Time Bomb

“How long is the tour?” Bert asked flicking his ashes from his cigarette onto the grass, wondering if was dry enough to catch fire, probably not.

“Less than two months. They need another band to replace Blue October, something about a broken leg and being unable to tour.”

The Used manager was trying to convince him and the band to play this year’s Projekt Revolution, Linkin Parks summer concert. They were probably not their first choice. If they were to take this opportunity up there would be summer plans with Alison to cancel.

“I don’t know, man.” Bert huffed frustrated at the fact that he could no longer jump on a bus and tell the world to fuck itself. Sure, Alison would probably be pissed at him for fucking up their long time planned trip to Denmark.

It was obvious that our manager wanted to book us on the tour. Hell, he didn’t even know who was playing other than Linkin Park. Although, all he knew he wanted to help by getting us shows, but it wasn’t like the band was desperate and needed to find a show to play.

“How about I call you back around six?” The singer glanced at his watch, it was three now. There was enough time to argue with everyone.

He was greeted by a sigh. “Sure. Sounds good. I will talk to you then.”

“Bye.”

From where Bert stood by the bands tour bus, he could easily hear the commotion of the crowd. They were playing Warped Tour again and all of them had missed playing the tour since ’07. Good times, and fucking amazing people. They weren’t due onstage until 4 so there was time to talk to the guys and see how they felt about the tour before we played at least. It wasn’t until after our set that Bert would call Alison. He had invited her to come with everyone but she opted out to spend time with her parents and family. The man understood, of course, but he was fucking horny as hell.

Bert tossed his cigarette somewhere to the right and climbed onto the bus. If there was ever a time he was thankful for air condition and the luxury of it, it was right now in the summer heat.

“Yo, Bert!” Quinn greeted from the couch.

It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the bus and smiled at him. “Where is everyone else?”

Quinn nodded his head towards the back of the bus, “Bunks. Dan is shitting, I think. What’s up?”

“News,” He said shrugging, making his way to the back of the bus. There was no way he wanted to be caught up in conversation when he wanted to get the news out before they went on to play.

Jeph was laying in his bunk, headphones on, Bert yanked them out, “Hey get out to the front, we all need to sit down and talk. I have news.” He don’t know why he was being so shitty.

Jeph threw a look that was meant to kill, but Bert shrugged it off. “You could have gotten my attention another way.”

“What’s up?” Dan yelled from the bathroom next to the bunk area.

He rolled his eyes. “I will tell you once you stop shitting and get your ass in the front area.” Looking back at Jeph and threw him an apologetic look. He knew he was probably pissy because he was going to have to face the wrath of his wife. What man would be happy?

Not waiting for either of them, Bert walked back to the front area and sat down on the smaller couch opposite to Quinn who was busy texting.

Needing a moment to rest and clear his head, he laid his head back and closed his eyes breathing out. It depended who played the tour if they were going to go or not. Bert didn’t mind the Linkin Park guys at all, they played with them in Germany back in 2008. It was nice to get the invitation but hewasn’t sure if it was in him to go. As much as he enjoyed his time off as much as he loved playing. There was also Alison, who he hadn’t seen each other since mid-June and it was now early July. Even though he was not looking forward to the possible wrath of his wife, he did miss her and longed to spend time with her.

Hearing footsteps Bert lifted my head and opened his eyes to see Jeph and Dan walk into the room and sit down next to Quinn, who was forced to make room for them on the couch. As he stared at them, something inside of him suddenly became very excited for the news that he was going to tell them. Maybe they all could make this work out.

“So..what’s the big news?” Quinn asked.

“I just got a call from our manager. We were asked to come out and play Projekt Rev. Blue October dropped out because of a broken leg and they are unable to play the tour. I wanted to see what you all thought. I am calling out manager back later to tell him.”

Quinn was instant in a reaction; his face lit up and then dropped again. He was probably reminded about his new wife and son back home. The entire band knew he was looking forward to go home and be with them for the rest of the summer, after Warped. Like Alison, his wife had declined coming on tour so soon. She didn’t want her son’s summer to be ruined with sweaty people and he still had visitations to his father to be fulfilled. There was no way to uproot her son for a month.

Jeph and Dan didn’t have anything to go home to other than family and girlfriends. Nothing big like Quinn and Bert. The pair knew they would say yes more quickly compared to the four of us. It wasn’t them he was worried about.

“How long is the tour?” Quinn asked, hopeful.

“I was assured that it was just under two months. We would have a week break in between this tour and Linkin Parks tour. But we don’t have to take it. I still have Alison to talk to.” Bert replied. If he was years younger he would never imagine himself saying those words. Bert McCracken was a man of music and was currently in love with the craft so much. So much, he would tell the world to fuck itself and continue on with everything thrown at him.

Quinn nodded, deep in thought. “I would have to talk to Megan as well…”

“Fuck. I’m down once everyone else is.” Dan said, a smile breaking out on his face. He loved the road more than any of them.

Jeph nodded, “I am down, I just have to let the family know I won’t be back. They were all trying to plan something, but fuck it. It can wait until we are done. They will understand.”

“Okay.” Bert muttered. He looked at Quinn and knew that we needed to talk. He would understand more whereas Jeph and Dan were already down for this. What Bert needed was to talk to someone who understood his situation and knew how to word everything carefully so that Alison didn’t chop off his dick for wanting to go out on tour and cancelling their plans. Besides, they would have a week in between to do whatever she wanted.

“We go on in twenty minutes.” Dan announced nodding to the clock on the wall.

It was ten til four and he was thankful for someone checking the set list times. “I am going to make my way to the sound booth and help them. I wasn’t too happy with the sound yesterday.”

The singer stood up and looked at his best friends, knowing they were going to do this even if it meant fighting with wives back home. All of them wanted to be out on the road and taking on new places and the old ones as well. They smiled at Bert as he walked off the bus, their chattering left behind.

Walking to the stage through the buses was like a maze and getting back to their bus after the set was hard as well because they were all tired from the heat and just wanting to fall over and take it all in. Not to mention it changed where the bus was from venue to venue, messing with everyone.
There was a litter of people around the stage and he recognized a few of their faces. Bert really didn’t know any of their names and part of him didn’t really care to make friends on this tour. He had been here for Kevin and most people on this tour are too preppy for him to handle anymore.

The sound crew was still setting us up and sound check was about to begin. From the other main stage there was the sound another band playing, their music hitting his ears along with a thousand screaming girls. Bert stepped onto my stage and watched from behind the sound equipment, wanting to know who was playing. He caught a sign on the side, ‘All Time Low’. They sounded familiar and he believed had met two of the members yesterday. They weren’t bad guys and they might be the only ones who he would probably not mind talking to. Their music, on the other hand, was not his thing. While the lyrics weren’t bad, it wasn’t his particula cup of tea.

“Hey, Bert.” A male voice behind me said.

He turned around and faced to see their sound guy, Erin. “Hey, what’s up?”

He scratched the back of his head and lifted his sunglasses to properly look him in the eyes. “We are about to start sound check, in a couple minutes, sticking around?”

“Absolutely. I wanted to see if we could get yesterday’s problems fixed on the vocals and guitar.”
Erin nodded. “It was probably something with the power, but I didn’t want that to happen again today.”

“Agreed, let’s blow the socks off the crowd today.”

Erin had Bert follow him to the sound board and showed him the adjustments he had made and once the other band was done playing, they were going to start sound check. His hand moved into his pocket without a seconds thought and pulled out his phone. Tapping the mailbox icon on the screen he found Alison’s name at the top and opened the conversation. They were very sarcastic in text message to one another and she knew he was not a lovey guy so it was rare when she got text messages pertaining to gushy ‘I love you’ or anything close to that.

Bert opened a new message to her and sent her a text that he was about to go on stage and would call her as soon as they got off the stage. She liked knowing when they was playing, mainly in case something happened and she knew that she was probably unable to reach him for the next half hour or so, depending on the tour. One time he had forgotten to text her and of course it was the one time something happened and she thought that he was in trouble. Long story short, he was in deep shit for not telling her that he was on stage and was unable to be reached.

A sudden hand on his shoulder caused Bert to jump and turn around in surprise. He was greeted to a laughing Quinn who held his hands up in defense, “Hey man, calm down.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you not to come up behind people and scare the shit out of them?” Bert countered; mildly upset he had scared me.

“Relax. I was trying to know that I was here. It’s not like you heard me over them.” His head turned around and looked over at the sister main stage where the other band was telling everyone that it was time for them to go.

He heard Erin send his guys onto the stage to start testing the drums. For a moment he watched them working to get everything right, which he was thankful for.

“What do you think of the tour?” Bert asked needing his sincere opinion about this because he didn’t want to force him into something that would cause him to spend more time away from Megan and his new son.

Quinn shrugged. “I love touring. I love being to places we have been and seeing new people. I just…don’t know how I feel about being away from Megan longer. We chatted quickly about it and I told her I would call her after our set, but I don’t know. She was disappointed because she wanted the three of us to go do something as a family. I wanted to take them to the mountains and to go swimming in the spring. It is so beautiful this time of year. Yeah we have that week off, but we both agree it would be a sort of rushed vacation.” He looked up at Bert, and sighed. “The both of us knew it was going to be hard, but it’s different after you are married. She told me though, that if I wanted to do it and the rest of the band was doing it, I better be home the day after we get off this tour and the next one if we do it. And then a nice break.”

He nodded. It was only fair that he would agree to that after the spur of the moment tour. “So do you want to do it?”

Quinn nodded immediately. “Fuck yeah Bert. I do. I want to get out there and do more touring. I love living on the road and we all have a cost. Sign me up.” A smile spread on his lips and he looked genuinely happy and excited about this. In the end, all of them would be.

The last thing to figure out was if he wanted to go out on tour as well.

“Bert! You guys are on in five!” Erins shouted at me from the side of the drums.

Bert nodded and saw Dan and Jeph approach the stage, late as always. He chuckled and stretched his arms ready to bring down the crowd. This is what he lived for. Butterflies flew as Dan walked onto the stage and sat at his drums, soon followed by Quinn and Jeph with their guitars around their necks.

Threading the earpiece down his shirt and clipping the microphone to his back pocket, Bert shoved the earpiece in his ear and walked onto the stage, greeted by the familiar screams of the fans that all of them thrived off of.

The set ended as quickly as it started, due to the fact we only had a half hour to play. It was a sucky fact, but at least no one was dying in the summer heat.

Walking off the stage Bert grabbed his phone out of his jeans pocket and dialed Alison.

She answered on the third ring. “Hey baby,” her soft voice rang in his ears and sighed peacefully. More than anything, he loved hearing her voice, it was his own music.

“Hey.” There was no way the man could keep down smile while on the phone with her. “How are you?”

“Good, just got back home from visiting Megan. She wanted me to tell you, that she says hi. How are you? How was your set?”

“Tell her I say hello. It was short, but good. The crowd was really responsive today, for the heat being so unbearable. Today is still going. I got some news from my manager.” There was no need to beat around the bush. She would figure out that we needed to talk.

“Yeah?” She was curious and intrigued as to what we needed to talk about.

Bert found a silent spot to talk and stopped, knowing the less distractions the better this would go. “He wanted us to play a tour this summer. We weren't first choice, but a band had to drop out because of an injury so they asked us to play.”

“How long is the tour?” Her voice was guarded, as if she was deciding what she wanted to think of the news.

“Just under two months,” Bert breathed not realizing he had been holding his breath, “We would all have a week in between this tour and the next, so we would still get to do something, just not so exciting.”

There was no sound on the other end of the line and he knew she was thinking it over. Of course he was nervous about what her answer might be because she has been known to be pissy about him touring in the past and not ever being home.

“Bert, I don’t know. The whole point of not playing all of Warped was so that you can come home and spend time here. You and I had talked about this.”

He had seen this coming. “Alison, we did agree to this. I am asking you to consider this. We just released a new album and we have to tour. It is what our fans want us to do and it’s something that comes with releasing a new album.”

“Bert.” Her tone was sharp now. Crap. “We talked about this and you agreed. I want you home after Warped Tour.”

“I will be! A week Alison, I will be back for a week and I will take the very last flight out of there and meet up with the guys. I want to do this Ali.”

There was no point in fighting with her; she was going to win like she always won. For once, Bert wanted to do something random and go out there and do what he loved without having to worry about anyone else’s agenda or how pissed off his wife would be for wanting to continue touring.

“I know you do baby. But we told each other we would take time. You obsessed over the album and now I just want you home for a little while. Please, Bert.” Her tone calmed to a whisper.

“Ali…” He wanted this, wanted her. Why couldn’t she come out with them? “Come with me. Come with me on this tour.”

“Bert. I can’t. I have everything here. My job is here, my friends, family. I can’t toss that out the door for a couple months. But I can see that I can’t change your mind. Your mind is set on this.”

Guilt slowly overtook Bert to the point where his stomach was starting to turn. “I love you, Ali.”

“Bert, just go.” She sighed, defeated and unable to carry on the argument. “Go on this tour. This is what you want. But you are mine for that week. No work business. All mine. Understand?”

There was success whelming inside of him, but a part of him still felt bad about springing this on here at the last moment. Although, he didn’t have much of a choice. “Yes. I understand. I love you so much.”

“I love you too Berty.” She cooed, a giggle following.

He was well aware that she was still upset with him. For now, all was fine and he was going to dedicate that week to just them and nothing from the music world will fuck up that week. Nothing.