Long Live the Fast Times

I sat on the floor of my bedroom whilst my brother sat on my bed, my laptop out in front of him. “So, I made it so that you can pay online for your bank accounts and stuff, if you have to. You won’t be paying rent or gas or anything anymore so that’s already taken care of. You called up both jobs, right? Um, I don’t really think there’s anything else. I mean, Bella has the rent covered and said she won’t rent out your room so you can just keep your bed and stuff here until we get home, alright?” I looked up at my brother and nodded, eyes wide.

Packing up for tour didn’t mean just packing a bag and leaving, as I’d found out. There were responsibilities like bills and rent for back home, that although I didn’t have to worry about, Rian did. I’d called up both my places of employment and explained the situation. Pam said it was fine, she knew how much I missed the boys and she just wanted me to be happy, or so she said. The record store wasn’t quite as understanding at first but after drilling into them that yes, I was going on tour with an established band, they said it was a great opportunity and I just thanked the lord that they said they’d deposit this month’s wages into my bank account and I didn’t lose the last two weeks of pay. I felt bad for leaving them so suddenly but I was going on tour with my best friends, so the guilt didn’t make me pause and rethink what I was doing.

“Yo! Flyzik in the house!” I rolled my eyes and Rian shook his head.

“Dude, shut up. They’re in her bedroom,” I heard Bella reply and knew she was trying not to laugh at him.

“Honey, I’m home!” He shouted from outside my door and Rian looked up at me with a ‘is he serious?’ kind of look. I replied with a shrug.

“Sweetie, in here!” Rian called back, sarcasm weighing down on his words.

The door opened and Matt’s head poked in, “You ruin everything.” He pouted at my brother who stood up and attempted to shut the door on his tour manager.

“Matt, shut up, I’m your boss, I can do whatever the fuck I like.”

“Rian, shut up. You cannot do whatever the fuck you like because excuse you, I am your manager. So, as your manager I’m telling you to get out of here and I’ll take up my role as the ‘responsible’ one and help little Ari pack.”

I smirked, “Yeah Rian, let the responsible ones handle this. Go spend some time with your girlfriend while we pack, okay? I haven’t really had any Mickey time anyway.” Rian rolled his eyes and nodded, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Okay, we have… 3 hours to get you all packed up, missy,” Matt started, clapping his hands together. “Let’s do this!”

“Okay, so what am I desperately going to need?”

Matt thought for a moment, his teeth sneaking out and pulling on his lip ring. He let go and his tongue darted out and smoothed the abused skin. “These aren’t necessarily something you need to bring but wet wipes are a definite must. I mean, we have a shower on the bus but there’s loads of us so showering is kind of a ‘when it’s free you grab it’ sort of deal so you might not shower until 4 in the afternoon, so wipes are a go-to kind of tour thing.” I nodded, not grossed out at all, I’d grown up with these boys around me when they didn’t have a shower on the bus. “Uh, underwear you want to pack as much as you can and in as much a small space as possible so like, stuff them in your shoes and shit because underwear is something you’re always going to need.”

“Oh really, Matty? Here I was, thinking that you rock stars just went commando all tour,” I drawled, and looked at him to see a small blush on his cheeks.

“Shut up, Princess. Okay, wipes, underwear, what else is completely essential… Oh, you’re going to want like, appropriate sleepwear because those fuckers will wake you up in the most ridiculous ways and you’ll be dragged from your bunk regardless of how little clothing you have on, trust me.” I laughed at the thought of one of the guys being ripped out of their bunk and presented to the group in a sleepy daze, birthday suit and all. “Clothes that just don’t need a lot of looking after I guess, because it’s not like we hang all our stuff up or anything.”

I nodded towards the far side of the room where my clothes were folded on the side or still in cardboard boxes, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

“Okay, you got a suitcase?” I went under my bed and pulled out the black suitcase I’d used, oh, about twice?

“Awesome, let’s get to work.”



“Your suitcase looks like Jack’s,” Matt commented an hour later.

I shoved Flyzik a little, “Shut up, you guys all practically bought my clothing, you can’t pin this one on me.” All the clothes the boys had sent me were in there with all my underwear along with a few pairs of jeans and shorts and one skirt, and of course ‘appropriate sleepwear’. “Okay, shoes.”

“Comfortable, not too bulky.”

“Oh really, I thought I’d just walk around I my stilettos for the duration of the tour, because rigging up guitars is always a beautiful job to be done in heels.”

Matt took his turn and shoved me lightly. I went and fetched a pair of beat up black Converse, two pairs of Vans and some black wedges. “Anyway, you wearing heels on the job would be distracting for everyone, trust me.” I turned to look at him and he was biting at his ring again. “Boots,” Flyzik said offhand and I rolled my eyes, picking up my dark grey military boots. “Okay, they should fit in the sides of the suitcase. I followed his instructions and then turned to look at him.

“Now for your personals.” I stared at Matt. “You know… personal stuff that you want to take on tour?”

“Oh. Oh. Like…?”

“Like, how I have my Mickey collection.”

I stood up and grabbed an old shoebox and nearly laughed at how cliché this all was. “I’m going to put all the letters and postcards in here, help?”

Matt stood up and started unpinning postcards from my pinboard whilst I grabbed my signed Pete Wentz photo, putting it carefully in the bottom along with the jewellery box full of guitar picks. I also took Matt’s Mickey Mouse off my bed and putt it in my suitcase. Matt thrust a handful of postcards into my hands and went back to working on the rest. I’d packed his Mickey shirt as well even though it wasn’t the cleanest thing since I’d worn it earlier but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Everything the boys had sent me was packed and I was feeling a bit sick to be leaving so soon.

“Hey, um, we should pack some uh, DVDs?” Matt said, his cheeks a little pink as he looked over at the precariously stacked piles of films in the corner of my room. “Just, ya know, for rainy days.”

I stood up, ruffled his hair and picked up my favourites, slipping them into a pocket of the suitcase. “You’re adorable, okay? But I seriously don’t think we’re going to fit anything else in here.” Matt nodded and stuffed the last of the postcards/letters in the box, slipping it into my messenger bag.

“What do you want to do before we have to go?” He’d flopped down on my bed, arms and legs flung wide and he let out a yawn. “Sleep sounds good.”

“Matty Mouse! You want to sleep during the time we have together?”

“Eh, I’ve got you for the next few weeks, I’m sure a little nap won’t hurt,” He grinned at me sheepishly. I rolled my eyes and shoved him so that I could lie down as well, his arm flopped over my stomach and his face nuzzled into my side. “I’m going to sleep whether you agree or not, just so ya know.”

I laughed lightly, “I’d kind of figured.” My fingers ran through his hair slightly. “Hey Matty, do you think I’ll like it?”

“Well, I think you’ll be happier but it can get stressful and hectic but I’m really hoping you love it. I’m pretty sure the boys will all be happier with you on the bus, they can get a little irritable and there’s no one there to tell them to man up or whatever and it can get a little silly.” He paused and yawned, his face burying deeper into my side. “I know I’ll be better off with you there, and Jack. Sometimes when he’s drunk and everyone’s fallen asleep and he can’t, he used to talk about you; about how it was ‘soooo completely unfair’ that his goddamn bestie was so far away and here he is drunk off his ass with a bunch of animals.” We both laughed at his imitation of Jack’s voice.

But after we’d calmed down I really thought about it, “It got pretty rough without you guys around me constantly. Whenever you’re home there’d always be at least one of you here, even when I wasn’t. Is that weird? Maybe, I don’t know. But I missed waking up and finding one of you being a slob on the sofa or finding Vinny going through the cupboard to see if I’d baked anything. I just missed the stupid little shit you guys pull. I think maybe I’m just not ready to be apart from you guys, you’re my family. I mean come on, you guys are my fucking everything.” That kind of struck a chord because it was so goddamn true and raw.

“Ariel?” I heard Bella from outside my room and I sniffed and sat up.

“Come on in, join the party,” I shouted and waited as she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

“I just wanted to say goodbye. I’m really going to miss you, fuck. Don’t forget your laptop, okay? I want emails and photos and videos, I want it all. Don’t forget about me, okay? I’m going to miss you so much, but it’ll be okay because you’ll be happy so don’t ever feel guilty okay.” I nodded, truthfully I felt bad leaving Bella in this apartment by herself, I was abandoning her with no notice. “Just be happy and I’ll be happy, deal?”

She held out her pinky towards me and I hooked my own onto it, “Happy, got it.” We looked at each other and the just launched into a bear hug, fighting for air whilst we choked it out of one another without a care. “I’ll message you and stuff everyday, okay? I fucking love you, thank you for putting up with me for so long. You’re honestly the best.” We sniffled and acted like there wasn’t tears streaming down both of our faces. Flyzik had rolled over onto his stomach, pretending there wasn’t a friendly breakdown happening within a metre of him.

We broke apart and she smiled softly, wiping her face. “Okay, now get out of here before we flood the place with our tears.”