The Rock Show

It's about five hours later that Alex rolls around to consciousness in Jack's hall closet. Disoriented as fuck, he sits up in the darkness on a few old pairs of shoes and clutches his head just as his stomach rolls violently. His eyes struggle to adjust in the dim lighting (partially because he's half-asleep but mostly due to how leftover alcohol has clouded his retinas) and he pushes the door open, tripping and falling onto the hard wood with a groan.

Now, Alex considers himself to be a veteran when it comes to hangovers and aftercare, but fuck, it's been awhile since he's had one this bad. He kind of feels like roadkill and his mouth feels like it's been filled with sawdust; one of Rian's legendary hangover-cure breakfasts sounds heavenly right around now.

He crawls over a few bodies spread out around the foyer and searches for someone he recognizes, breathing a sigh of relief when he spots Zack and Rian slouched over the island in the kitchen. Rian's prepping Jack's dad's coffee maker and Zack is texting someone. "Guys," he says, or more like rasps, and then Alex realizes that speaking probably wasn't so great of an idea because-

"Alex?!" But Zack's too late; Alex is falling over himself to get to the bathroom and the violent retching sounds speak for themselves. "Aw, shit. Lex." Zack is probably the least wrecked out of all of them and goes over, wiping the singer's mouth and flushing the vomit-filled toilet. Alex groans and feebly tries to bat Zack's hands away, who just curses and helps Alex rinse out his mouth. ("Dude, your breath fucking reeks"). A minute later he's hauling Alex's dead weight from the sink and dropping him into a chair.

"You look like roadkill," Rian points out helpfully. Alex drops his head to the table and flips him off. He feels like it too.

"I'm gonna fucking kill Jack."

"Too late, bro. He's probably gonna destroy you first." Rian says as he stands up shakily and goes over to open the refrigerator.

"Why?" He was the one who told me to drink my ass off.

"Um...you know that girl, Sophie or whatever? The one you were swapping spit with last night?"

Damn it. Alex had almost forgotten about her; he wants to forget about most of last night, if he's honest with himself, but his memory is slowly coming back. "I think. What about her?"

"Jack's been into her for the past few weeks. Didn't he tell you?"

Uh-oh. Now that he thinks about it, Jack had mentioned that he had dibs on a girl. But Alex could never really recall her name. "What the fuck," Alex tries to defend himself, "she totally came onto me, though."

Rian cracks a few eggs into a sizzling saucepan, pulling bacon from the freezer. "He's not gonna care."

"Yeah," Zack adds, "I'd start kissing his ass if I were you."

Alex grimaces. Fuck no, he's not going there. He's still trying (and subsequently failing) to stay mad at Jack, it wasn't his fault, if Jack hadn't told him to get wasted he wouldn't have been feeling up Jack's girl...friend? Fuck-buddy? Whatever.

Apparently he's gotten himself into an unhealthy amount of trouble, either way.

His phone makes a beeping sound, indicating that it's on the verge of running out of battery. Alex fishes it out of his back pocket and slides it open just as Rian slides him a steaming mug of coffee. The stuff definitely isn't Alex's favorite but he knows it'll make the pounding headache go away slightly, so he chugs it like his life depends on it.

He squints at the little notification on his screen. "Huh. Someone called me last night." Pieces of last night are flooding back to him now, the caffeine jolting him awake. "Unrecognized number."

"Probably Lisa again. You mentioned at Warped that you deleted her number." Zack says offhandedly, scooping an ridiculously-sized proportion of eggs onto a plate and plopping down at the table across from Alex. Alex's stomach clenches uncomfortably at the mention of Warped. Great. He'd gone a record few hours without thinking of Jess, just to have it spoiled. The feeling of longing builds up again, manifesting itself as a tug in his ribcage. He tries swallowing (choking) it down, accepting a plate of bacon and eggs from Rian with a tired grin.

Alex chuckles dryly to himself, turning his phone off. "Right. That bitch."

-&-

Aurora has been back in Norfolk, Virginia for two days now, to tons of praise and buzz amongst record labels- a result of their energy-filled live performances at Warped, no doubt about it. It's towards the end of August and they've already chatted with several labels and were booked as a support on Forever The Sickest Kid's autumn tour. It's like a dream come true, and all of the members are more than hyped for it.

With the exception of one.

The band has just gotten back from an interview with Buzznet and are just chilling at Nick and Jess's place, Jason and Demetri in a heated game of COD as Nick fools around with his acoustic guitar opposite them in the living room. Thinking of new song ideas, riffs, hooks, and possible covers they could do in the future.

While Jess is holed up in her room, smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, barely participating in band activities (she said about five words in the aforementioned interview, while she and Demetri are usually the ones who do all the talking) and effectively cutting herself off from the world. She denies it whenever anyone asks if she's fine, even if it's embarrassingly half-assed.

Demetri and Jason are waiting for the next round to load just as Nick lets out a loud sigh. "Fuck, I kinda wanna do Jumper by Third Eye Blind acoustically, but I don't know if Jess's voice fits it well enough."

Demetri shrugs like it's obvious. "Call her down and find out."

"God, no, I'm not fuckin' stupid. She'll blow up at me like she's on a PMS-driven rampage."

The blonde sticks his tongue out at Nick, "You're not scared of her," he teases, exaggerating the 'a' in scared just because, "are you?"

"Shut up. More like worried."

The game finishes loading but Jason pauses it and turns around to face Nick. "It's about time we talked to her about it, anyway. The band's just getting started and we can't let her pissy heartbreak act slow it down."

Nick stops strumming. "Heartbreak?"

Jason huffs, "You're an idiot."

"No, I just don't know what the hell you're talking about-"

"It's that kid from the Maryland date, Nick." Jason rolls his eyes. "She's been fawning over him ever since we left that state."

Nick's green eyes widen in realization. "Damn it, I knew that guy was a dick-"

"He wasn't a dick, honestly, I just have no idea what's been going on." Demetri interjects.

"Stop fucking interrupting me!" Nick sets down his guitar and rubs his temples. "Fuck. That makes sense. She's been like this ever since then, especially since we got back home." He sighs, a strangely determined look settling over his face. "Jess!" No answer.

"Jess, if you don't get down here right fucking now I will go up there and get you because we need to talk!"

Silence.

"That stubborn bitch," Nick groans. The three of them make their way up the stairs, taking care to walk as loudly as they can to let her know that they're coming.

Her door is propped open. Jess doesn't notice their entrance; she has her headphones on and is sitting on her bed, facing away from them. She has a notebook on her lap and is writing in it furiously, crossing lines out and quickly replacing them only to cross those out again. She stops to bite on the end of her pen, mumbling words and humming tunes under her breath as the rest of her band stands in the doorway, dumbstruck.

Jason strides over and yanks the notebook away from Jess, flipping through the last dozen or so pages with a look of awe. Jess lets out an indignant, "Hey! Asshole, give it back!" But Jason's at least a foot taller and easily ducks out of her way, a smile on his face as he tosses the book to his bandmates.

"God, Jess. Those awesome lyrics, it's like..."

It's like Brad all over again. Basically. They're all thinking it and Jess suddenly looks uncomfortable, confirming Jason's unspoken words.

"Stop. They suck, and you know it."

"They don't, Jessy." Demetri smiles and hands it to Nick, "You're just being hard on yourself. They're really powerful, emotional, all that good stuff."

Nick grunts. He hates that his sister apparently had her heart broken, but if it makes brilliant songs...

"Great. Now that we know my 'depression'," she spits the word, "has done something useful, I'd appreciate it if you could all get the fuck out of my room."

Jason holds up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Just trying to be nice."

"Yeah," Nick scoffs. He's still a little angry at his sister for making him worry, though. "I guess you being in a bitchy mood is great for us, huh?"

Jess stands up, grabbing the notebook from his hands and scowling, "Bastard. You have no idea what I've been through-"

"Summer flings happen, Jess! I should know! But you get over them and move on after you leave the beach, or summer camp, or fucking Warped tour."

Jess clenches her fists and looks down at the ground, her chocolate-colored fringe covering her eyes. Her hands are practically shaking. She really, really wants to hit him, and it physically pains her not to do so. Nick is just being a presumptuous, overprotective jerk. She's thought she was used to it, but he's never struck a nerve in her like he has today.

"Get. Out." She's trembling with the effort of holding her emotions in. Her brother doesn't know that she hates it, hates herself for pining after someone who's known as a manwhore. She knows she's smarter than that, which makes the situation even worse because the feelings she has for Alex just won't go away. She feels pathetic, angry, and stupid. Stupid stupid stupid, emotionally investing herself in someone like that so soon after her last breakup, even if it was unintentional.

And the most shitty part of the whole thing is how he blocked her number the morning after she called him. It was two days ago but the sting of rejection had barely faded, only flaring up painfully every time she thought about it. She doesn't even understand it; after all, he was the one who gave her his number!

But that was two months ago, a voice inside her head murmurs. He's been long over you, sweetie.

That's what stops her from hating Alex each time she remembered. It isn't his fault. It's hers.

Nick exhales loudly and opens his mouth to say something, but Jason and Demetri both send him warning looks. He closes it and allows the other two to drag him out of the room and back downstairs.

Jess turns back around to her headphones that are still blaring music. Upon seeing what's playing she unlocks her ipod and quickly changes the song that had come up on shuffle, not even glancing at the title The Girl's A Straight-Up Hustler. No, she ignores it like a pro, blasting a new band her friend from school had recommended instead and twirling her pen around her fingers, settling back into the position she was in before.

Stay, for tonight. If you want to, I can show you, what my dreams are made of. As I'm dreaming of your face... I've been away for a long time, such a long time, and I miss you there. I can't imagine being anywhere else, I can't imagine being anywhere else but here.

She groans, aggravated, picking up the ipod and settling on an AFI album. Much better.

A few minutes into Sing The Sorrow her phone buzzes with a new message. Ever since she had returned from Warped Jess has been constantly receiving messages, mostly old friends praising Aurora's success. Those always put a smile on her face, even if the congratulations did get overwhelming at times. Since it's been a couple days now they're starting to slow down, but she grabs her phone from her bedside table and opens it regardless.

It's from Caroline, a girl in her Algebra 2 and Gym classes. They had hung out a few times outside of school but never really got close. Jess likes her, though, Caroline's a friendly person that's up for anything.

"hey jess! I got tix to see a band thats coming to town in three days but I cant go. family shit. I know you love shows so do you want them?"

Hell yeah, Jess thinks. She loves concerts almost as much as she loves playing them, which really is saying something. And maybe this'll be the perfect distraction from Alex and thinking Warped Tour in general; she hasn't been going out much. Actually, she hasn't done much outside of staying at home and feeling sorry for herself.

"yeaaahhh! thanks! I'll come by and get them tomorrow. and for who?"

"that bmore band everyones into. all time low I think. :) sure!"

Jess drops her phone to the floor and the clattering sound it makes seems to echo throughout the house.

Shit. Fuck. Damn. Shit.

What have I gotten myself into? And furthermore, why the fuck does this kind of thing keep happening?

Or...maybe it's some kind of blessing in disguise, Jess tries to tell herself, bending over and picking up her phone as she tries to figure out what to say next. If I see them again I'll finally get the closure I need, so I can move on properly. It'll just be a one-time thing, and I did promise to go to their show-

But no, he blocked her number. Alex can't possibly still care about her.

They won't even know I'm there. Just a mental goodbye.

Her fingers stumble over the keys but the message gets the point across. "I'll be there."