You Have My Attention

The first thing I woke up to in the morning was a muss of black hair dangling over me. I jumped a little at the intrusion to my peaceful sleep; who the hell was leaning over me? Then, I remembered the events of last night and realised that I wasn’t lying in my creaky old bed at home, but in a tour bus bunk.

“Andy?” I asked, trying to focus my eyes on the blurry person above me.

“Yup! Come on, time to get up. We’ve got to go see the tour managers before it gets too late in the day and they get busy. We need to sort some shit out if you want to stay on the tour with us”. His words fully shook me from my post wake up daze. This was my chance! I could escape my wreckage of a life! Well, it’s not like I could’ve really gone back to it, but even sleeping in a tour bunk – which most bands will complain is un comfy – was luxury compared to what I was used to. I pushed myself out of the bed and stood next to Andy, feeling short due to the way he practically towered over me. I frowned down at my dishevelled appearance; I’d slept in my clothes and due to the fact that I wasn’t planning on being kicked out of my house; I hadn’t brought anything with me.

“Um... Andy? What am I meant to do about?...” I mumbled, gesturing pathetically with my hand to my rumpled clothes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find you something. Well, I can find you a top and a hoodie, all my jeans will be well too long for you. CC will have something though. Is there any way we could grab some of your clothes before we leave the area? Or do you not think it’ll be safe to try and go back there?” Andy asked while rummaging through a closet located at the end of ‘bunk alley’ (after hearing Dahvie Vanity call it that during a Bryan Stars interview, I started calling it that).

“He should be at work soon, so I could pop by when he’s not there. Definitely not a good idea to go when he is though” I explained as he pulled out an Automatic Loveletter shirt and then a brown box sealed with cellotape from the bottom shelf.

“Old band merch” Andy said in way of explanation as he pulled the tape from the box and opened it.

“And that could work, you could go by after the meeting” he mused as he removed a black BVB hoodie from the top of the box and chucked it over to me. I caught it easily, I’d had enough stuff thrown at me to become a pretty good catcher; it usually wasn’t soft things like hoodies though…

“Thanks” I said while gathering the shirt and hoodie up in my arms. I would’ve changed there and then but I didn’t want Andy to see my body.

He wears ripped up tops or open jackets a lot; everyone knows he has a flawless, milky chest and stomach. I on the other hand, look far from perfect. Blue and purple marks make a stark contrast on my pale skin; my skin isn’t even the beautiful kind of pale that Andy’s is, no, mine is a more sickly, almost vampiric white.

“I’ll go see CC about some jeans, okay?” he told me, walking out of bunk alley to where CC presumably was. Seizing the opportunity to change to change without being seen, I removed my top and chucked it over on the bunk that I slept on before pulling the t-shirt on and then layering on the hoodie over the top. Soon enough, Andy returned with a pair of black jeans with rips on the knees and held them out to me.

“CC doesn’t mind you borrowing them”. He smiled and put them into my hands before heading off back down the bus again.

Always on the move that boy!

“I’ll give you some privacy” he called over his shoulder before moving out of sight. I wasted no time in stripping off my dirty jeans and pulling CC’s on. They fitted my rather well actually, which is surprising because I have trouble finding jeans that fit me properly; I have a rather girlish figure.
Once I was done changing, I made my way into the front of the bus where I assumed Andy had gone.

No point wasting time back there, we had people to meet.

*****

“So, what do you want first, the good news or the slightly bad but not dreadful news?” Andy asked me as he emerged from a one of the make shift offices that Warped Tour had set up.

“I’ll go for the good first” I decided, hoping that if the good outweighed the bad, the bad would be much less of a blow after happy news and not affect my mood too much.

“You can tour with us! And you can stay in one of the bunks we have designated for crew on the bus” he grinned, making me in turn smile. It was excellent news! I’d assumed of course, that the catch was the slightly less great news. After all, tours don’t just invite you along for nothing.

“And the less great news?” I asked cautiously, studying his expression. He appeared to be suppressing a grin and I don’t know whether this made me less or more nervous. Either way, my curiosity was piqued.

“You have to work for on the tour, as staff…” he started.

“That doesn’t sound bad, I’d expected that” I replied, confused.

“It not the fact your staff, it’s more what you have to do…”

“Oh God, what do I have to do?” I grimaced. Yup, his grin definitely meant it was worse. As we talked we’d made our way back to the bus and were now climbing the steps leading onto it. As we entered,
I noticed all the other BVB members congregated in the lounge area. Upon noticing our arrival, they all looked up, eager to hear the result of the mini meeting.

“Well, basically, you’re our maid” he stated, before breaking into the grin he’d obviously been dying to let show on his face. At the same time this happened I heard choked laughter coming from Ashley. Andy probably should’ve waited for Ashley to stop drinking before saying that, poor boy was choking on orange juice.

“Really? Well, I guess that’s not too bad… I don’t have to wear a homely apron though, do I?” I asked, frowning dramatically when Andy looked like he was contemplating the idea.

“Maybe, depends if we come across any homely aprons on tour” he said decisively with a smirk.

“What am I even supposed to do though?” I asked, confused as to what the job of a tour maid entailed. “I probably won’t even be able to do it right” I mumbled self-depreciatedly.

“Can you cook?” Jake asked from across the room. “Can you clean?” Jinxx added. I nodded to both, I’d had to do everything around the house with my dad; I knew all the skills that a middle aged house wife would by the age of fourteen.

“Then you should be fine” Ashley smiled, a glint in his brown eyes.

“What’s first order of business then?” I asked, ready to find out my first task.

“Andy said something about getting your stuff around lunch time but it’s still only about ten-ish, so… make me breakfast biatch!” he said, putting some weird accent on the word bitch and clicking his fingers in a mock diva fashion.

Well this is going to be fun…

I shook my head lightly to myself and made my way over to the small kitchen to prepare some food.
I’d got to admit though, it may have seemed like nothing to be excited about but it was genuinely excellent news for me. It was a fresh start, you know? Besides, I was interested to know how the BVB boys were in their everyday lives, when they weren’t on stage. One thing I could say though, was that I knew sure as hell that it was going to be interesting.