Take My Hand

The last thing I remember doing was sitting right beside Jack on the couch and watching a movie. I was leaning on his shoulder and his arm was placed safely around me. My eyes started to get really heavy and then the next thing I knew was that I was asleep. But it didn’t seem like a really long time until my eyes fluttered as I felt the bus stop. We were probably in the venue already.

“Oh, so now that the movie’s over, you get up?” Jack said as I watched the screen in front of me. It showed a black screen with the credits rolling.

I turned to him and gave him one of the biggest grins I could put out. “Sorry,” I apologized and he rolled his eyes before pulling me into a hug. “I think I fall asleep because it’s really comforting when I lay next to you,”

“Hmm, it’s really hard to think of something that can get me furiously angry with you,” he said playfully as I nudged him on the shoulder once I pulled away.

“So you want to find fault in me so you can get mad? You’re such an ass,” I said getting up.

“I was just kidding!” Jack panicked and hugged me from behind.

“Hey guys, it’s time to go and meet people,” Alex said as soon as we made our way down the hallway of the bus.

Jack let go of me and kissed me on the cheek. I felt heat rush in the place where he kissed me and suddenly there were these odd feelings but it wasn’t long until I got to push them away. He winked at me before heading out of the bus. Rian and Zack were already outside and I was the only one on board.

I grabbed my camera and ran down to catch up with them. They were on their way to Hurley stage for sound check and I was getting excited.

There were a lot of people on the grounds near the merch stands and a lot of bands were out for meet and greets and signing. It’s weird that they were out here before the shows started but hey, who was I to tell them what to and what not to do?

I made my way through to the front of the stage passing a lot of screaming fans who were about ready to see All Time Low rock the stage.

I snapped pictures of the guys who gave the silliest faces as they faced the camera. I laughed at some of the pictures I took and then moved to look for other subjects. It wasn’t as if they weren’t interesting enough to photograph, it’s just that there were so many famous people here and I was just really excited I mean it is the first day and all but I really do want to meet everyone.

I was on my way to go see Cobra Starship and maybe make new friends but someone held me back from behind. I spun around to see who it was and almost fainted when I saw who it was exactly.

“W-what are you doing here?” I asked shrugging Chris’ arm off. “Are you stalking me because seriously, all this ‘showing-up-out-of-nowhere’ and texting me out of the blue and telling me that you miss me is totally freaking me out.” I said and he looked like at me like I went crazy.

“Um, I’m here because I’m opening for one of the bands on this tour and I just wanted to say hi,” he said totally shutting me up.

I was suddenly really embarrassed about my whole outburst so I looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said toying with the camera that was hanging on my neck.

“Hey look, its okay,” he reassured me. “So I guess I’ll be seeing you around?” he said with a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Yeah, sure,” I said walking away before he could say anything more.

I didn’t really like the idea that he and I would be in the same tour for like two months or so. How was I supposed to survive? I took a deep breath remembering exactly what I was supposed to do before meeting with Chris.

I didn’t turn back even though I knew he was looking right at me. He always stared whenever I passed by even while we were in school which was really weird.

I was just walking to the Cobra Starship set when all of a sudden someone bumped into me. It was Gabe.

“Sorry, I wasn’t really look-” he started to say but stopped to look me up and down. “Damn girl, you’re hot,” he said frankly and I blushed.

“Well you look pretty hot yourself,” I said and he winked at me before heading backstage.

That was totally random but it was quite a big ego booster. I laughed at myself as I thought about what happened. But I immediately stopped giggling to myself when everyone started screaming in my ear. I looked up from where I was standing in the mosh pit and raising my camera up so that it wouldn’t get squished. Weirdly, I found myself right in front of the stage but everyone was starting to push and it was getting really annoying.

I snapped a few pictures of the band and got solo pictures of each member. Nate was the big challenge in all of this though since he was at the very back but with the way the stage was angled, it wasn’t really that hard to snap a great pic of him.

Once I finished listening to a few songs and once I was satisfied with what I snapped, I made my way to the exit. Gabe stopped singing for a while and I looked back to see that he was staring right at me. I shook my head as he regained composure. It was odd really that he stopped singing just for that but hey, I’m not complaining. It was actually quite flattering.

I went to take pictures of some of the other bands that were performing until I ran into Jack who apparently was looking for since an hour ago.

“Well you guys were practicing so I went and took pictures of other bands that were performing,” I explained and Jack narrowed his eyes at me.

“You know you don’t have to lie about not wanting to watch us live,” he said with his arms crossed trying to play the guilt card.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Jack it’s nothing like that. I wanna see you guys live it’s just that your show doesn’t start until 4:30.” I told him. It was only 4:00 P.M. right now and we had thirty minutes until the show had to start.

“So you mean you know what time we’re getting on later?” he said surprised.

“Jack, I can’t not know what time you guys get on,” I said laughing at his face that was filled with fake surprise. “Rian reminded me a lot while we were playing.” I told him and he was satisfied with my answer.

“Well then what the hell are we still doing here?” he asked and I was going to tell him that I was going to go and take more pictures of other bands but he might take that a little too personally.

He and I walked to the set where they were going to play and I got to go backstage. I didn’t really know how it looked like ‘til now and all in all it was an overwhelming experience.

I watched the guys practice again and again so that they weren’t going to make mistakes on stage but that wasn’t really possible. I mean everybody makes mistakes but at least they’re trying to practice so that they can lessen the chances of making one for their fans.

“Good luck out there you guys,” I said as soon as the clock struck 4:30.

It was an afternoon show but a lot of people still showed up. I stayed at the side of the stage where people couldn’t see me. I snapped pictures of the boys as they opened the show.

This angle was by far one of the coolest angles ever. I got to take more pictures due to where I was standing right now. I was definitely lucky to have Jack as one of my best friends. I never thought I’d get to know what it would feel like backstage but then again, things could be made possible if you just believe, right?

“Hey you guys, we’d really want to introduce you to one of our closest friends!” Jack screamed into the mic and everyone hollered right back at him. I stared at him wide-eyed. He was not going to do this right now.

“Yeah, and she’s gonna help me sing Remembering Sunday since Juliet isn’t here and Hey Monday is somewhere busy signing.” Alex said into the mic and everyone cheered. My breaths started to shorten. I was feeling woozy.

Zack looked at me and laughed at what he saw. I was probably shaking terribly and I most probably looked like one hell of a mess right now. This was so not happening.

“So her name’s Brittany and she’s a really close friend of mine and she’s really awesome in all ways possible and she was awesome enough to actually agree to sing with us,” Jack said. That liar! I didn’t agree to anything!

“Hey Brit, come out here, will ya?” Alex said motioning me to get out there.

I was shaking my head vigorously but Jack walked towards me and told me to place my camera on the chair that was right beside me. I did as he told me but I didn’t let him drag me out on stage. He gave me a cute pout and once he saw that I was vulnerable enough, he pulled on my arm and yanked me on the stage. Everyone cheered as I smiled at the crowd.

Jack handed me his mic as I took a deep breath. He gave me a small wink and the song started to play.

Alex stared at me as he sang the words I grew to know. I started singing back-up somewhere in the chorus but I wasn’t singing loudly. I didn’t want to ruin his performance so I sang in a low voice.

It seemed like only seconds after Alex finished the first verse that he was already in the bridge part. I was getting antsy but I knew I had to calm down. I swallowed hard as I listened to where they were in the song and once it was my turn to show off some skill, I looked up at the crowd, no longer afraid but ready to sing to them with growing enthusiasm.

“I'm not coming back
I've done something so terrible
I’m terrified to speak but you'd expect that from me
I’m mixed up, I’ll be blunt
Now the rain is just washing you out of my hair
And out of my mind
keeping an eye on the world
With so many thousands of feet off the ground
I'm over you now I'm at home in the clouds
Towering over your head”

It felt great to actually sing those words out loud. It was as if I actually connected with each and every word that came out of my mouth and it was just basically and amazing experience.

Everyone screamed and shouted as the song ended. I smiled and turned around to face Alex who was giving me a big smile.

I walked off the stage and grabbed my camera before they asked me to do something else. I might not have been as scared as I was when they were introducing me to the crowd but there was no way in hell that I was going to sing on a stage like this again.

The hours felt like minutes as they ticked away. Next thing I knew, Alex was telling them that the show was over and that they were signing tomorrow and not tonight due to security and stuff like that. The crowd gave out a big ‘Aww’ and Alex apologized again.

“Stay tuned for our buddies from Forever The Sickest Kids, okay? They’re up next!” Jack said placing everyone back in a good mood before walking off the stage.

“Brit, you were awesome!” Jack mentioned as soon as he saw me waiting for him.

“Hey, you weren’t bad yourself,” I said hitting him playfully on his arm which was sweating like hell.

“You know, I’d hug you right now but I’m not really sure how you’d take it,” Alex said as soon as he caught up with the both of us. I smiled at him and told him that he could hug me later after he changed and took a shower.

“But thanks a lot for singing today. You totally saved our asses,” he said and I began to wonder.

“Who was supposed to sing Juliet’s part anyway?” I asked Alex as we reached the dressing room and sat on the leather couch.

Zack raced for the bathroom while Rian complained about him not being considerate to those who were in need of actually using the bathroom to do some serious business. I wouldn’t really want to get into details of what he said because it’ll only make me barf so I guess it would be better to just forget what he said forever.

“I was,” Alex said bringing me back to the present and out of my thoughts.

“But we wanted you to sing it since we all thought that you were a better singer than Alex.” Jack mentioned as he sat on the stool in front of the mirror with lights. “That’s why I was looking for you,”

I gave out an inaudible ‘ohh’ as I thought about what he’d said when he found me. He definitely didn’t mention the singing part.

Zack got out of the bathroom with wet hair and new clothes on as Rian rushed right in after him.

“Hey Brit, can we talk?” Zack asked me and I nodded.

I got up and walked out of the room with him to get some privacy.

“What’d you wanna talk about?” I asked him as soon as we were far enough for anyone in the band to hear.

“You don’t happen to know Chris Henderson, do you?” he asked totally catching me off guard with that question. He stuck his hands in his pockets as I stared at him with fear in my eyes.

“Why do you ask?” I replied in a question.

“I don’t know, one of the guys on this tour is opening fo-”

“Yeah, I know him. He’s the guy Jack and I talked about while we were in the bus,” I interrupted wanting to get this whole thing out of the way. “Does Jack know that he’s here?”

“I don’t know yet but he told me about that Chris guy and what happened with you two some time ago.” Zack said rubbing a hand behind his neck as he looked at the ground.

“What exactly did he tell you?” I asked him wanting to clarify things. Zack stood up straight and looked straight into my eyes.

“He told me that he was trouble or at least we should keep you away from him. He told us that he was an ex of yours or something and that he was bothering you a lot or something,” he said.

“Wait when did he tell you this?” I asked him.

“He told us somewhere in the middle of last week,” Zack said and I looked around to see if Chris was anywhere in sight. I didn’t want to have him eavesdropping on our conversation.

“Okay…” I trailed off not knowing what to say. “What made you drag me all the way out here?”

“I know he’s here and I just wanted to know if you knew,” he said and I breathed out heavily.

“He came up to me a while back before the Cobra set started,” I told Zack and he nodded.

“Well if ever he bothers you or anything, you know where to find me,” he said patting me on the shoulder before greeting some people he knew.

He introduced me to those people but my mind just wasn’t in it. I might have to ask for their names again later in the tour.

Chris Henderson. Why do you have to pop right back up in my life when things were finally looking up? I didn’t want to have my past lingering around while I was out trying to have the time of my life with friends that I just met during the summer. I can’t believe he actually has nerve to come up to me. But he was just being friendly, right? Well maybe he changed or something. He might have messed me up but everyone deserves a second chance, right?

Well all I can really say is that things were looking up until he walked back into my life.