Nothing Personal

They were almost halfway done with their tour and they would be in Minnesota in about a month and a half. Though, Alex didn’t really care since he figured that Zo wasn’t going to go. She hardly ever spent any money on herself and when she did, it was for things she wanted to do. He highly doubted that she would come to the concert. It was in another town anyway and she would have to drive to get to the venue.

Yeah, it was never going to happen. A guy could dream though, couldn’t he? He didn’t honestly know what the heck was going on with him, but every time he talked to Zo lately he was starting to feel a little love struck. It was strange and she probably would never feel the same way about him like he did. Even if he was Alex Gaskarth or not.

“Hell yes!” Jack yelled as Alex was pulled out of his thoughts when his best friend started to yell. He looked from the screen where he was playing video games with the raven haired boy and realized that he had just lost.

“Where the hell is your head Gaskarth? Jack isn’t that hard to beat.” Rian said as he took the seat next to Alex.

“Hey!”

“Sorry but its true Jack,” Rian muttered before he looked back to Alex waiting for an answer.

Alex took a moment to think of something to say before giving a devious smile and gave a innocent shrug. “I just figured I should go easy on Jack for once and let him feel special.”

“Aw, thanks-” Jack started before pausing. “Hey! That’s not funny!” He yelled once he finally got in and everyone started laughing at him.

“Here, take over for me Rian. I have to pee,” Alex said as he gave the drummer his control and got up.

Making his way to the back of the bus, he went to the bathroom and locked himself in and looked back at his reflection in the mirror. The boys were right, he was acting strange. He didn’t know if it was the fact about him starting to get feelings for Zo or if it was the fact that she would never return the feelings. He was acting like a total girl, but he couldn’t help it.

*Yo!* Well speak of the devil. He checked the time and saw that she had just gotten out of school. It was like clockwork.

*Hey, what’s up?* He asked trying to keep his cool.

*Eh nothing really, bored. I want these stupid exams over with.* She muttered and began to hum along to the music as she started to drive.

*Oh right, graduations in a week right?* He asked and heard her sigh. He smiled to himself as he walked out of the bathroom and down to his bunk and grabbed his notebook that he used to write. He mind as well pretend to look like he was writing new songs for their band while actually talking to the voice in his head.

*Uh yeah, I can’t believe it. I’m so nervous. What if I trip on the stairs? Penny’s still trying to get me to wear heels with my dress instead of the flats. And if I’m freaking out about tripping in flats then what’s it going to be like in heels?*

She gave shudder and he laughed again. She was so cute. No! Stop thinking like that! Focus! *And besides, everyone’s going to look at me weird because I’m not going to have the college I’m going to announced after my name is called.*

*You’ll be fine Zo, I promise. I was the same way when I was just about to graduate.*

*Really?*

*Yeah,* he hesitated about telling her about his graduation but figured that she needed a distraction from her thoughts and decided to just go for it.

*When we were about to graduate I had to talk to my parents about not going to college so that we could keep the band going. I honestly didn’t know what they were going to say. I mean what parent likes to hear that their kids don’t want to go to college. I was really nervous about it but my parents told me that they were a little disappointed but said that they would support me on my decision no matter what.*

*I wish my mom was like that. Seriously, whenever I’ve seen her lately she’s just glared after I had that conversation with her about not going to college.*

Alex sighed, he remembered that conversation. Zo was just about to pack all her things up and leave. It wasn’t a good day at all. *Zo, she’s probably just stressed about Do. He starts his next round of chemo soon.*

She sighed, *I know, don’t make me feel even guiltier than I already do. I just want to get this over with. I want to be free of school and move out. I don’t want to be stuck here for forever.*

“Oh Alex my loooooove,” Alex heard Jack yell as he curtain to his bunk opened and Jack poked his head in.

“Yes Jack?” Alex asked trying to be patient with the boy. He felt horrible for just leaving Zo hanging like that.

“Watcha doing?” He asked as he crawled into the bunk and basically sat on him.

“Oof, Jack, seriously?” Jack just nodded. “If you must know, I’m writing.” He peered over the edge of Alex’s notebook and frowned at Alex.

“You haven’t written anything yet.”

“That’s because you’re here distracting me.” Jack gave a small ‘oh’ in reply and they sat there a few moments in silence. Alex gave a quick sorry to Zo and she just laughed waving it off and he turned to Jack to see if he could find out why he was there.

Jack shrugged, “don’t know. I was just bored.” He replied when Alex asked him. Alex just laughed in response and began to doodle on the blank page of his notebook. Sometimes it helped him try and think of something.

“I’m hungry,” he said after a few more moments of silence. Alex suggested he go find something to eat then and Jack shrugged and agreed crawling out of the bunk. He asked Alex if he wanted anything and when he declined; Jack just bounced away leaving Alex alone to his thoughts, and Zo, once more.

*Anyway, where were we?* Alex asked as he began to doodle again and Zooey started to talk about school again. He could tell how nervous she was about everything and wished he could do something for her.

Jack came back a while later to ask him if he wanted to join them to come out and check out the town a little and he agreed. He grabbed his wallet and put a pair of converse on before walking out of the bus with the rest of the band. There were a few little shops around and they started to wander in and out of them trying to pass the time before the concert.

A few hours later, they got a phone call from Flyzik telling them to get back since they needed to finish getting ready for the concert. They all met up again since everyone had split up and Alex ended up staying with Jack since he would have gotten lost if he hadn’t. Not that he minded anyway, he was his best friend and they always were able to find something to do if they needed to.

When they got to the venue, they went to the dressing room and found the rest of the crew already there. They only had about two hours before they played and they all started to get ready for the show. Alex went to change out of his sweats and old t-shirt for something a little better and then fixed his hair.

By the time he was done, there was only 45 minutes left and he sat next to Jack and they kept up a small conversation. When Flyzik came in and told them they had five minutes, they all got up and walked down the hallway to the side stage and got their guitars and such and made sure they had everything they needed. Then it was time to go on stage and Alex took a breath before he followed the rest of the guys out on stage and stood in front of his mic.

“Miami how we doing tonight?” Alex yelled into the mic and the crowd erupted into cheers. “Haha awesome! This song’s called Lost in Stereo,” He continued as they all began to play.

”She works for the weekend, mix tape of her favorite band. Tearing up the radio, lost in the stereo’s sound. She trouble in a tank top pretty little time bomb blowing up take you down living in the radio lost in the stereo’s sound…” Alex sang and he couldn’t help but think of Zooey.