Falling and Failing Is All I Know

Two days into the tour, and things couldn’t get any worse between Kara and Roxanne. At the moment, everyone was in the living area of the bus. Matt had a tight grip on Kara as she screamed at Roxanne, trying to jump at her.

“Matt, let me the fuck go. I want to beat her ass,” Kara said angrily, hating Matt at the moment for not letting her go.

“I’m not letting you do something you’ll regret later,” he said, shooting Brian a disgusted look as he held a shaking Roxanne in his arms.

“I won’t regret it. I promise you that I will enjoy every single bit of pain that I inflict on that bitch.”

Matt sighed and started to pull Kara towards the door. She stopped fighting and calmed down enough to make Matt loosen his grip on her.

“All better?” Matt asked, letting go of her completely.

That was the worst move he could’ve made. Kara lunged back across the small area and, with no one to stop her, almost smiled as she felt her fist collide with the side of Roxanne’s face.

She felt Matt’s arms go around her and lift her completely off the ground. She stayed still, knowing she would never win against him.

“Okay, you need some fresh air now.”

“I don’t want fresh air.”

“Yes you do. You need to calm down just a bit. We don’t want you killing anyone.”

“Fine,” Kara said angrily, leaning against the side of the bus and taking a deep breath.

After a few seconds of silence, Kara started speaking again. “I’m sorry, Matt. I just couldn’t handle her anymore, I snapped. She’s so immature that she feels the need to put gross things in my bed. Don’t you dare tell me it’s accidental because who just carries around a dozen egg yolks and just accidently drops them on someone’s bed. The next time she does it, I’m going to strangle her with the sheets.”

“Let’s just walk for a little while,” Matt said.

Kara nodded and the two of them walked in silence for a while. More tears escaped Kara’s eyes, even though she willed them not to. Matt threw his arm around her shoulders as they walked down the deserted street.

“I would have never insisted that you come with us if I knew it would be like this,” Matt said quietly.

“Don’t worry about that, Matt. I’m glad I came. Plus, it’s not your fault that Roxanne’s a constant pain in my ass. That won’t stop me from hanging out with my oldest best friends.”

The silence returned as the two walked around for a while longer. They waited until the sun had almost completely disappeared behind the horizon before they went back to the bus.

~x~

“So what’s it like being in a band?” Kara asked Matt as they sat in the room with the bunks.

“It’s amazing. Just getting to play our music and have people listen to it is so great.”

“Does all the attention ever get annoying?”

“It kind of does if you’re in a bad mood or just not feeling it that day, but at the end of the day, I’m so thankful that so many people know who we are. It’s a great feeling.”

“What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever heard from a fan?”

“This one time, a girl came up to me screaming about how she wanted to have my babies. She would not leave. Security had to step in and drag her outside, still screaming.”

Kara’s laughter rang through the nearly empty bus. Matt looked at her with a shocked look on his face.

“You think me being nearly attack by a crazed fan is funny?”

“No, not funny,” Kara said breathlessly, trying her best to contain her laughter, “I think it’s freaking hilarious.”

The laughter came again and Kara fell backwards onto the bed, not able to control herself.

“Well you know what I think is funny?” Matt said, slowly getting closer to Kara.

“What?”

“How ticklish you are.”

Before Kara could think to move, Matt pounced on her. He tickled her for what seemed like hours. She thought she was going to either explode from laughing so much or pee her pants. Then just when she thought it was over, Matt attacked her again. This time she squirmed so much that she rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with a loud thud and Matt fell on top of her. He caught himself with his hands on either side of her on the floor.

Kara was suddenly hyperaware of everything around her. Matt’s smell was now intoxicating to her. The feeling of his body pressed against hers made her skin tingle all over the place. They were so close that she could have counted every single one of his eyelashes.

“Oh…uhh sorry about that,” Matt said, his face turning a shade of red that Kara had never seen before. She giggled, and then felt her own cheeks flush.

Before Matt even thought about it, he did what he had wanted to do for so many years. He kissed her. Kara felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her body. It had been three years since she had kissed anyone. She had no idea what to think, this was Matt! That strangest part of all is that she actually liked it. All thoughts of Brian slipped from her mind in that moment.

Matt slowly pulled out of the kiss and nervously looked down at Kara. He was afraid that she would be mad at him and never want to speak to him again. She looked at him and gave him as much of a smile as she could manage.

“Are you okay with that?” Matt asked, in barely more than a whisper.

“I haven’t been that okay with something in a long time.”

“Good, cause I’ve wanted to do that for longer than you know.”

Matt smiled down at her and leant in for another kiss. Their lips were almost touching when the door swung open and a very shocked looking Brian stood in the doorway.