You're Not Quite Satan

Tay's Point of View.

We finally arrived at the venue two hours before our show and I was in the dressing room reapplying my make-up when Jordan walked in. I glanced up at his reflection in the mirror as I started combing the mascara brush through my lashes.
"Hey, Jord." I greeted.
"Hey," he smiled and came to stand beside me, watching my hand as I darkened my naturally thick lashes. "You see the setlist for tonight?"
My hand stilled and I capped the brush. "Yeah," I said, giving him a strange look, "It's pretty similar to last year's, still closing with Kiss Me Again."
Jordan's jaw clenched and unclenched and I turned to face him. "Yeah, crowd favourite." he mumbled.
"Are you alright?" I asked, knowing he wasn't usually like this.
"I'm fine, just came to tell you we're on for soundcheck in five minutes." he said flatly before disappearing out the door.
"Well, alright then…" I muttered to myself and finished off my make-up before going to the stage where the crew was running around to make sure everything was set up, from my mike stand to Rob's kick pedal. I saw Cam off to the side, tuning his guitar, and went up to him. "Do you know what's going on with Jordan?" I asked quietly, concern evident in my voice and expression.
Cameron shrugged and let his guitar hang off his shoulders. "No, I didn't realize there was something up in the first place."
I bit my lip. "Maybe I'm wrong," I said and went onto the stage, going through the drills for soundcheck.
After we'd finished up, I sat around for a bit before I went over to Jordan. We had about five minutes until we had to open for All Time Low, but I couldn't go on stage when I was worrying about my best friend.
"Jordan, can we talk for a minute?" I asked, pleading with my eyes.
He stared down at me for a minute and sighed. "What is it, Tay?" he asked, impatient.
"What's wrong?" I asked, watching his expression with a hint of sadness. His face set into an emotionless mask.
"Nothing," he said and sighed when I crossed my arms, urging him to continue. "I'm hung over, can we drop it?"
Staring at him for a minute, I finally muttered a short "Fine" and trudged away to make sure my mic and everything was set up before we went on in the next two minutes. I waited side-stage hearing mixed chants of "All Time Low" and "We Are The In Crowd" erupting from the crowd. She smiled, because she knew that all though many of those fans were here to see All Time Low, a good number had also come for her own band.
I heard the stage director call out the ten-second warning and took a deep breath before running out to greet the crowd. "Hey guys, how you doing tonight?" I called into the mic, earning a chorus of cheers that spread another smile onto my face as Jordan and Cameron stood on either side of me, Rob behind a little farther back on the stage at his drums and Mike on Jordan's other side.
Glancing at the floor where the setlist was taped, I turned back to the crowd. "We're going to start off with a song called Both Sides of The Story; sing along if you know the words!" I smiled and started the intro. I couldn't help having my thoughts drift to Alex throughout the song. But I hated him, didn't I? That had to be it. I thought of him because of the hate line. As the song came to a close, I put as much emotion as I could into the final "You're not quite Satan, but I really think I hate you."
I gazed side stage just in time to see Alex standing there. That same hurt expression from before covered his features as the line filled the air around us and I felt a little bad at his reaction but shrugged it off anyway, continuing the set.
By the end of the set, after singing Never Be What You Want, Rumor Mill, Exits and Entrances, and a few other of our newer songs, it was time to close the show so All Time Low could take the stage (by storm). "We're gonna finish off with our new single before All Time Low comes out. It's called Kiss Me Again." I hummed into the microphone as the intro started.
"I gotta say, something I've been thinking 'bout." the words drifted to me and I smiled, until I realized it wasn't Jordan's voice. I glanced at him curiously as the voice continued, and his mouth was still as he strummed on his guitar. Glancing around, there was no sign of the voice. It was familiar but I couldn't bring my thoughts into order long enough to match it with a face.
"It's been a while since I've felt butterflies, do you feel the same way to?" I sung and suddenly I felt two arms wrapping around my waist from behind. I tensed up and glanced behind my shoulder as I sang and saw who the arms belonged to; Alex Gaskarth.
Instantly, my entire body froze, but somehow I still managed to sing, eyes locked with his as he gave me a breathtaking smile. As the chorus hit and our voices rang out together in perfect harmony, the crowd went wild. After my body had begun to thaw out, I unwound from his embrace, earning a few pouts from the people in the front as I went over to the other side of the stage next to Jordan, who was purposefully avoiding my gaze.
Trying not to let my anger show at what the guys had done, or let my anger show that Alex had gotten that close to me, I tried to put on a fake smile and go around, standing next to Alex every so often just to please the crowd. It was fine, until the last "kiss me again" was voiced. At that instant, time froze as Alex leaned in and pressed our lips together. Our lips moved in sync as we kissed until I realized what was happening. I jerked away from him quickly with wide eyes.
Shakily, I bid the crowd a goodnight and to give it up for "All Time Low", glad my voice sounded semi-normal as I did so. I pushed past Alex to get off stage as he grabbed my arm.
"What the hell, Alex?" I shouted at him as angry tears formed in my eyes. "You had no right to do that."
Alex looked down at me, shocked. "I just wanted to surprise you…" he whispered as I jerked my arm away from him.
"I don't care! You don't fuck up my show and then think you can kiss me!"
"Tay, calm down." Jordan said as he jogged up to us and I whirled around to face him.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" I growled and he looked down guiltily.
"Yeah, I did." he admitted quietly.
"Why? You knew how I felt about him, Jordan!"
"I just… I don't know why I did." he said quietly. "I'm sorry, Tay."
I shook my head in disbelief, not knowing what else to say. Looking around, I'd seen I attracted a large crowd with my yelling. Fists clenched, I pushed past them and sprinted to the bathroom, relieved there weren't any girls in either of the bands.
I sat huddled against the wall as I shook. My lips were still tingling, the way they had the first time we'd kissed and my heart thudded painfully in my chest. As much as I didn't want to admit it; Alex was right. When we'd kissed, I did kiss back. But that didn't, couldn't mean anything.
Just as I'd started to calm down, I heard the door creak open and I jumped, before glancing up and seeing a pretty brunette girl. I wiped my eyes quickly, figuring she was probably just coming in to use the bathroom.
"Tay?" she asked softly as she came to sat by me.
"Yeah, that's me. Who are you?" I asked quietly as I didn't look at her.
"I'm Cassadee, Rian's girlfriend." she introduced with a small smile that I returned with a half-hearted one. "I saw you run in here, and I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Staying silent for a minute, I watched her. Here was a nice girl coming to check on me, and all I could do was shake. "N-no, I'm not." I said finally.
Cassadee nodded sympathetically and pulled me in for a hesitant hug that I quickly returned. "Do you need to talk about it?" she asked.
Not being one who was used to venting, especially to other girls, I shrugged a little. Cassadee nodded and turned to face me. "You can talk to me," she said, smiling warmly and I gave in. Maybe all I needed was to talk it out, anyway.
I sniffled softly and took a deep breath. "Alex has always been an ass, I've never liked him. He's cocky, arrogant, and just an asshole, to put it simply. To make things worse, we're stuck on their bus for a few days and I've had no choice but to sleep in the bed with him. To make it worse, he kissed me once, and then again just now in front of everyone during one of my songs." I said in a rush as tears fell down my face.
"Honey, it's okay." she soothed. "Is it possible that you're maybe falling for him?" she asked softly.
"What? No! That wouldn't be a possibility; he's an asshole. I can't like him." I said, though I was starting to question myself as I thought about what he'd said. He was right.
Cassadee nodded, though the look on her face telling me she definitely didn't believe my denial of affection. "Okay. Come on, let's go watch the rest of their set." she said, standing up and holding out a hand for me to take.
"I don't really feel up to watching his set, Cassadee." I said softly and she rolled her eyes with a smile.
"I don't care, you're coming." she insisted and I reluctantly stood up, wiping my excess makeup before following her to the side stage just as Alex was introducing the next song.
"I'd like to dedicate this song to…"