The Girl At The Rock Show

-Salt Lake City, UT.-

“I call top bunk!” Vinny yelled, making a beeline for the bus in front of them. Jack gasped beside her as he started running after her brother with Alex close behind the taller boy. Tessa just rolled her eyes as she stayed where she was next to Matt as they took the normal, slower pace towards the bus.

She honestly was freaking out at that point. It was like the more time she took walking towards the bus, the longer it took for her to realize that this was reality. She didn’t understand why a tour bus made everything so much realer for her. Maybe it was the fact that she was about to step onto the thing she would be calling her home for the next month and a half while she completed the first real assignment for her job. Which was a really scary thought.

Over the last few days since they had landed in Utah and prepared for tour, she had been getting more and more nervous, second guessing herself, and wondering if this was all a set up by her boss to show that she really couldn’t do her job. But after countless pep talks from Vinny and Matt, she finally realized that the only way for her to stop freaking out was to forget about why she was there and just allow life to come at her as it did and not worry about the future. That was really the only thing keeping herself sane at the moment as she stepped closer and closer to the bus.

“Hey, you ok?” Matt asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

She looked up at him and gave him her best fake smile to cover up her worry and nodded. “Yeah, totally fine,”

Matt gave her a look that told her that he didn’t buy it, but let it go in favor of making sure that the noise coming from the trailer attached to the bus wasn’t because something already went wrong. She just smiled to herself as she climbed the steps leading into the bus and pushed all the worried thoughts out of her head as she continued toward the noise coming from the back of the bus where the boys were probably still fighting about bunks.

“Tessie! Thank God! Please tell your brother that he’s too short to climb up to the top bunk every night!” Jack said when he saw her standing there watching in amusement.

“Dude! Height has nothing to do with it!” Vinny shot back as the two began another debate on whether that was true or not.

“I thought everyone hated the top bunk,” Tessa said to Alex as they both watched the boys. Alex just rolled his eyes and shrugged as he shoved his bag into one of the bunks, not caring which one he took.

Tessa followed suit, taking the very bottom bunk under the still unclaimed bunks above her. Someone reached above her from where she was crouched down by her bunk and she glanced up to see Matt standing there putting a few of his things in the bunk. He looked down when he felt eyes on him and smiled when he caught her eye.

Vinny and Jack had finally stopped bickering when Matt finally assigned bunks to them and the rest of them picked which ones they wanted. Alex ended up being in the bottom bunk across from her with Jack above him and then the others scattered around to whatever bunks were left.

“Hey girlie,” Cassadee said as Tessa walked to the front of the bus where the kitchenette and seating areas were. She smiled to the older girl as she sat down beside her and stole a few chips that she was eating. The singer was joining them for their first week of tour because she had some time off and Rian really wanted her to come. As it was they had a really long distance relationship and both of them jumped at the chance to be together, even if it was for a little while.

“Are you getting nervous?” Cass asked quietly when she noticed Tessa get quiet again. The only time she had ever seen the younger girl quiet was when they first met, she had been really shy and quiet, but once they got to know each other more, she found out the girl was anything but quiet. Tessa only got quiet when she was worried or upset.

Tessa looked up and shrugged, “Yeah. But I’m trying to keep my mind on other things so I don’t think about it.”

“Well you have nothing to worry about,” Cassadee smiled. “You’re a great writer and I know you’re article is going to be amazing when it comes out. As soon as it’s printed I’m going to get it and call you to tell you I told you so.”

“Thanks Cassie,” Tessa said as her brother came in followed by Grieco and Danny who were carrying a bunch of things to hook up to the tv. She just rolled her eyes as she watched the boys start to plug in the Xbox and decide which order the games should go in on the shelf.

Jack came rushing from the back of the bus with a huge smile on his face and he went over to where Tessa and Cass were sitting and sat on the younger girls lap. “Hi Tessie!”

“Hi Jackalope,” Tessa smiled as she wrapped her arms around Jack’s waist. “Run out of things to annoy the others with?”

“He can always find ways to annoy us,” Matt answered as he also walked into the room. Cass and Tessa started laughing as Jack just flipped him off but didn’t bother to reply. Tessa just figured that Jack would find another way to get the tour manager back for the comment, and everyone knew it also.

There was a few moments silence before Jack started muttering about Danny and Grieco setting up the Xbox wrong. “You’re going to be so dead if Alex finds out you screwed everything up!” Jack said, loudly enough for the whole bus to hear.

“What!?” Alex yelled from somewhere in the back and was where the rest of them were in a matter of seconds, pushing Matt and Colussy out of the way as he rushed in. It took him a second to locate where Danny was trying, and failing, to set up the system and started grumbling to himself as he walked over to shove him out of the way so he could do it himself.

Everyone else eventually made their way into the main room and were sitting around or trying to find something to do. Matt and Colussy were in their own little world at the kitchen table with their laptops open and discussing whatever it was that tour managers discussed on the day before tour. Danny and Alex, well mostly Alex, with a little help from Jack, finally got the Xbox up and were now currently playing a game with the others cheering and trying to distract one another.

“Hey guys, do we need anything else from the store?” Matt asked a while later.

“Beer!” was what most of the boys all replied at the exact same time. Tessa laughed when Matt started to mutter under his breath about it being one of the first things they had mentioned the first time he asked and then announced that he was leaving to get some supplies. Tessa shoved Jack off her lap and jumped up telling Matt that she would join him.

She ran back to her bunk to where she left her old pair of Toms and then grabbed her phone and wallet before bouncing back to the front room and followed out the door. There was a local grocery store a block away and they kept up a small conversation as they walked toward it.

“So what’s first on the list?” Tessa asked once they were inside the store and walking down the first aisle.

Matt pulled the list out of his pocket to check, “Um cereal.”

She nodded as she steered the cart to the proper aisle, picking out some random things and moving on to the next part of the list. When they were about halfway through the list, Tessa happened to glance up at the other people also in the aisle and smiled widely when she took a double take and recognized the two people.

“Tay!” She yelled as the tall guy and the really shorter girl in question looked up and saw them. Tay smiled also as she rushed over and pulled Tessa into a hug.

“What the hell are you doing here? Are you stalking your brother for a little while?” Tay asked as they let go.

She shrugged, “my boss assigned me to follow Warped and write an article about life on the road.”

“Are you serious? That’s so awesome! Congrats on your first official assignment!” Tay pulled her in for another hug and Tessa laughed as she went to hug Jordan also.

“Congrats kiddo,” He said once he let her go. “So I take it you’re going to have to come stalk us and be a total creeper?” He teased as she blushed.

“Aw Jordy, leave her alone, you’re making her nervous,” Tay scolded as Jordan and Matt shared a look and rolled their eyes.

Tay had always acted like a big sister to her even though they were basically the same age. They had first met when All Time Low and We Are The In Crowd had done their first tour together and hit it off right away. She had found out that Tay also had an obsession with Disney movies like Matt and she did also so all three of them had snuck into the back lounge of All Time Low’s bus after a show one night to have a marathon.

So now it was tradition to hold one whenever they were together. To alternate busses and kick everyone else out of the room so they could indulge in their guilty pleasures and eat ice cream and sing along to all the songs. Everyone always made fun of them for it but they really didn’t care, just as long as they didn’t get in the way of their tradition.

“So when will our first movie night be?” Tay asked as they continued their shopping trip all together. Tessa laughed as she grabbed something off the shelf and linked arms with the other girl.

“Soon, I haven’t seen a Disney movie in what seems like forever.” Matt replied as both girls stared at him with open mouths. “What? I’ve been really busy,”

Both girls just went back to chatting and setting up a night when they could while they finished shopping and then went to check out. Once they paid and where back outside, they said bye when they realized that they had to go the opposite ways. Even if they were going to the same place later, their busses still ended up on opposite ends of the town.

When they got back to the bus, even before they even opened the door, they could hear loud music and voices coming from inside. Matt gave her an annoyed look as he opened the door and found all the other boys still playing games with a few other people Tessa recognized as some of the boys from Mayday Parade and You Me At Six.

She followed Matt over to the cabinets to put everything they bought away before passing around a few drinks and joining the others. As she was taking her first sip of beer and making her way over to her brother who was talking to a few other people, she realized that she hadn’t been stressing over the article for once that day and silently thanked Matt and the others who had distracted her before joining in on the dance party that was starting continuing to forget about all the worries she had. All thanks to these crazy boys around her.