Expect Anything Less

"Move the fuck out of my way!" I slam the horn and see the teenager in front of me flip me off in his rear view mirror. "Well, fuck you too!"

"Carter? Are you going to be okay to continue driving?" I turn to Zack currently in the passenger's seat. He's looking at me with deep concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why do you ask?" I say in an overly calm voice.

"Well, you sure are showing some serious road rage."

"Zack, if you think this is bad, then you should probably never drive with me back in Baltimore. I'm so much more comfortable yelling at people there."

"She's scary." Zack and I turn to look at Alex in the seats behind us as he says, "I once let her drive my car after she got her license and I swear I'm never letting her drive my car again. I think she called an old lady the C word."

Zack turns to me with wide eyes.

I just shrug my shoulders and defend myself, "She cut me off." I turn to the road and see that kid is finally moving, "Finally! What was he doing?! Jacking off to old photos of his boyfriend?! Ugly, annoying-ass teenagers; if I could, I'd kill them all, the world would be so much better off."

I pretend I don't hear Zack mumble "Isn't she still a teen?" to Alex, and continue to drive to our next venue: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Matt picks up the conversation in the back, "So we should be getting a new shipment of merch, it's being delivered to the venue this afternoon. I don't know if Carter's new tops are going to be in it or not."

I answer his thoughts, "I don't think so. That'll take at least a week and I only sent the design in like two days ago. We'll probably get it in the next shipment."

I zone out of the conversation at that point cause it gets kind of boring. We're on the road so much during this tour cause the venues are separated by states, but that happens once bands start to become more popular.

An hour later, I pull the van into the venue and everyone gets out and starts to unload. As I start to organize the new merch on our merch table, I glance up and see some guys walking towards me. One of them is that singer I met a couple of nights ago - Dave.

"Jack's sister, right? You never really told me your name," Dave smiles as he says this and I can't help but be sort of sickened by his cheerfulness.

But he's still mega-hot so I at least give him a small smile and reply, "It's Carter. Is this your band or something?" I ask, referring to the guys standing alongside him.

"Yeah, most of them, we're a five person band. These guys are Josh, Mike, and Matt and I have no idea where Jimmie is, but he's probable with James - our tour manager."

We all talk for a while I continue to set up all the merch stuff and they attempt to help me. We all get along real well and I'm finally starting to talk to people outside of All Time low. It's a good thing too cause I haven't even been on this tour for a week and I'm already getting sick of looking at the same old faces.

"Hey, Carter?"

I look up from the shirt I'm folding to see Josh standing next to me, "Yeah?"

"How old are you?"

I quirk an eyebrow and reply, "How old are you?"

He smiles, "Twenty-two, now you."

I smile at him and say, "I'm seventeen, but I'll be eighteen next month. Why do you want to know?"

"You look like you might be sixteen, but you could pass for younger. I was just wondering why someone so young was on this tour, even if they are Jack's sister. Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm taking online classes."

He nods and at that point he gets called away to go tune his guitar to his liking.

Well, there goes another attractive guy. Josh is like super tall - always a plus on a guy - has a great smile, and his hair is dirty blonde, straight, and ends just below his chin. But besides him and Dave, the other guys in Every Avenue are sort of funny-looking, like Jack.

Wow, that made me sound really judgmental.

Okay, let's just get this straight right now. I don't judge people on their appearances cause let's be honest, it really is the inside that counts. But I'm not afraid to just tell some chick that there's no reason to put on a pound of make-up, nothing is going to make her look like a runway model. I'm an honest person; it's my best and worst quality and if you can't put up with it, you really should just leave the room.

I finish getting everything set up with a few hours to spare before the show starts. This seems like just as good a time to text my friends that probably think I'm dead.

Me: Hey! What's up?

Eddie: Where the hell are you? I haven't heard from you in days.

Me: My parents forced me to go on tour with my brother's band.

Eddie: Jack? Tell him I say hi.

Me: I doubt he'd want to hear that. He found out about the past year and now he doesn't like my friends.

Eddie: I don't like your other friends either. Please make sure he knows I wasn't involved in that.

Me: Fine.

Eddie: So how are things? Awkward?

Me: Actually, things have been okay. Alex and I are on good terms and I think we're starting to become friends again.

Eddie: That's great! Have you guys talked about everything?

Me: Um, no. We both agreed that we'll talk about it when the time is right.

Eddie's still going to high school back home. We met in fourth grade when he was a new student and this sixth grader was making fun of him for his clothes and high voice. I beat the sixth grader up and got suspended for the rest of the week.

We've been best friends ever since.

Eventually people learned to not make fun of him because they knew their ass would be mine. That's the one thing I'm worried about while being on this tour; people might start to tease Ed again, especially with him finally coming out late last year.

He tells me about all the stuff that's been happening back in town since I left until he gets called away to dinner. I then decide that I should get some food for myself before the show starts.

I look around the venue till I spot Matt, "Hey, Matt!"

He turns at my call and excuses himself from the large group of guys he's talking to (probably guys from the other bands or something). "Yeah, Carter?"

"I'm going to quickly head out for some food. I know the guys can't have any big meals right now cause they're about to go on, but do you want anything?"

He smiles, "That's really considerate of you," eww, "Just get me a cheeseburger or something."

He starts to get out money, but I stop him and say, "I don't need that, Jack's buying." I flash Jack's credit card as I walk away and hear Matt laugh as I close the door.