Mistakes We Wouldn't Learn From

[Alex]

This was the first time we had driven at night to get to our next show and it was interesting, to say the least. I was the only one wide awake because I had slept in so late. Everyone else was tired and getting irritable with each other. Zack and Rian were sitting in the back seat. Evan and Grieco had decided to sit in the third row, in front of Zack and Rian. Jack didn’t want to be alone in his row, so we let Matt have the empty second row to lie down and sleep in. He had been sleeping in the front seat for the past three days. Jack was now sitting beside me in the passenger seat.

I didn’t mind the drive because there was almost no traffic once we got out of Boston. Driving at midnight has its perks. Everyone was starting to get bitchy with each other by twelve-thirty in the morning, though. Everyone had called their parents to talk, and now they were trying to sleep. I was annoyed that I had to keep my eyes on the road instead of reaching back and slapping them so they would shut up.

“Grieco, stop touching me,” I heard Evan say.

“I’m not touching you!” Grieco protested.

“I felt an arm touch me, and you’re the only person near me.”

“So I accidentally leaned against you, big deal.”

“I don’t like being touched!” Evan said, scooting toward the window to get farther away from Grieco.

“That’s why you don’t have a girlfriend,” Rian scoffed, and I heard the others chuckling.

“I can think of a lot of reasons why Evan doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Matt said. “Like his pimply face.”

“And his awkwardness,” Jack said. I could see him grinning in the faint light of the van.

“And his dorky haircut,” Grieco piped up. I heard him yelp in pain and glanced back to see him rubbing his arm and glaring at Evan.

“Enough of the ‘let’s harass Evan’ game,” Evan said grumpily, putting his elbow on the armrest and leaning his head against his hand.

“Dammit, I liked that game.” Jack said, laughing as Evan flipped him off. He reached over to turn up the music on the radio, earning cusses and groans from everyone in the back.

“You asshole, I was about to fall asleep,” Zack called out, and I could hear the sleepiness in his voice.

“Quiet down, Jack,” I scolded, turning the radio off. Jack rolled his eyes and I heard the others chuckling in the back. “What?” I demanded.

“You didn’t say a word when Evan and Grieco were abusing each other, but you spoke up as soon as Zack made a complaint,” Matt said, and the others laughed.

“Shut up,” I mumbled, blushing and staring straight down the road.

“You’re just jealous that he cares about me,” Zack said with a yawn.

“Oh, yes, that’s why,” Matt said sarcastically, smirking at me when I glanced back in the mirror. “Now everyone better shut the fuck up so I can fall asleep,” he said, lying down on the seat.

“I’d listen to him – you know how bitchy Flyzik is when he doesn’t get his beauty rest,” I said with a smirk.

“Shut up, Alex.”

••••••••••

I woke up to sun shining right into my face, because I was in the driver’s seat of the van. I hadn’t parked at the venue until three in the morning, so I had fallen asleep as soon as I got there. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up straighter, yawning and looking around. Matt was still fast asleep in the row behind me and Grieco was asleep too. Everyone else was awake.

“What time is it?” I asked quietly, making Jack jump.

“Holy shit, you scared me. I didn’t know you were awake,” Jack said, putting a hand on his chest as if he was having a heart attack. “It’s about eleven o’clock.”

I nodded, glancing back at the others. “I’m starving. Do you guys want to go find some food?” They nodded and we all got out of the van to walk around and find somewhere to get food. Hopefully Matt and Grieco wouldn’t wake up and think we ditched them.

“Good morning,” I greeted Zack with a smile as he came up to me.

“Morning,” Zack replied, kissing me and reaching out to hold my hand as we started walking.

“Did you take your medicine?” I asked, and he sighed.

“Are you really going to bother me about that every morning?” he complained.

Rian chuckled, looking over at us, “He’s just pissy because I already asked him the same question earlier.”

“I’m not five years old, I don’t need to be told to take my medicine,” Zack mumbled. “But yes, I took it.”

I shrugged, “That’s all I wanted to know.”

“There’s nothing to eat around here!” Jack exclaimed, looking up and down the street. We had walked down to the next intersection, and there wasn’t much in this area to go buy breakfast food at. The only food places were Subway and a sushi restaurant.

“There’s a grocery store right over there,” Evan said, pointing down the street.

“I suppose that will work. I can get poptarts!” Jack exclaimed, and we followed him down the street to the store.

“I get the cart,” Evan said, grabbing a cart as we walked into the store.

I rolled my eyes, walking ahead of him, “The cart isn’t that special, Evan.”

“Yes it is,” Evan protested, pushing the cart into my back as I walked. I yelped, letting go of Zack’s hand and turning to glare at Evan.

“Asshole,” I said crossly, and he smirked at me.

“Come on, children. Let’s get some food,” Rian scoffed, pushing me toward an aisle. “We need some breakfast and dinner food for a few days, because we keep running out. Let’s try not to spend too much money though.”

“I’m getting poptarts!” Jack called out, running down a different aisle.

I rolled my eyes, looking around at the shelves. “Get some more breakfast bars, those disappeared quickly.”

“I hate those breakfast bars,” Evan said, wrinkling his nose as Rian put a few boxes into the cart.

“You ate half the box!” Zack said, raising an eyebrow at Evan.

“There was nothing else to eat!”

I laughed, “Well, maybe you should find something that you’ll eat.”

“Get me a box of Cocoa Puffs, and I’ll be happy,” Evan said, pointing at the cereal he wanted. I heard a crash from the other aisle as Rian was putting the Cocoa Puffs into the cart.

“Jack, what did you do?” I called hesitantly, just as Jack came around the corner with his arms full of poptarts.

“I was getting poptarts,” Jack said innocently, dropping at least ten boxes of store-brand poptarts into the cart.

“Dude, you’re going to get so fat,” Zack said, shaking his head.

“Jack, we can’t afford a ton of junk,” Rian objected.

Jack shook his head, “That’s why I got the cheap brand! They taste the same anyway, and they’re only a dollar.”

“He has a point,” Evan said with a shrug.

“Fine,” Rian sighed, rolling his eyes. “This is why I’m the one in charge of the credit card.” He tugged on the cart to get Evan’s attention, and Evan pushed the cart out into the main aisle.

“What else do we need, Mister Credit Card?” I teased.

“Some sort of dinner food,” Rian said, ignoring the nickname. “What’s easy to eat in the van or heat up in the microwaves backstage?”

“Spaghetti-O’s!” Jack exclaimed, looking around at the signs before dashing off again.

Evan’s face lit up, and he ran after Jack with the cart, “I want some too!”

I looked over at Rian and Zack, “The cans are going to be hitting the ground any second now.”

“Oh, come on. They’re not that crazy-” Zack stopped abruptly as we heard a few cans tumble to the ground.

“Told you,” I smirked, and he rolled his eyes at me. Rian, Zack, and I walked near the end of the aisle that Jack and Evan were in and saw an employee who looked pissed off.

“You boys need to be more careful. This is the second time that I’ve heard something crash to the ground because of you. Quiet down or I’m going to kick you out,” the woman said.

“Yes ma’am,” Evan mumbled, his face flushing. For such a crazy kid, he was really awkward around adults.

“Sorry,” Jack said, crossing his arms.

I snickered as the woman walked away, “Look who got in trouble.”

“Shut up, Alex,” Jack said, flipping me off and picking up a few of the cans that had dropped.

After finding some more food for the van, Rian looked around, “Is that all we needed?”

“We need some more water bottles,” Evan pointed out. “Most of them are being used to piss in, so we can’t exactly refill them.”

“Good point,” I laughed, following them into the drink aisle and putting a case of water bottles into the cart.

“We should get some energy drinks,” Zack said, looking at the display of energy drinks hopefully.

I raised an eyebrow, “I thought you weren’t supposed to drink those. They speed up your heart rate too much.”

“I can drink them in moderation,” Zack insisted, walking toward the shelf. He picked up a case of energy drinks easily and set it in the cart.

“Just don’t drink too many,” Rian said, also eyeing Zack.

Zack frowned, “Quit babying me. Just because I had a panic attack last night doesn’t mean I’m incapable of taking care of myself.”

“We’re just looking out for you, babe,” I said, pulling him closer to me so I could kiss him on the cheek. He kept the scowl on his face, but it softened a bit.

“I know,” he muttered.

“Good.” I pecked him on the lips, smiling as I pulled away.

I jumped when I heard Rian yell, “No, Jack!” and looked up to see a 2-liter bottle of pop crashing to the ground down the aisle. Jack squeaked as it exploded open and sprayed him and Evan. Rian had run away from the two in them just in time to avoid getting sprayed.

“What the hell?” I asked, looking up at them. I began to laugh when I saw the lower halves of Jack and Evan’s bodies were dripping with sticky pop.

“It’s not funny!” Evan whined, flicking the liquid off his hands. The same employee who had scolded them the first time came around the corner, gasping at the mess.

“Out!” she demanded, pointing in the direction of the door.

“But-” Jack began to protest, but she cut him off.

“Get out of my store! You are just causing trouble and wrecking the store!” she exclaimed. Jack and Evan scowled, trudging out of the aisle and to the front of the store. The woman looked at the rest of us, “Are you boys with them?”

“Nope,” Rian and Zack said immediately.

I shook my head, “Never seen them before in my life.”