Twisted Up

“woahhh there. Wherrre do youu think yur goin?”
I tried to jerk my arm away from his grasp but he was a lot stronger than I was. I smacked him.

"You think you’re gunna get away. C’monnnn lets go. We could have a real great time.”

This time I punched him in the face and started running. The bus was a good hundred feet away when the guy caught up to me again.

“Hey now. You’re not going anywhere you’re mine.”

He grabbed my other arm, I was not going down without a fight. I knee’d him in the crotch and screamed as loud as I could.

“JOHN!!!! JARED! KENNEDY! SOMEONE HELP!!!!!!HELP!!!!!!!!!!”

The Drunk guy tried to smack me and take me down to the ground but I continued to fight and yell for help.
I saw the bus door open and Colby, John ohh , Jared, Josiah and Nate come flying out of the bus. I continued to fight as the guys reached me and pulled the drunk guy off of me. Nate threw me into Josiah while he called security and the others held the guy on the ground. I collapsed into Josiah and broke down.

“Shhhh. I’ve got you now. It’ll be ok.”

I could hear the other guys yelling at the drunk calling him names as I heard the pounding footsteps of security. I had my face buried in Siah’s chest, sobbing but I heard Security lead the guy away and the others all came over and gave me a hug as John called Pat.

“hey, I think you better get out here.” He hung up and came and gave me a hug.

“T-thanks guys.” I sputtered before burying my head back into Josiahs chest.

“Don’t even mention it. Stupid mother-”

Colby was obviously furious. The others shared his anger and continued to rant. I tried to
contain my sobs as I heard footsteps approach us.

“Miss, are you alright?” I looked at the Security guard and nodded.

He asked me to make a brief statement and then he left. The whole time I was talking to the cop, the guys never left my side. Colby held my right hand and Josiah protectively had one arm around my waist. As soon as the cop left I looked at Josiah, his white shirt was stained with my eyeliner and mascara from where I had been crying.

“I’m sorry I ruined your shirt.”

He just shrugged and held me again. I heard someone else walk up.

“Hey what the fuck took you so long?” John exclaimed

“Fans caught me on my way out here. Whats up?”

He must have seen me because I felt his hand on my back

“Paige? Are you ok?”

I lifted my head from Siah’s chest and as soon as I saw Pat I let out a small sob and ran to him and buried my face in his chest, which released another uncontrollable round of crying.

“shhhh…whats wrong?”

I saw Colby and Nate walk away, the other three just stood there. Not quite sure what to say.

“What happened?” he repeated.

“What the fuck happened to my girlfriend!?!?!?!” I felt him shake as he yelled at the others, I
tightened my grip on him as he rubbed my back.

“Well, she was putting stuff away in the trailer and this drunk came up and he wouldn’t leave her alone and all of the sudden we heard her yelling for help.-” Josiah Started

“What the hell did he do to her? Are you ok?” Pat became frantic, he pushed me away from him so I had to look at him. Concern and fear filled his brown eyes.

“What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?”
I took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. I wasn’t one to cry but that was scary as hell.

“He-he tried. The guys stopped him though.”

Pat’s eyes softened and he pulled me back into his arms.

“oh hun. Are you okay?”

I nodded

“She beat him up real good though. Bloody lip and I saw her knee him a good one too.”
John said trying to lighten the mood

“Deserved it the creep.” I muttered

“Lets get you back to the bus.” Josiah said quietly

“Are you sure he didn’t hurt you? He didn’t touch you at all?” Pat kept questioning me

I just looked at him. We were on the bus now, the others had left us and we were in Pat’s bunk.

“What did he do?” He raised his voice

I flinched at his anger. He instantly calmed down

“I’m sorry Paige. It just makes me so fucking angry that he could have done something to you.”

“I didn’t let him have the chance to do much. I started yelling before he could try anything. ”

Pat looked really sad all of the sudden. I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I should have been there. I never should have left you alone.”

“No, this wasn’t your fault. Don’t feel bad. I’m just glad you’re here now.”

We both fell silent and I was started to fall asleep when I said
“Did I ever tell you how safe I feel in your arms?” and then I fell asleep before I could finish.

I woke up to Pat playing with my hair. I smiled at him and he returned it.

“Morning Beautiful. How’d you sleep?”

“Hi. I slept amazingly well for being stuffed in the bunk. You?”

“It’s a good thing I’m so short. Or else we’d be in trouble.”

“You’re taller than me. So that doesn’t make you short.”

“Yeah but I’m shorter than John.”

“John is a freaking tree.”

We both laughed as Pat opened the curtain

“Hey John! Paige said you’re a tree!!”

That only made me laugh harder until I went into a fit of laughter where I make this ridiculous squeaking noise when I take a breath. Someone walked past the bunk and mocked me.

“Shut up john.” I laughed

“Hey, is that anyway to talk to someone who saved your life?”

I instantly stopped laughing. The reminder of what happened last night made me really sad and I buried my face in my pillow.

“That was really low John.” Pat murmered

I was laying on my stomach, completely detached from Pat. He rolled over on his stomach and wrapped his arm around me and nestled his head between my shoulder and my neck.

“Don’t listen to him. He was out of line.”

We layed in the bunk for a few minutes until Jared came by and said he needed to talk to
Pat so I let go of him and climbed out of the bunk. Pat walked off the bus with Jared, I grabbed a pair of shorts and one of Pat’s Glamour kills shirts that I had stolen, changed and walked off the bus. The Maine, All time Low and Bidwell were all standing in a circle and Colby was talking. I walked right up behind him.

“I don’t want her left alone today. You guys hear me?” Colby said

“What on earth are you talking about Colby?” I asked

“Nothing.” A few guys pulled out their phones to make it look like they were busy

“Bullshit. You were planning something and I’m willing to bet it has something to do with
me.”

“Nope, we were just talking.”

Colby wasn’t going to crack. I glared at him and then I looked at Pat who had this look on his face like he was praying I didn’t ask him, he has a very hard time lying to me. I decided to try Colby again

“Tell me!”

He shook his head no, I was aware of all the others watching intently.

“Fine, I’ll ask Pat.”

I walked over to my boyfriend.

“Babe, what are you boys talking about?”

Kenny nudged Pat with his elbow “don’t cave in man!”

I shot him my best ‘shut up Kenny’ look as Pat shrugged, hoping I would accept that for an answer. No way was he getting away with it, I wanted to know what Colby was talking about. I took Pat’s hand in mine and gave him my best puppy dog eyes.

“Pat, who doesn’t Colby want left alone?” I asked sweetly. I knew once I pulled out the puppy dog eyes that Pat wouldn’t last much longer.

“You. Colby wants us to take shift to make sure that nothing happens to you.” He blurted out. Colby glared at him as I dropped his hand and marched over to Colby.

“You what!?!?!?” I asked….loudly.

“He just wanted to make sure you stayed safe.” Jared came to Colby’s defense, several of the others came to Colby’s defense (“its just because we love you” “we’re not hurting anything.”).

“Shut up.” I snapped at them as I took a couple of deep breaths to calm down and Pat appeared at my side and held my hand.

“Look,” I said, “I appreciate you guys being concerned and all but you’re not giving me any credit here. I did a damn good job of defending myself and I even called for help which I’m glad you guys gave me-”

“Of course we helped you, we don’t ever want to see anything bad happen to you!” Josiah interjected, I shot him a look.

“- But I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

I took another breath and looked at their faces. Some showed guilt or embarrassment and some showed shock at my outburst. I instantly felt bad about yelling at them.

“We just feel like it’s our fault because we all knew we were in a scummy neighborhood and none of us thought to make sure the girls on the tour were safe.” Zack from All Time Low explained

“Yeah and I feel extra worse because I’m your boyfriend and it’s kinda my job to protect you from creepers and I failed” Pat whispered

I could tell he felt really bad about that. I squeezed Pat’s hand and looked around at the others, it was kind of awkward addressing a crowd.

“ I’m really sorry I yelled. I really do appreciate the fact that you boys look out for me. I guess if you want to you can do your silly little thing. Just please don’t treat me like a two year old.”
They all cheered up. I guess you have to throw the dog a bone every now and then right?

“ok, Pat will be with her until the Maine’s sound check and then Zack will have her until show time.” Colby started

I rolled my eyes and pulled pat away from the crowd. We walked over to a bench that was hidden behind the bus . we sat down and I looked Pat in the eyes.

“Do you really blame yourself for what happened?” I asked slightly baffled because I didn’t see a way that it could remotely be his fault.

“Yeah because if I hadn’t been with the fans I could have prevented it.”
I laughed slightly and he just looked at me, puzzled.

”hun, you’re the drummer of the band. You get paid to play shows and interacting with the fans is part of that job. I’m a crew girl, I get paid to sell shirts and lift boxes. There’s nothing you could have done. Besides, nothing happened. I’m ok.”

He slipped his arm around my middle and pulled me closer to him. Pat is ‘short’ for a guy at a towering 5’9 and I’m shorter at 5’6 so he enjoys the fact that I’m shorter than he is.

“I know but the fact that it happened scared me. I know I have the most beautiful girlfriend ever-“ I looked up at him like ‘yeah right’ followed by a huge eye roll

“-what? I do! You may not think so but I really do.”

I smiled and gave him a small kiss on the lips, he continued.

“But anyway, I see guys stare at you all the time but I never thought someone would try something like that.”

I just smiled at him “What?” he asked

“You amaze me.”

He cocked his head to the side to show his confusion.

“No matter how depressed you are, you’re still adorable.”

He narrowed his eyes at me “Paige, this is serious. He could have hurt you.”

I buried my face in his chest (if you haven’t already guessed, this is my favorite thing to do. I love it), as he hugged me closer to him.

“ I know. But he didn’t and we just have to be really grateful for that. I honestly just want to forget about all of it. I guess that’s why I got so mad at Colby.”

His eyes softened up as he smiled at me. His phone started playing his text message ringtone and he took his arms away from me and I leaned back so he could look for his phone.

“We have soundcheck in a few. That was Zack, he’ll be waiting for us inside for me to transfer you to him.”

“transfer? Why do I feel like you guys should be calling me ‘the package’?”
he smiled sheepishly
“Well…he kinda did.” I playfully slapped his arm as he laughed.

“It’s only because we have precious cargo.”