Without You Around

I pulled my peacoat closer to my body as another gust of wind blew down the city street. The clouds held the look of snow, and I groaned knowing it would make the drive tonight rough. I slid into the sandwich shop behind Cassadee and Rian, with Alex and Jack right behind me. We had all decided to grab a bite to eat before the M&G’s.

Everyone else’s orders were ready before mine, so I sent them to get us a table. My order was up about 3 minutes later, so I grabbed it, along with my drink and headed to the table. Everyone at the table was talking in a hushed tone, and stopped right as my tray hit the table.

“Well if that isn’t unnerving, I’m not sure what is,” I said laughing nervously, “What were you guys talking about?”

“Nothing, just some weirdo that walked by,” Rian answered way too quickly for my liking.

I just shot them a suspecting look, before sitting down and starting to eat. We all talked about the tour so far, and how we couldn’t believe we had been on the road for almost a full month. Lunch didn’t last too long, considering the M&G was soon, so we all shoved the rest of our food into our mouths while standing up and throwing our trash away.

As soon as we got to the venue, they were bombarded with fans, but had to politely decline photos, considering Flyzik was on the radio tell them to hurry up and get inside. Cassadee and I waved goodbye to Jack, Alex and Rian before continuing backstage and plopping in the dressing room.

“Just a heads up, we’re adding an extra acoustic song and taking Arizona off the set list completely,” Cassadee said turning to face me.

“Alright, are they staying in the same place though?” I asked opening a water bottle and taking a swig.

Cassadee nodded yes, and we continued talking about random things until it was time for her to warm up her voice.

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I stood side stage as Cassadee, Mike and Alex finished playing Candles, and smiled as the crowd cheered the loudest of the night so far. Across the stage I could Jack with his back to me and talking to someone I couldn’t quite see. All I could tell was that the conversation was heated, because Jack was using his hands an awful lot.

“Alright you guys, we have a special treat for you tonight. We’ve decided to add a song into our set that we don’t normally play live,” Cassadee started before glancing at me, and the other side of the stage, “This song goes out to Addison and Danny, and is dedicated by ATL and us as a whole. This ones called 6 Months.”

I bit my lip, and looked at the ground as the song was played, and knew that this is what the guys had been talking about in hushed tones earlier. They must have been feeling the tension between me and Danny, which had grown tenfold since he sent me that text 3 and a half weeks ago. I kept my eyes on the ground until I heard a certain line that made me look up.

”Months going strong now, and no goodbye. Unconditional, unoriginal, always by my side. Meant to be together, meant for no one but each other.You love me, I love you Harder so. Everything you say every time we kiss I can't think straight. But I'm okay. And I can't think of anybody else who I hate to miss as much as I hate missing you.

Almost immediately after looking up, my eyes were locked to Danny’s who was standing directly opposite of me. He had a look in his eye that was hard to place, but I could tell that it was mostly regret. I quickly looked back out to the crowd, and was thankful when the song had ended.

For the rest of the set, and night, I avoided talking to anyone and did my job quietly. I kept pondering over the look in Danny’s eyes, and wishing I knew what it meant.

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I slid my white tank top over my bikini top, and grabbed an over white hotel towel before sliding on some flip-flops. I was heading down to the indoor hot tub where I was meeting All Time Low and most of their crew just so we could catch up. Everyone else had decided to go out to dinner and clubbing, but we had turned down the offer.

When I got down to the hot tub, I was met by Alex, Rian, Zack, Vinny and Colussy. They all sent me a wave and I set my towel by theirs, before stripping my sweats and tank top off and joining them.

“I hope that song made you think,” Vinny said looking across the tub.

“The tension between you two has been way too much,” Alex said chiming in, “And we figured that the song would inspire one of you to actually talk to the other.”

The boys all chimed in with their opinions, and the topic was soon dropped and replaced with a new one. I was in the middle of a mindless conversation about LA with Zack when he got a weird look in his eyes and kept glancing towards the door. I followed his line of sight and noticed Danny standing awkwardly by the day waiting for me to notice him. He slowly walked towards me, and I couldn’t break eye contact with him.

“Uhm, could we talk Addy?” he asked scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, just let me get my towel and clothes,” I said before waving to the boys, and getting out of the tub.

I walked over to my towel and dried off quickly before pulling my clothes on as quickly as I could. When I was done I threw my towel in the provided hamper and walked out the door that Danny was holding open. The walk to my room was filled with an awkward silence, and the silence stayed there even after we had been sitting on opposite ends of the bed for at least five minutes.

“Alright, I can’t take this anymore,” I said breaking the silence, “I don’t like things being this awkward between us. What happened? We’ve never been like this.”

“I honestly don’t know what happened,” he said barely above a whisper, “But I do know it started when I stopped talking to you.”

“You’re right, it did. Why did you stop talking to me in the first place?” I asked pulling my knees to my chest, “Was it something I said? Something I did?”

“You did nothing wrong, it was all me,” he said scooting a bit closer.

“And what exactly did you do wrong,” I said preparing myself for the worst.

“I got scared,” he said in a barely audible voice, “I got scared that I was going to mess this up. Everything just felt so perfect between us that I guess I was waiting for the worse to happen. I shouldn’t have put you through the stress I’m pretty sure I did. I’m sorry.”

“When you didn’t talk to me, I felt like I was the one who was in the wrong,” I said feeling tears well up in my eyes, “All I wanted was to make what we had going even stronger. It hurt when you wouldn’t even reply to a single text or BBM. I missed you so much.”

“Addy, don’t cry, please,” Danny said scooting over and placing his hand on my knee, “I missed you too, and I want to try and fix everything I’ve messed up. Can you give me that chance?”

I moved my hand over his and started playing with is fingers while trying to blink back the fast approaching tears. I tried to open my mouth to tell him I wanted to give him another chance, but I couldn’t quite find the words to use. In order to show him my answer I latched my arms around his neck and buried my face into it as well.

He rubbed my back in order sooth me, and I pulled back once I had finally stopped myself from crying. I looked up into his eyes, and he moved his hands to my face and brushed my tears away with his thumbs. I flicked my eyes from his to his lips and slowly leaned in as my eyes fluttered close. He met me halfway, and I felt the butterflies I had been missing return to my stomach.

“I missed that so much,” I said as we pulled apart.

“I did too,” he said pecking my lips once again, “Lets make sure that we don’t have to miss it again.”

“I like that idea,” I said cuddling into him, “Now if you don’t mind, I need to get out of this bathing suit and put on real clothes.”

He gave me a quick hug before letting me go, and allowing me to grab some fresh undergarments and a new tank top from my bag. I walked into the bathroom and changed before returning and dumping my swimsuit into my backpack. Danny had moved to sit up against the headboard and I joined him and cuddled into his side. We turned on the TV and watched a random late night show before falling asleep in each others arms once again.