Long Live the Fast Times

I closed the door and ran to the bathroom, I needed to get ready and I needed to be fast – there wasn’t a moment to waste.

After practically falling out of the shower I wrapped a towel around me and went into my bedroom. Clothes weren’t exactly overflowing from my wardrobe and I wasn’t exactly the fashion type of girl. Frustration bubbled in me as I looked through the couple of tops I had.

“Honey I’m home!” Bella’s voice rung throughout the apartment and I rolled my eyes at her loud voice. “Aren’t you supposed to be ready by now?”

“The boys stopped by and surprised me, in fact they just left for soundcheck. Bells, I really have no clue what to wear,” She rolled her eyes at me and pushed me down to sit on my bed.

“Let me handle this, brush your hair and do your make up.” I obeyed her orders and brushed my brown hair. Bella was studying a fashion course in college, one that included a few beauty lessons. This then led to me, somehow, letting her dye my hair. I wasn’t prepared for her to dye all of it. She suggested letting her dip-dye my hair so she only had control over the ends of my hair. “You can always cut it off if it goes wrong,” were her exact words I think, reassuring aren’t they? Anyway, this led to me having red hair at the bottom.

My hair was wet and I prayed that it dried into neat loose curls and not some half wavy half straight mess. I picked at the red tips before Bella threw a shoe at me from my wardrobe. “I said make up as well, hurry your ass up.” A small huff escaped my lips but I picked up the eyeliner and quickly applied some. “Here, this’ll do.”

I nodded and took the pile of clothing from her arms as she scurried off to her room to find something to wear which was more appropriate for my brother’s gig. I slipped on the underwear and black suspender tights which Bella had forced me to buy a couple of weeks ago. All that was left was the Reckless and Brave vest that Alex had sent me the week before and some dark red high-waisted shorts that Bella had bought me for my birthday the year before. As I finished I saw Bella come into my room dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a top that had “All Time Blow” written on it.

“I thought they’d appreciate it,” She smiled at me and then came over and unclipped my necklace from around me and handed it to me. “You haven’t changed it in a while.” I nodded and grabbed the black box by my bed and picked out a guitar pick that said “Jack Attack” on it and slithered it onto the chain.

“Am I ready now?” Bella tilted her head back and assessed my outfit.

“Tuck your vest into your shorts, put Matt’s beanie on and… I think we’re good,” I rolled my eyes at her but complied with her orders. “Let’s go!” She hollered as she walked out of my room. Running to my wardrobe I slipped on a pair of black converse and jogged after her out of the door.

Cool air hit my face as I exited the building and I saw Bella waiting by my car for me. “Oh fuck,” I muttered, running a hand through my still wet hair. “No gas.”

Bella gaped at me whilst I just smiled sheepishly. What was I supposed to do about gas without any money? The venue was a half hour away by car, walking would be too much. I reached for my phone that was in my pocket and dialled a number. “Matty Mouse? Hey, I, uh. No, don’t get Rian, I’m fine. Could you maybe… pick me up?” I didn’t want Rian to know that I couldn’t afford much because of our parents. He didn’t need to know.

I heard Matt sigh into the phone, “Pick you up in what, the tour bus?” Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Oh, shit yeah sorry, I forgot.”

“I’ll ask Kate to come and pick you up, okay? She shouldn’t be long, she just left the house.”

I sighed in relief and thanked him. “Colussy’s wife’s going to pick us up.” Bella just nodded and sat on the pavement. “Sorry, I totally forgot I didn’t have any gas. You know I’ve been low on cash and I can just walk to work so it’s not usually a big deal.”

“It’s nearly a half hour walk to your jobs,” She pointed out and I just shrugged, embarrassed by my lack of funds.

About fifteen minutes later a car pulled up and the passenger door opened, “Hey Elle.“

“Oh hi Kate. I’m so sorry about this, but thank you. This is my friend Bella, Bella this is Kate Colussy,” Kate smiled as I said her last name and Bella whispered a small ‘hello’. We climbed into the car and Kate turned the music up slightly.

It wasn’t an awkward drive; it was just void of conversation. My mind was too busy contemplating whether or not my parents would remember the boys’ hometown date and turn up. It sounds selfish but deep down I really hoped they wouldn’t turn up. I didn’t want to have to face them tonight; all I wanted was fun with my friends and to not have to worry about anything. It was incredibly selfish of me to even hope they wouldn’t be there because Rian would have to wait until tomorrow to see them but honestly, I didn’t care.

“We’re here,” Kate said and smiled at me. I returned it and hopped out of the car. “This way,” Kate led us round the back and the security guard nodded at her and let her through. As I entered the building I saw some kids in All Time Low tops standing on the corner, it looked like the queue was already pretty long.

“Okay, the boys are doing a meet and greet now but they’ll be up in like, fifteen minutes,” I nodded at Matt and went over to where he was sat. “What’s up, Princess Ariel?”

“Nothing, can I stay here with you for a while?” He gave me a concerned smile and opened his arms out.

I happily crawled into them and sat on his lap, my head resting on his chest. “You sure you’re okay, sweetie?”

“Matty Mouse, would I lie to you?” Yes, you do practically every time you talk to him.

“Okay, fine, I trust you.” You shouldn’t.

He ran his fingers up my arms and I closed my eyes hoping that we could stay like that until the boys had to go on stage. Unfortunately with my best friend being the tour manager it wasn’t that simple. “What’s up my fuckers?” Jack shouted as he jumped into the room.

“Fuck off, man,” I mumbled into Matt’s top.

Jack came and kneeled in front of me, “Ariel, come tell Uncle B-Kat what’s wrong.” He gave me a wink and I laughed lightly, still not moving from Matt’s lap.

“Matt!” Grieco’s voice rung out throughout the nearly empty venue and Matt groaned slightly before getting up, making me get off of his lap.

Jack sat down on the chair and pulled me onto his lap, my back pushed against his chest. “Hey! Ariel, that’s my space!” Alex whined as he came into view and I laughed. I moved over to stand next to Evan as Alex got onto Jack’s lap. They sat like I had with Matt – Alex’s head on Jack’s shoulder, Jack’s arms wrapped around him. “Fuck off and find your own space, Dawson.”

“Hey, Asskarth, I had my own space until your useless drum technician needed him.”

“Hey, I am not useless, I just needed a hand!” Everyone standing around us laughed as Grieco shouted at me from the stage.

“That’s what Jack said last night,” Alex smirked and Jack rolled his eyes at the crude joke. Everyone just laughed but I noticed the tinge of pink on Jack’s cheeks. Interesting reaction there, Barakat.

Alex managed to snuggle his way back under Jack’s chin and I noticed he kept playing with the hem of Jack’s top, his fingers brushing the bare skin underneath. I ignored the two and wondered on stage to see what Grieco and Matt were doing but the first thing I noticed was my brother standing with a microphone whilst Vinny stood next to him with another one.

“Kiss me again, underneath the moonlight. You’re more than a friend,” My brother sang awfully into the microphone and I stifled a giggle.

“Oooh,” Vinny sang off-key.

“I knew it from the first sight.”

“Yeaaaah.” Vinny carried on doing the background singing until the next ling where he joined in with Rian’s unpleasant singing.

“Hold me feel my heartbeat, put your arms around me.”

The next line was my brother solo singing again. “And kiss me again!”

Whilst Vinny finished it off in what I think was supposed to be an imitation of Tay’s voice. “And kiss me again.” I clapped like they did in the song and both of the boys jumped where they stood with their arms around each other’s backs.

“Nice rendition of that song guys. Why’d you even get an act to go on before you, you two could just do a small set to get the crowd going,” Grieco said as he emerged back onto the stage.

I went and hugged the technician and saw Vinny flip him off. “You’re just jealous of our amazing voices.”

“You’re just jealous of our amazing voices,” I heard two familiar voices from behind me and raced over to hug the small girl and tall boy. “Hey Elle! Sorry we couldn’t see you earlier, we had an early signing.”

“It’s fine, Tay. Oh god, I missed you.” I’d met Tay about a year or so before and I spoke to her regularly.

“Where’s my favourite girl?” I heard Cameron say from around the corner.

“Um, I’m not sure exactly where but Rob should be around here somewhere,” I winked at him and gave him a hug.

Rob hit me on my behind as Cameron released me, “Not cool, Dawson.”

“Not cool, Chianelli.” I mimicked and behind the stage in time to see Mike walk in with Cass.

“Lover!” I shouted at Mike and jumped onto him, his arms circling me after he got over the shock.

“How is my favourite Dawson?” Mike asked, settling me back on the ground.

“I’m fine, dude, what about you?” Rian asked, coming sidestage.

I hit my brother in the gut and answered Mike, “I’m fine and your least favourite Dawson is fine as well.” Rian just stuck his tongue out at me as he recovered from holding his stomach.

“Hey! Tay, doors just opened, you’ve got yourself like, twenty minutes to get ready!” I heard Matt’s shout from a backroom and I watched as the band all grouped together and prepared themselves for the show ahead of them.



“Can we give a special thank you to a certain Dawson for being a rad motherfucker?” Alex shouted and the crowd went wild as Rian stood up from behind his drum set. “Rian what are you doing? Sit the fuck down!”

Rian threw a drumstick at Alex but missed and I saw a girl in the crowd catch it. “That’s cute Rian, you think you’re special,” Jack teased the drummer.

“We mean Ariel Dawson, Matt bring her out!” It wasn’t unusual to be brought up on stage because the boys loved to tease me and I usually helped the crew but I still didn’t like being put in the spotlight.

I went to run some in the venue as Matt came towards me but Kurily grabbed my waist and Jordan picked me up and ran on stage with me over his shoulder.

He put me down and as I tried to run off Alex put his arm around my shoulders and pushed me towards him, Jack joined on my other side. I was in an All Time Low sandwich.

“I hate you guys,” I pouted and the crowd laughed as did the boys.

“She’s lying, she can’t get enough of this,” Alex said, gesturing to his body whilst I hit him upside the head. “I joke, I save this all for Jack.” The crowd erupted in screams and shouts.

“Anyway, Ariel couldn’t join us on tour and we missed her like crazy. So, we would be eternally grateful if you helped Alex out with the next song.”

I stared at Jack with wide eyes. “Okay, I seriously hate you guys.”

“Well even so, I love you,” Jack replied, kissing my cheek and exiting the stage, as did the rest of the band except Alex.

When Alex was first writing Remembering Sunday he’d asked me to sing the female part for him countless times and I was perfectly comfortable with doing so but doing it to a crowd full of waiting teenagers was extremely off-putting and nerve-wracking.

“Let’s give it up for Ariel Dawson, make her feel welcome Baltimore!” I got a huge cheer of ‘Go Ariel!’ from the crowd which made me feel better about it.

Alex started strumming his acoustic and soon his voice was out there as well whilst I went and grabbed the microphone from Jack’s stand.

His voice always gave me goosebumps in this song and it brought back so many memories from when we were younger. I was a huge All Time Low fan and honestly, I listened to them at night because I missed them so much. I cried at their songs and I was so proud of them, every song had memories stitched into it; childhood memories, memories that weren’t exactly the best and then some memories that were my favourites.

I concentrated hard so that I didn’t miss my bit, “I’m not coming back, I’ve done something so terrible. I’m terrified to speak but you’d expect that from me. I’m mixed up, I’ll be blunt. Now the rain is just washing you out of my hair and out of my mind, keeping an eye on the world. So many thousands of feet off the ground. I’m over you now, I’m at home in the clouds towering over your head.”

“Well I guess I’ll go home now, I guess I’ll go home now, I guess I’ll go home now. I guess I’ll go home,” Alex’s voice at the end of the song brought tears to my eyes and I sniffed softly and let Alex hug me before he gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Okay, you can go back now. Thank you, Ariel. Give her a big thank you, guys!” Cheers came from the crowd and I smiled before scurrying off stage. The rest of the band returned and finished their set.

The crew and other bands on the side of the stage all bundled me in a huge hug and I let out a shaky laugh, tears falling.

“That was really good, girl!” Tay said whilst Cass high-fived me.

Bella came and hugged me, “Where have you been?”

“Just hanging out with Danny and We Are The In Crowd,” She smiled at me. I was glad that Bella was getting along with all of them - it meant a lot to me.

I watched the rest of the boys’ set from the side of the stage and embraced them all in sweaty hugs when they finished. “I need to go shower!” Alex shouted, pulling his sweaty top off. “Jack, come and get wet with me!” I laughed as Jack tripped over his own feet as he ran after Alex.
Rian was sat on a chair in the dressing room as I entered it and I sat next to him, “Hey Elle, how come Kate had to drive you here today?”

“Uh, because I didn’t have any gas,” I murmured, looking down into my lap.

“Well why didn’t you have any?”

“I uh- I couldn’t afford any.”

“Oh.” Then he turned to me and asked about something I’d hoped he hadn’t taken much notice of. “Elle, how come Mom didn’t turn up tonight? She’s never missed a hometown show.” I looked up and instantly regretted it. Sadness was clear in his eyes and he looked slightly confused. That look broke my heart because it appeared that he thought it was his fault. He doesn’t deserve to feel like the liability for our mother’s absence, that was all me.