw your hands up, 'cause we never gave in..." I sang this part quietly, the beat slowing and the speeding up for the next part.

"We'll sing hallelujah! We sang hallelujah! Hallelujah!" The song dragged to a stop, and I took a deep breath. The crowd went wild, cheering loudly...for me. I looked back at Alex who smiled widely at me.

"Thank you guys so much, I hope you liked it!" I said and walked off the stage to the back.

"Wow, so was that phenomenal or what?" Alex asked the crowd. "So, let's get one more thank you for Serena!" They cheered loudly and the band went into Poppin'.

I smiled to myself a little bit. They played another couple songs and finished their set.