On Your Side

Sarah woke up the next morning cuddled up to the blond in her tiny one man bunk with a smile plastered on her face.

“Good morning beautiful.” he whispered, noticing her eyes flicker open.

She giggled “it’s definitely not normal to be talking to yourself, Kanitz.”

He pressed his lips to hers gently “you know I was talking to you, baby.”

There was a loud bang on the wall next to the opening to the bunk “opening up, all clothes better be on.” John called before ripping open the curtain “oh hey Joel.”

“what do you want, John?”

“we need to go on tonight’s alcohol run.”

She sighed, Tim had made her agree to go shopping for alcohol with the guys so they didn’t buy too much “sorry, part of the job.”

He laughed “I should get to the van anyway, I didn’t call Mom last night.”

After they shared another quick kiss and got out into the narrow hallway of bunks “tell her I say ‘hi’”

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John stared at Sarah the whole way to the store.

“What?” she finally snapped before they walked through the automated sliding door.

He licked his lips “you really upset Nick last night.”

She rolled her eyes “John, seriously? Right now, you want to talk about this right now?”

He nodded pulling her arm towards the spirit aisle “I saw the guy cry, Sarah.”

She didn’t answer, instead just picked up 3 bottles of Jack Daniels and a litre of vodka and placed them into the cart John was now pushing.

“Nick doesn’t cry, what the hell did you do to him?”

“He saw me with Joel, ok?”

John sighed “you rubbed it in his face?”

“no, I was watching their set and Joel came to find me.”

He placed 4 cases of beer into the cart, Sarah rolled her eyes, removing one and putting it back on the shelf “this is all the drink we’re getting.”

They went to the check out and Saah used money from the wallet she kept specially for the bands money.

John pushed the cart 2 blocks to the bus, leaving Sarah while he took the contents on board.

“Oh hey, I was actually coming to see if you were up.” Nick said approaching the bus from Rocket’s van.

She nodded awkwardly “what’s up?”

“can we talk?” he asked, scratching the back of his head

John stepped of the bus, giving Sarah an encouraging smile “I’m just taking this back.” he pointed to the cart then walked off in the direction of the store.

She looked back at Nick “um, sure.”

“I’m sorry about how I acted last night.”

“me too, I guess.”

He smiled “I meant it when we broke up, I’d really like to be friends.”

“We can try.”

“Try?”

“It’ll be tough, Nick, it’s not like either of us will just forget we were together for over a year.”

Nick nodded “true.”

“and things like, are you ok with me and Joel?”

He sighed, “if you’re happy, I’m happy.”

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“We’re going to finish with a song, about a girl.” Nick said as he stared out into the crowd, practically blinded by the stage lighting “it’s called Fear Of Flying.”

Eric had asked Sarah to watch the set, so she stuck around after watching This Century.

During the whole song one line stuck out to her ‘can you take me back to the person I used to be, back when you were there for me.’

“What did you think?” Eric asked with a hopeful expression when he walked off the stage.

Staring at the brunet approaching from the microphone she simply said “I have to go.” before running through the venue to The Maine’s dressing room.

After calming herself down she walked into the room announcing “get ready, you’re on in five.”

The guys all stood from the sofas, collecting water bottles and instruments, sorting their in-ears and making last minute adjustments to their outfits before doing their ‘We Like To Party’ chant and following the girl to the stage wing.

After receiving the signal over the walkie talkie, the lights went out and the room erupted into screams.

They each hugged Sarah in turn before taking their places on stage, they opened the set with Kiss and Sell.

“Ok, we’re gonna slow it down right now. Who has our new album, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop?” John asked into the mic, receiving screams in response “well, awesome a lot of you. I hope you know this song, it’s called Into Your Arms.”

After playing The Way We Talk, Count ‘Em One, Two, Three and Time To Go, John announced they’d be playing Girls Do What They Want and he’d need a little help with it “so in the chorus I need you guys,” he pointed to the right half of the room “to go ‘girls do what they want, whoa oh oh’ then you guys” he point to the other half of the room “to go ‘boys do what they can’ as loud as you fucking can in return, ok? Can we practice that real quick?”

They finished the set with We All Roll Along then threw drumsticks, picks, water bottles and setlists out into the crowd.

“You guys were amazing tonight.” Sarah walking back to the dressing room with the sweaty boys

Kennedy snorted “aren’t we always?” he laughed

She rolled her eyes “no, you’re normally complete shit.” pushing each one into the room she said “get changed, you have an hour with the fans before we need to load out and get back to the bus.”