All The Small Things

(Chapter Two)

Matt’s POV:

“Hey Flyzik,” a voice over his radio crackles as said man is stepping off the bus and making his way back to the venue.

He takes a deep breath to calm himself down as he grabs the radio that is clipped to his shoulder and presses a button down. “Yeah Danny, what’s up?”

“Some of the cases are missing; do you know where they went?”

“We packed everything three days ago and haven’t touched them since. How could something be missing already? This is the first show.”

“Yeah I know,” Danny replied with other voices coming in from the background. “But they got placed somewhere. Is there any out by you?”

Matt was just about to reach the door to the venue and turned on his heel trying to keep himself from exploding. It was the first day of tour and they already lost something? This was not turning out to be a good start. But the sooner he stops complaining and keeping himself for going from stressed to overworked, the sooner they can get everything fixed and set up, the sooner they can get into a routine.

“Which case are you looking for?” Matt asked as he walked up to the trailer and found that there were indeed a few cases still inside. But those were kept there since they mostly held extra supplies in case they ran out during tour so they really didn’t need to be inside.

“Um, the one with all the guitar equipment inside,”

He scanned the boxes for the spray painted labels to find the one the tech was looking for. “Yeah it’s right here, must have been overlooked when we were loading in this morning. I’ll be right there with it.”

“Thanks man,” Danny replied before the crackling stopped, leaving Matt in silence once again.

He took a moment to compose himself so no one noticed that he was already flipping out on the first official day of tour. But it was usually like this. The first few days were the worst while the crew tried to get into routine on what to grab and how exactly how to set up. Yes, by now everyone was seasoned pro’s at this, but it still took a while to get back into the swing of things.

They had been officially on the road for three days now on the Rock Show At The End Of The World tour for the release of Don’t Panic, which had only been officially out for about six days now. That night was the first show of tour and everyone was stressing, but the boys in the band were the worst at the moment. They always freaked when an album was first out since they always worried that the reactions to the new music would be a negative one. And now that the first live show playing more new songs was about to happen in a matter of hours, yeah, things were a little stressful at the moment.

But either way, Matt loved his job. Yes he complained every now and then and felt like he was over his head sometimes, but he loved it. He couldn’t honestly see himself doing anything else. After Underscore’s time had finished a little while before he had taken this job those many years before, he had honestly not known what he was going to do next. But then he suddenly got a job offer from the band and instantly said yes.

Managing to open the door to the venue while also pushing the wheeled box inside, he headed down the hallway, passing the dressing room where the boys were having their interviews and could hear laughing and yelling coming from inside. Oh well, at least they were hopefully doing what they were supposed to. The interviewers should know by now that whenever the set up a interview with the band that they were in for a huge surprise. They could hardly ever give a serious answer, especially Jack and Alex, and ended up giving out at least one dick joke somewhere during it. But that’s just how the boys were. He was defiantly used to it by now.

“Oh thank God, you’re a lifesaver Flyzik!” Danny said as soon as he saw the tour manager walk into the main room where the boys would be performing later that night.

Matt just rolled his eyes and muttered and ‘I know’ as he pushed the box up the ramp and onto the stage so that he could help Danny set up. The rest of the crew were busy also doing their jobs. Colussy was with the band during interviews since they usually took turns every day and Matt had decided that he would stick with the crew on the first day in case things like what just happened with Danny occurred. Not that Colussy couldn’t handle or wouldn’t know what to do, just that he preferred to be the one helping on the first day.

“Aha! There’s the adapter!” Danny was muttering as he rifled through the box. Matt just shook his head with a small smile as he left the tech to his work and made his way backstage to make sure everything else was running smoothly.

At the back of the room, Jeff and Evan were busy setting up their equipment and looked like they had everything handled. Jeff was already messing with the lights, turning different colors on and making them move and flash like they would that night making sure that nothing was wrong since the last time he had checked them three days ago. Grieco was almost done setting up Rian’s set and playing a few beats to make sure everything was ok and Vinny…. Was nowhere to be seen.

Freaking lovely. But at least the merch table was set up and ready to go. Well, at least from what Matt could tell. The large wall like thing was set up behind the table, displaying all the new merch they had gotten for that tour and the extra boxes and money box was all shoved under the table waiting to be used for when the kids arrived in a matter of hours when doors opened.

He was just turning to make his way back to his little makeshift office a little ways away from the backstage area when something suddenly jumped on his back. Stumbling forward a little, he caught himself from falling and secured his hands on the legs that wrapped around him, all too used to people jumping on him since Vinny and Jack liked to do what they called ‘sneak attacks’ and catch him at the worst possible moments to come and annoying him. But after hearing the all too familiar giggle come from the person on him, he knew it wasn’t Jack or Vinny and nearly dropped them when he realized who it was.

He helped her get down and then spun around to face her, to make sure that it was actually her and that he wasn’t losing his mind. But no, as soon as he turned, he saw the familiar eyes, nose, hair, and smile that belonged to his fiancée.

“Tessie, what are you doing here?” He asked, pulling her in for a hug and hearing her giggle as she hugged him back.

When they let go, she gave a small shrug and an adorably shy smile. “Managed to convince Carol to let me interview today so that when the home show comes I can have off and not worry about work.”

“That’s awesome babe,” he replied as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

She rest her left hand on his chest and he couldn’t help the smile that grew as he caught a glimpse of the promise ring now turned engagement ring that she wore on her ring finger. He had used the same Claddagh ring to propose to her since he had mentioned that it would turn into an engagement ring one day when he had first given it to her two years ago. And he had kept his promise and she now wore it proudly on her ring finger for over three months now.

“Get a room!” Vinny yelled across the room. Matt had his back to him but figured he was standing somewhere by the merch table finally getting all the last minute things done now that his boss was in the room.

Tessa was looking over Matt’s shoulder at her brother and he figured she was glaring at him. “Shut up, you’re just jealous. And don’t you have work to do?”

Vinny was saying something in reply but neither of them listened as Tessa turned to face Matt again and gave a small smile. “So did you like the surprise? I was trying to be sneaky and God knows that I honestly can’t be sneaky at all and then I was worried that Tay or Kate were going to say something to Alex and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise and-”

“Tessa,” Matt said, cutting her off. “Just shut up and kiss me now.”

She blinked a few moments and then glared playfully. “Did you really just use a All Time Low line on me?”

He just shrugged, “maybe, but you loved it.”

She just responded but reaching up on her tip toes and pressing her lips to his. He kissed her back immediately, already missing her kisses even though it had only been about four days since they had left for tour. Hoots and hollers came from behind them and Matt simply flipped them off, not bothering to break the kiss since he really didn’t want to be interrupted.

When they finally pull away, Matt sighs as he realizes that he still has his job to do. All he wants is to take Tessa back to the bus, put in a movie, and cuddle with her. But he knows that’s impossible. He still has to make sure everything for the show runs smoothly and nothing happens before the show that night. And as if the rest of the crew knows what he’s thinking, he hears someone calling his name behind him.

He lifts his head from Tessa’s shoulder and turns to see Grieco standing there with slight smirk on his face, knowing that he was interrupting something. “Hey Flyzik, can I borrow you for a moment? Sorry Tessa.”

“No that’s fine,” Tessa says as she lets go of Matt where she had her arms wrapped around his waist. “I have to go to. I actually haven’t even done the interview yet and Kate’s going to get pissed and I’m never going to hear the end of it.”

Matt nods as he lets her go and gives her one last kiss. “Are you staying the night?”

“Yeah, if you’ll have me,”

“I’ll always have you,” He replied making her blush.

He laughs at her reaction. Nearly two years of being together and she still blushes at the slightly romantic corny things he says to her. It’s actually quite adorable.

“I’ll see you later during the show then? I probably won’t have any time before hand, sorry.”

She shakes her head, “no it’s fine. I’ll see you then. I love you.”

Pressing one more kiss to her lips, he doesn’t pull away after and instead mumbles and I love you back against her lips making her blush more. God, he’ll never get sick of that.