Booze, Boys, and Buses

When we arrived in New York, they explained that the concert wasn’t until tomorrow night. I was glad that now we would actually get to spend time just hanging out with the band.

“Dude, I just got Saw Four man!” Jimmy exclaimed as we left Best Buy.

“So are we all going to watch it?” I asked.

“Hell yeah.” Johnny said.

We all walked over to the hummer. I got into the passenger and Matt was in the driver’s seat. I thought it was wicked cool that they had a chauffeur bring it to them every state that they went to.

“I love gory movies.” I said excitedly.

“Me too.” Kacie agreed. “Matt, you and Cassie are sitting next to each other and if I hear you pick on her or say anything mean or negative to her, well, you think your balls are small now? Wait until I’m done with them.”

“Awwww!” The other four guys all exclaimed to Kacie’s comment.

“Just as long as she doesn’t instigate.” He said.

I laughed. “Would I do that?”

“Yeah, you would.”

“Well, I guess it could be worse, I could instigate and be an ass with the name Matt Sanders. Oh woops, that’s right. That spot’s already been taken.” I smirked.

“Or you could instigate and be an ugly slut. Oh right, you’re already there.” He said.

“You’re such an asshole.” I muttered.

“And you’re one to talk.” He said back.

“Alright enough! I can’t take the fighting anymore! We’re like a broken family!” Jimmy said, pretending to sob.

Matt and I discontinued the conversation after that. Jimmy had a point, this was childish arguing. He was just so unfair sometimes. Even though I guess I was the one that started it this time. But he was the one that was causing the whole entire fight this whole time. When we got back to the bus, everyone changed into some pajamas and then we all crowded in the kitchen area for the movie. We set the table down so it was like an extra bed if necessary. Me, Kacie and the five buff men all squeezed into the small space.

“Hey Kacie, you could sit on my lap if you wanted to.” Zacky said, wiggling his eyebrows.

He seemed a little too anxious to have a girl sitting on his lap. Kacie denied him and he pouted, in turn earning a kiss on the cheek. He lit up, but she had only meant it in a nice, friendly way. Believe me, I could tell the difference between a friendly kiss and a regular kiss. Surprisingly, we had all fit into the space. Matt and I were a little too close for comfort, but that was the only place anyone would have let me sit. In the very beginning there was a rather bone chilling part. I wanted to grab a pillow, but Matt had the only pillow.

“Give me the pillow.” I said.

“No.” He said, pressing up against it tighter.

“What are you too afraid? Do you need it?” I asked.

Kacie glared at him and he growled lowly. He violently shoved the pillow at me. I grinned at the fact that he was giving into my demands. That didn’t matter in a few minutes, because I was too busy staring wide eyed at the television screen. One of the girl’s scalps were being peeled off. I bit the pillow and squeezed it with all my might. Matt pulled it out of my mouth roughly.

“Ow!” I yelled. “Asshole!” I hit him with the pillow. “Fucking a.”

I got up from the crowded bed and then went to the bathroom. My teeth hurt really bad. I looked at them in the mirror. At least they were all in place, and my gums weren’t bleeding or anything.

“You’re lucky that didn’t do any damage!” I yelled, sitting back down into my seat.

“Uh huh.” He said, staring blankly into the television screen.

“Jerk.” I murmured into the pillow.

He left me alone for the rest of the night. Thank goodness, I was too tired and my teeth were to achy to take anymore of Matt’s bullshit. I only had three more days, not including today to enjoy myself. I still didn’t feel like I was getting as much out of this as I had wanted to.

“Kacie do we have enough money in the budget to do some shopping? I mean, we’re in New York!” I exclaimed.

“I’m sure I could squeeze some money out to do some shopping. You have a good point. Do any of you guys wanna come?” She asked.

I heard four yeses.

“Matt, are you coming?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He muttered.

Wow. No rude remark or insult. Was today going to be the end of his continuous attempt to be mean to me? I somehow doubted it. He wouldn’t just wake up one morning and realize that he’s being an ass, it would take a little while longer than just that. When we got to the mall, I couldn’t take how huge it was. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I ran over to Spencer’s gift and went inside. The guys were all following I assumed. When we all walked in, the cashier looked a little dumbstruck. Then when she finally realized that she was staring, she walked over somewhat briskly to us.

“How can I help you all today?” She asked over-excitedly.

“Thanks but I think that we’re fine.” I said.

We continued to walk around in the store. The guys were picking up little joke things, then I found the perfect thing. It was a chicken condom. These things were like the diameter of a pencil, if that. I walked over to the cash register and paid for it. She tried to keep the guys in the store, but the kind of shoved her away and then we all walked outside.

“Matt I bought you something.” I grinned.

“Oh great, what an original fan thing to do.” He rolled his eyes.

I narrowed my eyes, but then collected myself. I guess my present was little mean too. I handed it to him and he just stared at it.

“I was hoping that we could use it tonight?” I asked.

“In your fucking dreams babe, you could never match up to this.” He said.

I hated the whole big ego thing. That irked me on a level I couldn’t even tell you about. Even Syn wasn’t that bad, and he was pretty bad. He threw the condom on the floor and we continued through the store. Kacie wanted to run into Claire’s for some earrings. So that’s where we went. When we left, I heard the beeper go off saying that something hadn’t been tagged. The security was on our ass in no time flat. Matt put his hands up while a woman officer felt him up and down a little bit more than necessary. One of them were looking through my purse. They pulled out some nail polish that I certainly hadn’t taken and walked through Claire’s with it. The alarm went off. I knew who must’ve done that.

“I didn’t take that, someone must’ve put it in my bag.” I explained, eyeing Matt.

“We hear that story a lot.” She said.

“No, I really didn’t take it, here I’ll even give you money for it, it’s not like I couldn’t afford it.” I tried to tell her.

“Ok, listen, I won’t take you to jail, but you are banned from this mall do you hear me?” She said. “If I see you here again, you will be prosecuted”

I nodded in understanding and she sighed to go about doing her job again. I wasn’t about to speak to Matt at all until the end of my time with them. He had done and said a lot of mean things to me while I was here, but this was by far the worst and meanest thing. When we got into the hummer I looked out the window and quietly stared into the sky.

“Aw come on, you’ve gotta admit that that was kinda funny.” Matt said, nudging me.

I ignored him. That was the best way to go. If I said anything to him, it was going to be nothing but mean and I was done fighting with him. He had been mean to me far too many times and for what? Because his girlfriend broke up with him? Oh wah! He would have to get over it at some point. Better sooner than later.

“Cass, that was funny right?” He said.

“Shut up!” Kacie yelled at him. “It obviously wasn’t fucking funny! She’s probably right embarrassed!”

Matt scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. “Oh well.”

I actually felt a tear fall down my cheek. How could I do that? How could I let myself be so weak as to cry over something this silly. I quickly wiped it away. I couldn’t let Matt see that I was crying. When we got back to the bus, the guys started getting ready for their concert. I hadn’t planned on attending this one. I was way too upset to want to even bother. Matt had crossed the line this time. Kacie made sure like a thousand times that I would be ok here by myself and I told her like a thousand times that I would be.

I sat down onto my bed and began writing in my journal. I was just explaining the events of the day. Tomorrow was going to be better than today was I had hoped. I woke up to the sun shining in my face. When I woke up I stretched and had a feeling that today was going to be an ok day. I wasn’t sure if that’s exactly how it was going to go, but I was praying. My cell phone rang and I looked at the caller ID. It was Mark with a K. I answered it.

“Hey.” I said.

“Hola chika. So I hear that you’re chillin with Avenged am I correct?” He asked.

“Duh Mark, you’re the one that sent them to my house.” I reminded him.

“Yeah yeah, I know, but still. So how is it going?” He asked.

“It’s going great! They’re all nice guys.” I lied.

I didn’t want to ruin their reputation in any way just because one of them was an ass.

“Ok, well I’ll see you when you get back!” He said.

“Ok, bye mark.”

“See ya.” He said, hanging up.

Matt was a little hung over from the previous night. Kacie was going around the bus cleaning it from bumper to bumper. This obviously reminded Matt a little of Val. He didn’t even want to watch her clean anything.

“So how’d last night go?” I asked.

“I think it went pretty well. You were sleep talking about how much you wanted to hit Matt in the nuts, but we all got a good laugh out of that.” Johnny said.

I blushed and laughed a little. That was sort of funny. Even in my unconscious mind I was angry with him. I got up and went to the cupboard and found just what I was looking for. Some cinnamon toast crunch. I was surprised that they even had good cereal on this bus. I poured my bowl and then got some milk. I put everything back and then went and sat at the table. I was almost done eating when Matt came out into the kitchen. He grabbed the cinnamon toast crunch box out of the cupboard as well. He opened it and then glared at me.

“What?” I asked.

He took his bowl and poured what was left of the cereal into the bowl. There was only about two actual, not crushed, pieces of cereal. He looked angry.

“Look, I’ll go to the store and buy you some more.” I said, getting up.

“Yeah you’d better.” He said.

“Never mind.” I said. “I’ll let you get it.”

No way was I going to let him talk to me like that and still get what he wanted. I wasn’t a pushover kind of girl. And I certainly wasn’t about to start being one now.