The Hell Tour.

Panda tiptoed cautiously around the hotel room she was sharing with Arya, making sure that she made no noise as she gathered her dirty clothes and put them into her duffel bag. When they had arrived at their room the night before, she didn’t even mention anything about Kellin, she went straight to work on editing some pictures and when she couldn’t anymore, she went to bed with only a Good night. Arya saw Panda walking around her and cleared her throat, making Panda jump.

“Stop.” Arya said. Panda looked at her wide-eyed.

“What are you talking about?” she asked slowly, trying to make herself sound not so clueless.

“I’m not tripping over last night. I’m over it. So stop acting like you’re gonna break me if you say something.” Arya told her with a stern tone. Panda looked astray, guilty, but then gave her new friend a half-smile.

“Sorry. I just… I don’t know. I didn’t want to accidentally say something about your ex and you know… You break down and me not know what to do!” Panda said rapidly, happy now that she could go back to acting like her normal self. Arya made a grimace. “What?” Panda asked.

“Kellin is not my ex.” Arya corrected her as she began packing her clothes and loading cameras back into their bags. They were supposed to be on the road onto the next city already, but they had woken up late.

“Wh- Well, ahh… I only assumed from the way you two were arguing last night.” Panda said.

“How much of that conversation did you actually hear, Panda?” Arya asked her. Panda shrugged her shoulders. She lifted her duffel bag onto her shoulder and took two of the camera bags that were on the bed she slept in.

“I kinda just heard when he accused you of sleeping with Vic from PTV and then I put my headphones in until you got into the car and yelled about it not mattering who you slept with. I put two and two together and just thought that Kellin was your ex-boyfriend and you just unfortunately took this job without knowing.”

Arya grabbed the remainder of the bags and they both walked out their room and to Arya’s car. They loaded it up in silence, Panda checked their room once more to make sure they didn’t forget anything and then they were on the road onto Pomona. They remained in comforting silence until they were about 20 minutes outside of Fresno.

“Kellin… is actually my brother.” Arya suddenly found herself saying. Panda, who was mindlessly flipping through her iPod for something to listen to, looked at Arya in confusion. Was her hearing deceiving her?

“Say that again.” Panda said. Arya rolled her eyes, gave Panda a brief look, and then went back to paying attention to the road.

“It’s not something we like to brag to people. We’re actually half siblings. His—Our dad cheated on his mom with mine. Kellin met me when he was 8 and I was 3. We didn’t spend a lot of time together, mostly just holidays and he always made sure they were hell, so not too many happy Christmas memories there, ya know… But yeah. I called him telling him I got this job when I found out that I was going to be technically touring with his dumbass band and well… I think you can figure it out from there.” Arya sighed heavily, realizing that this was the first time she ever told a FRIEND that she had a brother.

“Ummm… WOW! I didn’t expect that. What I don’t understand though is why he came at you like that last night. It means he has to care some bit about you, right?” Panda asked. Arya scoffed.

“Doubt it. Probably just some precaution to make sure that I don’t blab about us. He sees me as some parasite or something. He doesn’t call me his sister, but if he keeps acting the way he does, more people are going to think that we’re ex’s like you did.”

The black and white haired girl nodded her head in agreement. She stared out the window onto some fields. It was just them and the open road. Three hours of being in a car. Three hours of fast food, uncomfortable sitting, 90’s playlists and—

“Arya!!” Panda yelled, scaring Arya and making her swerve the car a little to the left.

“PANDA! FUCK!” Arya chastised, aligning the car back onto the road and taking some deep breaths. “What did you do that for?”

“You’re going to think this is completely stupid, but I think… I think you should totally bang Vic.” Panda looked at Arya, this wild gleam in her eyes, almost manic.

“What?!” Arya exclaimed, choking on her spit a little. She shook her head, trying to focus on the road, but now Panda was making this impossible.

“It’s going to be like three months of touring so why not? He fucking gorgeous and Kellin already assumes the worst in you, so why the fuck not? I mean, he can’t tell you anything. Not if it means having to tell people the truth about why he’s being all oh Arya, are you fucking my band mate friends? This is genius!” Panda laughed, frightening Arya even more because she was cackling like a hyena.

“Panda… no. Even if I wanted to, there is no way in hell that Vic is ever going to notice me.”

Panda shook her head as she unbuckled her seatbelt and reached into the backseat to grab one of Arya’s cameras. She quickly took it out of its case and turned it on, scrolling until she got to the picture she was looking for. Panda shoved the camera into Arya’s face, almost causing them to swerve into a guardrail along the highway. Arya gave her friend a threatening look, but took a glance at what Panda was trying to prove.

It was a black and white close up of Vic’s face. She’d captured it the moment she had pulled her camera down just below her face and Vic had stopped singing. His eyes were wide with awe and his mouth was agape. It was a soul-searching kind of look but at the same time, it looked like he was completely in love with Arya.

“You’ve got him in the bag, babe.” Panda said with a chuckle.

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Arya turned around a corner of the backstage area of the venue they were at tonight. She was lost. She had been trying to keep up with Panda, but she had gotten caught up with trying to explain to her other photographers about trying to not capture so many blurry shots. She sighed in frustration as she turned back around to go back to where she had just been, but only turned and bumped into a body. She bounced from their body and landed on the floor.

“Shit.” The body exclaimed. Suddenly there was a hand sticking itself in front of Arya’s face and she looked up at who knocked her down. “OH! Shit… Fu—I’m sorry.” Vic stuttered as he now looked down. He took his hand back a bit but then extended it out again for Arya to grab. She looked at him curiously and took his hand.

He squeezed it firmly and pulled her up with a quick pull.

“Sorry.” He muttered. His brown eyes looking at her crazily before he darted them down at his feet. “I uhh… Sorry.” He stuttered again and then walked away. Arya watched his back until he turned a corner. She chuckled and a smirk played at her lips, remembering Panda’s words from earlier.

“You know… he’s not always like that. He’s usually good with the girls. You’re different.” A voice said from above and behind Arya. She turned to see who was speaking only to see that it was Mike, PTV’s drummer. He was in basketball shorts and a muscle tee. He was holding some drumsticks and he had his ear guards hanging around his neck. He must have been doing sound check.

“I’m nothing.” Arya told him, she didn’t know why she said it like that but it was the only thing she could get out. She was standing in front of Mike Fuentes. He was an idol of her’s.

Mike laughed and then looked down at her with a Cheshire grin.

“You’re Arya, right?” he asked her. She nodded. “Yeah… I’ve been looking for you. I was told you were the head photographer and I needed some new pics to upload onto Insta.”

“Oh! Yeah, I didn’t know how that was supposed to work out. But I can send you the pics once I find Panda. She has my phone.” He nodded.

“Cool.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Sharpie marker. He pointed at her hand and she quickly gave it to him. He scribbled his number on her forearm and his name. “Just in case you forget my name.” he winked and then began to walk around her but then he stopped midstep and turned to face her again.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Arya furrowed her eyebrows and told him yes. “Ah… Well, I don’t mean to pry or be nosy, but I saw you arguing with Kellin last night. I, uhh, never seen him so angry before and I was actually afraid that he would hurt you.”

Arya’s eyes opened wide and she began to shake her head quickly.

“No, no, no. That was nothing. We just… Kellin and I have a lot of history. He’s not exactly glad with me being on this tour.” Arya babbled out, trying to keep it quick and simple so Mike wouldn’t ask more questions. Mike gave her a questioning look, but didn’t say anything else about Kellin.

“Ooookay, whatever you say. But hey, whenever you want, come by our bus. I’d like to get to know you more.” Mike gave her another wink and a smirk. “It’s the bus with the mustache. You can’t miss it.”

Arya stared again as another Fuentes boy walked away from her. This was going to be a long tour she thought.