Mistakes We Wouldn't Learn From

[Alex]

Everyone was happy to see Zack and I together again, and it made the atmosphere in the van much less tense. Matt and Rian apologized to me for being dickheads and everything was back to normal again. Our show in Jacksonville was more energetic than our past few shows had been. The next day we had a five hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which was spent blasting music out the windows, singing, and just having a whole lot of fun.

We had been in Fort Lauderdale for about two hours now and Evan, Grieco, and Matt had set up our stuff on stage earlier than usual. Our show wasn’t for about two more hours and most of us were hungry, so we decided to get in the van and look around for somewhere to eat dinner. As usual, we couldn’t seem to agree on where to eat.

“I’m pretty sure there’s every fast food place you can think of around here,” Matt said, looking around the street as we were driving.

“Fast food is making me fat,” Rian complained.

Jack snorted, “You were fat to begin with.”

“Excuse me?” Rian said, turning around to face Jack, who squeaked and slid down in his seat.

“I said nothing! I love you!” Jack defended, covering his face with his arms.

Rian just rolled his eyes and turned back to Matt, “I think there’s a pancake house on the corner up there.”

“I refuse to eat pancakes!” Evan protested.

“Shut up, waffle boy. No one asked you,” Matt replied, stopping at a red light. “Come on, we need to figure out where to go. I don’t want to waste a ton of gas by driving around.”

“Taco Bell sounds good,” I suggested, seeing one up the street.

“Last time we had Taco Bell, you, Jack, and Grieco were farting all night long. I’m not sitting in the van through that again,” Zack said, wrinkling his nose at me.

“Dammit.”

“McDonald’s?” Matt suggested with a sigh, driving again as the light turned green.

“Too unhealthy,” Zack argued, earning a thumbs up from Rian.

“You guys are impossible,” Matt groaned. He suddenly slowed down and turned into a Subway parking lot. “Here; this should satisfy everyone.”

Everyone headed inside to get food, which took at least ten minutes because there were so many of us. There wasn’t enough space to sit and eat in the small restaurant, so we headed back out to the van to eat our food. Matt turned on some music and we all started to unwrap our sandwiches and stuff to eat. I took a big bite of my sub, barely fitting it all into my mouth. I looked over at Zack as I chewed and he laughed, shaking his head at me.

“You’re such a dork, Lex.”

I swallowed my food before grinning and leaning over to kiss him, “Yeah, but you love me because of it.”

“Yup,” he smiled, pecking me on the lips before pushing me back to my side of the seat.

“Hey, where’s your food, Zack?” Jack suddenly asked, having turned around to face us.

I frowned, “Why aren’t you eating again?”

Zack’s face flushed. “I don’t like eating before our shows.”

“Why not?” I questioned. “If you don’t eat, you’re not going to have enough energy for the show.”

“I hate eating a full dinner before shows – it makes me feel like I’m gonna puke when I jump around on stage with a full stomach,” Zack explained, shrugging.

“Makes sense,” I admitted, looking over at Jack. He nodded in agreement before turning back to talk to the others. “Will you at least eat some chips or something though? It’ll make me feel better if you have something in your stomach when we play. I mean, I don’t want you passing out, that’s all.”

Zack sighed dramatically, making me chuckle. “Fine – if it’ll make you happy.” He reached over and grabbed the bag or Doritos that I had gotten with my meal at Subway.

“Hey, I didn’t mean eat my chips!” I whined.

“You’ll live without one bag of Doritos, babe,” he laughed, opening the bag up to eat them.

I shook my head, “No, I don’t think I will. I’m gonna die now, thanks to you.”

--------------------

Later that night, after our show, we were all camped out in the van. We were talking as we got ready to go to sleep. That’s a more difficult task than you would think – we always bump into each other as we moved around to change clothes and everything.

“Jack, get your elbow out of my face,” Matt complained, leaning away from him. Jack was trying to pull a clean shirt over his head.

“I don’t know why you’re even bothering to put a shirt on. It’s like ninety degrees in this van,” I said, shaking my head at him. I had peeled my shirt off an hour ago and hadn’t put one back on since.

“Yeah, it’s really hot in here. Can we open up the windows?” Evan asked.

Rian nodded, leaning over to turn the van on. He rolled all of the windows down halfway before turning the van off again.

“Why halfway?” Grieco whined.

“Would you like them open all the way, so hobos can climb in through the window?” Rian questioned. Grieco’s eyes widened and he shook his head quickly.

“Quit trying to scare the little boy,” Matt said with a laugh.

Grieco flipped him off, “I’m not little! I’m sixteen!”

“That’s little compared to me,” Matt grinned.

“You’re an old man!”

“I’m nineteen!”

I rolled my eyes. “Quit your bickering,” I said, pushing everything from the backseat onto the floor so I could lean into Zack’s side.

“It’s too hot to sleep with you,” Zack groaned.

I tugged on his t-shirt, “Take your shirt off then. It’ll help.”

“Stop stripping back there!” Jack yelled as Zack pulled his shirt off. Zack threw it at Jack, who screeched and threw it across the van at Matt.

“It’s not like you can even see him anyway. It’s pitch black in here,” Rian said, rolling his eyes at Jack.

“Yeah – if I could see Zack, I’d be drooling over his shirtless body,” I mused, laughing when Zack punched me in the arm. Everyone else just groaned.

“I can’t wait until tomorrow – we’ll be in separate, air conditioned hotel rooms for two days and I won’t have to listen to you two making out,” Evan said happily.

“Oh yeah, tomorrow is Orlando!” Jack exclaimed.

Matt shook his head, “Forget the hotel; I’m just happy about going to Disney World!”

I groaned, “You’ve been talking about Disney World all day, give it a rest.”

“I’m allowed to be excited!”

“Not when it infringes on my sleeping time – shut up,” Zack complained.

Matt threw Zack’s shirt back at him, making him squeak. “Fine, sleeping beauty. I’ll let you sleep.”