My Only One

~Megan~
Wow, that was insane. I never even dreamed of meeting the people from Paramore and Mayday. They were really nice people and they were hilarious too. The guys from Mayday reminded me a lot of Jack and how crazy he is. They would definitely get along quite nicely. Hayley Williams was really nice too; and so pretty. It probably would be good to have another girl on tour.

We all walked to the gas station and picked up a lot of snacks and drinks and I even bought a couple packages of water balloons. It’s hot and depending on the places you go, there isn’t a lot to do so they could come in handy. The time it took us to get to the gas station and back, Alex didn’t say a word. I knew he was nervous so I just left him with his thoughts and talked to Derek and Jack.

When we got back, there was another bus parked right behind Paramore’s bus and a group of guys standing outside by the door. Our group walked over there and we talked for a little bit. The singer of their band is named Cody Carson. He’s a really nice guy and he has an amazing voice. He was listening to his songs on his IPod, kind of getting ready for tonight and I asked him if I could listen. It was amazing. I loved it so much. He said he would give me a CD tonight during the show. I would definitely be taking that back to the bus with me to listen to. Zack was smart enough to bring a radio.

During the fifteen minutes we talked with Set it off, Alex only introduced himself. The rest of the time he was staring of into space. Cody even tried to talk to him and he kind of just nodded and mumbled. “I apologize,” I said to him. “He’s usually not like this. I think he’s just really nervous. He’ll be a lot better once the shows over.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m really nervous as well, just a little bit better at hiding it. I’ll talk to you guys later. I’m going to head back in the bus. Bye.”

He walked off and I turned around to face Alex but he was gone. “Jack,” I said, “Where the hell did Alex go?” Jack pointed at the bus so I walked inside and shut the door. He was lying down in his bunk with his eyes closed. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked him. He opened his eyes and looked at me. “I am so nervous.” I shook my head and I climbed into the bunk with him.

“You have nothing to be nervous about.”

“I mean, I was nervous before but now I realized I have to play in front of Mayday and Paramore, bands that I’ve idolized for years. My first real show and I have to play in front of them, with them watching me. What if I screw up or forget the lyrics?”

“You are going to do great. Will you just trust me when I say that?”

“I wish that I could.”

“What are you going to sing?”

“Well, we’re opening with The Party Scene, and then we’re playing Coffeeshop soundtrack, Stay Awake, Six feet under the stars, the song that I played for you, which is lullabies, Break out! Break out!, and then we are closing with Dear Maria.”

I shook my head at how stupid he was being. “See? I’ve heard all of those songs and they are all amazing. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Once you play them for the first time, you’ll realize that you have nothing to worry about. Alright?”

He nodded but didn’t look too convinced so I softly pressed my lips up against his and I could already feel him relax. He kissed me back and things were going to get pretty heated until the guys walked in the bus yelling and making noises. “Fuck this,” Alex said sitting up and banging his head on top of the bunk. “Shh. We’ll finish this later. I promise.”

“We never get any alone time. It’s beginning to really piss me off. Damn band and damn bus and I hate it. I do.” I widened my eyes at him. “Woah, chill out there, Alex.”

“I’m sorry.” He kissed me quickly and jumped out of the bunk and walked toward the kitchen where all the guys were at. I followed him and we all sat around and talked. We talked about how crazy this was, about the other bands, about the show tonight, about what they were going to sing, about how hungry everyone was and all of a sudden, Matt walked into the kitchen. He left halfway through our conversation. He was already opening up to us.

“It is time. There are kids already lined up. They’re letting them into the venue in about twenty minutes if you guys want to go out there and pass out some flyers or something and promote the band. I would suggest it.”

Alex thought it was a good idea so he walked out with me and the rest of the band and the four of them walked around and started talking to kids. Set it off was already doing that when we got out there. I leaned up against the fence and watched Alex interact with the kids. He seemed a little bit happier now.

“Oh, hi Megan.” It was Cody from set it off. “Hey, Cody. You guys are up first right?” He nodded and smiled. “You nervous?” I asked him. “I wasn’t before but now that there are real live kids here and I have to go do sound check in five minutes, yes, yes I am.” I shook my head. “I bet you’ll do fine. Don’t even worry about it.”

Out of nowhere a bunch of kids toward the front started yelling. The gates were opened. Kids started pouring through the gate. There had to be at least four hundred kids here. And there would definitely be more coming. Alex went with them, probably to get up on the stage. I followed him backstage but not before showing the guards my pass. If I don’t have it I wouldn’t be able to get back there unless I got one of the guys to come get me.

Set it off went through their sound check and then the played. They were awesome. Cody is so lively and energetic on the stage, always running around and making faces. They were really good. My favorite song that they played was called horrible kids. I really enjoyed it. He walked off the stage and smiled at me as he passed. “That was amazing,” I said. He laughed and gave me a real sweaty hug. “Do you think? I feel like I looked nervous.” I shook my head. “I don’t think you looked nervous at all. The kids really liked it too.” He smiled. “Thanks. I’m going to go down to our merch table. Stop by later if you want. I’ll give you a CD.” He walked away probably to go get cleaned up before he went down.

Jack, Rian and Zack walked out on stage and started setting up their instruments with the help of some of the Mayday guys. We didn’t really have a lot of people yet. We were working on it. Alex was standing by the entrance to the stage, looking really pale. “Baby, you’ll be fine. Now go help.” I gave him a shove.

He turned around and kissed me. “I love you.”

“I love you too. I’ll be back before you play. I need to go see if Matt needs help with merch.”
“Don’t be too long.”

I walked away and made my way to the merch booth. “Hey, you need any help?” He shook his head. “I did but I found it. I dropped a box of CD’s and was swearing and shit and this guy named Vinny asked if I needed help and I said yeah and he offered to help for the rest of the night so I offered for him to help for the rest of the tour. We now have a merch guy. You’re welcome.” I hugged him. “Good job. Now I have to go.”

I ran back to the side of the stage just as they were finishing sound check. I walked on stage and hugged all the boys and wished them luck. I walked up to Alex and gave him a kiss.

“Good luck. But you don’t need it. You’re going to do amazing.”

“You think?”
“
I know. Now play a good show.”

I walked off the stage and the band got ready to play their first show.