You Put the Truth Back in My Smile

“Are we there yet?” James whined from the backseat.

“Oh my god if you ask one more time James I’m going to come back there and strangle you with your own shoelaces.” I spat turning around and glaring at my cousin.

“Damn…someone’s in a mood.” he replied.

“Yeah well…your face!” I said.

“Nice comeback Charlie.” James smirked.

Annoyed past the point of self control I quickly undid my seatbelt and lunged at my cousin through the seats and began to slap at him. He only hesitated a split second before doing the same until we were wrestling in the backseat.

“Hey! What the fuck are you two doing?!? Cut it out!!! Dammit!!” I heard Aimee yell and a moment later felt a sting on my leg.

“Ow! What the fuck?” I asked and scrambled off of top of James just as he cried out and I saw that she held a green flyswatter.

“Where in god’s name did you get a flyswatter?!?” I asked.

“Your aunt, James‘s Mom.” she replied as she put it on the seat next to her.

“Wait…is that the one that she used to keep in the car when I was a kid?” James asked.

“Yeah. I ran into her at the store the other day and told her that the three of us were going on a road trip together and she had me follow her to the car so she could give me that. She said that you two used to fight like cat and dog on car trips.” Aimee said.

“So you took it?!?” James and I yelled in unison.

“I know how you two are when we’re not confined in a small space for several hours on end!” Aimee said.

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and climbed through the seats and took my place in the front seat again still wanting to beat the fuck out of James for being annoying but not wanting to get smacked by the flyswatter again.

We were on our way to the Motionless In White concert and for some reason James had decided to tag along. He wasn’t a fan of them or Snow White’s Poison Bite so I didn’t know why he had come but I figured that it was to annoy the ever loving piss out of me. I mean I wouldn’t put it past him.

The past week had been more difficult than I had imagined it could be. For starters Cleo had scheduled me for three more signings without my permission and I had spent four days total in Charlotte mode. A single day had been like running a marathon but having to watch my mouth and plaster fake smiles on for four days straight had almost been enough for me to check myself into a hospital for exhaustion.

Then I had found out that my first book Freshman Fab was being made into a movie. As my manager she had shopped it around and had finally gotten a bite. It was in pre production at that moment. The script was being written and people were being cast for the main characters.

I mean I’d be lying if I had said that I wasn’t somewhat excited but the thought that I would have to put on my Charlotte face for more than just a room full of people at a time was making me nauseous. However it wouldn’t be for several months yet so I had time to psych myself up for it.

The rest of the ride was filled with talk about random things between Aimee and I while James slept in the backseat. Before I knew it we were turning into the venue parking lot.

“Should we wake sleeping beauty up or should we let him sleep?” I asked.

“I say we wake him up. James! Babe! Wake up!” Aimee yelled and with a start James opened his eyes.

“Jesus Aimes…no need to scream.” he said sitting up with a yawn.

“Yeah well c’mon we’re here early. We have to get in line.” I said and climbed out.

It was a great day for a concert. The weather was warm without being like hot as fuck outside which made waiting in line easier. There wasn’t a sign of rain which was good. Aimee and I had once gotten caught in the rain while waiting for an Escape The Fate concert and we had been a week before we were properly dry again.

I checked that I had the essential things from my bag before locking in in the trunk; tickets, ID, cash, cell phone, Sharpie, blank sheet of paper and my camera. I tucked everything but the camera into one of my jeans pockets. The camera went around my wrist in case I saw someone and I could get a picture. Once we had everything Aimee locked the car and clipped the keys to her belt.

“Why the fuck are we here so early again?” James asked as we walked towards where there was a small clique waiting.

“So we can get good spots dumbass.” I replied rolling my eyes.

“Who are you calling dumbass, dumbass?” James asked.

“Oh my god it’s like I have children! Do I have to get the flyswatter out of the car?!?” Aimee asked.

“No!” we both replied quickly.

“Good.” Aimee replied and we got in line.

We plopped down on the concrete sidewalk and waited for the doors to open. The three of us passed the time by talking to the people that were around us. We all figured that if we were going to be crushed against them for hours on end that we should get to know our neighbors.

Four hours later the people finally opened the doors. We flooded in and thanks to the fact we’d gotten there super early we found ourselves right against the barrier.

“This is going to be fuckin’ epic!” I grinned at Amiee.

“Fuck yeah!” she replied and fist bumped me.

After about 15 minutes of watching techs walk to and fro across the stage Snow White’s Poison Bite walked on stage. The crowd exploded with sound as the beginning notes to ‘The End Of Prom Night’ began to play.

After an amazing set and a double encore the band took their bows and headed off stage.

“Motionless In White is next!” I smiled looking at Aimee.

“And you’re surprisingly calm.” She laughed.

“Yeah I’m afraid that if I don’t contain myself I’ll freak out, hop the barrier and jump the bones of one of the guys in the band.” I replied.

“Ah. So inside you’re freaking the fuck out right?” she asked.

“You have no idea dude.” I smirked.

“Well all I know is that they need to come on because I’m fucking bored.” James sighed and took another swig of beer from the bottle he’d bought when we’d come in.

“So what you’re going to get plastered if they don’t?” Aimee asked.

“Considering it.” James replied.

“And who invited you again?” I said turning to my cousin.

“I came in order to protect the virtue of my girlfriend and my favorite cousin.” James smiled back at me.

“Our virtue?” Aimee asked looking at James.

“Yeah.” he nodded.

Aimee and I both looked at him and he sighed, “Fine I heard it on a TV show the other day and it sounded right okay? Get off my back you harpies.”

“You wish cuz.” I grinned and patted his face.

Suddenly the lights dimmed and I couldn’t help but scream along with the other Creatures that stood around me. One by one I saw the dark figures of Ghost, Ryan, Balz, Angelo, Ricky and finally Chris walk on stage. My heart began to beat like crazy and a split second later they burst into my favorite song.

Paint your face! Tonight we terrorize this town!
Coffin case, we gather, our time is now!
10/31 we roam the streets in thirst for blood!
It all begins all begins with you, with your life!

I screamed along with every line that Chris sang, my hands outstretched with the others around me for a chance to touch his hand. It was the best time that I could imagine.

Each song got my heart racing and I knew that I would probably be hoarse the next day and I would have bruises from being shoved so hard into the barrier but I didn’t care. All the pain and fatigue I’d face the next day was worth the rush of adrenaline that I had right now watching five of the most amazing men on the face of the earth play in front of me.

They played four songs straight though without a break before finally pausing so Chris could say something to the crowd.

“HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING CHARLESTON?!?” he yelled and the crowd responded with a scream.

“Great! Now-” but before he could say anything else he was cut off by a voice from the back of the venue.

“FAGGOT!!!!”

“Fuck you mother fucker!” Chris replied flipping the guy off.

However the guy continued screaming profanities and slurs at the stage.

“Fuck you mother fucker! Why don’t you come up here and say something to my fucking face! Quit hiding asshole!” Chris replied.

No one in the crowd moved and Chris smirked.

“Thought so! Now lets get this shit moving again! This is Puppets!”

I began screaming the lyrics to the song when a moment later I felt someone push against me. Turning I saw a guy who smelled strongly of liquor shoving past the person behind me trying to get to the barrier. He shoved roughly in between the person to my left and me and began to scream profanities towards he stage. I recognized his voice as the one from screaming earlier.

Chris ignored him but I saw Balz getting annoyed. The next thing I knew Balz had ran out from around his keyboard and jumped for the guy.

He started wailing on the guy and I quickly tried to get away from the melee however before I could push back I felt something connect with the side of my head. There was an explosion of color at the blow and then I felt arms encircle me as I fell back into darkness.

*******

“Charlotte? Charlotte can you hear me?” a distant voice asked.

“She goes by Charlie. She hates being called Charlotte.” I heard Aimee say from just as far away.

“Oh okay. Charlie…if you can I need you to open your eyes.” the first voice said.

With a little difficulty I opened my eyes to a bright light which made me quickly shut them again. My head was pounding and that didn’t help matters.

“Can you get that fucking light out of my fucking eyes?” I spat shielding my eyes.

“She just dropped the f-bomb twice in one sentence. She’s going to be fine.” James said.

“Go to hell.” I replied opening my eyes enough to glare at my cousin.

“Yep. Just fine.” Aimee agreed.

“Charlie I’m going to ask you to sit up for me so that I can check you out.” the first voice, that I now realized belonged to a paramedic, replied.

I sat up on the stretcher and realized that I was in the back of an ambulance.

“Okay we’re going to do a few tests.” he said.

He asked me a series of questions and shined a light in my eyes again before taking my blood pressure and testing my reflexes. After the tests he declared me fine to go home and set about fixing my lip which I saw in the shiny surface of the cabinets was busted. I also noticed that I had a bump on my head about the size of a bouncy ball.

“Well Charlie it looks like you’re going to be fine. I’ll give you some aspirin for the headache and I’ll give your friends a list of concussion symptoms so they can keep an eye out for them.” the paramedic said after he‘d patched me up.

“Okay thanks.” I replied.

I took the aspirin he gave me and ice pack for my head along with the paper for Aimee and James before climbing out of the ambulance and walking over to where my cousin and friend stood.

“How you feeling Charmander?” James asked pulling me into a hug.

I smiled at the childhood nickname before hugging him back.

“They said I’m fine but you two are supposed to keep an eye out for me and make sure I don’t start acting weird or anything.” I replied.

“And we’re supposed to distinguish this from your normal behavior how…?” James asked.

Aimee smacked James’s shoulder, “She just got a knee to the head and you’re going to pick on her?”

“I’m only kidding.” he grinned down at me.

Aimee opened her mouth to reply to say something else but the words seemed to die on her lips. Instead she reached over and tugged on my shirt.

“What?” I asked.

“Don’t look now but a 3/5 of Motionless In White is walking this way.” she said.

Sure enough when I turned I saw Chris, Balz and Ricky walking towards us.

“Hey we wanted to come over and see how you were doing.” Chris smiled when he got over to us.

“I’m okay. My head is pounding but I’ll live.” I replied.

“I just want to apologize for that. I really didn’t mean to hit you.” Balz said.

“You were the one that hit me?” I asked.

“Yeah. You don’t remember?” he asked.

“Actually it all happened so fast that I just remember pain and then waking up in the ambulance.” I replied.

“Yeah this genius over here kneed you in the head.” Ricky smirked.

“I’m so sorry about that by the way. I didn’t even realize I had done it until the bouncers pulled me off the barrier and I saw you knocked out.” Balz replied.

“Well you should’ve watched what the fuck you were doing bro and she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” James spat glaring daggers at Balz.

I sighed and glared at my cousin, “James quit the intimidation tactics. I’m fine and it wasn’t his fault okay? He had every right to get pissed at that guy.”

“Like I said it’s just a headache.” I smiled turning back to the guys.

“And a big ass bump.” James mutterd.

“Bump?“ Ricky asked.

“Yeah…it’s not as big as he made it seem. See?“ I said and pulled the ice pack away from my forehead to show the bump.

“Way to go dude…you got her good.” Chris said taking my face in his hands and looking at my forehead.

“I’m sorry okay!” Balz replied.

“It’s fine! I’m fine!” I laughed.

“Are you sure?” Balz asked.

“Yes! For the millionth time!” I smiled.

“Well is there anything we can do to make it up to you at least?” Chris asked.

“Um…could I take a couple of pictures?” I asked.

“No problem. Actually c’mon and we’ll go find the other guys and you can get pictures with us all.” Balz said.

“Really? That would be awesome!” I grinned.

I knew I sounded like a crazy 15 year old fan girl but I couldn’t help it right now. I was getting to go backstage and meet one of my favorite bands of all time. It would be insane if I wasn’t psyched beyond all belief.

“Breathe Charlie.” Aimee laughed as we followed.

“I am breathing.” I replied rolling my eyes.

“Just looking out for you yo. Wouldn’t want you fainting in front of them. Well again.” Aimee snickered.

“Shut up! God if I didn’t love you then I’d seriously have to beat you down.” I said.

“As if you could even.” she replied.

We followed Balz, Chris and Ricky to the back of the venue and through a door. After a walk down a hallway we walked through another door and found the remaining members of Motionless In White hanging out. Angelo was propped up in the corner of the couch sketching something, Ryan and Allie were tossing a Koosh ball back and forth while Devin and a girl I didn’t recognize were sitting on the empty couch wrapped around each other, talking quietly.

“Hey Rick think fast!” Ryan yelled and threw a big koosh ball towards Ricky.

“Where the fuck did you get this thing?” Ricky asked looking at the bright green inflated ball.

“I don’t know. Found it here when we came in.” Ryan replied.

“Nice.” Ricky replied and threw it back at his fellow guitarist.

“Okay enough about the koosh ball. If you boneheads didn’t notice we have guests.” Chris replied.

“Hey! You’re the girl Balz took down with his knee in the pit.” Angelo said looking at us.

“That would be me.” I replied.

“Oh my god! I saw that! You went down hard are you okay?!?” A girl who had been curled up with Devin asked jumping up.

She was about my height with pale skin, bright red lips and dark hair. She wore short leopard print shorts, a plain black t-shirt and bright red glittery heels that I knew if I even tried to stand in I would fall flat on my face.

“I’m fine. The medic checked me out and I’m good to go.” I replied.

“Good. Oh! I’m Fawne by the way. I’m Devin’s girlfriend.” she smiled.

“Nice to meet you I’m Charlie and this is my friend Aimee and her boyfriend, my cousin, James.” I replied.

“So we promised Charlie that she could get a couple of pictures.” Balz said.

“Sounds doable to me. What about you guys?” Angelo asked.

“Fine with me.” Devin said and the band gathered around us so that Aimee, James and I were in the center.

Fawne took the camera from me and snapped a few photos before handing me back my camera.

“Thank you so much.” I said the smile on my face so big that it hurt my cheeks.

“You’re welcome. And I’m really sorry again.” Balz said.

I hugged them all and said my goodbyes before heading out.

“That was the single most amazing experience of my life.” I sighed as I settled into the backseat of the car.

“Even though you got knocked out and it’s probably going to be all over YouTube?” James asked.

“Yes. Even though I dropped like a sack of potatoes in front of what will probably be hundreds of thousands of people I had a great time.” I replied and began to fish my phone out of my back pocket.

I turned it on and sighed when as soon as it was fully on it began ringing with new text messages and missed calls. All were from Cleo.

“Fucking bitch.” I growled scrolling through the texts.

“Cleo?” Aimee asked.

“Who the fuck else? She’s like borderline stalking me now! I told her that I wasn’t going to be available tonight and she fucking messaged me a million times!” I replied.

“What is she asking?” James asked.

“Bullshit about the movie and apparently how I have a press thing at fucking 7 in the morning. I fucking told her that I was going to a concert and wouldn’t be available tomorrow but she didn’t fucking listen. AGAIN! I’m going to get fucking four hours of sleep now! There goes my good mood.” I said glaring at the screen.

“Gimme that fucking thing.” Aimee said and I handed her the phone.

I watched as she put it in the glove compartment and slammed the door closed. Without another word she dug into my purse which was sitting between the seats and pulled out my iPod.

She tossed it to me in the backseat, “Listen to that and forget the bitch. Don’t let her ruin your mood. The paper says that you’re not supposed to drive so go to sleep. That’ll give you 2 more hours.” Aimee said.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Totally. Now sleep.” Aimee directed.

“Thanks.” I smiled.

“Welcome.” Aimee smiled at me in the rearview mirror.

I grabbed James’s hoodie from the floor and balled it up to use as a pillow before stretching out across the backseat. Popping the earbuds in my ears I turned on ’Reckless & Relentless’ by Asking Alexandria and soon I forgot everything and slipped into sleep.