FicWad

Taylor’s Point Of View…


Everyone exited the bus to go and start sound check and get ready and everything that was necessary as Cam dragged me over to the couch and started babbling obnoxiously, fast and loud.


“Ok, shut up, you’re speaking faster than I do,” I told her annoyed.


“Ok, well I went to the Fall Out Boy bus thinking about what you were saying about talking to Joe and he’s just sitting there with this ho. I mean she was so fake and so….blond. It was truly disgusting. And they were so mussed and you could totally tell that they’d been making out. I mean dude, her shirt was practically half way off. Who knows what STD’s he would’ve gotten if I hadn’t have walked in when I did. He is so on my shit list now though. He is such a douche,” she finished her rant all out of breath.


“I think someone’s a little jealous… and I’m sure she wasn’t that trashy looking. And pshhh; him get STD’s from her? I think it would be the other way around. You can’t use this as an excuse to not talk to him and sort all your shit out with him. He’s obviously trying to just get you jealous. I thought that you’d be smart enough to understand that Camille,” I told her, looking at her like she was a total ditz


I was kind of beginning to think that she was one, to be quite honest.


“Well, what am I supposed to do now?” she asked me cluelessly.


“Well, that my dear friend is all up to you. You can go crawl back to him and talk to him or show him that you don’t need him and that this ho that he’s brought into the equation doesn’t affect you and then he can be the one that makes the first move towards amends,” I told her, hoping she’d pick the latter choice.


“I think I’ll go with the last choice. I don’t need him. If he wants to talk or has something to say then he can be the one to make the first move. I owe him nothing. He on the other hand owes me a lot…” she said annoyed and stubborn.


“I bet you could think of a few ways for him to make it up to you…” I insinuated as I winked at her.


She just slapped my arm with this fake outraged look on her face.


“I can not believe that just came out of your mouth Taylor!” she said looking shocked.


“Oh shut up. I know it’s what you expected to hear,” I told her as I got up and off the bus to walk down the steps and see how far we were from the venue.


We were only like 200 feet from the back door to the place. Camille walked with me and we reached the door where the security guard saw us flash or passes and let us through immediately.


It’s nice to have connections. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Gabe


Wait, what the hell?


I can’t handle a relationship now. Not when I have the whole “Brian making a reappearance in my life” situation, against my will


We walked around, taking everything in as it came into our vision. This place had a musky smell, it was kind of rundown, no big and fancy stadium. You could definitely tell that this place was old; it had that dirty old smell to it. We went from room to room, talking to people occasionally as we went by them. Reading the names of bands and the signatures left all over the walls. I likes this place, it had a nice classic vibe to it.


I kept walking as Cam planted herself down on a couch with Andy and they watched some T.V. What was it with these guys and their video games and television?


I just sighed and shook my head.


I could see people behind curtains and saw that right now I was on the right wing on the stage.


I heard Gabe’s voice ring out and I realized that they were doing sound check. I moved closer and saw Gabe clearly since the curtains had been drawn back on the sides.


The whole band was there and I noticed that Victoria was back. I couldn’t wait to meet her. Alex had told me so much about her and the whole band. The rest of the band sure had lived up to all of the talk, I hope she will too.


They were out there for maybe another 15 minutes and I was unabashedly in a trance as I watched Gabe doing what he does best.


If I’d been more aware of what I was doing I might have been embarrassed, maybe a little.


They finished up sound check and Gabe glanced over in my direction and once he saw me he sent me this obnoxious wink and nodded and mouthed ‘hold up a sec’ as he walked to the tech people. I did as I was told.


“I saw you watching himmm,” someone teased as they come up behind me.
It was Trish.


I was assuming she’d come to watch Cute Is What We Aim For go through their sound check. I saw them setting up as Gabe was talking to the tech dude.


“So? I’m allowed to look. I know eye candy when I see it,” I told her, I was sooo not letting her get on my case about liking him. My solution- deny, deny, deny.


“Oh b.s. you know that you like him, you like him a lot. I saw that look in your eyes when you watched him. There was this sparkle there, and it was like he was the only thing that existed in your world,” she told me with her arms folded across her chest and grinning.


“You know, the fact that you watch me so much is kind of creepy,” I said, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible. I did not want to talk about my love life right now, or my lack of one.


“Hey there,” said Gabe coming up behind me with this goofy smile on his face.


“Hey,” I said, I couldn’t hold in my own stupid looking grin.


We just stood there smiling at each other.


Then Trish started to fake cough


“CoughawkwardformeCough,” she faked.


I just rolled my eyes at her.


“Hey, you wanna come with me to go get a water bottle?” Gabe asked.


“Sure,” I agreed. Anything to get away from Trish and her very obvious staring at me and Gabe.


“Remember- use protection!” she screamed as we were walking away.


“Take your own advice you hooo!” I yelled back to her nonchalantly as me and Gabe kept walking.


“You know, I’ve got some in my wallet right here,” he said winking and patting his pocket.


I just stared at him blankly, “In your dreams hun. In. Your. Dreams.”


“Every night babe. Every single night,” he said staring directly into my eyes.


I turned away, unable to handle the intensity of his stare. Some guys came over to talk to us while we sat on the couch and soon enough the show was starting and people were arriving. I finally got to meet Victoria too.


“Heyy! I’m Victoria, but call me Vicky. I’m gonna go and assume that you are Taylor,” she introduced, smiling calmly and outstretching her hand for me to shake it.


This girl was super tall. She towered over me and I was wearing wedges. I had to stare up at her, why was everyone in this band so tall?! Did they all jack up on growth hormones or something one night when they got bored?!


“Yep, I’m Taylor. Nice to meet you Vicky,” I said smiling back. She seemed really chill. I liked her already.


“Well, it was nice meeting you, but I need to go get my mic checked real quick,” she said getting dragged away by the annoying little tech dude.


It was amazing being backstage and watching it all happening. You don’t get to see all the chaos from out in front of the stage.


Some where in all that craziness though there was a perfect sense of calm. It was unexplainable.


I watched all the bands play from the side lines and was in awe of the amazing performances that they gave.


Cobra Starship was waiting for Cute Is What We Aim For to finish up their set and I gave Alex a big hug and Gabe a kiss on the cheek before they ran onto stage.


The screaming of the fans was starting to give me a headache but hey, what else do you expect from a concert?


Gabe looked directly at me and winked before he started singing Guilty Pleasure. I could barely hear him over all the fans and I almost cracked up laughing at his exasperated expression when the crowd messed up the first line, as per usual.


I few times when he was singing a certain part of a certain song he’d turn and sing directly to me. I highly doubt that the fans noticed, but I sure did. Every time he did that I felt like my heart was a balloon that wanted to fly away.


I looked out into the crowd crushed in this small room. I felt bad for all the poor people getting squished in the crowd. General admission concerts were harsh.


I looked back at the bar and my eye caught someone staring directly at me, and I don’t know how considering I probably couldn’t even be seen.


I looked a little closed and saw the dark blond hair and I knew who it was immediately.


Brian.


I backed up slowly, scared for my life and just kept backing up, feeling my vision get dizzy. I couldn’t breath. The room was getting too small. I can’t handle this. He can’t touch me. I don’t want him near me. I’m scared.


Oh my god. God, please don’t let him hurt me.


I ran towards that back door of the venue just as Cobra Starship’s set was ending.


I ran right into Cam, almost knocking her down in the process.


“Are you okay?” she asked me, concerned.


“Yeah. Fine. I’m just fine,” I said in a scared nervous voice that showed just how much I was lying.


She didn’t have a chance to call me out on it though because I just kept running towards the door. I ran the 200 feet back to the tour bus went in, locked the doors, happy that the guys each had their own keys, locked the windows, and checked on Mario who was fast asleep in the driver’s seat. I couldn’t blame him, he was kind of old and it was already a little past eleven.


I just changed into my shorts and a sweatshirt, jumped into my, well Gabe’s bed, and curled up in a ball, enjoying the nice air conditioned bus.


In my little fetal position I felt safe.


I felt like nothing and no one could ever harm me.

At least that’s what I kept telling myself.


If that were true then why did I jump and have a mini-heart attack at every little sound I heard.


I was trying to remember that one thing that Cam used to always say about fear.


Oh yeah…


You have nothing to fear but fear itself…


Obviously whoever made that saying up never had a life like mine.