I'll Stop the Whole World

During the upcoming weeks, Hayley, Taylor and Jeremy managed to write 3 more songs, bringing their new song count up to 4. It felt comforting to know that they still worked well together, that the music they were creating still came naturally. A fear that Hayley had was that it was going to become forced, but the writing process was still as fluid as ever.

Andrew arranged some dates for the band in Europe. He thought that it would be good for them to get away and for them to perform a little before getting into the process of actually creating a new album. Taylor’s brother Justin was filling in on guitar while Josh Freese was playing the drums. It blew Hayley’s mind that someone like Josh Freese wasn’t only going to be playing on the same stage as them, but that he would be playing their songs. It was truly an honour to have such accomplished musicians helping them out in their time of need.

A few days before they were due to leave on the next leg of the tour, Jeremy and Kat were having a leaving party for everyone. All of the band would be there, as would the touring members and several members of their crew - who pretty much stayed the same from tour to tour and then consequently became quite good friends with the people in the band.

‘Hayles!’ Jeremy greeted Hayley with a high five, and Kat gave her quick hug before ushering her inside towards the mass of people.

When Hayley walked into their garden, drinks and food were flowing and everyone seemed in good spirits. There was a buzz about the place, it was always the same just before they went on tour everyone was raring to go, wanting to begin the madness that is touring.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of veggie burgers, diet coke, and laughs. By around 10pm Hayley was so full of food, she was ready to fall asleep, right on Kat and Jeremy’s sofa.

Her eyes were falling closed when she heard Taylor say ‘Come on missy,’ he then her picked her up and made his way out to Hayley’s car. Before he’d even had a chance to start the car, she was asleep. He drove her back to her apartment, and just as he put her into her bed, he realised he’d left his keys at Jeremy’s. He’d stayed at Hayley’s often enough to know she didn’t mind him unexpectedly staying over. So he grabbed the blanket from the back of the sofa, toed off his beaten up sneakers and promptly drifted off.

The next morning, Taylor woke with a yawn, rubbing his eyes slowly as they adjusted to the light flowing through the window in Hayley’s living room.

‘Mornin’, Sleeping Beauty.’ Hayley laughed as she sat across from Taylor on the other sofa. Taylor greeted her with a curt nod as he watched her stuff pancakes into her mouth.

Before he could even ask if there were any for him, Hayley pointed just to his left and he looked on the coffee table and saw a plate of pancakes sprinkled with strawberries and raspberries with a glass of orange juice next to it.

‘You are a saint!’ he spoke, picking up the plate and falling on to the sofa next to Hayley. He pressed a ‘thank you’ kiss to her temple before beginning to eat.
They sat in a comfortable silence while they finished their breakfast, both of them happily enjoying their food. ‘Thanks for bringing me home last night. I don’t know what happened last night…I was just so sleepy!’
Taylor laughed. ‘No worries,’ he rose from the sofa and went t do the washing up.

Although Hayley had known about the tour for almost two months, she still – as always – left her packing until the last minute. It was 2:48am and she was running around her apartment like a headless chicken.

‘Where is my Ramones t-shirt?!’ she said exasperatedly to herself, throwing the clothes out of her drawers every which way in pursuit of the band tee.

She finally found her way to bed at around 5:45am, which unluckily for Hayley meant that she’d only get just over 2 hours sleep, because she needed to be at the airport for 9am. Which meant she had to get up at 8am so she’d have enough time to get dressed and actually get the airport.

Waking up so early was not something Hayley loved, but she felt bad because she was always the last one to turn up to places. But, when she got up in the morning, it was a completely different story. She finally managed to drag herself out of her apartment at 9:10 which meant she’d get to the airport at around 9:50.

When she finally arrived at the airport, she ran full pelt into the terminal until she found the guys, who were sitting n a bench with Andrew having a cup of coffee.

‘I’m so sorry I’m late you guys.’ She said breathing heavily, bending over trying to inhale deeply.

They all greeted her in unison. She wondered why they weren’t berating her for her lateness. ‘Well, we didn’t actually need to be here until 10, but we decided to tell you an hour earlier so you’d be here on time.’ Jeremy informed her.

‘Worked like a charm,’ Taylor chuckled.