A Few of My Famous Friends

Since we were gonna be at Denver for two days, Hayley insisted we rent some of the movies I was in. The guys from Paramore and Fall Out Boy wanted to see the movies too. They went in their respective buses with one movie per band and agreed to switch two hours later.

I did not want to be a part of it, so I sat next tour a tour bus, soaking up rays. Hey, it was April and it was cold. I was listening to some of the early Beatles stuff when a shadow engulfed me. I looked up and saw Brendon standing in front of me. I involuntarily stiffened.

"Hi Kate." He said tensely, rubbing his arm. "Th-thanks for the water and Advil. It really helped my massive hangover."

I smiled and it wasn't forced. "No problem." I patted the space next to me, motioning him to sit down.

He did, and said, "So, I was pretty much the world's biggest douche on my birthday, wasn't I?"

"How do you even remember what happened last night?" I asked, astounded. He had seemed super drunk and I knew from experience when people are super drunk, they hardly remember anything.

"Ryan filled me in," he said sheepishly. "When he was done, he looked ready to kill me."

I nodded solemnly. "You really pissed some people off."

"I know and I'm so sorry. Like I said before, I'm such a douche."

I took his hand in mine. "Brendon, it was your twenty first birthday. American culture has made it acceptable to get drunk to near death and run rampant. I know people who did things similar to what you did, but they were in full control of their mind. And furthermore, they never apologized. But if it makes you feel better, I accept your apology. And I already forgave you." I stood up and brushed myself off. I offered a hand to Brendon to pull him up.

He took it and hoisted himself to his feet.

"Urgh, you're so fat," I teased him. He pouted and I kissed his cheek. "Friends?"

"Best friends," he agreed, smiling. We hugged and he put his arm over my shoulder.

"Now that's the Brendon I know and love," I said, wrapping an arm around his waist.

When we walked onto Panic's tour bus, Ryan, Jon and Spencer exchanged glances. I saw them and separated myself from Brendon. "Now you three and who ever else is pissy at Brendon can forget about it right now." I said, putting my hands on my hips. "He apologized to me, and I accepted his apology and forgave him. I'm the only one he did something to. He was drunk, it wasn't his fault. Spencer, your day will come, Ryan, I know stories about you that would make Keltie's hair curl and Jon, shut up, you don't get drunk. So forget about it and move on."

There was a slightly awkward silence until Brendon broke it with a question.

"Who wants to play poker?"

Everyone laughed and all was forgiven and forgotten.

"I'm in."

"Me too."

"Same."

Theboysmen all looked at me.

"No way. You three are from Vegas, enough said. And I know Jon's way better than me," I declined.

"Aw, Kate, we won't play for money," Spencer pleaded.

I shook my head, "Nope. I'll end up enslaved to one of you somehow."

They continued to beg me to play until I walked out of the bus. I realized I had left my iPod in the bus when I came in and now had to make a choice: Paramore's bus or Fall Out Boy's.

I chose the lesser of two evils and entered Fall Out Boy's bus. They were just starting the second movie, and luckily it was the one where I had a very minor part.

"What's up my boys?"

My greetings were met by a chorus of shushes.

"Fine, be that way," I grumbled, sitting on JoeTroh's lap and laying down so my feet were on Andy's legs and my head was on Pete's.

"Hello my secret lover. I said, smiling at Pete. I reached above my head where Patrick was holding the popcorn and grabbed a handful.

"Hey secret lover of mine," Pete replied, getting some popcorn for himself.

The movie was good, except for the parts with me in them. I hated watching myself act. I kept going over in my head what I could've done better.

Nothing remotely interesting happened over the next week or so, except for one show in Seattle.

The concert had gone well, and everyone was packing things up and bringing the stuff to the trailers when suddenly clouds rolled in and in about five seconds rain was pouring down on us. I got soaked within another five seconds, and I couldn't just run for cover in the tour bus like my brother and his band were doing. I had to help put things away safely.

Fifteen minutes later, we were finished and driving away to Portland. I was soaking wet while Jon, Ryan, Spencer and Brendon were only mildly wet. I wrapped myself in a blanket and was still cold.

Jon looked at me wrapped in a blanket and shivering and rolled his eyes. "Kate. Go take a shower for God's sake."

"B-but I'm too c-cold." I stuttered through chattering teeth.

"That's why you need to take a nice warm shower to warm yourself up," Jon said, trying to coax me to get up.

I shook my head and burrowed deeper into the blanket.

Jon rolled his eyes yet again and glanced at Ryan. Ryan nodded and stood up.

Uh oh. I don't like where this is going.

Ryan pulled me up and slung me over his shoulder. I was surprised he could carry me because he looked like a twig.

I was let down (not very gently I might add) inside the bathroom. I pushed Ryan out and shut the door. Now that I was here, I might as well take a shower. A warm shower did sound nice right now.

After showering for a half an hour, I walked out of the bathroom with just a towel on to get some dry clothes. Never will I do that again.

"Don't shower yet guys, I need to use the bathroom to change." I warned, getting pajamas out of my stuff. I walked back into the bathroom and changed. As I came out, Ryan went quickly in. I raised my eyebrows and glanced at Jon, Spencer and Brendon. I started laughing.

"What?" Spencer asked, a questioning look on his face.

"Nothing," I said, about to get into Ryan's bunk and, at the last second, changed my mind and got intomine Brendon's.

My audition was a couple days later. After the Reno show, we drove straight to Las Vegas so Spencer, Brendon and Ryan could meet up with their parents and/or girlfriends. Actually, Spencer was probably the only one meeting up with his girlfriend because Brendon didn't have one and Keltie was in New York City. But I only knew that because she texted Ryan to tell him and Ryan was sad.

I was extremely nervous as I drove down to L.A., but managed to put on a brave face as I walked into the casting agency.

"Hello, I'm Katherine Walker and I'm here to audition for The Two Princess of Bamarre." I said to the secretary, smiling slightly.

"Ah, yes," the peroxide blonde woman said, clicking a couple times on her computer. "You can go right in."

I walked over to the other room, pulling out the script my agent got me. I had gone over it several times by myself and with a few trusted friends on tour, like Jon and Hayley.

"Hello, I'm Margaret O'Hara, the casting director. We're going to have you read from scene 17, halfway down the page. I'll be Rhys."

I nodded once to show I understood and then crouched down and mimed clearing away dead leaves. I pressed my hand against the floor and sat on my heels. "Stand here." Margaret stepped there. "Now step away." She did. "You're. . ." I even made my voice crack. I'd been working on that. "You're a specter too. You should have known better than to trick me twice."

I reached up and acted as if to take a sack something from Margaret. I held on to my 'sack' tightly and acted as if I was taking off my shoes. "So tell me what you know, creature. How fares my sister truly?" I shouted the last question.

"Princess Addie, I'm no specter," Margaret said, falling to her knees and clasping her hands. "What test did I fail?"

I opened my 'sack' and put the 'shoes' I took off in them. I acted out seizing other shoes and pulling them out.

"You know the test, and so do I. Now you must answer my question." I pulled a 'boot' on my right foot, pulled it off and put it on the other. "Answer me, I command you."

"If I don't answer you, doesn't that prove I'm no specter?"

I sat still for a moment and then shook my head. "You proved what you are when you couldn't leave a footprint."

Margaret laughed and said, "That's the trouble? I can leave a footprint, nothing easier." She stepped back into the space I 'cleared', and then stepped away.

"They're the boots, not you. You're a sorcerer. You can do anything. I mean you're a specter, and you can do anything." I protested.

Margaret sat back down and pretended to unlace her boots. "Sorcerer's feet are very ugly, very bony. I would have saved you the sight." She then acted as if pulling off her socks.

She stepped into the 'cleared area' for the third time. I smiled a relieved smile at her. "But why didn't you leave footprints at first?"

We continued the dialogue for a bit, and then Margaret stopped. "Alright Katherine, that's it. We'll call you if you get the part." Those words might've sounded like just another rejection if not for her smile.

I got into Brendon's car that I had borrowed for the day and drove to a hotel, seeing as it was about 6 PM and the traffic around LA sucks. I would come back at around midnight, and I didn't want to deal with that.

I called Brendon's cell phone to let him know what I was doing. "Hey, Brendon, is it okay if I keep your car for another day? I'll be back at Vegas like around two or three PM tomorrow."

"Why are you asking me? You're just going to stay there until tomorrow anyways."

Smart boy. "Well, tell Jon I'll be back tomorrow. And tell Spencer I fully expect to meet his girlfriend then."

"Ok," He moved the phone what sounded like two inches farther away from his mouth and shouted "JON! Kate's gonna be back tomorrow 'round three! And Spence, she wants to meet Haley!"

"God, Brendon, tell them after I hang up." I said, switching ears because I was sure my right ear was deaf. "Oh, I'm at the hotel, talk to you later." I flipped the phone shut, parked in a parking garage and entered the hotel. I managed to get a room for the night and drifted off to peaceful sleep.

"Ugh, traffic sucks," I announced, walking into Brendon's apartment. "So do gas prices. Speaking of which," I said, tossing Brendon's keys at him. Unfortunately (for him, it was quite amusing for me) he didn't react quickly enough and was hit in the face. "I filled your tank. Cost me fifty bucks. Now where's this Haley I've heard so much about?"

"She and Spencer are still at their apartment." Ryan said from Brendon's couch, looking a bit depressed.

"Hey, cheer up Georgie-poo," I said, sitting next to him on the couch. "You'll see her soon. Plus, she texts you a bajillion times a day."

"First," Ryan said shortly, "don't call me Georgie-poo. And second, bajillion?"

"Hey, I don't know big words like 'formaldehyde', 'nitroglycerin' or 'surreptitious'. Neither does Brendon," I protested.

"Hey! I resent that!" Brendon's voice sounded from the kitchen.

"Then what does 'surreptitious' mean?" I asked him.

There was a pause and then, "Your mom!"

"Nice one Urie. That definitely proved your intelligence level greatly exceeds the normal homo sapiens'!" Ryan retorted

"Oh he just got burnnnned!" I said, high fiving Ryan. The good thing about the 'flame Brendon' session was that it got Ryan's mind off of Keltie.

A couple hours later, around 5:30, Spencer finally showed up.

"Spencer! What took you so long? I missed you!" I said to him when he entered. "Did you plan to come back around dinner time? Where's Haley?"

"God Kate, do you ever shut up?" Brendon asked.

I stuck my tongue out at him and returned my attention to Spencer.

"Um, I visited my parents, not really, it just turned out that way, and right here."

I then noticed a pretty brunette girl next to Spencer. "Oh. Well that makes me feel stupid. I'm Kate as you might have guessed. Hi." The last two sentences were directed at Haley.

"Hi. I'm Haley. Although you seem to already know that." She said, smiling.

"Yup. Spencer talks about you a lot and with the most glowing praise.

"She raised her eyebrows and shot a glance at Spencer. "Oh really? What has he said about me?"

"He says that you're the most beautiful thing on Earth, you're awfully funny and tremendously nice. I don't know about the last two since I just met you, but you are beautiful, and knowing Spencer, you're funny and nice too." I said smiling. Suddenly there was a crash from the kitchen and I heard Brendon shout "God damn!"

"Now if you'll excuse me, Brendon calls," I said, walking to the kitchen and shouting "What did I tell you Brendon? Leave the cooking to the Walkers!" I heard Haley giggle and say "I like her." I smirked to myself.

"What are you smirking about?" Ryan asked me as I started to clean up the mess Brendon had made while trying to make dinner. Keyword being trying.

"Spence is getting laid tonight." I replied in a low voice, picking up the large pan that made the crashing noise.

Ryan laughed. "Does this have anything to do with you telling Haley that Spencer's been talking about her using sweet adjectives and pretty adverbs?"

I nodded. "Yup. The best part is, I'm not lying. Spencer does say stuff like that about Haley. He just can't tell her himself or he'd look extremely conceited."

"What's in it for you?"

"He didn't ask me too, so he's going to be extremely grateful."

"Nice move. Will you do the same thing for me and Keltie?"

"Ah-ah Mr. Ross," I said, wagging my finger at him. "I would've done it if you hadn't asked, but now that you did, I won't."

Ryan's smile was replaced with a disappointed look. "Damn."

"Well maybe I will. It depends," I caved.

"On what?"

"I don't know, I just felt like saying that. Now leave me, I have work to do."

I made dinner and after, when we were putting away the dishes in the dishwasher, Haley came up to me and said, "Wow Kate, you're such a good cook."

"Thanks," I replied, smiling.

We then made our way over to Brendon's couch to watch TV.

"Uh guys?" I asked surveying the smallish couch. "I don't think this will work."

Brendon obviously had this problem before because Jon and Spencer pulled two armchairs over to the couch. Jon took one and Spencer took the other one with Haley on his lap.

Ryan and Brendon had already claimed the couch so I stole the remote from Brendon, sat on his lap, and leaned so that my head was on Ryan's shoulder. "Ah, my two favorite boys," I said, sighing in contentment.

We were halfway through That 70's Show, (I had the remote, I got to choose. ha ha!) when Haley spoke up during a commercial break.

"So, is Kate dating Brendon?"

I laughed, "No, we're just really good friends."

"Oh, okay. How'd you two meet?"

I sat up straight and glared at Jon. "You never told her?"

He shrugged, "It never came up."

"I'm Jon's sister. He introduced me to his band and we all became friends."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Jon was spared from my tirade by That 70's Show coming back on. I did whack him in the chest later, though.

Spencer and Haley decided to leave a little while later. I walked them to the door. "Hey Haley, what's your number?" I asked, making a new contact in my phone's address book.

She gave it to me and I gave her mine. "Are you coming to the concert tomorrow?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Cool. Maybe I'll see you there. If not, you can come by the merch tent and I'll be there. It's my punishment for sneaking on tour."

She laughed. "Okay. See you there." She left with Spencer.

A few minutes later, Ryan decided to leave and since Jon and I were staying at his house, we said goodbye to Brendon too and left.