Remembering Sunday

“Ashley Iero! Get out here right now!”

I got off of my bed and walked over to her.

She grabbed my arm and led me downstairs.

“What were you thinking?” she yelled at me.
“Geez Mom, I’m sixteen years old.”

She slapped me across the face and then instantly clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Oh my God. Ashley, I’m sorry, I…”

I pushed her away from me and then ran back upstairs. Alex was gone and Derek was still sitting on my bed.

“Ashley are you okay?”
“Honestly? No but I’m used to it. To my Mom I was the biggest mistake of her life. I’ve dealt with it for sixteen years.”

He hugged me and then I pulled his face to mine. I know that my Mom walked past the door but this time she didn’t say anything.

About half an hour later I walked downstairs with Derek and we grabbed the boxes of hair dye. We ran to the kitchen where my Dad was eating his lunch with Frank and Haley.

Derek helped me to strip the blue out of my hair. Then we did my hair in sections. I did my bangs black as well as most of my hair and then Derek put in the pink and green in strips.

When it was done I couldn’t have been happier. It looked amazing.

Even my Dad looked impressed. I was happy now. I had my boyfriend, I’d finally stood up to my Mom and I was getting signed.

First day of summer vacation

“Let’s get going!” Jak screamed out of the SUV.

I dragged Oli out of the house and we got into the SUV.

Jak drove us to Hopeless Records himself. When we got there it just looked like an old aircraft hanger.

I got out and Drake was jumping up and down next to his brother and Mom. Me and Oli were the last ones there and so we all went in with our parents.

“Well, this must be Gatecrashing My Own Life.”

An older man walked over to us. He was wearing a suit and he was rubbing his hands. It was cold here, even for May.

“So, just before we sign everything and you guys officially become a part of Hopeless Records… my colleagues wanted to hear some of your stuff. Oh, my name’s Clark Jones by the way.”

I nodded as did everybody else. Clark led us over to where he had a make-shift stage set up. We all went up and picked up our instrument.

“Guys, let’s go for Long Way To Happy.” (Pink)

It was one of my favorites. I wrote it about six months ago when my Mom REALLY started treating me like a bug that she wanted to squish. Since then, life has sucked.

By the time we were done Clark was clapping and so we decided to give them a little more. This time we played Stupid Girls (Pink). This one I wrote about all of the stuck up girls in our school. The ones who flirted their way through life.

Everybody seemed really happy with it and then we got off the stage. Unfortunately that was easier said than done with Oli. He was clinging onto the drumkit for dear life.

“Oli! You have one.” I struggled to pull him away.
“Not like this.”

Finally we managed to pry him away and then we got down to signing the papers.

I signed first, then Oli, Drake and Derek and Josh.

“So, how does it feel to be part of Hopeless Records USA?”
“Amazing!” the twins yelled in sync.

We laughed and then MCR arrived and the rest of ATL.

I was smothered in hugs and I lost count of how many times G high-fived me.

The next day was when we were leaving for the tour. I said goodbye to my Dad, I still wasn’t talking to my Mom, and then got on our bus.

“Okay everybody, first stop is New York so get settled. It’ll probably take us about four hours to get there.” Jak called out.

I nodded and then went to get changed into something that my mother would never deem appropriate around a group of boys. Well, screw her.

I stuck on a pair of Pokémon booty shorts and a plain black tank top.

I took my hair out of its ponytail and shook it about a bit, letting it go. I grabbed my iPod and put the earbuds in. I stuck on a Spanish song and then started to dance and sing.

“Hey, guys, Ashley’s dancing.”

Most of the guys rushed into the living area and just sat and stared at me but I went over and grabbed Derek’s hand.

“Dance with me baby.”

I danced and sang to the rest of the song and then as soon as that was finished I sat down and pulled out the PS3 that we’d brought with us and put on Assassin’s Creed.

At the hotel in NYC

“Wow.” I breathed out when we got there.
“I know right, the label rally went all out for us on this one huh?”

I was still gaping at the hotel when Gee came over to me and stuck his arm over my shoulders.

“You’re sharing with me and Mikey by the way.”
“What? Why?”

I glanced over at Derek and it seemed as though Drake was giving him the same news.

“I wanna share with Derek.”
“Yeah and I promised Dad that I would look after you on this tour, meaning no rooming with Derek.”
“DAMN YOU FRANKENSTEIN!”

I repeatedly rammed my fist into his shoulder until Gee restrained me.

“No disabling my rhythm guitarist.” He complained.

“Sorry Gee but Frank is being a douchebag.”
“I hate to say it but I agree with him.”

I groaned and then walked away from them.

“Mikey!”
“Ashley!”
“Our brothers are being annoying!”
“Welcome to my world, I have to deal with them nearly everyday.”
“Poor baby.”

He laughed and then while we waited for our managers to be done inside we sat on a rock.

Jak and Alex came to sit next to us and we were all just creating small talk.

“Hey! EMO FAGGOTS!”

We all looked over at the other side of the street and saw a bunch of guys all standing there throwing insults at us.

“GO FUCK YOUR MOM!” I yelled at them.

A couple of them crossed the road and walked over to me.

“Hey guys, look, there’s a REAL girl here. She’s fine as hell!”
“Give us a twirl sexy.”
“Fuck off.”
“Oh, don’t be mean.”
“Go suck someone’s dick.”
“She’s got sass. I like it.”

By this point all of the guys had noticed what was going on and Frank and Oli were slowly coming closer.

“You wanna leave her the fuck alone?” Frank said.
“What you gonna do about it? Go cry in a corner emo kid.”

The guy grabbed my arm and started to drag me away but before I knew it Alex was there and had pulled me away from the guy.

“You leave her alone or we beat the shit out of you and your friends. You got that?”

The two guys took a step back and raised their hands.

“Okay, whatever man. Have it your way.”

With that they turned away and walked off.

“Thanks Alex.”
“Your welcome Ash. You know, my sister IS REALLY sorry.”
“I know she is, I’m gonna talk to her tomorrow when I have more energy.”
“Okay. Thanks.”

I shuddered after the encounter with the two idiots and then walked away, over to Derek and just sat on his lap on the steps of our bus.

“We’e not sharing.”
“I know, hey, maybe if we get Gee and Mikey drunk enough they won’t notice that you’re gone.”
“WE HEARD THAT!” the two brothers shouted in unison.
“I don’t think that’s gonna work babe. Ah well, hey, we’ve still got the bunks for when we’re on the road. This is one of the mere THREE hotels that we’ll be staying in over the next three months, each stay is maybe two or three nights. ‘Kay.”
“True. Hey, guess what.”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too baby.”

I put my hands on either side of his face and kissed his lips softly.

Frank’s POV:

As I looked up from my sandwich I noticed Ashley and Derek snuggled up on the steps leading into their bus. As I watched I could easily tell that he was telling her that he loves her.

Liar. I looked over at Oli and shook my head. He nodded, an understanding passing between us.

Despite the age gap between me and the twins, we had always been pretty close, meaning that Ashley had, had a pretty rough time in the boyfriend department because she had a reputation of having two VERY protective brothers.

The douchebag Jason was never scared of us though, neither was Derek. Derek wasn’t all he seemed to be though. I hated not being able to do anything and just having to sit on the sidelines while the jerk broke my baby sister’s heart.

I knew that it was inevitable that she would get her heart broken as some point but not like this, not as BADLY as she was going to soon enough.

“Hey, Frank?”

Gee’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I stood up, brushing my jeans off and walked over to him.

“What?”
“Quit staring at your sister, she’s gonna work it out soon enough and, yeah, it’s gonna hurt her, a lot, but there’s nothing that you can do, so just try not to act too weird around her… oh wait, it’s you.”
“Ha, ha Gee. I can’t help being worried about her. What if she starts cutting again?”
“Well then we stop her and we help her. It’s as simple as that. Just, relax and try to enjoy seeing her happy for the time-being.”
“Fine… Oh, looks like we can go into the hotel now.”

We stood up and flocked the three managers, waiting to be given our room keys.