Shelter

Alex was in one of his rare happy moods this morning. It was a few days into the tour now and he had woken up in a good mood because he had a night with no nightmares. It was early when he woke up, but that was probably because he had fallen asleep so early the previous night. He headed up front and saw that everyone else was up too, staggering around and looking for energy drinks and coffee as they pulled clothes on and checked their phones.

“Good morning!” Alex greeted happily, earning a lot of weird looks from his friends as they mumbled greetings in return. He sat down beside Jack on the couch, commenting, “I thought I was the only one up early, but I guess I was wrong.”

“You’re oddly happy this morning,” Jack said through a yawn, looking at Alex curiously.

“I woke up in a good mood. No nightmares,” Alex said with a shrug, and Jack smiled. “So, uh, why is everyone else up so early?”

Flyzik took a sip of his coffee before explaining, “You guys have a live performance and an interview on a news channel this morning.”

“What?!” Alex exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Alex...” Jack said with a frown, knowing his best friend was about to blow up.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Alex demanded angrily.

“I didn’t want you to worry about it! You would have spent the first few days of tour stressing out and wouldn’t have concentrated on the shows,” Flyzik protested.

“You know I hate live interviews, and I hate them even more when you don’t tell me,” Alex said through gritted teeth.

Rian rolled his eyes at them, “Alex, you know you would have been a wreck for the past few days if we told you ahead of time. Just calm down, everything will be fine.”

“Fuck you, Rian. No one asked you,” Alex snapped, feeling upset as he stomped back into his bunk.

Alex hid in his bunk for as long as possible, but he eventually had to come out. Flyzik had threatened to make Zack forcefully drag him out of the bunk if he didn’t get ready soon, and Alex wasn’t in the mood to be manhandled by Zack. He washed up and got dressed before finally heading into the television studio with the rest of the band.

The crew was finishing setting up the equipment and the band was hanging out in a dressing room because their performance and interview wasn’t for another forty-five minutes, at eleven o’clock. Jack, Zack, and Rian were goofing around with each other and Alex was pacing around the room, unable to sit still.

“Alex, please come sit down,” Zack pleaded, looking up at Alex as he walked by for the fifteenth time.

“No.”

“Pacing around is just going to make you more nervous, bro,” Rian reasoned, picking up a bag of chips from the table.

“I don’t care.”

“Lex, come on. I’ll give you hugs,” Jack said, pouting at him pitifully.

“No.”

“I can make you sit down,” Zack threatened, standing up and waiting for Alex to walk by again. Alex’s eyes widened and he stopped, turning to pace toward the other end of the room. Zack ran after him and grabbed him, picking him up and tossing him over his shoulder

“Fuck you!” Alex yelled, kicking his feet.

Flyzik opened the door and sighed at the sight, “Really? Put the poor guy down and leave him alone.”

“Sorry,” Zack grumbled, setting Alex back on the floor gently. Alex frowned at him.

“Come on, you guys need to do a sound check. The crew finished setting everything up and we need to make sure everything’s ready,” Flyzik added, motioning for the boys to follow him. They all headed out to the studio to do a sound check, just simply going through a song to make sure the microphone and instruments were sounding right.

Alex gave his guitar back to Danny and walked away from the others when they started to goof around. Jack was singing a song about dicks and Flyzik was yelling at him because they were in a professional television studio. Alex walked back to the dressing room and shut the door, pacing around again. Pacing was good. Pacing helped anxiety attacks a little bit because then he wasn’t just sitting there shaking.

Alex was so distracted that he didn’t notice Jack come into the room. Jack shut the door quietly, walking toward Alex and waiting for him to pace back that way so he would see him. Alex jumped when he turned around and saw Jack standing there. “I didn’t see you,” he mumbled, continuing to pace.

Jack reached out and grabbed onto Alex’s wrist, “Quit pacing. It makes me nervous.”

“It makes me less nervous though,” Alex whined.

“I make you less nervous too,” Jack argued, reaching out to take Alex’s other hand so he was holding both of them. “Seriously, everything will be fine. You’re making it worse by worrying.”

“Am not.”

“Yeah, you are. What are you scared about? The performance or the interview?” Jack questioned.

“The interview,” Alex mumbled, looking down at their hands. “I’m afraid I’ll say something stupid or have an anxiety attack or-”

“If you don’t calm down, you’ll have an anxiety attack during the interview. Relax. Just because it’s a live interview doesn’t make it any different from every other interview we’ve done,” Jack reassured him softly. Alex began to protest but Jack shook his head, “I’ll be right beside you the whole time, okay? There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I guess so...”

“If you can perform in front of a couple thousand kids, you can sit and talk to a woman interviewing us,” Jack pointed out.

Alex smiled slightly, “When you put it that way, it makes me feel silly.”

“That’s because you are being silly,” Jack chuckled, squeezing Alex’s hands again. Their eyes met and Jack’s smile faded a little. Alex looked at him in confusion. His eyes widened when Jack leaned in and kissed him for a few seconds, then quickly pulled away. Alex’s mouth opened then closed, not sure what to say. “Um... sorry...” Jack mumbled, blushing heavily and walking out of the room quickly.

Well, that got Alex’s mind off the interview.