Resistance Is Useless

16.
Andy

I sat at the light board with Jeff, watching Alex sing his heart out, Jack literally run across the stage while playing his guitar, Zack strumming his bass and singing back-up, and Rian pounding on his drums with a wide smile on his face. Throughout the past few weeks, I had gotten to know these four boys, but whom they really were came out most of all on stage. You could sense that this was what they loved the most, just by watching them play.
My eyes went back to jack, who was now sitting on one of the blocks, with his infamous smirk on his face. As often as I saw Jack smile, it never got old. Each and every time I saw that smirk resting perfectly on his lips, my fingertips tingled slightly. He looked up from his guitar and straight into my eyes. I quickly put my head down as my cheeks reddened slightly from him catching me staring. As soon as this thought entered my mind, I realized that there was no way he could possibly see me, all the way at the back of the house, but the feeling in my fingers remained.

“Meet me on Thames Street, I’ll take you out though I’m hardly worth your time,” I sang along to one of my favorites, 6 Feet Under the Stars. Even after hearing it every night for 3 weeks, I still didn’t really know what it was about, and made a mental note to ask Alex about it after the show.
“Hey, I gotta pee, will u do the lights for the next song?” Jeff asked
“Yes!” I replied excitedl. He laughed lightly in response, and stood once the song was over.
“Be back in a few,” he said as he walked away. As lame as it sounds, I was really excited to do the lights all by myself. I had mostly been helping with load ins/outs and set up (bitch work), but running the lights was really what I loved to do. I ran my fingers over the faders in anticipation and waited for Alex and Jack to be done talking. Their next song was Jasey Rae, another one of my favorites. As soon as Jack started to play the intro, I let my imagination go free, and put on the light show of a lifetime.

After the show, I went to the All Time Low dressing room and waited for the boys to come off stage. A very sweaty Jack was the first to appear.
“Woooo!” He yelled as he entered the room. An equally sweaty Rian was next to walk in, with Zack and Alex shortly behind him.
“Your set was so good tonight! I think this might’ve been the best show so far,” I said, hugging each of the guys.
“Aw, thanks,” Rian said.
“I would definitely agree. I actually sang all the right words tonight,” Alex laughed. Matt then appeared in the door.
“Guys, M&G in 5,” he said quickly before leaving again.
“We better go then,” Zack said, standing from the small sofa. The other three nodded and stood.
“Hey, you know what?” Jack suddenly said, getting everyone’s attention, “We’re already 2 and a half weeks into this tour, and we haven’t had a fuckin’ party yet! How is that even possible?” The other three nodded in agreement, I just sighed.
“Well then let’s have one tonight!” Alex said.
“In celebration of our amazing set,” Zack smiled at me.
“Ugh, do we have to? I’m tired,” I whined.
“Yes!” The four of them answered in unison, while looking at me like I was insane.
“I guess I’m up for a party,” I sighed.
“That’s the spirit!” Alex said pulling me up off of the couch by my hands. He kept hold of my hands and started dancing, moving my arms around as I stood still and glared at him until he stopped
“Hey, speaking of parties, what do you wanna do for your birthday, Jack? It’s next weekend. I think it might even be an off-day,” Rian said.
“Besides get super wasted, I dunno. Ask Andy, it’s her birthday too!” Jack replied.
“Oh, you guys have the same birthday?” Zack asked. Jack and I both nodded.
“So what do you wanna do?” Jack asked me, poking me in the stomach.
“Uh, we could just go to a club, I guess,” I answered.
“Fine by me,” Zack said.
“Is that alright with you, Jack?” Alex paused, “Why am I even asking you that? Of course it is!”
“Like I said, as long as booze will be evolved, I’m happy,” Jack said.
“Guys, the fans are getting antsy!” Matt yelled from the hallway.
“Kay!” Alex called back to Matt, “See you back on the bus Andy. And make sure you’re wearing your party underwear!”
“What!?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Alex. Him and Jack started laughing. “Fuck you!” I yelled as they walked out of the room, following Zack and Rian.
“Love you too!” Jack called from the hallway. I could hear him and Alex laughing and yelling the entire way down the hall.
After a minute or two, I was the last one in the dressing room. I quickly glanced around, making sure no one was about to walk in, and lifted up the waistband on my jeans, to see what pair of underwear I had put on that morning. The lacy ones WITHOUT the hole. Perfect. It wasn’t like I planned to take my clothes off at this party, but if the situation were to arise, I’d be ready!

* * *

I walked towards the bus, where voices and music could already be heard. As I put my hand on the door to open it, I could feel the thumping bass from the music vibrating through it. I took a deep breath, and pulled the door open. The volume of the party hit me as I stepped onto the bus. There had to have been at least 30 people squeezed onto the bus, each with a red plastic cup or beer bottle in hand, and I recognized about twenty. All of All Time Low was there, as well as people from the bands and crews of the other three bands on tour, and some other people I recognized, photographers, etc.
“Andy!” Vinny called to me, “What’s up?” I could already smell alcohol on his breath, and the party had been going on for all of 10 minutes. He shoved a drink into my hand before patting me on the shoulder and walking away. I took a sip of whatever was in the red cup. The liquid burned as it trickled down my throat, and made me grimace. I quickly set the cup down on the nearest surface, and went to find someone to hang out with. I headed straight to where I knew Jack would be: wherever the drinks were.
I walked to the back of the bus, where Jack and Alex sat laughing, talking, and handing people beers, with drinks of their own in hand.
“Andyyyyyyy!” Jack yelled as soon as he saw me.
“Jaaaaaaaack!” I yelled back in the same way.
“What do you want to drink?” Alex asked once I was standing in front of them.
“Nothing, I don’t drink, as you may have noticed,” I said politely.
“Yeah,” Jack said, “Why not?”
“Let’s just say, very bad, very weird things happen to me whenever I get drunk, so I just try to avoid drinking altogether,” I said, not wanting to go into details. Jack made a fart noise with his tongue at me.
“Andy,” Alex said, “You can’t get drunk from just one beer! Live a little!”
“Yeah Andy! Live a little!” Jack echoed.
“I dunno…” I said hesitantly.
“Come on! What’s the worst that could happen?” Jack asked. I scoffed.
“Well, let’s see,” I said, beginning to count all the reasons on my fingers, “ I could get pregnant. I could fall and get a concussion. I could get arrested. I could get an STD. I could die of alcohol poisoning. I could—“ I was cut off my Jack putting his hand over my mouth.
“Holy shit. Chill. Out.” Jack said slowly, looking straight into my eyes, not moving his hand. Alex then shoved a cold bottle into my hand. Jack slowly removed his hand from my mouth.
“Okay fine. But I’m only having one. And if ANYTHING bad happens, you two are going to be held completely responsible,” I said, giving into their convincing. I popped open the bottle, took a sip of the beer inside and sat down next to Jack. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side.
“Atta girl!” He said.
“Now we can start getting fucked up! Whooo!” Alex yelled. Jack joined in on his yelling and clinked their bottles together. I rolled my eyes and smiled.

*** One Hour Later ***
1:07 a.m.

“Mmm. Andy, you smell really good,” Jack said as he tossed his third empty bottle to the ground. I had just finished my first.
“Uh, thank you,” I said as he wrapped his arms around my waist. He was pretty tipsy, but still cognizant.
“Let’s go get more to drink,” he whispered, his hot breath tickling my ear.
“That’s okay. I’ll just wait here,” I said, leaning away from him.
“Andy,” Jack said, pulling me up from my seat and putting his arms around my waist again, bringing me close to him. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you if you drink. I won’t let it. Promise,” he smiled. Being the terrible drinker that I was, the small amount of alcohol in my blood was already throwing off my decision-making. Or maybe it was just Jack.
I sighed and looked up into Jack’s chocolaty brown eyes, “You’re right. Let’s go get something else to drink,”
“Yay!” Jack exclaimed. He gave me a quick hug before turning and pulling me by the hand in the direction of the drinks.

*** 2:29 a.m. ***

I stood in the front lounge, bobbing my head to the loud dubstep playing. Suddenly a buck-naked Alex pushed past me, almost knocking my third drink out of my hand.
“Watch where you’re going Aaaaaleeeeeex!” I yelled, followed by a burp. I then started laughing. I took another drink from the red plastic cup in my hand, and felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun around to see Jack smiling down at me.
“Can we go into the back lounge?” he slurred.
“Yeah, why?”
“Cause it’s too loud in here!” he said with unnecessary volume. I pressed my hand over my ears.
“Jack stop yelling!” I yelled.
“I’m not yelling, you are!” he yelled, “Come on,” He grabbed my hand and led me past the bunks and to the back lounge. Once there, we both plopped down on the couch. The music wasn’t quite as loud in there, and there were far less people. Some people had already left the party, leaving about 20 still on the bus. Alex then spotted Jack and I and walked over to us.
“Al, where are your clothes?” I asked, looking up, trying to avoid seeing his junk as much as possible.
“I had a chugging contest with Vin and looser had to take ALL of their clothes off!” He slurred, followed by a ‘Whooo!’. Alex was a happy drunk. He turned to walk away and Jack slapped him on the bare butt. Alex screamed and ran away from us, laughing. The other three people in the back lounge with Jack and I stood and walked out, leaving us alone in there. I looked up at Jack to see him gazing at me. I caught him looking at me a lot, but there was something different about this time. He looked unsure. Like he was thinking about something. He then slid closer to me and put his hand on the back of my neck, and started to lean his face close to mine.
“Jack, what are you doing?” I asked, leaning away. I was used to him being rather ‘touchy’ with me when he was drunk, but he didn’t usually try to kiss me.
“Shh,” he said, pulling me back to him. The weirdest part of this whole thing was that he wasn’t that drunk.
“Jack, we can’t, okay? We just can’t,” I said, standing.
“Okay,” he sighed, “Sorry,” he looked up at me with sad puppy eyes.
“I forgive you,” I smiled, placing a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Let’s go back to the party,” I said. I walked out of the small room and back towards the front of the bus, with Jack following close behind.

*** 4:06 a.m. ***

I tipped my head back, trying to get the last drop of yet another drink. I had lost count after 7. I threw my empty plastic cup at Alex, who was standing in front of me, (he had put a pair of pants back on by now). It hit him in the chest and fell to the floor. We both cracked up laughing. I reached for another beer from the table behind me, popped of the cap, took a swig and clinked it together with Alex’s.

That is the last thing I remember.