Take This To Heart

Juliet.

The coast was most likely clear. If not, this venture was about to be a hell full of awkward.

Slowly I climbed out of the bunk I was borrowing for the time being on Hey Monday’s bus, making my way across the empty bus and out the door into the equally empty parking lot. Both bands were currently in an interview and playing an acoustic session for at least the next twenty minutes, so I had a bit of time.

I just needed a few extra shirts and jeans to last me until I left. Which, at this point, seemed like as soon as we got back on the east coast in a week. There was nothing left here for me to do. Everyone was being an asshole or not doing anything at all. I was tired of all the bullshit.

Making my way over the lot to All Time Low’s bus, I snuck on and smiled at the emptiness. It was mostly likely because the crew guys were out to lunch. Kind of a bummer, because I would have liked to talk to Flyzik. He seemed like my only friend left, since Alex was turning into a complete prick.

The bus was dirty and smelled like absolute shit, probably because I wasn’t there. Typical.

Once I reached my bunk, I reached for my suitcase and grabbed a few extra shirts. I noticed a few of my bras were missing, which I probably should have expected. I laughed and grabbed some jeans before closing my suitcase and going over to the cabinets to steal some food.

All of a sudden a heard a soft knock on the bus.

I knew right off the bat it didn’t belong to anyone on this tour.

Subtly, I stuck my hand in between the blinds and took a peak out the window. Holy shit.

Outside the van window was a fucking limo. It was white and had silver lining, with the backseat door wide open and a pink bag lying on the ground.

I tried to see the door of the bus, but there was nothing.

“Hello!?” A voice called. It was definitely a girl.

I bit my lip and walked down to the door, opening it slowly to something I wasn’t really sure was real.

“Hello?” I said, trying not to sound too rude.

But it was hard not to, when there was a big-boobed girl with bleach blonde hair, a pink bag, and way too much make up on outside a tour bus. She probably had the wrong place. She did not look like tour material.

“Hi, I’m Annie.” She said plainly, smiling up at me like that was supposed to mean something.

I squinted at her and nodded. “And I’m Juliet. Why are you here?”

Annie gave me a face like I was the idiot. “I’m Jack’s girlfriend?”

My heart pounded as I stared at her. Jack hadn’t said shit about a girlfriend. And this girl looked like something he would brag about. But Jack hadn’t had a girlfriend since… me. Nothing serious. Nothing like a girl visiting him on tour. There were little things, but in the end, I was the only big one.

Staring at her now, I kept telling myself that this was impossible. She had bleach blonde hair and giant boobs. She had high cheek bones and a beautiful, white smile. This girl looked like a movie star. In a different way than a lot of girls, she was beautiful.

I still refused to believe that she was telling the truth though.

Suddenly my memory flashed to the text message Jack got on the bus a few days ago, the one I deleted without him seeing. If Annie wasn’t staring at me currently, my mouth would have dropped. Jack had a girlfriend.

A girlfriend he didn’t tell me about.

I looked down at the girl with a smile. “Oh! Annie, right?”

She smiled and nodded back. “Yep!”

“Oh, I’m so glad to finally meet you!” I gushed, taking her into a tight hug, my mind blown into a delirious state. I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside the bus. “So this is the bus!”

Annie’s race wrinkled as she smelled the disgusting odor. My face was stuck in a smile, because I was totally out of mind at this point. I had given up on all of this.

“Is it always this messy?”

I gave her a puzzled look. “Messy? This is clean!”

The look on her face made me laugh a bit. This was going to be a fun time.

“So how do you know Jackie?”

“I’m sorry?”

Annie let out a laugh, like this was some inside joke I wasn’t a part of.

“Oh, sorry! Jack and I have little nicknames for each other.”

I laughed loudly, probably a little too loudly, and smiled at her. “Oh my, that is just so precious! And Jack and I? We got WAY back. We met in high school.”

“Really?” Annie said, looking at me with a crooked, stupid smile on her face. “He’s never mentioned you before.”

I smiled back at her and laughed. “Jack is funny that way, isn’t he?”

Annie nodded slowly.

“So tell me about you and Jack! He hasn’t talked about you much with me, you know how he is about his little girlfriends.”

She laughed nervously, obviously uncomfortable and smiled. “Well, we met at a club and kind of hit it off from there. He was really sweet.”

“Oh, believe me,” I laughed again, “I know.”

“So um, where is he right now?”

“They’re in an acoustic session right now, and they should be done soon.” I said as the bus door opened. “Oh! Speak of the devil! JACK!”

I called Jack’s name a few more times, sure to confuse the hell out of him since he hadn’t seen me set foot on the bus for days. As Alex walked in first, his eyes bulged at the sight. Quickly he stopped, looking behind him as Jack reached our view.

He stopped for a second, looking at Annie and then back at me. I still had that annoyingly perky smile on my face, just to drive it in him. Plus, I had lost control of it all at this point.

“Jackie!” Annie clapped as she ran up to him, leaving me on the couch seriously amused. Annie grabbed his neck and kissed him, but Jack was far from relaxed. I had never seen him so uncomfortable.

Alex moved next to me on the couch. “So you’ve met Annie then, eh?”

“Yeah, thanks for the heads up on that.”

“Not my secret to tell.” Alex said between teeth.

I nodded. “I know. I’m just seriously enjoying this.”

“You’re smiling like an idiot.”

“AM I?” I laughed, lightly touching his knee and falling into his chest. Alex lightly put his arm around me, a look on his face like he either thought this was really funny or really frightening.

Jack and Annie walked towards us, Annie hanging on to Jack tightly as Jack looked like he wanted to run.

“Nice to see you, Annie. This is a surprise.” Alex said, smiling.

Annie laughed. “Yeah, I thought you guys could use one though!”

“Oh, I LOVE surprises!” I said loudly, looking from Alex to Jack. “Especially when Jack surprises me. That’s always the best time.”

“Yeah,” Jack said nervously. “Sometimes.”

All of a sudden Annie gasped, her hands flying to her face. “Juliet! Jack! You didn’t tell me!”

Jack’s eyes shot up as he stared at her, his hands out like he was ready to get defensive. All I could think was how perfect this was.

“Why didn’t you tell me Alex had a girlfriend?” Annie said, laughing and looking over at Alex’s arm on my shoulders. “I was wondering why you were here Juliet.”

“Wait,” Jack said, laughing a bit, “They are-”

“We’re kind of low key.” I shrugged, turning to Alex. “Aren’t we babe?”

Alex paused for a second, meeting my eyes and nodding slowly. “Yeah, yeah. You know how fans can be.” He shrugged with me, looking Jack in the eyes.

Jack squirmed a bit. Slowly I felt Alex’s lips on my cheek and his arms wrap around me tighter. Thank god Alex knew how to go along with my plans. This was why we were such good friends.

“Oh my god, you guys are adorable.”

Jack coughed, turning to Annie. “Do you want to go out to eat? We have almost nothing here.”

Annie shrugged. “Sure. Why don’t Juliet and Alex come?”

“No,” Jack shook his head quickly before I could answer. “They have to do um, other things. Come on, let’s go.”

With that they were gone, and I turned to Alex with a smirk on my lips. He laughed, his head leaning back and his arm still on my shoulders.

“That was fun.” He laughed. “God, I can’t believe that happened. Sorry no one told you.”

I shrugged and leaned back with him. “Playing with this is going to be so fun. Jack is such a fucker to think he can do that to me. Thanks for helping me, Alex. Love you for that bud.” I kissed him on the cheek and got up slowly as he paused, nodding.

“No problem, Jules.”