The Tick Tock of the Clock

“Anyway I don’t see what it matters to people.” Pete muttered the plane was in the air, I had his turned off cell phone along with mine. “People just need to but out of certain things in peoples lives. Like I mean I don’t mind, but when I’m chillin’ in an airport they don’t need to assume I’m dating the person next to me. No offense or anything.” He stated turning to me hand raised as he feared for his meeting with Cinderella. “Well it’s not that that bugs me truly, because I know the truth. But I hate when they can’t, I mean absolutely, can’t.” I looked down at my new found watch then back up at Pete. Ten. “Take a hint that I’m being sarcastic,” Nine. “Is it that hard to tell when I’m being sarcastic?” I shook my head, eight. “Seriously, people need to be more,” Seven. “Observant. I can understand them thinking that when I pulled you back,” Six. “Into you’re seat, but when they asked and I clearly said,” Five. “Oh yeah, half choked on the statement,” Four. I watched him with batted eyes like many others confused or interested in his ranting. I was watching for a whole different reason though. “Because I was being overly sarcastic,” Three. “Just right then, not to mention when I actually,” Two. “Finished the statement by going-” One. Pete stopped talking suddenly and I smiled as he slumped in his seat.

“I love Espresso.” I stated and glanced back at the started crowd. “He had too much coffee before he got on the plane. To much makes him pass out.” I stated they all nodded not really caring he was out cold and quite. That’s all that mattered to them. Leaning over him I put his hood up, pulled his Ipod out, turned it on and put the headphone in his ears. Sighing I nodded pulling the blind on the window down next to him.

Pulling my Ipod out I put the headphones in and turned it on myself while opening the large book I’d bought at the small little store just before we got on the plane. It was a good book so far. It was called Twilight. Had good reviews on it too and I guess in the biggest thing since Harry Potter. Pausing I looked at the book in my hands and shook my head I could’ve bought the Harry Potter book instead.

“I seriously need more time for myself.” I whispered realizing how far behind I was on the times and how little time I actually had to read that didn’t have to do with work. Relaxing back into my seat, I sighed lightly letting the words process in my brain as the music mixed with it in an odd jumble that soothed my throbbing head a bit.

“Please put you’re trays in the up right position, place your seat belts on. We’ll be landing in Phoenix in a matter of minutes.” The flight attendant muttered lightly. Turning I glanced at Pete still sleeping, tray up, seat-belt on. Glancing at my up tray and seat-belt I nodded going back to my book as I slowly pulled my headphone out of my ears. I had three more pages left.

“Good morning.” I muttered to Pete as he yawned sitting up while my eyes darted to my watch. Almost eight hours after he crashed, not bad. Stretching his arms up Pete let out another yawn as he turned to me.

“Didn’t you just buy that book?” I nodded lightly. “Where are we?” He asked pushing up the window blind. Hissing at the light he leaned back from it blinking to regain his eye sight.

“Just come into Phoenix.” I stated as he stuck his face in the window looking down at the large city as if he’d never seen it before in his life. “We’ll be landing in a few minutes.” I added in a hushed tone turning the page.

“You’re a fast reader.” He stated. Pausing I looked up as him debating if I should tell him it was my second time reading through it or not. I wasn’t quite in the mood to deal with his ranting about how I was crazy for reading so much in such a small time period.

“Thanks?” I asked lightly as he smiled at me. “Is that a complement or an insult?” I asked looking back at the book, processing the words before me.

“Border line or both. It’s complement because I couldn’t do it; it’s an insult because I don’t know why you’d want to do it. So take what ever end you want.” He snorted as the flight attendant began walking the isle to check the trays and seatbelts. Nodding I finished the book closing it as the plane began to slope downwards for it’s landing on the run way.

Tipping my head back I gripped the arms of the seat. This is the part I hated of flying, the going down part. All I could ever see was the plane crashing and people being decapitated by the metal body and other parts of the plane.

I froze as an arm draped over my shoulder and a hand gripped mine squeezing it. Looking at Pete he smiled at me. I’ve always been amazed he doesn’t make fun of me for my fear. He makes fun of Patrick when the plane takes off, that’s Trick’s fear the taking off that the plane isn’t running right and will come straight down, or they’re going to go up to straight up and come straight down and I don’t know why that doesn’t scare me, maybe for the fact that taking off seems easier than landing.

“It’s okay.” He whispered lightly in my ear leaning his head against mine.

“Shouldn’t you be making fun of me?” I choked out. Laughing lightly he shook his head at me, while giving me a tight squeeze around the shoulders.

“No, why would I do that? You hold my life in a small little black book and a red blackberry cell phone.” Rolling my eyes at him I pushed him a bit only to freeze and grip his shirt as the plane jerked, my eyes on the land escape outside the window. “We’re landing.”

“No where not.” I hissed. He turned looking out the window and hummed and the long stretching landscape we both could still see.

“Okay so we hit a cloud.” He snorted lightly hugging me tightly as I took in a deep breath and staring at the outside world as the plane jerked again. “Okay, I’m closing the window.” He stated pulling the blind down making me turn back in my seat and face forward. “You’ll be fine, I promise, if not… you can… totally kick my ass and beat me with in an inch of my life.” He stated nodding lightly, I licked my lips. “Hello, did you hear me.” I nodded quickly. “How come you didn’t do this on the other flight?” He asked, it was true I freaked out but the other flight didn’t go down at a thirty degree angle and jerk twice.

“It’s jerking Pete, how can you not be scared?” I hissed at him. He shrugged. “And the large one we went down at and much more even pace this is like.” I pointed my fingers at the floor. “Ninety-degree angle!” I gasped as he squeezed me tightly trying not to laugh at my over dramatic antics.

“Welcome to Phoenix.” I let out as held breath as the plane finally stopped on the tarmac.

“Okay so I agree. These pilots can’t land a plane.” Pete stated grabbing the bags. They had to pull the plane up quickly as one point to come in at the right angle on the tarmac, jerking the plane and making not only me almost cry but several others to scream and freak out as well. “You’re okay.” Pete muttered prying my hands off the nice arm wrests and pulling me up. “Come on, let’s go.” Nodding I held onto the back of his sweater as we left. If I was going down I was dragging him with me.

“Hey!!” The tiny blonde girl gasped holding her arms open to hug Pete as we exited the gate. “Pete I missed you.” She laughed as I let go of Pete. “Ella!” She paused. “Ella? Are you okay? Pete!” Crystal snapped spinning back to him. “What did you do?” She hissed.

“I didn’t do it, blame the dame pilots. They can’t land a plane right, scared the crap out of her. Scared me too, but I’m not already afraid of landing planes.” Crystal turned back to me hugging me tightly.

“Oh, sweetie come on lets go get your bags.” She stated taking my hand pulling me along as Pete carried my backpack. By the time we got to the luggage claim my nerves had settled. “Better?” Crystal laughed. Nodding I took my back from Pete, my hands still shaking though. “Good.” She smiled hugging me. “I don’t know if I could keep track of Pete once we go out of here if you weren’t you.” She giggled.

“I’m not that bad!” He let out a shrill scream and took off running tackling Crystal’s mom into a hug almost. “I love you!” He gasped as she managed to keep her self up right once he through himself into her.

“I love you too Peter.” She laughed. Shaking my head I grabbed Pete’s first bag coming around while they wandered over, Pete telling her how he’s been and what’s been going on.

“Pete, how many bags do you have?” Crystal asked at the nine at my feet. I still have to get two of my bags of the rotating belt. For some odd reason I couldn’t find the last hot pink piece of luggage I’d gotten for Travis of Gym Class Hero’s last Christmas. He thought the color brightened up my look, and looked fabulous at my side.

“Seven why?” she shrugged lightly as I licked my lips looking for them.

“Just wondering, you drama queen.” She giggled hugging him tightly. Rolling my eyes at them I stepped forward seeing the pink luggage slid down and onto the belt. “Why is it pink?” She asked as I grabbed it. “Oh my god.” She held Pete at arms length. “Are you gay?” she stated in all seriousness.

“It’s mine.” She spun to me with wide eyes as Pete glared at her clearly offended. “Travis bought it for me last Christmas.” I muttered setting it with the rest as the other one slid down and I stepped back up to get it.

“He makes me wonder sometimes.” Crystal muttered making me laughed as I grabbed the last one. “Okay, we can go now?” she asked clapping. Nodding I grabbed several of the bags with everyone else. “Now, this is how I see this all going down.” I looked at her. “Were going back to my place, once you get settled in, Both of you come down to the basement for the interview-”

“Why both?” I asked lightly. I normally never had to go down there unless I wanted to, and truthfully all I wanted to do was sleep. Jetlag was starting to kick my butt, so was hunger.

“Because, I’ve decided I want to interview you both. I want Pete because well, lets face it he is Pete Wentz.” She muttered as Pete gave a cheesy grin in my direction. “and Ella, you because you’re an amazing person and like the greatest assistant on the face of the earth. I don’t think Pete would be able to survive with out you.” She laughed as Pete glared.

“I could to, I just don’t want to.” He snapped, growling at Crystal as she patted him on the head as if saying ‘you go on thinking that’. Snapping at her wrist she gasped laughing at how childish he was being.

“He woke up not to long ago.” I stated to answer her unasked question of where the childish Pete came from. She normally saw Pete be nothing but professional, fun but professional and that’s how almost everyone saw him. “So he’s got loads of energy.”

“I’m stoked!” he gasped as we got to the car. “Totally.” He gasped in a valley girl type voice.

“And that’s always scared me.” I muttered lightly as Crystal’s mom laughed while Crystal simply nodded in agreement. “And always will.” I finished putting the last bag into the back of the mini-van. Pete simply stuck his tongue out me while we climbed in.

“Anyway, Like I was saying I think it’d be cool to see just how you live your day Ella. I’m pretty sure Pete doesn’t even know some of the things you do.” Crystal finished. “And no one ever interviews an assistant and I know you’ve got gossip on this guy.” She pointed as Pete sitting in the very back seat with me, while she sat in the seat in front of us, her mom driving.

“She’s got gossip on everyone. And what’s an Italian neck tie.” Crystal looked between us as Pete leaned forward I placed a finger to my lips. “She wants to give Gabe Saporta and Italian neck tie.” Crystal looked at me with my finger pressed to my lips. “Do you know?”

“Nope.” She stated smiling at him. “I bet it’s really fancy though.” She stated huffing Pete leaned back.

“I’ll Google it later.” He stated crossing his arms over his chest. Rolling my eyes I leaned back in the seat liking the feeling of car and people around me on the ground. The heat was something I could deal with out though, but me refusing to remove my sweater was another problem.

“Okay.” Crystal muttered hours later as we sat in her basement. “Pete, I know you’re going to the Honda Civic tour announcement tomorrow evening. Are you exited to know who it is already?” Crystal asked holding her mic out to him.

“Yeah, the band that’s playing is pretty awesome and good friends of mine.” He stated as I typed away on my laptop setting up the Ramen-Hide-N-Seek-Dance Challenge on the internet. I’d sent Emails to all the teams to let them know they’d now be able to check their progress but they were still going to have to check in with me, they could simply put in there points.

“Is it true that it’s Panic at the Disco?”

“It is, it is. Those guys were stoked to find out too. They were all happy and running around… well Brendon was running around. It was a fun day. It’ll be fun tomorrow night too.” He stated and glanced at me behind Crystal. “What are you doing?” Snapping I pointed at Crystal telling him to focus. “I wanna know. It probably involves me.” He gasped slightly insulted that I wasn’t telling him right away like I normally did.

“Focus on your interview. It’s probably almost over anyway.” I muttered. It was true. He’d been doing his interview for almost an hour.

“Fine.” He huffed. “So…” he smiled at Crystal laughing at us. “Don’t laugh at me, it’s not nice.” He shot at her, pushing her shoulder lightly.

“I’m sorry, it’s just funny to watch you guys work like when we got here after picking you up form the airport.” She laughed. “You guys fought over where the bags were going, and I know you just fought to piss her off too Pete.”

“I did.” He sighed at me. I could tell he was sticking his tongue out of me.

“Don’t make faces, it makes you look ugly.” I stated

“Oh my god, she didn’t even look at you!” Crystal gasped. Stopping I lifted my eyes looking at her. “That’s freaky.” She whispered as Pete nodded. “Okay Pete last few questions cause I totally wanna move on.” She giggled wiggling a bit. “Anything new coming up? Tours, projects? Anything fun fan can look for.” Pete paused brows narrowing.

“I don’t think so.”

“Charlie.” I stated he gasped clapping.

“Oh yeah! Okay so a bunch of bands have been split up into team of two with band members there’s… like seven or eight teams I think I don’t know. But it’s a giant scavenger hunt. We’ve been doing to for a while, but we’re no where near done. So we’re posting it online and fans can check into see which bands winning and what they’ve gotten on the check list. And there is like no way to cheat in this game because Ella,” I looked up as he pointed at me. “Ella’s running it. The teams have to have proof that they got it, if it’s a person like I got a girl named Charlie earlier today I gave Ella her number, a pictures of her Ella talked to her mom, like it was all official and legit and crap. So its gunna be fun. So fan’s feet one of those and they have a favorite band playing and they go to a show, you can go like if it’s my Team Peterick. Ella walked around outside out shows and she’s always with me, you just walk up to security guards and talk to them. We had a girl see Brendon and she wanted to tell Jon something right?” I nodded. “So she went to get Brendon so he could get Jon, but she missed him and found Zack, they’re bodyguard and totally got him to get Jon talked to him she filled something on the check list worth like… how much was she worth? I know I was swearing for days ‘cause it wasn’t fair.”

“Hundred-fifty.” I stated he groaned nodding. “I’m putting that stuff up now.”

“See.” Pete stated.

“Who are all the teams?” I heard a snap and looked back up at Crystal turning to be. “Ella, who are the teams?” I sighed.

“Pete and Patrick of Fall Out Boy, Jon and Spencer of Panic at the Disco, Ryan and Brendon of Panic at the Disco, Hayley and Josh of Paramore, Sisky Business and The Butcher of The Academy Is…, and then Gabe and Vicky T of Cobra Starship.” I stated.

“Wow.” Crystal muttered. “Well now that I’ve turned my back on Pete, I’m going to be moving on to interview Pete’s Assistant and Best Friend Isabella Phight, better known as Ella. Now Ella, how long have you been working for Pete?” She asked I paused.

“Two years.” I stated simply not really sure how to do and interview. Sure I’d seen Pete do enough but I’ve never been on the receiving end of the questions.

“What’s the weirdest thing you’ll have to do for Pete, ever?” I paused thinking about it, there were some weird things I’ve done.

“I plead the fifth.” I stated looking down as Pete burst into laughter while her brows knitted together confused. “I’ve done a lot, but the weirdest is probably yet to come.” I stated she nodded lightly.

“Have you had to do something for Pete that you never thought you’d ever have to do?” She asked I looked up from my keys as I typed slowly.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I’ve had to dress a half dead and half drunk Pete Wentz before.” Crystal looked back at Pete who shrugged.

“Like… everything?” she asked waving her hand over her body.

“Pants, shirt, shoes, socks, sweater, vest… yeah.”

“You didn’t change his underwear?” She asked I groaned.

“Ew, I will never change his underwear he’s a bit boy, completely wasted or not.” I stated as she burst into laughter.

“Do you ever feel like his babysitter?” She asked, she already knew this answer to this question.

“Yes.” I muttered she sighed.

“Come on Ella, open up a bit, I’ve heard you tell some stories on Pete before. Tell me some more.” I laughed lightly.

“Well,” Pete’s eyes went wide. “He’s stoked be going to Disney Land here real soon and meeting Cinderella because she’s his favorite princess.”

“Really?” Crystal gasped looking back at him.

“Hell Yeah!” Pete gasped. “I love that pretty, pretty princess.”

The interview went on and by nine Pm we were in the car heading to L.A. to get to the Honda Civic Tour announcement on time. Pete was in the back seat sleeping as I drove.