Status: It is technically finished, but I might add an epilogue later on.
When the Day Met the Night
Why in the Hell Would I Ever See Alex’s Di-Piñata!?
You say the sweetest things and I can't keep my heart from singing along to the sound of your song. My stupid feet keep moving to this 4/4 beat; I'm in time with you. ~Paramore
A felt a hand placed on my shoulder and jumped out of my trance. “Huh?” I looked up to see whom the hand belonged to.
“How you holding up?” Alex asked.
“I’m fine.” I lied and wiped away my tears. I scooted over and let him sit next to me.
“No you’re not, which is why I’m here. The guys figured you would talk to me the easiest.” He pulled me under his arm and kissed the top of my head.
I pulled away and curled in on myself. “They must be high.”
Alex chuckled but made no move to pull me back to him. “Why wouldn’t it be easy to talk to me?”
I sighed and decided to tell him the truth. “Every time I look at you, I just keep replaying the kiss.”
Alex frowned and looked at his lap. “I’m still really sorry about that. I was probably a bad kisser.”
“Oh god no!” I said frantically. “I don’t regret it like that, trust me. you were great. It’s just that you’re my best friend and it’s awkward.”
“Because were best friends, or because it’s me?”
I stared at Alex. I couldn’t think of where his train of thought was going. “Um I guess the friend thing.” I looked at my lap and then suddenly got up. I walked to my computer and looked up the interview from before on youtube. I read the comments and sighed.
“They don’t even know what really happened.” Alex said behind me.
“I should probably make a video to clear all of this up.” I glanced at the comments and decided that it was a need.
“Are you sure?” Alex looked at me with worry in his eyes.
“Yea, I don’t want them to think I’m a bitch, without giving them a good goddamn reason.” I turned on the web cam and made sure I looked decent enough before I started recording, thankfully the redness had gone away.
“Hi Panic! fans! Well a lot of you have seen the recent interview, and I would like to talk about that.” I glanced behind me and laughed when I saw that Alex had grabbed the office chair from my room and was currently spinning around in it. “Oh yea, Alex from All Time Low is here with me. I think my friends have set up a suicide watch; not really, but they are worried about me, and it makes me happy that they are.” A smile pulled at my lips, which turned into a full on smile when Alex hugged me from behind.
“Hey guys! I will tell you this, E is NOT a bitch. She’s an amazingtastical person who was just having a rough day.”
I nodded. “By the way, Alex loves to steal my made up words. I should probably get them copyrighted.” I joked. “But on a serious note, yes I was having a bad day. Hours before the interview I had to bury my 13 year old dog Simba. Someone reminded me of the interview, and I decided I didn’t want to let down anyone who was hoping to see me. Well the picture the interviewer took from me was a picture of my dog. I freaked out and felt like she was taking Simba away from me, so I snatched the picture back. Then she started talking about me and Alex, which him being here probably isn’t helping the rumors, but I just get annoyed when and interviewer focuses on one person in the band, instead of the rest of the band as well.” I took a breath and Alex laughed at me as he made shapes behind my head. “So that was my explanation of what happened that day, and I hope you guys don’t hate me.”
“Don’t hate her or Jack will personally come to your house and fuck all of your burritos!” Alex yelled from behind me as he stared at the camera intently. I smiled sadly and noticed the picture of Simba on my desktop. I began to sniffle and decided it was time to say goodbye.
“Um so… bye.” I turned off the camera and began to upload it as a few tears trailed down my cheeks.
I turned over to look at Alex and his arms were already wide open. For a good ten minutes we just sad there while I ruined his shirt with my salty tears. “I’m really sorry about your shirt.” I mumbled as I pulled away from Alex.
“Don’t worry about it. Oh and hey I have a random question that has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but which two bands would you like to go on tour with?”
“Um random, but I guess you guys of course, and Paramore? What is with the random question that has ‘absolutely nothing to do with anything’?
“Nothing, now how about you rest up?”
_______________________________
“WAKE YOUR ASS UP!”
I groaned and swatted whoever was closest to me. “Whoever you are, shut the fuck up, or I’ll have Jack fuck all your burritos.”
“That threat won’t exactly work with me. I won’t fuck my own burritos, I’m too much of a diva for that, Rian does it for me.”
“Barakat go the fuck away. Why are you in my house?”
“We’re going on tour!” Brendon yelled as he walked into the room.
Now I actually sat up in bed and everyone in the room laughed at me; which actually reminded me of when I first met All Time Low. “What? For both the tour and the laughing.”
“A) Panic! At The Disco will be touring with All Time Low, and Paramore for the next couple of months, and your hair is sticking up every which ways.” Spencer said.
“I’m going back to sleep to see if I’ll actually wake up next time.”
“C’mon E.” Zack whined. “We wanna go on tour with you! Although be forewarned that on tour, you will see a lot of junk.”
“Are you guys actually trying to convince me that we’re leaving today for a tour that I wasn’t even warned about? Our new album just came out like 5 days ago.”
“Yea well it’s gonna take us 2 days to get to the 1st venue, and that’s a festival, so no one’s gonna really know our songs anyway.” Spencer said.
“Well how am I gonna have enough time to pack?” I got out of bed and walked over to my closet.
“Already done, we just need you to double check to make sure we didn’t leave anything you might want.” I was shocked when I saw my closet mostly emptied. All that was left was an outfit that I assumed was for the day. I glanced at my room and noticed that pretty much everything had been packed.
“Damn you guys are good. I guess I’ll get ready, tell my parents, and we’ll be on our way.
____________________________
“Blargyblarg!” I yell as I averted my eyes. We were at our 2nd venue of the tour. I became fast friends with Paramore, and currently Hayley and I were aboard the All Time Low bus.; which just so happened to be filled with naked guys.
“Um, E, I think we came at the wrong time.” Hayley hid behind my back as we started to walk out of the bus.
“I’m not all that fond of orgies guys, sorry!” I yelled at them as I walked out of the bus, Hayley in tow. Once out, the both of us were laughing like mad hatters.
“Um okay?” Spencer said as he walked up with Brendon.
“All Time Low boys are naked. It was quite disturbing.” Hayley said. And I nodded in agreement.
“Yea… guys tend to do that a lot on tour, sorry I didn’t warn ya.” Brendon shrugged. “We’re keeping our pants on mostly because you’re on the bus with us most of the time, and we all know I would jump Spence if he had no pants.”
I hugged Brendon and Spencer. “You guys are such dorks!”
“Well so are you, or you wouldn’t have chosen All Time Low and Paramore to tour with you, I know we’re chock full of dorks.” Hayley commented.
Then Alex and the rest of All Time Low came out of the bus, thank fully they were fully dressed. “Sorry about that.” Alex said, a light blush rushing over his cheeks. The rest of the band seemed like they could care less that Hayley and I had been witness to their… things…
“Aww look at little Alex all self-conscious!” I joked as I gently pinched his cheeks. “I guess all those jokes on stage are true!”
“Hey! Did you even see mine?! Just like with eyebrows, I beat out Jack.” Alex whined and the rest of us laughed. Although it is true, that Alex has amazing eyebrows.
“Actually thinking about it, I didn’t, and I’m not entirely sure I want to subject myself to such torture.” I smirked and Spencer hugged me.
“Atta girl!”
“I saw it, but I’ll let you find out for yourself.” Hayley winked, and I was terrified.
“Why in the hell would I ever see Alex’s di-Piñata!?” I said as I saw Taylor and Jeremy walked over.
“Um why would Alex be showing anyone his Piñata?” Taylor asked.
“No reason no reason at all!” Alex covered my mouth with his hand.
David and Taylor stared at us then just left, probably to go get ready. Hayley decided to go along with them.
“Oh hey, by the way, All Time Low got the main spot tonight!” Matt, All Time Low’s tour manager, celebrated as he walked over to us. “So lineup will go Paramore for an hour, Panic! for an hour 15, and All Time Low for an hour and a half. Paramore goes on in 40.” Matt made sure we all understood then went to go get stuff ready.
“Guess we should get ready.” I said to the guys. It was unanimous between Brendon, Spencer, and I to go back to Panic!’s roots and dress up. So going along the lines of Mona Lisa from their last album, we’re going for the steampunk look. Which lemme tell you, it looks fucking awesome! Even if I normally restrict my clothing to T-Shirts and jeans.
I got ready in about 15 minutes and decided to go to the ATL bus, this time I decided to knock first.
“We’re decent E!” Rian yelled from inside. I walked in and they were in the same clothes as before, for the most part they wore their daily clothes on stage.
“Damn that’s a pretty awesome outfit! You should’ve worn that at the festival!” Jack commented.
“I love the way it looks too! Now who wants to skateboard by the crowd with me?” I asked, and of course, Alex and Jack raised their hands like little 4 year olds saying yes to Disney. “Well grab your boards and we’ll go. My board is right outside.”
I took off my small heels and held them in my hand as I skateboarded pass the crowd. “WASSUP SAN FRANCISCO?!”I stopped every few seconds to sign some autographs and continue on my journey. For a bit I stopped and asked Alex to do me a favor. “Hey I wanna do a handstand, but obviously I’m in a dress, so can you hold it up while I do the trick?”
Alex nodded, and we decided not to alert Jack just so he would be surprised.
“Ok, 1…2…” I caught some speed on my board and Alex kept up, ready to lift my dress quickly. “3!” I lifted my legs into the air and Alex caught my dress. “WOO!”
Alex was laughing as Jack almost ran into a dumpster because he was staring at me.
“Ooh, purple underwear, nice.” Alex joked.
“Hardy har har. Now let my dress go in 1…2…3!” I felt Alex let go of the fabric, and before it went down I thrusted my board in front of me, did a quick back flip off, and once I was back on my feet I went back onto the bard like nothing happened. I heard the line of fans cheer, and it made me so jubilant. I got off the board and decided to sign a couple more autographs. The line was already moving in. Jack, Alex, and I skated back to the buses where the costume designer was glaring at me.
“You could’ve ripped the dress!” She yelled.
“Could’ve being the operative word, because I didn’t.” I smiled at her and told her not to worry so much as I put the board back into the bus.
“E, that was kickass! But incredibly dangerous!” Spencer yelled at me, such a father.
“Don’t worry, that’s one of the easier tricks.” I thought of all the tricks I had done back at home, and yep, that was the one I got the least hurt with.
The choreographer taped my shoulder and I turned to face her. “What was that?!”
“Um… a handstand and a back flip.” I said shyly.
“Well it was amazing! Do you have any formal training in gymnastics?
“2 years.”
She suddenly looked so elated. “Perfect! I’ll work on some choreography for you, and maybe work something out with the costume designer to make your outfit a bit movable, even though you did pretty well in the poof.”
“Thanks.” Before I knew it we had to head over to the stage since Paramore was finishing their set.
On stage we performed the more popular songs of the new album, I Write Sins not Tragedies, Camisado, When the Day met the Night, and That Green Gentleman.
All Time Low came on and I waited on the sidelines with the Hayley, the rest of the boys were somewhere.
“Damn they’re good.” I said as I quietly sang along to Heroes.
“You like Alex don’t you?” Hayley said nonchalantly.
“Because I like their music? And anyways, Jack has always been my favorite in the band.”
Hayley smirked. “A) He may be your favorite person in the band, but who is your favorite person? B) You’ve had googly eyes this entire time for Alex.”
“So he’s good looking, oh well, all the guys on this tour are cute.” I didn’t dare look back at Alex.
Suddenly a person from stage crew ran up to Alex and whispered something in his ear. Alex was smiling as he continued to play, but as soon as he heard what the guys had to say, the smile dropped. He nodded and finished off their last song.
“So we were going to have a surprise video for you guys tonight, but it seems that we are having technical difficulties so, yea… Sorry guys, because trust me, I really wanted to play that video.” Alex looked so sad, but I was glad that the crew didn’t tell him anything too serious.
All Time Low said goodbye to the crowd and walked of the stage where I hugged all of them, even if they were sweaty.
After that, the crowd began to leave after they bought their merch, and everything was packed into trailers.
_______________________________
After about a month and a half of touring and we had only made our way to Nevada, having gone to the Northwestern part of the U.S first.
So on October 16th, we we’re in Las Vegas.
“Holy shit guys!” I yelled as I awoke and walked over to the window. “It’s your hometown! You have to look at it!” I was so excited to be in Las Vegas, even though I can legally drink and everything, I never went to Las Vegas because of school.
“Trust me, we’ve seen it.” Brendon mumbled from his bunk. Spencer grunted in approval.
“You guys are such party poopers! Jack needs to be here with me.” I grumbled to myself as I headed towards the bathroom. I looked at my hair and grimaced, it always looked so insane in the morning. I ignored it for now and took my medicine and vitamins, getting sick on tour would not be good. And the meds were for the same reason Brendon needs his, ADHD. Although unlike Brendon, I normally take mine; not that they work the best, but it makes me feel like maybe I could fit in with the crowd. I walked out of the bathroom to realize that we had stopped and All Time Low was on our bus, Paramore was still sleeping, as well as Brendon and Spencer.
“Whoa! Bad hair day? Me too!” Jack yelled.
I smiled and sat between him and Rian on the couch.
“Happy birthday E!” Zack said, he was the first to say anything. Everyone in Florida was probably asleep due to the time zones, and same with my family.
“Oh yea… Thanks Zack.” I gave him one of those awkward, hugging over your friends hug.
“Happy birthday!” said the rest of the guys.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH! NOW EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Brendon yelled from his bunk.
“Someone’s a diva.” I whispered to Rian, eliciting a laugh.
“Everyone decent?!” yelled the choreographer from the bus door as she covered her eyes with her hand.
“Yea, Bren and Spence are still asleep though.”
“Ok, that’s fine, happy birthday by the way, how old are you now?”
“22 as of 1:13 this morning.”
“Nice, we can all drink tonight, but for now I want to go over the choreography with you before the fans begin to line up.”
“Sure, should I be in costume or is it ok like this? Which I should probably brush my hair.” I said as I tried to run my fingers through my knotty hair.
“Like that is fine. And what did you do to your hair? It would look fantastic with the dress, all crazy like.” She poked my hair and the boys chuckled.
“Um… I slept.” I laughed as I caught my reflection in the window.
“Well you should do so before the concert, it’s a good look. Now which one of you boys are willing to catch Elizabeth’s guitar?” Zack raised his hand and we began to go towards the stage for a final practice before the concert. “Oh by the way, Panic! won the main spot tonight, kind of a nice birthday gift from the town.”
_________________________________________________
“Ok so since it’s Elizabeth’s birthday today, I would like to honor it by having her sing a very special song to her.” Brendon said in the middle of our set.
I stared at him with my head slightly tilted in confusion. Brendon saw me but continued on talking to the crowd.
“So as you can tell by her face, she didn’t know of this either. People may think that I don’t pay that much attention, but I do, so I just so happen to know that Elizabeth’s favorite movie is Anastasia, so I thought that for her birthday instead of doing the normal birthday song, we all sing ‘Once Upon a December’.”
I stared at him in shock. I made sure the crowd couldn’t hear me, but Brendon could. “I don’t know the notes! I’m not all that great at piano!” Brendon took away my guitar.
“I have that covered. All you have to do is face the crowd and sing.” Brendon smiled as he passed the guitar over to a crew member and faced the crowd again.
For some reason the All Time Low lyrics My lungs gave out, as I faced the crowd. I think that keeping this up could be dangerous. I'm flesh and bone, I'm a rolling stone, and the experts say I'm delirious. popped intp my head.
Brendon began to play the piano and I tried to fathom me being able to sing in front of a crowd with nothing to do with my hands. I eventually built up the courage quickly.
Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember,
And a song someone sings
once upon a December
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
Far away, long ago
things I yearn to remember
and a song someone sings
Once upon a December
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
Once I finished I almost collapsed from the adrenaline. The crowd was clapping and cheering and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. “Brendon just so you know, that was the scariest thing in the world.”
“Well hey you had no choice, you don’t wanna disappoint the fans, but don’t worry that’s not the last surprise!”
I groaned and rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t fight the smile. We continued on the second part of the set, on our second to last song ‘Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off’ it was my turn to start the routine. Brendon took over guitar duties while I began my cartwheel; which lead into a double back handspring, and ended with me in a split on an area marked with blue tape. As soon as I stood back on my feet, I began to move up. I freaked out as the platform with only me moved up. I noticed that I was about a yard off the ground and started to think of a way to get down.
Before I had the chance to try climbing down Alex came from the side stage with a mike attached to his face.
“Hello people! I am here to save the damsel in distress!” Alex walked over to the platform and held his arms out. “Jump and I’ll catch you.”
“No I can get down by myself.” I said as I stared at the floor, ok so maybe I was more than a yard up.
“Don’t make me start singing Taylor Swift! Don't be afraid to jump then fall; jump then fall into me!”
“Fine! Only because I’m scared of heights!” I could hear the crowd laughing at our banter as I jumped into Alex’s arms. Man he is strong! Alex carried me back to my spot on stage. “By the way people, just so you know, I now officially abhor anyone who knew of that plan, specifically Brendon, and Alex. Possibly Spencer just by the way he’s laughing.” Even though I was trying to sound sincere and mean, I couldn't help but crack a smile. Brendon handed me back my guitar and we continued with the rest of the song. We finished off with a song from our new album, ‘An Army of Lions Led by Sheep’.”
As we were exiting the stage, Alex walked on. “E! Where you going? I’m keeping you prisoner!” Alex picked me up bridal style like earlier and the set me down in the middle of the stage.
“What is it with all these goddamn surprises?!”
“Just fucking watch.” Alex smiled at me and pointed to the screen.
On came a video. At the beginning it was Alex standing next to a pile of boxes, on which he had painted on, ‘So I really like this special girl and I want her to know how much I appreciate all she’s done for me. – Alex Gaskarth.' The video then went on to show random clips that someone had filmed at one time or another. Apparently Alex had written the song just for me.
Merrily we fall
Out of line, out of line
I’d fall anywhere with you
I’m by your side
Swinging in the rain
Humming melodies
We're not going anywhere until we freeze
I’m not afraid, anymore
I’m not afraid
Forever is a long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Carefully we'll place our destiny
You came and you took this heart, and set it free
Every word you write or sing is so warm to me, so warm to me
I’m torn, I’m torn to be right where you are
I’m not afraid, anymore
I’m not afraid
Forever is a long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Tell me every day I get to wake up to that smile
I wouldn't mind it at all
I wouldn't mind it at all
You so know me
Pinch me gently
I can hardly breathe
Forever is a long, long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Tell me every day I get to wake up to that smile
I wouldn't mind it at all
I wouldn't mind it at all
At the end it was Alex standing by the boxes again, but now with a different message, ‘So Elizabeth Starr, Will you go out with me? – Alex’.”
I stared at him in shock. He had done all that, just for me. I took out a piece of notebook paper with ‘Prove You Wrong’ Lyrics. I pointed at the date, the day of Lisa and Alex’s breakup, and began to sing a line. “Can you let me try?”
Alex took the incentive and kissed me hard on the lips. What a spectacular birthday.
A felt a hand placed on my shoulder and jumped out of my trance. “Huh?” I looked up to see whom the hand belonged to.
“How you holding up?” Alex asked.
“I’m fine.” I lied and wiped away my tears. I scooted over and let him sit next to me.
“No you’re not, which is why I’m here. The guys figured you would talk to me the easiest.” He pulled me under his arm and kissed the top of my head.
I pulled away and curled in on myself. “They must be high.”
Alex chuckled but made no move to pull me back to him. “Why wouldn’t it be easy to talk to me?”
I sighed and decided to tell him the truth. “Every time I look at you, I just keep replaying the kiss.”
Alex frowned and looked at his lap. “I’m still really sorry about that. I was probably a bad kisser.”
“Oh god no!” I said frantically. “I don’t regret it like that, trust me. you were great. It’s just that you’re my best friend and it’s awkward.”
“Because were best friends, or because it’s me?”
I stared at Alex. I couldn’t think of where his train of thought was going. “Um I guess the friend thing.” I looked at my lap and then suddenly got up. I walked to my computer and looked up the interview from before on youtube. I read the comments and sighed.
“They don’t even know what really happened.” Alex said behind me.
“I should probably make a video to clear all of this up.” I glanced at the comments and decided that it was a need.
“Are you sure?” Alex looked at me with worry in his eyes.
“Yea, I don’t want them to think I’m a bitch, without giving them a good goddamn reason.” I turned on the web cam and made sure I looked decent enough before I started recording, thankfully the redness had gone away.
“Hi Panic! fans! Well a lot of you have seen the recent interview, and I would like to talk about that.” I glanced behind me and laughed when I saw that Alex had grabbed the office chair from my room and was currently spinning around in it. “Oh yea, Alex from All Time Low is here with me. I think my friends have set up a suicide watch; not really, but they are worried about me, and it makes me happy that they are.” A smile pulled at my lips, which turned into a full on smile when Alex hugged me from behind.
“Hey guys! I will tell you this, E is NOT a bitch. She’s an amazingtastical person who was just having a rough day.”
I nodded. “By the way, Alex loves to steal my made up words. I should probably get them copyrighted.” I joked. “But on a serious note, yes I was having a bad day. Hours before the interview I had to bury my 13 year old dog Simba. Someone reminded me of the interview, and I decided I didn’t want to let down anyone who was hoping to see me. Well the picture the interviewer took from me was a picture of my dog. I freaked out and felt like she was taking Simba away from me, so I snatched the picture back. Then she started talking about me and Alex, which him being here probably isn’t helping the rumors, but I just get annoyed when and interviewer focuses on one person in the band, instead of the rest of the band as well.” I took a breath and Alex laughed at me as he made shapes behind my head. “So that was my explanation of what happened that day, and I hope you guys don’t hate me.”
“Don’t hate her or Jack will personally come to your house and fuck all of your burritos!” Alex yelled from behind me as he stared at the camera intently. I smiled sadly and noticed the picture of Simba on my desktop. I began to sniffle and decided it was time to say goodbye.
“Um so… bye.” I turned off the camera and began to upload it as a few tears trailed down my cheeks.
I turned over to look at Alex and his arms were already wide open. For a good ten minutes we just sad there while I ruined his shirt with my salty tears. “I’m really sorry about your shirt.” I mumbled as I pulled away from Alex.
“Don’t worry about it. Oh and hey I have a random question that has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but which two bands would you like to go on tour with?”
“Um random, but I guess you guys of course, and Paramore? What is with the random question that has ‘absolutely nothing to do with anything’?
“Nothing, now how about you rest up?”
_______________________________
“WAKE YOUR ASS UP!”
I groaned and swatted whoever was closest to me. “Whoever you are, shut the fuck up, or I’ll have Jack fuck all your burritos.”
“That threat won’t exactly work with me. I won’t fuck my own burritos, I’m too much of a diva for that, Rian does it for me.”
“Barakat go the fuck away. Why are you in my house?”
“We’re going on tour!” Brendon yelled as he walked into the room.
Now I actually sat up in bed and everyone in the room laughed at me; which actually reminded me of when I first met All Time Low. “What? For both the tour and the laughing.”
“A) Panic! At The Disco will be touring with All Time Low, and Paramore for the next couple of months, and your hair is sticking up every which ways.” Spencer said.
“I’m going back to sleep to see if I’ll actually wake up next time.”
“C’mon E.” Zack whined. “We wanna go on tour with you! Although be forewarned that on tour, you will see a lot of junk.”
“Are you guys actually trying to convince me that we’re leaving today for a tour that I wasn’t even warned about? Our new album just came out like 5 days ago.”
“Yea well it’s gonna take us 2 days to get to the 1st venue, and that’s a festival, so no one’s gonna really know our songs anyway.” Spencer said.
“Well how am I gonna have enough time to pack?” I got out of bed and walked over to my closet.
“Already done, we just need you to double check to make sure we didn’t leave anything you might want.” I was shocked when I saw my closet mostly emptied. All that was left was an outfit that I assumed was for the day. I glanced at my room and noticed that pretty much everything had been packed.
“Damn you guys are good. I guess I’ll get ready, tell my parents, and we’ll be on our way.
____________________________
“Blargyblarg!” I yell as I averted my eyes. We were at our 2nd venue of the tour. I became fast friends with Paramore, and currently Hayley and I were aboard the All Time Low bus.; which just so happened to be filled with naked guys.
“Um, E, I think we came at the wrong time.” Hayley hid behind my back as we started to walk out of the bus.
“I’m not all that fond of orgies guys, sorry!” I yelled at them as I walked out of the bus, Hayley in tow. Once out, the both of us were laughing like mad hatters.
“Um okay?” Spencer said as he walked up with Brendon.
“All Time Low boys are naked. It was quite disturbing.” Hayley said. And I nodded in agreement.
“Yea… guys tend to do that a lot on tour, sorry I didn’t warn ya.” Brendon shrugged. “We’re keeping our pants on mostly because you’re on the bus with us most of the time, and we all know I would jump Spence if he had no pants.”
I hugged Brendon and Spencer. “You guys are such dorks!”
“Well so are you, or you wouldn’t have chosen All Time Low and Paramore to tour with you, I know we’re chock full of dorks.” Hayley commented.
Then Alex and the rest of All Time Low came out of the bus, thank fully they were fully dressed. “Sorry about that.” Alex said, a light blush rushing over his cheeks. The rest of the band seemed like they could care less that Hayley and I had been witness to their… things…
“Aww look at little Alex all self-conscious!” I joked as I gently pinched his cheeks. “I guess all those jokes on stage are true!”
“Hey! Did you even see mine?! Just like with eyebrows, I beat out Jack.” Alex whined and the rest of us laughed. Although it is true, that Alex has amazing eyebrows.
“Actually thinking about it, I didn’t, and I’m not entirely sure I want to subject myself to such torture.” I smirked and Spencer hugged me.
“Atta girl!”
“I saw it, but I’ll let you find out for yourself.” Hayley winked, and I was terrified.
“Why in the hell would I ever see Alex’s di-Piñata!?” I said as I saw Taylor and Jeremy walked over.
“Um why would Alex be showing anyone his Piñata?” Taylor asked.
“No reason no reason at all!” Alex covered my mouth with his hand.
David and Taylor stared at us then just left, probably to go get ready. Hayley decided to go along with them.
“Oh hey, by the way, All Time Low got the main spot tonight!” Matt, All Time Low’s tour manager, celebrated as he walked over to us. “So lineup will go Paramore for an hour, Panic! for an hour 15, and All Time Low for an hour and a half. Paramore goes on in 40.” Matt made sure we all understood then went to go get stuff ready.
“Guess we should get ready.” I said to the guys. It was unanimous between Brendon, Spencer, and I to go back to Panic!’s roots and dress up. So going along the lines of Mona Lisa from their last album, we’re going for the steampunk look. Which lemme tell you, it looks fucking awesome! Even if I normally restrict my clothing to T-Shirts and jeans.
I got ready in about 15 minutes and decided to go to the ATL bus, this time I decided to knock first.
“We’re decent E!” Rian yelled from inside. I walked in and they were in the same clothes as before, for the most part they wore their daily clothes on stage.
“Damn that’s a pretty awesome outfit! You should’ve worn that at the festival!” Jack commented.
“I love the way it looks too! Now who wants to skateboard by the crowd with me?” I asked, and of course, Alex and Jack raised their hands like little 4 year olds saying yes to Disney. “Well grab your boards and we’ll go. My board is right outside.”
I took off my small heels and held them in my hand as I skateboarded pass the crowd. “WASSUP SAN FRANCISCO?!”I stopped every few seconds to sign some autographs and continue on my journey. For a bit I stopped and asked Alex to do me a favor. “Hey I wanna do a handstand, but obviously I’m in a dress, so can you hold it up while I do the trick?”
Alex nodded, and we decided not to alert Jack just so he would be surprised.
“Ok, 1…2…” I caught some speed on my board and Alex kept up, ready to lift my dress quickly. “3!” I lifted my legs into the air and Alex caught my dress. “WOO!”
Alex was laughing as Jack almost ran into a dumpster because he was staring at me.
“Ooh, purple underwear, nice.” Alex joked.
“Hardy har har. Now let my dress go in 1…2…3!” I felt Alex let go of the fabric, and before it went down I thrusted my board in front of me, did a quick back flip off, and once I was back on my feet I went back onto the bard like nothing happened. I heard the line of fans cheer, and it made me so jubilant. I got off the board and decided to sign a couple more autographs. The line was already moving in. Jack, Alex, and I skated back to the buses where the costume designer was glaring at me.
“You could’ve ripped the dress!” She yelled.
“Could’ve being the operative word, because I didn’t.” I smiled at her and told her not to worry so much as I put the board back into the bus.
“E, that was kickass! But incredibly dangerous!” Spencer yelled at me, such a father.
“Don’t worry, that’s one of the easier tricks.” I thought of all the tricks I had done back at home, and yep, that was the one I got the least hurt with.
The choreographer taped my shoulder and I turned to face her. “What was that?!”
“Um… a handstand and a back flip.” I said shyly.
“Well it was amazing! Do you have any formal training in gymnastics?
“2 years.”
She suddenly looked so elated. “Perfect! I’ll work on some choreography for you, and maybe work something out with the costume designer to make your outfit a bit movable, even though you did pretty well in the poof.”
“Thanks.” Before I knew it we had to head over to the stage since Paramore was finishing their set.
On stage we performed the more popular songs of the new album, I Write Sins not Tragedies, Camisado, When the Day met the Night, and That Green Gentleman.
All Time Low came on and I waited on the sidelines with the Hayley, the rest of the boys were somewhere.
“Damn they’re good.” I said as I quietly sang along to Heroes.
“You like Alex don’t you?” Hayley said nonchalantly.
“Because I like their music? And anyways, Jack has always been my favorite in the band.”
Hayley smirked. “A) He may be your favorite person in the band, but who is your favorite person? B) You’ve had googly eyes this entire time for Alex.”
“So he’s good looking, oh well, all the guys on this tour are cute.” I didn’t dare look back at Alex.
Suddenly a person from stage crew ran up to Alex and whispered something in his ear. Alex was smiling as he continued to play, but as soon as he heard what the guys had to say, the smile dropped. He nodded and finished off their last song.
“So we were going to have a surprise video for you guys tonight, but it seems that we are having technical difficulties so, yea… Sorry guys, because trust me, I really wanted to play that video.” Alex looked so sad, but I was glad that the crew didn’t tell him anything too serious.
All Time Low said goodbye to the crowd and walked of the stage where I hugged all of them, even if they were sweaty.
After that, the crowd began to leave after they bought their merch, and everything was packed into trailers.
_______________________________
After about a month and a half of touring and we had only made our way to Nevada, having gone to the Northwestern part of the U.S first.
So on October 16th, we we’re in Las Vegas.
“Holy shit guys!” I yelled as I awoke and walked over to the window. “It’s your hometown! You have to look at it!” I was so excited to be in Las Vegas, even though I can legally drink and everything, I never went to Las Vegas because of school.
“Trust me, we’ve seen it.” Brendon mumbled from his bunk. Spencer grunted in approval.
“You guys are such party poopers! Jack needs to be here with me.” I grumbled to myself as I headed towards the bathroom. I looked at my hair and grimaced, it always looked so insane in the morning. I ignored it for now and took my medicine and vitamins, getting sick on tour would not be good. And the meds were for the same reason Brendon needs his, ADHD. Although unlike Brendon, I normally take mine; not that they work the best, but it makes me feel like maybe I could fit in with the crowd. I walked out of the bathroom to realize that we had stopped and All Time Low was on our bus, Paramore was still sleeping, as well as Brendon and Spencer.
“Whoa! Bad hair day? Me too!” Jack yelled.
I smiled and sat between him and Rian on the couch.
“Happy birthday E!” Zack said, he was the first to say anything. Everyone in Florida was probably asleep due to the time zones, and same with my family.
“Oh yea… Thanks Zack.” I gave him one of those awkward, hugging over your friends hug.
“Happy birthday!” said the rest of the guys.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH! NOW EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Brendon yelled from his bunk.
“Someone’s a diva.” I whispered to Rian, eliciting a laugh.
“Everyone decent?!” yelled the choreographer from the bus door as she covered her eyes with her hand.
“Yea, Bren and Spence are still asleep though.”
“Ok, that’s fine, happy birthday by the way, how old are you now?”
“22 as of 1:13 this morning.”
“Nice, we can all drink tonight, but for now I want to go over the choreography with you before the fans begin to line up.”
“Sure, should I be in costume or is it ok like this? Which I should probably brush my hair.” I said as I tried to run my fingers through my knotty hair.
“Like that is fine. And what did you do to your hair? It would look fantastic with the dress, all crazy like.” She poked my hair and the boys chuckled.
“Um… I slept.” I laughed as I caught my reflection in the window.
“Well you should do so before the concert, it’s a good look. Now which one of you boys are willing to catch Elizabeth’s guitar?” Zack raised his hand and we began to go towards the stage for a final practice before the concert. “Oh by the way, Panic! won the main spot tonight, kind of a nice birthday gift from the town.”
_________________________________________________
“Ok so since it’s Elizabeth’s birthday today, I would like to honor it by having her sing a very special song to her.” Brendon said in the middle of our set.
I stared at him with my head slightly tilted in confusion. Brendon saw me but continued on talking to the crowd.
“So as you can tell by her face, she didn’t know of this either. People may think that I don’t pay that much attention, but I do, so I just so happen to know that Elizabeth’s favorite movie is Anastasia, so I thought that for her birthday instead of doing the normal birthday song, we all sing ‘Once Upon a December’.”
I stared at him in shock. I made sure the crowd couldn’t hear me, but Brendon could. “I don’t know the notes! I’m not all that great at piano!” Brendon took away my guitar.
“I have that covered. All you have to do is face the crowd and sing.” Brendon smiled as he passed the guitar over to a crew member and faced the crowd again.
For some reason the All Time Low lyrics My lungs gave out, as I faced the crowd. I think that keeping this up could be dangerous. I'm flesh and bone, I'm a rolling stone, and the experts say I'm delirious. popped intp my head.
Brendon began to play the piano and I tried to fathom me being able to sing in front of a crowd with nothing to do with my hands. I eventually built up the courage quickly.
Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember,
And a song someone sings
once upon a December
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
Far away, long ago
things I yearn to remember
and a song someone sings
Once upon a December
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
Once I finished I almost collapsed from the adrenaline. The crowd was clapping and cheering and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. “Brendon just so you know, that was the scariest thing in the world.”
“Well hey you had no choice, you don’t wanna disappoint the fans, but don’t worry that’s not the last surprise!”
I groaned and rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t fight the smile. We continued on the second part of the set, on our second to last song ‘Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off’ it was my turn to start the routine. Brendon took over guitar duties while I began my cartwheel; which lead into a double back handspring, and ended with me in a split on an area marked with blue tape. As soon as I stood back on my feet, I began to move up. I freaked out as the platform with only me moved up. I noticed that I was about a yard off the ground and started to think of a way to get down.
Before I had the chance to try climbing down Alex came from the side stage with a mike attached to his face.
“Hello people! I am here to save the damsel in distress!” Alex walked over to the platform and held his arms out. “Jump and I’ll catch you.”
“No I can get down by myself.” I said as I stared at the floor, ok so maybe I was more than a yard up.
“Don’t make me start singing Taylor Swift! Don't be afraid to jump then fall; jump then fall into me!”
“Fine! Only because I’m scared of heights!” I could hear the crowd laughing at our banter as I jumped into Alex’s arms. Man he is strong! Alex carried me back to my spot on stage. “By the way people, just so you know, I now officially abhor anyone who knew of that plan, specifically Brendon, and Alex. Possibly Spencer just by the way he’s laughing.” Even though I was trying to sound sincere and mean, I couldn't help but crack a smile. Brendon handed me back my guitar and we continued with the rest of the song. We finished off with a song from our new album, ‘An Army of Lions Led by Sheep’.”
As we were exiting the stage, Alex walked on. “E! Where you going? I’m keeping you prisoner!” Alex picked me up bridal style like earlier and the set me down in the middle of the stage.
“What is it with all these goddamn surprises?!”
“Just fucking watch.” Alex smiled at me and pointed to the screen.
On came a video. At the beginning it was Alex standing next to a pile of boxes, on which he had painted on, ‘So I really like this special girl and I want her to know how much I appreciate all she’s done for me. – Alex Gaskarth.' The video then went on to show random clips that someone had filmed at one time or another. Apparently Alex had written the song just for me.
Merrily we fall
Out of line, out of line
I’d fall anywhere with you
I’m by your side
Swinging in the rain
Humming melodies
We're not going anywhere until we freeze
I’m not afraid, anymore
I’m not afraid
Forever is a long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Carefully we'll place our destiny
You came and you took this heart, and set it free
Every word you write or sing is so warm to me, so warm to me
I’m torn, I’m torn to be right where you are
I’m not afraid, anymore
I’m not afraid
Forever is a long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Tell me every day I get to wake up to that smile
I wouldn't mind it at all
I wouldn't mind it at all
You so know me
Pinch me gently
I can hardly breathe
Forever is a long, long time
But I wouldn't mind spending it by your side
Tell me every day I get to wake up to that smile
I wouldn't mind it at all
I wouldn't mind it at all
At the end it was Alex standing by the boxes again, but now with a different message, ‘So Elizabeth Starr, Will you go out with me? – Alex’.”
I stared at him in shock. He had done all that, just for me. I took out a piece of notebook paper with ‘Prove You Wrong’ Lyrics. I pointed at the date, the day of Lisa and Alex’s breakup, and began to sing a line. “Can you let me try?”
Alex took the incentive and kissed me hard on the lips. What a spectacular birthday.
♠ ♠ ♠
OK, that is one long chapter! It just didn't feel right to cut it into two, so I made it into one large encompassing chapter. Just to put it out there, I really wish I knew how to skateboard, hopefully my friend will teach me once I get my board. So tell me what you thought of this chapter, and of Alex and Elizabeth FINALLY ending up together. I would say something, but I wouldn't want to ruin the later parts of the story. I made a short video that kind of shows you the video that Alex makes, but 'tis with sims 3, so I had to make it short because there isn't really all that much you can do with sims. Alex's Video I hope you've enjoyed the story so far!