Getting Surreal

The next day, Becks was too excited to even feel her hangover.

It was her second day working on Warped Tour. They were in a new city. A new city with an amusement park. An amusement park where they were staying. Where they were allowed to ride the fucking rides.

For free.

She may have drank more than her fair share of alcohol the night before at the band and crew kickoff party the night before, but she still woke up the second she felt the bus stopped at its destination in the morning, more than ready to ride some rides, her eagerness for the day winning out on the headache and slight nausea she may have been feeling.

When she dropped herself down from her bunk and excitedly shuffled up to the front, though, she found nobody there. Not even Gerard was present, and, never the one to feel comfortable to wake people from their rests, she let out a small huff of disappointment to herself before deciding that she may as well make herself some coffee and read a little until other people started to get up.

So, she set up the coffee maker and went back to her bunk to dig through her things to find the book that Frank had passed off to her saying that ‘it’s a good fucking read and will blow your fucking mind open,’ and, by the time she found it and made it back to the front of the bus, the coffee was ready.

‘Sweet,’ she thought to herself as she poured herself a cup, pleased that she didn’t have to wait for it, and then made her way to the table and sat down at her usual spot with her legs curled under her.

She was three chapters in and halfway through her second cup when she heard the first signs of life by the bunks and looked up expectantly. Nobody showed, though, so she gave a tiny sigh of disappointment to herself and continued on reading. She was so immersed in the book when the next signs of life showed that she didn’t even notice until Gerard was scooting into the seat across from her.

“Oh, hey!” She greeted him brightly, looking up from her book and giving him a smile.

“Morning,” he replied sleepily, unable to fight the yawn overtaking him.

“I made coffee…” she looked down when Gerard let out a small grunt and lifted the mug in his hand a little, “oh. Good.” Then deciding that she should let Gee have his first cup of coffee in peace, she went back to her book, getting absorbed in once more.

“Whatcha got there?” Gerard asked a few minutes later, clearly feeling more ready to have a conversation.

“Uh…” she paused a second, trying to remember the name, ending up having to flip the book over to read the title, “Brave New World. Frank gave it to me. Said it was good.”

“Is it?”

Becks’ eyes went a little wide. “Oh, yeah. This is some good shit. Has you thinking.”

Gerard let out a sleepy little laugh and gave her that lopsided Way smile of his. “Good. When Frank gives you shit, it’s kind of a fifty-fifty.” Becks raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in question while Gerard took a pause to finish his coffee. “Half the time it’s good and half the time…it’s some weird shit.”

As he stood up to get himself and Becks some more coffee, she gave a small giggle. “Well…I’d definitely say this is some weird shit,” she picked up the book and made a pondering sort of face to it before looking back up at Gerard, “but…it’s also pretty dang good.”

“Well,” Gerard said as he eased back into his seat and passed Becks her coffee, earning a quiet ‘thanks,’ “So long as it’s still good, I guess. So what’re you doing up so early?” He asked her, holding his mug up to his lips. “I figured you’d be out most of the day after last night.”

Becks smiled and shook her head a little as she took a sip and set her mug down on the tabletop, keeping her fingers wrapped around it and idly enjoying its cozy warmth. “Couldn’t sleep,” she responded. It was Gerard’s turn to raise a questioning eyebrow. “Too excited.” And, when Gerard still wasn’t catching on, she was incredulous and gestured toward the window. “Dude, do you know where we are?”

“Uhh,” Gerard lazily checked the landscape around them before looking back at Becks, her bright eyes shining even brighter in her very apparent excitement. “Ohio?”

Becks let out a little scoff and laid her head on the table in a dramatic display of shock at how Gerard could be so oblivious.
“No. Well, yes, but…”

“Amusement park, bro,” Mikey’s voice called out and Becks’ head shot up from the table as he sat down next to Gerard.

“Yeah,” Ray added, drawing everybody’s attention. “She wants to ride the rides.” He held his hands up in the air with some jazz fingers as he said the last bit, earning a small, joking shove from Becks when he plopped down in the seat next to her as everybody else chuckled. “Hey, man,” he looked at her, hands now raised in a white flag ‘I give up’ sort of way. “Don’t be like that, it’s all you could talk about last night.”

Not being able to remember too much about the night before, Becks looked at Mikey for some help. He just shook his head a little and smirked. “He’s not wrong.” Becks huffed out a small, defeated sigh and turned her attention to her coffee.

“I’m just excited, is all.” She grumbled into her drink and peered out the window, looking for a glimpse of what the day might bring. She could feel Mikey staring at her as she heard Ray and Gerard fall into some conversation she wasn’t interested in, and tore her eyes away from the dull scenery to meet Mikey’s gaze and give him a tiny smile to let him know she wasn’t upset at all. He searched her face for a moment before deciding to believe her and returned her grin with a small uptwitch of his own lips. Satisfied that he was satisfied, Becks turned her attention back out the window, gauging the weather until she heard discussion die down.

“So…” she drawled out, grabbing the attention of everyone at the table. “Who’s gonna run the park with me?” She looked pointedly at everyone there, starting with Gerard, then Mikey, then over at Ray but was met with blank, sheepish faces and silence.

“Yeah…” Gerard said finally, Becks looking back to him and he gave her a small grimace. “Mikey and I don’t really do rides.”

Becks’ eyes went wide in shock and then her face screwed up in confusion as she looked over at Mikey, and he gave her a tiny shrug.

“But…what?” She was nothing shy of incredulous.

“We’ve just never liked them,” Gerard explained, playing with his coffee cup. “Never really went to parks when we were kids, I guess.”

“Okaaay…” she drew out the word as she attempted to accept what the singer was telling her, his eyes reading ‘sorry, not sorry’ as he shrugged like Mikey just had. “So…Ray? You said yesterday you like parks?” She looked at the guitar player, hesitant to hear his answer. Ray let out a sigh.

“I’ll do the rollercoasters,” he said, much to Becks’ relief, “but I can’t do the spinning rides.” When he took in her face, he chuckled a little bit. “Dude, I’m old. I ride those, I’ll be sick.” Becks narrowed her eyes at him, mentally adding up how much older than she was, and hummed in acceptance of what he was saying.

“But you’ll do the rollercoasters?”

Ray nodded. “I’ll do the rollercoasters.”

“Okay,” she’d take Ray for rollercoasters, definitely. “What about Bob?” She asked.

“What about Bob, what?” Bob’s sleep-gruff voice rang out as he emerged from the bunks.

“Oh, hey!” Becks said cheerily with a big smile on her face. Bob just let out a small grunt and turned to the coffee maker, letting out a second, more pleased grunt when he saw that somebody had made a second pot (after assuming that there wouldn’t be any coffee left, with all the people up front with mugs).

“What about Bob, what?” He repeated once his mug was full and he’d added his cream, easing himself down on the couch across the table, his eyes barely open.

“Becks is an apparent adrenaline junkie,” Gerard said, leaning forward so he could look past Mikey to the drummer. “Wants to hit up the amusement park. You like that shit?”

“Fuck yeah, I do,” he said, raising his cup minutely in a ‘cheers’ before taking a long sip.

“Perfect.” Becks was pleased, now, and nestled herself back into her seat to continue enjoying her third cup of coffee properly, not being able to keep her gaze from drifting out the window.

“Alright, ladies,” Brian announced his presence, walking from the bunk area looking ready for the day. “Fuck,” he said, looking around the group of people up front, “where’s Frank?” When he was met with blank stares and noncommittal shrugs, he rolled his eyes and headed back to the bunk area with a purpose.

Gerard was just leaning forward and opening his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a very loud racket coming from the bunk area. Becks couldn’t suppress her giggles and Ray snorted into his coffee when they all heard a large Thunk! and Frank start whining loudly.

Brian reemerged from the bunk area a second later, an extremely tired looking Frank behind him, rubbing his shoulder. “Your fault, dipshit,” Brian said, looking behind him. The cold look on Frank’s face when he said that had Becks doing all she could to suppress a second round of laughter. “You can go back to bed when I’m done telling you all the plan.” Frank just muttered something unintelligible under his breath and sat down on the couch next to Bob.

“Okay,” Brian said, his mood far better than Frank’s (who was sat with arms crossed and mustering up dirty looks at the manager – he had to avoid looking at the small guitar player otherwise he’d start laughing, himself), “So, as I was saying, we play at six thirty tonight. Sound check is at six.”

Becks looked up at the clock above the couch and saw that it was already two in the afternoon and felt a small surge of panic spread through her.

“All good?” Brian asked, looking around. His eyes landed on Becks and he took in her wide eyes and he couldn’t stop the amused smirk on his face from spreading. “Becks?” He was toying with her. “Something to say?”

“But, I…can we…um?” She was so flustered that she couldn’t get a sentence out and it made it even worse that all the guys were just staring at her, each with more (Gerard) or less (Ray – he was kind enough to try and mask it) of a grin on their faces.

“Yes, Becks,” Brian said with a fake sigh of exasperation, rolling his eyes in jest. “You can ‘ride the rides’ to your heart’s content so long as you’re back here by quarter to five.”

Unable to help herself, Becks sat up real straight and let out a squeak of excitement and then promptly slumped in her seat and hid her burning face in her hands, embarrassed, when she heard some of the guys chuckle and realized what she’d done. She stayed that way for the next minute or two as Brian rattled off other ‘important’ information, until she felt a hand on her knee, and slowly opened up her fingers enough to see Mikey giving her a soft smile that somehow coerced her to drop her hands completely, giving him a tiny, shy smile back.

Becks let herself stay trapped in his gaze for the next few moments, never seeming to be able to get enough of his eyes, until Mikey gave her another quick smile and turned his head to watch Brian as he continued on. Suddenly feeling tired from waking up a little too early and more than content in the moment, she laid her head down on the table and shut her eyes, listening to the “rules of the day,” more than aware of Mikey’s hand still on her knee and, though she wasn’t sure why he hadn’t removed it, she was more than okay with the contact.

---

“Everybody got it?” Brian asked, his sudden pointed tone snapping Becks out of the small nap she may or may not have been taking. She opened her eyes and slowly lifted her head, trying to gauge just how long she was out of it without drawing any attention to herself. Judging by the way nobody had seemed to have changed positions other than hearing mutterings of ‘yeah’ and ‘sure’, she figured she’d only fallen asleep for a minute or two, undetected, and let out a silent sigh of relief.

When her eyes landed on Mikey, though, she could just tell by the look on his face that he knew. Before she had the chance to plead him with her eyes not to tell anybody of her minor delinquency, he gave her knee a quick squeeze with his hand that was still on her knee, and she knew he wasn’t going to out her.

Shooting him a smile in thanks, Becks turned her attention to Brian, watching and attempting to listen as he chatted with Bob about something he had asked. She was finding it hard to focus, though, because Mikey had begun swiping his thumb back and forth, and she was trying her hardest to ignore the heat she was feeling in her cheeks.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore and turned to look at Mikey again, catching his eye, and it almost felt like everything else drifted away, the only thing she was aware of was her and him and his hand warm and strong on her knee and he was giving her a look that she wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but….

Then Gerard gave his brother a small smack on his shoulder and Mikey turned to look at him, dropping Becks’ gaze and bringing her back to reality in a rush of sound as she, too, looked at the singer. He and Mikey were sharing some kind of silent conversation, Gerard’s eyebrows quirked and Mikey’s furrowed, and then Gerard glanced at Becks quick before looking back at his brother who let out a little sigh.

Becks felt one last squeeze to her knee and then Mikey was withdrawing his hand, leaving her feeling a little cold, and standing up so Gerard could get out of the booth. As Gerard slid out, he caught Becks’ eye and shot her a wink and a smirk and then he was walking to the small kitchen section to drop his mug off at the sink.

“So,” Becks started, looking at Ray then up at Mikey, making sure she had their attention. “Park?” Ray chuckled and stood up, shaking his head causing his curls to flop all around.

“No can do, Becks,” Gerard said, coming back over to them. She looked at him and pouted. “Nah, that’s not gonna work this time,” he chortled. “Well, at least not on me,” and then he shot a pointed look at his brother who was staring at the ground, a tiny flush appearing on his cheeks. “I’ve got some new stuff that I wanna work on with them. You can take Bob and Frank, though.”

Becks sighed a little, watching as Ray gave her a smile before heading back towards the back lounge, Gerard in tow.

“You’ll have fun,” Mikey said quietly, a small, consoling smile on his face. Becks stared up at him, not sure what to say because (she couldn’t even lie to herself) she was really hoping Mikey might tag along with her to the park, and how could she just say that?

“Yo, dipshit,” Gerard called, having reemerged, grabbing the sleeve of his brother’s hoodie. “Let’s go.”

Mikey huffed a sigh through his nose and rolled his eyes. “See ya. Have some fun for me, okay?” At this, Becks smiled and nodded, and watched as he turned and followed his brother down the hall.

Then, she remembered all of her excitement for the day, and she shot up from her seat, heading for the couch where she stood in front of Bob (who looked up at her) and Frank (who had his eyes shut and groaned because he just knew that he wasn’t gonna be left alone to sleep off his hangover).

She aimed finger guns at Bob, who smirked at the gesture and said, “Park? Ready?”

Bob stood up then downed what was left of his coffee. “Let’s do this.”

“Awesome,” Becks replied, beaming at him. Then, she turned her attention to Frank. “Frank.” He gave no reply, so she sat down on the couch and got as close to the guitar player as she could, her face right in front of his. “Fraaaaaaank,”

“No,” he moaned, his eyes screwing shut tighter.

“Come on, lazy-ass!” Becks said, pulling at some of his hair. Finally, he opened his eyes at shot her a glare. In response, Becks pouted and gave him her best puppy dog eyes and Frank’s face softened. “Please?” She asked, her voice quiet. “We’ve gotta ride the rides. You can sleep when you’re dead.”

Frank sighed a little, resigned (how could he resist those eyes?), and allowed himself to be pulled off the couch by his tech. He stood there for a moment, yawning and rubbing at his eyes, and Bob let out a sound of a whip being cracked as if to say Frank was whipped and Frank’s eyes shot to him. “Fuck you,” he said. Bob just laughed. “And you,” he looked at Becks. “You’re buying me Redbull and lunch.”