Nothing Personal

Finally, they were about to start touring again. Now Alex didn’t have to sit at home and try not to do anything too stupid while he waited for something to come up. The week before tour was always the busiest and most eventful. Between last minute practices and checking to make sure everything was in order, it was always hectic. But it kept him busy.

So instead of having the worst possible sleeping habits and having to nurse a hangover every time he woke up. He found that he was actually getting to bed and waking up at a reasonable time and actually having something productive to do. So it was that Monday before they left, and he had less than five minutes before Jack would be over to pick him up.

His phone beeped as he pulled a shirt over his head and found it on his bed to find a text from the one and only Jack saying that he was just about to pull up. Alex grabbed a pair of shoes and a hoodie before heading to the door and taking his keys from the bowl on the table by the door and shutting the door behind him. He walked out of his apartment building and saw Jack just pulling in and smiled as he jogged over to the car and got in.

“What’s up dude?” Alex asked as Jack gave a short nod to him as he turned down the radio.

“Excited for tour. I don’t think I was going to handle anymore mornings of waking up with a hangover.”

“I can’t agree with you more,” he muttered in reply as he reached over to turn the radio up again when a new song came on.

Jack drove through town towards their usual place that they practiced and got everything ready before tour. It was a rented room where they kept all their things since they all had small little apartments and didn’t have anywhere to really keep them all.

So they found the rental/practice place for a good price and it really wasn’t that bad of a place. They had done some major brainstorming and work there and as the result were most of the songs on their albums.

When they got there, they both walked in to find the rest of the guys there along with their manager and a few other people from their crew. They spent a few moments greeting and catching up with one another before getting down to business, packing and preparing for tour.

“Alright Mickey, what’s first on the agenda?” Jack asked as he settled down on one of the couches with a can of soda. The rest of the crew was also sitting on the beat up old couches or the uncomfortable chairs they had there, ready to discuss the upcoming tour.

Their manager began to go through a list of things that needed to be done. It was the same as usual. Get the bus, pack, make sure everything is ready, that they have spare things incase anything broke, and other minor things like that. It was the same thing they went over before every tour and Alex could basically quote what Mickey was going to say and ended up spacing out a little.

*Don’t you have anything better to do than to listen to my stupid thoughts all day?* Zooey asked. Alex smiled, knowing how much it bugged her when he would listen in. To them it was like a little bug crawling into your head and listening and watching everything you did like a stalker.

*Not really,* He replied as he glanced over to see Mickey still talking and sighed.

*Shouldn’t you be listening to him? He is your manager after all. If you guys ever want to get big he’s probably the best person to listen to for advice.*

He couldn’t help but smile at that. Since he never had told Zooey anything other than the fact that he was in a band and they toured a lot, she figured that they were a semi-known band and were looking for their big break. And because he worried about what would happen if she found out, he never tried to correct her.

*Yeah well, it can get old after hearing it so much. I would much rather hear your constant babble than listen to the same thing over again.*

*Stalker,*

*How’s Do?* Alex asked remembering that her little brother had gotten sick a few days ago and had to stay home from school with Colter.

*He’s good, he says hi.* She replied in a worried voice.

Dorian was the only one to really know, and it had been a complete accident that he found out. He had been three when it all had happened where they randomly started to talk to each other in their heads and Zooey had tried to tell her older brother about it but he had just laughed and told her to stop fooling around.

After a few attempts, she had given up trying to make people believe her but when Do had asked a few days later what was wrong she told him the truth. That she had a voice in her head. And being three at the time and not understanding that there was no way that was possible unless you were crazy, he believed her. But when she realized that he had, she made him swear to never to tell anyone, and it had been their little secret between the three of them ever since.

*Do will be fine Zo; it’s probably a little bit of the flu, nothing horrible. He’ll be back to his old self in no time.* Alex assured her as some of the other guys began to talk. Mickey was done, but they were still going over the plans so he could still pretend to be listening for a little longer. *Did your mom send him to school today?*

*Yeah, I hope so.*

“Alright let’s get to it then!” Mickey said as he clapped his hands together and stood from his chair. Everyone else did the same as he started to bark out orders and everyone got to work.

Alex stood, taking a deep breath and began to get things packed up with Jack. They had all been assigned ‘teams’ to work in and Jack and his team were told to get the guitars ready and in their cases. Each of them took about three guitars with them on tour and they had huge boxes to go into the keep safe along with all its cords and doohickeys that hooked them up to the speakers while they played.

While they were busy doing that, Rian and Zack were busy getting Rian’s drums in their cases along with the mics and anything that Alex and Jack missed. So then the rest of the crew got the lights and sound system and other things that made the band sound amazing into the trailer they had.

It only took about two hours to get that done and when Alex and Jack finished, they went to help the rest of them to make the process quicker. Then when the trailer was almost fully packed, they took a break to grab lunch.

There were a few places in the area that they usually went to whenever they were there. When they finally picked a place after disagreeing so many times, they pulled the door open and found one of the large booths that they usually sat at so they could fit all of them in at one table.

Their waitress came by with a blush on her face as she recognized them and took their orders before leaving them alone to cause mischief. It only took a few moments after she left for things to go flying across the table. Anything that could be thrown was thrown, bits of napkins, popcorn, and even some ice cubes from their drinks that appeared a few moments later when the blushing waitress came back.

Alex felt something bounce off his head and looked over to see a grinning Jack. His smile turned evil as he glanced down to grab something that he could throw and ended up finding the wrapper that kept the napkins rolled up and folded it into a paper football. By then Jack knew what he was doing.

Even though he was all the way on the other side of the table, he still put his thumb and index finger out on each hands and touched his thumbs together to supply the field goal for Alex to flick the paper football at him. He aimed and then flicked it across the table and ended up missing the goal and nearly flicking the small object in Jack’s eye.

“Ha! Serves you right for throwing things at me!” Alex laughed as Jack rubbed his face and glared at his best friend.

“Oh it’s on Gaskarth!” Jack replied as he grabbed something at random and chucked it across the table.

“Bring it,”

Then the war began.

Alex and Jack ended up throwing anything they could find at each other. There were bits of paper all around while the rest of the group cheered or started their own war with someone else. Alex had started to take ice cubes from his cup and putting it in his spoon and flinging it across the table toward Jack.

It took a couple tries; the first two had flown right over Jacks head and at the table behind them. But then he was able to get a hang of it and smacking his best friend in the forehead perfectly each time.

By the time their food came, their table was a mess. Alex could see the annoyance in the girls face but didn’t say anything as she passed the food around. They settled down, like all boys do, when the food came and went to starting up a conversation as they ate.

Half way through the meal, something changed. Not with the band and crew, but in his head with Zooey. Something was going on. She was in the middle of class writing notes then suddenly her train of thought stopped and she began to panic. There were too many thoughts going on in her head for Alex to understand what was going on, but he knew something was wrong.

He stood and excused himself from the table and made his way to the bathroom trying to not freak out any of the people who he had just up and left without any explanation. As he had left, he had heard Jack ask what was wrong but just ignore him as he continued to the bathroom wanting to calm Zooey down so that he could find out what the hell was going on.

*Zo, sweetie, what’s going on? You need to calm down.* Alex said as he locked himself in a stall and pushed his hair away from his face.

*Oh my God, I need to get out of here.* She managed to say as she continued to figure what she needed to take with her.

*Zooey, seriously. Calm down and tell me what’s going on? You’re scaring me. Please, tell me.* Was she leaving school? Why was she packing her bag? It was only about one there and she should be in class.

*Dorian is in the hospital…*