Stay With Me

My brother annoyed me. There wasn’t anything that I would care to admit before that, but bottom line: Oliver Scott Sykes, my big brother, who was older than me by three years, annoyed me. It wasn’t even close to the time we had to get up, and he was already nagging me to get out of bed.
“Get up, yeh prat.”

To be quite honest, whatever he wanted done was probably not nearly as important as he made it out to be, but obviously to my dear big brother, it was important enough to wake me up. “Wha’, yeh knobhead?” I said, grumpily, reclaiming control over my bunk curtain. I threw it shut. The light murdered my eyes. I must have drank too much last night, which meant I was going to suffer today.

“It’s like eleven in tha’ mornin’. Are yeh gonna slip all day?” Oli barked at me, reyanking the curtain open. I immediately buried my head under the blanket. “C’mon, Tom. Yeh know mum would’ve kicked yer arse fer sleepin’ in this late.” Regardless of the fact that he was right, I still wanted to slap him upside the head for waking me up mid-hangover sleep.

“Oli, ‘m real ‘ungova from las’ night. ‘Ell, I don’t remember ‘alf of it.”

Oli ripped the blanket off my body, leaving me with only a pillow to shade my eyes, which, too, was soon taken from me. Oli’s hand started to pull at my sides. He stopped at nothing to get me out of bed, which in turn, he ended up rolling me from my bunk. With a thud to the ground and an instant searing pain in my side, I had decided that I would get my brother for that. Not right there, but later in the day when he would least expect it. “Now, would yeh get the fuck up? Band’s got a signing at two.”

As I picked myself up of the ground, I groaned, feeling every inch of my body that was still in pain from the fall from the top bunk. Today was going to be the longest fucking day of Warped. I could just feel it already. Fuck having hangover, and fuck the heat. I crawled out to the front end of the bus, already missing out double decker bus from home. “Rough night, Tom?” Jona asked politely, as Oli threw a towel at my face, which also brought a disgusting stench from the guys using it for not only showering but wiping off the sweat they accumulated over the course of a day.

“Wash up. Look like a fuckin’ scrub.” Another order barked at me by my oh-so loving brother. Remind me why I fucking came on tour with them again. I rolled my eyes at him. Another day of Warped Tour meant another day of miserable heat, which caused the rest of the road crew and bands to not do much of anything with their day.

I walked in the cramped bathroom, and I immediately cringed. Did anyone on this entire bus know how to clean or flush a fucking toilet? I barged out of the bathroom; falling was more like it, but I managed to summersault and crash into the kitchen cupboards. “Who the fuck used the bathroom last?!” I bellowed out, fists clenched and shaking. If I had to spend another night on this bus with these disgusting pigs, I might kill them all in their sleep!

I heard giggles and mini bouts of laughter from Oli and Jona, as Matt sleepily tripped over his own two feet, landing face first into the sink. He immediately jumped awake, and his hand flew to his nose. His nose was a bit banged up from the assault on the sink. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” he screamed, “Tha’ fuckin’ ‘urt!” I slowly inched around, looking into Matt’s direction and glared at him like he was my next victim.

“Aye, Matt Eva ‘eard of flushin’ tha’ damn toilet?” I snarled at him, as he had slammed the toilet door shut. He had a habit of not flushing at home, which lead to the obvious culprit as Matt.

“Wha’eva tha’ stench in ‘ere, Tom; it wasn’t me. I just got up, mate,” he growled and gagged at the same time. The only reason he could have been gagging was from the stench in there from someone, who allowed a shit to roost overnight. “Fuckin’ Christ, Tom. Wha’ tha’ ‘ell did ya do to tha’ toilet las’ night?” I definitely didn’t do the damage in there. No fucking way. I’m responsible enough to flush the fucking toilet.

Everyone on the bus was laughing, but Matt and I, and we were fighting like an old married couple. “I ‘aven’t touched tha’ damn toilet, yeh fuck’ead!” I exclaimed, my face hot and my temper rising. “I jus’ wan’ a fuckin’ showa wiffout smellin’ like shit afta!” By now, Matt left the bathroom and chowed down whatever snack foods we had left from the last American tour we had done.

“Well, maybeh, yeh should ‘ave fuckin’ flushed tha’ damn toilet las’ night afta yeh shit yeh goddamn guts out in there, but yeh ‘ad ta beh so fuckin’ drunk tha’ yeh were spewin’ outta boff ends!” Matt spat at me, literally, but his plan had backfired as food flew from his mouth in all directions, as I had to fight back fits of laughter because my best friend is the funniest fucking person I had ever met. “I mean, Christ, Tommeh. Do yeh want us teh propa baby yeh for tha’ rest of yer life?”

The bad mood lifted between Matt and I. He always had a great knack for diffusing the tense moments on the bus. Sometimes, they were so tense that I doubted Matt’s skill, but I swear, it never failed, or at least so I had believed.

The stench in the bathroom subsided a bit I had realized, and I crept my way in to refresh myself and sprint the hell out before my entire shower went to waste by smelling like complete shit. I stripped down and ran the water until it was so hot that it seared my skin a bit, marking me with a large red patch where the boiling water travelled down my back. I hated the fact that I had to make this a quick shower because showering is the only place I get any thinking done.

Being the little brother of the headlining band on Warped Tour didn’t allow me to have time to think since teenage scene girls kept walking up to me, asking for Oli or Matt, usually, and asking for me to take a picture with them. Once I had washed and rinsed off my body, I stepped out and wrapped the disgusting towel around my lower end. “Wha’ time is it?” I yelled up to the front whilst a loud game of Fifa absorbed the minds of the band.

“’Bout twelve-firty, Tom!” Matt Kean had shouted from his bunk. He must have been talking to the girl from Canada he had been seeing and wanted to converse with her without all the confusion. I didn’t say anything back to him. I had an hour and a half to scout out the Bring Me the Horizon tent and catch up with Josh Franceschi, the lead singer of another UK band on Warped Tour this year, and the rest of his band, You Me At Six.

I managed to manuver through the piles of shit that littered the floor from the back to the front of the bus. There were probably about a little over ten guys on our bus and one girl, and it was way too easy for ten guys to trash a bus. I have no idea how Sam handled it so well. I had no idea what were all in the piles, and to be quite frank, I didn’t want to find out.

I passed Oli and Matt, who were too busy rattailing each other to notice my sneaking off the bus. They argued about something related to the whole Fifa game that consumed everyone, but me and Vegan. Next thing I heard was Sam screaming at Matt for hitting her in the face with the towel he had since she sat next to Oli.

I pushed open the bus door and stepped outside only to quickly find out it had to be a million fucking degrees outside, which meant my shower was already a waste of time. Today, as I had said, was going to be the longest of my life and all of Warped Tour. The sun beated down on the ground, murdering my eyes from my belligerent hangover, but the only way for me to even get through the day today was to leave that godforsaken bus and deal with them the least I could, but first things first, I needed sunglasses.

I parted ways with Bus World and entered the fairgrounds, scanning for the first pair of sunglasses I could find, which only took seconds. I forked over whatever American money I had to the strangely spoken man, who I could have sworn didn’t even speak English. But I was in California after all, so I guess that would be expected. Goddamn it, it were hot this day. The sunglasses helped slightly, but it didn’t cure my hangover, and with a day like today, I don’t think it were possible.

I sprinted from one side of Warped to the other to find the mist tent, every Tour goer’s best friend. With a look that could only be of a kid in a candy store, I raced in blindly, not giving a care in the world about anything else, until I felt struck as a young girl fell down on the hard concrete ground. Just my luck. “Fuck!” She screamed instantaneously with a loud smacking sound of her butt contacting the ground. “Fuckin’ Christ! Watch where yeh going, asshole!” She had a half-British accent; it was sweet, but powerful underneath her growls. I looked down to see a girl wearing a red Drop Dead vest, her face red with anger and heat exhaustion. Her piercing forest green eyes contrasted my own baby blues, making mine look dull. Even with the angry look, she was one of the most gorgeous girls I’ve ever laid eyes on, coming in a close second with my girlfriend!

I fell to my knees and tried to help her up in which she quickly denied and picked herself up, brushing any rubble she managed to bring up with her. I hopped to my feet and tapped her on the shoulder. Ignoring my obvious attempts to talk to her, she stomped away with a look of disbelief like she was also having a rough day herself. It wasn’t until I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around she paid any attention to me.

“Aye, ‘M tryna talk to yeh,” I said to her, as she self-righteously ignored. “Do yeh even know who I am!” I stared her straight in the eyes. I was just trying to apologize to the bloody bird, but she wasn’t having it today. Maybe it was the heat, maybe the lack of hydration; either way, she wasn’t having it.

“Yes,” she hissed at me, like a snake about to pounce on its prey, “Now, if you would get your fuckin’ hands off of me.” Her American accent, when she showed it, was adorable, so what now? I want what I can’t get, nor am allowed to, so that means I’m the most pathetic human of the entire species.

The ironic thing was that I don’t remember ever meeting this girl, but she had seemed so familiar. Of, course, she was a fan of Drop Dead, but it didn’t mean she was a fan of the band. Her hostility showed through her face and body language, and she only showed it toward me, having not done a damn thing to her, except knock her over from the overexcitement in seeing the mist tent, which I attempted to apologize for, but she wasn’t having my apologies. I lifted my hands, puzzled at her hostility.

She shot me a snarky look, as she spat at my feet and growled, “I fuckin’ know who yeh are, Thomas Sykes, and all I wanted to do was get through the day, avoiding your disgusting face!” And with that, she disappeared it seemed. What the hell? I had no idea what was even going on, but all I knew was a gorgeous girl spat at my feet and walked away like it was absolutely okay to do so, and I just stood there and took her verbal abuse without even trying to argue like I would usually. I started to laugh nervously. This just wasn’t my day what-so-ever.

Shaking off what had just happened, I closed my eyes, and I permitted my mind to wander. The first thing that came to my mind was my beautiful girlfriend at home, Audri, of course. We had been dating since June before my sixteenth birthday. I’d recon about five years now that we’ve been together. I subconsciously smiled at the first thought of her, remembering that she was pregnant with our second child, but our first to keep. We gave up our first baby to the sweet couple who adopted Sam, Oli’s girlfriend.

Audri was my other half, the mac to my cheese, the peanut butter to my jelly, the vodka to my Russian. I don’t think anyone else could handle me as well as Auds does. She had the poofiest auburn brunette hair that she claimed as untameable, contrary to what I thought, but with Auds, if she didn’t agreed, no one could ever change her mind about it. She was as stubborn as a drunk in a bar insisting on another drink when the bartender can clearly see he’s had enough.

We’ve been best of friends since primary school, and I had to beg her, after we had already drunkenly made out at one of Oli’s parties, to finally allow me to take her out like on a date. My feelings had gotten the best of me then because I had always had a huge crush on her since we’ve met, and I finally worked up the balls to actually ask her out on a date. That was the only time I was able to change her mind, and never again have been able to.

I’m just very lucky to call her mine. She’s waiting at home in Sheffield for our baby to come, which would either be this week or next week, the beginning of August. Whether it is the first option or the second, I would be missing the last weeks or so of Warped Tour to help not only her adjustment to the new little one but mine as well. I couldn’t believe she even let me go on this tour, but I guess she assumed that since she was having a baby, we wouldn’t be touring as much as we had used to, and she didn’t want to allow me to have my last bit of fun before I had to help her instead. My mind instantly brought back memories: figuring out names, getting to name our firstborn, even though he was given to Sam’s parents for adoption.

We didn’t want to keep him, only because we weren’t ready at sixteen. Both Auds and I flew over to America, so the baby would already be a natural citizen. Born with a full head of pitch black hair, we named him Oliver Sam because really, Oliver and Sam were the ones who brought Marilyn and Auds together to make this arrangement. Even after I was a complete cunt to her in the beginning, Sam helped me out. I have grown to love Sam like a sister. She’s definitely one to talk to when you have issues.

As I was thinking about Audri, I sidetracked my thoughts to the brash girl from earlier. They looked so similar, yet completely different. The thought of her aggravated me slightly. Who did she think she was? Being completely rude to a stranger for a simple mistake, whether she knew who I was or not. My cheeks grew hot from just thinking about the said encounter. I honestly thought she was pretty until she opened her fucking gob. I brought myself back to reality when I realized there were two young girls, waiting patiently to speak to me. I looked down at them and gave a polite smile. “’Ow can I ‘elp yeh lasses?”

They giggled slightly at my accent, as the blonde one with grey eyes and a small mouth handed a picture of my brother’s band and said, “We know you’re not a part of B-M-T-H the band itself, but could you sign this?” I laughed slightly. I felt an embarrassed vibe running off both of them, but they didn’t realize how often I actually got that remark from other fans. I scribbled “tsdtd” on the back of the picture, but when I looked up to hand it back, there she was, the girl from earlier with a hotheaded temper that was real brassed off with me. She was scowling and almost annoyed from the girls speaking with me. She cleared her throat to grab their attention.

“C’mon, girls. You’re going to miss the signing.”

Something was holding me back from making a scene with this girl, as much as I had wanted to. I bit my lip, and the two girls walked off in her direction. Fuck it, I’m doing it. “Aye! Yeh!” All three girls stepped in a one hundred eighty degrees turn back toward me. The two girls that talked to me were about 6 inches shorter than the girl I’m trying to talk to. While the one seemed unenthralled by my all-of-the-sudden yell, the others showed how giddy they were on their faces. I pointed at the taller brunette, who came just a little under eye level with me. Distraught still over our earlier encounter, I barked, “Aye! Why the fuck were yeh being so fuckin’ rude earlier ta meh? I ‘aven’t eva done anyfin’ personal to yeh!” This was one mystery that was going to be solved.

She approached me slowly and laughing like she thought I was stupid or some bullshit like that. She licked her lower lip, moistening it from the heat completely parching it. “Well, Thomas, if yeh wouldn’t have deliberately went on my blog and called me a ‘creepy cunt’, as I recall, jus’ for wantin’ to meet you, maybe I’d been a hellava lot nicer to ya.” Again, she spat whatever saliva she had in her mouth next to my feet. I flinched and moved my foot away from the spit.

I cringed a little, but now, it occurred to me how she had looked so familiar. I really did call this innocent girl a creepy cunt, and who knew that could cause enough tension between two people to make everyone uncomfortable within hearing range.

My nerves were racing between my nerve endings and my brain. I called someone that because she just wanted to meet me and was excited about it? Was that really my reasoning? I’m almost certain I was completely smashed when this did occur. My heart pounded. My god, I’m such a twit. Oli was right for once in his life.

My words fumbled in my mouth. I blabbered random syllables and tried my damnedest to make up for the lost cause that was this girl. She backed up slightly, placing her hands on the girls’ shoulders. A crowd had gathered to figure out the ending of this awkward confrontation that slowly shifted from my confrontation to hers for my drunken stupidity and mistakes.

“Now, yeh wanna meet B-M-T-H, right?” She spoke to the girls, and a light bulb went off in my head. It was genius. It would work, if only I could get my damn mouth to work. “C’mon, girls, let’s go.” She tapped those girls in the direction of the band’s tent, and if I didn’t get my ass out of my mouth, I’d have one more person on their shit list, which wouldn’t help the guilt that comes along with being a drunken twat.

And out came my words like the vomit I spewed last night in one of those many piles of shit that littered the bus floor. “Listen, I ‘onestleh feel guilteh ‘bout tha’ whole fin’. Can I make it up to yeh?” It sounded more like begging for forgiveness than suggesting that I make it up to her. The girl stopped in her tracks. She probably couldn’t believe this was happening like she was never apologized to before today.

“What did you have in mind?”

This caught her attention. I smirked slightly. Sometimes, it was a lot easier to change a girl’s mind than others. This girl was obviously not as bullheaded as Audri or how she made herself out to be in our earlier encounter. “Well, if yer friends wanted, I could see if Olleh an’ tha rest of tha’ band would mind doin’ a personal meet an’ greet sort of deal.” She peered over her shoulder at me and had a conniving smile a bit. “But, yeh ‘ave ta tell meh yer name and yer friends’ names, as well.”

Most of the crowd that gather earlier disbursed back to fulfilling the things they had planned for the day, except these three girls. The two shorter girls had stars in their eyes. Just from that I could tell they were already excited; I couldn’t let them own now. “Okay. If that’s for them, who are actually meh sisters, wha’ abou’ meh?” Damn it, she had me there; I didn’t have anything for her. I mean this really is to please her, not her sisters, who honestly look old enough to be her friends.

I bit my tongue, and I laughed nervously, choking on my breaths. I’m such a fucking twat for what I get myself into sometimes. I was out of ammo to feed her. She disappointedly shook her head and nudged along her sisters. “Let’s go, loves.” Her sisters, who were blonde and a redhead respectively, refused to go with her. The blonde was a bit built more and had a big build, compared to the redhead. The redhead had a thin face and high cheekbones. Her collarbone stuck out through her skin, which honestly looked like it were about to rip out of her skin. The brunette sister, whose name I still did not know along with her sisters, seemed to make the median of her siblings. I could see her bones sticking out of her collarbone, but not as bad as the redhead. My eyes continued to scan her as she continued to walk away, which passed over her tattoo of familiar words and landed on her ass, thick as could be. I bit my lip. I loved thick asses. It was the only thing Audri lacked that I really wanted on a woman. It didn’t bother me much, but I still liked to see a thick one every now and again, which was a rarity in the UK since the damn girls were so thin.

“’Ll let yeh meet You Me at Six.”

Before she was too far, I had seen their lyrics that were tattooed on her left shoulder blade. It was from “Crash”, off of their most recent release that featured my brother in one of their songs, which I could not remember off the top of my head. She stopped mid step and made a one-eighty back toward me with the happiest look on her face, which was not only the complete opposite of what was earlier, but also completely adorable and made me blush when she grabbed a hold of my arm and had big bug eyes that accentuated her greens. “Realleh? I’m sorry for my one-eighty in attitude toward yeh. Just, You Me at Six is my favourite band, and their lyrics and melodies really helped meh through some super dark times recently, and…” she just kept blabbering on until I took my arm out of her slender hands and placed mine on her shoulders.

“Yes, realleh. ‘Ll call’em as soon as yeh tell meh yer and yer sistas names.”

I could have sworn on Audri and our baby’s life that her eyes started to glisten. She must not have ever met the guys of You Me at Six. Her sisters just stood there, shaking their heads and laughing slightly at their goofy sister. She smiled so big her teeth showed. “Andromeda, and that’s Stephanie and Kyla.” She pointed to her readheaded sister, and then to her blonde sister. I laughed at how her name was the weird one out of all three of them. “But, please call me Andra. I hate my full name with a passion.” She huffed quickly, looking a little pissed off at me laughing at her name.

“’Ow tha’ ‘ell did yeh get named ‘Andromeda’? It’s like yer a Mary Sue in a shitty story!” I signalled for them to follow me, as I began in the direction of Bus World after I checked the time on my iPhone, even noticing numerous texts and calls from Sheep and Oli that I was missing the signing. Shit. I can’t believe I missed that, but to be fair, I had to bargain with this damn girl, so I wasn’t on more people’s shit list. As Oli would put it, I was well known for being put on those kinds of lists while I was drunk, and I tended to be a knobhead. I smiled at Andra as I had noticed she was easily pissed off, trying to make what was probably offensive to her seem a lot less, and I needed to place my words carefully around her.

She condescendingly cleared her throat with a loud ahem and explained, “Well, my mum originated from Greece, and she got pregnant with me at sixteen. She had me an’ nurtured me. Since I was one hundred percent Greek, an’ she was obsessed wiff Greek mythology, she named meh after Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopedia, whom were the king an’ queen of tha’ kingdom of Aethiopia.

“Because Cassiopedia was very arrogant, she boasted of how Andromeda was more beautiful than tha’ Nereids, the fifty sea nymph daughters of Nereus and Doris. Zeus chained Andromeda to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster that was to ravage Aethiopia for divine punishment, but ultimately, she was saved by her future husband, Perseus, at the sacrifice of his own life.”

She stopped to catch her breath before she continued on. “Sorreh I always ‘ad to explain the Andromeda story. But back to tha’ point, my mum eventually got ‘er life together and moved me and her to England for most of my young life, which caused the half of me British accent. After that she moved us to America. Kyla and Stephanie were to their dad, whom meh mom had married for a green card an’ pretty much divorced after tha’ twins were born.”

I was stunned. Not only that the Kyla and Stephanie were twins, but she had quite the background to her. I lived such a boring life compared to her. I mean I was born in England, I had moved to Australia with my mum, dad, and brother, and then moved back. Nothing fucking out of the ordinary other than that. When she rambled on and on about her past, I quietly listened, taking mental notes on this girl.

As she talked, I pulled out my phone and texted Oli and Josh about this whole catastrophe I created for myself. Fortunately, they understood and agreed to do the “personal meet and greets”, whatever they were supposed to be. I had just made it back to Bus World with them. I showed my all access pass. “They’re wiff meh, mate,” I suavely said to the security guard person that stood at the gate. He made sure that anyone who did not belong in Bus World stayed out of Bus World. I walked with them to Bring Me the Horizon’s bus, as all three girls seemed nervous now.