the Reckless and the Brave (Sequel to Scream, to be Heard)

Everybody Knows There's A Party At the End of the World

The guys got up and moving about 7:30, and we reached the airport about 8:15, which was fine because we had time to get food and make our flight. The flight, which lasted about four and a half hours, was not fun. Partly because the guys wouldn't stop making noise and we got complaints about ten or so times.

"Excuse me sir," the flight attendant said, stopping at our aisle. Zack was trying to get his phone back from Jack, who was reading his messages from his girlfriend out loud, and Rian was singing Alicia Keys in a really bad, really squeaky falsetto voice. Alex was being Alex and was singing Call Me Maybe in the most obnoxious voice he could manage, and I was trying to sleep while listening to my phone. "We're going to have to ask the four of you to calm down or leave the plane on our stop to Detroit." Jack reluctantly stopped reading the messages out loud, and handed a red-faced Zack the phone back. Rian stopped short and changed the song to something by Face to Face, and Alex switched it to something else that I couldn't see, but I had a feeling it was Weezer. "Thank you." She walked away to service someone else.

"Whoa, she was hot," Jack said. I looked at him.

"She was also about to kick out off the plane," Rian said. "And she was, like, thirty."

"So? She's hot, man. Age is but a number." I rolled my eyes as Alex and Zack gave him a disgusted look and looked away, muttering something.

"You're disgusting. Pedophile," I said to him, taking a bag of Kettle Corn and opening it and start eating it, and end up eating the entire thing. Once the flight landed, we checked into our hotel. There were to seperate rooms, but i still had to share a bed with Alex since there were five of us and only four beds. I changed into shorts, a turquoise, red, and white button-up, my blue Vans, and a red tank. Then we went to Six Flags. The first thing we rode was the Boss, which nearly killed me. My arms were so thin and my hands were so small that the bar was too big, and I couldn't hold onto it. Plus, there were no seatbelts so I slammed into Alex at least fifty times.

Then we rode the SkyScreamer, which was my favorite thing. You could see the arch from up there, and the entire park. Then I had to ride the baby coaster the Mine Train with Jack, which was a complete drag. Then we rode the American Thunder, another wooden coaster. I loved that one, but I hated the last one, Mr. Freeze. It went 80 miles per hour backwards. Needless to say Alex's hand was blue because I had squeezed it so hard. Then we rode the Ninja, and a couple more roller coasters and Rian and I rode the Superman, which went down so fast we couldn't even scream. After that, we got characatchers or however you spell it done which was really cool. Then we grabbed some stuff to eat and went back to the hotel to get  ready for dinner, and ended up at Macaroni Grill. It was nice, except for the part where Jack kept drawing on the table with the crayons and ate half my pizza. But I got free desert because it was my birthday, which was nice. Then we went back to the hotel and counted down until I was officially 14, which was 11:35 PM. And Alex gave me the biggest present I've ever gotten, which was a new Macbook and some Beats headphones. I played with the Mac for awhile and downloaded some stuff and set up my phone and iTouch and music with iTunes before Alex called me into our room.

"You wanna take a walk?" He asked. I nodded and grabbed the hoodie that he held out to me and pulled it on before walking up the hotel's stairs with him. He was holding his acoustic in his hand, the strap dragging the ground. He held my hand in the other. We then emerged on the roof, which had a bench for onlookers. A couple was looking at the city's lights quietly, and so we sat down on the bench. "It's great up here, isn't it?" He said, pulling the guitar into his lap. I nodded. "I wanted to play you something, and give you your last present."

"Okay," I said. "But you really didn't have to get me another present, Alex. I would've been fine with the Macbook, and the iPhone, and everything else.  I would've been fine if you had just gotten me something simple like a gift card or something," I said. He laughed.

"Well I wanted to. I want you to have the best of the best," he replied. "So, this time it's going a little differently. I'm going to play whatever you want me to."

"Seriously? Anything?" He nodded.

"Whatever you want." I thought for a moment, before thinking of one of my favorite songs.

"Okay then. How about Hero?" I said. He nodded and took a small bow.

"As you wish, my young princess," he said in a regal tone as he started strumming the intro. When he sang, there was so much passion in his voice. The couple that was there turned around, smiled at us, and went back down to the hotel. The song ended and he awaited for my next choice.

"I really don't know," I said. "My mind just went completely blank of every song I've ever heard." He laughed.

"Well how about your favorite song? You seem to enjoy that one quite a lot," he replied with a laugh. Then I nodded and he started playing again, this time to my favorite song, The Middle by Jimmy Eat World. I ended up singing almost half of it with him because he forgot the words, although he's known it since it came out, as well as I. After the song was over, he put the guitar down. I slid over next to him and gave him a hug. "Wait, wait, wait. I haven't given you your last present yet," he said. I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. He pulled a box just long enough to hold a necklace. I opened the box. Inside was indeed a necklace. But it was a circle shape, with a few lines from a song. Inscribed was "I will never let you fall, I'll stand up with you forever. I'll be there for you through it all, even if saving you sends me to heaven." When I was nine, I had continuous nightmares for some reason. So Alex would always sing me that song until I was asleep, and often still does. I immediately smiled, and tears formed in my eyes as he pulled me into his lap and pushed my hair onto my shoulder and fasted the chain around my neck.

"Thank you, Alex," I said, giving him a hug.He kissed my temple softly.

"Happy birthday, Heather," he said into my ear. I smiled, and put my head on his shoulder. And the next thing I knew he was carrying me down the stairs and back into the room, and told Zack to shush as he set me down carefully, then laid down next to me and muttered something, and then everything went black as I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up without Alex next to me, and realized that I was in a hotel room. Zack saw me and walked over to me and sat down next to me. "Good morning," he said. I nodded.

"Morning, Zack. Where's Alex?"

"He went to go get food downstairs, wanna come? I'm just about to go down there," he said. I nodded, and put some shoes on and went downstairs with him. Alex and Rian were already sitting at a table, and there was a plate full of bacon next to where Alex sat. I sat down and started eating the bacon, which, if you haven't been able to tell, is my favorite food. Like, ever. After we ate I took a shower and pulled on a Nirvana t-shirt with some black shorts and black Toms and found my passport before going to the airport. My backpack, which was my grandpa's from World War 2, almost didn't get past the screening because it had a bloodstain on it. All that was in it was Alex's old hoodie and my new mac, plus the chargers for my phone and my Beats, so they were fine with that and sent us on our way. I pulled the hoodie on as we were allowed to take out seatbelts off halfway through the second flight from New York that went straight to London, and pulled out my pillow. I must have slept through most of the flight, because the battery on my laptop was almost dead from listening to music. When I woke up, the guys were getting their stuff from the compartments on top.

"Good evening, princess," Alex said, handing me my backpack. I shoved the laptop and the headphones back in the bag and went to get the rest of my luggage. We were sitting in the waiting area when suddenly someone tapped my shoulder.