Four Corners and Two Sides

"Can you sign my tshirt?"
"Of course!" I smiled at a fan who looked really nervous to be by our tent. It was now late afternoon in Massachusetts. I had a sunburn across all of my open skin, we were out of aloe, and Mitchell couldn't resist slapping my shoulders every five minutes. Which in turn, made me pull his hair, and made him make some snide comment about how much he liked it. Pervert.
"Are you nervous or something?" I laughed at the younger girl, who was shaking as I tried to write my name clearly on the blue fabric.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'm so awkward," she said.
"No need to apologize! And I'm awkward too, it's fine. I think we're all awkward in our own way," I replied as I finished up my signature.
She asked for a hug, which I returned tightly (while cringing thanks to lobster skin), and I watched her run off back to her friends. It was a special moment, like meeting all of the fans in general. I wanted to grab a microphone and tell them we were all just a bunch of kids once. We got all anxious and sweaty too, when we met our heroes because it didn't seem real. Creating music in the basement of mom's house. That it was entirely possible to live out a dream you had. Whenever they acted so excited to meet us, my heart grew even bigger. It felt impossible to be here. I could never run out of room in my heart for these people.
I felt a nudge to my left, which brought me back to reality. An older boy stood across from me, looking around my age.
"Eliza," he took a few seconds, "I think I'm in love with you."
I was shocked, to say the least. It appeared that the boy tried to make up the courage to say it, but I could only sit there with my mouth slightly ajar.
"Oh, uh," I said quietly, a perfect awkward moment, and rubbed the back of my neck. "That's so sweet of you to say."
"I'm serious." He held out a piece of paper to me, which included all five of us in one of those generic band poses.
"Well, thank you," I laughed, and he did too. The wrinkles coming alive at the corners of his eyes made it seem genuine. He was having a good, honest fit of giggles as I signed Eliza Lennell in a curvy, cursive.
He too, asked for a hug, and I prayed silently that somebody would be generous enough to pick up some aloe vera as soon as we were done here.
Eddie looked at me sideways as we were getting down to the last of the fans. "They really like you."
"...Yes."
"Don't take advantage of it."
"Really, Eddie? Still trying to hand me advice?"
He shook his head and began signing as I waited, looking at him expressionless. Although I was feeling a lot of emotions... Like anger, annoyance, irritation, etc.
"If you mess anything up, not all of them are going to stick by you, remember that."
"Mess things up?" I whispered. "By making choices, you assume I'll mess things up. It's life."
"And it's your choice to mess things up or not. I've been hearing things."
"What things?" I perked up, leaning more towards him.
"Tell you after," he shook an older man's hand and that man then moved onto me. I faked a smile for everyone else that came along. Yes, I was very happy to meet and greet, but Eddie of course, left me hanging. Curiosity flooded my brain, leaving me half on Earth, and half in the cloud of my own thoughts.

After Eric rubbed aloe on my back (lucky him, lucky me I guess), I met up with Eddie in the bunk room. We closed the separator and he held a can of beer out to me.
"No thanks, you know how I feel about beer," I snorted as I took a seat on Mitchell's bunk, which laid across from Eddie's.
He shrugged and popped open the can with ease. I was sure if he had to pop open one hundred cans of beer, blindfolded, he could do it within a minute's time.
I crossed my arms over my chest, and waited for him to tell me. He took the slowest sip of a lifetime, and eventually sat it down on the floor next to him, careful to not spill a drop.
"Okay," He sighed. "I overheard Gabe and Kellin talking about something while I was on their bus last night."
"You were on the bus? I didn't see you."
"This was earlier, much earlier. Probably when you were checking on the other guys."
"Oh, right, right."
"Anyways, I wasn't drunk, as you know. I'm not ever a fan of getting wasted, so I was fully rational as I listened in on an argument. While Jack was fucking around with the XBOX in front of me, I zoned in. Gabe wanted Kellin to tell you something."
"I don't think I've exchanged more than a sentence with Gabe," I admitted.
"Well, he's normally a quiet guy, which was why this must have been important. It was a shock, even to me, to hear him yelling at Kellin like this."
It made sense. Eddie and Gabe became really close over the past month, as both were men of such short talk. They were big on listening, and less on conversing.
My stomach tightened as I waited for the next words. We had just gotten over the whole Eric-Kellin thing, and now I had something else following me behind my back. Warped Tour really screwed me over and I wasn't sure if I would be coming back next year or not. All I wanted to do was play music, have a romance with a sweet boy, and get crazy with my best friends. Maybe write a few songs and get to work in the studio when we got back to California. It was looking bleak from here on out.
"Gabe told Kellin to tell you about his wife."
I thought my eardrum blew out as I sat there and heard a buzz. "I'm sorry, what?"
Eddie gulped and waited as I took it in.
Wife. A wife. Man and woman. Married. Promises.
Silence all around us, except for the air conditioner, which clicked and rang out with it's sputtering.
"The name?"
"Kellin's wife? Katelynne."
"And she's real?"
Eddie tilted his head to the side, confused. "Yes, Eliza. She's real, and she's been married to Kellin for two years."
My heartbeat quickened, I could hardly breathe as I clenched my teeth together. Eddie was right, all along he had been right. I didn't know anything about Kellin.
"No fucking wonder. He never said we were dating. He never kissed me in public, or told me how much he liked me. I was just another girl he could use on tour," I stalked back and forth in the aisle, as Eddie listened to my rant, taking sips of the alcohol every few seconds. "I mean, the guy had his hand down my underwear last night, for god's sake!"
"Whoa," He held up his hand. "Too much information."
"Eddie," I ignored him. "He never made it official to me. He walked around it in circles, avoiding the question. And the rest of Sleeping With Sirens never told me a thing. They all knew what was happening! What about his wife? Should I tell her? Should I ask Kellin? Oh my god. 'Hey Katelynne, I was the girl your husband almost fucked last night.' I can't. I need to go home."
I stopped pacing and fell back onto Mitchell's bunk, lightheaded and out of breath. My mind was racing. I had been the girl Kellin cheated on his wife with. I swallowed back bile just as soon as I felt it rising in my throat. I was the girl. The "cheat-y". It didn't make me feel so great about myself, but if I had only knew...
Eddie stood up, pulling me to a sitting position. I swayed a bit, feeling woozy. "Stay here and think about what you're going to do. Think about the best thing you can do. Allow me to say I told you so, and I'll be on my way."
I closed my eyes as he held my shoulders, smelling the stale beer upon his breath.
"You'll figure it out. I'm sorry this happened to you, but we have to finish tour. Don't give up on these kids just because some asshole played you. Play the asshole, play your music, be truthful, mind yourself, and you'll be a champion."