Remembering Sunday

“Thank you for letting us play for you tonight, if you liked the music we have a demo CD at the front for two dollars. Once again thank you and goodnight.”

I left the stage and walked into the backstage area, sat down on the couch before quickly standing up again and fainting when I saw who was sitting next to me.

I sat up straight when I felt someone splash ice cold water on to my face.

“Who? What? When? Where? Why?”
“Ashley, you just fainted.” Oli said with his eyebrows raised.
“Oh shit. Sorry. Why’d I do that?”
“I hope that it wasn’t my fault?”

I looked up to see where the voice was coming from. I couldn’t believe my eyes and almost fainted again. Standing there looking worried was Alex fucking Gaskarth!

“Jesus Christ! You’re Alex Gaskarth!”
“Yeah, I know. You must be Ashley.”

He held his hand out but I was shaking too much to properly greet him.

“Sorry man, she’s not usually like this.”

I looked over towards the other voice and saw Frank standing, also looking very worried, with the rest of My Chemical Romance.

“Frank!”
“Hey sis’.”
“I feel a hyper state coming on.” I said grinning so much it hurt.
“Are you high or something?”
“Nah man she’s not high, believe me I’ve been there.” Gerard said.

I stood up slowly and then ran over and gave him a hug.

“Gee!”
“Hey Ashley, long time no see.”
“Sorry ‘bout that.”
“S’oaky.”
“Hey, don’t we get hugs?”

I turned around to see Mikey and Ray standing there giving me the puppy dogface. I gave them hugs as well and finally turned to All Time Low.

“So, we’re going on tour with you next week?”
“Yeah and we are seriously stoked.” Zack said.
“Cool, give me a few minutes and I will be acting normal around you.”
“Awesome.” Alex said nodding. “Hey, how come you’re not like that around My Chem?”
“Because I’ve known them practically my whole life. I knew them BEFORE the fame.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

We went on like that for about another half hour before I finally stopped shaking and I could act normally around the band. It was about that time that Tiffany joined us.

“Hey guys, hey Alex.”
“Hey sis’, where have you been?”
“Oh, I… I didn’t think that it was okay for me to come.”

I sent her death stares and balled my hands into fists at my sides.

“Then why DID you come?” I spat at her.

Alex noticed my expression and the way Tiffany was almost cowering behind him and he sent me a dirty look.

“She can come see me whenever she wants, this is my sister.”
“Well I know that NOW!”
“What is your problem?”
“Alex, I would stop before she punches you man.” Frank interjected.
“No, I’m not going to just stand here while she has a go at my sister for no particular reason!”
“I have a reason!”
“Right so tell me what that is then. Oh, wait would it be that you like picking on people to make yourself seem cool? Well it doesn’t, it just makes you look…”

I cut him off by bringing my knee up to his crotch as hard as I could. The rest of All Time Low were officially freaked out.

“She waited SIX years to tell me who you are! I told her who Frank was on the day that I met her because I trusted her! She didn’t trust me enough to tell me who you are! I expected more trust between us! Why didn’t you…”
“Ashley. I’m sorry. I never really thought that it was that important.”
“Well guess what Tiffany, you thought wrong! Frank, tell Dad that I’m walking home!”

I grabbed my bag and left before anyone could stop me. It took me an hour and a half to get home and my family was NOT happy with me to say the least for not answering the phone. I went straight upstairs took off my make-up and got into my pajamas before crawling into bed.

My best friend probably hated me now but it had hurt me to know that she had so little trust in me. I put my iPod in my dock and turned up The Art Of Subconscious Illusion.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of screaming. I ran out of my room and down the stairs towards the source of the noise. Caley was standing there with her mouth hanging open.

Standing at our front door with two bags each were Jack and Zack from All Time Low, behind them stood Rian and Alex.

“What are you guys doing here? It’s… IT’S ONLY TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING!” I whined after glancing at the clock.
“Wait, you’ve already met them?” Caley asked.
“Yeah, I met them last night. Guys this is my sister, Caley.”

They all said hi and then walked in.

As we went into the living room Haley noticed that Alex was limping.

“A-a-are you okay A-alex?”

I rolled my eyes at her stuttering and sat down on the floor next to the DVD cabinet.

“Well, I was until your sister showed me how strong she is.”
“You deserved it.”

There was an awkward silence until Oli came skipping, yeah, skipping into the room.

“Hey big brother I think that I’ve finally realized why you don’t have a girlfriend, you don’t swing that way.”
“Shut up… oh hey guys. Awesome we got Jack and Zack. By the way…”
“Yeah I’ve told them that Haley is our sister.”
“Oh.”

Another awkward silence. I sighed and walked over to the games draw and opened it. I pulled out Assassins Creed™ and stuck in to our Playstation 3. I opened it up and started playing.

It took me a few minutes but I soon realized that the whole of All Time Low were staring at me. I paused the game and stared back at them.

“What?”
“Ashley, when you bent down, you’re… well…”
“You pervert. You were staring at my ass?”

Just my luck that it was the exact moment that my mother chose to enter the room.

“Ashley! Well, are you going to introduce me to these fine young men?”
“Not really, I was just going to get in their pants and then they can leave.”

My mother gaped at me while I grinned back.

“Sometimes you’re so much like your father it scares me. That was disgusting though don’t say that again. Anyway, who are these boys?”

“Mom, this is Alex, Zack, Rian and Jack. They’re in the band that we’re going to be touring with along with our own lovely Frankenstein.”

Frank walked in the room then, looking like a zombie, as per usual.

“Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear.”

The guys from All Time Low laughed at me while my mother just scowled and Frank had a confused look on his face. Well, doesn’t he always?

“What were you saying about me?”
“Just that we’re going to be touring with you…”
“Wait. What? YOU GOT SIGNED? OH MY GOD SWEETHEART THAT’S AMAZING WELL DONE OLI! THAT’S ABSOLUUTELY BRILLIANT!”

She congratulated Oli for about ten minutes until she finally remembered that I was actually her child as well.

“Oh well done Ashley. Good job.”

Then she carried on congratulating my brother. The All Time Low boys noticed this and Jack sent me a questioning look.

“Tell you later.” I mouthed at him.

He nodded and I started up my game again. When my Dad came down he motioned for Oli and Frank to go in the other room, I gave him a questioning look but he just shook his head so I shrugged.

When I finally got bored of the game I left the room to go get dressed.

I put on an Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt, a pair of purple skinnies and my black low-top Connies with purple laces. I ran back downstairs and then had breakfast.

“Right, guys I’m going out.”
“Where are you going?” Jak asked.
“The mall. I’m going with Derek, he needs to get his Mom a birthday present but he doesn’t know what to get.”
“Oh cool, see you later.”
“Bye.” I sang as I walked out the door.

I grabbed my skateboard and skated to the mall. Derek was waiting for me at the entrance.

“Hey baby.”
“Hey, are you doing better?”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m just so frustrated with Tiff. She didn’t trust me with the information but I told her. I don’t see how that was okay.”

He pulled me into a hug and we walked into the mall.

“Put it this way. Maybe she didn’t think that it was important. All Time Low have only been famous for about a year and you’ve known Tiff for about six years. She probably didn’t mention it because she didn’t think you’d care.”

We were now in Macy’s and I was looking through racks of clothes for his Mom’s size while he stood there with his hands in his pockets.

I pursed my lips at his comment and then turned back to him.

“Look, can we just forget about it? At least for right now. Let’s focus on your Mom’s present. I just want to put it in a drawer, leave it there for a while and then deal with it again when I’m ready”
“Okay.”

He nodded and then I found a dress that I knew his Mom would LOVE.

Derek and Drake’s Mom was only in her early thirties and had the twins while she was still in high school. She’d had her fair share of heartbreak and more. In a way she was like a second Mom to me. She was always there for her boys and they were always there for her.

What she was going to do when we were on tour I didn’t know but she was strong and as long she could contact them, she would be fine.

Derek paid for the dress and then we went to the food court. He got a taco and I went and got a salad from McDonalds.

“Getting a salad from Maccy Ds is like getting vitamins from a crackhouse. It’s pointless.”
“Shut up babe.”

He stuck his tongue out at me and I laughed at his choice of tongue piercing. It was a ring with a skull on it, sticking it’s tongue out.

When we were done eating I dragged Derek into a drug store.

“What are we doing in here?”
“I need hair dye.”

He nodded and then followed me to the hair care section.

I picked out a box of color stripper, pink hair dye, black and green

This time I paid for it and we left.

We skated back to my house and said hi to everybody before going up to my room and sitting on the bed. We sat there for about half an hour, doing nothing. Then Derek leant forward and crashed his lips onto mine.

I kissed him back and soon we were in another make-out session. We were lying down side by side on my bed, still making out, when my door swung open.

“Oh shit!”

Our heads snapped up and I glared at the person standing in my doorway. It was Alex… and my Mom.