Long Live the Fast Times

A loud bang on my bedroom door woke me up and I groaned. Getting up was something I didn’t really want to do today, my whole body seemed to be moulded into the mattress, the duvet fitting me like a second skin of warmth. “Ariel Catherine Dawson, do not make me come in there and pull you out of bed!” Rolling my eyes at Bella’s threat, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and pulled Matt’s Mickey top over my head so that it covered my underwear.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I muttered and pushed passed Bella towards the kitchen. “Aren’t you supposed to getting ready for college?” A yawn distorted my voice but I knew she understood. I began fixing myself a cup of tea when I felt Bella’s eyes on me, I turned and saw she looked surprised. Beginning to feel self-conscious I tucked my dark brown hair behind my ear, “What?”

She laughed a little, “I don’t have class until like one o’clock this afternoon, remember? It’s Friday.”

I poured some boiling water from the kettle into my mug and stirred it. “Seriously? It’s Friday already?” She nodded and I smiled. “Fuck yeah!”

“Not that you’re excited or anything, right?” I stuck my tongue out at her. Bella was practically begging for Friday as well considering I’d been in an awful mood since my argument with my parents. She was the only one who knew that my parents had stopped my therapy. Let me tell you something, she wasn’t happy at all.

I mixed some milk into my tea and put it back into the fridge, then manoeuvred myself to the island/breakfast bar. “This is exactly what I need, I’ve missed him so much. I’ve missed them all, actually. It makes me regret even going to college when I could have just gone on tour with them, I feel like I’ve lost so much time with them. Plus they’re probably cleaner to live with than you.” She smiled, glad to see I was cracking a joke.

“M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.”

Matt’s ringtone on my phone played loudly and I ran to my room, sliding on the wooden floor so much I fell onto my bed. “Hey there Matty Mouse,” I said, my breathing heavy from that little bit of exercise.

“Whoa, am I interrupting something?” He asked, his voice sounded amused.

I heard a shout of, 'You better not be!' coming from the background and I assumed it was Rian. “No, you’re not; I was just running to get my phone.”

“Aw, were you excited to hear my voice, baby?” Well, it appeared I was on speaker phone.

“Hey Asskarth,” Not even Alex’s stupidity could ruin my good mood. “Considering I heard Matt’s ringtone I guess I was just excited it wasn’t you. You never stop calling Alex, it’s getting a little creepy. You’re like my own crazed fangirl, you need to lay off, I need my space. Remember, too much love can be too much.”

I heard Matt chuckle and I could practically see Alex rolling his eyes in my mind.

“I admit, I miss seeing your face babe,” Alex started singing.

“Seeing your face, babe,” Matt started back up, I smiled and sang the next line.

“And being alone is starting to take its toll.”

Alex voice was beautiful, not that i would ever say that to his face, even over the awful reception of our cell phones. “I’m cold and it’s getting old.”

“I admit, I should have made some changes!” We all broke into laughter as we heard my brother sing the next line in the background. “Guys! Stop laughing, I have a lovely voice!”

Our laughter carried on and it took a while to calm down. “Oh wow. Anyway, what did you want, Matt?”

“You’re coming tonight, right?”

“Only if you make her, Matt,” I blushed at Alex’s rude interpretation of the verb ‘coming’. “Oh, Matt, oh, yeah, Matt!” Alex’s high-pitched (apparently, ‘girly’) moans were enough to make me get over how awkward the comment was as I sat there and laughed.

“Dude, that’s my sister!”

Ignoring their childish antics, I answered the tour manager. “Yes Matt, I’ll be there, what time?”

“Well, doors open at like, seven? So, come around at six or something and we can get you passes and stuff,” I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“Hey, why was Alex moaning Matt’s name? What did I miss?” Jack’s voice was clear through the phone and I smiled, I’d missed his presence in my life over the past few months a lot.

“Oh they were just fucking and left me hanging on the phone,” I said, smirking. I could hear Alex and Matt’s laughter but then I heard a small ‘Oh’ which came from Jack. “I’m joking Jack, Jalex for life, remember? Have to keep the fans happy.” Jack’s laughter joined in then and I smiled. “Okay, well I better go. I’ll see you guys tonight, I love you!” I got a chorus of ‘I love you’ back which made my smile get bigger.

Making my way back into the kitchen I turned my iPod on in the dock and turned up some Fall Out Boy that had been playing earlier. “I have at least an hour to kill until I have to be ready for lessons, what do you have planned?”

“Well, I thought I could bake some cupcakes. It’ll pass the time easily because otherwise I’m just going to be a wrecking ball of excitement that’s going to crash around the apartment.”
Bella smiled and stood up, “Cupcakes it is.”

I pulled my messy hair into a ponytail but didn’t bother to get changed. I’d get ready tonight and it wasn’t like Bella wasn’t used to me lounging around the apartment with a long top on. Since not being at college, and not having any money or clothes, I spent most days like this.



A small ding came from the oven and I pulled out the last tray of cupcakes, in total we had five. When I started to bake it became hard for me to stop. Bella had left for her class about fifteen minutes ago and I was dancing around my kitchen to music, whilst singing and washing up.

I turned up my music slightly as I filled a piping bag with some buttercream frosting I’d made whilst they were cooling. I picked up a cupcake and swirled the frosting onto the top, finishing with a little peak in the middle. Baking had always been something I’d loved doing and I’d been doing a lot more of it since I’d dropped out of college. I carried on swaying and dancing (if you could call it that) as I iced a few more cupcakes.

Moving over to the other counter I topped up the piping bag and began to sing a lot louder. “Baby seasons change but people don’t and I’ll always be waiting in the back room. I’m boring but overcompensating with headlines and flash, flash, flash photography.” Swinging my hips from side to side I made my way back to the island to carry on icing the little cakes.

“But don’t pretend you ever forgot about me. Don’t pretend you ever forgot about me! Wouldn’t you rather be a widow than a divorcee? Style your wake for fashion magazines. Widow or a divorcee? Don’t pretend, d-d-d-don’t pretend.” I was in my element here with the kitchen and the music and looking at the clock I saw it was just gone two o’clock. Only three more hours until I had to get ready. “We don’t fight fair.”

“We don’t fight fair.” Hearing another voice sing over the music that wasn’t mine cause me to drop the piping back and turn around so quickly I nearly fell over.

I saw a group of boys huddled in my doorway, all of them had huge smiles and smirks on their faces. My brother was at the front, his keys to my apartment hanging from his fingers. I screamed slightly and jumped on my brother, hugging him so tightly.

“Don’t I get a hug?” Jack said, giving me a pout and I opened my arms out to him.

Rian’s arm pushed Jack back slightly, “You can get a hug after my sister’s dressed properly.” I blushed and looked down at my outfit of Matt’s top. I looked up and bit my lip, my eyes catching Matt’s. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly and he turned his face away from me, a slight blush on his cheeks.

“I’m going to put some uh, some shorts on,” I mumbled and practically ran from the kitchen. I was back in a matter of seconds and saw Vinny practically smashing his face into a cupcake in an attempt to eat as much of it as possible. “Vegas, the cupcake is bigger than your mouth, bite it.” He looked at me sheepishly before taking the biggest bite I’d ever seen.

I turned to the front room area and swung myself over the back of the sofa and onto Jack’s lap, “Hey Elle, I missed you.” Jack murmured into my neck as I hugged him.

“I missed you too, B-Kat.” I pulled away and snuggled myself into his chest.

Alex was sitting next to Jack and had his arm around the back of the sofa whilst my legs were on his lap, “What, no loving for me?”

“No. You were talking to me earlier and you didn’t tell me you were going to be here early! I would’ve been dressed and ready and not dancing around my kitchen.” Alex threw a pout in my direction and Jack ruffled his hair, his thumb brushing Alex’s skull tattoo lightly.

“Don’t be such a child, all of her love’s for me,” Jack said, pulling me tighter into his chest.

Alex shoved my legs off of him lightly and crossed his arms over his chest. I looked around the room, seeing who else was here and ignored Alex.

“Kurily! Kirkendall!” I rushed over to the two who were sat on my floor and I hugged them. “I missed you, and oh wow, thank you so much for the presents and stuff.” I turned my attention to the rest of my flat, “Thank you all for all the presents.”

“No problem, sweetie,” Colussy said as he walked past and kissed the top of my head.

These boys were literally my family and I wouldn’t change it for the world. “So, how come you guys are here so early?”

“We left early last night to get here earlier today so we could spend some time with you and we could see our families at the venue for longer. We have tomorrow off as well,” Zack said to me as I made my way over to him to give him a hug.

Looking around the room I went and gave Jeff a hug as well as Grieco, “Did I forget to hug anyone?”

“Me!” Alex said and pouted from the sofa. I laughed and sat on his lap, “That’s more like it.” His arms wrapped around me. “I missed you, we all did. It’s not the same without you.” Alex whispered in my ear and I knew Jack heard as he gave me a small reassuring nod and smile. “We haven’t all been the same without you. Matt doesn’t have anyone to watch Disney with; Evan, Danny and Grieco don’t have anyone to mess around with backstage; Vinny doesn’t really have someone to listen to him when he’s drunk; we don’t have you to make fun of when we’re on stage.” I couldn’t help the little chuckle slip through my lips as he nudged the top of my head with his nose. “I mean it, Ariel. There were times when we’d all find something and be like, ‘Ariel would love this’. I guess that’s what started the whole package thing, our postcards and our letters. We didn’t want you to miss out on anything.” Blinking, I felt the wetness in my eyes. Alex was truly like my third brother, he always knew what to say and he was just as protective as Rian, if not more.

I decided to get go back to the kitchen to check on Vinny before I started bawling like a baby. Like they need to know how pathetic you were without them all.

Instead of seeing Vinny I saw Matt sitting at the island. “Hey, Matty Mouse,” I whispered and swivelled his chair around so I could wrap my arms around his torso. “Thank you, for your Mickey and top and just, thank you for everything.”

He pulled away and gave me a smile and kissed my forehead, “I thought you’d appreciate them. I know you’ve heard this about nine times already today but, I missed my Princess Ariel.” I nodded against his chest, my fingers brushing against his neck. “That top looks a lot better on you than it ever did on me though.” He whispered and I laughed.

“Of course it does, have you seen me?” I winked and he rolled his eyes. “Oh and, I missed you too. It’s kind of sad not having all of my best friends around me all the time, especially you and Jack.” Our eyes held each other’s for a while, as if we were trying to make each other understand how much we’d missed the other.

The door bell sounded and I looked towards the door confused but kissed Matt on the cheek, murmuring another small ‘thank you’ for the gifts and opened it. “Cass!” I hugged the girl that stood before me. We’d met a few times before and we’d kept in contact, she was really cool to be around.

“Hey Ariel! Sorry I’m kind of late, they had to drop me off here before they took the bus to the venue,” I nodded and pulled her into the apartment and closed the door. “Hey guys!” She called into the front room as we walked in. As I passed Matt in the kitchen I grabbed his wrist and pulled him in with me.

We sat around for about half an hour or so, just talking and exchanging tour stories. “Guys, it’s nearly half four, we should get you to sound check,” Colussy stood up and gave the boys a small stern look. Matt groaned lightly next to me and I bumped his shoulder with my own.

“Ugh, I still have to get ready,” I muttered and pulled at the Mickey Mouse top.

Rian pulled me up from my spot on the floor and hugged me, “We’ll see you in a few okay.” I smiled up at him and kissed his cheek. “Don’t be late, I’ve already gone a few months without you.” Rolling my eyes I practically pushed him towards the door. “Vinny, you can take some cupcakes if you want.”

“Already on it, babe!” I scowled as he called me ‘babe’ - a name I personally hated. “Laters, babe.” Vinny said as he walked past me and I hit him upside the head.

Matt was the last to walk out of the door and he turned towards me, “Get dressed and then get your butt down to the venue.” He pulled me into one last hug and then jogged towards the elevator.

Standing in the hallway I heard Alex’s voice, “Flyzik, she’ll come in her own time, stop harassing her.” My cheeks felt as if they were on fire at his comment which reminded me of his rather crude one earlier in the day. As the elevator doors opened and they piled in, I flipped Alex off.

“Dude, that’s my sister!”

The doors closed and I laughed as I heard Alex’s cry, “Guys, stop hitting me. I’m sorry!”