Status: Active! Still unsure of how long this story will turn out to be, but the next chapter is on it's way! -Brittney
The Times We Felt Alive
We've Got More Than We Know
Alex and Rian headed over to my house at about 5:30.
“Guess what!” Alex excitedly yelled when he ran into my house. I retreated downstairs, holding my grey Vans. Rian cautiously walked in behind him.
“What! And hey Rian,” I responded, sitting down on the stairs to put on my shoes.
“We’ve completed some of our merch! Vinny’s handling the shirts, and we’ve got two designs tonight. How great is that?” Alex was basically jumping up and down.
“Haha, that’s great, guys! How much? I’ll wear one for sure.”
“They’re 5. But you don’t need to buy one. We can get you one for free.”
“Alex, you don’t have to do that.”
“It’s no big deal! Seriously, you’re fine.” Alex smiled. Rian snickered behind him.
“Well Alex, you might as well buy it for her, you’re gonna start buying her things anyways,” Rian teased as he put his arm around him.
“What?” Alex and I both asked at the same time.
Rian laughed. “Noothin’.”
My mother appeared at the top of the stairs. “Oh! I didn’t hear you guys come in!” She walked down the stairs. “How is everybody?”
I introduced her to Rian, and took note of the time. “Blake! Let’s go! We’ve gotta get Vinny!” I yelled up the stairs.
Soon we were all together in my mom’s van, rocking out to Avenged Sevenfold. It’s Blake’s favorite band, so of course it was blasting. We were all pretty cramped; Vinny had about 10 boxes full of shirts stacked all over the car, Alex’s guitar, and some pieces to Rian’s drum set. Thank god the guys dropped off most of the drumset earlier today. Vinny excitedly gave me a free shirt, to ‘advertise’. By the time we got to the park, already a few people had shown up. Blake went to help out Vinny with the merch. The night was cool for November, but a warm breeze promised a good night.
“I guess I’ll see ya on stage,” I said to Alex.
“Yeeeah! Not gonna lie, I’m kinda nervous.”
“Don’t be.”
“I dunno, Tiff, it’s been a while.”
“Alex! You’re gonna be fine! I promise. Just have fun with it.” I assured him.
“Alright, I’ll try. Haha…”
Jack came out of nowhere and tackled us. “Ya’ll ready!?”
“Fuck yeah!” Alex high fived him.
Jack looked at me. “Aw shit! The shirts look awesome! I gotta go get one!” Jack glanced over to the merch and started that way.
A voice came from behind. “Hey, Jack! Alex! Let’s go, we gotta do a quick sound check.” Zack approached us. “Hey, Tiffany.”
“How are ya, Zack?”
Jack came back. “Aww, I need a shirt. Will you grab me one, Tiff? Medium. Thanks, love ya!” He hugged me. “See ya later!”
“See you in a few,” Alex told me. We kinda stood there for a second, then Alex opened his arms awkwardly and I leaned in to hug him. I laughed at the weird hug.
“Bye, Alex. Good luck guys!” I said as they walked away.
For a bit I hung around the merch table with Blake and Vinny, but eventually was shooed out to advertise the shirts some more. I also found Manda, Jennifer, Amber and a few other girls to hang out with by the stage. So far, they weren’t bad at all. They actually drew quite the crowd, I bet about three quarters of the whole school was here. For now, they covered a bunch of Blink songs, Yellowcard, New Found Glory…
Watching Alex, I could not believe he was nervous. That stage belonged to him. He treated the crowd as his best friends; even if he was looking at the people he hated the most. Zack was collected and strumming all the right notes, Rian banging and smiling widely throughout every song, and Jack just went wild and danced and jumped and screamed. They looked like a true band.
The crowd was so into it. I was into it. Blake ended up next to me in the crowd and I got on his back. More people started giving and getting piggy back rides and singing along and having a great time.
It was near 7:30 when they started playing the last couple songs. Alex went to the mic. “These last couple songs are ones we wrote that are gonna be on our ep that we’re working on now,” A bunch of people (including me, Blake and the girls) screamed ‘yeahs’ and ‘woos’ at this, “Haha you know it! Anyways, this is the first time we’ve released anything we’ve created to the public, so we hope you guys dig it! This first one’s called ‘Next Best Thing.’”
The guys seemed so focused on this, Jack and started out with Blink 182 styled notes, Rian was going crazy, but it looked like he was having the most fun performing this.
“Go!” Alex yelled. He was energetic as ever. He jumped around and clapped. “I'm looking forward to another day without you, the way I see it you could never do what I do. I welcomed you with open arms; you drove the knife right through my heart…” He sang it with a different intensity than with songs not created by them, he closed his eyes and it felt more original. Everyone loved it. We jumped and danced and sang the lyrics we remembered from past choruses and verses. During the song, Lisa, whom I haven’t seen all night, appeared from the front and trudged back through the crowd. She nudged me, hard, and looked angry. Honestly, the song sounded like it was about her. But I didn’t let myself think of it, there’s no way he felt absolutely terribly about anything, at least for now. All I knew is he was trying to get everyone feel the music as much as possible, along with Zack, Jack, and Rian.
Their final song was called ‘Last Flight Home.’ It was about them being ready to move on as a band, in the real world. It felt really emotionally strong, and I guessed it was because of Alex’s family life not being so great. Nonetheless, it was a great way to finish the concert.
It was 8:30 by the time we were headed back to Zack’s. I sat with Alex in the back as we drove, we were laughing so hard over the dumbest of things, blasting music, and having a great time. Zack’s house was huge. It was three stories high, and gorgeous. It was up on the top of the hill like the school; just no where’s near it. It overlooked East Baltimore, and tonight it looked beautiful.
“Alex… I’m kinda nervous.” I said as we got out of the car and walked up the house.
“Gaah, you’ll be fine. Just be yourself.” Alex assured me, eyes sparkling. The look in his eyes calmed me.
Jack ran up ahead of us and to the house, threw open the door and ran in screaming. Everyone inside raised their red plastic cups and laughed and cheered him on.
Alex grabbed my hand, taking me off guard. “C’mon!” He looked at me, grinning from ear to ear. He ran ahead of me, pulling me along. I let my smile flood my face and ran along with him, laughing.
The room was packed with people, probably more than twice the amount at the park. Pretty much everyone was holding a red plastic cup. There were people sitting on the couch playing spin the bottle, people playing beer pong, people making out in the corners and people grinding intensely to the music blasting. Everyone cheered when Alex walked in.
Zack and a guy I’ve seen around school walked up to us and handed us each a cup. “Make yourselves at home, guys. Alex knows the deal.” Zack nodded to him happily.
The blonde haired boy that I’ve never met turned to me. “You’re Tiffany, the new girl, right?”
I smiled and nodded.
He looked me up and down. I faltered and hoped to death my tits weren’t hanging out of the bralet I was wearing. He smiled and stuck out his hand. “I’m Robert. So uh, you and Gaskarth a thing?” He winked at me and Alex, eyes trailing down to our still intertwined hands. Alex jumped and I quickly pulled away. I felt my face grow hot as I shook his hand.
“Nice to meet you,” I told Robert, “and we’re not, haha.” I nervously added.
“Rob, you know Alex has a girlfriend.” Zack reminded him.
“Yeah well, what else do you expect when a guy walks in holding some chick’s hand and his girlfriend is nowhere to be found?” Rob shot back.
“Woah bro, we’re just friends. Chill out.” Alex furrowed his brows angrily.
“I get it!” Robert held up his hands. “But Lisa is pissed at you, if you didn’t notice.”
“Thanks, but I can handle my girlfriend by myself. I don’t need any messengers.” Alex glared at Rob.
Rob moved closer to Alex. He had muscles the size of his head, but wasn’t much taller than him. He glared down at Alex. “Listen, pretty boy. I heard what that song was about, and I swear to god, if you hurt her, you’re gonna have to deal with me.”
Alex stared at this guy with hatred in his eyes. He balled his free hand into a fist, and before he could spat something back, Zack stepped between them. “Come on guys, don’t do this.”
I grabbed Alex’s arm. “Yeah. Let it go, Alex. C’mon.” his body was tense, and he exchanged death glares with Rob as we walked away. “What the fuck was that?” I asked him once we got to the other side of the living room.
He took a sip out of his cup and looked away. “Nothing. He’s just a dickhead and likes to get his nose in everybody’s fucking business. Seriously, he doesn’t know shit about my relationships or the lyrics I write. And I almost said something when I saw him look at you like that.”
“Yeah, that was kinda a dick move. He seems like a total douche.”
“Seriously, he just thinks he’s big shit because his dad’s the coach of the football team and he got quarterback because of that. He’s also Lisa’s best friend, so he thinks he’s gotta know every little detail of our relationship and be involved in it.” Alex lifted his cup and gulped the rest of it down.
I took a sip of mine. It was beer. “Sorry to hear that, man. There’s always the kid like that, no matter where you go…”
Jack ran up to us. “Heeey you guys! What’s up with the sad faces?” He was already tipsy. Typical Jack.
“Little fucker Rob called me out on Lisa again.”
“Ugh, what’s up with him lately! Why does he care so much about you and Lisa?!” Jack threw up his hands.
“I dunno man, but I swear to god I’m sick of letting him walk all over me. I think I’m gonna flip shit next time he says something.”
“Hey, just be careful. He can throw a mean punch and he’d snap you like a twig.”
“Look who’s talkin’.” Alex pointed out. I laughed.
“Heeey! I’m not the one who’s pissed!” Jack laughed. “Anyways, let’s go talk to those guys over on the couch.”
Rian, Bridget, Jennifer, Vinny, and two kids I didn’t know(one had dark brown hair and the other light brown) were all sitting and talking.
“What’s up, guys?” Alex asked. He looked at one of the two guys curiously. Alex then broke out into a huge smile.
The dark haired one stood up. “Sup, baby?” The dark haired one joked. Alex laughed and the guys hugged.
“Marcus Green. I haven’t seen you since Battle of the Bands! How the hell are ya?” Alex socialized and sat down. He gestured for me to sit next to him. “Oh and, this is Tiffany Kampbell. She just moved here from Massachusetts about 2 weeks ago. Tiff, this is Marcus!”
I shook hands with Marcus. “Nice to meet you!”
The attractive boy’s green eyes sparkled. “You too!” He smiled. “And I’ve been alright, Skyline’s not doing too great though.”
“Skyline?” I curiously asked.
“The band he’s in, we went up against them at that Battle of the Bands over in Lutherville.” Alex informed me. “And that sucks, man, you guys were pretty great. What happened?”
“Well, Ricky left, and we were just so goddamned busy that we decided to take a break for a while. I guess I’m cool with it; I can always start back up somehow.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“So how are you and Lisa doing?” Marcus emphasized on Lisa’s name and waggled his eyebrows.
“We’ve been better, haha. I actually need to go find her. She’s mad at me, again.” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’ll be right back, alright?” He stood and left.
Marcus scooched closer to me. “So, you’re from Massachusetts?”
Marcus and I talked, he was really comfortable meeting new people. This relaxed me a bit, because I barely knew anyone here. He’s the drummer in the band Skyline, or was, he lives in Lutherville, and he’s a Senior. Him and Alex became close friends after that BOTB.
I was talking with Marcus for a good 10 minutes, and I was just starting to feel a little tipsy. Jack, on the other hand, was going nuts. He was already drunk, his shirt was tied up in the front, and if he wasn’t dancing on tables or mixing drinks he found in Zack’s kitchen, he was sucking faces with girls dressed like prostitutes.
My thoughts were disrupted by a sudden crash on the other side of the room.
“Guess what!” Alex excitedly yelled when he ran into my house. I retreated downstairs, holding my grey Vans. Rian cautiously walked in behind him.
“What! And hey Rian,” I responded, sitting down on the stairs to put on my shoes.
“We’ve completed some of our merch! Vinny’s handling the shirts, and we’ve got two designs tonight. How great is that?” Alex was basically jumping up and down.
“Haha, that’s great, guys! How much? I’ll wear one for sure.”
“They’re 5. But you don’t need to buy one. We can get you one for free.”
“Alex, you don’t have to do that.”
“It’s no big deal! Seriously, you’re fine.” Alex smiled. Rian snickered behind him.
“Well Alex, you might as well buy it for her, you’re gonna start buying her things anyways,” Rian teased as he put his arm around him.
“What?” Alex and I both asked at the same time.
Rian laughed. “Noothin’.”
My mother appeared at the top of the stairs. “Oh! I didn’t hear you guys come in!” She walked down the stairs. “How is everybody?”
I introduced her to Rian, and took note of the time. “Blake! Let’s go! We’ve gotta get Vinny!” I yelled up the stairs.
Soon we were all together in my mom’s van, rocking out to Avenged Sevenfold. It’s Blake’s favorite band, so of course it was blasting. We were all pretty cramped; Vinny had about 10 boxes full of shirts stacked all over the car, Alex’s guitar, and some pieces to Rian’s drum set. Thank god the guys dropped off most of the drumset earlier today. Vinny excitedly gave me a free shirt, to ‘advertise’. By the time we got to the park, already a few people had shown up. Blake went to help out Vinny with the merch. The night was cool for November, but a warm breeze promised a good night.
“I guess I’ll see ya on stage,” I said to Alex.
“Yeeeah! Not gonna lie, I’m kinda nervous.”
“Don’t be.”
“I dunno, Tiff, it’s been a while.”
“Alex! You’re gonna be fine! I promise. Just have fun with it.” I assured him.
“Alright, I’ll try. Haha…”
Jack came out of nowhere and tackled us. “Ya’ll ready!?”
“Fuck yeah!” Alex high fived him.
Jack looked at me. “Aw shit! The shirts look awesome! I gotta go get one!” Jack glanced over to the merch and started that way.
A voice came from behind. “Hey, Jack! Alex! Let’s go, we gotta do a quick sound check.” Zack approached us. “Hey, Tiffany.”
“How are ya, Zack?”
Jack came back. “Aww, I need a shirt. Will you grab me one, Tiff? Medium. Thanks, love ya!” He hugged me. “See ya later!”
“See you in a few,” Alex told me. We kinda stood there for a second, then Alex opened his arms awkwardly and I leaned in to hug him. I laughed at the weird hug.
“Bye, Alex. Good luck guys!” I said as they walked away.
For a bit I hung around the merch table with Blake and Vinny, but eventually was shooed out to advertise the shirts some more. I also found Manda, Jennifer, Amber and a few other girls to hang out with by the stage. So far, they weren’t bad at all. They actually drew quite the crowd, I bet about three quarters of the whole school was here. For now, they covered a bunch of Blink songs, Yellowcard, New Found Glory…
Watching Alex, I could not believe he was nervous. That stage belonged to him. He treated the crowd as his best friends; even if he was looking at the people he hated the most. Zack was collected and strumming all the right notes, Rian banging and smiling widely throughout every song, and Jack just went wild and danced and jumped and screamed. They looked like a true band.
The crowd was so into it. I was into it. Blake ended up next to me in the crowd and I got on his back. More people started giving and getting piggy back rides and singing along and having a great time.
It was near 7:30 when they started playing the last couple songs. Alex went to the mic. “These last couple songs are ones we wrote that are gonna be on our ep that we’re working on now,” A bunch of people (including me, Blake and the girls) screamed ‘yeahs’ and ‘woos’ at this, “Haha you know it! Anyways, this is the first time we’ve released anything we’ve created to the public, so we hope you guys dig it! This first one’s called ‘Next Best Thing.’”
The guys seemed so focused on this, Jack and started out with Blink 182 styled notes, Rian was going crazy, but it looked like he was having the most fun performing this.
“Go!” Alex yelled. He was energetic as ever. He jumped around and clapped. “I'm looking forward to another day without you, the way I see it you could never do what I do. I welcomed you with open arms; you drove the knife right through my heart…” He sang it with a different intensity than with songs not created by them, he closed his eyes and it felt more original. Everyone loved it. We jumped and danced and sang the lyrics we remembered from past choruses and verses. During the song, Lisa, whom I haven’t seen all night, appeared from the front and trudged back through the crowd. She nudged me, hard, and looked angry. Honestly, the song sounded like it was about her. But I didn’t let myself think of it, there’s no way he felt absolutely terribly about anything, at least for now. All I knew is he was trying to get everyone feel the music as much as possible, along with Zack, Jack, and Rian.
Their final song was called ‘Last Flight Home.’ It was about them being ready to move on as a band, in the real world. It felt really emotionally strong, and I guessed it was because of Alex’s family life not being so great. Nonetheless, it was a great way to finish the concert.
It was 8:30 by the time we were headed back to Zack’s. I sat with Alex in the back as we drove, we were laughing so hard over the dumbest of things, blasting music, and having a great time. Zack’s house was huge. It was three stories high, and gorgeous. It was up on the top of the hill like the school; just no where’s near it. It overlooked East Baltimore, and tonight it looked beautiful.
“Alex… I’m kinda nervous.” I said as we got out of the car and walked up the house.
“Gaah, you’ll be fine. Just be yourself.” Alex assured me, eyes sparkling. The look in his eyes calmed me.
Jack ran up ahead of us and to the house, threw open the door and ran in screaming. Everyone inside raised their red plastic cups and laughed and cheered him on.
Alex grabbed my hand, taking me off guard. “C’mon!” He looked at me, grinning from ear to ear. He ran ahead of me, pulling me along. I let my smile flood my face and ran along with him, laughing.
The room was packed with people, probably more than twice the amount at the park. Pretty much everyone was holding a red plastic cup. There were people sitting on the couch playing spin the bottle, people playing beer pong, people making out in the corners and people grinding intensely to the music blasting. Everyone cheered when Alex walked in.
Zack and a guy I’ve seen around school walked up to us and handed us each a cup. “Make yourselves at home, guys. Alex knows the deal.” Zack nodded to him happily.
The blonde haired boy that I’ve never met turned to me. “You’re Tiffany, the new girl, right?”
I smiled and nodded.
He looked me up and down. I faltered and hoped to death my tits weren’t hanging out of the bralet I was wearing. He smiled and stuck out his hand. “I’m Robert. So uh, you and Gaskarth a thing?” He winked at me and Alex, eyes trailing down to our still intertwined hands. Alex jumped and I quickly pulled away. I felt my face grow hot as I shook his hand.
“Nice to meet you,” I told Robert, “and we’re not, haha.” I nervously added.
“Rob, you know Alex has a girlfriend.” Zack reminded him.
“Yeah well, what else do you expect when a guy walks in holding some chick’s hand and his girlfriend is nowhere to be found?” Rob shot back.
“Woah bro, we’re just friends. Chill out.” Alex furrowed his brows angrily.
“I get it!” Robert held up his hands. “But Lisa is pissed at you, if you didn’t notice.”
“Thanks, but I can handle my girlfriend by myself. I don’t need any messengers.” Alex glared at Rob.
Rob moved closer to Alex. He had muscles the size of his head, but wasn’t much taller than him. He glared down at Alex. “Listen, pretty boy. I heard what that song was about, and I swear to god, if you hurt her, you’re gonna have to deal with me.”
Alex stared at this guy with hatred in his eyes. He balled his free hand into a fist, and before he could spat something back, Zack stepped between them. “Come on guys, don’t do this.”
I grabbed Alex’s arm. “Yeah. Let it go, Alex. C’mon.” his body was tense, and he exchanged death glares with Rob as we walked away. “What the fuck was that?” I asked him once we got to the other side of the living room.
He took a sip out of his cup and looked away. “Nothing. He’s just a dickhead and likes to get his nose in everybody’s fucking business. Seriously, he doesn’t know shit about my relationships or the lyrics I write. And I almost said something when I saw him look at you like that.”
“Yeah, that was kinda a dick move. He seems like a total douche.”
“Seriously, he just thinks he’s big shit because his dad’s the coach of the football team and he got quarterback because of that. He’s also Lisa’s best friend, so he thinks he’s gotta know every little detail of our relationship and be involved in it.” Alex lifted his cup and gulped the rest of it down.
I took a sip of mine. It was beer. “Sorry to hear that, man. There’s always the kid like that, no matter where you go…”
Jack ran up to us. “Heeey you guys! What’s up with the sad faces?” He was already tipsy. Typical Jack.
“Little fucker Rob called me out on Lisa again.”
“Ugh, what’s up with him lately! Why does he care so much about you and Lisa?!” Jack threw up his hands.
“I dunno man, but I swear to god I’m sick of letting him walk all over me. I think I’m gonna flip shit next time he says something.”
“Hey, just be careful. He can throw a mean punch and he’d snap you like a twig.”
“Look who’s talkin’.” Alex pointed out. I laughed.
“Heeey! I’m not the one who’s pissed!” Jack laughed. “Anyways, let’s go talk to those guys over on the couch.”
Rian, Bridget, Jennifer, Vinny, and two kids I didn’t know(one had dark brown hair and the other light brown) were all sitting and talking.
“What’s up, guys?” Alex asked. He looked at one of the two guys curiously. Alex then broke out into a huge smile.
The dark haired one stood up. “Sup, baby?” The dark haired one joked. Alex laughed and the guys hugged.
“Marcus Green. I haven’t seen you since Battle of the Bands! How the hell are ya?” Alex socialized and sat down. He gestured for me to sit next to him. “Oh and, this is Tiffany Kampbell. She just moved here from Massachusetts about 2 weeks ago. Tiff, this is Marcus!”
I shook hands with Marcus. “Nice to meet you!”
The attractive boy’s green eyes sparkled. “You too!” He smiled. “And I’ve been alright, Skyline’s not doing too great though.”
“Skyline?” I curiously asked.
“The band he’s in, we went up against them at that Battle of the Bands over in Lutherville.” Alex informed me. “And that sucks, man, you guys were pretty great. What happened?”
“Well, Ricky left, and we were just so goddamned busy that we decided to take a break for a while. I guess I’m cool with it; I can always start back up somehow.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“So how are you and Lisa doing?” Marcus emphasized on Lisa’s name and waggled his eyebrows.
“We’ve been better, haha. I actually need to go find her. She’s mad at me, again.” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’ll be right back, alright?” He stood and left.
Marcus scooched closer to me. “So, you’re from Massachusetts?”
Marcus and I talked, he was really comfortable meeting new people. This relaxed me a bit, because I barely knew anyone here. He’s the drummer in the band Skyline, or was, he lives in Lutherville, and he’s a Senior. Him and Alex became close friends after that BOTB.
I was talking with Marcus for a good 10 minutes, and I was just starting to feel a little tipsy. Jack, on the other hand, was going nuts. He was already drunk, his shirt was tied up in the front, and if he wasn’t dancing on tables or mixing drinks he found in Zack’s kitchen, he was sucking faces with girls dressed like prostitutes.
My thoughts were disrupted by a sudden crash on the other side of the room.