Status: Finished, check out the sequel
How Many Times Can You Race Around the Tree Before You Catch Me?
Fault
With the little energy I had left, My leg swung to kick him. Instead of making impact with his side like I planned, my body was forced to the ground. A body landed on top of me. Bryce and I had been so involved in our fight that we didn’t notice the guys running towards us.
From that point on I was on auto pilot. There was shouting and they were running around us. Someone had gotten the first aid kit and started cleaning me up. Bryce was gone from my view but I imagine they were doing the same thing to him. Mikey looked like he was going to flip shit. It took him about half an hour before he calmed down enough to try and figure out what happened. He kept asking me questions, which I didn’t answer, while Nikki was cleaning the blood off of me.
“Why is this so fucking difficult?!” Mikey threw up his hands in frustration.
For the first time I reacted to something.
“You guys think it’s my fault that Jake is in the hospital?” Everyone froze.
Nikki was by my side almost immediately.
“Jax, We have no idea what happened in the last few weeks. I don’t know what Bryce said to you, but I promise you that it’s not your fault that Jake isn’t here.” I must have looked devastated. Everyone was upset around me.
“Let’s go get you cleaned up.” Nikki helped me inside and sat me on the couch.
Now I had a chance to look at the mess Bryce and I had created. Trash was strewn everywhere, worse than it was before. The blankets on the couch were on the floor around the other trash and I could see a cord that we probably ripped out of the wall on the floor. Bryce’s phone was in pieces next to the booth, his computer was sideways on the booth. I could see blood in small quantities on the couch and floor. We had done a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. My observations stopped when Mikey came and sat across from me.
“What the fuck happened? We were only gone for ten minutes.” He threw his hands up in exasperation.
“I confronted him about why he hates me…” They were all unresponsive when I waited for Mikey’s answer.
“He is just mad that you up and left,” He dropped his hands so his elbows were resting on his knees, “honestly we all were…” I shook my head.
“You know I had to leave…”
“I do, we do know that…. Look, now we have a bigger issue. You have two black eyes, a broken nose, bloody knuckles and god knows what else is wrong with you. Did you have to swing your dick like that?” I chuckled as his attempt to lighten the mood.
“You guys all know I had to. He got his ass kicked.” I winced when Nikki accidentally kicked into my side.
“Did he hit you on your side?” I gave him a single nod of my head as a yes. Nikki moved back to lift my shirt and his silence scared me.
“Is it bad?” I looked at him and his mouth was pressed into a tight line.
“Honestly?,” I rolled my eyes at him and he sighed, “I would go get an x ray…” I chuckled.
“You know we can’t, there’s not time for that….” Christian reminded everyone from the mess he had dove into instead of cleaning.
“Just clean me up and get me some makeup. That video chat is in like an hour.”
“You don’t have to… we can postpone…” I shook my head at James.
“No we can’t shit got real guys. I know I fought it but there’s no way to keep doing that. I agreed to do my best to try and help you and on the time frame we are in we don’t have time to keep fucking around,” Mikey seemed shocked by my change in heart,” Just help clean me up and the next off day we can bring me to a doctor.”
No one needed to be told twice in our current situation. Everyone helped clean the bus up, except Nikki while he helped clean me up and Mark who was probably taking care of Bryce. Nikki gave me his makeup and I tried to make myself look relatively normal. Not that any of the kids on the chat would be able to tell if something was wrong, between the awful quality of the video and the fact that I was a new oddity that they had never seen before I should be good. After I was done, Nikki helped me walk to the back lounge where a computer was set up on a make shift table with one of the guys iPads as well.
“Alright so this is what’s going to happen. We had kids submit questions via twitter, facebook, and even instagram using the hashtag ‘ask new flyer singer’ the iPad is set to follow every single one of those from every single site,” Mikey explained while handing me the small tablet,” try and take questions from both the collection and whatever you can get from the actual chat.” I nodded even though all of this is stuff I had set up in the past for them.
“If you need anything shoot me a text or yell. Bryce is out cold in his bunk though and we kinda wanna keep it that way.” I adverted my eyes, feeling a tad bit bad that I had knocked him out.
“You can go live when ever. Just send a tweet or something saying you’re live.” I nodded and he left with a small smile.
I honestly expected the worst when I started the chat. The kids did start bombarding me with questions, mostly about who I was, and I had to take a deep breathe before I started anything. My face appeared on the screen and it was time.
“Can you all hear and or see me?” I asked with the most confident voice I could muster. After reading the many yes responses I started my chat.
“So, Some of you may recognize me from a few of the interviews and old videos the guys posted. I know a lot of you want to know what happened and who I am still so I’ll start with those two questions. My name is Ajax. Like I said previously you may recognize me from things this band has already done as Jax their Tour Manager. That was my role with this band until now. Before that I was the original drummer. Now in regards to ‘what happened’, Jake had to go home due to illness and a personal emergency. He is being accompanied by Andrew. For the time being, which will probably be the remained of Warped tour, I will be taking over Vocal and bass guitar duties.” I saw the feed jump at that point, the kids had freaked out. Some of them were insinuating that I couldn’t possibly replace either of them, others were speculating about what ‘really’ happened to Andrew and Jake.
“I understand that in the ten years this band has been around Jake has been the sole vocalist and seeing someone else on stage will probably be weird or you may not think it’ll be good. I want everyone to know that I’m not here to replace or imitate him, he is very good at what he does and I’ll do my best to stick with that expectation. This is a very hard time in the Flyer camp, but we do ask for your continued support. Now just to show you I mean well, ask me anything. I’ll answer it if I see it. Just take it easy on me I’m usually not interacting with most of you.”
I spent the next hour answering lots of stupid, ridiculously insensitive personal questions just to keep the kids happy. More normal questions like what my expectations were for this tour or if I had sang before were definitely welcomed among the “are you a virgin” and “what’s your full name” odd ones.
“Alright guys that’s gonna have to be it. If you have any other questions feel free to send them to me at techiextm on both Twitter and Instagram. I really hope that you guys will come out to these shows. Thanks for hanging out and good night.”
I sighed and cut the feed before flopping back on to the couch. My phone started buzzing in my lap, it was all follower notifications.
“That was good. Did you know you were talking to fifty thousand people?” My eyes widened at Mikey.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he chuckled and sat next to me,” I know this is hard for you and this is new to you, but I just want you to know that the guys and I will do whatever we can to make it easier for you. If you need time on your own, if you wanna change a day off stop, if you wanna switch a song in the set, anything really. Just let us know.” I nodded.
“Thanks,” I sighed,”Right now I just have to go to sleep…” He nodded and stood.
“The bays you had before are cleared for you still. There’s hot pockets and water in the fridge still. Nikki wants to know if you want to go to a doctor tonight…” I sighed.
“I mean if my nose is broken it has to be set still….” His mouth set into a tight line.
“I can do that if you don’t want to go….” I winced at the pain I knew would be coming.
“That’s gonna hurt so fucking bad…” He nodded.
“It’s gonna be worse if they have to rebreak it….” I groaned and sat up so I was facing him.
“Just do it."
Mikey took a deep breath before quickly bringing his hands up and pushing in on both sides of my nose. I screamed bloody murder as the pain set in a subsided from the force of the break being fixed. My eyes watered heavily and my teeth grinded.
“Dear god that fucking hurt….” He chuckled.
“I know, now go to sleep. Take a walkie with you in the morning please…” I nodded before he left.
From that point on I was on auto pilot. There was shouting and they were running around us. Someone had gotten the first aid kit and started cleaning me up. Bryce was gone from my view but I imagine they were doing the same thing to him. Mikey looked like he was going to flip shit. It took him about half an hour before he calmed down enough to try and figure out what happened. He kept asking me questions, which I didn’t answer, while Nikki was cleaning the blood off of me.
“Why is this so fucking difficult?!” Mikey threw up his hands in frustration.
For the first time I reacted to something.
“You guys think it’s my fault that Jake is in the hospital?” Everyone froze.
Nikki was by my side almost immediately.
“Jax, We have no idea what happened in the last few weeks. I don’t know what Bryce said to you, but I promise you that it’s not your fault that Jake isn’t here.” I must have looked devastated. Everyone was upset around me.
“Let’s go get you cleaned up.” Nikki helped me inside and sat me on the couch.
Now I had a chance to look at the mess Bryce and I had created. Trash was strewn everywhere, worse than it was before. The blankets on the couch were on the floor around the other trash and I could see a cord that we probably ripped out of the wall on the floor. Bryce’s phone was in pieces next to the booth, his computer was sideways on the booth. I could see blood in small quantities on the couch and floor. We had done a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. My observations stopped when Mikey came and sat across from me.
“What the fuck happened? We were only gone for ten minutes.” He threw his hands up in exasperation.
“I confronted him about why he hates me…” They were all unresponsive when I waited for Mikey’s answer.
“He is just mad that you up and left,” He dropped his hands so his elbows were resting on his knees, “honestly we all were…” I shook my head.
“You know I had to leave…”
“I do, we do know that…. Look, now we have a bigger issue. You have two black eyes, a broken nose, bloody knuckles and god knows what else is wrong with you. Did you have to swing your dick like that?” I chuckled as his attempt to lighten the mood.
“You guys all know I had to. He got his ass kicked.” I winced when Nikki accidentally kicked into my side.
“Did he hit you on your side?” I gave him a single nod of my head as a yes. Nikki moved back to lift my shirt and his silence scared me.
“Is it bad?” I looked at him and his mouth was pressed into a tight line.
“Honestly?,” I rolled my eyes at him and he sighed, “I would go get an x ray…” I chuckled.
“You know we can’t, there’s not time for that….” Christian reminded everyone from the mess he had dove into instead of cleaning.
“Just clean me up and get me some makeup. That video chat is in like an hour.”
“You don’t have to… we can postpone…” I shook my head at James.
“No we can’t shit got real guys. I know I fought it but there’s no way to keep doing that. I agreed to do my best to try and help you and on the time frame we are in we don’t have time to keep fucking around,” Mikey seemed shocked by my change in heart,” Just help clean me up and the next off day we can bring me to a doctor.”
No one needed to be told twice in our current situation. Everyone helped clean the bus up, except Nikki while he helped clean me up and Mark who was probably taking care of Bryce. Nikki gave me his makeup and I tried to make myself look relatively normal. Not that any of the kids on the chat would be able to tell if something was wrong, between the awful quality of the video and the fact that I was a new oddity that they had never seen before I should be good. After I was done, Nikki helped me walk to the back lounge where a computer was set up on a make shift table with one of the guys iPads as well.
“Alright so this is what’s going to happen. We had kids submit questions via twitter, facebook, and even instagram using the hashtag ‘ask new flyer singer’ the iPad is set to follow every single one of those from every single site,” Mikey explained while handing me the small tablet,” try and take questions from both the collection and whatever you can get from the actual chat.” I nodded even though all of this is stuff I had set up in the past for them.
“If you need anything shoot me a text or yell. Bryce is out cold in his bunk though and we kinda wanna keep it that way.” I adverted my eyes, feeling a tad bit bad that I had knocked him out.
“You can go live when ever. Just send a tweet or something saying you’re live.” I nodded and he left with a small smile.
I honestly expected the worst when I started the chat. The kids did start bombarding me with questions, mostly about who I was, and I had to take a deep breathe before I started anything. My face appeared on the screen and it was time.
“Can you all hear and or see me?” I asked with the most confident voice I could muster. After reading the many yes responses I started my chat.
“So, Some of you may recognize me from a few of the interviews and old videos the guys posted. I know a lot of you want to know what happened and who I am still so I’ll start with those two questions. My name is Ajax. Like I said previously you may recognize me from things this band has already done as Jax their Tour Manager. That was my role with this band until now. Before that I was the original drummer. Now in regards to ‘what happened’, Jake had to go home due to illness and a personal emergency. He is being accompanied by Andrew. For the time being, which will probably be the remained of Warped tour, I will be taking over Vocal and bass guitar duties.” I saw the feed jump at that point, the kids had freaked out. Some of them were insinuating that I couldn’t possibly replace either of them, others were speculating about what ‘really’ happened to Andrew and Jake.
“I understand that in the ten years this band has been around Jake has been the sole vocalist and seeing someone else on stage will probably be weird or you may not think it’ll be good. I want everyone to know that I’m not here to replace or imitate him, he is very good at what he does and I’ll do my best to stick with that expectation. This is a very hard time in the Flyer camp, but we do ask for your continued support. Now just to show you I mean well, ask me anything. I’ll answer it if I see it. Just take it easy on me I’m usually not interacting with most of you.”
I spent the next hour answering lots of stupid, ridiculously insensitive personal questions just to keep the kids happy. More normal questions like what my expectations were for this tour or if I had sang before were definitely welcomed among the “are you a virgin” and “what’s your full name” odd ones.
“Alright guys that’s gonna have to be it. If you have any other questions feel free to send them to me at techiextm on both Twitter and Instagram. I really hope that you guys will come out to these shows. Thanks for hanging out and good night.”
I sighed and cut the feed before flopping back on to the couch. My phone started buzzing in my lap, it was all follower notifications.
“That was good. Did you know you were talking to fifty thousand people?” My eyes widened at Mikey.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he chuckled and sat next to me,” I know this is hard for you and this is new to you, but I just want you to know that the guys and I will do whatever we can to make it easier for you. If you need time on your own, if you wanna change a day off stop, if you wanna switch a song in the set, anything really. Just let us know.” I nodded.
“Thanks,” I sighed,”Right now I just have to go to sleep…” He nodded and stood.
“The bays you had before are cleared for you still. There’s hot pockets and water in the fridge still. Nikki wants to know if you want to go to a doctor tonight…” I sighed.
“I mean if my nose is broken it has to be set still….” His mouth set into a tight line.
“I can do that if you don’t want to go….” I winced at the pain I knew would be coming.
“That’s gonna hurt so fucking bad…” He nodded.
“It’s gonna be worse if they have to rebreak it….” I groaned and sat up so I was facing him.
“Just do it."
Mikey took a deep breath before quickly bringing his hands up and pushing in on both sides of my nose. I screamed bloody murder as the pain set in a subsided from the force of the break being fixed. My eyes watered heavily and my teeth grinded.
“Dear god that fucking hurt….” He chuckled.
“I know, now go to sleep. Take a walkie with you in the morning please…” I nodded before he left.