American Candy

Nirvana was in trouble. She knew the second that she left Ross’ hotel room that everything would go downhill from here on out. She didn’t make the right decisions, and it was already biting her in the ass. She let her emotions get the best of her. She knew better than to do what she did, but it was like she couldn’t stop. Ross wasn’t the bad guy. Sure, half of it was his fault, but Nirvana was woman enough to admit that it was on her. She did it.

Being around X was beginning to get harder. She tried to be a friend to the pink-haired girl, but was finding it difficult. The more time Nirvana spent with Ross, and the more time X spent with George, the weirder she felt. Nirvana hadn’t felt this way before. She could mess with boys and care less, but a relationship with one of her best friends meant something entirely different. X, Lark, and well sometimes Maize, meant the world to the girl. She had no one besides the three girls and sometimes her parents. She needed them.

While Nirvana felt this indescribable feeling, Ross felt sick to his stomach. The guilt was eating him alive. He couldn’t look at either of the girls without wanting to hurl. They had been all avoiding each other for the past month, and it was getting a little ridiculous. However, Nirvana and Ross tended to sneak away for a few hours every other night. They found comfort in each other’s presence. It was easier than being alone.

Matty tried his best to avoid Maize, as the girl was getting clingier and clingier. She wanted to be next to him all of the time. He couldn’t handle it anymore. The first month he thought that it was cute. Now? No, now it’s driving him mad. Even Lark or X couldn’t distract him from her. Lark had not caught on, but she was in her own little world now more than ever. He tried not to think too much of it when he saw that she was spending more time with Adam. Which, again, left him with Maize the majority of the time.

He wanted to spend time with Nirvana, but once she caught on that Maize and Matty definitely were a thing, she backed off. This had more to do with X, Ross and George than anything, but Matty didn’t know that. He only knew that the raven-haired girl no longer would crawl into bed with him. It was a shame, seeing as he really liked her. Then again, Matty liked all of them.

George and X hatched a plan to get Nirvana more interested in him. It seemed like it was working, as the girl showed just how jealous she was. It as working for a while until all of the sudden, Nirvana backed off. She wasn’t pressing for more time with George, and she said that she wanted to be alone. George bought it, hook, line and sinker while X knew better. She knew that Nirvana felt guilt, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. X just didn’t exactly know what guilt she was feeling.

Lark continued making calls to Beau, and Adam still didn’t know who Beau was. Something inside of him told him that it was nothing good. Well, not that Beau wasn’t good, but it wasn’t good that Lark kept him private. Adam was beyond positive that Matty had no idea that Lark loved this mysterious guy with the odd name. Every time that Adam would get the courage to ask Lark about the boy, someone was there to interrupt. Usually it was Matty and Maize.

Maize was having a difficult time accepting that Matty didn’t really love her yet. The young girl was convinced that he would, eventually. It might take them all tour, but she was confident that he would fall in love with her. There was a lot that the clingy drummer simply did not know about Matthew Healy. She tried her best, but he put a wall up and it was not coming down anytime soon. She felt lost and a bit hurt. Adam tried his best to be there for her, but it was still hard to catch the guys. She missed her best friends.

Adam was torn. He kept trying to keep up with the weird tangled web that Matty created, and the one that George and Ross were embarking on. Adam Hann was observant, but he wasn’t a detective. Keeping Maize away from Matty and Lark was just as hard as keeping Lark away from Maize and Matty. He was trying himself not to get too caught up in it, because he had a life. He had more important things to do than be involved with high school aged girls and their boy drama.

“No, love.” Matty sighed for the thousandth time at one of Maize’s questions. “Please, just leave it, okay?”

“We haven’t been out in a month, Matt.”

Adam snorted because Matty absolutely loathed when anyone except George called him that. The lovers, however, ignored him.

“And we’re not bloody going to if you keep busting my balls!” He nearly yelled, lighting up a cigarette in his very Matty fashion. “I don’t want to go okay,”

“Why not?” Maize finally raised her voice. “Damn, it’s like you’re ashamed of me.” She said as tears gathered in her eyes.

Adam felt bad as the auburn haired girl got up and left the back of The 1975’s bus. He didn’t say anything until the bus door slammed shut.

“Matty, what the hell, mate?”

“I can’t, okay? I just...can’t handle it,” He stated. “I can’t handle her codependency, or her constant begging. She’s a fool, Hann.”

“She just like you, okay?” He sighed. “It’s your fault in the first place.”

“I know that,” He stated, taking a long drag of his cigarette. “I’m the character of my own demise, etcetera, etcetera.”

“I don’t get it,” Adam stated. “You have Maize, you have Nirvana and you bloody even have Lark.”

“Hann, get your head out of your arse, mate. I have no one.”

“No, you will have no one if you keep doing this, mate.” Adam felt exhausted already. “I’m bloody sick of trying to keep all of it fucking straight.”

“Somebody has to,” He replied with a lazy smirk.

Adam rolled his eyes before he walked swiftly off of the bus. He jumped off, and found that Maize was still around the corner. She didn’t say anything to him and he motioned for the girl to follow him. Everyone expects Ross to keep the peace, but since his head was somewhere else, it was moved to Hann. This was a responsibility that Adam wasn’t enjoying.

“I’m fine, really,” Maize huffed. “He’s just an ass.”

“You don’t have to tell me that, love,” Adam laughed. “Why are you crying?”

“You’re kidding me right?”

“You can’t blame me for asking, right?” He shrugged. “What do you want to do? I’m all yours today,”

“I dunno,” She shrugged. “You like video games, right?”
Adam laughed.

“Yes, a lot.” He replied. “Want to do that?”

“Yes.” Maize affirmed. “C’mon, we have a sick set-up on our bus.”

“Okay,” He smiled, following the girl who was now in a better mood. It wasn’t the best, but at least she was tolerable. That made all of the difference.



“Do you know why they are avoiding us?” George finally bucked up and questioned X. “I mean...it’s like all of the sudden, they want nothing to do with us.”

“I’m not too sure, G.” X shrugged. “Nirvana won’t even look at me. I’ve never seen her be so...weird about it before. Then again, what do I know?”

“We’re going in bloody circles.” George stated, tugging on his hair. “Fuck it, lets just do it,”

X rolled her eyes.

“Sex isn’t always the answer, G.”

“But it makes me feel better,” The man pouted. His deep voice contradicted grately with his facial expression. “C’mon, love.”

“George,” X warned. “No, not the face,”

“Please?” He pouted, slowly getting onto his knees. “I promise to make it worth your time,”
The girl blushed.

“That’s not the point. I just-”

“Fucking great,” Nirvana bit as she walked onto the bus. “This is exactly what I needed.”

George got off of the ground as quick as he could and X avoided eye contact. Regardless if Nirvana liked George or not, she felt dirty even thinking about being with George. Ross was right behind her, looking almost the same as X. They were all a little embarrassed. The tall male walked toward the dark-haired girl as she ravaged through her bunk for something. X didn’t catch the conversation and she would rather not be there when things started to happen. She almost backed out of the bus when she decided that she’d rather intervene if she needed to. She wanted to make sure no one was going to die. Ross heard Nirvana say something harsh to George and X stepped in. The three were almost yelling when they all stopped all of the sudden.Through his curiosity, Ross walked to where the three were standing.

The four stopped and just stared. Because of how loud the TV happened to be, and the Theme of the game playing over and over again on the XBox, Adam and Maize didn’t hear the others. Ross, X, George and Nirvana all stared wide-eyed as they watched Maize remove Adam’s shirt, and Adam press hot kisses to the drummer’s neck. They couldn’t look away, even as the guitarist moved south with his mouth. Maize’s shirt had already been off before the quartet saw the pair, and when Adam pressed his mouth to her navel, they decided to back up.

None of them spoke as they walked off of the bus. George was a little shocked, and Ross couldn’t believe his eyes. X felt sick, as she was sure that Maize was in love with Matty, and Nirvana wouldn’t stop smirking. Nirvana didn’t think that Maize had it in her to be devious. The quiet consumed them, and they didn’t know what to do with themselves. No one even dared to say anything, but George made the first move. Both Nirvana, X and Ross expected the tall male drummer to wink at Nirvana or say some joke. They expected George to suggest he take Nirvana and “talk”, but that didn’t happen. No, George walked over toward X and grabbed her hand. He started walking, making the girl walk with him. He didn’t look back and he didn’t say anything. George as done with the raven-haired girl.

Nirvana’s mouth hung open. When the pair had yelled at each other, she didn’t expect George to actually be done. He had called her out about sleeping with other me, Ross, but she didn’t know he would leave without her. She was sure that he was smitten. Nirvana as almost positive that Ross was hung up on her.

But George left with X, making the statement that he was over it. Ross just stared as the bass player tried her best to keep up with the 6’5” tall drummer. He couldn’t take his eyes of as she leaned over and wrapped her hand around his elbow. He watched as George turned his hand around and laced his fingers between X’s. Ross couldn’t look away, well that was until Nirvana made a sound.

“Don’t you dare say a word,” She spoke softly, turning around and making her away to anywhere but standing right there.

She didn’t walk away quick enough for Ross not to see the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes. Ross learned two very important lessons within the last ten minutes. He learned that one; Maize and Adam were going to regret their decision, two; He had probably, officially, lost X to George and three; Nirvana felt something deeply for the drummer that she couldn’t admit out loud.



“Nirvana, please talk to me,” X begged, knocking on the outside of the ladies bathroom. The lead guitarist had locked herself in the bathroom when she saw X coming. X knew that Nirvana had issues with anxiety, but she didn’t know that she would ever be the cause of it. “Please….say anything…”

“Fuck you!” Nirvana yelled out-loud.

“Come on, Ni…” X sighed, leaning her entire body on the door. “Please don’t stay mad at me. I….I’m sorry,”

Nirvana looked at herself in the mirror. The girl looking back at her reminded her of the girl that she was before she went to rehab. She was reminded of how fragile she was, and that despite her best efforts, she wasn’t invincible. X saw that in her, and it made her even more angry. She didn’t meant to cry, but she just snapped, and now she couldn’t stop. The anxiety of seeing X, George, or both at the same time made her want to hurl. She wasn’t in the right state of mind and she knew that. Nirvana needed Lark in moments like this. Lark knew, and she could comfort her the best. The only thing she could do was dry her eyes and put back on her makeup.

“I don’t care,” Nirvana yelled back. She was aware that X knew what was going on between her and George. The tall drummer had let it slip that he told X about them. Nirvana was furious, but Maize and Adam trumped that. At first, Nirvana wanted to get even more revenge, but her conscience told her that she had done enough. Despite her best efforts to hate X and George, she knew that she couldn’t. Nirvana didn’t have the right, as she had done worse to all of them.

“We have to play soon,”

“Not exactly,” TJ stated, walking up to X. He had just entered the crowded green room. Maize and Adam were talking quietly while Ross and George seemed to be ignoring each other. Matty and Lark were missing, of course.

“Whoa! When did you get here?” She asked.

“Just an hour or so ago. I was cleaning up the tour bus. Apparently you guys can’t really get along without me,” He sighed. “Lark?”

“No,” X shook her head. “It’s Nirvana.”

TJ nodded slowly before knocking on the door.

“Nirvana? It’s TJ….are you okay?”

“TJ?” She questioned, finishing her eye makeup. Even she was impressed by how good she was at making it look like she hasn’t cried. She opened the door slowly and saw that TJ was definitely standing there.

“Hey,” He laughed. “Sorry that it took so long, I lost my passport.”

“So Maize wasn’t lying,” Nirvana laughed.

“Sadly, no,” He sighed. “Why are you locked in there? Why did X look so… unhappy?” The girl in question was already sitting with George and had her legs pulled to her chest.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,”

“Oh...well there’s some news that I have for all of you,”

“All of us?” Nirvana furrowed her brows. “What news?”

“Yes, even for The 1975,” He stated. “It’s big news.”

“Oh,” she sighed.

Before she could say another word, Lark and Matty stumbled into the room. They were giggling and laughing. Matty was practically hanging off of the girl, and their mannerisms suggested something well, suggestive had happened. They were close to Nirvana and TJ. Nirvana stood with wide eyes, looking at the pair as if something was very wrong with the picture. TJ didn’t understand what would be so wrong with it. He had talked both to X and his sister on a regular basis, and the guys seemed pretty chill. He didn’t see it, but Nirvana did. She saw their mussed hair, and fully-blown pupils.

Nirvana was shocked. Lark, her best friend, had been doing more than sneaking off and being her normal self. Lark had been sneaking off with Matty. Lark must have known about Maize and Matty, right? She wasn’t to sure. If that didn’t shock her enough, she recognized just how high they were. They were falling all over each other. Lark even fell to the ground and Matty had a hard time picking her back up. Maize didn’t see, she was too busy looking at Adam for answers. Nirvana saw, and she wasn’t okay with it at all.

“What?” TJ sighed.

“What in the hell!” Nirvana yelled, drawing attention toward herself and TJ. She moved toward her bandmates and tourmates with the manager in tow. “What the fuck!”

Lark laughed loudly before covering her mouth.

“Sorry,”

“Shut up!” Nirvana hissed. “What is wrong with you!?”

“We’re just having a bit of-”

“Shut the hell up, Matthew. You have no idea what’s going on,” Nirvana threatened, glaring. “Larkin, you know better!”

Everyone looked around, very unaware of what was going on.

“Calm down, mom.” Lark nearly seethed. “Since when did you get so uptight?”

“Since when did you become a cheap slut?!” Nirvana yelled back. Lark looked as if she had been punched in the face and Matty wrapped both of his arms around her middle and pulled the girl toward his chest. This enraged her even more. “How could you be so, so...” She trailed off. “Reckless!”
No one wanted to say anything at all to Nirvana at that point.

“You have no right to call her that,” George stated, standing up and walking toward the girl. “Nirvana, whatever your middle name is, you’ve been a right slag since the beginning of the tour,”

X’s eyes bugged out of her head.

“She hasn’t, really,” X jumped in.

“Oh don’t you dare!” Nirvana stated. “Don’t you go and-”

Adam rolled his eyes, standing up and walking to separate all of them.

“Can’t we all just stop this childishness?”

“Like you’re one to talk!” Ross stated, knocking his shoulder with Adam’s. “We saw both of you,”

“Saw what?” Adam laughed it off.

“What in the bloody hell is going on here?” Matty asked after cuddling Lark until she was okay to pull away. “Who in the hell are you?”

“I’m TJ…” TJ trailed off. “I’m their manager,”

“Oh.” He shrugged. “What happened?” He demanded again.

“Nothing,” Maize rolled her eyes.

X scoffed.

“Oh, sureeeeee, nothing happened. We fucking saw you both, Maize.”

“Oh okay so I’m the slut now?” She questioned. “Last time I checked, you and George were fucking in any bathroom possible!”

“You know nothing about us!”

There was a very distinct change when they all heard shuffling through the door.

“Wow,” The first voice stated.

“Damn, dramatic bitches much?”

“I thought it couldn’t get weirder than our tour,”

“What’s with all of the yelling?”

“And I thought that we were bad,”

Slowly, everyone turned their attention toward their voices, and the group stood silently.

“Oh, come on. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” the brunette drummer stated. “I mean I know I went away for a bit…”

The purple-haired girl rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think that’s the problem.”

“Guys, shut up,” The one with bleached blonde hair stated.

“Yeah,” The girl with the tips of her hair teal stated. “Definitely saw a ghost.”

“I’m sorry for them,” the dirty blonde stated.

The 1975 all exchanged weird looks, as there were five strangers standing in front of them. Weekend Misery didn’t look at confused.

“What are you doing here?” Lark asked finally.

“We heard Reckless and figured that was a our cue,” Spencer Tucker stated with a smirk.

As if things couldn’t get worse, T R O U B L E in five reckless girls came.
Reckless Little Hearts were there and apparently they weren’t leaving