Textbook Romance

After Max took off to get ready for his show, I went and got changed into a pair of mid-thigh length, ripped shorts and just the ETF shirt I'd gotten earlier in the day. When the kids started swarming through the door, they seemed to move directly for the merchandise booths in the back.

Tey and I each took different sides of the our area and asked kids over and over what they wanted. Some kids spent up to a hundred bucks or more on shirts, wristbands, and CDs, and for the first time I was blown away by the fans that showed up to the shows. Some of the people were older than me, it seemed, and I felt young and inexperienced as a thousand people made their way into the building.

Even when the first band came on stage people didn't step away from the booths and pay more attention to the show, but they seemed to do both, moving their way down from the first band booth the the last, ours.

The bands played about 5 songs each, each band amping up the crowd even more than the one before it. The room was hot and humid and I was sweating as I popped around the merchandise booth, signing along with the bands I knew and nodded my heads to the beats of the ones I didn't.

When A Day to Remember came out on the stage, I screamed along with everyone, thanking Tey as he took over my spot and covered the people who were asking me to get them things. I threw the rock sign into the air as Neil took his place.

This was the first time that I had seen Neil play live in front of a crowd. I had been to a few of the band's practices, but that was more messing around than serious playing. Here, they took their spots, greeted the crowd, and then morphed right into the music, causing the crowd to go wild.

A pit opened up at the front of the stage and Jeremy moved his hand in a twirling motion, signaling for them to amp it up. I grinned and clapped my hands. Neil moved around the stage quite a bit and I watched with interest as he got into the music, his fingers moving along the neck quickly. He got focused and the look of determination on his face made me smile and forget that I was mad at him for hitting Max in the face.

I screamed and clapped loudly when A Day To Remember left the stage. And when Escape The Fate took their place about 15 minutes later, I screamed along with everyone else. While ADTR was focused, precise, and powerful, ETF was crazy, emotional, and in it for the music and the fans, equally.

Max bounced around the stage like gravity didn't effect him and I couldn't help but let my eyes slip back to him every few minutes, watching as he screamed, played, and kissed Craig a couple of times.

After their first song they took a minute to talk to the fans. "Hey mother fuckers!" Max yelled as Monte played around on his guitar.

The crowd screamed in response.

"How you all doing tonight?" Craig asked as he wiped his hair out of his face.

The crowd screamed again and one girl's voice stood out among them as she yelled that she loved them.

"I fucking love you too," Max yelled out in her general direction. The thin man was pumped and spit out a curse word every other thing he sad.

"You know what," Craig said into his mic, looking out of the venue. "We almost came out here completely unprepared." He chuckled and shrugged, "Not that it would mess us up or anything but still."

Monte grinned and moved up to his mic. "It was all because our bassist here would rather hang out with a pretty girl than play a show for you amazing people."

I laughed the the huge crowd started to boo Max, who held his hand over his heart like it hurt him physically. He shook his head and moved back up to his mic, seeing as he had wandered back to talk to Robert. He spoke to defend himself. "I love you fricken people," he called out with a crooked grin, "But this girl..." he trailed off, causing me to blush and hide my face behind my hands. "Damn, she's gorgeous," Max shook his head in disbelief.

Tey grinned at me as I shook my head in embarrassment as Max mentioned that he took a black eye for his "gorgeous girl".

After Craig, Monte, and Robert finished messing with Max and his new hair cut, they continued onto their next song and the crowd went wild. They started singing Issues, and I sang along to every word, bopping my head to the beat and becoming engrossed in the music.

I only sold three shirts and a couple wrist bands through out the rest of the show. When it wrapped up, Escape the Fate said their goodbyes and tossed drumsticks and picks out into the crowd before disappearing backstage with the sound of the crowd screaming behind them.

I felt disgusting as I handed the kids the things they bought. I was sweaty and sticky from the heat in the room. My shirt was sticking to me as the kids started clearing out of the venue.
"Last call for Escape the Fate merch!" I shouted as I stood on the counter per request of Tey as he started to pack up the left over shirts for the next show.

When nobody came over to get merchandise I hopped down and then started to help Tey pick up the stuff. I pulled the signs off of the wall and tossed then onto the counter so I could throw them away.

It took about a half an hour to get everything put away into the boxes and then Tey and I each grabbed a couple boxes. I followed after him as he lead me out to the roadie bus where they stored everything.

It was dark outside and quarter to midnight, so I was grateful to who ever thought to turn the bus lights on for us to see.

I learned then that all the people who sell merchandise share a rented bus that all the bands had pitched in to provide for this tour. Some of the compartments under the bus were open and Tey lead us over to one that I learned we shared with another band. He opened it up and showed me how to store the boxes there.

"How does everything fit?" I asked, referring to the amount of boxes that we'd be trying to pack into there.

"There's a van too," Tey said with a shrug, "We shove everything in there and everyone on the roadie crew takes turns driving it to each venue."

I nodded, hoping that I wouldn't have to drive it any time soon seeing as I wasn't the best driver. I grimaced at the thought, causing Tey to laugh.

"Maybe you can weasel your way out of driving if you really don't want to, but you'd have to get someone to cover for you," Tey told me as we moved to go back into the building to grab more boxes.

"It's not that I don't want to," I told him honestly, "It's just that I'm worried about crashing your van."

Tey laughed as he shook his head. "How old are you?" he questioned.

I smiled, "Nineteen. I've only been driving for three years."

Tey laughed again and looked at me. "Aww, we've got a little baby on the crew," he said sarcastically, making fun of me as I shoved his shoulder.

"Jackass," I laughed, shaking my head at him as we went through the back doors that were now propped open for the roadies.

It only took us about an hour to get everything back up in the bus and the van, but when Tey offered to help the other guys whose bands' hadn't sold so much tonight, that took us into another hour, since they had to reload most of their boxes. And when everyone was getting ready to go Tey yanked me onto his bus. I noticed right away that it wasn't as nice as the bands' buses, but it was definitely better than staying in a van. There were four bunks on the bus, and from what I could see both of the couches were claimed by people too.

"It's in my bunk," he told me, "I forgot it when I went to unload earlier."
He handed me a lanyard that had the name of the tour on it and a slip in it that had my name on it. "Slip your ID in the other side that that'll allow you in and out of the venues without having to have someone else with you."

I nodded and reached for my wallet so I could stick my ID in the other side before I forgot.

I looked up when a man with shaggy blonde hair came out of the back. "We're heading out in about five minutes," he told Tey before glancing at me. "You must be Escape the Fate's girl," he said as he held his hand out for me to shake.

"I'm Ginny," I greeted, shaking his hand.

"I'm Ricky," he said with a smile before continuing, "You got lucky. It's not common that bands let their employees camp out on their buses."

I shrugged. "The guys said that this bus was pretty packed and there wouldn't be any room for me to take up," I told him, knowing that it was true.

He nodded automatically. "Aw, yeah," he said, "We've got people sleeping on the floor nowadays."

I peaked over his shoulder towards the back of the bus where I could see about three people in the back room. "How many people are on this bus?" I asked, wondering if there were more than I had seen at the show tonight, since I had counted about eight people selling merch, including myself.

"There's about 11 of us," he said with a shrug, causing my jaw to drop.

"11 people share this bus?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. Rachel and Ian share a bunk, then Tey, Evan, and Mitch have the other ones. William and Tyson take the couch, and then Quinn and I rotate between the bed and Danny and Noah share everyone's beds."

"Wow," I murmured, drawing out the word as I thought to thank the ETF boys for letting me have their extra bunk. "Would you guys rather be on your bands' buses?"

When both Ricky and Tey shrugged, I was shocked.

"It's like our own little party over here, kid," Tey said as he grinned at me. Then he added, "And two of us are always driving, so the one left on the floor steals the other person's bed for the night."

I smiled. I liked the sense of community that they had on this one bus. It was a small bus that wouldn't fit too many uncoordinated people, but this large group seemed to make it work.

Someone in the back yelled that we'd be leaving soon so I turned to Ricky and Tey and told them that I better get back to the Escape the Fate bus before they left without me. "They might not know if I'm on Neil's bus or not," I told them with a chuckle, remembering that I was mad at him still.

"I can walk you back," Tey offered politely.

I shook my head. "It's only across the lot," I replied, "I can manage."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," I told them both, "I'll see you guys at tomorrow's show."

They called goodbye as I made my way off the roadie bus as the rest of their crew scrambled on. I marched across the darkness towards where the lights were coming form. The band busses all had the bands' logos on them that were illuminated in the windows by the lights coming from inside. I looked for the large bus that had that familiar green and black pattern on it and headed in that direction.

I by passed Neil's bus and felt kind of bad about being mad at him, until I remembered Max's black eye. I typed the code into the ETF bus and grinned when the door opened. I took to the stairs and laughed when the boys cheered.

"Our working girl has returned!" Craig cheered enthusiastically. His hair was wet and he smelled like my shampoo as he pulled me in for a hug, only to push me away as he claimed I was sticky and sweaty.

I nodded animatedly, "That's what manual labor will do to a girl!" I cheered, sweeping my hair up into a pony bun and tying a hair thing around it on my head, "I need a shower," I complained, whining when I noticed that someone was already in there, Max by the looks of it.

So instead I tossed myself down on the couch next to Craig, who turned his attention to some movie as the bus started rolling. Their driver following the caravan of bands headed towards the next destination.