Warped Vision

“Spotted: Ginger Princess and little Gaskarth looking quite close. Is that a fresh lovebite on her neck, too? I wonder what J has to say about this.” Alan read aloud on the bus the next day. After handing my phone back to me, a smirk was on his face.

“What are you smiling at?” I basically screeched, “I told you this would happen.”

“You're acting like it matters, Hannah,” He laughed, looking at me like I was a child. Then he began his long rant about how if I would just ignore it, everything would be okay again. I was really getting sick of that. “It's not like Justin doesn't know he gave you th--”

I shoved the phone back in his face, interrupting him, “Read the comments, jackass.”

His eyes scanned the phone screen, reading the comments from all of the rabid fangirls of Sleeping with Sirens, and probably those who shipped themselves with Justin more than they did me and him. The majority of the comments frightened me, explaining that Warped was coming up for them, and they were going to “beat my ass.” But Alan didn't seemed to be phased by it at all.

“It's all talk,” He gave the phone to me again, “trust me.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, pacing the bunk area of the bus that we had decided to meet in. I didn't want my brother to hear about this until I was certain that I was in real trouble. If I wasn't he'd probably punish me somehow for no reason. I lifted a hand to my forehead in anxiety, “Like, are you 100% positive.”

“Yes, Hannah,” Alan said, resting his hands on both of my shoulders just like he had the day before, “They might send you hate, but that's easily ignorable. Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise.”

He pulled me into a hug, and that's when I realized I was actually shaking. I didn't like getting into trouble, especially for something I didn't even do. It just scared me so much, and I wasn't sure why. And even after Alan continuously assured me that nothing would happen, I still couldn't be completely confident in his answer.

I insisted on going to every trustworthy person I knew that wouldn't get involved to ask them for their opinion. Rian and Vic both said the same, that no girl would actually go out of their way to do that to or for someone they barely knew. Yet, I was still anxious. And I had one person left to ask.

-

“So, wait, these people are just assuming that you got that from Alan because you're with him in the picture?” Madison took a bite of her frozen yogurt underneath the Glamour Kills tent later that evening. I had managed to let Alex agree to let me go see her by myself, since he knew her well and trusted her enough. I nodded, resting my head in my hands and my elbows on the table, leaning forward. She laughed, “That's completely stupid. It looks pretty clear you're angry with him.”

“Right!” I let out, standing back up straight again, “They're coming up with any excuse they can to hate me or something.”

Madison crossed one leg over another dramatically, a small smile on her face as she set her bowl down, “Either that or they're letting their hope that you and Alan will get together show,” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I shook my head, scrunching my nose.

“No, they wouldn't want to beat me up if that were the case.”

“What!” She laughed again, “As if those pussy ass girls could even lay a finger on you with all of the protective band members you have.”

Clearly, no one was taking this as seriously as I was. I know I'm totally new to this 'girlfriend of a band boy' thing, but when someone makes threats you're supposed to take them seriously, right? I rolled my eyes, “I'm just worried they're going to catch me alone or something and beat the shit out of me.”

“They aren't even strong enough to do that,” she was still laughing, “Don't worry about it, Hannah. Hey, but look. You've got some fans.”

I looked behind me to see a group of girls calling my name and nearing me, and felt my stomach drop immediately at the sight. I turned back around covering my face in my hands and bending over the table again, “I think I'm going to be sick,” I murmured to Madison, rubbing my temples.

There was a tap on my shoulder before she could respond and I legitimately felt like puking. But as I turned around, I noticed the girls all had sweet smiles on their faces and let out a light sigh of relief. At least not everyone saw that picture and thought lowly of me.

“Hey Hannah!” The girl at the front said happily and I grinned back at them. She thrust a picture of me and Justin toward me – one from the first day of tour, when I'd danced with him onstage, “Do you think you could sign this?”

“I'm not famous or anything,” I giggled, taking it from her.

She handed a sharpie to me next, “But you're Justin's girlfriend!”

“And gorgeous!” Another girl piped up behind her.

I smiled slightly at this, lifting my knee up a little to sign the picture on it. I didn't even have a signature, what was I doing? I signed the paper in the regular, boring cursive that I learned in grade school. So intently focused on this, I was practically given a panic attack when I felt someone kick my more stable leg.

Looking up finally, I saw the group of girls with their sweet faces turned into devious smirks. Wow, great. Just as I had feared. Wow. Wow. Thanks for the advice Alan.

Only moments after I looked up, the girl who had asked me to sign the picture slapped me square in the face. Hard. And I didn't even have time to lift my hand to touch my stinging face before the group pushed me back at once, slamming me into the Glamour Kills table. If they had done that any harder I probably would have fractured my spine.

“You stupid whore!” the girl who seemed to be the ringleader of the whole thing screamed at me as the other two held me down by my arms. I managed to dodge my head out of the way from her first swing and looked up at Madison. She looked more distraught and defenseless than I did.

“Madison!” I called out and she jumped, “Call my brother.”

She turned around to grab her phone, and the girl continued to try to hit me, succeeding multiple times, “Your brother might take a while,” She smiled, “He's in a signing, I checked.”

“Mother fucker,” I wailed, kicking out in front of me, but failing to do anything that would help me, “CALL JUSTIN THEN.”

“Justin's not going to help your sorry, cheating ass,” the way she was talking seemed like she would pull out a fucking knife or something any god damned second, “Where's Alan now, huh?”

She swung again and again, getting me in the lip and even in the eye. I felt like I was going to cry, especially based on the multiple “fuck”s I heard coming from Madison as she attempted to call multiple people. No one was picking up and I felt like I was going to die.

“AYE! AYE!” I heard a familiar voice yell in the distance and looked up to see Vic rushing to us with the rest of the band following. I hadn't even noticed until that point that a crowd had formed around us and were cheering the girls on. As Pierce the Veil neared, I heard Vic yelling random, incomprehensible Spanish phrases. “What the fuck!” was the only English that I could make out.

Vic, Mike, and Jaime each grabbed a girl off of me and managed to keep them away long enough for Tony to get me off of the table and away from the crowd. I could barely stand, having been punched in the stomach a few times and getting the wind knocked out of me. He was basically carrying me.

“YEAH RUN, YOU SLUT,” I heard the girl call to me, and I looked back to see her trying as best she could to get out of Vic's grip. He was thankfully holding her pretty well.

I looked up at Tony with weak eyes and he gave me a sympathetic smile in return, “Let's go,” was all he said, walking quicker in the direction of the buses.

-

Once we got to the Pierce the Veil bus, Tony sat me down on the couch and went to grab a first aid kit in the kitchen. I felt so weak that I could barely sit up on my own. I put my arm on the armrest and lifted my head back, closing my eyes drowsily. I was pretty sure my nose was bleeding anyway. That's what you're supposed to do, right?

I felt Tony's presence beside me again and eventually felt him dabbing under my nose with a cotton ball. I opened my eyes for him weakly and he gave me another sorry smile.

“Why are you doing this for me?” I mumbled, squinting in pain once he started dabbing the cut they made on my lip.

He chuckled lightly in response, continuing to clean my face up for me. I swear to God, I loved his laugh, and his smile, and his everything. He took in a breath before answering me, “I'm still your best friend, Hannah. That never changed.”

I probably died for a second there. Not having heard his voice in days, I had forgotten just how cute it was and just how attracted to him I had been. And I was so weak already. Yep, I definitely died momentarily.

“Thanks,” I choked up after a while and watched him as he touched his tongue to his top lip, trying to be precise with his cleaning. I was watching him with such lust, and I realized then that my feelings would probably never go away.

Tony cleared his throat, probably noticing the way I was looking at him and snapping me back to reality. My feelings would never go away, and his would never arrive. He poked lightly around my eye and I winced again, “Looks like a black eye is forming here.”

I let out as much of a groan as I could without my stomach killing me, and not for the reason that Tony probably thought I did. I was already in so much physical pain, did we need to add emotional pain into the mix?

Like a distraction from God above, I heard someone run up the steps, tripping on the last one. I looked up to see it was Alex and tried my best not to laugh. It would probably hurt too much anyway.

“Holy shit, what the hell happened?” Tony backed away once Alex came over to us, and he took my face in his hands, 'Who did this to you?”

Alan wasn't too far behind Alex, rushing onto the bus as well and stopping, surprised once he saw me, “What the fuck?”

“A few fans,” I moaned, gripping my stomach in pain. It even hurt to speak. By the time I said this, Justin had made his way onto the bus. He glared at Alan for a moment, but didn't let this distract him for very long, staring at me in shock.

“My fans?” He enunciated, looking angrier by the second.

I wanted to explain exactly what happened, but it would take too long and too much energy, so I merely nodded. He let out a breath of irritation, and I guess didn't know what to say, as he stomped back out of the bus in a huff.

I was left with Tony, Alex, and Alan staring at me worriedly.

“I told you this would happen,” I said to Alan, attempting to break the tension. I gave him a small smirk, but Alex turned to him angrily and I immediately regret saying anything.

“You knew this would happen?!” He exclaimed.

“Correction,” Alan lifted up a finger to keep Alex from speaking any further, “I knew of the threats. I've experienced these before and I didn't think anything would happen. I told her to ignore it.”

“Well clearly something did happen!” Alex sat next to me and I let out another groan, not able to handle any fighting right now. My head was starting to pound.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

Alex, clearly having no knowledge of the situation at hand, sat dumbfounded, unsure of exactly what to say. I looked back up at Alan and he bit his lip, looking around the room as if it would give him an answer.

“I mean,” I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to suppress the urge I had to throw up or pass out, “There were definitely girls from other tour dates who wanted to kill me.”

Alan let out a sigh and even rolled his eyes at what he was about to say, “I guess you'll have to hang out with Justin more. And show them that you're not 'cheating' or whatever.”

I heard Tony groan for me from where he had disappeared to futher back into the bus. I think I would have rather increased my time hanging out with Alan and his stupid jokes than increase my time defending myself from sexual advances. Yeah, I definitely would.

Hopefully Justin wouldn't expect my bruised body to be willing to be sexual. Or maybe he would find it repulsive and wouldn't even want to make any advances. That'd be great.