The Sound of a Ghost

"Kai! Kai kai kai kai kai!" Theo came sprinting down the side of the venue over to the tables where we had been sitting after the bused had parked.

"Pat, our vocalist doth summon us." I giggled, pulling Pat up by the elbow and away from our table.

"Yes, Theo, darling?" I asked, still smiling at my amazing ability to irritate Hi-me, as I had been doing just moments before.

I love to hate him and hate to love him, what can I say?

"Where are we?" Theo inquired.

"Georgia..."

"And how hot is it out?"

"84..."

"And how much longer is there left on tour?!"

"2 weeks..."

"Then why aren't we pranking?!" Theo shrieked.

"Because we promised we wouldn't blow anything up..." I said carefully. Theo sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Kailyn. Please. We've moved passed fire and onto water." Theo drawled. Pat and I exchanged looks and shared a secretive grin.

"Pierce the Veil?" I asked.

"Who else?" I grinned.

"Alright, ladies. Bikini up."

********

I adjusted the belt containing dozens of water balloons, tied my straightened hair up into a pony tail, and observed myself in the mirror.

Perfect.

"Daaamn girl." I looked over my shoulder and saw Theo standing there in, one eyebrow raised and his gaze taking in my pink and orange striped bikini top and navy blue shorts beneath the dusty brown balloon belt.

"Watch it, Theo. Your hetero is showing." I responded.

"We all know I'd go straight for you." Theo laughed, before taking a drink from a water bottle. Nick suddenly hopped into the room in orange trunks and a white wife beater, weilding one hell of a supersoaker. He cocked it and grinned maniacally around the room.

"Let's go soak us some Californians!" He shouted.

"Pipe down, mohawk boy." David said, smacking Nick in the back of the head upon entering the room.

"You guuuuys. Why?" Pat whined, trudging into the room. He wore dark blue trunks and a gray wife beater. Seemed normal to me.

"What's your issue?" David asked. Pat sulkily brought out a miniscule pink water gun. I bit my lip and glanced at David. Beat. And then we both burst out into giggles.

"Thanks guys. Thanks a lot. Give the straightest guy here the pussy gun." Pat whined.

"Hey!" Nick and David shouted, scandalized.

"Why can't I be water balloons?"

"Because you have to be badass to be water balloons. Which is why it's David and I." I said, hand on hip. Pat sighed.

"Fine, I can probably take Vic out with this." He said, studing his gun.

"I'm taking down Mike, man." Nick said, eyeing his gun, completely impressed.

"And I owe Andrew for that lovely drawing he put in white out on the back fo my guitar." David grumbled.

"I call Tony!" Theo shouts.

"Then that leaves me with...OH FUCK NO!" I shouted, rounding on my band.

"What? It's just-oooooh" Pat trailed off. Nick rolled his eyes.

"Suck it up and bean him with water balloons." Nick said and then charged out the door into the burning daylight. I sighed and followed the rest of my band over to the PtV bus.

***********

I was stationed ahead of the front of the bus, a waterballoon in each hand. I glanced at David, who was crouched behind their trailor.

"David, where are-"

"Shhhh!" Theo hissed from the top of the bus, "They're coming!" It was then that I started to hear the crunch of the gravel scattered across the black top that indicated the band's approach. I looked to David, who was copying the countdown that Theo was putting off.

3

2

1

"AHHHHH!" I heard Vic shriek.

"HaHA!" Pat yelled and I saw the two race past me. I peered around the corner of the bus.

"Feel the wrath, Andy! Feel it!" David shouted, pelting Andrew with water balloons.

"Fuck you, man! Fuck you!" Mike yelled, trying to shield himself from Nick's super soaker.

"Theo, what the-kajhidunv asdkjnhf" Tony tried to say, muffled from the stream of water. There was someone missing though. I narrowed my eyes and kept looking.

"Damn it, where's-"

"Looking for me?" I whirled around and saw Hi-me standing behind me, grinning devilishly. I gasped in surprise.

"Sonovabitch!" I shouted, bursting both balloons against his head.

"AH! Bitch!" Hi-me shouted. I backed up up away from him but tripped over a rock and fell to the pavement, dropping some of the water balloons out of my belt, which Hi-me quickly scooped up. He pushed it down onto my head, splashing the water all down my face. I narrowed my eyes at him and he did similar.

This had suddenly become very personal.

As did everything we ever did.

I picked myself up off the black top, firing another water balloon at him, smacking Hi-me in the chest and soaking his favorite A Day to Remember shirt. Hi-me's jaw dropped in shock and then he glared at me and pelted me with another water balloon, making my straightened hair hang limply by my ears.

"Motherfu-" and then I coughed as another balloon exploded against my chin. I growled and launched myself and Hi-me, smashing a balloon into his cheek. Hi-me grasped both my wrists and then pinned them at my sides, trapping me against the wall of the bus with his body. Our eyes remained narrowed at eachother. Everything fell silent around us as both our bands stop to watch the exchange. Hi-me and I didn't even notice as we stood pressed together, dripping water and my last water balloon clutched uelessly in my hand.

"Well this seems sickenly familliar." I stated, feeling much like I did that time he trapped me after our first gig in the dressing room.

"You weren't so sickened then."

"Wrong. I was. Just as I was in the ally, and in Mike's basement." I hissed. It was a low blow, and sadly completely untrue. Hi-me's birthday had been replaying through my head incessantly for the past week.

"Yeah? That's not what your moans said the whole damn night, Kai." Hi-me replied lowly. My jaw dropped.

"Dude! You fucked my sister?!" Tony exclaimed.

"Fuck off, Turtle!" We both shouted. I glanced quickly at them. My band looked nonplussed, as they already had a vague idea of Hi-me and my past, but Pierce the Veil stood in complete and utter shock. They never were very observant. My eyes flicked back to Hi-me.

"I did NOT moan!" I gasped, scandalized.

"Oh, yes you did. And do you know what you did after that? You left. Every time." He hissed.

"I HAD to! You know that! If I hadn't, where would we be now?! Still at eachother's throats, trying to get the bass position. I did what was best for both of us, and you know it." I replied. When did I start having to defend myself. Hi-me had dropped his grip on my wrists but stood close enough to me that I could feel his breath on my nose.

"Bull shit. That's the excuse you came up with. The real reason was you were scared, Kailyn. And you're still scared. That's why you did that stupid thing with Jake." I angrily raised and burst it on the side of his head. Hi-me choked on the water and backed up slightly, giving me room to step away from the bus.

"Why do you make it so god damn hard to love you?" I spat. I saw Hi-me's face fly up and look at me in shock and I quickly turned around to march back to my own bus.

"Kailyn!" Hi-me shouted. I didn't hear his footsteps behind me so I knew he wasn't running after me.

"What?" I shouted back, not turning around.

"Listen to our cd again. Track 8." I paused and looked over my shoulder.

"The Balconey Scene? What does that have to do wi-"

"I wrote it." He interjected. I stared at him for a moment and then continued walking to my bus.

We should've just blown something up.