Melody of Love

Chapter 4

        I set the trays of coffee on the counter and looked around at the room.

            "I can't believe we made that fucking mess." I stated.

            "We gotta clean it." Andy spoke, as if he flipped on a switch in his brain. He was ready to get down to business.

            "How?" I asked. "There's so many people on the ground." I  groaned.

            "Well first we gotta wake em' up!" He announced, immediately running to Jeremy and jumping on him. “Get the fuck up! It’s noon!”

            "Awe fuuuck!" Jeremy groaned. "Whyy!"

            "Coffee is waiting for you baby." He said playfully, kissing Jeremy's face. I swear no one could ever destroy the bromance they had going on. The fans, though? They went crazy when it came to it. They wrote stories. Very, very, very graphic ones at that. It scares me that twelve year olds know so many words that I never knew at that age.

            Can’t you leave it at the bromance we all knew? Apparently not.

            "Coffee?" Jeremy sprung to his feet and came over to me. "Yes!!" He exclaimed, taking whatever kind he wanted and happily danced into the bunk areas taking a sip of the coffee and asking himself where his clothes had gone.

            Andy did this for everyone in the band and the crew. So when everyone received a coffee and seemed satisfied, he then kicked them all out so he could clean the bus.

            "Go cure your hangovers… and Jeremy, that doesn't mean go get shit-faced, okay?"

            "You ruin all the fun." He whined and then walked away. I turned to Andy.

            “SO how do we clean this mess up?”

            “Well, I have experience when it comes to cleaning up giant messes I make.” He shrugged. “We start with trash bags.” I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Was he just talking about the messes made during late night parties, or was he talking about past relationships?

            There I go again, overthinking a simple sentence. Why can’t I ever leave something alone? Why can’t I leave a simple statement alone?

            I followed Andy's lead as he started picking up things on the ground and putting them in a trash bag. I started by picking up all of the plastic red cups that were lying around. How much alcohol do twenty-five people consume? Apparently a lot.

            We were able to clean most of it up except for the crushed chips imbedded in the carpet. I picked up the silly string and rolled it into a ball, then being the child I am, tossed it at Andy as he picked up some handmade confetti.

            "Casey, you don't wanna mess with me right now..." Andy spoke with a low tone, trailing off. He was still in business mode, obviously. The switch hadn’t turned off.

            This is the part where I hated my brain. I knew with one hundred percent certainty that he was kidding, but that phrase was forever imprinted as a bad sign. I watched Andy's playful smirk falter. I knew my eyes probably went wide as I felt my body tense up. It was an instinct, though, like I messed up big time. I had Dave to thank for this.

            That name.

            I hated everything about it. I never wanted to hear it or say it out loud again. He was the reason I can't trust a guy. He ruined my life. He grabbed it by the throat and, over time, my life slipped away and became putty in his hands. I broke it off with him a month ago, but I have the feeling the way he treated me was going to affect me for a long time.