Watch You Take The Fall

Alex’s P.O.V: We ran off stage drenched in sweat, the screams of the crowd behind us filling our ears and fuelling the adrenaline that caused us to jump about like mad men, yelling obscenities towards anyone who passed. Our guitars were taken from us by the crew that made up a decent sized portion of the ATL family and warning glances were shot at us by Flyzik. We were more pent up than usual; the last show of a tour did that to you. I grinned towards a bouncing Jack who was knocking back the Red Bull like there was no tomorrow. After every show, I was always reminded of when we first started the band, of when the real pressure came from school, when our dreams were to one day be doing what we are now. It seemed surreal, here we were finishing up Warped Tour with some of our favourite bands, yet only a few years ago we were working our way through the school day so we could rush home to Rian’s Moms garage so we could practice.
Completing my scan around the backstage area, my eyes fell upon Sierra working quickly alongside the others at gathering together all of our equipment. She was sat cross legged on a case that was being filled as she wound cables. I smiled slightly at the sight of her, pleased at the fact she’d decided to become our full time tour manager with Matt. We’d all grown really close with her n the duration of Warped and it felt like we’d known her for years. Stood behind Sierra, a little way away, was Kate. I rolled my eyes a little at the sight of her. The arguments had been getting worse lately and about stupider things. The whole relationship was a sham, and we both knew it. I was fully aware of the fact that she was using me, but to tell the truth, I just didn’t want to be alone. Currently, said girlfriend was shooting daggers at Sierra through her overly make up caked eyes. Sierra and Kate had never got on, although it wasn’t really suprising. They were polar opposites, aside from the fact that they both had an attitude on them. However, Sierra knew how to rein hers in and we’d only seen the bad side of her once, when she’d first joined us. Kate was an entirely different matter, get on her bad side and you’d never hear the end of it.
I sighed, trying to stop Kate from being hostile towards Sierra was pointless, it just wouldn’t happen. I tore my gaze from the pair of them and focussed back on Matt who was firing off instructions. We needed to be back at the bus in two hours, we had to get back to Baltimore as soon as possible, I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I just knew we did. I could tell that the rest of the band were disappointed at not being able to spend the rest of the day here, saying goodbye to the friends we’d made over Warped, but they didn’t say anything. We all knew that both Matt and Sierra were going to have a fuckload of work to do as soon as we got back to the bus, and Matt was already feeling the force of that work load. Pushing the negative thoughts of how little time we had left, I rounded up everyone who wanted to come with me around the tour and set off to spend our last hours saying goodbye. No, not goodbye. Goodbye sounded to permenant. We were going to say “See you soon.” Yeah, that sounds better.
*2 hours later*
Me and Zack staggered onto the bus giggling manically. We weren’t drunk, we hadn’t even had any alcohol, we were just happy. The fact that we were going home had finally struck and we were all buzzing at the thought of seeing our friends and family that were back in Baltimore. We boarded the bus and silence fell over us seeing Matt and Sierra’s expressions (okay so we were five minutes, but what’s that between friends?”. To say they weren’t happy would be an understatement. Needless to say, we knew exactly what to do and scampered quickly to the back lounge, leaving the two of them to their mounds of paperwork and hours of phone calls. I disentangled myself from Zack and launched myself at Jack, landing heavily on his stomach, no doubt making him fall further behind in the game he was playing. I wrapped my arms around his neck and nuzzled into him. No-one even bothered commenting on this anymore, aside from Kate. We acted like that all the time, it’s not just for stage. I felt him tense a little beneath me as a snide comment was muttered by Kate, but we both ignored it. You grew to ignore the shit that she came out with, if she ever had an original thought, it would have died of loneliness. I settled down on Jacks lap, tiredness suddenly catching up with me. Scenes from shows we’d played over the summer rolled like a movie behind my closed eyelids as I allowed the darkness to wash over me.
*An hour and a half later*
I awoke to a laughing Jack shaking my shoulder. I wasn’t unused to rude awakenings; in fact, this was reasonably polite for the lanky guitarist. I groaned and rubbed my eyes before falling slowly from him onto the floor below me. I couldn’t be bothered standing up and besides, I’d grown rather fond of the floor of this bus. It was a good floor, kept us standing up most of the time. I pulled myself up into the faux leather seat that Jack vacated, claiming I was “keeping it warm” for him. In reality, I intended to go back to sleep and completely steal his seat. I felt my eyelids grow heavy as Jack pulled worked on pulling Vinny from his seat. The sounds of Call of Duty being played by Grieco and Rian served as a backing track to this situation, but so loud that you couldn’t hear anything other than the game, their yells and the screams from others that weren’t playing but had been drawn into the battle. No, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I could sleep through anything but I couldn’t get to sleep very easily. My limbs were too heavy to drag myself to my bunk and barricade myself in there, though, so I stayed put, allowing myself to get involved in the game on the TV. I faintly heard the sliding door close, so I assumed Jack had finally pulled Vinny from his seat and had left the back lounge. I averted my full attention to the bloody battlefield on which Rian and Grieco were pouring their hearts and souls through their controllers. The game came to an end as Grieco managed to fire a winning head shot and take the victory. Through the slightly quieter music of the control screen, I could hear shouts of help from Jack. My head snapped up suddenly, my senses abruptly came to life. I looked around me with wide eyes, seeing the others doing the same. That confirmed that I was in fact hearing it, and I hadn’t fallen back into a dream.
I was the first to bolt from my seat, rushing to open the sliding door. My heart stopped at the sight in front of me. Jack was crouched over a shivering heap that was dressed exactly the same as Sierra was before. I could only assume it was Sierra, and that made it all worse. Behind Jack and the shuddering mass that was Sierra, stood Matt and Vinny, each with horrified expressions. Nobody seemed to know what to do and it was clear to see that a horrible scene was unfolding in front of my terrified eyes. Without my instruction to do so, my body darted forwards, gently pushing Jack out of the way. My hands clumsily lifted Sierra from the floor, having a little difficulty because of how hard she was shaking. I looked around wildly, I didn’t know what to do with her. Matt seemed to have come back to his senses, as he anxiously told me to put her down on the couch she occupied earlier. As I walked away from where I had lifted her, I noticed her phone discarded on the floor. The warning light told me that it was nearly out of battery, but that was insignificant.
I laid our tour manager down on one of the couches in the front room, wishing I could do something to stop her from shaking. Above all, I wished I knew what had got her in that state. The front room was crammed full of people and as soon as I placed her down, they all darted forward, unsure of what to do. I crouched down beside her and was shocked at the sight of her face. Her eyes were wide, but something was missing from them. Something that had been there before. No expression crossed her face as everyone chattered like Monkeys around her, but somehow I could tell that she needed space. I stood up and carefully informed the others to leave her for a while. Some seemed reluctant but others clearly were relieved, probably because they didn’t have a fucking clue what to do. Nevertheless, we all stayed in the front room, the game abandoned. Uneasy conversation filled the air. I could make out some discussions about Sierra, more specifically, what had just taken place. Others were talking about seemingly mundane and unimportant things, football for example. I didn’t blame them, they were only trying to take their mind off things. I however, didn’t join in. I sat in silence, mulling things over in my head. Sierra’s reaction to whatever had just happened reminded me of my own, years ago. I hoped and prayed that she hadn’t just had to go through the same thing that had put me into a catatonic state, nobody deserved that.
I can’t say exactly how long had passed, only that it was between half an hour and an hour, before Sierra stood up, shocking us all into silence. An agonised expression adorned her face as she stumbled slightly, gripping onto the back of the couch. With the other hand, she tugged at the bottom of her shorts before opening her mouth.
“I need to get to Danville. Now.” I heard her voice crack uncomfortably, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. Danville? What was going on? I was about to voice this out loud, but Matt seized the opportunity before I could ask her.
“Let’s just say, Matt, there’s someone I care about deeply in Danville that I need to get to as soon as possible. I don’t have a choice in the matter, I need to be there. How can I get there quickly?” She answered, panic slightly creeping into her tone. Matt frowned at her before informing her that we’d be there as our next stop, spending the night in a hotel. With that, she flitted around the room, collecting her belongings before disappearing, slightly shakily, to the bunk room. I exchanged glances with a few of the people around me before I decided I would go and see said tour manager. I tried to rise from my seat, but Kate dug her nails into my arm. Shit, I’d forgotten she was sat next to me! I tried to pry her hand from my arm but to no avail. I swear, by the time she let go, my arm was bleeding. Seriously, did she sharpen those things? I settled back down as much as I could, she never took her hand from my arm.
*3 hours later*
Matt was still working. The paperwork was slowly thinning and the phone calls were slowing. If he didn’t have cramp in his hand, he was officially my hero. Sierra hadn’t emerged, all we’d heard from her was banging as, presumably, she packed. I don’t know how she managed to stretch out the process of packing to three hours, but she achieved it. She hadn’t bought much stuff with her, and most of it had stayed in her suitcase. I assume she was avoiding us, seeing as none of us dared to venture back there. Finally, around four o’clock, the door to the front lounge opened, revealing Sierra changed into skinny jeans and holding her suitcases firmly, so tightly her knuckles were turning white. All attention was on her as feet were drawn back so she could wheel her belongings to the front of the bus. She did just that without saying a word. None of us were any the wiser to what was going on, but no-one was going to stand in her way. Clearly, she had something of utmost importance to attend to in Danville. She abandoned her suitcases and jacket as she disappeared to the very front of the bus, where the driver was seated. The tense atmosphere was stifling and all we could hear from the front was muffled conversation. Even Jack was silent. Matt had abandoned his work and had joined everyone else in silent brooding.
After what seemed like forever, she appeared from the front as the bus came to a halt. Tearing my gaze away from her, I saw that we had pulled up to the carpark of a hospital. My brow furrowed, along with everyone elses, as Sierra gripped her belongings again.
“I’m going to be in Danville for a while.” She spoke softly, “There’s something I have to do here. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but if I’m not in touch within a month, ring me with whatever details I need for the next tour.” She turned, her brown hair spilling over her t-shirt cladded shoulder. I thought that was it, that that was all we were going to know, until she turned back to us.
“Thank you for this summer. Really.” And with that, she left the bus.