Mistakes We Wouldn't Learn From

[Zack]

I woke up the next morning with sunlight shining into my face. I quickly shielded my eyes, letting out a grunt as I sat up. I blinked and looked around, slightly disoriented for a moment until I remembered I was in the van. I stretched, leaning against the back seat sleepily. I had fallen asleep late last night, thanks to the others. After sitting and talking at Starbucks for an hour or two, we had all headed back to the vans. We ended up hanging out in and around Mayday Parade’s van for a few more hours. By eleven, I had gotten fed up with socializing. I was just sitting off to the side while the others talked. I headed back to our own van to listen to music for a while, until the others joined. Alex and Matt were the last to come back to the van, when I was nearly asleep. Alex had ended up just lying on top of me to sleep when he realized I wasn’t going to budge.

Where was Alex now, though? I looked over the seats and saw that Evan and Grieco were still asleep in the second row. Evan was leaned up against the window and Grieco was curled up with his head on Evan’s shoulder. Rian was asleep also, lying down in the third row. Alex, Matt, and Jack weren’t in or around the van. I rubbed my eyes and looked down at my phone, realizing that it was eleven in the morning. Wow, I had slept for a long time.

The van door suddenly opened and I looked up to see Alex climbing into the van. He was holding two bags. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” Alex said, smiling at me as he shut the door behind him. He sat down beside me and leaned in to kiss me, but I ducked away. He frowned, “What?”

“You made me socialize for four hours, and you weren’t even with me most of the time,” I complained teasingly.

Alex grimaced, “I’m sorry, babe. I shouldn’t have left you alone for so long. Did you even talk to anyone?”

“Gabe talked to me for a little while and I talked to some of the Mayday Parade guys, but that’s about it,” I shrugged.

“You should have just come and found me; I would have talked to you,” Alex said, poking me in the side playfully.

I shook my head, “I didn’t want to come and annoy you. You were busy.”

“You never annoy me,” Alex scoffed, kissing me.

I smiled slightly and gestured toward the bags he had been holding. “What’s in the bags?” I asked.

“Oh! Jack, Matt and I went to buy some food. We figured buying cereal bars and stuff would be cheaper and last longer than fast food for every meal,” Alex said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a box of Nutri-Grain cereal bars. “Want one?”

I hesitated before nodding, feeling my stomach growl. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. I never bothered to find dinner the previous night. “Thanks,” I said as Alex handed one to me, opening the wrapper. I heard someone yawn and Rian sat up a few seconds later, stretching. “Morning, sleeping beauty,” I teased, taking a bite of my cereal bar.

“Morning,” Rian mumbled sleepily. “What time is it?”

“Past eleven,” Alex said, holding up the Nutri-Grain box. “Cereal bar?”

Rian raised an eyebrow, taking the box to pull one out, “You’re cheerful this morning.”

“Well, yeah! Our first show is today – you guys should be happy too!” Alex said.

“It’s too early to be happy,” Rian yawned, and I nodded in agreement.

Alex rolled his eyes, “Damn, you two are depressing this early in the morning. Rian, wake up Evan and Grieco.”

Rian turned around and chuckled when he saw Grieco lying on Evan. He flicked Evan in the ear, “Hey, Kirkendall! Wake up!”

Evan stirred, sitting up straighter and mumbling something under his breath at Rian. He looked to his right and saw that Grieco was sleeping peacefully on his shoulder. “Grieco! Seriously?” Evan complained, shoving the younger boy off of him, but not so hard that Grieco would slide off the seat.

Grieco jerked awake as Evan pushed him, scowling, “Evan! What was that for?” he demanded.

“You were sleeping on me,” Evan whined.

“You two looked cute, sleeping with each other,” Rian teased, smirking at them before hopping out of the van. I laughed as Evan and Grieco simultaneously flipped him off, pushing each other lightly as they climbed out of the van.

Alex laughed, tugging my hand as he began to stand up. “C’mon, let’s go find the others.”

••••••••••

“I can’t do this.” It was about ten minutes until we had to go on stage for our first show, and it was safe to say that I was freaking out. Rian was the only other person who seemed remotely nervous – Alex and Jack were hyper and excited as fuck.

“You’ll be fine, Zack,” Rian said, patting me on the back as I nervously tuned my bass. “Just relax.”

“No. I’m gonna screw up and make us look like total idiots and-” Rian put his hand over my mouth, cutting me off.

“Alex Gaskarth, get your ass over here!” Rian called, waving Alex over as I pushed his hand away from my face.

Alex ran over to us, literally skidding to a stop. “What?” he asked.

“Zack’s freaking out and won’t listen to me. Maybe you can talk some sense into him?” Rian asked hopefully.

Alex nodding, looking me in the eyes as Rian left us alone. “Why are you so nervous all of a sudden? You’ve done perfectly fine at every other show we played back at home.”

“That’s the thing – it was at home. I was more in my comfort zone there than I am here,” I mumbled in protest

“I assure you, babe, everything will be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“I could fall off the stage, my bass could suddenly stop working, I could trip over something...” I began listing until Alex cut me off.

“Okay, okay, forget I asked that question. My point is, I won’t let you get embarrassed on stage. I don’t care if your pants fall down; I’ll somehow make it my fault and direct the crowd’s attention back toward me,” Alex promised.

I frowned, “My pants? Alex, you’re giving me even worse scenarios.”

“I was trying to think of an example. Trust me, your pants are too tight to fall down,” Alex rolled his eyes at me and I blushed. I had bought new jeans before tour – not as tight as Alex and Jack’s skinny jeans, but not as loose as my old ones either.

“Just because my pants aren’t going to fall down doesn’t mean something else bad won’t happen.”

“Everything will be fine, okay? Nothing bad will happen. We’ll play a nice little set of our songs then relax and watch the other two bands from over here. Do you trust me?” Alex asked. I shrugged, looking down at my bass. He lifted my chin gently, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Do you?”

“I trust you,” I sighed, smiling weakly. It’s hard not to, when the look in his eyes is so sincere.

“Good.” Alex kissed me softly, pulling away with a smirk when I deepened it. “Be a good boy and stop worrying, and I’ll let you do that as much as you’d like later tonight.”

“Tease,” I muttered, shaking my head at the grin on his face. If anything bad happened at the show, I wasn’t going to kiss him for a week.