A Story to Tell Your Friends

Twenty-Three.

“Lisa, help me,” I begged, squeaking down the phone to her as Tammy and I exited the taxi outside The Forum.
“Just breathe, Clara!” She laughed. “You’ll be fine!”
“I’ve been trying to tell her that for the last 18 hours, Lis, it doesn’t work!” Tammy interjected. I glared at her.
“I am breathing. It’s not working! What if he hates me? Will that make Jack hate me? Oh, my God! I can’t do it!” The two girls laughed at me again and I scowled, regretting putting Lisa on speakerphone. “I’m not joking! That’s a very real possibility!” I had run through every possible scenario of everything that could possibly go wrong tonight over the last twelve hours, to the point that I was sent home at lunch because I was annoying everyone. That and Clive told me I’d worked myself stupid for the last month and needed an early finish to enjoy myself, even if I did seem better.
I wasn’t enjoying myself; I was freaking out.
“Clara, it’s not as big a deal as you think. Everyone else loves you. Just because they’re his favourite band, doesn’t mean Jack will abandon you. You passed the Alex test immediately, I’m sure the Mark and Travis test will be a breeze.” Lisa was trying to calm me down and it wasn’t working too well. I noticed a line of teenagers outside the venue and walked by them toward the box office.
“What if he didn’t leave the tickets?” I asked, stopping short of the box office and staring at the woman in the booth wide eyed.
“He left the tickets. You’re fine. Stop making excuses. I’m hanging up now, and you’re going to meet Blink. Everything will be fine.” The line dropped and I scowled again, this time at my phone.
“I hate her,” I told Tammy. “She’s too calm about all of this.”
“We have no idea what she was like the first time either, Clar. She might have been a mess too and now she’s just calm because she’s met them a few times. It’s fine. Come on.” Tammy grabbed my arm, dragging me to the box office. I allowed myself to be led to the woman at the booth and gulped quickly.
“Um, there’s supposed to be two tickets here for me,” I mumbled out.
“What’s your name?” The woman asked kindly. I paused for a second, genuinely stumped by the question.
“Um. It’s Clara.” I paused again, realising she needed my surname too. “Parsons. Clara Parsons.” I heard Tammy laughing behind me and turned to glare at her. She wasn’t helping. The woman clicked through the screen, humming to herself. “It might be under Tammy Benson also.” The woman shook her head slightly and I panicked. Obviously he’d forgotten and now I looked like an idiot. I turned to Tammy again, mouthing my concerns and she rolled her eyes, refusing to acknowledge my concerns.
“Ah! Parsons. You’re supposed to wait here and someone will come round and let you in.” I breathed a sigh of relief as she handed me the two passes I’d been waiting on. I was acutely aware that this wasn’t even the most intimidating part of the evening and I was already panicking at every turn. I could only imagine how much worse I would get. I handed Tammy a pass, placing my own around my neck and walking toward the area we’d been told to wait. I noticed the queue of people staring at me a little as we edged closer to the doors, waiting for someone to come around. I’d assumed we’d be let in by the side door, but as I waited, I noticed a figure approaching the doorway and realised I was in the right place.
“Clara?” The man asked as he opened the door, looking at me expectantly.
“That’s me,” I smiled weakly. He opened the door wider for Tammy and I and we walked in. I glanced at the queue once more, noticing the gaze turn to glares. I shrank away from them and sped up a little.
“Breathe,” Tammy instructed, quietly.
“I’m trying.”
“Hey, cutie, how you been?” Alex asked as we finally turned a corner and revealed the majority of All Time Low. He wrapped his arms around me. “You’re fucking shaking.” He laughed, letting me go quickly.
“I’m fucking freaking out, Gaskarth,” I shot back.
“Okay, okay, take a deep breath.”
“I wish people would stop telling me that. I’ve done that. It didn’t work,” I snapped, glaring at him. He laughed at me again. I was thankful he wasn’t taking this to heart, and I’d make sure to apologise to him once I’d calmed down. If I apologised now, I’d only have to carry on apologising for the rest of the night.
“You’re a disaster, Clara. It’s not that bad.”
“Lisa told me the story of when you first met these guys. Don’t tell me I’m a disaster.”
“Clara, stop insulting the person you haven’t seen in two months. Say hello, ask him how his tour’s been and shut the fuck up,” Tammy told me. I pursed my lips.
“Where’s Jack?”
“Warning Mark and Travis you’re coming,” Rian laughed. “It looks like they need it.”
“They didn’t know?!” I squeaked, feeling self-conscious again.
“No, they knew. Rian’s joking,” Alex told me, rolling his eyes at Rian. “You’re just being a squealing fan girl and you know we like to mock those occasionally. I mean, come on, Tammy wasn’t this bad when she met us, and you assured us she was going to be a nightmare.”
“Why do people keep acting like I’m a twelve-year-old?” Tammy asked, staring at me. I smiled meekly, shrugging my shoulders and pretending I knew nothing about what Alex had just said.
“Clara!” I heard from the other end of the hall. My ears perked up at the voice and I found myself looking at Jack behind the other guys.
“Jack!” My nerves started to fade and I made my way through the guys, giving him a hug when I finally reached him.
“How are you coping? Freaking out yet?” He asked, kissing the top of my head before letting me go, making my knees buckle a little. I didn’t even think to chastise his display of affection the way I’d wanted to chastise his pet name yesterday. Seeing him again threw it all out of my head and I was just happy to be with him.
“I was,” I smiled.
“She was literally shaking not two minutes ago,” Alex told him, still laughing. I pretended to glare at him for informing Jack of what little of my mini-meltdown he’d seen. “I was just about to tell her they already knew far too much about her to dislike her now, but then you interrupted me.” I saw Jack glare at him a little as well and laughed.
“Well, it’s nice to know someone still talks about me occasionally.”
“’Occasionally’? Shit, Clara, it’s non-fucking-stop. And it’s worse now you actually fucking speak to him. I’ve hated him more on this tour than I ever have before in my life,” Alex assured me.
“And I’ve hated you more in the last two minutes than I ever have before in my life,” Jack told him, still glaring.
“Why are we stood in a hallway anyway?” Tammy asked suddenly.
“We were waiting for you guys,” Alex shrugged. “That and we didn’t all wanna hang out properly until we knew Clara wasn’t going to faint.” I rolled my eyes at him.
“I was always going to stay conscious Alex,” I informed him. “I was just going to make you all wish I wasn’t.” The group laughed at me and Alex shrugged.
“You ready?” Jack asked me as everyone else filed off in the direction he’d come from.
“No,” I admitted. “But if I chicken out now, I’ll never do it.”
“Good girl. Just relax. They’re cool guys and, like Alex said, I’ve told them a lot about you and they seem to like you well enough.” I followed behind everyone else with Jack and took a deep breath as they all filed into a room on the right side of the hallway. I felt my hands shaking again and tried to calm myself. I was acting like a teenager and I wasn’t even in the room with them yet. I stepped into the room behind Jack, standing next to him when he stopped. Alex was introducing Tammy to everyone already and I tried to use the time that the focus wasn’t on me to calm down further. I heard Tammy greeting everyone as they went around and tried not to vomit. I knew I didn’t have long left before everyone started looking at me.
“And this is Clara,” Alex said suddenly, turning to me. My eyes widened and I grabbed Jack’s hand quickly, panicking. I heard a small chuckle escape him as he laced his fingers in mine, squeezing my hand reassuringly. “Clara, this is Mark, Matt and Travis,” Alex said, pointing at the three guys on the couch in front of me.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Mark said, smiling at me. “Jack won’t shut up about you, it’s infuriating.”
“Clara, you’re not breathing,” Jack told me, laughing once again when I didn’t respond to anyone. My cheeks flushed red when I realised I actually wasn’t breathing. I’d criticised everyone for reminding me to breathe, and that’s exactly what I’d forgotten to do.
“Shut up,” I groaned, putting my free hand to my forehead in shame. “I’m sorry. I’m the biggest idiot you’ll ever meet. Unless that’s all Jack’s told you about me, everything is a lie.”
“So, you don’t play video games and have a giant crush on Geralt of Rivia?” Mark asked, laughing at me a little, which I joined in with.
“Okay, that’s not a lie.”
“And you don’t have a Tangled beach towel?” Matt asked, joining in. I cringed, realising Jack had indeed told them more about me than I’d expected.
“And you’re telling us he lied when he said the easiest way to kidnap you was with pizza and cheese fries?” Travis finished. I looked at Jack, open mouthed. Had he told them everything he’d learned about me from those few weeks in LA?
“We did tell you he hadn’t shut up about you in two months,” Alex told me.
“Well, I think I’d best apologise. I didn’t realise Jack word vomited more than I did,” I told them all, laughing.
“It’s fine,” Mark told me. “I mean, we all hate you, but other than that it’s fine.” I snorted, nudging Jack in the side.
“I thought you told me I had nothing to worry about?” Jack let go of my hand, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and grinning.
“I’m sorry, I felt the need to prepare them for how incredible you were.” He led me over to the sofa next to the guys, leaving the rest of our friends to talk amongst themselves.
“So, I hear you’re a huge fan?” Travis asked, smiling at me.
“Stupidly so, hence the embarrassing mix-up with my respiration.”
“It’s okay. I assume you’ve been told of when I first met Jack and Alex?” Mark asked. I laughed, nodding.
“Lisa filled me in this morning.”
“I wasn’t that bad,” Jack muttered, shifting uncomfortably beside me.
“You were like a kid in a candy shop. And, in Clara’s words, you wouldn’t stop word vomiting.” I snorted, remembering what Lisa had told me. Apparently, they had both thought they were pretty relaxed and were actually anything but.
“I really wish you’d embarrassed yourself more,” Jack told me.
“You’re the only reason I remembered to start breathing again,” I laughed. “If you weren’t here, I’d probably have spilled something all over myself by now and passed out.” The four guys laughed at me and I smiled lightly. Jack really had calmed me down and I felt comforted by his touch, like it was grounding me a little. “I imagine I can embarrass you a little to take the edge off me though. Has Jack told you how he tried to convince me to speak to him again?” I asked brightly.
“Clara, no,” Jack said to me, looking horrified.
“No,” Mark laughed. “But I feel like I need to know.”
“Well, apparently, the best he could think of in his hour of need, was to play Sober in the middle of his club when I was already more than drunk and tempted to give him a black eye.” The three men laughed at us and Jack pretended to glare at me.
“It got your attention, didn’t it? And did you call me when you were sober?” I snorted at his response.
“It got my attention because you’re an idiot and I called you because your best friends made me.”
“Honestly, I’m going to take that as a win.”