Take Your Time

January 10th 2012
San Francisco, CA

Everyone was out signing and Addie was looking for Dan. She had taken pictures of The Cab’s set and she had to give him the memory card containing the photos she took that night so he could evaluate her. For her, the tour wasn’t something fun, the tour was work, it was a test to see if she deserved to be in Motion Army or not.

She walked through the halls with her camera hung around her neck and her memory card in her right hand, her phone was in the other just in case she had to call Dan to find him.

After ten minutes of walking around, Addie finally found the owner of Motion Army himself. A smile formed on her lips, “Dan,” She said as she walked over to him.

Dan stopped on his tracks and turned around, he instantly smiled. “Addie, how was your first show?” He asked as they started walking together.

She shrugged, “It was okay,” She handed him her memory card, “What do we do now?” She asked, hoping for something exciting. He had always described touring as one of the best things a person will ever do.

He put the memory card in one of his pockets, “I’m going to hang out with Justin and Benji for a while,” He answered, “It’s up to you, I promised Ben and Justin a while back,” He added as he saw her expression fell.

She frowned, “What? Who are Justin and Ben? Dan you promised me you’ll stick with me,” She demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Tour and production manager, respectively.”

“You sound like Wikipedia.”

He sighed, “The point is, I really miss these people. I thought you talked to some of the guys earlier today, ask if they want to hang with you, okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer before leaving her frozen in her spot.

She sighed; she couldn’t believe her boss would bail on her like that. Since everyone was out signing she decided to just hang out in the dressing room for a while. She walked to the room and opened the door. What she expected was an empty room, what she got was a room with Stephen in it, though he was focused on his phone.

When Addie opened the door, the bassist looked up from his phone, triggered. She noticed how he relaxed he was when he realized it was her, but she wasn’t relaxed at all. “Oh, I’m sorry,” She closed the door again.

Before she could completely close the door, however, Stephen stopped her, “No, it’s okay, come hang,” He said. She looked at him for a second before entering the room, closing the door behind her quietly. She then curled up in the couch she previously was in earlier that day.

The room was silent for a few minutes, Stephen had his eyes glued on the screen of his phone and she had her eyes trained on hers, texting her dictator of a brother.

Weirdly, they’re both comfortable with the silence, unlike how most people would feel. It wasn’t awkward at all. She liked how he didn’t try to get her to talk, it was almost like he understood her.

She took her eyes away from her phone and looked at him, he was furiously typing into his phone that she started wondering what he was doing. She thought it was entertaining so she took her camera and snapped a picture of him silently.

Not silent enough, unfortunately. His head snapped up from his phone and he raised an eyebrow at her, “Did you just take a picture of me?” He asked, seemingly confused.

She nodded quietly, looking at her camera to check the result. He was so focused in the picture she took, like his phone was something so interesting. It turned out pretty good and after taking pictures of the concert, she was glad she could take a picture of just someone with no need of evaluation.

“I like you, you know, you don’t talk bullshit,” Stephen told her with a crooked grin and she raised an eyebrow at him in response, “A lot of people talk about unimportant things, you don’t.”

“Oh,” Addie replied. She thought of something else to reply with but ended up saying something quite stupid, “Um... do you want the picture?” She asked.

It took him a few seconds before he chuckled, her attempt was quite pathetic that it was kind of cute. “No, keep it, Adds,” He told her, “And I’m Stephen.”

She gave him a small smile, “Yeah, I know,” She replied shyly. Just like that, the conversation ended.

The room was silent once again until Jess came in. She was quite loud, and Addie just knew she wasn’t going to be involved in any conversation. “Stephen!” Jess sat beside Stephen as she took a seat beside the bassist, “What were you doing alone in here?” She asked.

Stephen shrugged, "I wasn't alone," He nodded his head to Addie's direction, but the girl just shut her mouth without saying anything.

The drummer looked at Addie and smiled, “Hi Addie, how did you like our set?” She asked. The fact that she was so forward intimidated Addie a bit.

“It was great,” She quietly answered, though she wasn’t really paying attention to The Summer Set’s set to be honest, she was too busy thinking of ways to take good pictures.

“Good, so how old are you? You look quite young, are you sixteen? Seventeen maybe?” The drummer asked, still friendly. In fact, her attention was focused on Addie; she always was friendly to everyone.

“I’m twenty, actually,” She answered rather awkwardly, playing with the edge of her shirt as she did so.

Jess raised her eyebrows, “Oh? I didn’t expect that,” She said, “You’re going to look like you’re thirty when you’re forty, you know that?” She grinned.

Addie shrugged, “Right,” She said. She had no idea how to respond to Jess’ statement. “Um... thanks,” She forced a smile.

“That’s cool.” Said Jess.

That was when Stephen spoke up, “Unless you get carded often because of it, like me,” He pointed out after being silent for a while. He had stuck his phone in his pocket and had all of his attention to the conversation at hand.

“And somehow, John didn’t get carded at all,” Jess chuckled, “I don’t get it though, you don’t look that young,” She looked at her bandmate. Sure, he looked not as old as he really was, but he didn't look that young either, or maybe that's because she was used to him, she wasn't sure.

“People are stupid,” Stephen said as if it was an obvious answer, “I’ve never been so pissed off, what’s next, forbid me from drinking because I’m underaged?” He complained.

Stephen and Jess were waiting for Addie to say something, but she stayed quiet. Realizing that she wasn’t going to talk, Jess tried to involve her in the conversation again, “So how old do you think Stephen is?”

Addie bit her bottom lip, judging from his statement about drinking, he was over twenty one. He looked a little too young to be twenty five, however. After a few seconds of thinking, she finally answered, “Twenty two?”

“Close enough,” Stephen said, “Twenty three,” He corrected her, standing up to take a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

Addie didn’t even care enough to reply, she only nodded before being silent again. However, she watched as he drank his beer, judging him in her head for being an alcoholic, or at least she thought he was.

“Where are you from, Addie?” Jess tried again, hoping this time she could make the conversation longer. She felt as if Addie wasn’t happy, and maybe she was right. The twenty years old girl didn’t seem so excited, she didn’t look like she wanted to be there and that confused her, who wouldn’t want to be on tour?

“Baltimore,” She answered, running her hand through her hair as she did so. She wanted to provide a more specific answer, but she wasn’t sure if she had to.

“Cool, do you know the All Time Low guys?” The drummer asked again, happy that she had more things to talk about; hopefully this one will go well.

However, Addie disappointed Jess by shaking her head, “Am I supposed to?” She asked back, noticing Jess’ expression.

Jess shook her head, “No, it’s cool,” She answered.

Stephen cleared his throat, “Good Charlotte?” He asked her, trying to remember more bands that he knew that came from Baltimore, or at least Maryland.

“Saw them once,” Addie simply answered.

“Addie,” Dan opened the door, “Can I talk to you for a while?” He asked.

Thankful that she didn’t have to talk to them anymore, she nodded before standing up. She followed Dan out of the room and closed the door softly behind her, “Thank you for saving me from that situation.”

That’s when she noticed Dan wasn’t happy, or at least he didn’t look like he was happy. She noticed her memory card in his right hand and realized she was in trouble, there must be something wrong.

She started biting her bottom lip, not bold enough to look at Dan, instead her eyes were glued on her shoes. Was she nervous? Yes, she was more nervous that words could ever describe.

“Addie, what are these?” He held up her memory card, his tone was degrading and it scared her. She thought of answering, but she realized it was a rhetorical question.
Addie stayed silent, too afraid to look up. She told herself not to cry, why would she?

Everything was fine; it wasn’t like he was going to kill her, right? She scolded herself for being so negative in her head.

“Addie, this is a memory card, and after looking through it for a while, I have a question for you,” He said slowly, “Where did your talents go?” He asked her.

Her head snapped up, she didn’t even think she had talents to begin with. “You’re a very talented person, Addie, you can do much better than this, what were you thinking about during The Cab’s set?”

She was speechless; she had never been through anything like this before. She was a freelance photographer and everyone praised her work all the time. After a few seconds, she finally found her voice, “The crowd.”

“Addie, ignore the crowd, if you keep being like this there’s no way I will accept you to Motion Army, understood?”

“Yes,” Her voice was barely a whisper, she was afraid she was going to cry if she spoke louder.

He noted the change in her tone and pulled her into a hug, “Come on, don’t cry just because of that, you’re awesome and you know that,” He told her, “You’re going to face even meaner critics than mine someday, and don’t get used to it but don’t cry because of it, yeah?”

She nodded weakly as he let her go. She wiped her tears from her eyes, “Thanks, Dan,” She said with a small smile.

“What are friends for?”

“You’re my friend?”

“Don’t push it, kid,” He ruffled her hair, “So you were in a conversation with Stephen and Jess?” He smiled at her, happy that she was socializing.

“They tried to involve me in the conversation,” Addie shrugged, feeling a little guilty for ruining Dan’s expectations. She was sorry she wasn’t sorry but he couldn’t expect her to just go socialize.

“Addie,” Dan started, “enjoy this tour, okay? That’s the whole point of touring, having the time of your life, carpe diem,” He told her, trying to sound wise. However, he looked funny in her eyes when he said those words; he was never the serious one.

“They’re so forward, Dan, I don’t like it,” She sighed. She was complaining and her reason didn’t make sense but it was just something that Addie never liked.

“They’re nice people and they’re just trying to be friendly. You can stop acting like a-“

“Hi Dan, hi Addie,” John greeted, cutting them off before he got into the dressing room. Dan and Addie exchanged looks while Addie smiled, happy that she had proven a point.

“Can you be more childish?”

“You’re not mature, you know,” She pointed out.

He sighed, “Just help me with these things I have to take care of, then I’ll consider not calling you childish,” He said before shoving her slightly to the direction of the exit.

“Hey! No shoving!”

“No complaining,” He laughed as they walked to their van.