Had Me From Hello

Annie was awokened abrubtly by a loud noise outside of her bus. Shooting up, the brunette rubbed her tired eyes. What could possibly be the cause of that?

Finally mustering up the strength to push herself out of the small, cramped bunk, Annie smoothed out her old, ragged T-shirt.

The girl sauntered over to the door, calling out, "Who's there? And why are you here at," Annie's eyes fixated themselves on the small clock sitting on the kitchen counter, "3am?" Taking actual notice of the time, she groaned loudly. "What the fuck? It's three in the fucking morning."

"It's us!" the familiar voice of Jack Barakat called from behind the large door. "Open the damn door, Madison!"

Annie rolled her eyes at the immaturity - and stupidity - of her new friends. Swinging the door open, she narrowed her eyes at the group of people standing in front of her bus. "I hate all of you."

"Oh, shut up; no, you don't," Matt Flyzik grinned up at the younger girl. "We're bored and we're going to the beach to set up a campfire and, you know, do lame campy things - sing songs, play some guitar, tell dumb stories... The whole package."

"You're bored and I have to be woken up at three in the morning?" Annie let out a loud yawn, pushing a hair that had fallen from the messy bun on top of her head out of her face. "How is that fair?"

"It just is. Now, go get dressed and come on!" Alex yelled excitedly. "And grab your guitar!" Noticing the solemn look present on the small girl's face, he added, "Please."

Rolling her eyes, Annie moved out of the way for the band and the crew to enter her on-the-road home. "Make yourselves comfortable, I guess. I'm going to get changed." Turning around to eye Jack and Alex suspciously, she said, "Don't you dare break anything, either."

"Whatever," Jack teased the girl, plopping down on her red couch.

Alex took the free time to look around the small, but very homey, bus that Annie had been living in. His eyes couldn't but feel almost drawn to a framed picture that was sitting on the kitchen counter. It was a younger Annie and a blonde headed boy who had his arm wrapped around her waist. I wonder who that is, Alex pondered to himself, pushing the image out of his head.

Only a few minutes later, Annie appeared in the small living room-esque space. The girl was garbed in a Baltimore Orioles shirt, black shorts, and underneath she wore a bright pink bikini. "Come on, assholes. You're going to wake me up at 3am, you're going to be punctual about it, 'kay?" she smirked, only half joking.

"Damn, so fiesty," Jack playfully winked at her, bouncing up from his seat on the couch. "Let's go to the beach!"

The rather large group of people all filed out of the room, leaving Alex and Annie to be the last two to exit the bus. "You know, you don't have to go with us. I get if you wanna sleep instead," Alex shrugged, apologetically.

"Shut up, Gaskarth. I'm already dressed and awake; it's too late," Annie smiled up at the taller man, jogging to catch up with the rest of the group.

*****

"So, you just carry firewood around with you in the big city of Chicago?" Annie raised a thin eyebrow at the group of men before her. "Little strange, don't you think?"

"We went out and bought it earlier yesterday; thank you very much," Rian rolled his eyes, feigning hurt. "Keep your rude comments to yourself, Madison."

Annie giggled at the man's silliness, as she watched Matt light the fire in front of them. "So, random question," she began, as all the eyes in the group made their way to her. "Are we really going to sing, like... dumb campfire songs?"

Alex let out a loud laugh - maybe too loud. "No. We just toss around random lyric ideas or whatever and everyone else kind of joins in with their ideas, you know?"

"Do you guys remember the first time we were in Chicago?" Zack queried from the make-do log seat that he and Jack were seated on. Seeing the confused expression on Annie's face, Zack began telling his story. "We were around 17, I think, and Alex was freaking out pretty bad, because, well, you know, it's Chicago. We were dumb kids; we wanted to impress some people. So, Alex is walking around our hotel pacing like crazy and yelling dumb shit. So, when it's finally time for the show-"

Alex quickly cut off Zack, "Dude, come on. I hate when you tell this story! You know that!"

Evan Kirkendall smiled from his seat in the sand, staring at the fire. "We all know; that's why we love when he tells it."

Zack laughed at Evan's comment, while he ignored Alex's. "We get through the first song pretty decently, but, oh, God, we get to the second one - Running From Lions, I'm pretty sure it was - and he just loses it. He starts fucking up the words, tripping over cords, and the best part," Zack could barely finish the story, because he was laughing so hard, "he just throws up all over this girl who was standing in front of him behind the barricade. Then he just says 'sorry' and keeps singing."

Annie nearly fell backwards from the amount of laughing she was doing. "Oh my God! You're lying!"

Alex felt the heat rise to his cheeks; he knew he was blushing furiously. "I was, like, 17, okay! I'm not proud of it!"

"You could have said something to the girl besides 'sorry'. For fuck's sake, Alex, you could have stopped singing!" Annie covered her mouth with her hand, still laughing as hard as before.

"Okay, whatever. Yeah, yeah; let's all make fun of Alex," the singer rolled his brown eyes. "I hate all of you."

Beaming, Jack couldn't help but laugh along with the group. Not really for the reason they were, but mostly because he knew the only reason Alex was reacting the way he was was because he had embarrassed himself in front of Annie. "Okay, as much as I love making Alex feel like shit," Jack looked over at his best friend's beet red face, shooting him an apologetic smile, "let's play some music."

Annie's face lit up with excitement. "I have this one song I'm working on; it's kind of lame and I'm not sure where I want to go with it. Maybe you guys can help me out?"

All the guys nodded as Annie grabbed the guitar that was sitting behind her in the sand. "It's called 'What Are You Waiting For?'" she smiled, strumming the opening chords to one of her newest songs.

Every time any of the band or crew heard Annie play guitar or heard her sing, they couldn't help but be mesmerized. She was incredibly talented; it was crazy. All of their eyes fixated on Annie's figure, only able to be seen thanks to the fire in front of her, anxiously awaiting her new song.

"I think I'm going broke from paying my dues. I've been tossed and turned and left black and blue. I've been faced with decisions where I had to choose. It's either one, you win, or one, you lose. These times will get you so damn mad. You got to roll with the punches and smile with the sad," Annie's voice carried over the sound of the ocean waves crashing softly against the shore line.

Alex was already in love with the song - although, he may have been a little biased, due to the fact that he was practically in love with most things Annie had done.

"I tell myself when I finally look back, I'll think, 'Oh my god, what a life I've had.' We're alive, we're alive; what are you waiting for?" coming to an abrupt stop, Annie smiled sheepishly. "That's all I got. Suggestions are gladly appreciated."

The band and crew all had thoughtful looks on their faces while they pondered what they were given.

"Now the tradition is that we all just kind of think it over, you know, toss ideas around in our head, and by the end of the night, if anyone has any ideas, they let you know," Rian explained to Annie, feeling happy to be inviting someone else on an All Time Low tradition. "Anyone else have something they wanna share?"

Alex grabbed his guitar, that was sitting on his side, and breathed in heavily. "This one's something that I'm kind of toying with, so if no one has ideas, it's fine."

Annie eyed Alex up and down, taking in everything about the man. His messy morning hair that strayed in every which direction, his black Baltimore Ravens hoodie that fit him just right, and his white basketball shorts. It was almost certain that Annie could honest-to-God say that Alex Gaskarth was the eptiome of perfect people.

"It's called 'Backseat Serenade,'" Alex grinned, eyeing Anie out of the corner of his eye, suddenly feeling strange knowing that she was staring at him so intently. What could she possibly be thinking of?

"Lazy lover, find a place for me again. You felt it once before, I know you did. I could see it. Whiskey princess, drink me under and pull me in. You had me at 'Come over, boy. I need a friend.' I understand," Alex's voice awed everyone surrounding him, just like it did almost every time he sang.

"Backseat serenade, dizzy hurricane; oh, God, I'm sick of sleeping alone. You're salty like a summer day. Kiss the sweat away to your radio. Backseat serenade, little hand grenade; oh, God, I'm sick of sleeping alone," Alex stopped strumming and placed his head in his hands. "Any help is appreciated!"

"Well, I'm thinking we're done with that because those are the only two singer/songwriters in our group," Jack nodded, as if agreeing with himself. "So," he looked over at Annie. "Now we just fuck around in the water or do whatever."

Without further explaining anything else, Jack and a few other members of the band/crew all sprinted towards the water, throwing their shirts into a million different directions.

Alex suddenly stood up, throwing his hoodie off to the side of where he was seated. Looking down at Annie, he raised a bushy eyebrow. "You coming?"

Annie shook her head, "I'll be down there in a minute. I think I have an idea for a song."

"Annie, c'mon; the point of this night is to take a break from writing!" Alex begged, jutting out his bottom lip. "Please," he extended his vowels, sounding like a small child.

Annie rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smiling. "Give me, like, two seconds. I swear, I don't have much to go off on. Just a small idea for a lyric."

"Okay..." Alex narrowed his brown eyes into slits. "If you're not down there in exactly one minute, I'm getting you and throwing you in. Don't test me, Madison."

Annie giggled and then feigned fear. "Oh, wow. Anything but that!"

Rolling his brown orbs, Alex smirked and took off for the water, yelling random things at his best friends.

Annie didn't have any paper or anything to write down her new ideas, so she quickly tweeted the lyric that had popped into her mind, so that she could refer to it later when she needed to remember.

@AnnieMadison: If you're sleeping alone tonight, let me be your lullaby.