I Crave Love,They Crave Brains

I ran my fingertips over the smooth surface of the personalized guitar case. “You alright?” A familiar voice whispered as he gently kissed my neck. Suddenly I snapped back to the boring thing called reality. “What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine Brian. Come on, we need to unload everything.” I said quickly. The man seemed stunned by my rushed tone but soon shrugged it off and continued pulling things from the bus. I slung my guitar case onto my back, freeing my hands, and picked up yet another case. From the various stickers and buttons forced into the protective case I could tell it was my close friend’s bass. “Terry, grab your shit!” I snapped with a quick roll of my eyes. The slim woman trotted down the steps and walked to the side of the bus. She ran her fingers through her coal black hair, watching us unload equipment. “Care to join us?” I said harshly. But my remarks didn’t bother anyone; everyone was used to it. From time to time I would say something that would really piss someone off, but for the most part they just ignored everything I said (knowing it would be bitchy). Terry reached down and picked up equipment that was waiting patiently to be taken into the building. From her petite figure you would have thought the equipment would just squish her, but she expertly managed to carry it inside. I passed a few things over to my close friend Hannah, before grabbing the last few things and making my way inside. Johnny jogged behind everyone after he finished locking everything, the metal keys jingling in his hand.

It took us a good bit of time to set everything up, but less time than usually. Strangely no one seemed to notice but me. Then again, I tended to over examine situations. My eyes strayed over to Terry, who was sitting on the black leather couch with Johnny. The two of them were a cute couple, I had to admit, but they were all over each other half the time. Obviously that was something I didn’t want to watch. “Oh look, they’re not attacking each other.” I teased with a gentle smirk. Johnny raised his hazel eyes to look at me with a smile; an adorable smile at that. Over the year or so I had become rather close to Johnny. Well, that was just because we were both the short ones. Standing straight we were the same height; which wasn’t exactly very tall. I plopped down beside the two and let out a relieved sigh. However my joy was short lived, as Arin walked into the room. “Hey,” Terry smiled as Arin sat beside her and just sunk into the couch. “You act like you actually did something useful for once in your life.” I spat, narrowing my eyes at the petite man. Arin looked at me and let out a long sigh. “I’m not in the mood, Myleah. Can you just leave me alone??”

I arched my eyebrow and scoffed at him. “I’m not in the mood to see your face, but you’re still sitting there. We can’t always have what we want.”

“Myleah! Chill out alright?” Terry ordered, grabbing my shoulder roughly.

“I was just kidding.” I faked, smiling brightly and going over to Arin. I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug, just for show. “Get out of my sight, you damn troll.” I whispered harshly. Arin immediately got to his feet in haste and stormed from the room. I looked over at Terry and simply smiled innocently at her.

……

“The guys are on!” Hannah shouted from outside the room. Johnny pecked Terry before he joined everyone on stage. “Are we watching like usually?” I asked Terry, not exactly interested in anything going on around me. To tell you the truth, I was lost in my own head. Most of the time I would become engulfed by my thoughts and lose all interest in my surroundings. “Don’t we always?” Terry responded with a soft laugh as she drank some of my Monster. “Mine!!” I shouted, reaching forward and attempting to snatch the can. It was soon clear that my attempts were futile, as Terry continued to drink. Finally she put it down and left the room. “Bitch…” She did that on purpose, she always did. It was something we would do since high school. She would drink some of my Monster-which I had daily- while I continued to do whatever the hell I was doing. But that was a while ago, back when things were much more complicated. I picked up the now half empty can before making my way out of the room.

When I left the room I saw Terry and Hannah laughing and joking around. “Kendal! Logan! How dare you leave me out?!” A smile slowly formed on my lips as I joyfully went over to my friends and joined the conversation. But it wasn’t long before the joyous atmosphere was ruined. I glanced towards the stage just in time to see Arin rising from the drum set and walking towards the front of the stage. “Stupid tr-“

“Watch it!” Terry snapped, jabbing a slim finger into my face. I mumbled under my breath and just crossed my arms. Arin walked down the steps-just like any other concert-however he didn’t notice the raised wire before him. He tried to raise his foot but the wire restrained him, causing him to tumble down the steps. A loud laugh was forced through my lips, during the unanimous silence. Terry whipped around and glared at me, but that just caused me to laugh harder. I desperately tried to muffle my uncontrollable laughter by placing my hands over my mouth.

Arin groaned and held his side as he rolled onto his back. Then the classic scene, where everyone would rush to his side to see if he was alright, happened. I however stayed behind and continued trying to calm myself. Tears stung my eyes and my lungs screamed for air, but I just couldn’t stop laughing. After multiple agonizing minutes I was able to inhale and calm myself. I wiped the tears from my eyes before walking out onto stage. “Way to go, Arin. That was smooth….really smooth.” I said as I walked over to him. By the time I got out there he was already on his feet, but his hands were still attached to his side. He glared at me but it turned into a wince as he hunched over. Brian and Matt were at his sides, trying to both comfort him and figure out what was wrong. Arin removed his hands from his side to reveal a bloodied, ripped, shirt.

I turned on my heels towards the sound of the sirens, jogging towards them. Of course I was only going to jog, not run. He wasn’t dying so there was no need. I met them at the door, leading them onto the stage calmly. A few noticed my relaxed state as I could see them giving me strange looks, but they never questioned me about it. A stretcher was rushed onto the stage, within seconds coming back with Arin laying on it. I crossed my arms across my chest and just watched silently, for once keeping my comments to myself. It didn’t seem like the right time to say something smart. I ran my fingers through my hair as I watched everyone else walk after the stretcher and attempt to crowd inside the ambulance. In the end only Terry and Johnny managed to get on, while the others managed to get a cab to drive close behind. “I’ll stay here and get our stuff.” I grumbled, rolling my eyes at the frantic group. “Well so much for our concert.” You know, I was really looking forward to the concert. I loved performing. But no, Arin just had to ruin everything by being clumsy. It wasn’t like anything major happened! All the idiot did was fall down the steps. I could hear the disappointed groans of the crowd as it was announced the concert was cancelled. Well obviously. No, they’ll just play a few CDs and pretend everything was alright.

On the stage I noticed something resting on the floor. As I walked over to it I noticed that it was a nail. “So that’s what he fell on.” Well that makes a bit more sense. I mean, usually people don’t just fall and end up bleeding. I gently kicked the nail before picking it up and examining the rusted piece of metal.