Condemned to Night

Our Food gets here finally, I was afraid the boys would start eating the table! I ordered a salad (I’m a vegetarian) and Gustav got the same as me. Fraser got a burger, John got the ribs. “So, Gustav, no meat?” I ask.

“no, I gave it up a while ago.” He answers. “And you?

“I’m a vegetarian. I love animals too much to eat them.”

“Same! I love animals.” He says smiling at me.

Just then I remembered the Brewers tickets for tomorrow! “Hey, you guys, I almost forgot, but I got us all Tickets to see the local baseball team, The Brewers. I thought it would be really fun. How long are you in town?” I ask hopingly

They all look excitedly at each other. “We have only been to one other game in our lives! That awesome! We will be here for 3 more days! I wana go! How about you guys” Ben says, the rest give enthusiastic yesses Fraser Whoops in joy.

“Thank you Alyssa! We never really get to do anything like that!” Gustav gushes his thanks.

I was shocked, to eat dinner with them is one thing, but I never thought in a million years they would come to a Brewers game with me! “This is amazing! Im so glad you can go! If you hadn’t been able to I would have had 5 extra tickets… I should have thought this through more if you had said no…” we laugh and eat our meals, talking about random things, soon enough we get on the topic of their tour.

“So tell us the highlights of your tour!” Ash says a little overly excited. She is on her second margarita and she is such a light weight.

Apparently Si is just as much of I light weight for he is tipsy too. He laughs and says, “This! This is my favorite part!”

Ash pushes him playfully. “Besides this silly!”

“I guess the food then! You Americans have some weird food! And hot sauce!” He says taking a big bite of ‘Roadkill’ with hot sauce on it.

“I really love playing the bigger shows. The crowds here have been so energetic!” John says more lively than I have seen him since the show. He must have just been tired.

“Yeah,” Fraser agrees. “But I like seeing all these new places like the Grand Canyon!”

“I would have to say meeting all the fans from around the country. It has really been an amazing experience!” Ben says.

“And you Gus?” Ash slurs.

“Playing alongside all these talented musicians. And we got to see Limpbizkit and the Deftones. I also love meeting all these new people!” he says raising his glass.

“Cheers to that, mate!” Fraser says.

“Cheers!” we all respond and put our glasses in the air. I sneak a peek at Gustav hoping he wont notice my staring at him, but he’s already looking at me. He smiles and I smile back blushing. Ash interrupts our little moment, “what are some of the weirdest gifts you have gotten or weirdest thing a fan has done?”

They all look at each other thinking. “Well I think the dolls those girls made for us were cool, but they looked kinda voodoo-ish. It was pretty weird.” Ben says.

“That CD one girl made of her singing over our voices was kind of strange.” Fraser says.

“There were some fans who showed us their tattoos of our lyrics, but they had some words wrong… we really didn’t have the heart to tell them…” John says.

“what about those girls who followed us around and ask us to draw the little pictures then came back the next day with them tattooed?” Si says. They all laugh at the memory.

“I always love when fans write letters or give us artwork. It’s lovely.” Gustav says. They all agree with him and we go on eating. Ash gets her third margarita.

“When are yalls birthdays?” She says getting more tipsy by the second. Gustav laughs at her and moves her drink away from her slightly. In her drunkenness she keeps her hand at her sides and desperately tries to reach the straw. We all laugh at how ridiculous she looks.

“My birthday is November, 28th.” Says Ben as if Ash had asked a normal question.

“Mine is May, 15th.” John says going along with it as well. “Just a few days ago.”

“Happy birthday.” I say smiling at him. He smiles back.

“October, 7th.” Simon shouts out.

“August, 24th.” Fraser joins.

Gustav sighs. “Mine is tomorrow. But whatever! We don’t celebrate much.”

“Really?” I ask intrigued. With a sly smile on my face I get up and say, “I’ll be right back.” And limp away. I hear Gustav say “Oh shit.” Behind me as I go.

I make my way to the host stand where my waitress friend, Kim, is standing. “Hey, Kim, you see that guy at the end of my table?” she looks over and nods. “It’s his Birthday.” I say with a devious smile.

“oh I get it!” she says with a smile. “Ill get the birthday saddle!”

I limp my way back to the table, but don’t sit. “What did you do?” Gustav asks.

“Nothing!” I say in a sing song voice. Kim shows up dragging the birthday saddle and a little brownie.

“Oh, you did not!” he says with a slight laugh in his voice.

“Oh, but I did!” I smile, “time for you to get on the saddle!”

“Awwww, come on this is embarrassing!” Gustav complains with a smile on his face. Fraser pushes him out of his seat.

“Go on then!” he says to Gustav. Reluctantly he goes and sits on the saddle. The boys are all laughing and Ben reaches down to grab their camera from their bag.

For once I get to do the birthday thing! I grab a napkin, bundle it and hand it to Gustav. “ when everyone yells yee-haw waver it over your head.” He looks at me laughing. I turn to the Roadhouse and yell, “Cani have the Roadhouse’s attention please! I have a very special guest sitting on my birthday saddle, This is Gustav and he is celebrating his 27th birthday, can we all give him a round of applause!” A few tables near us start clapping with our table whistling and hollering. “ Now on the count of three can we give him a big Texas style Yee-Haw! One, Two, Three!” Everyone yells out yee-haw. The waitresses wish him a happy birthday and walk away. Gustav sits on the saddle for a minute posing for pictures.

“That was so weird! Do you have to do that for every birthday?” Gustav asks laughing.

“Yup! There are at least 7 per day.”

“Geeze, and what the fuck does Yee-Haw even mean?!”

“No idea, crazy Texas thing! It sounds really funny in you accent by the way!” I giggle.

“You have a funny accent,” he retorts poking fun at me.

“ you’re in America right now so you have the accent, but it sounds really amazing, it’s just when you say Yee-Haw it sounds really weird!” we laugh together as if we had known each other forever and not just met. This night is amazing, unbelievable. “Do you guys have any plans for tonight?” I blurt out before I can make myself shut up, I cant just expect so much out of them, I just met the and they already agreed to go to the game tomorrow, im really pushing my luck.

“We have nothing, we were just going to celebrate, what did you have in mind?” Fraser answers.

“Well we have an apartment with booze and video games.” I say smiling.

“Two of our favorite things,” Says Ben laughing.

“will there be pizza?” Fraser asks.

I laugh, “Yes we can order pizza!”

“I’m in! Pizza till death!” he yells and shows off his ‘pizza till death’ tattoo.

“Sounds like a great time.” Gustav says.

“Sweet! Oh, are any of you allergic to dogs?”

“Hell no! We love dogs!” Gustav says. Fraser’s eyes get wide. “What kind?!” He asks excitedly.

“Siberian Husky and a Pug.” I say and Fraser flips out. “lets pay then get out of here. My manager says we only have to pay for the drinks and salads since they are cheapest.” Simon pulls out enough to pay for the drink. I bend down under the table to my purse to fish out my wallet. Gustav grabs my hand. “I got it.” He says. My face gets really warm and I know I’m blushing for sure. His hand is so soft and warm. I look up into his smiling eyes and smile back. “Thank you gustav.” We stay like this for a moment.

“What’s going on down here?” Ash’s head appears right next to us. We both try to sit up but slam out heads into the table. Ash bursts out laughing. We get our head out from under the table rubbing the sore spot. The boys give us a ‘what just happened?’ look, then burst out laughing. We blush and smile going along with it. The waitress comes and takes our check.

“Thank you, you can keep the change.” Gustav says. As the waitress walks away I see he gave her a 20 dollar tip. “shall we go?” he says smiling.

“Yah you can follow us in your tour bus. Meet you out front!”

Ash and I walk to the car, she’s still pretty tipsy but she can walk on her own. We get in the car and she hits her head on the door. “Ouch!” she yelps and holds her head as she sits.

“Ya dope!” I laugh at her. “Be careful! We don’t want you ending up in the hospital while they are here!”

“Hell no I don’t! Its so fun hanging out with them! John is really fun once he loosens up. Ben is hilarious! And Si…” she trails of into a sigh. “He’s so sweet and adorable and I think he might like me!” she squeals. “But oh my god! You and Gus! I almost died! He likes you!!”

That really took me by surprise. “uh, Ash? How hard did you hit your head? He’s famous, has girls drooling over him constantly, he has pretty much whoever he wants, why would he ever choose me?” I say knowing it’s the sad truth.

“Who knows? Stranger things have happened.” She shuts up when I turn my Young Guns CD on max volume. We drive around front where Gustav is waiting with the bus. We drive the 15 minute drive to the apartment listening to Young Guns. It was really amazing to think that they were driving right behind us back to our place!