The Love You've Claimed Was Just a Whisper

Rock N Roll

We got into Iowa late. It wasn't exactly ideal considering I had to get ready while the bus was still in motion, and we had to scramble into the venue with no time for sound checks. I was just glad I didn't procrastinate on completing my set mix. The down side was we were late and all of us were cracked on energy drinks and no sleep.

"Damn girl!" Dillon yelled as I entered the back stage area. After our initial meeting we had become instant friends. So had he and Jordan, but I suppose when you meet your own mini me you have to love them.

"What?" I laughed.

"What do you mean what, did you look in the mirror?" he teased. I looked down at my outfit. Since it was Joel's last day I dressed up for the occasion. I had on a pink and black tutu, white bandeau and furries, and in honor of Joel a furry pink Deadmau5 hood and all black eye mask and of course light up gloves.

"I'm going to take that as a complement." I said scrunching my face.

"I meant it as such." He said giving me an elaborate bow. Since everyone was crunched for time Joel had yet to see my ensemble. I figured it would be funny to see his face. Plus I was going to use my new tracks on my playlist. It was going to be the first time anyone, but me and Myles and Jordan head them. Des Moines consider yourselves my test dummies, but in a good way.

I had switched spots with Zedd in the line up when I found out how late we really were in case I couldn't get ready in time, which was a good thing since Zedd was already on when I got back stage. The worst case really would have been me in normal clothes and a cat mask, but it was more fun for everyone when I got to be in costume - especially this one in particular.

"What. The fuck. Are you wearing?" Joel asked from behind me.

I smiled as I turned around. "My appreciation for being here."

"Yea fucking right," he laughed "Where'd you even find that thing?"

"Internet."

"Of course."

"Hey, you're gonna watch tonight right?"

"I don't know maybe."

"Joel!" I pouted giving him my sad puppy face.

"Alright, my god! Just don't give me that face ever again its so pathetic...Actually, better yet do it again, but to Skrillex when her gets here."

"Skrillex is coming!?"

"Fuck. I made everyone keep it a secret just to fuck it up. Yea he's the real headliner of this fun little tour." Joel sighed. He then laughed at the look I can only imagine was on my face. At least I had guessed right. "Okay ruining the surprise was worth it for that look right there." I stuck my tongue out at him. "You better stick that thing back in your mouth and get out on that stage if you want me to see." he said. In all the shock I hadn't realized Zedd had finished. Jordan had though and was already moving my equipment on to the deck.

"Shit." I swore fumbling to get my laptop from my DJ bag before trotting off to the stage after Jordan.

"Hey, you good?" he asked as he finished connecting all the MIDI controllers and mixer boards to my laptop.

"I got this." I panted. If it had been anyone, but Jordan as my tech right now I'd probably have to recheck all the connections. I wasn't entirely ready to start and he knew it.

"Let's mix it up today in the spirit of all the switch ups." he half smiled. I looked at him curiously. "Note to self I miss you terribly"

"This is what we call a tragedy. Come back to me, back to me, to me." I sang back.

"You're good to go." he said handing me the mic to start my set before ducking back stage and out of site. The background behind me was dark and the only thing visible to the crowd was the LED lights on the tips of my fingers. The lights were set up to go off when my set started. The crowed however was fairly lit up by their varying costumes and glow sticks. They were going nuts from Zedd's set and cheering for me although whether any of them actually liked me versus wanted to hear more music was still to be determined. But the show had to go on.

I pressed play on my mac book and the sound of a faint violin began to ring over the crowed growing louder and slowly one by one more classical orchestral instruments joined in. My back ground slowly shifted from black to deep purple, blue, to white as the music built itself up. The crowd watched me unsure of how this was going to go. Maybe this opening idea was better used when I wasn't in the middle of the line up. I glanced over my should towards backstage. All the guys were watching intrigued at where this was going too. Classical music wasn't exactly what you expected in the middle of a rave. Jordan gave me a nod of encouragement. When I turned back to the crowd it was time for the break down. As I pressed different keys on my MIDI controller one by one the instruments began breaking down into electronic sounds until everything was electronic and the crowed was back to raging and cheering. It was a bit dramatic, but hey it was Joel's last day.

After the beginning the rest of my set was my standard remixed stories through dubstep set until the ending. Everyone was going hard and I was acutely aware that I still had an audience behind me as well. Before I dropped my last song I lowered the music so I could address the crowd.

"Des Moines! You guys are amazing, this was so much fun to play for you guys!" I paused as cheers erupted. "Are you guys ready for Porter?" They screamed in response. "How about Mr. Dillon Francis?" More screaming. "And what about my less furry and less pink friend Deadmau5!" I wasn't sure they could get much louder, but somehow they did. "Alright well my name's Aaliyah Gates and I've got one more song for you guys first." Surprisingly I received the same cheering at the rest of the guys. I guess I was making fans after all."This one's for the Mau5." I smiled switching off my mic and dropping my last song. It was of course There is no End which was my opener in reverse.

As the song slowly rebuilt itself into classical, the crowd cheered. The classical didn't seem to bother them anymore and they swayed to the violins lead. When it was over the screen faded back across the spectrum of colors until it went dark and they could only see my lit up fingers which I waved at them in farewell before disappearing back stage.

"How in the world did you make those tracks?" Porter asked shaking his head at me.

"Magic." I smiled as he went out to perform.

Joel stared at me for a moment before breaking into a smile and applauding. "I didn't think I was possible to be more impressed, and yet there you go and compose something like that."

"Not to bad for two weeks of work I take it."

"You made that in two weeks?"

"Well yea I mean I made it the week before we left and then tweeked it during down time."

"Go the fuck home. There is no way you composed music and made it flow into electronic in a week."

"Two weeks." Myles corrected. "And yeah she did during one of our finals no less."

"I might have shown off a little in that class." I smiled meekly.

"Is there anything you can't make?" Dillon asked.

"She can't make eggs any other way than scrambled," Jordan said.

"Do you eat anything by scrambled?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"No."

"Then shut up."

"No bitch."

"Slut."

"Your point please?"

"Are they always like this?" Joel laughed.

"No sometimes they love each other." Myles shrugged.

"Well either way we're getting a drink tonight before I go to honor the nice send off performance from the catmau5 here, and her first tour!" he laughed.

"Down! But first I need to change." I laughed grabbing my bag from Jordan and heading off to the green room to change. I wanted to watch Dillon and Joel's sets in a more comfortable fashion cause furry hoods are hot as fuck.

"Aw I liked the pink tutu." Dillon said when I rejoined him, Jordan and Myles. Zedd and Josh were out mixing something with Porter and Joel was probably causing trouble somewhere.

"We've got like 80 something days you'll see it again." I laughed.

"Promise?"

"I promise." I laughed. "Now on to watch the show." I said skipping to side area. Porter dropped Amplifire which happened to be one of my favorite songs to dance to.

SOMETIME LATER

"To Joel! It's been a fun first week!" John toasted as we all took shots in the bus parking lot since Porter was still a baby and couldn't get into the bars.

"Cheers!" We all said in unison.

"And to all you too." Joel yelled. We took our shots and I chased with a monster before it was stolen by Jordan and then Myles.

"Pussies." Joel teased.

"I'm okay with that." I nodded. Jordan and Myles shrugged. The amounts of alcohol we normally consumed in an evening meant we had gotten used to chasing with something at a young age. You can only drink Grey goose and other hard alcohols so much before the taste gets to you.

"Uno mas?" Dillon asked. We'd had two so far and none of us could afford to be too drunk since Joel had to make it through air port security and the rest of us were going to be on a moving bus to Colorado for roughly 10 hours.

"Si." I smiled. One more wouldn't kill us. "What are we cheersing to?"

"Safe travels and awesome shows!" Porter exclaimed. Can't argue with that one.

"Cheers." We all said. As we finished our shots Joel's ride to the airport pulled up.

"Looks like its my time." he sighed "I wish I could stick around and watch all the fun." I pouted.

"Yeah right, you know you wanna meet Skrillex." he laughed giving me a good by hug and fluffing up my head.

"True." I smiled. He finished his round of good byes giving manly hugs to the guys before yelling at Lindsey who was sleeping on the bus still.

"Now what?" Jordan asked.

"Ten hours of road time." I sighed.

"Monopoly?" Myles asked.

"Why not," I laughed "Porter, Zed, Dillon, John, Josh any takers for Pokemon monopoly?" They all stared at me.

"What its one of their games." I said pointing at Myles and Jordan.

"How would I not be down for that?" Porter asked

"I'm not tired yet either." Dillon shrugged.

"What about you guys?" Jordan asked.

"I should sleep." Zedd pouted.

"Ditto," Josh said "Especially if I want to go on another one of your adventures later."

"I need sleep too." John said making a not so enthused about sleep face.

"Alright see you guys tomorrow." I laughed hugging Zedd goodnight.

In case anyone is wondering, Monopoly is another one of those games were someone gets messed with perpetually through out the whole game. Usually, in this case it was Tabbi. Everyone paid her in the smallest bill possible, and would exchange large bills for ones with the banker who was usually me or Myles. However, Tabbi was still in LA along with Jade who was the second most messed with person. This of course meant Monopoly was going to go very badly for me or awesomely depending on the out look on the situation.

Half way through the game I had acquired all the ones and fives available and thus made it rain on whoever I had to pay for landing on their space. Needless to say they didn't like when their little plan backfired and they were getting only ones and fives instead and had to catch them at that.

"Alright new rule." Myles said "No one can change out all their bills for one and fives in the middle of the game."

"Yea Aly what the fuck?" Jordan teased.

"What? I like ones and fives it makes me look richer." I laughed. Jordan flipped me off. We'd been at this for about 2 hours and the excitement from the show had wound down leaving all of us semi tired. "I think it's my bed time." I sighed

"Agreed." Jordan said.

"Uh you guys can help yourselves to the extra beds there's a ton of them." I smiled heading for the bunks.

"I call top!" Dillon yelled running after me towards the beds. I had a top bunk while Jordan and Myles both slept on the bottom bunks right below and across from me. It was nice, it gave sleeping a homey feel since we wouldn't be home except to do one show in like another two weeks. Plus knowing they were close helped me sleep, there was something about the familiarity that made me feel safe.

There was light peeking around the edges of the curtain when I opened my eyes. We'd apparently made it to Denver, if the lack of motion was anything to go by. I rolled out of bed with a small thud and headed to get ready for the day. Despite having been traveling for a solid week on less than Seven hours of sleep a night I was still as excited as ever about exploring every new city. Maybe once I'd seen everything a good five or six times I'd slow down a little. In the mean time I was going to be enjoying the warm weather of Denver in my new hooded grey Skrillex shirt, some shorts and my comfy vans.

Everyone was still sleeping when I emerged from the back room. Unacceptable. I mean I appreciated sleep as much as the next girl, but I was awake therefore these assholes need to be as well and I just so happen to know the perfect way to go about it. After all what better way is there to wake up than to music....really really loud music.

I didn't have to go far to set up the two sets of speakers necessary to wake up all four of my current bunk mates. I set a pair of speakers at each end of the sleeping quarters facing in a way to get maximum impact and hooked them up to Jordan's laptop and turned the volume all the way up. I didn't want to risk mine getting messed up on the off chance this didn't go as planned and things were about to get rather loud as soon as I found the song I was looking for. Jade may not have appreciated my last Skrillex wake up, but Jordan and Myles they were a different story. I scrolled down to the Skrillex section on Jordan's iTunes until I got to Rock 'N" Roll(Will take you to the mountain) and hit enter.

Porter apparently forgot he was on the top bunk and fell on top the floor with his pillow where he laid sprawled across the hall. Dillon at least managed to land of his feet tired, but amused. Jordan was next to emerge followed by Myles who apparently smacked his head on the top bunk in surprise, but was most enthused about the current situation. He ran down the hall barely managing to miss kicking Porter in ribs and almost tackling me in a hug.

"Ah yea breakfast time!" he yelled steadying himself and me before Jordan joined in all the fun.

"Breakfast burritos!" Jordan yelled bouncing to the beat along with me. Porter sat up from his position on the floor and Dillon looked more awake.

"Yo its burrito time, get dressed!" I ordered hugging Myles good morning.

"I am dressed." Myles said. Evidently he'd changed sometime after I had gone to sleep. Jordan was too, but in the same thing from the night before like the rest of the guys.

"Fuck it, its burrito time!" Porter smiled hopping off the floor.

ALT POV

Hello again, to all my friends, together we can play some rock n' roll.
Rock n' roll.
Rock n' roll.
Rock n' roll.
Rock n' roll.
Rock n' roll.

I could hear my music blaring from outside. The show was a long way off and it was too close and lengthy to be a passerby. So who was blaring my music at 10:34 a.m. I looked out the window and saw Porter and Dillon with Aly's two guy friends jump off the bus as the music quieted down, but was still mildly audible from where I was standing. Ahead of the guys was a girl. I couldn't tell who she from behind. Then she turned doing a little funny dance in front of them. It was her. Aly was still here on tour with me. That's what Joel had been up to with all the taunting. He wanted me to believe she was leaving with him. Good old Joel and his pranks.

She laughed at their reactions to her jig and one of this joined her as they did a little pointing dance followed by another little shimmy hip thrust thing. Her face lit up then and it sent butterflies to my stomach. What was it about her? This girl who I had never met, but affected me like crazy. Who had me from the moment she played her music. Maybe it was just that I liked her music and was going through some kind of weird obsession over it. I could almost believe it if I had just watched her performance clips I had googled over the last week and the one I took. Except I didn't just watch those, I watched the live stream of her telling me bye and the party video. More than once. There was just something about her. Maybe it was all in my head. I didn't know her, maybe she is nothing like her music.

My phone chimed then telling me I had a message. It was from Ellie.

- I'll be able to meet up with you guys in Texas! Love El

God what was I doing to myself. It has to be the mystery. I loved Ellie, she was amazing. Yep this whole Aly thing had to be that I just didn't know her yet. Somewhere in my head I heard something say Lies, but I ignored it. This was my theory and I wasn't going to give it up...

NORMAL

"My only request of the day is I don't wind up covered in food." Porter laughed referencing our last food adventure as a group. Since then we hadn't had much time for full meals much less exploring.

"Nah we take breakfast burritos pretty seriously." Myles said while Jordan nodded.

"It's true. Pizza is whatever, but you don't mess with breakfast," I smiled "Plus with a burrito you don't look nearly enough like a zombie to make being covered in it fun."

"Man I just missed getting to see that. The aftermath was hilarious though." Dillon sighed

"Heh Aly made a great zombie model."

"Well sir Myles I did have a good photographer." I linked my arm through his as we continued on our way.

It was roughly six blocks of not so exciting suburbs until we reached the tiny Mexican food place Myles had googled. The weather was nice to say the least and I was in good company. Plus I hadn't had a breakfast burrito in almost a month which should be criminal. I ordered two to make up for lost time, which as usual landed me with questioning looks of where the food ended up after I ingested it.

"For being so small you eat like a starving lion." Dillon laughed.

"I appreciate the cat reference," I laughed "Ooh swings!"

"Aly that's a school." Porter laughed.

"So."

"We're four guys and a girl all over 18. We would probably get arrested."

"Well not all of us would get arrested, some of us can run fast."

"Yeah you bitch." Jordan scoffed.

"I wouldn't leave you behind." I smiled sweetly.

"Not down," Myles said "I like going to USC."

"Fine." I pouted setting down my second burrito. We were in Colorado, they had to have a park somewhere in the vicinity.

"I don't like that look." Dillon said staring at me.

"What look."

"She's plotting something." Porter said. I raised an eyebrow at Myles. I didn't know I had this particular look. He just shrugged at continued eating. I was going to find something to do here. It was our best shot of getting in an adventure before we were stuck on the bus until we made it to Washington in 3 more day. Okay so it wasn't like that was incredibly horrible, but I liked doing random things. Hmm.

"Down." Jordan said looking at me. I smiled and nodded. "Find a place and this is happening." Dillon looked a Porter who was equally as lost at the silent conversation Jordan and I were having.

"I'm thinking here." I said wiggling my fingers.

"Nice." Myles said between mouthfuls of burrito.

"Is anyone going to elaborate?" Porter asked. Dillon had in the last few days decided he enjoyed watching things unfold more than asking questions.

"Do you really wanna know or would you rather just enjoy the ride?" I laughed.

"That's a loaded question."

"I know."

"Tattoos. Myles answered him finally.

Myles and Jordan always knew when I had the urge to get a tattoo. I had three so far and was feeling not so symmetrical. Of course Jordan knew about my obsession with being symmetrical when it came to my body art and piercings so he probably saw this mission coming a lot sooner than I did.

"Can you handle that on your fingers?" Porter asked putting the pieces together now."

"Why not all the other ones tickled."

"You have tattoos?" I held up three fingers in response.

"Where?"

"You haven't noticed them when she's running around?" Dillon teased.

"You have?"

"I'm a guy. Of course I did," he laughed. Jordan and Myles raised their eyebrows.

"Ew." Jordan said. I flipped him off.

"Nice to know someone still remembers I'm a girl."

"Kinda hard not to....I mean-"

"Just stop while your ahead Francis." I laughed. He shrugged.

"You fascinate me." Porter said shaking his head.

"She has that effect." Myles said as we go up to leave. I gave a small bow and tossed out the remaining scraps of my breakfast.

"What are you going to get?" Jordan asked.

"I'm debating. I'll know when we get there."

"If you get Live Free we'd be twins."

"Except your's has almost disappeared."

ALT POV

"Skril my man what's up?" John greeted me as he finally emerged from the bunks.

"Sup John."

"Looks like we can get this party started right tonight," he laughed.

"You haven't been partying already?"

"Not too much. Porter and Dillon have though along with uh." he paused unsure if he ruined Joel's surprise.

"Aly? I saw her this morning with them and her friends." I laughed.

"Yea she's an interesting little thing," he laughed "You meet her yet?

"Nah, they were going somewhere when I saw her." John just smiled. "What's so funny?"

"You should ask Josh."

"Ask me what? Oh hey bro whats up?"

"Not much just got in this morning."

"Oh cool."

"Tell him about Chicago with Aly." John laughed. Josh shook his head amused.

"Avoid pizza places with those three," he laughed "I ended up covered in it. Oh and when you end up covered in pizza it automatically means someones a zombie and you get chased."

NORMAL

"You giggled. You literally giggled while he stabbed a needle repeatedly into your finger. That's it you are not human." Porter laughed as we headed back to the buses.

"Should we tell him?" Myles asked turning to Jordan.

"I don't know. I mean I think we can trust him."

"Aly is really a science experiment gone wrong." Myles sighed.

"I knew it!" Dillon yelled.

I scowled. Why couldn't they be more sweet...okay who was I kidding they're assholes. They could have at least made it a bit more awesome though. I guess I could work with this though.

"Fuck you guys." Porter laughed. He'd been hanging out with us enough over the past week to reach this level of sarcastic jokes from us.

"Careful some of them might think your serious." I teased.

"Ew." They all said in unison. I shrugged as I examined my new piece of art. I ended up getting "Believe" in cursive on the side of my middle finger. It was the same spot Jordan had "Live Free."

"Oh hey Aly is it cool if we switch spots in the line up Zedd wants to do a mashed up set or something tonight since this is one of our bigger parties?"

"Uh yea sure. I switched with Zedd last night cause we were late so you should be back to normal with me after Josh."

"Oh I guess they didn't write that in for tonight and kept it from Iowa. I guess you can still go after us though if you want."

"Yea open for me!" Dillon smiled. I felt like I was being promoted.

"I uh - okay." I smiled.

"We mix it up all the time - except the headlines." Dillon offered seeing my confusion. I'd never been super high in a line up so it was all new to me. I was going to need more prep time for this then.

"You'll be fine, it's no different than opening really." Porter offered throwing his arm over my shoulders.

"I'm not worried I'm thinking of what I'm going to wear. Pressure is on my two DJs over there." I smiled referring to our little game.

"Well you've got a good six hours of planning." Dillon teased. It was barely 2:30 p.m. when we reached the buses.

"Yea well I need a post breakfast nap and maybe another meal in between." I smiled as Myles yawned and then nodded in agreement.

"Well then," Porter smiled "We will leave you too it."

"Au revoir." I smiled giving them a farewell curtsy before climbing onto the bus. Jordan followed Porter and Dillon onto the other bus while Myles stayed with me.

"He's gonna regret not napping one of these days." I laughed flopping on to the queen size pullout of the studio room - which was now my room.

"Probably." Myles agreed falling ontop of me.

"Smyles!"

"What?"

"You're squishing me!"

"Are you calling me fat?"

"No, but your crushing my lungs!"

"Oh. Sorry." he laughed shifting off of me. I smiled in thanks before slowly falling into a short lived sleep.

ALT POV

"Sup." Porter greeted me coming back from his set. "She's up if you want to see her it's a pretty awesome show."

I nodded to him and headed out to see her perform. I had managed to be everywhere she wasn't today, but at least now I could see her perform. Dillon was with her two friends on the right hand side so I opted to watch stage left where I didn't have to miss anything. Everything was dark but I could still see her silhouette from the light her hood, gloves, and skirt were giving off.

She was quite poised as she scanned the crowed waiting for the right moment to start her set. The background began to ripple into dark blues and purples like the sound emitting from her laptop was making waves on water. The intro was different this time though. It was classical? Really pretty classical, I liked it, but I'm not quite sure how to party to it. She was watching the crowds reaction unfazed just waiting for something. Then she pressed a sequence into her control. All the instruments from her concerto began to change one by one into electronic. The drop was phenomenal too. She was going for sensationalism now. Playing for the crowd and using all her skills. Amazing.

Watching her made me feel like I was a kid again watching all my favorite musicians perform. The energy and atmosphere of wanting to hear your favorite songs, I was feeling that now. She was quite alluring the way she danced and moved to her mix, but it was also cute too. Pieces of her personality I had seen from the videos Joel had sent me were becoming more evident the more I watched her. I'm glad I had found her and that she was here. Her love of performing and music was so pure and real she deserved to have everything she had dreamed.

NORMAL

When the screen faded to black I all, but ran back stage. Skrillex was here somewhere and I wasn't going to miss his performance.

"Bag." I asked Jordan who tossed it to me while I was still heading for the green room. He and Myles were just as excited to be going down into the crowd to watch rather than on the side. Not that is wasn't fun too, but when the show was this big the crowd was more fun. I pulled off all my furries, mask, and my light up skirt before throwing on my shorts and sneakers. I left my lace halter on to save time and to keep cool before heading to grab Jordan and Myles and go down to the crowd.

Dillon had one of the longest set times out of all of us being the second headliner, so I had plenty of time to enjoy his set too. Especially since I'd made him promise to play Que Que and Masta Blasa towards the end so I could enjoy dancing to them. I stuffed my performance pass into my bra as we were let through the barrier into the crowd. I didn't need to get exiled from backstage or let it fall into the wrong hands so that was the safest place I could thing to store it. The guys just tucked theirs under their shirts so they could rage as hard as they wanted worry free.

The even more awesome thing was our little carved out section was for the 21+ VIPs and there were plenty of plastic cups of beer to be drank while we partied. There was something about moombahton that made you want to do three things; dance, drink, and smoke weed. Well the first two for me the third was added by Jordan and Myles. Lucky for them this was the setting me make friends and potentially get some, since neither of them could take their "meds" on the airplane when we had left.

I drank and laughed and danced my heart out through Dillon's set. Especially when Porter ran out and jumped on him. It was quite amusing watching him support Porters without falling over.

"Are you guys ready to see Skrillex?" Dillon asked as his set wound down. They screamed all around us. I screamed too of course, I'm not above sounding annoying and screaming at every question asked of me. "Well I promised Miss Aaliyah Gates I'd play this song last just for her enjoyment -" The erupted in screams. "I take it you liked her," he teased "As I was saying, I saved her favorite for last so enjoy little one where ever you are out there." He turned the volume up again so I could hear as Que Que began.

"Best show ever!" I smiled at Myles and Jordan as Dillon exited the stage.

"And it's not over yet." Jordan noted.

"Beer?" Myles asked handing me what I think was my third cup of beer.

"Of course sir." I smiled cheersing him. He was closest to the little bar area handing them out. To us at least since he had his pass and was showing it for complementary drinks.

"I don't know how I'm going to be able to purchase drinks at a show ever again," he laughed taking a drink.

"We never did before." I laughed.

"True, but this make me want to, but not actually have to pay." he smiled. I rolled my eyes as the lights darkened again and the crowed screamed around us. It was Skrillex time! He didn't have is cell on this tour, but I was still intrigued to see how is set was going to go and what he was going to play. his arsenal of music was endless in comparison to mine. I did, however now have permission from Joel to play his songs and apparently Feed Me said I could mess with their stuff too. Hooray for Mau5trap siblings.

I'd seen him countless times before ever since he was in From First to Last, but every time felt like that first time. I kind of missed his old stuff when he sang all the time, but then again that was probably due to the fact that he on two occasions had pointed the mic at me during Note to Self and Mora. He couldn't really do that as Skrillex, but hey I loved good light shows and dance music too so I could compromise. This was especially true when his first seven songs were all my favorites, before he paused to address the crowd.

"I just got back from Europe to play for you guys and so far you all are amazing. I couldn't ask for a better set of old friends and soon to be new friends to join me on this tour, so with that, I want you guys to make some noise for the newest artist on Mau5trap Aaliyah Gates for joining all of us for the next few months and for playing fucking amazing set!" Sonny yelled into the microphone. They cheered at his command. Lets go hard and have some fun!"

I could feel my eyes get wide from where I was in the crowd. "That just happened." Myles yelled into my ear handing me another cup of beer and giving me a side hug. Jordan was still busy making friends so he could get some weed. I smiled a Myles and downed the contents of the cup. Being intoxicated and incredibly happy meant the entire vip section got to witness my happy dance. Although where the happy dance ended and the drunk at a rave dancing took over was a very blurry line.

By the time the show was over and we got back to the bus I was exhausted. Note to self - going hard on nothing but energy drink and beer in your system without proper rest beforehand will make you sleepy and a not so functional drunk person. Myles steadied me as we climbed up the two stairs to pass out.

"I need a shower." I wanted to cry.

"Do it in the morning." I stared at him. After being in the crowed and doused in beer and god knew what else I was not about to climb in bed and spread it around. "Okay good point." he sighed sizing up my current messy appearance. It was worth it don't get me wrong. I performed, saw Dillon and Skrillex from the craziest crowed I'd seen thus far, got a tattoo, and got a bit contact high with Myles and Jordan from their new friend the made at the show. Not to mention the shout out from Skrillex. However, when all was said and done I felt like death. By the time I managed to shower Jordan had made his way home and had passed out on the floor.

"Jordan!" I shook him.

"What bitch."

"You're on the floor get the fuck in bed." He didn't move and I was in no shape to make him. His ass was just gonna hate life later.

NEXT MORNING

I didn't sleep well. It was a mix of being cross-faded at the show and the movements of the bus, and the fact that in the few time's I'd been to Utah it always seemed to be freezing or sweltering hot. The journey its self took all of 6 hours. If I was a smart girl I'd attempt to keep sleeping until a reasonable hour like Noon. Sleep was a luxury on this trip and I found myself giving up more and more of it. I was, however, grateful my brother was sponsored by Monster energy and thus I had managed to acquire it in large quantities. Our mini fridges on the bus were full of it, random assortments of alcohol, cheese and tortillas. My tour diet wasn't awesome I was eating pretty much quesadillas and whatever food we bought in town. I was thankful at least for my fast metabolism and the exercise I was getting adventuring.

My eyes fluttered open soon after the bus parked. Luckily, I wasn't hungover, although I was starving. I rolled off my bunk and changed into my over sized long sleeve monster energy shirt, shorts, and a pair of gladiator sandals. There was no way I was facing Salt Lake City on my own, so unfortunately for the boys one of them was going to get woken up.

I was about to wake up Myles when someone tapped on the bus door. Who the hell knocks? I'd been here for 9 days so far and not once did any of these boys knock. Now I was curios so Myles would get to sleep a little longer. I made my way to the door and pushed it open.

"Hi, you must be Aly." Sonny Moore a.k.a Skrillex said standing below me smiling.