I Feel Fine

Garrett’s woken by the sound of voices trying their hardest to whisper, but failing quite terribly.

“Dude, what do we do? He’s still asleep!”

It’s Pat, or course, whose volume control can get a little sketchy sometimes. Nick’s voice chips in next, dry and sounding slightly amused, but much quieter.

“They’re both asleep. So much for looking after Garrett.”

“She can’t stay here in the bus when we’re on stage.”

“I know, Pat. We’ll just have to wake her.”

The next thing Garrett knows Pat’s long hair is tickling his face as he leans over to shake his shoulder. “Garrett? Yo, dude, you awake?”

He brushes Pat’s hair away moodily and groans. Someone – Nick – has ripped open the bus curtains and the strong sunshine is streaming through the window, splashing onto his face. He doesn’t have a headache any longer, but the sudden change in exposure makes him squeeze his eyes shut and bat the other boy away.

“Garrett? You still ill? Cos we’re playing in like, half an hour?”

“Not ill. Just tired.”

“Oh, cool. Then you need to get up,” Pat replies happily.

To the left of him Nick is hovering over Scout’s sleeping form. She’s curled up on the opposite couch, her right hand barely holding on to the book she fell asleep reading. He legs are drawn up under her, like a cat, and Nick’s not really sure as to how to go about waking her.

“Uhm, Miss-“ He doesn’t know her last name and frowns. “Miss Scout?”

Her eyes fly open. “Hmm? Yes?” She seems to register where she is and her eyes focus on Nick looking down at her. “Nick?”

“Hey,” he smiles. “Uhm, you fell asleep looking after Garrett,” he says, stating the obvious. “But it’s okay, because he seems to have made a miraculous recovery.”

Garrett swings his legs off the couch and sits up, giving Scout a jaunty little wave. Instantly her cheeks colour red and she looks mortified.

“I fell asleep? On duty? Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, don’t sweat it. I mean, I was asleep too. And I’m fine now, so whatever you did before worked.”

She drags a hand down her face. “That’s just so unprofessional of me!”

“Seriously Scout, it’s fine.”

“What am I gonna tell my supervisors?”

Garrett frowns. “Just don’t tell them?”

“But they’ll want to know where I’ve been!”

Nick is looking anxiously between the two of them and he clears his throat. “Err, as much as that might be a problem, umm Garrett - The Maine are performing in a couple of minutes. Do you think you’re up for it?”

“I don’t know, I mean, I feel okay?” He rolls his shoulders, as if that can tell him everything, and then glances at Scout. She widens her eyes.

“Oh! Oh, right. Umm, do you have a headache?”

He shakes his head.

“You don’t feel too cold or too hot?”

“No, but the air con is pretty freezing.”

Nick mutters ‘sorry’ and goes to switch it down.

“Uhm, well it’s not an exact science but to be honest if you’re able to sit here and have this conversation, you’re probably good to go. You just need to drink water through your set. Keep the strenuous activity to a minimum.”

Pat giggles. “Have you seen Garrett on stage?”

Scout looks confused and Garrett shrugs. “I jump around a lot. It’s a problem or whatever. I’ll try and keep it down today.”

“Okay. Well then I’d say you’re clear.”

Garrett watches as she starts to gather her things back into her bag and feels an uncomfortable feeling settling in his stomach, nothing to do with being ill. He feels like he owes her and he hasn’t had a chance to say how grateful he is yet, but he has to go play and he doesn’t know if he’ll get a chance to. Nick is clearly getting antsy, standing by the door of the bus, and Garrett gets up too.

“Hey Scout, you wanna come watch our set? We’ll give you side stage and that way you can make sure I’m drinking enough water?”

Her hands pause in stuffing the flannel back into the drawstring bag. ‘Uhmm, well technically I’m off duty now so… I don’t know.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, no, I understand—“

“—uhhm, but I’d love to see you play.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. See what my little sister’s been raving about huh?”

Garrett stuffs his hands in his jeans pockets and grins sheepishly at Scout, who tucks the strands of her brown hair currently falling out of her braid back behind her ear, and smiles awkwardly back.

Pat cheers, breaking their little moment. “Okay, yeah, the girl – sorry, Scout – is coming with us! Let’s go!”

He grabs Garrett by the wrist and drags him away and out of the bus, half running towards the stage. He manages to twist around before he leaves Scout totally behind and sees her emerging from the bus with Nick by her side. “I’ll see you after, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she calls back, and that’s all he gets before Pat is speed walking him to the stage, where John, Ken and Jared are already forming a circle, waiting.

“Dude, I thought you were gonna pull out,” John says, punching him lightly in the shoulder when he arrives.

“Way to be last minute Nickelsen,” Kennedy chips in, but he’s smiling so Garrett knows he isn’t mad, thankfully. Jared just gives him a solid nod.

“I’m glad you’re okay though,” John adds, “We would’ve sucked ass without you. You ready?”

He checks over his shoulder to see if Nick and Scout have arrived yet, but there’s no one, so he nods. He wanted to show her the best vantage point, get her something to drink before they went on, but she hasn’t arrived yet. “Yeah, let’s rock this.”

John grins and lifts his beer into the air. “We’re The Maine and what do we fucking like to do?”

“To party!” Jared yells back.

“Fucking right!”

This is everyone’s queue to dissolve into the ‘We like to party!’ chant and Kennedy knocks into his shoulder, smiling and singing, and Garrett yells along with the rest of them. His bones kind of ache after his fever and he’s so conscious of how hot it’s going to be onstage, but he squashes it back down. He grabs his bass from where it’s waiting for him, propped up in its case behind some cases, and follows the guys on stage. There’s a good amount of noise to accompany them today, they’ve managed to draw quite a significant crowd, which is awesome. John gives a little wave and they react, howling out greetings and cheers and John glances over his shoulder, nods at Pat, and that’s the sign to dive right into ‘Run’. His fingers pick out the familiar bass line and fly with it. The urge to throw his body around thrums through his limbs, but a quick glance to the left shows Scout, stood behind one of the amps just offstage, watching him carefully. She’s tapping her foot to the beat, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth – and her remembers his promise, so he keeps his own body still. John seems to realise his reluctance and compensates, coming over during the instrumental and messing up his hair, laughing, dancing in front of him. Garrett rolls his eyes and keeps on playing.

After a couple of songs they stop for a breather and Garrett swipes at a bottle of water given to him by one of the stage managers, gulping down mouthfuls. John turns towards the crowd.

“It’s great to be here Houston!” There’s some cheering and John smiles and waits for it to die down. “Are you having a good time?” More yelling. “Are you enjoying the sun?” More yelling and some whistling. “Are you drinking enough fucking water?” Garrett hears the crowd laughing.

“No, don’t laugh, friends. This is not a fucking laughing matter. My friend Garrett here was on death’s door this morning because was an idiot and he didn’t drink enough water. Ain’t that right Garrett?”

He can feel the whole crowd looking at him and he shakes his head, leaning towards the microphone nearest him. “Drink your freaking water kids. Otherwise you get a fever like a nasty acid trip.”

There’s some laughter again, including John. “There you have it. Drink you water, wear sunscreen, stay in school, don’t do hard drugs, do some fucking yoga if you want, whatever. This one’s called 'Into Your Arms'. Sing along if you know the words, yeah?”

They slam into the opening, and Garrett swings around to see Scout laughing from side-stage. He catches her eye and manages to smile in time and she gives a little shake of her head and continues to move to the music, little swings of her hips. She’s singing along too, and Garrett makes a note to tease her about it later.

He dances his way over to Pat for a bit, watching him play and then back to the microphone for the chorus. They hardly have to sing to be honest, the crowd is drowning them out and they finish with a flourish of guitars. John flicks his pick into the audience and says a quick thanks and they file off, the crowd still screaming. Garrett feels the familiar after show buzz – his bones don’t feel so heavy, he doesn’t feel so tired. The heat isn’t bothering him so much.

“Alright Nickelsen, nice set! Good crowd.” Nick slaps him on the back almost as soon as he gets offstage.

“Pretty tight, huh?”

“Tight-ass,” Nick laughs back. His bass gets taken off him by one of their crew and Garrett thanks them and when he turns back Nick’s eyebrows are raised, a knowing smirk stretching his lips. “Your girl seemed to like it too.”

“Oh? Umm, great.”

Nick nudges him towards Scout, who is hovering on the edge of the group, her arms crossed, hugging her middle. She looks unsure of whether she should approach or not. Garrett walks over.

“Alright, I’m afraid to ask, but did you like it?”

“It was alright,” she replies coyly, offering him a small smile.

“Just alright?” He tries to sound offended, but underneath he’s kind of anxious. What if she’s not playing with him?

“Oh you know, don’t wanna add to your rockstar ego, do I?”

“Ha ha.”

There’s a pause and Scout looks like she wants to laugh. Garrett sighs and gives in. “No, seriously what did you think?”

“You were really good. Your songs have good rhythm and lyrics and cool guitar, and yeah, I liked it. You happy now?”

“Very. I saw you singing along, by the way. You couldn’t have kept lying anyway, you’re a total fan,” he teases, poking her in the shoulder. She slaps his hand away and chuckles.

“Ooh, you caught me. Guess I absorbed more of my sister’s music taste than I thought.”

Garrett’s just about to answer when John shouting his name interrupts him. The rest of the guys are huddled together, looking ready to head back to the tent for the signing.

“Earth to Garrett! You coming?”

“Yeah, just give me a second,” he yells over his shoulder, ignoring Nick’s chuckling.

“You gotta go?” Scout asks.

“Yeah. Umm, listen it feels weird to say bye to you now and just that be it. Like, you saved our set today and I haven’t said thanks properly yet and….”

“And?”

“We’re probably gonna have a party by the bus tonight, we usually do, and I understand if you don’t wanna wait for that long, or if you wanna go home, but like, you’re welcome to come. Probably around nine?”

She places hand on his arm, smiling. “Garrett, relax. I’ll be there.”

“You will?”

“Yeah. I kinda don’t want this day to end either. It’s been interesting.”

Her hand stays on his arm and Garrett finds himself just smiling at her. The plain lilac tank she’s wearing, her hazel eyes. She’s very pretty. Like, not just hot, but soft and bright and… fuck if he knows what he’s trying to say, but he didn’t really appreciate how attractive she was when he was thrashing around in his bunk, convinced he was dying.

He realises the silence is just about to become awkward. “Great, so I’ll see you there?”

“I’ll see you there, Garrett.”

She slips past him and is about to dodge the group of guys too, before John says anything to her probably, when Nick stops her. Garrett watches as he hands her a piece of paper, and the blush that colours her face in answer. She says something quickly back and stuffs the piece of paper in her pocket and walks away, glancing over her shoulder. He gives her a little wave and hopes she caught it, before cornering Nick.

They’re walking back to the merchandise tent, and Nick is humming under his breath, the War On Drugs album he’d shown him at the beginning of summer.

“Yo, dude, what was that?”

“What was what?”

“What did you give Scout?”

Nick smirks and takes his sunglasses from where they’ve been hanging in the vee of his shirt and slips them on to his head, grinning like the Cheshire cat in raybans.

“Your number of course. You sure as hell can’t be trusted with these kinds of things. You’re welcome, bro.”

Nick saunters off to the head of the group, chatting to Halvo, before Garrett can splutter out a reply, and Pat falls into step beside him.

“Hey Garrett? I like Scout,” he says simply.

Garrett pulls his phone out from his back pocket and unlocks the screen. There’s no message, and it could be that Nick was lying – but he doesn’t think so. If it were John it’d be highly probably that he gave his own number instead, but Nick’s not so crafty. The blank screen seems to tease him and he realises he really, really wants Scout to text him, even just to make sure she’ll be there that evening. He kind of misses her already.

“Yeah, Pat, me too,” he answers.