This Could Be All I've Waited For

Jack and I had been at odds for the past few days. We didn’t seem to know what to do with each other anymore. I had made it clear that Marie was not one of my favorite people in the world and Jack had made it clear that he saw nothing wrong with her. I’ll admit that I was being selfish, I just wanted Jack to myself and she was making him happy for the time being. Then again we could have been at odds simply because I had been getting so much enjoyment out of reading the horrible things that fans had to say about Marie. Addie and Halley had been right about that.

I don’t really think it has anything to do with us making out a few days ago… that would just be silly.

I saw Marie as she approached the tent where the guys had just had their signing. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. Honestly I’d been avoiding coming into contact with her or even mentioning her in conversation. Marie bumped my shoulder as she walked past me to get to Jack; I called out some sort of obscenity and heard her shocked gasp. I was just going to keep walking but Jack ran up behind me and grabbed my wrist. “Cady,” his voice sounded disappointed, “I know you don’t like Marie, but come on.”

I shook him off feeling my heart hurt knowing that he was willing to stick up for her. “She ran into me,” I said feeling more than a little betrayed.

“She’s harmless, Cady,” he said taking a step towards me.

I took a step back, “It doesn’t feel like she’s all that harmless,” I said, my heart telling me that the harm she was doing was taking Jack away from me.

“Fucking… Cady,” Jack seemed to be struggling for words, “Just fucking stop,” he said taking two quick strides and closing the space between us. He took my wrists in his hands “You’re killing me,” he said in a low voice that sounded both hurt and angry.

I’ll admit that hearing those words did not make my heart feel any better. In fact, it felt like my heart was going to fall right out of my chest. I shook him off biting back words that I knew, even in my emotional state, I didn’t mean. I turned away and before I could stop myself I called, “I’ll just get out of your way,” over my shoulder.

So much for not letting Marie come between us, huh?

I stumbled into the music frenzied crowd hoping that I could figure out a plan to get out of here and back to Georgia, where I belonged. I should have known not to come on a tour this long with Jack. I’d been gone for too long and I was beginning to losing my grip on reality. Maybe that was our problem. Maybe I didn’t have feelings for Jack at all and I’d just been spending too much time with him. I did not have feelings for Jack Barakat; not at all.

My phone rang in my pocket and Jack’s name flashed across the screen. I hit decline and continued walking. When my phone rang again and Jack’s name flashed once more across the screen I answered it and said, “I’m going home,” before hanging up again.

Jack didn’t give up that easily though; he continued calling over and over again until I couldn’t take it anymore. “What do you want?” I demanded answering the phone.

“Come back, Cady,” Jack begged sounding more than desperate. I was still much too worked up to go crawling back to go work things out; sometimes I was too stubborn for my own good.

“I’m not coming back,” I said determined to hold onto my anger, “I’m going home, I’ll call you when I’m done being pissed.”

“No!” Jacked shouted desperately, “Don’t go home! Come back, we can talk about this.”

I was about to respond to him when I heard my name being called from somewhere behind me.

“Cadence Erickson!” I heard the female voice call out again. I turned around searching for the source when a bulky looking girl marched into my view with her fist reared back.

Before I knew what had happened I was on the ground and my phone was lying beside me.

“That’s what you get for being a band slut!” the girl called out leaning over me.

Before I could tell myself not to, I was up on my feet and yanking a fistful of the girl’s shirt. I must have been experiencing quite the adrenaline rush because the fabric ripped away from her body and she turned to swing at me again. I felt even angrier at this girl than I thought I ever could feel in my life, and that was my last thought before I blacked out.

When I came to I was being gripped around the middle and a familiar voice was calling my name. “Cadence!” the voice I recognized as Josh, a stage security guy, shouted, “Cadence get it under control!”

I felt myself thrashing and realized that I was still trying to fight my way towards that girl who was now being held back by two security guards while I was incapacitated by just one who was holding me like a child. I let my body go limp and heard Josh chuckle. “Always figured you were a feisty one,” he commented setting me on the ground to get a better look at my face. “You’re bleeding and you’ve got a nasty looking black eye forming,” he observed, “better take you to the medic tent.” He didn’t ask if I was okay to walk instead he bent down and scooped me up by the legs, the same way that Zack had done several times in the past.

“Can somebody get in touch with someone from All Time Low?” Josh said into his walkie talkie, “I’ve got Cadence and I’m taking her to the medic tent.”

There was a crackle from the walkie talkie before a voice replied, “What do I say happened to her?”

“She got into a fight,” Josh said before switching off the walkie talkie and placing the clip back on his belt.

Before I knew it Josh was sitting me in a chair and I was waiting to be seen once someone became available.

“So tell me,” a woman began as she sat down in front of me pulling on a pair of gloves, “what is it that could possibly possess you to go after a girl that is over twice your size?”

I chuckled, “She threw the first punch,” I said shrugging my shoulders and giving Josh a look before continuing, “I was defending my family’s honor.”

The woman chuckled and so did Josh as she started looking over my wounds. The pain hadn’t set in yet and from what Liz, the lady that was taking care of me, had said I probably wouldn’t be feeling it until my heart rate came down. She determined that despite the copious amounts of blood on my face the two cuts, one above my eye and one across my cheek, wouldn’t need stitches.

“I remember my first fight,” Liz said as she cleaned my cuts, “I was tough as nails until my mom came in.” she met my eyes and must have seen my curiosity because she continued, “All at once I just started crying.” I didn’t have to ask why because she kept going. “There’s just something about seeing someone that cares about you after someone who hates you enough to do physical damage that can bring a girl to tears.”

I didn’t want to cry. That would make it seem like the stupid bitch had won. Liz must have known that I didn’t like the idea because she didn’t say anymore on the subject.

“She must have been wearing quite the rock,” Liz said as she continued cleaning me up.

“Fucking bitch,” I mumbled lowly causing Liz to chuckle again.

“What the fuck happened to you!” Jack cried out when he saw me. He rushed to my side and my eyes went wide at the sight of him.

I hadn’t been expecting to see anyone until I went back to the bus… actually I guess I hadn’t expected to see him until I felt like giving him a call once I’d gotten back to Georgia. I felt the pain in my eye for the first time when I raised my eye brows and the shock was enough to bring the tears to my eyes. Liz had been right seeing someone who cared about you could bring out some pretty big tears.

Jack wrapped his arms around me in a comforting hug and I was able to regain myself after a couple of seconds. I pushed Jack away and whipped my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I apologized, “I’m just freaking out.”

Liz gave me a half smile and started covering my cuts in some sort of medicine and tape. “Clean your cuts and reapply this cream every few hours and replace the tape,” Liz said, “It’ll keep it from getting infected and scaring.”

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I sat with my head in Jack’s lap while Jack pressed an icepack wrapped in a towel tenderly against my black eye. The guys had been pretty quiet about it all, I suppose Jack had told them I cried when he asked. If there was one thing I knew for sure about the guys it was that they did not like to see a girl cry.

I sighed and Jack’s attention immediately went to me, his eyes wide with worry. I frowned I didn’t like being treated like I was so fragile. “You guys can stop now,” I said directing the comment at everyone who was within earshot.

“What are you talking about, Cady?” Jack asked, “No one is doing anything.”

I sighed in frustration, “That’s kind of the point,” I said, “You can talk to me I promise I won’t die or freak out.”

Jack smiled down at me chuckling a little, “No one thinks you’re going to die,” he promised, “We just don’t want to upset you and I’m pretty sure that we’re all more than a little pissed about this.”

I pulled my eyebrows together in confusion, “Are you guys mad that I punched one of your fans?” I asked feeling a little frantic, “I swear I didn’t mean for that to happen it’s just that-”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence because Jack placed his hand over my mouth muting me. “No one is mad at you, Cady,” he said seeming angry, “We’re pissed that one of our fans would do that to you.”

“But you were pretty bad ass about it,” Alex pitched in from somewhere nearby.

“I can’t believe you actually ripped the shirt off of her back,” Zack added sounding astonished.

I had ripped her shirt off hadn’t I? It was strange to think about that much strength coming out of me because I had a hard time with my luggage most of the time. I laughed at myself a little wondering if I got that mad at my suitcase if I’d be able to just toss it over my shoulder and carry on like it was no big deal. Then realization hit me, “Is word really traveling that fast?” I asked unsure of how I felt about it.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked pushing some of my hair behind my ear and touching my cheek. I did my best to think past the butterflies.

“Is everyone talking about it?” I asked, “Is that how you guys know what happened?”

Everyone laughed at my question and I didn’t quite understand what was so funny about it.

“Cady,” Jack said calming down and looking back to my face, “That girl was so confident that she’d knock you out that she had some stranger record it for her and they uploaded it to twitter.”

“They tweeted us and said they thought we’d like to know how bad ass you were,” Rian said I could still hear the laugh in his voice.

Then someone must have started playing the video because I heard a slightly familiar voice say, “Are you recording,” and another answer with a yes. The only sounds that followed were the rustling of the crowd and the first girl shouting my name. The girl who I assume was recording let out an “oh shit” when I assumed that I hit the ground and that was when I heard myself shouting at the top of my lungs at the girl. I didn’t remember saying those things. I was curing and just screaming any words that came to my mind, the girl that was holding the camera was saying things like, “you tell her Cady,” and, “That girl is going to regret this in the morning.” I couldn’t help but laugh at this but it was only funny for a moment.

Once the video was off I found myself wondering how I didn’t remember that. How I could possibly not remember going that crazy and hitting a girl like that.

“The Warped security said you gave her a black eye a busted lip and a badly damaged ego,” Alex told me laughing.

I looked up to Jack with wide eyes and he met mine with worry. Alex kept talking and with every word I felt myself panic a little more. Was I mentally handy capped? How does someone forget these things?

“Alex, shut the fuck up,” Jack said without looking away from me.

“What’d I do?” Alex asked sounding confused.

Jack placed his free hand on the other side of my face and thumb ran under my eye. “Cady, there’s no reason for you to cry,” he promised. At first I was confused and then I realized that Jack was whipping away tears.

I sat up and whipped away my tears and took a deep breath. “I think I’m just going to go lie down,” I said getting up and going to Jack’s bunk before he could stop me. I just needed to sleep and clear my head… maybe I’d remember everything when I woke up.