Like a Crash the Whole Thing Spun Out of Control

“Harlow. Harlow, wake up. You’re dreaming, wake up.” Har-“Voices were swimming through my subconscious at me. Going through one ear, and soaring right out the other. This voice I knew straight away. It was Johns. I knew the next voice too; I knew it all to well.

“Oh, my fucking god John, get out of my way!”It was Caillen.

“Look out, diva Caillen coming through!”Angus chuckled to himself. I didn’t have to have my eyes open to know that Angus and Trent were standing behind Caillen and John, laughing at Caillen’s idiocy and trying to see what I was doing.

“Harlow my darling, wake the fuck up!” And then he was pinching my arm really hard. I opened one eye first before I threw my right arm at him, feeling content when my clenched fist met his abdomen. “Ow, you fucking bitch!”

“Hey, mind what you’re saying!” John growled, pushing Caillen out-of-the-way so he could come closer. Caillen stuck his finger up at John’s back and stalked off to the front of the bus. “I came to see why you didn’t answer my text and Simon said you were sick,” He said gently. “Are you okay?”

“I feel sick,” I said croakily. “Water.” John nodded and reached into a bag that was sitting by his feet and pulled out a bottle of Fiji water before passing it to me. I quickly took the lid off and took a small sip. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. Do you want me to stay here with you?” He asked just as Caillen started screaming about something up the front of the bus. We both grimaced.

“Can I come to your bus? It’ll be quieter there.”

“Of course you can,” John smiled. “I’ll just grab some clothes for you… And some pants,” he said, nodding in the direction of my pantless legs. I looked down and then back up at him and nodded.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t been seen walking around out there with no pants on, right?” He laughed and ducked down to grab a couple of things from my suitcase in the bunk below mine. He was standing back up a moment later, passing me a pair of pyjama shorts and a jacket.

John piggybacked me all through the silent venue to The Maine’s bus and didn’t set me down until he was standing in the middle of the front part of his bus with Garrett, Kennedy, Pat and Jared all staring up at us.

“What the fucks wrong with you?” Garrett asked straight away, giving me an uninterested look. “You look disgusting.”

“Thanks Garrett.”He stared at me, waiting for a response. “I don’t know what’s wrong; I’ve just been feeling sick all day, okay?” He narrowed his eyes, but let it go.

“Are you okay Harlow?” Pat asked. I smiled at him. I’d always liked Pat because he’d always made me feel liked and comforted. He was just in general a really nice kid to be around and talk to.

“Yeah Pat, I’m okay thank you.” John began to walk towards the back lounge.

“We’re going to watch a movie,” he told them. They all nodded and went back to what they had been doing before we’d interrupted. John set me down by the couch and waited for me to sit down before he tossed my bag into the corner, grabbed the blanket from his bunk, put the most recent season of Supernatural on and came to sit under the blanket with me. “Are you comfy?” I moved closer to him and grabbed his arm, slung it around my shoulders and laid across his lap before I looked up at him and smiled.

“Yup.” We were silent for what seemed like forever. John sat, rubbing circles in my shoulder while I tried my hardest to keep my eyes open. “I think I’m in love with Dean.” John chuckled quietly.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. I just think he’s hilarious and extremely attractive.”

“What about Sam?”

“Sam is a little pansy ass, bitchy Sasquatch.”He chuckled again as I moved to sit up so I could see him more. “Sam isn’t funny at all.” He pursed his lips ever so slightly, a movement I didn’t miss. “You have a beautiful face.”

“Do I?”

“Yeah.”

“Better then Deans face?” I grinned and bit my lip, nodding. “Well that’s good.”I nodded again and hid my face in his stomach, yanking the blanket up, over my head. “What are you doing?”

“Hiding.”

“Why are you hiding?” He chuckled.

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because I almost kissed you.” He was silent for a minute before the blanket was gradually pulled off of my head. He was still quiet so I twisted my head around so that I could look up at him. He was looking at me.

“You’re blushing,” he smiled. Groaning, I made to grab the blanket and pull it back over my head, but his hand reached out to stop me. “It’s cute,” he said.

“Shut up.”

“Hey now,” he laughed, “be nice!”

“Quit teasing me then!” He ignored me and placed his right hand on my cheek. As soon as his warm skin made contact, my stomach burst into a million butterflies. “John…” Again, he ignored me; instead he leant his face down and captured my lips with his own.

I was stunned, thrilled and pretty nervous as our lips moved together and a bit disappointed when he pulled back. I wasn’t quite sure of what to do, so I sat gazing at him with my lips still slightly parted.

“Have you been eating lollies?” He asked.



I woke up the next morning sprawled out in John’s bunk, taking up all of the space while he lay squashed up against the wall. He was sleeping like a baby with his right arm over his brow and his mouth hanging somewhat open.

Suddenly, someone walked past the bunk, so I decided to get up and go see who it was and what they were doing.

“Morning.” It was Garrett. He smiled at me as I took a seat beside him and glancing at his Tumblr dashboard on his computer screen over his shoulder. He was eating some cereal, chomping away at the crunchy bits. “Want some?” He asked, holding a heaped spoonful up at me.

“No thank you.” He narrowed his eyes at me, seemingly deep in thought.

“Want me to get you something?”

“Nah, I’m not hungry.” He had a look on his face then, that I couldn’t really read. “I think I’m going to go back to sleep for a little while.” He didn’t say anything, instead he watched me get up and go back to the bunks.



“Pat, shoot the fucking thing!” Pat pressed a couple of random buttons on his controller while Garrett was standing in front of the TV, waving his arms from Pat. “Fuck, man, you just lost your shot!”

“Shut up Garrett!”

“He’s right Pat,” Kennedy sighed, setting down his phone. “You’re going to die now.”A zombie came out of nowhere and attacked Pat’s character. Garrett yelled while Pat threw the controller at Jared and crossed his arms. Apparently he was sulking.

“If you had of listened to me, you would have gotten to the safe house!”

“Garrett, shut the fuck up!” Garrett stuck his finger up at John and fell down on to the couch, pinching the controller from Jared.

“My turn,” he said, “let me show you douche-bags how it’s done.”

“Ten bucks says he dies in the first five minutes,” I whispered to Tim. Tim grinned and nodded, reaching his hand over for me to shake.

Sadly enough, he died six minutes after he had started, so I had to give Tim the ten dollars. I argued and argued that six minutes was practically five minutes, but he laughed and said that a deal was a deal and I owed him ten bucks.

“Fuck you Tim, I hate you.”

We spent the majority of the afternoon playing video games and betting on who would win. I even won back my ten dollars and an extra ten from Tim when he said Pat would get to the safe house in time.

“Suck on that mother flucker!” I cried, snatching the twenty dollar note from his hand and stuffing it into my bra so he wouldn’t get it back.

“Did you just say ‘mother flucker’?” Garrett asked, raising his eyebrow at me.

“I don’t like to swear Garrett, so yes.” His eyebrow went a little higher.

“You swear all the fucking time…”

“Well, since five minutes ago, I don’t like swearing anymore.” Tim stood up and looked at everyone.

“Ten bucks says she swears more than five times before we get to the venue!” Five hands shot forward to shake Tim’s out stretched one. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

“Good luck, assholes.”

“One.”

“Fuck.”

“Two.”

“Damn.”

“Damn. Is that a swear word? Damn?” Tim asked, looking around at everyone.

“If we were firm believers of God I think it would be,” John spoke up. I shot him a glare which he smiled at. “So I guess seeing as we’re all Atheist’s, or just people who don’t really give a fuck about a higher power, damn is not a swear word.” Grinning, I slapped his arm.

“See, O’Callaghan knows what’s up!” Garrett, Pat, Kennedy and Tim all rolled their eyes. My phone vibrated in my pocket, so I took it out.

Caillen Walker:
We’re almost in Vegas. We need to go shopping for hot outfits to go out in tonight.

“We’ll all be at the venue soon,” I said after reading the message. I peeked out from under my fringe at the guys, seeing if they noticed me use their song lyrics. Pat gave me a grin, so I assume he had.

“Fuck, this mother fucker won’t die!” Garrett exclaimed, roughly pressing his fingers down hard on the buttons. “Die you bastard!”

“Give it to me!” Garrett glared at me when I took the controller and started pressing buttons. Pat was laughing, but didn’t say anything. “Hey Pat, what’s the Time?”He chuckled and glanced at his watch.

“12PM,” he replied, still laughing.

“I’m sorry?” He lost it then, leaning forward to laugh into his hands. Kennedy gave him a strange look and got up to move away from him, deciding to sit on the other side of Jared. “Oh, 12Pm!”

“Anyone hungry?” John asked suddenly, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. The guys all nodded their heads. “Harlow?” I shook my head and smiled up at him.

“Nah, I’m pretty full.”

“Alright, come help me make some sandwiches or something?”I shrugged and stood up, noticing Garrett staring at me from the corner of my eye, but ignoring him. “Okay, what do you guys want?”

“Make me a cup of Ramen, bitch!” Garrett exclaimed.

“… Okay, that’s shit all for Garrett,” John laughed, looking around at everyone else. They were all silently thinking about their lunch options.

“Alright guys, you’ve got three seconds to decide,” I told them. “Count ‘em, One. Two. Three.”

“Oh, my god Harlow, you’re killing me!” Pat laughed. Kennedy peered around Jared to give Pat another weird look, which Pat ignored because he was still laughing. I grinned at Pat and sent him a wink.

“Come on John, who cares what they want. They’ll get what they get okay? Shake a leg!” John stared at me as I walked past and down the hallway to the kitchen. “Shake it John!” Pat’s laugh echoed through the bus once again.



“Where are you going? We just got here!” John exclaimed when I bounded down the steps and pressed the button to open the door.

“Caillen and I have a shopping date,” I called over my shoulder. “Apparently we’re going out tonight after our set. I think you and your dudes are too, and the All Time Low dudes.” John was hanging out of his bus now, his long arms stretching behind him as he grasped onto the door frame.

“We’ll have a beer together then?” He called. I stopped walking and turned around to face him, tilting my head to the side and smiling.

“Sure we will. We always do.”

“Where’s my goodbye hug?”I rolled my eyes and went back over to the bus. John stepped out of the bus and wrapped his arms around me tightly, while I wrapped mine around him. For a moment, I felt his lips brush against my forehead, but I played that off as a trick of the wind. “Have fun shopping!” And he was gone.

“Yeah. Bye to you too John.”

It wasn’t overly difficult to find my bus amongst the hundred others seeing as Angus and Trent had set up fold up chairs, a small table and a kiddie pool out the front. I found Caillen sitting in the front lounge with his murse in one hand and his iPhone in the other.

“Where the fuck have you been? He asked, standing up and slinging his murse over his shoulder. “I’ve been waiting here for like, five minutes!”

“Chill dudette, I still have to change!”Caillen made an aggravated sound and sat back down on the seat. “Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bunk this morning or what?” He gave me a dirty look and sat back, massaging his temples.

“We just need to get to the shop before we have an interview Harlow. I don’t want to be late, so please will you hurry the fuck up.”

“You know,” I laughed, loving the feeling of making Caillen angry. “You swear in every sentence. Are you an angry person Caillen? Do you have issues?”

“He fucking does!” Angus yelled from his deck chair out front.

“He’s a sassy little bitch!” Trent yelled in agreement.

“Shut the fuck up guys!”Caillen squealed angrily.

“Woah, calm down,” I laughed.