I Know You've Got Your Life In Place But I've Yet To Take The Hint

After this last show tonight, we'd have two weeks to kill. Alex had said that tomorrow, after we were all sober enough from tonight's celebrations, he was going to tell the others about our duet. We'd see what they thought. The rest, I guess, was up to us.

We had about 20 minutes until we were supposed to onstage for the show. Alex was in the bathroom and taking his time, as usual.

"Alex! I need to do my damned hair!" I yelled impatiently. "Get out of there, or at least give me the straightener."

"Nope. You don't need it. You look fine."

"Fine's not going to cut it, Gaskarth!" It was easy for Alex to say, he always looked perfect. My hair, on the other hand, was a fragile, fragile thing.

"Jack, shut up."

Alex was being mean. Fine. Two could play at this game.

"If you don't give me the hair straightener I'll pull your pants down onstage."

I heard Alex laughing as he ran the water. "The girls would love that."

"I'll tell them you slept with my sister."

Alex laughed even harder at this. I heard him practically gasping for air as he tried to answer me. "Yeah, right. You're scared of May. You wouldn't do that because you're scared she would kick your ass."

He had a point there. My sister was a force to be reckoned with. Or, as we guys said, a force to be avoided whenever and wherever possible. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister. Pretty much everyone loves my sister. Until they meet her dark side. Then, they don't know what to think.

"Out of threats, Jacky?" Alex taunted from the bathroom. I heard him humming (humming!) while I sat here wracking my brain trying to think of the one thing that would make him give in to me.

"If you don't give me that hair straightener I won't go onstage."

It was silent for a few minutes and then the bathroom door creaked open. The first thing I saw was an eye in the mirror. Then, the face that it belonged to poked it's head around the corner and looked at me.

"You won't go onstage, huh. And what are the rest of us supposed to do without you?"

"Do what you do best, I suppose. I mean, I'm just the guitarist after all."

Alex looked at me with such a serious expression that I thought for a minute that he would either cry or knock me out. Neither of which are very characteristically Alex. I waited.

"You're more than just that, Barakat. You're one fourth of this band, it doesn't matter which fourth, you're a fourth of it. If you want to get technical, we're not even in fourths. We're in millions. There's us, there's the crew, our friends and family, our fans. We're all a part of a whole piece of machinery that would be malfunctioning without the other parts. It doesn't matter how big or small the parts are. They all fit. No other piece can take their spot, they're unique. And us, we're those center pieces of a puzzle. We're what unites everything and keeps it together. If one of us left, imagine the chaos that would result from pieces going astray."

I thought Alex was done and was about ready to defend myself when he decided to add something else.

"And for the record, just pretend we could find a sexy, talented, funny guy who can play guitar to replace your spot in the band, I'll never be able to find someone to replace you as my best friend."

He walked calmly back into the bathroom then, while I just stood there.

About 10 seconds later, Alex opened the door again, and handed me the straightener.

"Do your worst, Barakat. We're on in 10."