Tales That Must Be Re-told

Before they had started, Jack tried to set a goal for himself not to get too wasted. Afterall, Adelaide had taken care of them so many times before, and now it was her turn to let loose.

Of course, it didn't work at all. They were practically falling all over each other within only an hour of their arrival at a club.

And, of course, Jack and Adelaide didn't stop there. They spent a couple more hours in the club, drinking and dancing. The more they drank, the more provocative they became. That's when Jack decided that at three o'clock in the morning, it would be a brilliant idea for them to get a hotel room instead of going back to the bus in their state. Giggling, Adelaide agreed.

Somehow despite their tripping and falling, they managed to check into a nearby hotel and found their way to their room. Jack slammed the door shut, and the two got lost in sweat, moaning, and tangled sheets.

The next morning, Adelaide turned in her sleep and opened her eyes. She didn't recall the previous night until she took a look at her surroundings and noticed that her and the lanky boy sleeping next to her were wearing no clothing.

It was all she could do to stop herself from screaming and toppling out of the bed. Her eyes were wide with horror. She spotted her clothes scattered around the room, quickly sprang for them, and bolted for the bathroom to get dressed, as if she was afraid Jack might wake up and see her.

As Adelaide finished getting dressed, she felt a sudden wave of nausea and instinctively went for the toilet. After she was finished emptying her stomach's contents from the night before, she flushed the toilet.

It was when she was washing her face with cold water that she realized what a mess she was in.

"I knew there was a fucking good reason why I never drank with them," she grumbled as she shut off the tap and dried off her face. She sat on the edge of the bathtub and put her head in her hands, contemplating what she should do.

After a few minutes, she decided that she would take the childish route and run away. Adelaide knew that she would have to face Jack eventually, but she reasoned with herself. First of all, her brother and the rest of the guys were undoubtedly freaking out, as they had no idea where Jack and Adelaide were. Second, Jack waking up with her in a hotel room did not sound like anything pleasant. In addition, she still had a lot to think about before facing him.

Adelaide made her decision and tip-toed out of the bathroom back to where the bed was; her tip-toeing wasn't very necessary, though, since Jack was sound asleep and snoring quietly. Regardless, she grabbed her purse as quietly as she could and dug around for her wallet. After putting forty dollars on the bedside table to help towards the room, she scribbled a quick note.

Jack,

I'm back at the bus, don't freak out. I'm sorry. We'll talk later, I guess?

-Addy

Satisfied, she placed her note with the money and quietly made her way out of the room.

While she was in a cab back to where their bus was parked, Adelaide took her phone out of her purse to see that she had nine new messages. One was from Travis that said Lol thank you! =D, but other than that they were all from the guys. One from Zack, one from Rian, two from Matt, and four were from her brother. The one that had just been sent ten minutes beforehand, from Alex, said, IF U DONT FUCKING CALL ME IM GONNA START TRIPPING BALLS OMFGGG.

She rolled her eyes and texted back, Don't worry, brother of mine, I'm on my way. About thirty seconds later her phone vibrated. WHERE THE FUCK DID U GO? WE HAVE TO LEAVE 4 A PHOTOSHOOT IN AN HOUR!

Sighing, Adelaide replied, Relax. Breathe. Go take your happy pills. I'll be there in ten minutes, tops.

Other than getting a text with the symbols for an angry face, she didn't hear any more from Alex. Finally the cab pulled to a stop and she shoved her money at the driver and climbed out, not bothering to get change. Her foot wasn't even on the bus and she heard an explosion of somewhat inaudible yelling.

"CALM DOWN!" she shouted, which silenced the boys.

"Where the hell were you?" demanded Alex.

"Jack and I went out," she said and shrugged. "It was really late so we got a hotel."

Alex narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his siter, knowing she was hiding something from him.

She sighed, sittting down. "Listen, I really don't want to get into it with everyone, okay?"

His facial expression changed, seeing that Adelaide was upset. "Do you wanna go for a walk, Addy?" he asked softly.

She really didn't want to talk about it, but Alex was her brother and she couldn't hide things from him very well. She nodded and without a word, Alex put his arm around her shoulders and they walked off the bus.

"Before you get into it can you please call the hotel and get them to give Jack a wake-up call?" he asked. "We really have to get going soon."

"Yeah, sure." Adelaide pulled out her phone and called the hotel, somehow having accumulated their card in her purse. "Hi, can you please give room 427 a wake-up call? ... Yes, please tell him that his band has a photoshoot to go to." She paused and looked at Alex, asking what the address of the place of the photoshoot was; she instructed the girl to tell Jack to be there. After thanking her, Adelaide hung up her phone.

"So, do you want to talk about what happened?" asked Alex with sincerity in his voice.

"Okay," she slowly began. "So, as you probably know, Jack and I had a bit of an argument yesrterday."

He interrupted. "Yeah, what was that all about?"

"It doesn't matter, it's irrelevant. I don't even remember, to tell you the truth."

"Okay, then what?"

"So after that, I decided that I would go for a walk to calm down before going back to the bus, because I was really fucking pissed off," Adelaide continued. "I ended up by this forest shit place, and I heard stuff from behind the trees." She paused and swallowed, willing herself not to form any tears.

Alex didn't rush her but merely rubbed her arm comfortingly; they were sitting down on a sidewalk now.

"Me being me, I looked, and it was Jeremy. And guess who he was with."

For about two seconds, Alex was silent and stared at his sister. Out of nowhere, he jumped up and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I WILL FUCKING TEAR HIM LIMB FROM LIMB AND RUN HIM OVER WITH A MOTHERFUCKING DUMPTRUCK!"

Adelaide stood up and grabbed her brother's shoulder. "Alex, please calm down," she said, a little scared. "It's over, it's done with. I'm clearly better off without him."

Alex sputtered angrily, incapable of words. He was so furious that he was actually shaking; his fists were balled. He merely made a vicious-sounding growling noise and stood there.

"How about this," she suggested. "If he ever comes within ten feet of me again, I give you permission to go at him. Other than that, please don't make this a bigger situation than it already is."

"Make it twenty feet," Alex demanded.

Adelaide smiled slightly. "Fine, twenty feet."

Alex pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Adds," he whispered. "How did Jack take it?"

"He didn't really care, actually," said Adelaide thoughtfully. Alex looked at her, frowning. "I mean, he didn't care about the Tiffany part. He was mainly concerned for my well-being. That's why we went out."

At this, he smiled. "Did you finally get drunk?" he asked, ruffling her hair.

"Possibly."

"How cute," he said and grinned. "Was Jack the chaperone?"

"...Well, that was our original plan. It didn't really turn out that way."

Alex looked at her, raising an eyebrow. If he had suspected anything, he didn't mention or show it. "Well do you mind if we head back to the bus now, Addy? We'd better leave in a few minutes if we want to make it back in time."

"Of course."

They were pretty much silent on their walk back to the bus. Just before stepping on, he turned to Adelaide.

"Hey Addy," he said suddenly.

She looked up at him, her bright blue eyes unreadable. "Yeah?"

"If anything were to happen, you would tell me, right?"

Adelaide's eyebrows were drawn slightly together, a little confused. "What does that mean?"

"Well, stuff. Anything, at all. You'd tell me, wouldn't you?" When she didn't answer, he continued, "Because when stuff goes on with me, you're the first person I ever tell."

"Of course I would tell you, Alex. You're my big brother."

He smiled, satisfied, and opened the door and walked onto the bus.

Biting her lip guiltily, Adelaide followed suit.