I Love Your Bubblegum Smile

It had started out as an odd day. Harley had woken up to a sore arm, and it was only then that she remembered what had happened the day before.

She shuddered involuntarily, before getting up and getting dressed in shorts and a tank top.

The bus was eerily quiet and stationery, meaning that they had reached their next destination for the tour.

After putting on a light amount of makeup (not that it would matter since she would sweat it all off anyway) and putting her chocolate brown hair in a ponytail, Harley walked to the front lounge.

She let out a gasp of surprise upon realizing that she could actually see the floor, an amazing accomplishment considering the fact that a day before, piles of garbage remained scattered on the hardwood floor.

She had yet to catch the sight of any of the boys in the van, and once heading even farther to find the bus driver’s chair empty as well, Harley came to the conclusion that everyone had left.

The only sound in the bus was her light breathing, and the sound of her rubber flip-flops slapping against the floor.

Checking on the fridge for a note—there was none—Harley sighed, defeated.

The All Time Low set started at twelve, and as Harley looked at her watch, she realized it was well past one.

Mentally freaking out, Harley tripped over her feet as she attempted to sprint off of the bus, searching for the Main Stage.

The warm air was overbearing as it hit her face. It was incredibly bright outside and she found herself shielding her eyes from the blazing sun shining through the scattered clouds that remained in the sky. The awkward patches of grass were the perfect shade of summer green, dancing in the light breeze.

Like many other places, the main stage was set up in the most convenient location for the fans, which appeared to be on the other side of the venue, away from the tour buses.

Harley glanced next to the All Time Low bus, to see a row of gleaming silver vehicles similar to the one in front of her.

Next to her, was We The Kings’ bus, and normally Harley would have stopped to say hello, but she was already tardy enough.

Cursing under her breath, Harley briskly snaked through the multiple crowds, attempting to find the merch tent.

Vinny was going to kill her.

She was immediately groped from behind, but she had no time to swat the hands away, as she was already late.

She continued on, pushing her way through the current of sweaty bodies, until she could finally see the yellow tent with block letters on top.

She sprinted then, swinging her arms like a pendulum as she stopped in front of Vinny.

He looked amused, though it was hard to tell as a pair of aviator sunglasses covered his eyes. He continued to stare at her as she doubled over, panting and out of breath.

The sun felt twenty degrees warmer than it had earlier, making the crown of Harley’s head unnaturally hot. Harley stepped into the tent, clutching the edge of one of the tables to regain her balance.

“What are you doing here?” Vinny asked before she could apologize, his defined eyebrows rose curiously.

“Doing...” Harley puffed, breathing in deeply. “...My...” She paused. “...Job...”

“What?”

“I was sleeping, and then I woke up and realized I had work so I came here and then I—“

“You’re not supposed to be working today...?” Vinny cut her off. He meant to say it as a statement, though it ended up coming out of his mouth as an tongue-tied question, as he took in her sweat covered face.

“—I had to push through the crowd to get to you and, wait, what?” Harley did a double take, stopping her rambling as she attempted to piece together Vinny’s question.

“The dumb-asses didn’t tell you?” Harley shook her head dumbly. “We all decided that since it’s your birthday today, you should get the day off, to, you know, get a good rest and whatnot.” He paused, “happy birthday, by the way.” Harley blinked at him oddly, confused.

“What day is it today?” She asked finally, as Vinny continued to stare at her from his seat at the table.

“July twenty first.” Vinny said after a moment, “But you should know that right?”

“Holy shit.” Harley blinked, confused.

She couldn’t believe that she had forgot her fucking birthday.

As if reading her mind, Vinny snorted. “Don’t tell me you forgot your own birthday.” He looked at her skeptically. “Harley?”

Harley just shook her head, spinning on her heel and walking away.

Vinny shouted out a goodbye to her retreating figure, but she didn’t notice.

She had the whole day off. The whole fucking day.

She could do whatever she wanted.

As there was not much to do, Harley wondered around a few sets for a while. She saw Forever the Sickest Kids, where she spotted Kyle, the bartender from the party a few nights ago. She also saw 3OH!3, Anarbor and a few other bands play, before heading back to the bus.

They were all good, and equally different, but the heat was getting to her, and she felt her underarms beginning to stick together the longer she remained in the sun.

She found herself on the steps of the We The Kings bus, and before she could stop herself, she knocked on the small glass door. The door swung open, and Danny smiled at her from the other side of the door.

“Hailey right?” He asked. Harley shook her head slightly, not offended by his lack of memory. After all, she had only been around him once, and even then he was slightly drunk.

“Harley, but you were close.”

“Right,” he drawled out, blinking his eyes slowly at her. As she stepped inside, he closed the door behind her. “Guys! If you are naked or doing inappropriate things, cut it out because a lady’s here!”

The obnoxious sounds of a video game stopped, as a head of long brown hair stuck his head around the corner.

“Harley,” Hunter Thomsen grinned at her, nodding his head towards her, before walking back to the lounge.

Danny followed as well as Harley, and she found herself in the front lounge, where an X-Box 360 was hooked up to a large flat screen television. Travis, who was shirtless, and Drew, who was not, were versing each other in a video game which looked similar to Call of Duty.

“Hi Travis,” Harley smiled softly as she stepped over an empty beer can to sit next to him on the couch.

She snuggled to his side, as he put down the small white controller.

“Hi,” he smiled widely, kissing her softly on the lips. “If I had known you were coming, I would have cleaned up. Sorry.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she felt the butterflies appear in her stomach once again.

“It’s fine, I just decided to stop by.” Harley said reassuringly, “I hadn’t seen you in a while, so I came here.”

“Yeah,” Travis nodded, “I haven’t seen you in a couple of days, where’ve you been?”

“Around.” Harley said simply, “where have you been?”

“Around.” He mimicked, and Harley laughed. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

“How did you know it was my birthday?” She eyed him incredulously, sure that she had not shared that information with him.

“Alex told me.” He shrugged, settling back into the chair.

“How would Alex know?” Harley thought aloud, though she remembered faintly that Rian had written the date on the calendar in his chicken scratch, claiming that it was an important part of the month. He made it sound like her birthday was Christmas or something.

Travis didn’t seem to have answer for the question, and just kept quiet as Harley processed this information.

“Come on Trav,” Drew whined, waving his controller in the air. “Sorry to break up the love fest, but you paused the game.” Harley rolled her eyes at the absolute boyish attitude of Drew, but Travis pressed a button on the controller and television screen whirred back to life.

Harley was right, they were playing one of the Call of Duty games, and Harley felt slightly annoyed that that Travis was ignoring her for a video game. He remained at her side though, which made her happy that she could feel the warmth of her body pressed against her shoulder.

She watched them for a while, and it was clear that Travis was dominating Drew in that game. Travis stood up and did a small victory dance as Drew finally died.

This brought a small smile to Harley’s face, as Travis rhymed something about winning and beating.

After Travis had accepted a rematch, Harley glanced at her watch and realized it was well past five, which meant that it was time for Harley to head back. Rian and the band would be finished their set, and would have showered and most likely be back on the bus.

Harley looked out the window, but it appeared that the All Time Low bus was no longer parked in the parking lot.

Feeling a wave of panic, much like the first time htey had locked her outside of the bus, Harley forced herself to stay calm. She pulled out her cell phone, deciding to call them now that she had obtained their numbers just in case of an emergency or if she needed them.

Dialling Rian’s cell phone number first, she was directed straight to voicemail. Dialling Jack’s resulted in the same thing, as well as Zack’s.

Turning to Travis, she paused. “Do you have Alex’s phone number?”

Those words were ones she never thought that she would say, but she knew she couldn’t stay on the We The King’s bus forever, and if she stayed overnight it would result in another fight with Rian, and it would be even worse considering that she was dating Travis now.

“Yeah...” Travis raised his red eyebrows in surprise, his blue eyes curious. “Why?”

“Jack, Rian and Zack aren’t answering their phones.” She said. Travis pulled out his cell phone, but paused as though he remembered something.

Slowly, he went back to searching through his list of contacts. Finally, he came a stop, muttering out a sound of success as he read of the number to Harley. She inputted it in her phone, before kissing Travis on the lips as thanks.

He grinned, before kissing her back, slightly harder. She pulled away, out of breath, before dialling the number. For some reason, Harley assumed that Alex would pick up the phone. Harley was wrong. Sighing, Harley sank back in the chair.

“I don’t want to impose on you guys, but it appears that I can’t go back to my bus.” Harley groaned, getting that returning feeling of déjà vu.

“Aren’t they preparing the—”

Hunter was cut off by Travis. “Actually Harley, we’re going to the club later on. You don’t mind coming along do you?”

Harley sighed, for some reason wishing she was back home, celebrating her birthday. Sure, she would love to go the club with Travis, but that guaranteed a hangover, and maybe more.

“Sure,” Harley found herself saying, even though she was slightly opposed to it, as she was stuck wearing shorts and a tank top.

“Awesome,” Travis grinned, returning to Call of Duty. It was all Harley could do not to sigh in disappointment.