This Could Be All I've Waited For

Jack and I laid back stage in an amphitheater sprawled out and completely in the way of everyone. My tank top and shorts were sticking to my skin in the most disgusting ways and the air was mixed heavily with the left over moisture from the previous day’s rain. This was probably the hottest Warped show of the summer so far and this was the way that Jack and I chose to escape it. Jack had pulled his shirt up to relieve himself a little more.

“It’s too hot!” he yelled in the most obnoxious way he knew how.

I propped myself up on my elbows and eyed him, “You’re wearing jeans, you idiot,” I said kicking his shoe.

“You have been exceedingly bitchy today,” he pointed out shoving my foot back.

“I’m pretty sure this heat could put Hell to shame,” I said choosing to ignore his comment for now so that I could possibly use it against him later.

“Quit whining,” Jack shouted.

“Whore,” I spat falling back down on the concrete.

“Slut,” Jack sang.

“I hate you,” I told him sitting up again and crossing my legs.

Jack scooted his way across the cement floor until he had put his head in my lap, “I love you so much right now,” he told me looking up at me.

I frowned down at him, “You called me a bitch and a slut all in the same day, and I don’t think I can put up with that.”

He laughed and smiled up at me, “You know as well as I do that you’re version of bitchy is probably one of the most entertaining things to witness on the planet, therefore you really shouldn’t take offence to that and you called me a whore so you deserved the slut,” he reasoned.

I frowned and shrugged without looking down at him, “I suppose you’re right,” I said.

Jack took one of my hands and began toying with the bracelets there humming some blink 182 song to himself. He seemed completely content with the world right then and I was jealous because I couldn’t stop being grumpy to save my life today… I hate this heat! I used my other hand to run my fingers through the dyed blond bits of his hair trying to make myself calm down enough to attempt to be nicer.

“Jack! Cadence!” Alex called startling Jack and causing him to grip my arm.

“Jesus Jack, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” I asked pulling his hair for payback.

“Ouch,” he said letting go of my arm and sitting up as he rubbed the side of his head, “What do you want?” Jack yelled back.

“I don’t know, maybe we have a show to put on here,” Alex said sarcastically gesturing towards the stage.

Jack made unnecessary grunting noises as he stood up, “Alright let’s do this!” he shouted holding out his hand for me to take.

I gave him my hand and let him pull me into a standing position, then followed them towards the stage. Grieco and Danny were still doing some things for set up and I realized I’d skipped out on them.

“Cadence!” Danny called my attention and then motioned for me to join him behind an amp where he was fiddling with some wires.

I usually try to avoid coming directly on stage; I prefer to come around from somewhere in the back so as not to be seen much, but Jack didn’t know or understand that. Just as I was about to circle around to get to Danny Jack decided to push me out onto the stage where I nearly fell on my face. I turned around to flick him off before running over to Danny to do what he needed all the while being watched as I went.

“Jack pissing you off today?” Danny asked chuckling.

I sighed, “Everyone is pissing me off today,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“Oh, it’s one of those days,” Danny said knowingly, still laughing softly.

Danny gave me some instructions and then ran over to check a mic. I did as I was told and then followed behind Grieco as we all cleared the stage for the guys. My mistake was to walk towards where Zack Alex and Jack were all coming onto the stage because Jack grabbed me by the waist to get his preshow good luck hug right there in front of an entire amphitheater of people.

“Wish me luck,” he said in my ear as he always did.

I pulled away from him and sang, “Don’t fall off,” walking back stage out of sight of the crowd.

“You should have seen your face when he grabbed you,” Matt said laughing, “That is probably the most surprised I’ve ever seen you.”

I smacked his arm, “Shut up,” I grumbled, “I was surprised because I was on stage and he did that in front of everyone.”

“So what?” he asked, “You don’t honestly believe that you’ve gotten away with no one noticing you for the past four or five years do you?” he asked me.

I shrugged, “I don’t know but I do know that I have made a clear effort to stay in the back ground and it seems to me that Jack is making an effort to ruin that,” I let out a huff of air, “I don’t need thousands of people hating me.”

Matt shook his head and patted my shoulder, “You are way too paranoid for this,” he said in mock sympathy.

“I am being serious,” I said before biting my lip and looking away from the guys to steel a peek at the crowd.

“Cadence you can’t seriously think that they hate you because you’re Jack’s best friend,” he said like it was the silliest thing he’d ever heard in his entire life. I knew better, though, I knew that crazed teenage fans could be vicious and I did not want to face their wrath.

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Jack and Alex yelled out obscenities as they exited the stage for the day. Jack jogged over to me and pulled me into a disgustingly sweaty hug.

“Still feeling grumpy?” he asked I knew he was referring to my snide comment before he went on stage.

I shrugged in response deciding that a hug was a hug even if it was a little damp before wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing my cheek to his chest.

Jack’s grip tightened and he kissed my hair, “I’ll take that as a no,” he said chuckling lightly.

I forced a puff of air through my lips, “You have a signing to get to,” I told him.

He squeezed me again before we both let go and he ran off to catch up with the guys.

Matt dragged me back towards the bus which was the biggest relief of my life. The bus was cool and placed at a completely safe distance from the signing and the crazed teens that would be there.

“What is this all about?” I asked plopping down on the couch that was supposed to be my bed but lately I’d found myself in Jack’s bunk every night.

Matt whistled to get my attention when I turned to find him sitting in the booth with his laptop open. I pushed myself up off of the couch and met Matt at the table. He pulled up YouTube and typed in All Time Low interviews.

I turned so that my body faced Matt, “What is this about?” I asked again, but like the time before Matt just ignored me and clicked on an interview.

Maybe I’m a bad best friend, or I don’t do my part in supporting the guys properly, but I’ve never not even once watched one of their interviews, unless I was in the room while it was taking place. I watched the video because apparently that was what Matt wanted me to do.

Alex and Jack did a lot of the talking but this was one of the few interviews done with the entire band. Things seemed to be going like a pretty normal interview until it got to the fan questions.

‘Hustler307 would like to know: Who is the girl that you bring on tour with you?’ the interviewer asked.

I looked back at Matt with wide eyes and he smiled and pointed to the screen. Alex, Rian, and Zach were looking to Jack who was smiling and running his hands down the front of his jeans.

‘Her name is Cady-‘ Alex cut in, ‘Cadence’ and Jack gave him a mild look, ‘I’m the only one who calls her Cady he explained, but Cadence Erickson, she’s my best friend and we’ve known her for about a year now’

That caught me off guard because I’d known Jack for much longer than a year. Matt paused the video he must have seen what I was thinking on my face. He scrolled down and highlighted the year it was uploaded and it was a little under a year after we’d met.

He didn’t stop there he went on to another interview this time of just Jack and Alex where Jack told a story about the time he’d nearly gotten me arrested while I was still a minor.

He showed another interview where Alex teased Jack saying that Jack and I were obsessed with each other. I blushed a little at the thought.

Then there was another where a fan asked if Jack and I were dating and the smile on Jack’s face had a mischievous look to it. Alex said that I was a minor but he was sure that Jack would jump my bones the second I turned eighteen causing me to nearly fall off the booth bench from laughing so hard which is exactly what Jack did in the interview.

Then Matt pulled up a video from one of the guy’s shows a few years back. I gave him a confused look but he just pointed back to the screen. Alex was alone on the stage with an acoustic guitar he must have just sang therapy when he asked the crowd what they’d like to chat about. A girl close to the stage yelled out that she wanted him to bring Cadence out and I froze, because I didn’t remember that at all… Alex chuckled and told them that I wasn’t there was a sound of collective disappointment from the crowd before Zack, Jack, and Rian came back out for the rest of the set ending the video.

I sat back in the seat and let that sink in. I didn’t even make it a year without the fans noticing. I could have been doing whatever the hell I wanted for the past freaking five years because they already knew about me.

“Alright I get it,” I said to Matt, “No need to try to hide because they already know,” I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment before asking, “How many of them hate me?”

Matt opened a new tab and typed in Google where he searched my name paired with Jack’s there were thousands of hits. Some of them asking if I was his girlfriend loads of them stating that I was his friend and then there were fan fictions… so many fan fictions were I was his girlfriend. I couldn’t stop my jaw from slacking so I covered my mouth.

Matt chuckled quietly and switched the search from web to images and there were so many pictures that I hadn’t even known existed. There were pictures of the day I’d worn the red and white polka dot dress some of just me standing around others of me playing poker with the crew guys then there was one that I actually found quite adorable; someone had snapped a picture of Jack leaning his head back onto my shoulder.

“I don’t think there are too many of them that hate you,” Matt said taking my thoughts from the pictures.

Just then Jack came waltzing on to the bus with the rest of the guys trailing behind. “Hey what’s up?” he asked as he peeked over my shoulder to see what Matt was showing me.

I leaned back so that I could look up at his face, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

He shrugged, “I didn’t want you to freak out,” he said looking down at me.

I nodded my head awkwardly because of my position and continued looking up at him.

“A couple girls asked about you today,” he said jutting his thumb back behind him gesturing to the signing I figured.

“They wanted a picture with you,” Alex said from where he was sprawled out like he was dying on the couch.

I scrunched up my face, “I don’t know if I like that,” I said to no one in particular.

Jack chuckled and leaned down to press his lips against my forehead before yelling that he called the shower first and running towards the bathroom.