All The Small Things

(Chapter One)

Tessa’s POV:

“Ok, that should just about do it; I’ll let you go now. You’re leaving for New York in a little while right?” Carol asked as Tessa nodded, standing from her seat in front of her boss’ desk.

“Yeah, I’m leaving in about ten minutes, I just have to grab a few things from my office and then I’m out of here.” Tessa replied as she wished her boss a good day before walking to the door and down the hall to her own office.

The meeting with Carol had gone longer than she had wanted to and now she was nearly fifteen minutes behind schedule. She had wanted to leave the office at noon to get to New York City by three but it was already nearly twenty after twelve and was going to get hell from her assistant since the younger girl was just as eager to get out of Baltimore as she was. Her heels clicked furiously against the ground as she rushed down the hall and the door leading to her office came into view.

Her assistant was sitting behind her desk just outside her closed office door with an annoyed expression on her face and Tessa just sighed as she rushed passed her knowing she would follow her into her office. And she was proven right when she turned to face her door seeing the younger girl closing it behind her and rolling her eyes as Tessa franticly tried to get everything she needed ready before they left as soon as possible.

“You know I told you to pack everything before you left for that meeting with Carol. She always talks longer than she intends to and we’re nearly a half hour late!” The younger girl said as Tessa grabbed the bag that had the change of clothes in them and opened it, not bothering to look up.

“Yes Kate I know, I don’t need a lecture from you,” Tessa replied as she began to unbutton her blouse and changed into an old Glamour Kills shirt while also exchanging her skirt for a pair of black skinny jeans.

Her sister just crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Tessa continue to change, not bothering to offer to help her finish packing since she found watching her run around trying to grab everything she needed much more entertaining. Tessa knew that’s why she was just standing there but chose to ignore her in favor of replacing her heels with a pair of Toms and pulling her hair out of the neat bun it was in and rushing over to the mirror hanging on the wall and pulling it back into a messy ponytail.

Once she was changed, she shoved her dress clothes into the bag, not really caring about folding them and began to double check to make sure she had everything ready. When she was sure she did, she grabbed her bag which held her camera and laptop along with the other bag which was serving as an overnight bag. Kate smiled when Tessa nodded saying she was ready and they both headed for the door to head out to the parking lot to get to their car.

“Ok so can you call Tay and tell her we just left and will be there in about ten minutes?” Tessa asked after they had packed everything into the car and she was driving out of the lot and onto the road. Kate just nodded as she grabbed her phone from her bag and began dialing the singer’s number muttering about how Tay was going to be pissed that they were late but Tessa just ignored her.

Thankfully Tay only lived about five minutes from where Tessa and Kate worked so it wouldn’t take too long. But God knows Tay was probably going to bring a few bags and that was going to take a couple minutes to pack into the car and get Tay to stop obsessing about leaving. This is what usually happened whenever Tay accompanied them along to one of their out of town assignments that they occasionally got.

Her younger sister had started her first year at college a few months after Warped ended two years ago and quickly realized that she wasn’t cut out for it. So after finishing her first and only semester, Tessa had hired her as her assistant, helping her out while traveling the east coast for her job. Now a year and a half later after Kate had first started, Tessa honestly didn’t know what she would do without her. Kate was an even bigger help than she had thought and was really good with the bands and helping her when she wrote. Or even just staying late and making coffee runs to Starbucks when Tessa had an article due the next day and spent all night finishing it.

Tessa, now 24, had slowly but surely began moving up in the company after her first article. Carol had loved what she had written and instantly given her another assignment soon after the Warped article had been published. She had gotten a lot of praise for her work and her photos and had to endure hearing a bunch of I told you so’s from all her friends since she had honestly not realized that it was going to get that much attention as it did.

But Tessa seriously loved her job. All the worries about not being good enough from two years ago were totally erased from her mind and she had confidence when she wrote and loved what she did. She honestly couldn’t imagine having any other job and loved all the support her family and friends had given her through the years.

“Ok, so Tay’s pissed and told you to hurry your ass up. She really wants to see the rest of the guys and get out of town for a while.” Kate said after she hung up the phone and pulled Tessa from her thoughts. There was music playing softly in the background but she wasn’t really thinking about it. Her mind was too busy thinking about that night and the interview and the concert they were traveling all the way to New York for.

Tessa laughed as she imagined the pissed look on Tay’s face while talking to Kate on the phone. The singer had moved to Baltimore about a year ago when her and Alex’s relationship had gotten more serious and decided to move to the next step. So she had packed up her things and moved to Baltimore, leaving the rest of her band in Poughkeepsie. Yes she was still in We Are The In Crowd but they were taking a few months on break since they had just come back from their own fall tour a few weeks ago and needed some time off.

And Tay always jumped at the opportunity to tag along with Kate and Tessa on a trip for a concert and they were meeting the rest of WATIC at the venue that night to hang out backstage while the bands played that night. So that’s where they were headed first before they hit the road and make the three hour drive into NYC.

This was one of the things Tessa loved most about her job, traveling the coast and getting paid to go to concerts. Yes there was more to her job than that but it was just one of the many perks to what she did and would never give it up.

“About time,” Tay said as she threw open the door to the backseat and climbed in shoving her bag in beside her.

Kate laughed as she turned in her seat to face the older girl. “Blame Tessa, I told her to pack everything up before she went to that meeting since it was going to run late. But did she listen to me? Nope. She never listens to me,”

“Shut up, we’re not that late.”

Tay glared, “we’re a half hour late Theresa.”

“It’s only twenty minutes Taylor and we’ll make up the time by once we get onto the freeway. So just shush and stop flipping out.”

Tay mumbled a few things under her breath as she turned to look out the window. Kate was back sitting properly in her seat and was messing with the radio as Tessa continued to drive. After her sister didn’t find anything good on the radio since they were going to lose signal soon anyway she began rummaging through Tessa’s endless cd collection. She could hear Kate chuckle under her breath as she reached out to put a cd in and then skipped the first few songs before turning up the volume and sitting back in her seat.

When Tessa heard the beginning notes of the song begin she laughed, looking back in the rearview mirror to see Tay start to grumble as Kiss Me Again started to play and Alex’s voice filled the car. Tay instantly started to complain about it and Tessa pressed eject, keeping the cd away from her sister and telling her to change it.

Kate rolled her eyes mumbling about how she actually did like that song but listened anyway quickly picking a cd and putting it in. That time Tessa and Tay both smiled as Awakening by Yellowcard started to play and they all started to sing along and turning up the volume as loud as it would go.

~*~*~*~

Two hours later, Tessa was proven right by her comment of catching up on the lost time as the first signs welcoming them into New York showed up on the side of the highway. When she found this out, Tessa obviously had to point that little fact out and rub it in to them. Both of the girls just rolled their eyes and ignored her in favor of listening to what was playing on the stereo.

A half hour later, Tessa was pulling up to the side of the road where the venue was. They all got up, taking a moment to stretch their legs after being in the car for so long. She went around to the back of the car to grab her camera bag which also held her tripod to record the interview and a notepad with some pens and extra batteries and things she might need for her camera.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her phone and texted one of the mangers telling them that they were there. A few moments later she got a text back telling them which door to go to so he could let them in. Tessa led the girls around back where the tour busses were and found the door that he had mentioned and took a deep breath as it got closer. Tay was nearly peeing herself behind her, jumping from one foot to the other as they waited for the door to open.

“Jesus Tay, you act as if you don’t live with him and haven’t seen him in two years.” Tessa said as Kate started to laugh.

“Shut up jerk, I’m just excited!” Tay replied as the backdoor opened and a familiar bald head poked out smiling at them. “Colussy!!!!” Tay pulled him in for a hug and he managed to get out of her grip a few moments later before pulling Tessa into a hug and then Kate.

“C’mon, I’ll take you to the boys. They just got finished with their other interview and are going to flip out when they see you all.” Colussy said as the girls eagerly nodded and followed him inside and down the hall.

As they got closer to their dressing room, they could hear loud music and voices talking from the room. Tessa rolled her eyes as Colussy pushed opened the door and began yelling something to them about the next interviewer being there. The boys slowly started to settle down a little as the girls walked in and when they saw the three of them standing there, their eyes went wide as they stared.

“What are you guys doing here?” Alex asked as he rushed over and pulled Tay in for a huge hug. She giggled as she also wrapped her arms around him.

Tessa shrugged and laughed as she saw Jack rushing over to her and pulling her in for an equally as tight hug. “We wanted to come and surprise you. We were originally assigned to come to the Baltimore show but I talked to my boss and managed to come to this one so we have the hometown show free so we don’t have to work at all.”

“Awesome! We get to see you twice now! Are you guys staying the night?” Jack asked as Tessa nodded about to answer when someone else walked into the room basically tackling her.