Head on Collision

Jack's POV

We pulled last slot. It all came down to chance and drawing numbers out of some brightly coloured novelty hat that Mr Chapman had obviously bought at Walmart or something. We pulled last slot. Number 13.

"Why 13?!" Alex mumbled while we sat backstage in the makeshift green room area. He had been pacing since we got here though. "Why unlucky number 13? Why not 12 or 14 or fucking 27? Anything but 13!"

"I didn't know you were superstitious Alex," Zack said amused.

Alex shut him up with a cold glare.

"Babe, it's alright," I assured him stopping him from pacing with tight grip around his waist. "13 is fine. Don't think of it as slot 13. We're just on last. We're closing the show!"

"If anything, we're the headliners!" Rian grinned; continuing to tap his drumsticks against the bottom of his chair."

"Yeah!" I agreed with Rian and hooked my chin over Alex's shoulder. "We're the fucking headliners. Think main stage at warped tour!"

"I like the sound of headliner."

I watched Alex's smile slowly settle on his features. That was better. I much preferred the smile over the stress.

"That's better," I told him. "Headliner! And we've got some pretty average opening acts so we're going to be fucking amazing."

"You really believe that don't you?" Alex asked leaning back against me now. I felt him relaxing. "You really believe we're going to smash this."

"I'm optimistic about our chances," I shrugged. "The way I see it. We have nothing to lose. Even if we don't get the deal, there's other labels out there. There's other means to get our name out there. Plus, now we've got Dan as pretty much our roadie, he can record our set! Give us something to send out if things don't go to plan."

"You're All Time Low's biggest fan Jack," Zack laughed, standing up and coming over to Alex and me, stretching out his shoulders as he approached."You're the biggest fan and you're in the damn band."

"Yeah and it's got absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's shagging the lead singer," Alex grinned now and I laughed.

"I'm a guitarist, a groupie and a fan girl all rolled into one," i said proudly. I lifted my chin and put my hands on my hips. "I'll be writing smutty fanfiction about 'jalex' in no time."

"Except you hate English," Rian pointed out.

"Eh, technicality," I shrugged and everyone laughed at me.

This was good. This was better. This was us as friends. This was us just hanging out and chatting like every other afternoon in Rian's basement. No stress, no pressure, just four mates talking about playing music. We fell into a sort of awed silence. Rian had stopped tapping, Zack had stopped stretching. I stood with my hands in my pockets watching Alex out of the corner of my eye. He was smiling. He was smiling a smile I hadn't seen him really smile since that day on the beach. Since the day he spent hanging out with his friends on the beach and he couldn't stop grinning at how happy he was.

"I love you guys," Alex told the quiet room.

Now it was my turn to grin.

"I love you guys so much," he continued. "And Jack's right. No matter what happens. No mater if we come first, second or hell, 13th, All Time Low will become something. We have worked too hard for nothing to come of this."

He looked up at the three of us.

"Thank you guys for giving me a chance. For making me your lead. For making me grow the balls and stop being such a pussy and giving this all a go," he sighed. "I couldn't of done it without you guys."

"Group hug!" Zack hollered and converged on us, grabbing Rian around the shoulders and me around the waist and dragging us over the Alex. Arms wrapped around me, I don't know who's was who but it didn't matter.

We were a family now, the four of us and we were going to do this together.
We were going to make a name for ourselves.
And that name;
Was All Time Low.