Take Your Time

January 13th, 2012
Las Vegas, NV

Listing down the things she’d need, Addie listened to the audio book of The Son of Neptune. She had listened to the book dozens of times, read it a hundred more, she always liked repeating something she liked. Her reading list had always been a foot long –or more, she had no idea. Why she was listening to a children’s book was another question she couldn’t answer.

She packed extra memory cards and she brought her chargers in her bag. She made sure her phone had five bars, her camera and laptop had full battery, along with her iPod. She wasn’t going to repeat the mistakes she made yesterday.

She tucked her postman bag before starting her way down the hall to the elevator, stumbling upon Brian on her way. After last night, she really couldn’t act not friendly towards him. Besides, she was in a pretty good mood. She unplugged her earphones and greeted him,
“Hi.” She quietly said.

“Oh hey Adds, are you going to enjoy Vegas or are you going to be the buzzkill like last night?” Brian teased her. The night before, she basically kept Brian and Dan in line, they were the designated drivers along with Ryan Sweeney.

Ah, yes, Ryan Sweeney. He liked that Addie didn’t drink, it was great to have someone talk to her, someone that actually understood the reasons why she didn’t drink. Nice guy, he was, and she liked him, or at least his ways.

“I’m going to be responsible, thanks.” She replied with a small smile. She paused the audio book on her iPod, knowing that she will probably be in a conversation with Brian, she didn’t want to lose her bookmark.

He raised his eyebrows, “Responsible? You shoved Stephen twice.” He said as if it was the worst thing she could ever do. Of course, she knew it wasn’t, she had to do it, she had no choice.

She shrugged, “He deserved it, you’re not getting me to apologize.” She looked at him, her eyes were hard. Just for a second, he could see the stubborn side of her that Dan told him about last night. He quietly wondered if he’d ever see the full stubborn side of her, the wild one, during tour.

He raised his hands in defense, “I’m not trying to, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He backed away as they got out of the elevator. “I’m just saying that you shoved him twice, pointing out.”

“Well I don’t see the point in you pointing that fact out.” She stuck her iPod into the pocket of her coat. They spotted Jess, Stephen, and Godsey in the distance; they were sitting around with an acoustic guitar in Stephen’s hands. God knew what they were doing.

Brian walked over to them and Addie followed suit, she couldn’t think of anything better to do. It was at least eleven o’clock, but she was pretty sure the three just got out of bed, judging from the state of their hair. She gave them a half-hearted smile, uneasy with the fact that she shoved Stephen twice last night.

“Hey, do any of you have a pick?” That was the first thing that Godsey asked them. Addie reached into her pocket and felt the guitar pick John gave her a few nights ago. She got it out and handed it to the My Girl Friday vocalist quietly. “Thank you, Addie.” He smiled at her.

“John gave me that.”

“Sentimental value?”

“...ish.” She tucked a strand of loose hair behind her air, still looking at her lap. She felt weird that they were sitting cross legged in a hotel lobby in a circle and Stephen had a guitar in his hands. She watched as Godsey gave Stephen the pick.

Can this group get any weirder?

“Say a random Ryan Adams song in three, two-“

“We should go, now.” Sinclair said behind Addie. They all looked at his direction and he had his arms crossed in front of his chest. At this point, she saw him as a... villain? She wasn’t sure, but he practically stopped them from playing some Ryan Adams, no one should do that.

However, she didn’t show how upset she was, unlike Godsey and Stephen who had a scowl on their faces. “You can do it at the venue.” Jess suggested, knowing that her friends were a little pissed off.

Addie scrunched her nose in disgust, she thought they haven’t taken a bath yet. She sure hoped they didn’t notice how disgusted she looked because that would be bad, really bad.

Stephen finally sighed, “Fine.” He got up, followed by everyone else. “Here’s your sentimental pick.” He handed her the pick he got earlier from her. It was hard not to take his words sarcastically with the scowl on his face.

She received the pick with a hard look in her eyes, she wasn’t taking any of that sarcasm, oh no. “Oh,” she answered. It was a short answer, certainly not long enough for him to assume things.

“Sorry, sorry.” Just as she was about to follow everyone, hopefully talk to Brian again, he stopped her. “I shouldn’t have said it like that, I’m sorry about yesterday night, I probably scared you being like that.” He gave her a small crooked smile. “You did shove me twice, though.”

“Everyone keeps bringing up that,” she muttered under her breath. “I guess it’s okay...” she trailed off. She caught the look he was giving her, like he was expecting her to continue her sentence, she sighed. “It’s fine, and you deserved it so we’re even.”

“I’m glad we are, thanks for worrying about Godsey and I.” They walked to the vans. It surprised her that he was actually talking to her. She had seen him talk to everyone else, of course, but she thought he liked how she was quiet.

She nodded, “Yeah.”

No other words were uttered from either of them as they walked to their separate vans, and Addie liked it like that. She got into Motion Army’s van, finding that Dan was already there. He was waiting for her, it seemed. “Hi there, Adds.”

“Hi there, Dan.” The young woman replied in the same tone as her mentor’s.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” he looked at her in the passenger seat. He had that look on his face that told her he won’t stop before she gave him an explanation.

Addie shrugged, “Not in a good mood, just relatively better than yesterday,” she answered, “Game of Thrones makes me happy, and Ryan Adams, two things that happened to me in the last twelve hours.”

“Ryan Adams?”

“Stephen, Godsey and the others almost played it if it weren’t for Sinclair.”
Dan’s mouth formed an ‘o’, “I thought you met Ryan Adams,” he muttered. She could hear a little bit of disappointment in his voice, and she understood that. “What have you packed for today? This will be a long one.” He started driving.

She opened her postman bag, “Camera, laptop, iPod, phone, fully charged. Oh, I brought chargers.” She listed down as she looked into her bag.

“Good, I’m going to need those because I didn’t.” He grinned as he drove.

She rolled her eyes, “And he’s the mentor,” she muttered.

“I could be serious but I’m just kidding around.” Addie watched across the room as Godsey and Stephen sang Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell. She was so tempted to sing along even though she knew she didn’t sound as good at Godsey and she had no idea how to play guitar unlike Stephen. However, she only watched them as the other people in the room hold conversations and some hum along to Stephen’s guitar.

They were in the dressing room and everyone was really happy about Vegas, they were planning things to do after the show and Addie couldn’t care less. No matter what they’ll do, she’ll be stuck following anyway, or maybe she’ll find her own thing to do like chill at the hotel. Yes, that’d be lovely.

“Try Come Home.” The words came out of her mouth before she could even think of her words. What she didn’t realize was, she said that right after Stephen asked everyone what they should play. Everyone was looking at her and she scolded herself in her head for saying that out loud. Come Home will forever be her favorite song from Ashes & Fire, and she just wanted to know if Godsey and Stephen could do it justice.

To her surprise, Stephen patted the spot beside him, telling her to sit. She was unsure until Godsey spoke up, “Only if you sing with us,” he told her. He had this persistent look on his face she wondered if there was anyone on this tour who was not stubborn.

She stood up reluctantly and made her way across the room; taking a seat beside Stephen. She didn’t say anything, she was actually waiting for either of them to say something. When no one did, and all of the others have started their own conversation, she spoke, “I’m not singing.”

“Fine,” said Godsey, “it’s always okay to join in, though.” He smiled at her as Stephen started playing the intro of Come Home. She watched him as he started nodding to the music coming from Stephen’s guitar.

Addie couldn’t help but hum along to Godsey’s voice. Of course, she liked Ryan Adams’ voice better but Godsey’s voice did the song justice, in her opinion, Stephen did too. The bassist didn’t sing anything, but at least he could play guitar, she couldn’t play any musical instrument.

“As the years grow longer I will be here by your side,” she softly sang. Her voice was so quiet, no one heard her but apparently Stephen read her lips because he glanced at her for a second. “Ashes to dust and stone by stone, forever I will be your love.” Her voice was even softer now, and she looked down so her hair covered her face.

“Come home.” Godsey ended the song.

“You’ve been playing Ryan Adams for the last fifteen minutes, seriously.” Singer said.
According to Marshall two nights before, Singer was more of a pop kind of guy, and Addie was pretty happy because she was sure Singer won’t judge her for her taste in music, unlike everyone else on this tour.

“We play Ryan Adams, bitches love Ryan Adams.” Stephen laughed.

Godsey looked at Addie, “What song, Adds?” He asked, as if it was all up to her.

She frowned, “Why me?” She asked back. It was obvious that she was confused. She didn’t take part in any of the singing and she didn’t play the guitar; well, she sang a little but that’s beside the point.

“Because we were a jerk to you last night and we feel bad...” Stephen trailed off, “and Dan told us that we should apologize to you or he will do something bad to us, Dan’s a big guy.” A grin crept to his face.

“Funny way of apologizing.” She gave him a half-hearted smile.

“Let us see your iPod and we’ll see what we can do.” Stephen held out his hand, waiting for her to put her iPod in his hand, “You do have an iPod, right?”

She reached into her pocket, but she was still looking at him. She didn’t pull out her iPod, she only held it in her pocket, “Yes, but no, you’re not allowed to touch it.” She was afraid that if she showed them her iPod, they will criticize her music taste, she never liked it when people do that.

She slowly pulled out her iPod out of her pocket, but she was holding it tightly. She watched as Stephen sighed, “Can we just do Chains of Love or something Eric Church?” He asked to no one in particular.

“No,” came Brian and Singer’s answer. Singer, in particular, was sick of country songs even though he liked them, who doesn’t like Ryan Adams? But then again, he was more of a pop fan.

Just when Addie paid a little attention to Brian and Singer, Godsey snatched her iPod from her hand, making her protest. “Hey!” She said, her voice was quite loud and it made Marshall chuckle, probably because she was putting down her walls again.

Godsey scrolled down the artists list on her iPod, all the while shaking his head. “You can’t just put Cher Lloyd in the same iPod as Ryan Adams, why do you even have One Direction?” He looked up from the screen of her iPod.

She flushed in embarrassment as Stephen leaned over to Godsey to confirm his friend’s words. “One Direction? You do have One Direction, what must we do with you?” The bassist frowned at her.

She facepalmed before saying, “Let’s do Ed Sheeran okay? Let’s do Ed Sheeran.” She reached over and took her iPod from their hands.

Godsey and Stephen were still looking at her like she was some lunatic, and she didn’t like that. “One does not simply put Ryan Adams and Skrillex and Jason Derulo and One Direction in one iPod,” Stephen said.

“Oh, so you have a right to dictate me now?” She asked in a snappy tone. She just couldn’t take it anymore, no one should try to dictate her because she’s taken enough of that from her mom and her brother.

“No, but you can’t just do that, Addie, how can someone with a good enough music taste to like Wilco and Ryan Adams like mainstream shit like Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj?” He said again, and he was getting on her nerves now.

“Because I have a right. You’re such a... a dictator of taste, yeah, that’s the right term. It’s in the Declaration of Human Rights, but I guess you’re not smart enough to read it are you?” She returned his insulting tone.

He rolled his eyes, “Listen, just because you’re Miss Perfect who thinks you’re much better than anyone here doesn’t mean you are.”

She sent him a glare but before she could say anything else, Marshall spoke up, “Hey, hey, come on, everyone has a unique taste in music.” He was happy that Addie was speaking, but he wasn’t very fond of the fact that they were arguing, and it was getting a little personal.

Both Addie and Stephen didn’t look like they were ready to let their arguments go, but they shut their mouths anyway. That’s when Godsey tried to solve the tension, “Was that a Gossip Girl reference?” Addie raised an eyebrow at him and he tried to elaborate his question, “Dictator of taste, that’s what Dan called Blair.”

“Yeah.”

“Just sing an Ed Sheeran song,” Singer said. Everyone else didn’t seem to realize that they were even arguing, and Addie didn’t blame them, she was happy that they didn’t, to be honest.

“Who the fuck is Ed Sheeran?” Stephen asked, he sounded a little irritated and honestly? She was too. However, she resisted the urge to explain who Ed Sheeran is and kept her mouth shut.

That’s when she caught Marshall’s look, he looked like he was actually liking this, the fact that she may have blown up just a few minutes ago. He was proven right, that she was just trying too hard. And then she noticed Dan entering the room, and she couldn’t read his expression. Still, she didn’t want to disappoint him, this was expected from her by her mentor, she was in an environment she didn’t know, with people she didn’t like, under pressure she didn’t need.

She sighed, “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, just loud enough for Stephen to hear.

She held her breath as he looked at her weirdly. “Well, I’m not.”

“Fine, be the immature one.” She said coldly. She apologized, seriously, even when it was obviously his fault! She couldn’t believe she’d be stuck with this guy for the rest of the tour!

“You can be bipolar at times, you know?”

“One Direction is actually pretty good, you know?”

“They’re stupid.”

“And you’re not?”

“I liked it better when you were shy and semi-mute.”

“They always do.” She gave him a half-hearted smile.