Seems Like We Lost It All

“Come on, Haner! Everyone else left already, stop fucking with your hair and come out so I can actually get ready to go! I need to get some practice shots while you guys are doing sound check.”

It was only the second day of tour and Madison could already tell she was in way over her head. Sharing a tour bus with five dudes and only one bathroom was just awful as it sounded. Especially when one of them spent an insane amount of time on his hair.

When he didn’t come out she moved across the bus so she could start banging on the door. Maybe she could irritate him enough to make him hurry the hell up. The door popped open quickly and her hand came down against Brian’s chest where the door had been seconds before.

“It takes time to make my hair look this sexy,” He stated.

“Sexy? It looks like a hedgehog had an emo phase and dyed his quills black.”

He stepped forward, making her take two steps back to separate them. He stepped closer again and when she took another step back she was against the wall. They were too close, this wasn’t good. This was what she had been hoping to avoid ever since the accidental kiss. But here they were, two days in, alone on the bus and he literally had her backed against a wall.

“If we’re going to talk about hair, how about we talk about your hair?” He reached out, twisting a lock of her freshly dyed hair around his finger. “Purple looks good on you.”

“Thanks, now if you don’t mind I need to get ready, very quickly now, since somebody is done hogging the bathroom. Tell the others I’ll be inside soon.”

“I’ll wait and walk you over there, it’s the least I can do after being the one to make you late to begin with.”

“You really don’t have to, you’re already going to be late for sound check.”

“Not the first time, won’t be the last.”

Madison shrugged, “do whatever you want, then.”

He finally stepped away from her and she felt like she could finally breathe again. She hurried into the bathroom, closing and locking the door. She leaned against the counter and splashed some water on her face. She studied herself in the mirror, noticing how red her cheeks were and wondering why Brian had this effect on her. She had never noticed how bad it was before. It scared her and made her want to guard herself against the feeling. She wasn’t ready to feel anything for anyone and if she were going to feel something she didn’t want it to be for Brian. Their friendship was too good now, she didn’t want anything to fuck it up.

She would just have to ignore it. It would go away, it had to. Shaking her head to try to get rid of those thoughts, she stepped up to the mirror and started on her makeup. She was actually really nervous about taking photos of the guys performing. She worried she would get in someone’s way or somehow bump into and hurt someone. This was her first time doing anything like this.

She applied a winged eyeliner with shaking hands, somehow managing to make it look decent. She ran a brush through her hair quickly then made her way into the living area to put on her converse.

After that, she was done. She looked at Brian with a raised eyebrow. “It’s a little pathetic that it takes you longer than a female to get ready!”

“Don’t act like my effort isn’t worth it.” He winked at her before exiting the bus. Madison rolled her eyes at his back, he was so full of himself sometimes.

As soon as the fans already lined up for the show saw him step out of the bus, they erupted into screams. It was almost deafening, Madison wondered how anyone could ever get used to it. Since he was running too late to stop and talk, Brian simply gave them all a smile and a wave before hurrying into the venue.

Madison was right on his heels, hanging on his every word as he pointed out different people she should know and basically how everything backstage worked. When the two of them burst into the green room, out of breath, to drop their stuff and get ready to go out for the sound check, Matt looked at them suspiciously.

"Don't look at me like that, this is his fault," she pointed in Brian's direction. "I thought I was going to have to drag him out of the bathroom by his hair just to get a turn in there."

"Probably best you didn't, he just might snap and kill someone for messing up his hair," Matt said with a laugh.

They guys hurried into sound check. Madison walked back and forth in front of the stage, practicing with different angles while she snapped a few pictures. They sounded great, even with it just being a sound check. She couldn't wait to hear them during the show, it had been a while since she'd been able to make it to one of them.

It wasn't long after sound check when people started piling inside the venue, rushing forward toward the barrier to try to get the best spot possible. The sound of thousands of excited people talking and laughing was almost overwhelming. The guys were off doing a meet and greet with a couple of lucky fans who had won the opportunity. Madison was wandering around, trying to familiarize herself with the faces of the crew and who did what backstage.

When music started and the opening band hit the stage, Madison hurried over to stand at the side to watch. She sang along with the songs she knew and was practically bouncing with excitement as she waited for Avenged to take the stage. She gave them all high fives as they made their way out onto the stage. The crowd was going absolutely wild as Madison ran to take her place below the stage so she could work on snapping some great photos.

The show was amazing. They really knew how to work the stage and interact with the fans. Brian had girls practically drooling over him as they tried to grab his feet and legs every time he got close to the edge of the stage. Madison was finding it harder and harder to keep her eyes off of him as the show went on. Everything from the way he walked around the stage to the way his fingers moved over the guitar strings was mesmerizing. He even caught her staring at one point, sending her a wink and smirking as her cheeks flushed red. She snapped herself out of it and moved on to taking photos of the other guys.

The rest of the night went by in a blur. Everything on tour moved so fast.

----------

Madison was so tired when she finally climbed into her bunk that she’d almost forgotten about the prank that was waiting for Jimmy. She barely had time to sit up where she’d have a good view before he let out a high pitched scream and there was a thud as he landed on the floor.

“What the fuck happened, Jimmy?” Brian asked as he jumped out of his bed to check on Jimmy who was crawling backwards on the floor, trying to get even farther away from his bunk.

“Fucking huge spider!”

Brian moved across the room to Jimmy’s bunk to investigate. He pulled back the blanket and flinched slightly when he noticed the giant spider next to the pillow. Seconds later, he erupted into laughter when he realized it was only a plastic tarantula. He snatched the spider up off the mattress and flung it in Jimmy's direction, earning another loud squeal from the drummer.

Madison was laughing so hard there were tears streaming down her cheeks. "Nice one, Maddie," Brian said, holding up his hand for a fist bump. Jimmy got up off the floor and angrily threw the spider at her, only succeeding in making her laugh even harder.

"I told you to watch your back, Jimmy."

"This isn't over," he muttered before climbing back into his bunk and pulling the curtains closed.

"He's already plotting his retaliation, isn't he?" Madison asked Brian as he started to climb back into his bunk.

"Definitely. There is no stopping him when it comes to pranks. You should probably be the one watching your back."

"I can handle him," she responded with a smile. "Goodnight, Brian."

"Goodnight, Maddie." He disappeared into his bunk and Madison rolled over, snuggling in underneath her blanket. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.