The First Punch
“What happened?” Miley is lying on the couch with an ice-pack to her face, Kellin is on the counter. An ice pack to his jaw. Alex, Ronnie, and Oliver are in the same condition. I hear a barf, toilet flush and Jack from ATL comes out.
“We, got into a little fight.” Ronnie whispers. I raise my eyebrow and he shrugs. Ryan comes out the bunk with a black eye and Max follows with a heating pack.
“So why is everyone in here?” I ask.
“Well, it was the closest bus.” Kellin says.
“What happened?” I sit on Ronnie's lap.
“Okay, well it started right after you left……..”
~Miley~
“Thank you.” I take the pot from the girl and sign her phone case. It was the last fan and time to pack up. A pair of hands cover my eyes.
“Guess who?” a British accent speaks.
“Oli.” He curses under his breath and moves back. I smile and grab a box that belongs to Jesse. “Be back.” I walk over to Kellin and set the box down.
“It’s Jesse.” I trip over the box and land on Kellin who falls backwards. I’m on top of him and I hear Oliver gasp.
“Kellin?” he runs over there and punches him in the jaw. Kellin holds it for a moment before tackling Oliver to the ground. I stand there for a moment confuse when I decided to jump in. I ended up getting punch in the nose by Kellin. Alex and Jack came over and start pulling them apart. Ryan comes and tells Oliver to calm down.
“Hey that’s my band member.” Ryan yells.
“He was trying to kiss my girlfriend.”
“It was an accident. Dipshit.” He breaks loose and tackles him again. Alex and Ryan ended up getting punched trying to break them apart. Ronnie comes over and pulls them apart. Getting scratches to the face, neck, and arms. Kellin is swinging his arms when he hits Jack in the stomach, who fell to the ground in response. Alex gets mad and hits Oliver again. This one sent him to the ground. Oliver grabs his legs and pulls him down. Alex topples on Jack. Making an oof sound. I jump in to push Alex away, but Alex just hits me in the face again. I end up tackling Alex and roll on the ground. It’s a mixture of dirt, ass, dirt, ass, dirt, balls, and ass. Ronnie runs and body slams into Kellin. Kellin repeatedly hit him in the face and Ronnie falls off. Ryan climbs over and jumps on Kellin to drag him away, but Kellin just hits him in the stomach. Soon everyone is hitting each other out of frustration or anger. Managers and merch people pull everyone apart and send them in our bus.
“…….and that’s why our bus is a hospital.” She finishes. Everyone is either smiling or crying. I just shake my head. Our manager texts me the schedule. It’s pretty crazy.
“Here’s the schedule guys!
June 16, 2012 Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah State Fairpark
June 17, 2012 Denver, Colorado Sports Authority Field at Mile High
June 20, 2012 Paradise, Nevada Luxor Hotel Parking Lot
June 21, 2012 Irvine, California Orange County Great Park
June 22, 2012 Pomona, California Pomona Fairplex
June 23, 2012 San Francisco, California AT&T Park Lot A
June 24, 2012 Ventura, California Ventura County Fairgrounds
June 27, 2012 Chula Vista, California Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
June 28, 2012 Phoenix, Arizona Camelback Ranch
June 29, 2012 Las Cruces, New Mexico NMSU Practice Field
June 30, 2012 San Antonio, Texas AT&T Center
July 1, 2012 Houston, Texas Reliant Center Parking Lot
July 3, 2012 Dallas, Texas Gexa Energy Pavilion
July 5, 2012 Maryland Heights, Missouri Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
July 6, 2012 Auburn Hills, Michigan The Palace of Auburn Hills
July 7, 2012 Tinley Park, Illinois First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
July 8, 2012 Shakopee, Minnesota Canterbury Park
July 9, 2012 Bonner Springs, Kansas Sandstone Amphitheater
July 10, 2012 Noblesville, Indiana Klipsch Music Center
July 11, 2012 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Blossom Music Center
July 12, 2012 Burgettstown, Pennsylvania First Niagara Pavilion
July 13, 2012 Holmdel, New Jersey PNC Bank Arts Center
July 14, 2012 Montreal, Quebec Canada Parc Jean-Drapeau
July 15, 2012 Toronto, Ontario Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
July 17, 2012 Corfu, New York United States Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
July 18, 2012 Scranton, Pennsylvania Toyota Pavilion
July 19, 2012 Mansfield, Massachusetts Comcast Center
July 20, 2012 Camden, New Jersey Susquehanna Bank Center
July 21, 2012 Uniondale, New York Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
July 22, 2012 Hartford, Connecticut Comcast Theatre
July 24, 2012 Columbia, Maryland Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 25, 2012 Virginia Beach, Virginia Farm Bureau Live
July 26, 2012 Atlanta, Georgia Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood
July 27, 2012 Orlando, Florida Central Florida Fairgrounds
July 28, 2012 West Palm Beach, Florida Cruzan Amphitheatre
July 29, 2012 St. Petersburg, Florida Vinoy Park
July 30, 2012 Charlotte, North Carolina Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
July 31, 2012 Cincinnati, Ohio Riverbend Music Center
August 1, 2012 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Marcus Amphitheater
August 4, 2012 Auburn, Washington White River Amphitheatre
August 5, 2012 Portland, Oregon Rose Quarter Riverfront” it was pretty lengthy, but it was what it is.
“Now! If you aren’t a member of our bus, get out and go to your own bus!” I yell. There are some groans and complaints, but everyone leaves. I step outside the bus and watch the people return to their rightful bus. I hear a whistle.
“Someone is smoking and sassy.”
“Can it ginger.” I snap. Two arms snake around my waist. I swat away his arms and walk away. I was feeling so hungry. My stomach was battling with itself. I walk on the bus. The pain in my stomach was just making the situation worse. It’s been three days without eating. I just downed bottles of diet green tea or diet soda or smoked to keep my appetite down. That was only a temporary fix. In the end I end up caving and binging on whatever I could find. There was a convenience store down in the parking lot of the venue. They were sure to have something to fill the void in my chest. That’s what’d gotten me into trouble when I was younger. After a full day of being teased at school I’d go home and eat. I’d eat and eat and eat until I felt sick. Cookies, cakes, chips, fast food, soda, ice cream, anything I could get my hands on really. There was a half asleep man sitting at the counter. I didn’t pay him much attention as I went over to the snack section. I picked up a bag of potato chips, a thing of little Debbie doughnuts, three candy bars and a half pint of vanilla ice cream. Too bad they didn’t have peanut butter here. Of course I always regretted that. I paid for my haul before trekking back to the bus and into the bunks. I shut the door and locked it not expecting Miley back any time soon and threw the stuff on the bed. I clicked on the movie on my computer and laid back. Within a minute I’d already down the doughnuts and one of the candy bars. After another I’d polished off the chips and remaining candy. All that was left was the ice cream. It wasn’t that I liked vanilla ice cream, I’d much rather have a different flavor, it was that this was the best. I’d learned a while ago that if you ate vanilla ice cream before a purge it would hurt less. The ice cream neutralized everything a bit and it was cold, hurting my throat less. The only down side was the brain freeze I’d get from downing it so fast. I had it down in less than five minutes though. Now my stomach hurt even more than it had before. I almost gagged on my way to the bathroom. I turned on the water and locked the door behind me before lifting the toilet lid and seat up. I knelt down beside it and bit my lip. I hated this part and I knew how damaging it could be for my voice. I tied my hair back with a band from my wrist before leaning over the toilet. I took my pointer finger and middle finger of my right hand and slowly slid them down my throat. I felt myself cough but pressed further. I hit my gag reflex and could feel what I’d eaten rising in my throat. I had to quickly pull my hand away before the contents of my stomach emptied into the toilet. Tears welled in my eyes as my throat burned. Why did I do this to myself? What fuck person shoves their fingers down their throat?!
I did.
I repeated the wretched process two more times before I was sure that my stomach was once again empty. My head was throbbing and my knees were weak as I stood up, flushing. My face was pale and sweaty and my hands were shaking. I pulled my tooth brush and mouthwash out of my bag before brushing, my teeth and rinsing my mouth out. I reached back into my bag and held my nose closed as I sprayed air freshener around the small bathroom. If anyone, and especially Miley found out about this I’d die. I’d done it just in time. The door clicked and opened as Ryan walked in the bathroom.
“Oh, hey.” He closed the door behind us and sat next to me. usually, if either one of us were feeling down or needy, we would hook up. In the two years since Austin and I broke up, we hooked four times. I think tonight might make number five. “What’s wrong?” I shook my head. I didn’t want anyone to know, let alone him. “You okay kid?" He asked noticing that I wasn’t looking so good.
"Yeah, I just have a stomach ache I’m fine." I insisted. My voice was hoarse though from the vomiting. Ryan picked up on it.
"You don’t sound good either."
"Really Ry. I’m fine, I’m just a little sick okay?"
"Do you need anything? Ginger-ale or something?" I shook my head. Ryan shrugged before leaving. If Ryan did suspect anything he didn’t mention it. I wasn’t sure if that made me happy or not.......