Carpe Diem

Hayden and I made the short walk to Taking Back Sunday’s bus and ran up the few steps. I was quite looking forward to the party, I found it would be the perfect opportunity to try and forget about what’d happened with Adam, Alcohol was definitely the answer.

“So guys, party tonight?” I grinned, jumping on the seat next to Matt.

“When do we ever turn down a party?” Fred exclaimed, high-fiving Eddie.

“I’ve already offered to look after Kade, considering I’m not really in the mood for a party.” Lidia smiled.

“Come on, Lid! You love partying!” Mark laughed.

“I know, I know. I’m giving it a miss this time though, it’s going to be so messy.” Lidia chuckled.

“Spoil sport!” Matt teased as he pushed her gently.

Lidia rolled her eyes and flipped him off.

“What time’s the party starting?” Matt questioned.

I dug my sidekick out of my pocket in order to check the time.

“Well it’s seven now, how about eight? It gives us plenty of time to go and tell the others about it, plus the earlier the party, the later the partying.” I winked.

“That sounds like a plan!” Eddie grinned as the others nodded in unison.

I glanced around quickly, only to realise that Adam wasn’t actually there.

“I suppose you’d better tell Adam, I’m not” I said through gritted teeth as I stood up.

“Don’t worry, if he does come we’ll get him drunk and leave him to wander around outside.” Fred joked.

“Please do.” I laughed.

Everyone became wrapped up in their own conversations discussing what kind of alcohol and chips to bring to the party as I suddenly had a thought. I scrolled through my contacts of my sidekick and grinned as I found who I was looking for.

To Alex.

Hey loser, where are you? I have something to ask you!

- Taylor.

I swear only a few seconds had passed until my cell vibrated in my hand.

From Alex.

I’m in A Rocket To The Moon’s tent, they’re doing an acoustic set. Come along!

I grinned to myself.

To Alex.

I’ll be there in five.

I snapped my sidekick shut and turned to Hayden.

“We’ve got to go and invite more party people!” I exclaimed as I stood up.

“Adios Amigos! See you in an hour” I grinned. “And Lidia, thank you so much for looking after Kade”

“Bye!” They all said in unison as Hayden waved quickly before we made our way off of the bus.

“So where are we going?” Hayden chuckled as she skipped on ahead of me.

“You’re like a child!” I grinned “But, apparently A Rocket To The Moon are doing an acoustic set in their tent, so we can check it out and invite everyone, especially as Alex’s there.” I said as I caught up with her near the gate.

“I approve of this plan!” She chuckled as she opened the gate, I bowed in response as I made my way through, laughing.

“At least we’re not going to have trouble finding the tent now!” Hayden exclaimed, locking the gate.

She was right. The crowds had dispersed as the main bands had finished playing and only the small stage bands remained, well, except for the tent signings that were still continuing for a while for a few bands. There were still quite a lot of people around though, but it was much easier to make our way through the crowds and in the direction of A Rocket To The Moon’s tent. As we walked in we were met with the sight of all the fans sat on the floor, huddled around the four chairs that each held Nick, Justin, Eric and Andrew. My eyes flickered to the corner of the tent to see Alex playing on her cell, not realising we walked in. I smirked to myself and snuck over to her from behind, putting each hand on her back suddenly, causing her to jump.

“Taylor!” She exclaimed as she turned around and saw me, hitting me across the shoulder.

“I couldn’t resist.” I shrugged innocently.

My eyes flickered to the fans sat down, who luckily weren’t paying any attention to us, they were too busy singing along to Annabelle.

“What is it you wanted to ask me?” She asked, glancing between Hayden and I.

“We’re having a party tonight on our bus, and we wanted to know if you and your band mates wanted to come and get messy.” Hayden laughed.

“I’m there!” She exclaimed. “What time?”

“Well considering everything gets packed up around eight we’re going to start it around then.” I grinned.

“I’ll text Jake and Logan now, they’re always up for a party.” She laughed.

Hayden and I high-fived each other proudly as A Rocket To The Moon’s set came to a close.

“Thanks for coming guys!” Nick grinned as he hugged each of the fans individually. I think the majority of the girls had miniature heart attacks, it was very amusing.

Once the fans had taken pictures with the band and had everything they wanted signed they happily left, leaving us to discuss the nights festivities.

“So guys, party tonight?” Alex smirked.

“I never say no to a party!” Justin exclaimed. “Where to?”

“On our bus, it’ll be you guys, Taking Back Sunday, Hit The Lights and Alex and her band.” I said.

“Now that sounds like a party!” Nick grinned.

“What time’s it starting?” Eric questioned.

“Around eight, so in under an hour.” Hayden laughed as she checked the time on her cell.

“We’ll be there!” Andrew said as he high-fived Justin. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sweet! Well, we’d better go but bring whatever you want over with you, especially any Xbox games.” I laughed.

“I’ll go and find Logan and Jake and drag them along with me, considering none of them are answering me” Alex said as she saluted before running through the entrance of the tent.

“See you later!” Hayden grinned as she high-fived the four of them in turn.

I laughed and waved before we too exited the tent.

“This is going to be great!” I exclaimed, jumping up and down like a little kid.

“That it is! Now come on, we’ve got to go and get everything ready!” Hayden exclaimed as she grabbed my hand and pulled me back in the direction of the gate.

I’d say we had about half an hour to gather all the food we could find on the bus, as well as all the Alcohol, we knew that everyone else were bringing things to add to the amount but we wanted to look like we had loads ourselves, because the more we had, the messier it’d be, ha. Lidia had been over beforehand to take Kade onto the Taking Back Sunday bus, I owed her big time.

“We have arrived!” Matt exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen section of the bus and dropped the contents of bags of chips and varieties of different beers and spirits onto the counter top next to all of ours.

“Hooray!” I grinned.

“This is going to be one hell of a party!” Matt exclaimed.

One hell of a party didn’t cover it. After Fred, Eddie, Mark, Matt and Adam turned up they were closely followed by Alex, Logan and Jake, who I had to say were two other people I knew I’d get along with which made it all the better. Then of course not long after Nick, Justin, Eric and Andrew arrived, and then the party began.

I’d say it wasn’t even two hours into the party and pretty much everyone was completely out of it, with the amount of alcohol that’d been brought on top of what we had there was only one way forward, and that was to drink the world away.

“Hey Taylor, look!” Adam slurred as he began slow dancing with Nick.

I giggled and took another gulp of the cup of vodka I had in my hand.

“We should be professional dancers, lets leave Taking Back Sunday and Hit The Lights, they can manage without us!” Nick giggled as he began to spin Adam around.

“This is great!” Nick Santino grinned as he waved one of his hands in the air, the other was too busy recording the sight of Adam and Nick.

My eyes flickered around the bus lazily as I tried to see what everyone else was doing.

“Give me the controller, Jack!” Alex mumbled as she pushed Jake’s side who was attempting to beat Logan on the Xbox, not that any of them were winning, considering their fingers just slid over the buttons.

“My name’s not Jack.” Jake slurred as he held a tight grip onto the controller.

“Jack just give me the controller!” Alex whined as she leant back on the floor.

I giggled to myself, completely taken aback as Matt, Mark, Fred, Eddie and Omar ran past in the “superman” pose.

“Hurry up! I’m trying to catch speed!” Omar yelled as he pushed Eddie, who fell into Fred, who fell into Mark, who fell into Matt causing him to face plant the carpet near the spiral staircase. They all giggled hysterically as Matt pushed himself up off of the floor and groaned.

“Not funny!” He groaned as he giggled a little, running up the stairs and resuming his pose, closely followed by the others.

Collin threw himself into the chair next to me, splashing his beer all over himself. I began to laugh hysterically.

“Stop laughing at me!” He whined as he tried to get the beer off of his black and purple checkered shirt, only to spill more beer on it in the process.

“I’ll help.” I said as I began hitting his chest attempting to get the beer to come off.

“You’re not helping!” He groaned as he grabbed both of my wrists in his hands, pulling me half on top of him.

“Collin what’re you doing?” I laughed.

He shrugged innocently and pulled me on top of him so fast our lips collided together.

Hayden’s POV.

I was drunk, but I wasn’t half as drunk as everyone else. I’d decided to walk, well, stumble around and keep an eye on things, making sure nobody had died or were about to. I walked down the staircase slowly so that I didn’t fall and made my way through the kitchen into the main area of the bus, to be met with the light of Collin and Taylor kissing. If it were possible for you to hear your heart break I swear I heard it then.
I sighed as I felt my eyes well up with tears, making my way quickly past them and out the front of the bus onto the grass and sat down, letting the tears fall freely.

Taylor’s POV.

I saw Hayden run past out of the corner of my eye.

“Collin get off me.” I said, pulling away and trying to get out of his grasp.

“I don’t wanna!” He slurred, keeping his grip around my wrists.

I rolled off of the side and landed on the floor, pulling Collin with me, giving me just enough time to pull myself out of his grasp.

“You’re such a loser.” I laughed as I stood up, catching my balance as I stumbled a little.

He groaned and pulled himself up. “You killed me.” He whined.

I giggled and slowly made my way towards the front of the bus which was only a short distance away, but I felt the need to hold onto things so I didn’t fall. I stumbled down the few steps of the bus, nearly falling straight into Hayden.

“What’s wrong?” I questioned, sitting next to her.

“Like you have to ask that.” She said coldly.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. She saw Collin kiss me.

“Hayden it’s not what you think, he’s completely out of his face and he kissed me, he’d never do it otherwise, I pushed him off. It was a drunken mistake.” I sighed.

She scoffed in response. I’d never seen her like this before.

“Hayden you’re my best friend, you’re practically my sister, I’d never intentionally hurt you.” I said, looking at her.

“I know Taylor, I just need some time, just leave me alone for a while.” She sighed as she got up, walking back inside.

I groaned and leaned forward face first into the grass. Stupid Collin and his stupid drunkenness, I knew he’d never kiss me if he were sober, he was practically in love with Hayden and vice versa. I knew I didn’t kiss him first, but it didn’t make me feel any less guilty. It was like I’d half sobered up as I thought about it, I’d never set out to hurt Hayden, she was my sister, but the sinking feeling in my stomach wouldn’t disappear.
I heard footsteps come down the steps of the bus and I sighed, hoping it was Hayden.

“Taylor are you okay?” A voice I recognised to be Nick Santino’s questioned.

“Noooo!” I groaned, my mouth full of grass.

“What’s happened?” He asked, sitting down.

“Collin kissed me and Hayden hates me!” I whined as I began rolling around in the grass.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you, Taylor.” He reassured.

“But she does! I’m an awful person, it wasn’t my fault!” I cried as tears began to spill down my face as I continued to roll around.

Nick grabbed my arms and pulled me up out of the grass into a sitting position and hugged me against his chest.

“It’ll be okay, I promise.” He said as he rubbed my back soothingly.

“It won’t be, she hates me! I didn’t even kiss him first and she hates me” I choked out as I buried my head in his neck.

“Taylor I’ve only known you for a day but believe me when I say I can see how close you are and everything will be okay.” He sighed.

“I hope so, I can’t lose her.” I mumbled.

“You won’t lose her.”

“How do you know that?” I whined.

“I just do, you have to trust me” He replied.

I sighed in response.

“Do you trust me?” He asked.

I didn’t know what it was, but something told me I should.

“I trust you.” I sighed.

“Then believe me, it’ll be fine.”

I closed my eyes as I felt him rock back and fo with me in his arms, it was so relaxing that my eyes began to feel heavy as I felt them flutter closed. I didn’t know what I would’ve done without Nick that night. I was dreading the morning though, that was for sure.