Teenage Dirtbag

Jack’s POV
I had been hanging out with Aimee for the past couple of hours, watching bands. Ever since Haley had let it slip that Tay was apparently in love with me, I hadn’t felt comfortable going back to our van as Tay and her band were probably over there as well. I didn’t know if what Haley said was true, but I really wouldn’t know how to act slightly normal around Tay with this information in the back of my head. So instead, I’d been having quite a lot of fun with Aimee. I always knew she was beautiful and popular, but she turned out to be nice and funny as well. For some reason, I hadn’t expected that. Despite the fact that I’d been in love with her for years, I had always thought she would be kind of a bitch to me if I ever got the nerve to talk to her, but so far so good.

We had been talking about music, All Time Low, school and some more stuff and I found out we were a lot more alike than I had expected. We were now watching a band I had never heard of, but they were pretty good. Their music was catchy and Aimee and I were dancing along to it shamelessly when Alex suddenly showed up next to us.
“Jack” he said irritated. “You do know we’re on in 10 minutes? We’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Oh sorry, must’ve lost track of time” I replied, turning to look at Aimee. “We should probably go.”

Just like Haley, Cassadee and We Are The In Crowd, Aimee would be watching side stage, so she followed me and Alex backstage. We quickly got to the stage, where Zack, Rian, Haley, Cassadee and We Are The In Crowd were already waiting for us.
“Oh look who decided to show up” Rian said sarcastically.
“Where’s my guitar?” I asked.
“In the van” Alex replied.

I cursed under my breath. It would be a 5-minute walk to the van, so I definitely wouldn’t be back on time.
“He’s kidding” Haley then said. “It’s with their guitars next to the stage, I already tuned it since you can’t do that.”
I decided to ignore the mean comment. “Thanks” I replied.

We played a different stage than the band Aimee and I had been watching. Rian’s drums had already been set up and I figured the rest of the guitars had been tuned as well, so we were ready to go on. Alex did some vocal exercises to get ready. A woman with a headset on then came to get us. We walked up the stage and Zack, Alex and I grabbed our instruments. A cheer came from the crowd when we appeared. We immediately started playing our first song, which was a Blink-182 cover. After a few more covers it was time for a new original song.
“So, this next song is our second original song. It’s called Jasey Rae” Alex spoke into the microphone.

Alex had written this song and to be honest, I didn’t even know who or what it was about. I was pretty sure Alex didn’t know a girl called Jasey. It was a fun song to play though. Alex had played it for us a couple of weeks ago and when we heard we got to play this festival we figured it’d be a good moment to play it live for the first time. Alex started playing it and we all joined in quickly. We could tell the crowd was enjoying the song, even though they couldn’t sing along to it. Front row I saw a few girls wearing the All Time Low shirts Haley had made and I couldn’t help but smile.

Over the years I had gone to so many festivals but I never thought I would actually be playing one myself. I was enjoying every second of it and I really hoped there’d be more to come.

The show was over way too quickly, but the response from the crowd was great! In the bars we had played at, there hadn’t been this many people, nor had they been this enthusiastic.
“Do you want us to come sign some stuff at our merch stand later?” Alex asked.
The crowd cheered. I smiled. We would finally get to sign something. I felt like a fucking rock star right now. We said our goodbyes and went off stage, to be greeted by our friends.
“I think you will have quite some new fans after today!” Haley exclaimed, pulling me in for a hug. “Ugh, you’re sweaty.”

Alex, Zack, Rian and I went back to our van to change while Cassadee and Haley went back to the merch stand, which they had broken down for the duration of our set. They would put the shirts back on display and we would go over there to sign stuff and meet people after we had changed. I was heading for our van with Alex by my side.
“So, I heard the strangest thing today” I started.
“Let me guess, Tay is in love with you” he answered.
“How do you know?” I asked confused.
“Haley was all freaked out because she let that slip” Alex explained.
“So it’s true?” I asked.
“I don’t know, all I know is what Haley told me” Alex replied.
“Which is?” I asked curiously.
“That Tay is in love with you but that she wasn’t allowed to tell you” Alex said.
I was silent for a moment. “What do I do now?”
“How should I know? How about you stop avoiding her for starters” he suggested.
“I haven’t…” I started
“Yes you have. Did you have fun with Aimee?” he asked.
“I… Yes, I did actually” I answered.
“More than you would with Tay?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t even know Tay that well” I shrugged.
By now we had gotten to our van.
“Well, it’s up to you to decide” Alex said, before he opened the van to grab some clean t-shirts out of is.

We all changed quickly and went to our merch stand. A bunch of girls were already waiting there for us. All of them were holding our t-shirts so the sales were probably going pretty well. The girls came up to us when they noticed us. It was pretty overwhelming having all of these girls coming up to us for pictures and autographs, but it was also really cool. After I signed a couple of items I looked around me. Rian, Zack and Alex were all signing and taking pictures as well and Tay and Aimee joined Haley and Cassadee because there were so many people that wanted to buy the t-shirts.

The group of teenagers around us only seemed to grow. Now I really felt like a rock star. After we had been signing stuff and taking pictures and just talking to people for about 45 minutes, there were only a few girls left. I had to admit it was kind of exhausting having so many people around you wanting your attention but I loved it. After the last girls had their pictures taken we went back to the van. Almost all of the shirts Haley had bought had been sold, so Tay, Aimee, Cassadee and her went with us to the van. There would be a barbecue later tonight after the festival had ended, which we would of course stay for.

“Thanks for helping out with the shirts” I told Tay, who was walking next to me.
I couldn’t keep on avoiding her. If I did, she would definitely know Haley couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
“Yeah no problem” she replied smiling. “Are you guys going to that barbecue later?”
“Hell yeah” I replied.
“Cool” she said, while I wondered how I was supposed to act with both Tay and Aimee around.

If Tay was indeed in love with me, I wouldn’t want to rub Aimee in her face as I’m not that cruel. On the other hand, Aimee and I had been getting along great and I didn’t want to ruin that either. I still felt like Aimee was way out of my league though… I found myself wishing I hadn’t overheard Haley. I felt like I was in love with Aimee, I had been for years, but now it seemed wrong knowing it would hurt Tay. But how close was I with her anyway? God, this wasn’t going to be easy.