I'll Take You There And Back Again

Crunch time. Otherwise referred to as the week before tour. Life in the Murder By Midnight house couldn't be any more hectic. The guys had been stocking up on things they wanted to bring, aka food, while I had been trying to figure out my outfits for the shows. Hey I had to be a girl sometimes right? Along with those two simple tasks, we had to find someone to house sit (which turned out to be Mattie since he wasn't going), make sure we had every single piece of equipment we would need and make sure it got sent to the trucks, pack clothes and contact parents to say goodbyes.

For the guys, packing was a breeze, they just threw everything in. But not me. One of the things I pride myself in is my organizational skills. It comes in hand when you live with four guys. As I was setting out my clothes on my bed I heard the doorbell ring. Now was not the time for visitors, let me tell you. The guys were doing who knows what downstairs, but it was probably nothing productive. I left the confines of my room and headed down the stairs to the lower level to see who was at the door. As I reached the bottom I saw my guys, plus the Avenged guys all sitting around the living room. They all looked up at me as I headed over.

"Hey guys." I greeted. Matt patted the spot on the couch next to him and I took a seat. I felt multiple sets of eyes on me and couldn’t figure out why. When I looked up, most of the eyes, that weren't my guys' were staring at my chest. As I looked down I remembered my attire. It wasn't too bad. A pair of Garret's basketball shorts that I had snagged, but my top was a spaghetti strap tank top that was actually much too short for me. I just wore it when I was hanging out at home and besides, the guys were used to it.

Matt let out a cough from beside me and all the guys eyes snapped over to him to receive the glare that was on his face. They all mumbled some sort of apology as I just let out a small laugh.

"So what brings you guys to our humble abode?" I questioned as I crossed my legs under me.

"Well the t-shirts finally came in. so we thought we'd bring 'em by to show you the final product and make sure you guys like them." Zacky explained from his spot on the ground beside Drew. I couldn’t help but look expectantly at him.

"Well Baker? What are you waiting for? Let me see them!" He mock glared at me before pulling a box around that was in back of him. He reached in a pulled out a black tee and threw it at me. I held it up and instantly fell in love with it. On the front it read Murder By Midnight in bright blue and white, the white part was like blood dripping down, similar to my tattoo. When I turned it around, the back stunned me. It had a giant clock with the hands reading midnight. There was a skeleton stabbing the clock and had bright blue blood pouring out of the so called wound. There was some foggy looking stuff near the bottom and it had a full moon in the upper right corner.

"Oh my gosh! I love it!" I tossed the shirt at Garret and Will to look at before I went around and gave all the guys a hug. When I got to Zacky he handed me another shirt, this one being bright blue. Those were pretty much our band colors, blue and black. It seemed to fit us pretty well. On this shirt was a similar design. But this time it had an army of skeletons marching toward a clock tower in the distance. The clock read midnight, of course, and our band name was located on the front once again.

I squealed in excitement as I once again tossed the shirt at Drew and Adam before taking my seat next to Matt once more.

"Annnd, we've got the copies of your cd. So I think overall, we're ready for tour." Rev explained.

"Lucky. I wish I could finish packing. It's like everytime I start, something else catches my attention and I rush off to do that instead." Drew just sat there rolling his eyes at me while he shook his head. I flipped him off quickly before slouching back into the couch. "So what are you all up to today?" I questioned once the laughter to my actions had calmed down.

"Pretty much the same stuff you guys are doing. Packing and just hanging out." Brian looked up at me. His brown eyes locked with mine for a moment. It was as if he had me in a trance and I couldn't look away.

"Kace!" A pinch on the leg followed the yell and I looked down to see that Drew was of course the culprit. "I've been trying to get your attention, but you're too busy undressing Syn with your eyes." I hated him sometimes. I really did.

"Oh shove it, you dick. Now what do you want?"

"I said, as I've been saying, it sounds like your cell phone is ringing upstairs." My eyes went wide as I jumped out of my seat and went flying up the stairs to where, sure enough, my phone was ringing.

Seeing that the caller id said it was Mattie I flipped it open. "Helllllo?"

"Would you tell my brother to get his fat ass back home to clean this mess he made in the kitchen?" I burst out in laughter at Mattie's apparent frustration. He was not only watching our house while we were gone, but he was staying at Zacky's too.

"What's so bad about it? And why didn't you call him?" I questioned as I made my way back downstairs.

"Because he won’t answer his damn phone. And what's so bad about it is that it stinks and there's like fifty million dirty dishes. I mean come on, how hard is it to fill the freaking dishwasher?" I chuckled as I re-entered the living room. "Zacky, you're being summoned home to clean up your kitchen."

"What the?!? Who's that?" He looked sort of shocked at the fact that someone was in his house.

"Your brother." I smiled evilly as I handed Zacky my phone. I could hear Mattie telling him something along the lines of how he wasn't going to watch his house (and Ichabod) for him if he didn’t get his act together. I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched Zacky's facial expressions change while being scolded by his younger sibling. He muttered a "Fine." before hanging up and tossing me my phone back. The guys all told us where to meet up on Friday so we could settle in our bus before they said their goodbyes and headed out. This left me to once again get packing. What a week it was going to be.

~xXx~

"Wake the fuck up!" Someone yelled before they barged into my room. I groaned and buried my head under my pillow.

"I said wake up! We're going on tour today!" I recognized the voice as Will's. He grabbed the pillow and started hitting me with it. I sat up and glared at him. "I'm up. Now go away."

"No can do princess. Go shower now. We have to leave soon. So get your butt out of bed!" I groaned once more before climbing out of bed and following Will down the hallway to the bathroom. I glared at him again before going in the take my shower.

So this was it. The day I had been waiting forever for. Tour. And not only was it a tour, but it was a tour with one of my favorite bands. It had finally sunk it. I quickly finished up and went and got dressed. I slid on a pair of black jeans along with a purple tee. I went and fixed my hair and make up before hauling my bags down the stairs. I set them by the front door and headed to the kitchen where I found Garret sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal.

"Morning." I smiled as I fished a bowl out of the cupboard and sat down next to him.

"Hey. You excited?" As if he had to ask. I nodded vigorously as I poured the cereal into my bowl followed by the milk.

"What kind of a question is that?" I rolled my eyes some before smiling over at him.

"One I didn’t need to ask to know your answer. But I felt like asking anyway. So last night after you went to bed, Matt called and said that they were going to stop by here and pick us up instead of having us meet them somewhere. They said that would just be easier. They'll be here around nine." I looked over at the clock on the counter and found it to be around eight. That gave me a solid hour to make sure everyone had their crap together. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that guys plus packing equals a disaster.

"Alright. Sounds good. Do you have everything packed?" I raised my eyebrow at him as he stood up and started to wash his bowl in the sink.

"Give me some credit at least. Yes I'm all packed. It's Drew and Adam that you should be worried about." I walked over and handed him my empty bowl. He rolled his eyes.

"Thank ya babe." I pecked him on the cheek as he mumbled under his breath.

~xXx~

Nine o'clock rolled around ever so quickly. Drew and Adam, surprisingly, for once in their lives, had packed everything that they needed. I was still bustling around trying to make sure everything was turned off and that there were no food dishes left. Last time we went on a vacation, Drew left half a sandwich on his dresser and the whole house reeked of tuna when we returned. I wasn't about to let that happen again. I heard the doorbell ring and I slid down the banister after finishing my final rounds. As I reached the bottom my foot caught on the rail and I fell forward slightly. Expecting to feel the ground below me, I was surprised to find myself in a set of tattooed arms. I looked up into Brian's chocolate brown eyes and blushed as he smirked down at me.

"Hi." I grinned sheepishly.

"Good morning. Feeling a little clumsy today?" He helped me upright as I straightened out my shirt.

"Maybe a tad." I nodded before letting out a small laugh. The rest of the guys were just smiling at me and Garret was shaking his head.

"We can't afford to have our front woman get hurt. So be careful!" Will advised as he and the rest of the guys lifted our bags from the ground.

"So, everyone ready to get this show on the road?" Jimmy asked as he grabbed my bags for me.

"Hell yeah man. You don't have to ask us twice." Will opened the front door and beckoned us out the front door. The sight that greeted me took my breath away.