24 Floors.

"Jayden? You okay?" Rian knocked on the bathroom's door in which I was currently located, on my knees and hunched over the toilet. I had been fine when I woke up, but as soon as my insight from the previous night came back to me, my stomach dropped and I found myself fighting my way out of my bunk and praying the bathroom was open. Rian must have heard me stumble past or slam the door behind me. I probably woke up half of the crew, but I couldn't find it in me to care as I heaved over the bowl and bile rose in my throat.

I couldn't answer him, but I soon found him kneeled beside me and rubbing my back soothingly. I must have been in too much of a hurry to lock the door behind me. "Maybe the food last night wasn't as great as I thought it was." I panted once I could speak.

A hand rested on my forehead. "You don't feel warm. How are you right now?"

As unsettled as I was still, the last thing I needed was Rian or another one of the guys watching me all day. "Better, actually. Maybe I'm pregnant."

His face was still worried, but he laughed a little bit at my joke, his stance relaxing. "You should probably go back to bed; try and sleep whatever that was off, okay?" I nodded as a reply. That was all I really wanted to do, anyways.

Twenty minutes later, I had just started to doze off when a whisper called my name. "Are you still awake?" The voice called from behind my bunk's curtain.

"No." I groaned.

The fabric moved just enough to see Jack standing in front of me holding a steaming mug. "Rian told me you weren't feeling well, so I got you some tea. I got Zack to make it."
He looked so proud of himself that I almost laughed. "Thanks." I took the mug, almost burning my hand in the process, and sipped it. It had plenty of sugar and milk, just the way I liked it. "This is perfect."

"You're welcome!" Zack shouted from somewhere on the bus.

Jack did the same thing Rian did, letting the back of his hand meet my forehead. "It doesn't seem like you have a temperature...I think."

"I know. I think I just ate something bad at the restaurant or something. I'm a lot better now, though."

"Good, good." He trailed off, starting to look a bit nervous. "Hey, Jayden? How would you feel about telling the fans about you? We don't have to yet, if you don't want, but I think they'll probably put it together soon, especially if you start helping out Vinny with merch or you show up in one of Tom's photos."

I only had to think for a few seconds before agreeing with him. As hesitant as we still were, there wasn't much we could do to hide it in a situation like this. "Yeah, okay."

"I'm not going to do anything big, just send out a tweet or something. I figure everyone will hear in a few days on Tumblr and shit."

I laughed, knowing that, as someone who had been on the other side, he was right. "My twitter handle is @jaydendeals, if you wanted to tag me."

"Do you want me to tag you?"

I shrugged. "You might as well. Something tells me they'd find it eventually."

"Yeah, some of them are pretty dedicated." He admitted.

"That's an understatement. Have you seen some of their Tumblrs?" Even though I had never been too big of a fan of All Time Low, I followed enough blogs over the years that at some point or another worshipped the ground they walked on. If I was bored enough, sometimes I even read the fanfictions. Mostly, I made fun of them with some friends. None of us were too into gay stuff, so reading the fanfiction - 85% of which was gay-oriented - made us gag sometimes. It was crazy some of the extremes fans went to.

Jack shuddered. "I wish I hadn't."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes, my next words coming before I could process them. "I bet you and Alex have done a lot of that shit."

I would have taken it back, but Jack didn't seem fazed, only winking at me. "That's for us to know, and you to never find out."

Now it was my turn to cringe. "I'm going to be sick again." I whined, closing the curtain on Jack and sipping my tea as he laughed away.

***

@JackAllTimeLow: You guys have probably been seeing @Jaydendeals around us lately. Kind of a surprise to everyone but he's mah boy.

@JackAllTimeLow: Yes that means @Jaydendeals is my son. Appreciate it if you didn't bring it up to us right now, we're still trying to get used to it too. We'll tell you more soon!

I scrolled through the comments of Jack's revelation, and most were as shocked and confused as we had been. A few were angry or disappointed, and I decided I didn't need to hear the negativity at the moment. I was tired and I had more on my mind to worry about than what a few fangirls thought of me.

Right now, I was more focused on how uncomfortable I was at Jack calling me his son, and not for the most obvious reason. I didn't care that I was his child, but I didn't want to be his son. I didn't understand why just 24 hours ago, the thought of being anything but a guy was strange, almost wrong, but now, it was the most right sensation. Jayden...he wasn't me. However, she just wasn't right, either. What the hell was wrong with me? This was bad. There had to be something seriously wrong with me. Normal people just didn't think like this!

Vaguely, I remember the last parts of the article I had skimmed. It mentioned something about pronouns, and how there were ones other than he and she. I was too in shock to really take it in, then. So, I opened google on my phone and typed "genderfluid pronouns" into the search bar.

Instantly thousands of results came up, introducing pronouns like "they", "ze", and "xe". In minutes, my head was spinning. There were so many words I had never heard of and couldn't even pronounce. I was freaking out more than a little. That was not me.

They, though.

They wasn't too odd, and my thoughts of the pronoun being only plural were quickly erased by the thorough explanations of many pages. It wasn't weird, and it wasn't uncomfortable. In fact, it was the exact opposite.

It was me. It fit.

"This is disgusting, son." The nausea was coming back, but I was determined to swallow it down. It doesn't matter what she thinks, Jay. She abandoned you. Even the attempted soothing of my mind couldn't stop my skin from crawling.

"Holy shit, guys! Look at all the fans! It's not even noon yet!" Jack called. I hadn't even felt the bus come to a stop. Soon enough the screams loudened as our bus door opened and some of the guys went out.

Not even five minutes later the door opened again. "Oh my god..." Rian gasped.

"Jayden!" Jack called. "Come here!" I grumbled to myself as I rolled out of bed until I saw Jack and Zack when I made it to the front lounge.

Jack's shirt was torn, hair even more messy than it had been when he woke up. Zack was in no better position, breathing heavily with a smear of red on his shoulder that looked suspiciously like blood. "Oh my god." I repeated Rian.

"Do not go outside unless you've got Zack with you, okay?" Jack looked at Zack's wide, nervous eyes and reconsidered. "Scratch that. Don't go outside period until we have to go in for the show. We're going to call the venue security to escort us in. Maybe tweeting about everything was a bad idea..."

Rian hit him in the back of the head. "You think, dumbass?"

Jack held the back of his head and pouted. "Well sorry, Mr. Perfect! Have you read our mentions lately? Everyone has been wondering who Jayden was and why some 'stupid fan' was touring with us. I was just trying to make things better and clear the confusion. I didn't know they would react like this." He turned back to me with an apologetic expression full of regret. "I'm so sorry, Jayden. I honestly thought they would leave us alone for a little. Are you okay with laying low for a few days while we work this out?"

If the next few days ended up anything like today had been so far, that would be the only thing I'd want to do. "Yeah, of course. I'm sure I can keep myself busy online or something."

The worry in his face faded into an eye roll. "That reminds me. We're going to have a talk about this 'Dungeon Deals' of yours later."

"Why?" I acted innocent.

"You're planning an online sex shop! You're sixteen, Jayden."

"Seventeen in August!"

"Doesn't matter. You're not running an online sex shop underage. I'm surprised you didn't get arrested when your school found out about all of this."

"I only kept receipts of things I sold to minors, and my dealers are very good at what they do." I explained, only agitating Jack further.

"Well, it's done, now. Your twitter is connected to your Tumblr, so don't think you're doing business from there, either."

Anger was bubbling up inside me. He was barely my father; he couldn't just make demands like this of me! "Can we talk about this later?"

He could feel my displeasure across the room, and he didn't want to fight as much as I didn't. "Fine." He stated simply.

"Just let the boy get arrested." A foggy voice mumbled as Alex emerged, yawning and pushing past us to the kitchen, only stopping to give Jack a good morning kiss. "Holy hell, what happened to you guys?" He asked, smoothing over Jack's hair and eyeing Zack's shoulder. He irritated me even more than Jack had, and I knew he would blame the entire incident on me - not that I wasn't where the blame belonged, but I didn't need to hear it from him.

"Fangirls are fucking insane." Jack said in way of explanation. "We tried telling them about Jayden."

Alex's eyes bulged, then narrowed. "And this is how they reacted?"

Jack nodded hesitantly, and Alex's gleaming eyes landed on me. "Ale-"

"Shut up, Jack."

And then, Jack was just as angry as Alex, maybe even more so. "Don't tell me to shut up, Alex! This isn't even your kid! And don't try and give me that bullshit 'I'm just worried about you and the band' that you've been pushing. I don't give a fuck if you hate Jayden, but if you keep going like this, you're not going to have a boyfriend to fight with! I've spent most of my life choosing you and this band over everything else, but I'll be damned if I don't choose my fucking son before you. I don't care if I only just found out about him last week; he's one of the most important things in my life. I'm not going to get rid of him just because you can't put on your big kid panties and deal with him! If you go and try to put all of the blame of this on him, I will personally kick your ass. Please do us all a fucking favor - and I'm saying this to everyone - remember that I'm the one who made the choices that caused Jayden to be here, and if you have a problem with him, you have a problem with me."

The room was stunned silent. It seemed like even the fans outside were more muted after Jack's explosion, but maybe that was because I was right beside him and most of his yelling landed directly in my ears.

However, once I found Rian on his knees in front of me, practically shaking me with no recollection of how he got there, I figured I must have been in shock. "Jayden, please say something!" Rian was panicking; Jack and Zack didn't look any better behind him.

"I-I. S-Sorry." I stuttered out.

It was barely anything, but it was enough to calm them a little. "Hey, hey. No need for apologies. You look like you're about to pass out."

"I'm fine." I reassured, trying to move without swaying. This proved harder than I thought, and I fell right into Rian.

"Mhm. A little help, guys?" Zack picked me up and Jack opened the curtain to my bed.

"Jay, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get that carried away, and I wouldn't have if I had known it would have caused this. Fuck, I'm so sorry. Are you okay right now? Do you need water? Do you feel sick? Can you breathe?"

"Jack, chill a second. Let him answer." Rian shut him up for me.

"I-I'm okay. It's not your fault, Jack."

He scoffed. "Not my fault."

"Jack." Rian scolded. "Why don't you go get Jayden a bottle of water? Cool off for a second; we don't need another fight."

He seemed to know he needed to calm down if he wanted to get anywhere with me at the moment, so he listened to Rian. "You alright?" Rian asked me once Jack was out of earshot.

"I need to get out of here." I pleaded, sitting up.

Neither Rian nor Zack tried to stop me from getting out of bed. The exchanged glances before Rian sighed. "Just take Zack with you, at least until you get past the fans. You have your phone, right?" I nodded. "Call me if you need anything. I'll handle Jack. Go out the back so he doesn't see you." I didn't need told twice. Grabbing Zack by the wrist, we sprinted to the back door.

Thankfully, security had gotten a bit of a hold on the crowd situation, so we were able to run past the fans with minimal injuries. We didn't stop running until we were safely inside the venue. I lost the beanie I had fallen asleep in, but it wasn't worth trying to find. Not in that crowd.
"You sure you'll be okay alone?" Zack questioned.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I need some time to think."

Zack smiled softly, like he understood. "Give Rian or I a call when you're feeling better. We'll come get you." Not another word was said between us was said before Zack went back to the venue doors. He shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath before he faced the hurricane of fans once again.

"Hey!" A deep voice called. I jumped and turned towards it, only to be pleasantly surprised with not a fan, but a security guard.

A very attractive security guard.

Attractive?!

"You're Jayden, aren't you? Jack's son?" He asked, his cyan eyes bright with curiosity. He was quite a bit taller than me, well over six feet.

"Y-Yeah."

He bit his lip, giving me a once-over. "You know, we have special directions to watch out for you, today. You think you could do me a favor and stay close? So I can keep you safe, of course. Wouldn't want someone taking advantage of you."

I mimicked him, biting my lip and taking in his body. I felt a strange pang of longing I had only ever felt before with girls. I wouldn't doubt he had abs under the bright yellow polo that was his uniform. His biceps flexed at his sides.

I was throwing all my rules out the window, so what the hell? Might as well see how far I could take this. It had been too long since I got laid - at least a couple of weeks.

"Well, we couldn't have that." I stuck my hand out to him, and he led me further into the venue.