Mistakes We Wouldn't Learn From

[Alex]

Everyone was in a bad mood right now, and I was beginning to get pissed off with every single one of them.

Rian was driving the van because he was the least tired of us all. We had been in the van for three hours now and everyone was going crazy. Luckily, the air conditioning in the van was working well today and it was nice and cool in here, or else everyone would be in an even worse mood.

“Everything hurts!” Jack whined, leaning his head against the seat in front of him.

“I told you that you’d get burned if you didn’t use sunscreen,” I muttered. Jack, Grieco, and Evan all got sunburned and wouldn’t stop whining about it. They were in a bad mood from their sunburns, and everyone else was in a bad mood from their constant complaining. And Zack was in his own bad mood for no apparent reason.

“That’s just common sense. Not that Jack has any,” Zack spoke up, sounding annoyed. Every time anyone made a complaint, Zack replied with an annoyed – sometimes rude – comment.

Jack flipped him off, “No one asked you, Zack. Be quiet.”

“You’re not the boss of me. You be quiet.”

“Calm down, you two. Jack, shut up. Zack, cool down a little,” I sighed. It was like dealing with five year olds.

Zack just frowned, crossing his arms and leaning his head back. I left him alone for a while and Rian turned up the music a bit so there was some background noise. After a few of the others had fallen asleep, I looked back at Zack. He looked wide awake, and he was just looking out the window. I nudged him in the leg with my foot so he would look up.

“You wanna come cuddle with me so we can sleep?” I suggested, holding my arms out hopefully.

“No. It’s too hot to sleep up against you,” Zack mumbled. My face fell and I felt hurt. He usually doesn’t even care about that. I huffed a sigh and rolled onto my side, curled up on the back seat as I tried to sleep. I didn’t know what was making him so irritable tonight. He was nice this morning.

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Around six-fifty the next day, everyone was backstage to get ready for the show. Our band was supposed to go onstage in ten minutes. I was practically bouncing around the room on my toes, hyped up on an energy drink that I had bought at the gas station earlier. I was the only one with a lot of energy.

“You’re making me dizzy,” Zack groaned, closing his eyes as I bounced by him for the fifth time in a row. I immediately stopped jumping, skidding to a stop and bumping into Jack, who screeched.

“Ow! You fucker, I’m sunburned – don’t touch me!” he complained.

I laughed, looking at his red face. “Sorry, tomato head.”

“Shut the fuck up, Alex.”

“Sorry,” I said, putting my hands up in mock surrender and walking back over to Zack. I plopped down next to him on the shitty backstage couch, making it bounce up slightly. He grunted, his eyes shut tightly. I frowned and reached out to hold his hand, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t feel good,” he sighed, opening his eyes to look at me. He looked tired.

“Are you feeling good enough to play? I don’t want you to play if you don’t think you can,” I said worriedly.

Zack shook his head, “I’m fine. I should be able to get through the show; it’s only a forty-five minute set.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. He nodded, so I leaned over to kiss him gently. “Alright, if you say so.”

“Come on, you guys. Time to get out there,” Matt called out, motioning for us to come get our instruments.

During our show, I kept looking over at Zack to make sure he was still okay. He definitely didn’t look good, especially near the end of our set. He hadn’t moved around much, even though he usually jumps around and jams out with Jack behind me. He started to look really pale as we were finishing up the last song.

“Thank you guys; once again, we’re All Time Low! Go check out our EP!” I called out to the crowd, smiling and waving as we headed off stage so Mayday Parade could come on.

Jack, Zack, and I set our guitars down and Zack immediately ran across the backstage area. I frowned before realizing that he had run to the bathroom and didn’t even shut the door behind him. Rian, Jack, and I took one look at each other before following him quickly. Zack had just knelt down beside the toilet and was puking into it.

“Oh, god. So that’s why you don’t feel good,” I said, grimacing. I went over to him and knelt beside him with a hand on his shoulder, even though there wasn’t much I could do to help. He looked up at me for a second and he even looked sick. He immediately puked again and I heard Jack and Rian groan from behind us.

Zack groaned and slumped against the wall when he finished, holding his arms over his stomach. I glanced into the toilet as I went to flush it and frowned; there wasn’t anything in there except water and stomach acid. Shouldn’t there be food pieces in there too? I pushed the thought away and flushed the toilet, turning back to Zack.

“Are you done puking?” I questioned.

“I th-think so,” Zack stammered, still looking pale. Rian walked over and started to pull Zack up from the ground.

“Let’s get you off this nasty floor and go sit on one of the couches,” Rian said, helping Zack stand up.

“You feel okay?” Jack asked uncertainly as Zack walked out of the bathroom slowly. Zack was looking extremely weak.

“He just puked like four times – does he look okay?” I asked, rolling my eyes at Jack, who just pouted at me.

“What did you eat today?” I asked as Zack sat down, crossing my arms at him. Jack handed him a water bottle and he took a sip.

Zack paused before saying, “I ate some McDonald’s when we stopped earlier today.”

“Then why wasn’t any of it in the toilet when you puked?” I demanded. I had a feeling that he wasn’t telling me the truth about his eating habits lately. He scowled and opened his mouth to respond, but Rian held his hands up.

“Don’t argue with each other right now. Maybe all the food digested already; that’s how a stomach works, you know. None of us have eaten in a while, so I’m sure that’s why he doesn’t have any food in his stomach. Right, Zack?” Rian said, raising an eyebrow at him. Zack nodded, looking down at his hands.

“Here Zack; eat some of these chips. It’ll get some food in you until we all go eat some dinner,” I said, holding them out in front of him.

Zack wrinkled up his nose at me, shaking his head. “I don’t want those. I’m not hungry.”

“Come on,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “You have to eat something.”

“Lex, I just puked. I feel like I’m going to puke again if I eat anything,” Zack snapped, and I looked at him in surprise. Why was he so snippy with me lately?

“But... you need something... or...” I trailed off, my voice becoming small. He looked pissed and I didn’t want to make him even more angry.

“No. Quit telling me what to do, Alex,” Zack scowled, standing up and taking the water bottle with him. “I’m going back to the van.”

I looked at Rian and Jack helplessly, “When did he become so bitchy?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know why he’s acting like this,” Rian shrugged.

We were quiet for a moment before Jack spoke up, “Hey... can I have those chips since Zack didn’t want them?”