You Can Get the Monkey Off Your Back, but the Circus Never Leaves Town

THE NEXT MORNING

I woke up around noon to the sound of an alarm, something I rarely do. My restless my usually woke me up much before the sun.
But last night I didn't go to sleep until the time I usually woke up.Trevor and I had a lengthy discussion about how to continue with the new declared feelings.

He didn't want things to be awkward or tensed now that he had told me how he feels. I didn't want him to think I was using him as a rebound...

Which was when I must have fallen asleep on his bed. He must have set his alarm so that I would be awake in time to go take care of work. With a sigh I removed the covers from over my body and finally turned the alarm off, accidentally knocking it and a few other things off the bedside table in the process. I stood and stretched before picking up the things from the floor. Including a note that Trevor must have left for me.

Alexandria,
I'm sorry I could not be here when you woke up. I needed to pack the van before tour still. There's money down stairs in the key drawer for food while I am gone, I also left the keys to my car in case you needed to go anywhere. I'm really sorry I am leaving after we just had our conversation last night, it's bad timing but I wanted to tell you that I'll miss you.

Trevor

I unfold the part of the paper that had crinkled when it fell.

P.S. I left a spot for you on the list tonight if you wanted to come see us.

I sighed and picked up the remainder of the things from the floor. A ring, a small cup, headphones, and my necklace that I had been wearing last night.

Downstairs, I made myself a bowl of cereal and then went back to my room. There were posters and notes from things I had done in life. Tour posters from shows I worked on or went to, pictures with people I was friends with at one point, and even the family picture from All Stars tour. I looked happier in that picture. Alex had me in his arms and Michael was holding my hand.

I tore the picture down. I crumpled it up and threw it into the trash.

What Michael and I had is gone now, and I wanted to move on. I was ready to move on.

Trevor deserved it as well, he waited all this time and treated me so well while I healed.

After sliding my shoes on, I went down stairs and grabbed the keys to Trevor's car.

20 MINUTES LATER

I was at the Escape The Fate practice studio. After I moved here I didn't really have a place to put all my stuff and I couldn't afford a storage unit, so I put it here. They had a storage closet they didn't use and almost insisted that it all come here. Craig even keeps my car at his house, I'm sure it's hardly used since he has the newer model.

I used my key to the studio and immediately went to the closet and started pulling boxes out, being mindful of their equipment that was still in the studio. I finally found the three boxes of clothes and shoes that I wanted from the back.

I only brought a few things into Trevor's house because I didn't want to throw my clothes everywhere in his house.

Now that I had the boxes I wanted, I cleaned up the others and started putting the others back.

"Whose car was that outside?" My eyes widened when I heard Craig's voice.

Immediately, I began looking around for somewhere to hide. The thought of facing the people I still call friends scared me more than anything. It had to happen sometime though.

"Draven?" Holding back the cringe my old name cause, I smiled at Craig and the unknown guy next to him.

"Hi Craig." He engulfed me in a bear hug and swung me around for a few seconds before letting my feet touch the floor again.

"Where have ya' been?" I sighed.

"Kind of avoiding everyone? I didn't want to get roped into tours, shows, or any kind of music stuff for a little bit..." He gave a sad smile before shooting a look at the unknown man next to him.

"Oh, uh this is TJ. TJ this is Draven." I narrowed my eyes at the man.

"You're the TJ?" Referring to what Chris had told me during my time with them.

"Draven stop. You don't even know what really happened." Craig seemed pissed now. His anger made me take a step back.

"Look, I don't have time for you to be angry with me. I just need to get these boxes in Trevor's car-"

"Whose Trevor?" I groaned and then picked up one of the boxes on my own.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Ignoring his question, I moved all three boxes into the car without either of their help.

"Draven I jus-"

"Don't call me that." I turned towards who i thought to be Craig and instead saw TJ.

I stared him down as he stood silently, clearly wanting to say something. Him talking to me was probably a bad idea after all the horrible things I heard from Chris.

"My name is Alex." He nodded once.

"I just wanted to say good bye...Alex." And with that he walked back inside quickly.

I couldn't blame him for not wanting anything to do with me, but his timidness was surprising.

Driving home I thought of ways that I could apologize to Craig. I didn't expect him to be that upset, but with the way he acted when I looked at TJ I clearly didn't know as much about him as I thought.

I brought all the boxes up stairs to my room and then looked through them for an outfit. For the first time in a long time I was going to be dressing up.