Dreams Only Last For A Night

I looked at myself in the mirror, the clothes that Van had given me where a little tight but they actually looked good like that, I was just happy to be in clean clothes. The jeans were tight but they showed off my butt and the shirt was a Mayday Parade band tee. I looked at my face in the mirror, I have a huge black eye but at least it wasn't almost swollen shut like this morning and the bruise on my ribs was turning a dark purple color, I couldn't believe that that actually happened to me last night, I knew that I could have been killed, maybe this was some divine intervention getting caught and then Van giving me this job with All Time Low. Van poked his head into the door and smiled when he saw me.

"You look amazing. Alex is waiting on you" said Van with a smile, I nodded, trying to hold in my excitement that Alex was actually here and all of this was real. I followed Van into the small sitting area where Alex was talking to Ryan, they both looked up at me and smiled.

"Austin my man, you ready to start being my slave, I mean assistant" said Alex with a smile, I nodded.

"Alex, don't be to hard on him and you pass that word on to Jack as well" said Van with a knowing look, Alex smiled at him.

"Van, don't you trust me?" asked Alex with a innocent smile.

"Sure, you I trust, Jack not so much. I am not even mentioning the Hilton incident" said Van, Alex turned red, I knew about that, it was all over the news, that I saw when standing outside a Best Buy waiting on a client. Jack had paintballed his name on to the side of a Hilton in Ohio.

"I will make sure he is on his best behavior" said Alex holding his hand to his heart, "come on Austin, lets get you settled on the bus"

"Cool, later Van, Ryan" I said as Alex lead me off the bus, I saw Alex turn and give Van a look, Van just shrugged.

"Is everything ok?" I asked, Alex looked at me confused.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked raising a brow.

"I just noticed the look you and Van shared, seemed like something was up"

"Nah, Van and I share alot of looks, we have been friends for a couple of years, ever since his mom signed us to her label. At first it was like I felt like I had to be because he was always there with his mom but then we got to hanging out one day and he is a really cool guy. He knows a lot about music for a 17 year old"

"I am 17, I will be 18 next month" I said, not even sure why that left my mouth, Alex smiled at me.

"Awesome then, we shall be having a party for you! We will just try and contain Jack" said Alex with a smile.

"Is Jack really that bad? I mean I know he did paint his name on the side of a hotel but is he that crazy all the time?" I asked and before Alex could answer me and stream of water hit me directly in my good eye, when I could finally see again, I looked up to see Jack standing there outside the bus with a super soaker in his hand.

"Dammit Jack, couldn't you wait til tomorrow to innituate Austin?" asked Alex ringing out his shirt, Jack got him more than me.

"Nope, it's got to be the first day on the bus. So you are Houston?" asked Jack giving me an odd look, "welcome to the All Time Low circus"

"Um, it's Austin" I said, Jack shrugged.

"Whatever, still a city in Texas right?" said Jack as he opened the door to the bus, Alex and I followed him on, Rian and Zack were sitting on the sofa playing with DS, I could already tell that they were quite and more mature than Jack, "guys Dallas is here"

"Austin" said Alex, Rian and Zack both looked at me, smiled, and then went back to their games.

"As you can tell, I am the coolest on the bus" said Jack puffing out his chest, I smiled as Alex rolled his eyes.

"Come on, I will show you the bunks" said Alex as he lead me to a small hallway with 3 bunks on either side, "the bottom one here is yours, I am right above you and sorry in advance but Jack is right across from you"

"Should I be scared?" I asked seriously, but with a smile on my face.

"I would be, but if he does anything to you, just let me know and I will fix him" said Alex

"Will do" I said as Alex pulled back my covers, there were three huge frogs in the middle of my bed.

"See, " said Alex rolling his eyes, "Jack!"

"What?" called Jack innocently.

"You want to explain why there are three frogs on Austin's bed?" asked Alex

"I don't know, they probably hopped on when we opened the door. Frogs are very intelligent amphibians" said Jack, I was trying not to smile, since Alex was being so serious.

"Jack, come here, now" said Alex, Jack was their in less than five seconds looking from us to the frogs.

"What is it Father Alex?" asked Jack with a smile.

"Get the frogs off the buss and then switch sheets with Austin, you can have the frog piss ones" said Alex, Jack glared at him and then looked to me.

"First day on the bus and you already got me in trouble with Alex, I might actually like you" said Jack giving me a smile, I smiled back.

"Should I be scared?" I whispered to Alex as Jack carried the frogs off the bus.

"Maybe, I mean Jack wouldn't do anything harmful to you but he will prank the hell out of you, just be on watch" said Alex as Jack ripped my sheets off my bed and then put his on mine and vice versa, I knew this trip was going to be anything but ordinary and I was excited.