You Don't Have to Worry

“Emma! You are so dead!”

These were the first words that escaped Alison’s lips the moment the sole of her shoes met the pavement. Joel, Alex, Sean and Ryan trailing behind the fuming girl as they carried her bags to the hotel they were now staying in, still laughing at Alison who was practically blowing steam out of her ears.

“I still can’t believe she only saw that photo now.” Ryan said to his band mates.

“For a smart girl, she’s pretty dumb.”

“I heard that, Joel.” She pointed an accusing finger at him and continued, “Don’t think this is the end of your punishment.” She seethed at the blonde boy who raised both his hands in surrender.

“Chill out,”

“Chill out my ass. Now I’m going to look for that bitch and fuck her up.” Alison stormed off.

“What the fucking hell?”

“Sup G-man?” Jared asked one of his best mates. They have yet to arrive at the new hotel they were staying in just because John woke up late and totally forgot to pack his bags the night before.

“This is what’s up!” Garrett shoved his phone to Jared’s face. The ginger looked at the screen and knew immediately what got him this way.

“He just saw Emma’s Instagram post.” He announced calmly to everyone in the bus.

“I can’t believe you guys liked it!” It was obvious that Garrett was exasperated. He couldn’t believe that he thought of Emma as someone who was genuinely nice, not plotting and evil.

“No, what’s unbelievable is how you only saw it now.”

John has never seen one of his best friends have so much dislike for someone from the opposite sex. The Garrett he knew wouldn’t have paid attention at all but Alison was bringing out this side of him without even knowing it. He didn’t know if it is a good thing or the opposite, but he sure is amused.

Emma was peacefully talking to the boys of You Me At Six when she heard her best friend’s voice boom through the hotel lobby.

“Oh no, hide me, quick!” The rest of the boys were confused as to what was happening but went along anyway. Emma immediately jumped behind the couch she was once sitting on.

“Hello boys,” Ali greeted the nervous British men before her, her hands on her hips – looking as intimidating as ever.

“Hi.” They greeted in chorus, unsure of what exactly was going to happen.

“Do you know where my darling of a best friend is?”

“No.” Dan answered a little too quickly and Ali immediately knew he was lying. It was a give-away. Josh, Matt, Chris and Max were giving Dan wary looks.

“She’s behind that couch isn’t she?” He nodded, guilt written all over his face. “Good boy.”

Alison Davy Smith does not waste time, she went around the couch and there she saw her best friend, in a crouching position on the floor.

“You can run but you can’t hide.” Alison quickly pulled Emma to her feet, holding on to the sleeve of her shirt and dragged the girl outside.

“Everything’s under control.” She told the guard she saw from her peripheral that was approaching them. Once the two reached the entrance, Alison let go of Emma.

“I’m really hoping that you’ve already said your prayers.”

“Oh come on Ali, it was just a little joke.”

“A little joke, Em, really? My Twitter got bombarded by tweets of random underage girls asking if I was Garrett’s new ‘flavor of the month’!” Ali made quotation marks in the air. Emma giggled at this – Garrett really does get under her skin. “Stop laughing, it’s not funny!”

“Yes it is. Look at you,” Emma pointed a finger at the Asian girl. “Getting all wound up with a stupid photo.”

“I’m glad you know that it’s a stupid photo. But ‘Couple tattoo’? Are you being serious, Emma? You know how much I dislike that boy!”

Before Emma could say a word, she saw a pissed-looking Garrett coming her way.

“What the hell is this about?!” Garrett said once the two girls were within earshot and showing the image on his phone, just like what he did with Jared. “Do you know how much trouble you put me in? I woke up to a phone call from Alternative Press asking who this is!” He nudged his head towards Alison.

“This,” She pointed at herself, “Has a name.”

“Whatever. Just delete the picture, Emma.”

“I agree.”

“Wow, did Garrett Nickelsen and Alison Davy Smith just agree on something?” Kennedy asked with an amused smirk on his lips.

“The world must be ending, but it’s nice to finally see you two not trying to kill each other.” Pat piped in.

Alison held her tongue to stop herself from saying something mean. Be nice and keep your cool, Ali, keep your cool, she thought over and over.

“It must blow to be both of you right now,” Emma crossed her arms. “Because I’m not deleting that photo, just suck it up and stop being big babies.” She chuckled and walked away.

Alison and Garrett knew that it was the mature thing to do, although they can’t help but feel repulsed towards the other.

“Don’t think this is over yet, young lady!” Alison shouted after her stubborn friend.

Who was she kidding? That was one of the things they had in common – being hard asses. She sighed at the thought. “So… room assignments?” She faced the guys of The Maine as if nothing happened and proceeded with her job.



“Okay, we’re the only odd-numbered band that Alison is handling, which means one of us gets to share a room with her,” John explained. “So I suggest we battle it out through rock-paper-scissors.”

Ali and Garrett rolled their eyes.

“Sorry, I totally didn't get the memo that the lead singer is five.”

“I’m out.” Garrett announced.

“It’s not like I want to be sleeping in the same room as you, jerk face.”

“Okay, just the four of us then.” John looked expectantly at Pat, Kennedy and Jared.

“I’m going to make it easy for you guys and room with Gary.” The redhead said as he took a step back.

“So how is this going to work?” Pat asked.

“How about I just pick one of you?” Ali said in monotone.

“No, no. That would be unfair.” The singer declined.

“Gee, thanks for letting me practice my freedom of choice.” She rolled her eyes at him.

Garrett tried to push away the thought of how much he liked her smart mouth at the very back of his mind – the farthest he could.

Alison handed a key to Jared and Pat. “Come on Kenny, you’re rooming with me.” With that, she headed towards the elevator with her bags in tow. It was only about three in the afternoon – too early to start preparing for the party that Drake had arranged at the hotel’s bar that evening.

Before Alison got settled into their room, she checked on the other bands first. Quietly knocking on the door to the room where Mike and Vic were supposed to be, it was answered in a matter of seconds.

“Hello there,” The boy with the beautiful smile and dimples to match greeted her. “To what do we owe this visit?”

“Is that Alison?” She heard a voice shout from inside that was no doubt Vic’s.

“Yeah!” Jaimie yelled back, and soon the door was being swung open, revealing the band’s front man.

“You could have let her in, you dumbass.” Vic’s hand flew directly behind Jaime’s head.

“I see you guys are settling in just fine.” She took a step inside, looking around the room. Clothes were strewn everywhere. “Why can’t I help but suspect that an atomic bomb has gone off in here?” Alison’s eyes were tainted with worry – the room was already too messy beyond belief, that’s when Mike appeared from the bathroom.

“Is this okay for tonight?” He asked, only then noticing Alison who was trying really hard not to laugh.

“Are you trying out clothes for tonight?”

Mike felt the blush creep on his face rather quickly.

“That’s his thing.” Tony piped up from the floor where he was playing GTA.

“I mean… I already know that you were a little girly, but not to this extent.”

“Shut up. So, what do you think?” He did a little twirl for everybody in the room to see the details of his outfit. He was wearing a nice cream-colored button-down with some dark jeans and a pair of black vans.

“I don’t know, Mikey.” Ali stroked her chin. “Would you like to borrow one of my dresses? I mean, since you’re such a girl and all.”

“Ugh. Nevermind.” The rest chuckled while Mike stalked back to the bathroom.

Normally, the drummer wouldn’t have bothered but as Alison announced the party happening tonight, everybody was asked to dress nicely, and upon hearing this, Mike immediately searched his bags for something decent.

“So since you guys seem to be doing a-okay, I’m gonna go check on the others.”

“Uh-huh, see you later Ali.” Tony dismissed the girl and she vanished from the doorway. Alison headed to the next room that held Joel and Sean.

“Why aren’t you rooming with your brother?” She didn’t bother knocking.

“As if living with him my entire life wasn’t enough.” Sean scoffed.

“And now I’m the one who’s stuck with him.” Joel said, putting his hands beneath his head. Ali plopped down beside him and snuggled into his warm body. Her head resting comfortably on his left shoulder and her arm draped across his chest.

“Tired?” He looked down at the girl who fascinated him.

“Yeah, trying to kill your best friend can do that to you.”

“Still not over that, huh?”

“Try putting yourself in my shoes.”

“Well… having someone put up a photo of me and Garrett’s same tattoo and using ‘couple tattoo’ as its caption wouldn’t be nice.” Ali was about to sigh in relief and rejoice that someone finally understands her but Joel continued to speak. “Considering that both of us are manly men and –”

“Dude,” Joel turned to Sean with raised eyebrows. “Did you just call yourself a manly man? That just makes me question your sexuality even more.”

“Come off it Sean, everybody knows you and Joel have a thing.”

“You told her?” He asked Joel. “I can’t believe you!” Sean yelled dramatically, followed with an exaggerated sob and he stormed out of the room.

“What a drama queen.”

“That’s Sean Silverman for you.” Joel felt her nod, “So I never really asked where you got that very un-Aussie like accent. You sound more American than anything else.”

Joel was observant, she’d give him that.

“I just moved here last year from the Philippines.”

“The Philippines as in where Manila is?”

“Aren’t you a smart one?” Ali mocked her friend and Joel could only roll his eyes at her.

“We played there twice before.”

“I know.”

“Did you watch?”

“Does it look like I watched?” Joel groaned – Ali was a very frustrating girl.

“Don’t get smart with me.” But before he could utter another word, Alison was already leaving.

“See you later baby cakes.”

“See you, mama sita. Dress to impress.” He winked right before she closed the door.

Alison headed to the room where Ryan and Alex were supposed to be only to find out that it was locked and nobody was answering. She knew that The Maine were doing okay, so she skipped them and looked for Carter.

Carter was one of the quiet girls from work, but once you get to know her, she turns out to be this incredibly crazy person. Another fun fact about her is that she’s in charge of Sleeping With Sirens – one of Alison’s favorite bands.

She knocked quietly in the room where she knew Carter would be in and waited for someone to answer the door, and when it was finally open, she couldn’t help but feel ecstatic.

“Oh bless you!” She kissed the smaller girl’s forehead.

“Alison, are you okay?” Carter asked warily as she watched the girl plop herself on the bed beside Kellin.

“Isn’t it weird that your name is a lot more masculine than Kellin’s?”

“Hey!” The boy protested.

“Sup Ali?” Carter asked.

“I’m bored and I don’t want to be around Emma.”

Everybody around her tried not to laugh.

“I take it you all knew before I found out.” She rolled her eyes at her newly acquired friends.

“Welll you gotta admit, it does look like something a couple would get.”

Alison let out a frustrated groan – the world was against her, obviously. Her friends were no exception.

“Are you guys talking about Ali and Garrett’s couple tattoo?” Justin said as he came out of the bathroom.

“It’s not a couple tattoo, god!”

“Relax,” Kellin patted her shoulder.

“Why do you guys keep on making these stupid remarks? I swear I should have killed Emma when she was within arm’s length!” Alison seethed.

“The real question is, why are you so affected?” Carter raised an eyebrow at her and Alison could only let out another groan as she took the pillow her and Kellin shared and covered her face with it.

“Someone please just kill me! Please!” Her voice came out muffled due to the pillow. Nobody understood what she said. She groaned again, throwing the pillow across the room and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

“And where are you going?” Carter asked.

“I’m going to go get some fresh air.”

That’s how Alison Davy Smith found herself in a small record store in the unfamiliar city. She only had her phone in hand and a couple of ten dollar bills in her pocket. She didn’t mind going back to her hotel room – that’s what’s best anyway and not just for her, but for everyone who can be her potential punching bag.

She browsed through various racks of CDs, listening to some that caught her interest and then going back to return it. This went on for a couple of minutes until her eyes landed on a limited edition Ryan Adams CD that she’s been trying to get her hands on for ages. Just as she reached for it, another person had the same intentions. Both of them now had their hands on the plastic box.

Ali stared at the hand, waiting for it to let go, but when the owner made no move at all, she looked up at said person’s eyes – her death glare already prepared – only to see blue orbs staring into her dark brown ones, holding the same glare she was sporting.

Garrett looked at her intently.

Just give up, he thought, just let go of the damn CD. He was surprised to see her in this sketchy-looking record store, but was even more surprised to find out that she liked Ryan Adams.

“Get your filthy paws off my CD.” Alison warned.

“Your CD? I don’t see your name on it.”

“It’s because its Ryan Adams’, dumbass.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.” Garrett rolled his eyes. “Who’s the dumbass now?” He taunted.

“It’s mine. Let go, Garrett.”

“No.”

“Be a gentleman for once and let a lady have it.”

Garrett snorted at this. “A lady? You consider yourself a lady? You must be off your rocker.”

Right before Alison could say a proper response to show him who’s off her rocker, her phone rang – the same poppy tune that she considered her guilty pleasure.

Get out, get out, get out of my head. And fall into my arms instead.

Garrett gave her a skeptical look as a blush found its way to her entire face. without letting go of the album, she fished for her phone from the pocket of her shorts and looked at the screen.

Garrett saw her features change, it softened drastically and a smile made its way to her face. He found her beautiful, but as fast as the thought came, it left. Alison immediately released the Ryan Adams CD and glared at the boy.

“Fine, you can have it.” With that, she turned around and answered the call. “Hi, daddy.” She greeted sweetly.

Garrett let the corners of his lips turn upward to a grin. But he wasn’t quite sure if it was because he won against Alison, or because of Alison herself.