Watch You Take The Fall

I stretched as I woke up and screwed my eyes up tight as I always did as I woke up. I relaxed my body and let out a loud sigh, knowing I wasn’t getting back to sleep any time soon. Sitting up, I grabbed my laptop from the end of the bed. I didn’t know if anyone else was awake so I grabbed my headphones and plugged them into the side of my old Dell laptop before the logging on sound played.
“Skills.” I muttered quietly to myself, it was true; I was never usually this co-ordinated when I woke up.
I logged onto MSN and clicked on my brother’s icon.
*SierraJ*: ‘Sup Pat?
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: Hey, y’alright? What’s everything like?
*SierraJ*: So far so good… Band is nice, so are the crew. One of the girlfriends is a right slag and tried to have a go at me. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen ;)
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: Haha, she’s started on you already? Sounds like a bitch… Don’t get into any fights kay?
*SierraJ*: Yeah she has, and you know me Pattycakes, no fist fights… Can I change her hair dye and sabotage her clothes?
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: Do what you want that doesn’t end up with me having to come out to see you in hospital Sie; I’ve had enough of that
*SierraJ*: Wow :/ No, you know me nothing too drastic… But seriously, I don’t want to worry you like that
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: Whatever… Fuuuck, I miss you already, at least I know Oli and that lot :(
*SierraJ*: I miss you too bro… I’m going to try and sort something out with my bosses after this tour, it’s fucking stupid, I never see you anymore and I miss you like shit :’(
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: I don’t want to come between you and your job Sie, I know you love it. Look, you just concentrate on having a good time on this tour yeah? Knowing you miss me isn’t going to stop me from missing you so don’t worry your pretty little head about it
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra:* Don’t let me stop you from doing what you love and proving to judgmental bitches everywhere that you can do what you want alright? :)
*SierraJ*: That means a lot P, but if it ever came down to it, I’d choose you over this job… You know that, yeah?
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: I know that… Look, I’m going to go out with Jake and that lot… Go to sleep or something and get ready for A SUMMER OF FUN ;)
*SierraJ*: Fuck you Pat, fuck you.
*SierraJ*: You know how much I hate the heat :L
*SierraJ*: Anyway, Imma go try and get some sleep… Have fun with them and tell em I say hey, okay?
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra*: Okay, love you Sie
*SierraJ*: Love you too bro
*PatIsCoolerThanSierra* Is now offline.

I closed the conversation and shut down my laptop again. Sighing, I swung my legs out of bed and lurched towards the kitchen area. Checking my watch, I realised that I actually had no idea what time it was because I hadn’t bothered changing the time on anything once I’d landed. I threw myself down onto the sofa I was sitting on before and covered my eyes with one arm.
“I wonder how the boys are doing without me.” I thought to myself. I wasn’t being big-headed but they’d all said that I was the one that kept stuff interesting. There was no being bored when I was with my mates.
I pulled myself up and opened the cupboards, looking for some vegetarian food. No such luck. I took a box of Lucky Charms from the shelf and turned back around.
“SHIT!” I yelled before covering my mouth with my hand. Standing in the doorway was Alex with major bed head.
“Don’t worry about it, a bomb could go off in here and no-one would notice.” He said in a scratchy voice, messing up his hair even more.
“How come you’re up then? I got the impression that everyone slept like a fucking log on this bus.”
“I usually do but I was sleeping on the couch on the back lounge, Kate kicked me out of our bunk.” Alex rolled his eyes and sat where I had been lying before.
“We didn’t get properly introduced before. I’m Sierra James, sorry about the impression I must have made earlier, and I just got off the plane and hadn’t slept in for-fucking-ever.” I said, realising that we didn’t even know each other.
“I’m Alex Gaskarth, you met the rest of the band I guess. I sing and play guitar. Sorry about Kate, I really don’t know what came over her. She’s usually really nice; guess it’s stress or something. You know, when we first heard we were getting a new tour manager, we figured it was a dude.”
“Yeah, I heard. Turns out I’m a girl. Well I was last time I checked anyway.” I replied, grinning at Alex who was now sitting opposite me. He smiled back at me before carrying on the conversation.
“So have you ever heard any of our stuff before?”
“Nope, not really my genre. I didn’t actually know the name of the band until Matt told me when I met him before.” I said, dipping my hand into the box of cereal.
“I guessed so, Matt said you’d toured with Bring Me and Asking Alexandria. The two genres haven’t really mixed when it came to us in the past. Not that I’ve got anything against that sort of music, it just never seemed to mix-“
“It’s fine, Alex, I get it. Yeah, I’ve toured with them since I was 18 pretty much non-stop. I’ve only really not toured when I had production work to do or something like that.”
“That’s pretty cool, I love touring. Have you done Warped before?”
“No, it’s my first tour in America actually. Me and heat don’t mix too well and I’ve heard that this one is pretty fucking boiling at parts?”
So that’s how the rest of the night went. Alex and I sat in the front area, sharing a box of cereal between us and talking about whatever we could. As much as his girlfriend was a bitch, Alex actually seemed nice. We both noticed when the clock on the microwave hit 4.00am

“Jeez, it got really late didn’t it?” He said, laughing slightly.
“It did, I didn’t even check what time it was when I got up.”
“Ah well. I better get back to that couch, it’s calling to me you see. It’s all “Alex, come fuck up your back sleeping on my lovely fake leather covers.” He whinged, standing up.
“Look, take my bunk, I’m probably not getting back to sleep now anyway. No! Don’t give me that look, you need to sleep more than I do. I bet your fan’s would go bat shit if you weren’t playing because you had to sleep on that sofa. Just take mine okay?”
“Are you sure Sierra? I’m fine on the couch, really.”
“Alex, just go before I go find a hedgehog and throw it at your face, okay?” His eyes widened as he nodded at me.
“Thanks. I’ll see you later. If you want your bunk back just come and wake me up alright?” I agreed and lay down on the sofa as he left. I pulled my iPod out of the pocket of my Pirates Of The Caribbean hoodie. I put on the playlist Ben Bruce had made me before I’d left that was supposed to help me sleep and curled up into a ball, tucking my face into my knees. Someone had turned the air conditioning way down and it was bloody freezing. Closing my eyes, I tucked myself up tighter and allowed the blackness to swallow me up.