Scream, to Be Heard

Chapter 13
Summer came quickly, as did the first Warped date. Van life was….interesting, to say the least. The band couldn’t afford a tour bus (go figure.) so they played it cool in Zach’s dad’s van. Bailey helped the guys with their stuff. Since the sleepover incident, she had been a lot more open with Alex about things. Like, for example, she told him that she could put up and take down a stage. And now she had a job on tour with them. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that yet. Alex would NOT stop pestering her about her band though.
“What genre?”
“Go away, Alex.”
“What’s your guys’ name?”
“Go away, Alex.”
“Who’s in it?”
“Go away, Alex.”
“When’s your next gig?”
“Go away, Alex.”
“Can I go?”
“ALEXXXXX. GO. AWAYYYYYYYYY.” She groaned like a dying whale, plugging in the PA. They were at a tiny little side stage for the opening date. Better than nothing.
“No!” He argued, snaking his arms around her waist. They were both gross and sweaty, because it was 90 degrees and they were in the sun. Bailey laughed.
“Go warm up.” He only clung on tighter.
“I’m serious!” She tried to shake him off.
“Tell me the band’s nameeeeeee.” He said in an awful Russian accent. She scoffed.
“Serenading Silence.” He raised an eyebrow in interest.
“I like it.” He dragged out the ‘it’, sounding a bit like the guy with the spray cheese in the Goofy Movies. Yep. Nobody has any idea who that is. Cool.
“Shush. Go warm up.” So he did. She and Flyzik had just finished taping down the last of the set lists. A few dozen teenagers gathered around the stage, taking pictures with their super-hip Razor flip phones and talking about the band.
‘OhEmGee Alex is soooo super cute’ A few of them would say.
‘Zack is such a hunk!’ Or
‘Jack is such a skunk!’ Or even
‘Rian is such a potato!’ But there were a few that really, well for lack of a better word, sucked.
‘Who’s that girl? Is she with Alex? Ew.’
‘ She’s disgusting. He can do soooo much better.’
‘Fat ass.’
‘Ugly.’
‘Whore.’ She pushed away the names that she had grown used to, but that last one. It really stuck with her. They didn’t know that Alex was the first guy that ever liked her. That he was her first kiss. That he was her first….boyfriend? Maybe?
She left the stage with a pissy look on her face. And Alex noticed.
“Y’alright, love?” Bailey leaned up against a railing, looking out towards the bitches in the audience.
“You got some rude fans out there,” she faked a laugh. Jack was over in the corner dancing, so that made her feel a little better.
“Explain?” Even in this moment of total seriousness, she couldn’t help but melt at the sight of Alex. The breeze was blowing through his hair and he was squinting just a bit, trying to get the ridiculous sunlight out of his eyes. His favorite guitar was slung over him and his biceps gleamed from the sweat (which is potentially gross but she thought it was hot). Perfect collarbones showcased in a tank top. It was too much for her little 17 year old heart to take. He noticed the staring and smirked a bit.
“Eyes are up here, babe.” Her gaze snapped back up to him, and she blushed.
“Sorry.” Alex chuckled as she said it, “You look really hot right now. Ahem. Anyways.” He raised an eyebrow and bit his lip. ‘STOP MESSING WITH MY OVARIES’ she screamed at him mentally, but she tried to explain.
“While I was setting up stage there were a bunch of girls who were like ‘who’s that? Is she with Alex? She’s fat and gross and he can do so much better’ and one of them called me a whore and I just….” He took her hand and kissed it and looked into her eyes.
“Babe, they’re just jealous. You’re absolutely stunning and honestly too good for me and-”
“LEXIII TIME TO GO ON STAGEEEEEE” Jack screamed, skipping by the two of them. They laughed.
“Ignore them.” He said, and kissed her quickly before running onstage.
“Oh Alex,” She sighed, “Where would I be without you.” Their set was fantastic, as usual. They even played a new one that Alex had been working on, but they weren’t sure when they were gonna release it. It was called ‘The Beach’. A fun summer song, if anything. They bounced around on stage, ignoring the blistering heat that was giving Jack a sunburn. You would think that our Lebanese princess would be inferior to the sun, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
Bailey tapped her foot along to the new song and leaned up against the railing. Flyzik was chatting it up with one of the stage managers, trying to act as professional as he could for a 17 year old kid. It was quite humorous. She noticed how the girls who had shit-talked her were just standing at the front of the stage, squealing and reaching up in hopes that Alex would touch their manicured hands. Jealous. Jealous of what? They weren’t even officially together. It’d been like 2 months. Stupid. It really was though.
Alex was oblivious. Well, not so much oblivious as ignorant to the fact that they weren’t actually dating. It felt like they were. But they were best friends as well. So it was…weird? The circumstance was. Not their relationship.
“Alex! Alex! Are you single?” One of the girls screamed while he was changing guitars. He ignored her. This annoyed Bailey more than it should have. ‘Why didn’t he say no…’ she thought, leaning on the rail next to Flyzik.
“Alex! Alex!!! Do you have a girlfriend?”
“This next song is called Circles!” Once again, she was slightly irritated. At lead he didn’t say that he WAS single, or that he DIDN’T have a girlfriend…but what did that make her? An ‘occasional’? Meh.
They played the rest of their set and then she and Flyzik had to take down their equipment. Not too much. The entire time they did that, the bunch of girls was fawning over Alex as he signed EPs, and there was no lack of stupid flirty lines and hair twirling.
“So. How’s it goin?” Flyzik grunted as he lifted guitar cases over the railing. The blonde was helping some guy take down Rian’s drums.
“Kinda shitty to be honest.” Her eyes darted back over to her…..friend, Alex….and how he was shamelessly flirting with these girls. Flyzik followed her gaze to the flirtatious Gaskarth.
“Oh.” He scoffed, adjusting his lip ring, “Well, I would just talk to him about it. He’s a guy. Who thinks in his pants sometimes.” This made her chuckle as she packed up the remainder of the tech. Most of the girls had left to fan-girl over some other band that they didn’t know more than one song by. Jack came over with a can of Monster.
“Refreshments for the hardworking crew!” He sang, handing it to her. Flyzik looked up from his clipboard, disappointed.
“Hey!? I don’t get one!??” Jack turned to face him.
“NOPE.” And he skipped off. She laughed.
“I’ll share with you, McFly.”
“Thanks.” The other band had to go on next, so they got out of there. Zack and Rian went to go check out the All American Rejects, Jack had to go to the bathroom and Flyzik was gonna do paperwork because what else is there for a Flyzik to do. So it was just Alex and Bailey.
“Y’alright?” He nudged as they headed to Hit The Lights. All Bailey could think is how jealous Chloe would be on missing out on one of her favorite bands. She was mentally married to Nick Thompson.
“Yeah.” A lie. Oh well. They bounced up and down to ‘Save Your Breath’ as she washed away the anger with the music. It was refreshing, the sun beating down on them as a light breeze rustled through their hair and cooled them off. Neither of them minded being shoved up against strangers, jumping along to the song. If this is how the rest of the summer was going to be, well, they were looking forward to it.
“BAILEY!” She turned towards him, wanting to laugh at how awkwardly spazzy and sweaty he was.
“YEAH?”
“GO CROWDSURF.” Her eyes widened. She really didn’t like crowd-surfing because she thought she was too heavy.
“FUCK NO”
“FUCK YES.” Before she knew it, Alex had lifted her up above the crowd and she was surfing it. The blonde ignored poorly-placed hands as she was pushed towards the front. Alex was just a dot. An asshole of a dot. Partially from earlier today (which honestly wasn’t that big of a deal) and partially from PROJECTING HER INTO A CROWD OF TEENAGERS WITHOUT WARNING.
“ALEX YOU FUCKING ASS.” It wasn’t until she was turned around that she realized that Nick was directly in front of her. Bailey stuck her hand out stupidly, hoping for him to do the same. And he did! His hand extended outwards to her, about to make contact.
That is, of course, until she was dropped. By some twelve year old.
She met up with Alex near their merch booth (which they should have been at ages ago) with a face of discontent.
“Oof.” He grumbled, looking at her face.
“Yeah. Oof is right.” Alex thought it was adorable the way she was squinting with anger, arms cross and hip jutted out. He tried not to laugh.
“Who’s the bitch that dropped you?” He looked out into the crowd that was still left.
“WHO’S THE BITCH THAT LAUNCHED ME INTO THE CROWD AGAINST MY WORD.” The boy took a step back subconsciously, slightly shocked by her tone. She was usually really easy going about these kinds of things…what was up with her?
“I’m sorry, I just thought you’d be…you know…okay with it?” He smiled sheepishly and she glared.
“After I said no. Obviously.” She was surprised at how bitchy she sounded.
“What’s up with you?” He asked, perhaps coming out a little harsh. A few girls that had been at the show earlier walked by, waving at Alex and giving Bailey the death stare. She shot it right back.
“They’re just jealous.”
“Hmph.”
“So what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Whatever you say.” The next few days continued similarly. She’d help Flyzik with the stage and she’d hear comments from snarky girls in the audience. They were always the same.
‘He can do better.’
‘Fat.’
‘Ugly.’
‘Slut.’
And every single time, Alex would say ‘they’re just jealous.’ Well, the excuse was getting old. Because after every set he’d go out and shamelessly flirt with them. A week into the tour, she got fed up with it.
“Hey, McFly, can I out early today? I’m not feeling so hot.” He looked up from his clipboard.
“Yeah, sure. Feel better!” Bailey and Flyzik got along really well. He was like the brother she never had. The blonde went out to the van and turned on the AC, then stretched out in the back.
“Fuck.” She groaned to herself, rolling onto her back. There was a tap at the window and she shot up immediately. Oh, it was just Jack. She sighed in relief and let him in.
“Hey girl!” He layed down next to her and threw a sweaty arm over her.
“Eeeewwwwww.” Jack laughed manically and took his arm off.
“So. What’s up?” Despite the fact that he was a total goof-off and rarely had anything…well, intelligent to say, he was a smart kid. He noticed things.
“Alex and I still aren’t official,” He nodded, listening, “and all those girls call me names and it sucks because I have low enough self-esteem as it is….and I know I should ignore them and I do. Mostly. But sometimes, even though you tell yourself it’s not real, it seems like it is. And he says ‘oh, they’re jealous. Don’t worry about it.’ But….what do they have to be jealous of? We’re not even together. They ask if he’s single and he doesn’t answer. And then, to top it all off, he flirts with them. I know it’s not really a big deal and that it’s just for band publicity but it makes me feel like absolute shit. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just over reacting.” They were leaning their heads against the back window of the van, staring into space. Jack cleared his throat.
“Tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“Exactly what you just told me. Just change the pronouns around a bit.” The van was cool and Jack wasn’t quite as drenched in man sweat. That didn’t mean he smelled any better.
“Really?”
“Yeah. You need to be blunt with Alex. It’s summer. Which means his attentiveness is about as existant as my spot on the honor roll. Which, if you were wondering, does not exist.” This made her laugh a little bit. Jack tackled her in a hug.
“You okay now?”
“Yes, Jacko. Now get off of me because you smell rank.” He made a puppy dog face and then crawled into the front of the van.