Livin' the Dream

By four in the morning, most of the party was passed out in and around All Time Low's bus. Nice. Alice was sleeping with her head in my lap, Jordan had returned to his bus an hour ago. I was absentmindedly playing with Alice's pink and black curls. Damon had gone to find Celeste.
Damon ran onto the bus, almost tripping over a passed out Kellin Quinn.
"I can't find Cel," he panted. "I checked The Ready Set's bus, I checked Never Shout Never's bus, I checked our van, I checked We Are The In Crowd's bus, nothing!"
"Shit..." I muttered. "Did you check all the random passed out people on and around all the buses?"
"Yeah, I couldn't find her! And on a side note, I don't think I ever saw Christofer Drew either..." Damon said.
"Crap. We have to find her." I looked down and Alice, who was still sleeping peacefully. "Carry her to the van, will you? I'm gonna go try to find Cel." Damon nodded and took Alice in his arms, carrying her bridal style out the door, trying not to trip over all the passed out drunk people. I followed him out the door and started to walk around the buses, hoping to find my best friend passed out somewhere.
Damon caught up with me just as I rounded the corner of the back of Never Shout Never's bus. I found Celeste on someone's lap, making out with them. I recognized the tattoos on the hands that were on Celeste's sides. Chris.
"Celeste!" I said, shaking her shoulder. She pulled away from him.
"What?" She asked, clearly annoyed. I knelt down to her level and looked her in the eye.
"It's time to go," I said.
"I don't wanna," she whined. I could smell the alcohol on her breath. I stood.
"She's drunk," I stated, turning to Damon. He nodded, picking her up and lightly throwing her over his shoulder, much like he had picked me up two days ago. Celeste screamed and cried but we ignored her and walked back to the bus. Chris was so drunk, and probably stoned, that he just fell over after we left. Part of me probably should've been worried that he could be dead, but I honestly didn't care. We tossed her into the van and locked the doors, she was too drunk to figure out how to unlock them, and set off in search of Adriana and Xander. We found them passed out on the roof of All Time Low's bus.
"Well, fuck," said Damon.
"How the hell are we gonna get them down?" I sighed. I was tired and I did not want to deal with this. "Let's just leave them there and go get them before bus call in the morning." Damon nodded and we walked back to the van. We found Alice asleep on the last seat, Renae sprawled out on Adriana's seat, and Celeste passed out on her seat, dry tears and mascara on her cheeks. I sighed and laid down on my seat, falling asleep almost instantly.

**the next morning**
I woke up to phone vibrating somewhere. I searched my clothes and blankets and finally found it, pressing talk without even checking the caller ID.
"Hey, sis," I heard my brother's voice say.
"Ugh, it is too early. What do you want, Ivan?" I asked.
"I need a job," he stated.
"And that's my problem because..?" I sighed.
"Because we agreed that if I got famous you and Cel could be my merch girls, so I think now that you're famous, you should let me and Bleau be your techs. Bleau could be a guitar tech and I could be a drum tech and we could both be bass techs. Please, Lynn." He said.
"I'll talk to Renae about it, but I make no promises, okay?" I told him.
"Great, thanks Lynn!" He hung up and I sat up, knowing I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. I found myself alone in the van and climbed out.
A crowd had gathered around All Time Low's bus. Xander and Adriana were still trapped on the roof. Adriana was deathly afraid of heights. She was looking apprehensively over the edge, clutching Xander's hand and arm and though he was the very thing anchoring her to the earth. I made my way to the front of the crowd, where the rest of my band stood.
"Adriana Zizania! Get down this instant!" I yelled up at her.
"YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT'S POSSIBLE!" She yelled back.
Someone brought out a sheet and we all held onto it, like they did in the movies, and formed a square-rectangle-thing next to the bus.
"Adriana! Jump down!" I instructed. She peeked over the edge and immediately backed up.
"ARE YOU INSANE!? THAT SHIT ONLY WORKS IN MOVIES!" She yelled.
"XANDER!" Alice yelled. "TOSS HER DOWN!"
"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO N-AHHH!" Adriana shrieked and Xander took her in his arms and tossed her over the edge. Somehow, the weird sheet thing worked, and after she was safely caught, we set it down on one side so she could crawl out. She crawled away, muttering profanities under her breath. We picked the sheet back up and prepared for Xander to jump, but he decided to lower himself until he was only hanging onto the bus by the tips of his fingertips, and then let go. It wasn't a huge drop, he stumbled when he let go, but he caught himself. Xander walked off, no doubt in search of Adriana. The crowd dispersed and I noticed a certain, short, curly haired brunette, off to the side rubbing her temples.
"A bit hungover?" I asked, walking over to her.
"Ugh, so LOUD," she said. Renae walked by and threw a bottle of aspirin at her, which she somehow managed to catch. Even hungover, she's more coordinated than me. Sad. She took two pills out of the bottle and popped them in her mouth, swallowing them dry. I made a mental note never to get that drunk, 'cause I can't swallow pills to save my life.
"Do you remember anything from last night?" I asked.
"The last thing I remember is taking shots with Chris and then...I don't know. Fuck. What the hell happened?" She asked.
"You'll remember soon enough," I smirked mischievously and walked away, ignoring her calling after me.
This venue had showers. Yay, no more stinky band members! So I went back to the bus, grabbed a change of clothes, and went into the venue to shower. After everyone was showered and dressed, we all hopped into the buses and van and were on our merry-if not very hungover-way to the next venue. Half an hour into the ride, I remembered that I was supposed to ask Renae about Ivan and Bleau. I climbed over the seats and sat next to her in Adriana's seat.
"Hey," I said.
"Hi," she said.
"So...Ivan and Bleau need jobs and we need techs and they could load and drive the equipment trailer behind Ivan's jeep and they actually do know enough the instruments to be our techs and-" I rambled, but Renae cut me off.
"You had me at 'equipment trailer,'" she said. I grinned. I knew Renae hated driving with the trailer behind us. It made her nervous. "Now," she continued. "The money Hopeless is giving us happens to split evenly seven ways. Each member of the band and myself will get one seventh on the money. Ivan, Xander, and Bleau can each have one third of the extra portion. Okay? Okay." She went back to the stack of boring manager papers next to her and I crawled back to my seat. I played with the parachute necklace on my neck. I opened it and pulled out the tiny paper inside.
"Do or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda, Empire Strikes Back
I smiled to myself. An ex-boyfriend of mine, Adam, had given it to me when we were dating. We'd been friends for a long time and managed to save our friendship when our relationship failed. So I kept it. It was a cool necklace. We stopped at Burger King for lunch. The Ready Set and Never Shout Never stopped at a different restaurant, much to Celeste's and my dismay. All the bands order and we basically took over the play area, taking up almost all the tables. I felt like a traitor because I was eating Burger King, wearing a t-shirt that said Happy Meal. Whoops. Naturally, after we finished eating, Alice was the first one to jump up, wanting to go play in the play scape.
"Oh, no you don't," I grabbed her wrist.
"Why not?" She whined.
"You are wearing a dress, little missy. And a dress means, you aren't allowed to play in play scapes." She pouted and crossed her arms, as Celeste, Adriana, Xander, and I got out of the booth to go play. She started to say something, but Damon appeased her by handing her the camera, reminding her that she could take pictures and record us. She started to protest, but he silenced her with a kiss and put his arm around her. She smiled and started recording. I stuck my tongue out at the camera and ran to the play scape. Jack, Alex, and Tay joined us. I giggled as I climbed up to the slide, going down head first, of course. I tumbled out of the slide onto the floor. Before I could get up, I felt someone else fall out of the slide and land on me. And someone else land on them.
"AH!" I shrieked. I looked up to find Tay laying on top of me, Alex on top of her. "Get offffffff," I whined.
"I would if I could," said Tay. "But Alex is fat." Alex gasped dramatically.
"I'm not fat!" He protested.
"Whatever," I said. "Just get off! I can't breathe!" I gasped. Alex grinned and got off, pulling Tay up after him. He then extended a hand to me and pulled me up.
"What the heck was that about?" I asked. Before he could answer, my phone started playing '1985' by Bowling for Soup. Naturally, I started belting the lyrics.
"HER TWO KIDS, IN HIGH SCHOOL, THEY TELL HER THAT SHE'S UNCOOL! BUT SHE'S STILL PREOCCUPIED WITH NINETEEN, NINETEEN, NINETEEN EIGHTY FIVE!"
"Lynn! It's your brother," Alice said, glancing down at my phone on the table. I ran over and grabbed my phone, pressing talk and putting it to my ear.
"Hey, Ivan," I said.
"Hey. So did you talk to Renae?" He asked, getting right to the point.
"Yeah. She said yes. You and Bleau need to meet us in San Antonio on the second, okay?" I said.
"Sweet. Thanks, Lynn," he said, then I heard the line disconnect. After that, Renae, Matt, and John all rounded up their bands and we piled into the van, them into their buses.
****
After the show, everyone was standing around the buses signing. And it was really freaking cold. The fact that Alice was willing to steal my pink hoodie, which she absolutely hated, was a testimony to how cold it was. Naturally, everyone else in my band had a jacket and no one cared that I was slowly freezing to death. Nice. I could've gotten a jacket from the van, but I was far too lazy. I felt someone place a jacket around my shoulders and I turned to find Jordan standing there, his arms bare. I tried not to notice how toned they were. Focus, Lynn.
"Thanks," I said, smiling gratefully. "But won't you be cold?" I asked. He shrugged.
"I'll be fine," he said. I blushed.
"Seriously, Jordan," I said. "It's freaking freezing."
"Fine," he said. "I'll go get a jacket from the bus." He ran off in the direction of his bus. Celeste nudged me with her elbow at the same time Adriana did, both of them waggling their eyebrows and winking at me. Before they could say anything, Jordan came off his bus and started walking toward me. Celeste and Adriana looked at me pointedly before walking away.
"Happy?" asked Jordan.
"Yes," I giggled.

We were staying at a hotel that night, and everyone was going down to the club/bar/hotel-restaurant-place to party. Alice forced us all to get all 'sexied up' for the occasion, except for Renae, who bolted out of Alice's hotel room and into her own, locking the door behind her. I sighed and did as I was told, knowing arguing with her was useless. She dressed Celeste and I as opposites, I wore a white strapless shirt, Cel wore a black one. I wore black skinny jeans, Cel wore white skinny jeans. I had white printed heels, Cel had black printed heels. I had a gold locket, Celeste had a silver locket. I had my silver purity ring with my birthstone, Celeste had a gold ring with her birthstone. She made us both wear our brunette curls down, and did our makeup. I managed to convince her not to put mascara on me. It makes my eyelashes clumpy and gross. She didn't put any on Celeste either. When we were done, she told us to look in the mirror. I was amazed. Celeste and I could have been sisters. Twins, even. Our brunette curls were the same shade and length. Alice had managed to make mine less frizzy so that they matched Celeste's exactly. Our skin tone was the same. Our makeup was light and pretty.
"Damn," I said to Alice.
"Holy shit," said Celeste. Alice smiled and started doing her makeup in the mirror.
"You can thank me later," she said. She was dressed in a black strapless dress with red stripes on the skirt, red high heels, her promise ring on her hand, and an evenstar pendant on her neck. Adriana had been allowed to dress herself, wearing a red tank top, a floral printed skirt, Alice's red wedges, and a key necklace, her promise ring shining on her finger. Alice's makeup made her wide doe eyes stand out. After both Adriana and Alice were done we decided we were gonna capture Renae. She'd left her extra room key here in her haste to escape. Alice walked into Renae's room and literally dragged her back to the room, Renae kicking and screaming as they went. Alice forced Renae into a gray strapless dress and silver heels. She handed her a silver ring. Renae also wore her own silver heart shaped pendant that read "Always." Said Snape. Alice also applied a little eyeliner to Renae, enough to make her brown eyes look like those of a doe. Once Alice was satisfied with the way we looked, we all walked out of the hotel room. We knocked on the door across the hall where the boys were and they came out. Damon immediately wrapped his arms around Alice.
"You look beautiful," he said. She blushed. Xander intertwined his fingers with Adriana's and leaned close to her as we walked, whispering sweet nothings to her. I linked arms with Celeste and we skipped down the hall to the elevator. We tripped a few times, neither of us used to walking in heels.
When we got down to the club, we found Chris and Jordan at a table in the corner.
"Wow," said Chris, running his eyes over Celeste.
"I never realized how much you too look alike," said Jordan. Chris grabbed Celeste's hand and dragged her toward the bar. I tried not to worry. "You look really pretty," Jordan said into my ear. I blushed.
"Thank you," I said. We made our way over to the bar as well. Celeste whispered something to Chris and dragged him out to the dance floor. I lost sight of her within seconds. I sighed. Alex handed me a shot glass and I took it without hesitation. Jordan gave me a weird look but said nothing. The alcohol burned my throat, and I smiled. I will not spend tonight worrying about Celeste. I took another shot. I will have fun with Jordan tonight. Another shot. The alcohol coursing through my veins gave me the confidence I needed. I grabbed Jordan's hand.
"Dance with me!" I said, pulling him into the mass of bodies on the dance floor. I danced with Jordan for a few songs. I noticed Alice dancing with Damon off to our right. I searched the crowd and found Xander and Adriana dancing to our left. We'd left Renae with Matt and some of the other band and crew members at a table in the back. Celeste was the only one unaccounted for. I'd last seen her with Christofer Drew. I tried not to worry. But that was hard for someone who was used to counting heads.
Damon and Jordan went to get us waters, so Alice and I danced together, hand in hand, randomly swaying and belting the lyrics to whatever song was playing, just like high school. Suddenly, a guy came up behind Alice and put his hands on her hips, pulling her against him.
"Ah!" She yelped. "Don't touch me!"
"C'mon, baby," he said. He looked old, not super old, but too old to be hitting on/assaulting a nineteen year old girl. "Let's have some fun."
"She said not to fucking touch her," I said angrily, trying to pry his hands off of her, but he only let go of her long enough to push me to the floor. "Fuck!"
Jordan and Damon chose this time to make there appearance, the waters forgotten, Jordan helped me up.
"What the hell is going on?" He asked. Before I could answer, however, Damon pried Alice away from the creep and pushed her behind him. He punched the creep in the nose so hard I swear I heard it crack. The guy fell to the floor, clutching his now broken nose.
"Get your own whore," he said.
"Oh, now you're fucking dead," said Damon, kicking him in the stomach and landing a few more punches. The creep fought back but Damon avoided most of the blows. The creep managed to get a good punch to Damon's face, giving Damon a busted lip, before security pulled them apart.
"What's going on here?" They asked, clearly not impressed.
"That fucking creep was molesting my girlfriend," Damon growled through his teeth, clearly upset that he had not been allowed to finish his fight.
"Liar! She was dancing with me and he just punched me! Probably just pissed he can't get any," the creep said, lying smoothly. Damon struggled in the security guards grasp, swearing loudly.
"He," I said, pointing to the creep. "Actually was molesting her," I pointed at Alice. "So, her boyfriend," I pointed at Damon. "was just defending her." Jordan nodded behind me.
"It's true," Alice chimed in. The two security guards looked between us a few times. Thankfully, they believed and dragged the creep out, leaving us with a warning not to start any more fights.

Not much in the mood for dancing anymore, we all went back to the tables. We found Adriana drinking something from a martini glass, and judging by the look on her face, it was not her first. She held it out to me.
"Try some," she slurred. "It's great." Shrugging, I took the glass from and her and took a sip. I nearly choked. Cherry. Ew, ew, ew ewwww. I gagged and tried to hand it back to her, only to find her gone, off dancing with Xander, her weird cherry drink forgotten. Who's gonna drink this now? Dammit. Celeste materialized at my side, Chris lurking behind her.
"Oh look, you're not dead," I muttered.
"Huh?" she asked.
"Nothing," I shook my head. "Drink this, Adriana gave it to me and it's cherry and I-"
"You hate cherry," she said, cutting me off. I smiled.
"Why can no one but you remember that?" I laughed, handing her the drink.
"Maybe because we've been friends for like fifteen years," she chuckled.
"Oh, right, forgot about that," I said. She rolled her eyes at me.

A few drinks and dances later, I was sitting at a table with Jordan on one side and Renae on the other.
"I'm t-tireddddd," I giggled. And with that, I collapsed, my head hitting the table with a dull thud. And then everything went black.