Props and Mayhem

“Well, hey, there.” His lips twitched mischeviously. “We’ve got to get going.”
Emme found her voice. “Wait, is ‘we’ the band or is it the two of us?”
“Us, of course,” said Jaime, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and tugging her along. “You did great, by the way. I’d ask you to be a dancer for us, but our shows don’t work like that. You know—we don’t have dancers or anything. It’s raw.” He began to navigate them through the crowd.
Was he flirting with her, or was he just being a goofball? Because Jaime was a goofball. Emme knew. She’d seen interviews… Lots of interviews.
One of the press girls walked by, her fancy camera in hand, snapping pictures as she went. She probably got one of Emme and Jaime. Take that, fangirls.
When they arrived at their destination—the actually blue “blue stage”—Mikes drums and Vic’s microphone were framed by the “Keep a Breast Foundation” banner. “I’m so excited for your set,” she said, turning to Jaime and trying not to gush like a fangirl.
His hand, on her shoulder, clenched tighter. “Me, too.” He led her around the back to enter the tour bus. “Oh, here!” he exclaimed, holding out the Dasani bottle in his other hand. “I brought you a cold beverage.”
Aw, Emme thought, grinning and accepting it gratefully. “Thanks. So what are we doing here?”
He shrugged. “Hanging out before the show. It’s going to be eye-opening.” He winked. “But, really, you’ll probably get to see all of our weird warm-ups.”
Mike had a bottle of cranberry juice in his hand when they came in, and both Tony and Vic were sprawled out on the cushion, Tony on a laptop and Vic humming. Mike waved and even offered a small smile. Maybe it was actually Tony who needed to be pulled out of his shell. He was the turtle, after all.
She slid onto the seat, squishing her hip against Vic’s calf. There really wasn’t much room for her, but she wasn’t complaining—she was hanging out with Pierce the Veil! And Jaime was paying a lot of attention to her. It was like a dream, but Emme sincerely hoped it wasn’t, because waking up would be awful.
Vic moved his leg out of her path and folded it beneath him instead. “How was it?” he addressed Jaime.
“She was awesome,” he enthused. “I mean, they all were, of course.”
Tony and Mike exchanged looks with what seemed to be faint smirks.
“Well,” Emme said, trying to ignore the secret. Way to make me feel left out, guys. Or paranoid. “Jaime said I’d get to see you warm up.”
Tony laughed. “Vic’s are the best.”
“He’s got to open up his throat for those lovely high notes,” teased Jaime, nodding seriously.
Oh, the bromance in this bus is overwhelming, thought Emme as she looked on. “So do I get to watch?”
Vic shook his head. “First, we play Mario Kart.”
Emme was pretty good at Mario Kart. She’d beaten Jayne, at least. “Bring it on!” She slapped her hand against her knee.
Since they only had four controllers, Tony sat out and let Emme play. She’d expected Jaime to be the one to make the sacrifice, but no—he wanted to beat her.
Mike was awful. She was able to keep ahead of him easily. It was Vic, especially, that she needed to watch out for. The two of them were always jostling for second or third. Jaime, though, was first. In every single race, he was way ahead of the rest of them. Emme just wanted to get a blue shell and let him have it.
Three races in, Emme was coming up behind him on Rainbow Road when she smashed through a box. She waited excitedly until it revealed itself as the invincibility star. It was a death sentence to use the invincibility star on Rainbow Road—she’d probably fly off the edge. But Emme went for it anyway, zooming by Jaime’s car and knocking him off the road. “Score!”
He groaned. “Oh, come on! What am I now, seventh place? That’s ridiculous.”
Emme smirked. Even Mike was in front of him—probably not for long, though.
After the race was finished and Jaime had lost—and everyone high-fived Emme—he set down his controller. “I think it’s time to see Vic warm up.”
“No, you’re just being a sore loser.” Vic flexed his fingers.
“I am not.” Jaime purposefully didn’t make eye contact. At least he knew he was a sore loser.
When the show began, the band made sure that Emme was right up front—just like when she and Jayne were at Senses Fail’s concert. She wished Jayne could have been there, too. She would have loved it. The show was amazing, obviously, and the whole time, Emme couldn’t stop staring at Jaime, who was dancing around the stage like—well, like a Mexican jumping bean.
Once it was over, Emme began to push her way through the crowd to meet the band at the tour bus. But her phone vibrated in her pocket, and unfortunately, it was Dan. He did not seem happy and wanted to leave—immediately. She texted him back to tell him she was at the blue stage and headed over to say goodbye to the band, and especially to Jaime.
They were just heading off the stage, looking sweaty and exhilarated. Jaime’s face lit up when he saw her. “Hey! You’re back!”
“Obviously!” Emme grinned and ran over. “I wish you’d done King for a Day. Jayne and I love it.”
“Jayne?” Mike said, raising his eyebrows.
“Yeah, she’s my friend. We went to Warped Tour together, too—but we didn’t get to see you guys. We had to leave early.” Emme frowned at the memory.
Jaime mopped off his forehead with the bottom of his T-shirt. “That sucks. Hey, we’ll play a private concert for the two of you,” he laughed, a bit short of breath.
Emme seriously wanted to hold him to that.

“Emme, there are memes of you now!” It was the first thing that Jayne said when she sat down in Astronomy on Monday.
“What are—”
Jayne pulled out her folder and extracted a piece of paper from it. “Look. It’s for your binder.”
Emme looked, and sure enough, Jayne had printed off one of the memes. It was a picture of her and Jaime walking in the crowd, and she was still in her leotard. She hadn’t been able to change until she got home that night. The picture was captioned, “what if I was just a dancer? Dancing in shows for the sick old folks?” She laughed. “I see what they did there.”
“You have a Tumblr presence, too. They’re all talking about how they’re following you on Twitter and finding you on Facebook. It’s weird.”
“That’s really freaky.” Emme shook her head. “It’s not even like I’m dating them. Though I wish I was. Obviously. …I’m a fan, just like they are.”
But what was depressing was that Emme knew, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself, that she’d never see the band, or Jaime, again. And all these other fans were idolizing her for something that was never going anywhere.