The Anthem for a Dying Breed

By the time we got back to the buses, it was late. Fortunately, all three guys seemed to be in better spirits. I even managed to get a ride from Vic back to the bus.

“Have I broken your back yet?” I mumbled, grinning against his shoulder. He stopped and hitched me up higher, holding my thighs.

“This is killin Tone,” he murmured, glancing at the said-guy a few paces ahead of us. “And you’re not even that heavy.”

“I don’t get you and Ray - you never shut your shit talk about Tony. Leave the poor dude alone.” I chuckled, tightening my arms around his neck.

“‘Cause you never listen, you idiot.”

“Shut up, fool.”

“WHO YOU CALLIN’ FOOL, FOOL?” he demanded, freezing.

“You.” I giggled. “Fool.”

He scoffed and charged full-speed ahead, making me yelp. “Put me down!” He complied ungracefully, dumping me on my arse. I groaned, flopping onto the grass and rubbing the soon-to-be bruises on my bum. “Twat.”

“You OK?” Tony asked, walking over to tower over me. I nodded and he extended a hand to help me up - I took it gratefully and brushed off the grass stuck to my skinny jeans. “Missed a bit.” he said, dusting some off my thigh.

“Thanks.” I murmured. I looked over at Vic and Austin, who were grinning like cheshire cats. “Shut your bitch holes.” I snapped; they sniggered. “You guys wanna come in? We can steal Adam’s ridiculously expensive beer and drink it on the roof.”
Both guys looked instinctively to Austin, who suddenly looked uncomfortable, kicking the grass underfoot.

“Uhm,” he hesitated, shoving his hands in him pockets, “I think I’ll pass. We’ve got shows tomorrow, I should get some sleep.”

“What about you guys?”

“I like the sound of Adam’s beer. I think I'm gonna call my mom tonight, though. Gotta make sure Mike’s not high for it, too.” Vic chuckled.

“I’m no fun sober.” Tony shrugged as I looked at him hopefully.

“I disagree,” I said, trying to hide my crestfallen expression, “But if you’d rather get drunk with someone else, oh well…” I sighed, opening the door to my bus before he could reply. “See you bitched around, then.”

*

The following morning, I was awoken by Ray and Adam chatting quietly. I didn’t bother getting out of my bunk - it felt way too early to be up anyway. After a while, Ray came over, presumably to check I was still alive.

“Hey, babe,” she called quietly, opening my curtain halfway, “you OK?”

“I was born OK.” I replied. She rolled her eyes, leaning against my bunk.

“That doesn’t even make sense. You want some tea?”

“No, thanks. Did you have fun last night?”

“Loads of fun, ta.” Danny exclaimed, popping up beside her.

“What the shitting hell?” I yelped. “Please don’t tell me you guys were naked wrestling again.

“Adam got in on it and everything.” Ray chuckled, winking; I gagged.

“Uh, no thanks! I don’t want herpes!” Adam yelled from somewhere in the bus.

“We didn’t do anything,” Danny admitted, “I learnt my lesson.”

“Tell your dick that.” I grumbled, burying my face in the pillow again. They both sniggered and Danny reached for my ankle, pulling me out of my bunk. “Piss off!” I whined. He ignored me and threw me over his shoulder. “Why are you such a fucking bitch?”

“Why are you so fucking hissy today?” he laughed, shrugging so his shoulder wasn’t stabbing me in the stomach. I punched his back feebly, making him snigger.

“Maybe because you DRAGGED ME OUT OF BED, SHIT FACE!” I snapped.

“Damn,” Ray commented, following Danny carry me to the kitchen, where Adam was. “She is not happy today.”

“There was a knock at the door as Adam got up to answer it; I couldn’t quite see who it was from around Danny. Ray bounded out of my sight and over to greet them, though.

“I am gonna kill you.” I muttered to Danny.

“What was that? You like the view of my arse? Your’s isn’t too bad either, love.” he replied. I smacked his butt, and he laughed. “Spank me later, Al, we got guests right now.”

“Who’s spankin’ who?” Ben’s voice sounded.

“Control your bitch, Bruce!” I shouted as Danny shrugged his shoulders to keep me up.

“Who’s Danny messing with?” Vic asked. I lifted my head a little, but still couldn’t see anything. If Vic was there, Tony might have been, too. Not that it mattered much.

“Danny, I’m gonna puke!” I whined, punching his back again. He quickly tipped me the right side up and seated me on the worktop; as everything came into view again, I saw Ray lead everyone into the kitchen where we were.

“Hullo, gorgeous.” Ben said, coming over to where I was sat to squish my cheeks and give them a kiss. I pouted like an angry three year old and he frowned. “What’s up yours?”

“It’ll be my di-” I cut Danny off by kicking his shin, making Ben smirk.

“You’re a wanker and I hate you.” I said flatly.Ben slung an arm around my shoulders.

“I love it when you’re a bitch to me.” Danny persisted, placing a hand on each of my legs and leaning closer. “It’s so hot.”

“Hey!” Ray yelled, pulling him backwards by the collar. “Don’t hit on my wife, you two-timing bitch!”

“Awh, you jealous, babe?” he chuckled; she rolled her eyes.

“Please. I just don’t want her disappointed the way you disappointed me.” Everyone laughed but me - I kept my eyes glued to the floor of the bus - it wasn’t Danny that bothered me: we were always messing around like that. If Tony was there, he’d probably think I’d hooked up with Danny or some stupid shit after his whatever-rejection yesterday. If he didn’t think that, then that meant he didn’t care what I did either way.
Whichever it was, I didn’t want to know. It sucked to like someone this much and have them not be in the slightest interested. However, I wasn’t going to let anyone see that.

Everyone broke off into their own conversations, but Ben stayed where he was.
After a while, he asked me if I was OK, whispering in my ear. I looked up at him and nodded, a well-practised smile on my face. He looked slightly dubious, but didn’t push it.

“Do you wanna get summat to eat?” he asked.

“Later, maybe. If you’re hungry, go and get something, man.” I replied. He shrugged, but I knew him too well; I hopped off the worktop and opened one of the drawers, taking out one of the eighteen cookie packets I had bought at a service station on our way to Cali, then went back to him.
He grinned, taking my offering and threaded one arm around my waist, pulling me close again.

“You the man, Al.” he chuckled.

“Damn straight.” I muttered, sighing. “When you guys playing today?”

“Like, in the evening, I think. Around six-ish?” he said through faceful of rainbow cookie. “Oh. You got visitors.” he added, letting go of me. I frowned, confused, until I looked up and noticed someone headed my way: Tony.

“Hey, Leena.” he said, nodding at me, then glancing at Ben. “Sup, man. How you doing?”

“Not too bad, mate, how are you?” Ben said; Tony nodded, and both guys eyed each other coldly. I pulled a “WTF” face at Ray, who was watching me from across the tiny kitchen, smirking.

Smug cow.

“So…” I began awkwardly, crossing my arms over my chest. Both guys re-focussed on me. It was a whole other shitting level of unnerving.
Luckily, Adam came to the rescue, if unwittingly.

“Fuck!” he exclaimed; everyone looked at him, startled. He had been quietly absorbed in his laptop until then. “Have you seen this?”

“We’re not psychic, Adam.” Ray sighed, exasperated. ‘Eureka’ moments were common on this bus. “You gotta fucking tell us.”

“That’s what I’m doing, shut up.” he retorted, looking up and beckoning me and her over. “Look at this.”
The two of us leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen; he had my blog up.

“Whup-dee-doo. Ally’s blog. And?” Ray deadpanned: we all had individual blogs.
Adam ignored her and scrolled down into the most recent of my photography; I had posted the pictures I had taken last night from when I was hanging out with Austin, Vic and Tony when I got in and couldn’t sleep.
“Fuck me!” Ray muttered, snatching the laptop out of Adam’s hands and re-inspecting it. I straightened up, baffled. They weren’t making any sense, the idiots. “Have you seen the responses you got for some of these, Al?” Ray continued. I shook my head and sat down next to Adam.

“I don’t read comments much. No one really does, anyway, it’s crap.” I murmured, pulling my legs up onto the seat.

“It’s been reblogged a few fucking times, you numpty, so you should have.” Ray explained, seating herself, half on Adam’s lap, half on mine. We both peered over her shoulder, me disbelievingly. “It’s one of the most shared posts, this one.” she added, hovering the arrow over one picture of Tony. I rolled my eyes. “It’s you, Turtle, look!”

“That’s all down to Tony. I just took a picture - it can’t be helped if he has a nice face.” I piped. For a second, there was a confused flurry of arms attacking Rayne as everyone tried to reach for the laptop at once. It seemed to be verging on descending into chaos when Tony stepped in, having been as dumbstruck as me, and snatched the laptop out of Vic’s hands.

“Shut up, all of you.” he said calmly. Everyone complied, partly out of doing as they were told, but mainly because it was weird to see Tony take charge. “Who wants the laptop?” he winced as everyone gave a resounding chorus of “ME!”.
“Well, tough shit, it’s Adam’s, you can’t fuckin’ have it.” he mumbled, holding it up out of everyone’s reach and he passed it back to its’ owner.

I chuckled as they all grumbled and glared, shuffling away back to their previous occupations. Adam elbowed Ray out of the way and followed Vic to talk something over, and Ray grabbed Tony’s hand, yanking him onto the sofa between the two of us.

“So,” she began, eyes gleaming as she looked at the two of us.

“So?” I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

“You guys hung out last night?” she asked, leaning towards Tony; he leaned closer to me to escape her intense gaze.

“Yes.” he said carefully. She bit her lip to hold back a smile.

“And?” she ventured.

“And?” I said, looking confused; she rolled her eyes.

“And you think Tony has a nice face?” I narrowed my eyes at her.

“I stated a fact, what’s your point?” I demanded. A giggle disguised as a hiccup escaped her lips and I leaned across Tony’s lap to scowl at her. “If you don’t leave in the next five seconds, I’m going to make your internet search history this week’s Warped gossip.” I hissed; she scoffed at me and my sour mood, but got the message and stood up, blowing a kiss and leaving to get breakfast with Danny from the catering tent.

I straightened up and folded my arms over my chest, redirecting my scowl out of the window.

“Are you OK?” Tony eventually asked. He went to place a hand on my shoulder but stopped and hovered for a second, then took it back.

“Why’d you ask?” I replied, feeling like a cryptic jackass. He shrugged.

“You look...upset,” he explained. I wanted to sneer at him, I really did - but I held myself back. “i came over to say hi, actually,” he continued when I didn’t reply, “and see if you’re free tonight.”

I stopped chewing the inside of my cheek and looked at him properly. “I think, if we gave it a chance, we could be pretty good friends. So...what do you think?”

My initial instinct was to shrug like a teenage girl: he seemed unfazed, though.

“If not today, then tomorrow, maybe? We’re in California for like five days, so there’s loads of time to sightsee or catch a movie or whatever.” He looked up at me for an answer. I nodded slowly and he grinned, lowering his gaze again. “Great! So, see you around, then?”

He still didn’t look directly at me, so I muttered “Yeah” and he excused himself, leaving the bus. Ben was by my side in almost an instant.

“What the shit just happened?” I said, looking at him almost desperately.

“Well,” he snickered, “from what I overheard, I’d say he just asked you out, but he said ‘friends’, so...fuck knows.”

I felt even more baffled, though he had just stated the obvious.

“There was, like, zero eye contact there, too. Fucking weird.” I added.

“Hah.” Ben grinned. “That I can explain.”

“Please do.” I encouraged, leaning against his side; he put an arm around my shoulder.

“Most people would stare at you tits, like me and Danny. This guy, on the other hand, has probably never seen your pins before because of your fucking psycho obsession with hiding them.” I stared at him blankly. “Whatever he’s got in mind, I wouldn’t count on it being platonic - he was staring at your legs.”

I blushed furiously, glancing down at my shorts - I never wore them out of the bus - then elbowed him.

“Shut up, perv.”

“I’m serious!” he laughed. “You need to wear less clothing in public. Give him some eye candy, or you’re friend-zoned forever.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I heard something about taking clothes off.” Danny interjected, returning from catering with a shit eating grin on his face. “I want in.”