"It's such a shame that we play strangers
No act to change what we've become
Damn it's such a shame that we built a wreck out of me
Oh, calamity
Oh, calamity", Alex sings perfectly.
"I still get chills every time.", I place my hand over my heart.
He chuckles, "You're ridiculous."
I roll my eyes and open his Twitter.
Whenever we're together, which is a lot recently, I ask him the questions fans want to know and reply to them. It cures my boredom and it helps the band.
"Who's your number one fan?", I read the comment.
"You or my mom. Next", he says while messing with his hair.
I quickly reply back.
'@.spoopyjack nova or my mom :)'
"Which band are you most excited to tour with?"
"Waterparks for sure."
I reply, '@.underscorenotsammi wtrprks 4 sho' '
"And finally from Mr. Knight himself, who is your favorite member in waterparks?", I chuckle slightly.
"None.", Alex jokes.
' @.awsten none ew.'
"No but for real, who is your favorite? I'm meeting them tonight and I need to know.", i say.
"I don't really have a favorite, they're all great in their own way. You'll get along with them, I'm sure of it. If you can handle being friends with jack, you can handle them.", Alex says finishing his outfit for the night.
He has on black skinny jeans with rips in the knees, a tee-shirt with a nirvana logo on it, a leather jacket, and black boots.
"If I can handle being friends with Jack, I can handle being friends with anyone."
"That's what I'm saying.", he looks up, causing us both to laugh.
"5 minutes.", Jack and Rian say walking in at the same time.
"Rian! I haven't seen you all day, you left me with Alex.", I fake pout.
He smiles, lighting up the whole room.
"There it is!", Alex says, causing Rian to smile even wider and chuckle.
"Am I taking pictures or doing merch tonight?", I ask, adjusting my grey t-shirt dress as I stand up.
"First half we need you at merch, Trevor needs to rest, and second half we need you to take pictures for Ashley because she needs to take her medicine.", Rian says, grabbing a water bottle from the white mini fridge that smells of dust.
There's a stomach bug going around so everyone's been needing a replacement. I just so happen to be experienced with the tour life.
I was on the road with my dad and his band before he died.
"Am I getting paid for this?"
"You get to be our friend.", jack jokes.
"I am this close, jack," i pinch my fingers together, "This close."
I hear the boys chuckle and i decide to leave the dressing room.
I completely forgot I had a doctors mask on, until I bump into someone and gasp. The fabric goes back into my mouth, causing me to choke.
"Oh my god I almost died.", I say loudly, causing the team to stare.
They begin to chuckle when they look over at me and see that I'm clearly fine.
"Are you okay?", the person I bumped into asks.
"I almost choked on a fabric, but other than that I'm nervous. What about you?", I say trying to carry on the conversation.
"Why are you nervous? I am too.", the person I now identified as a man says.
I finally turn around and am face to face with a purple mop of hair.
"Crowds aren't my thing. You?"
"The fear of rejection."
"You're awsten.", I look down becoming nervous under his gaze.
"Did my hair give it away?", he laughs softly,"You're the one everyone talks about, Nova."
"Definitely the hair. And hopefully good things."
"Of course. You're tech, merch, security, lights, manager, and just about everything else. Or am I mistaken?"
"I'm good at these things because I was always on tour with my dad and his band and they weren't very big so I had to learn how to do everything. No biggie, really. But thanks for making me seem way cooler than I actually am.", I explain, smiling.
"That's badass. Do you want to meet the band real quick? They're pretty nervous about all of the new people, and I think they'd appreciate meeting someone nice."
"I really have to go, ATL needs me to do merch.", i try to get out of it. I'm extremely nervous by myself, especially around men.
"Please?", he gives me puppy dog eyes, "We aren't all sweaty and gross right now and first impressions matter."
I laugh and roll my eyes, "Fine, but only because you asked so nicely."
I suppose it won't kill me to introduce myself to them alone.
He smiles and leads me down the hallway, into a bright colored door that has 'WATERPARKS' written on it.
Awsten knocks on the door and yells, "Are you both decent?"
I hear a faint "yeah!" come from the room and he opens the door.
As the door moves from my line of sight, I see a checkered couch and bright blue walls. Next to the couch is a table with makeup. And right next to the door are their suitcases. The dressing rooms are weirdly tacky at this venue.
"Geoff, Otto, I want you to meet Nova Daniels.", Awsten introduces me to the rest of the band.
I step up shyly and shake both of their hands, "Hi, it's nice to meet you."
"You too, we've heard a lot about you.", Geoff says kindly.
"Same here."
I was worried the conversation would be short and the room would fill with awkward silence, but I am pleasantly surprised when Otto asks, "Are you gonna watch us play?"
"Yeah, I've only been able to see the first song the past couple of nights.", I smile.
"Awesome. My girlfriend, Grace, is a huge fan of you. From merch to pictures, she has everything if it has to do with you.", he explains.
"Aw oh my god. Is she here tonight?", I ask getting excited.
"Yeah, she flew out to see us play with her parents."
"I'll definitely see if I can hang with her for a little."
Otto smiles at me.
"Quite the pop star.", Awsten says sitting next to me.
I look at him and before I can say anything, Jack comes in the room.
"There you are! There's a line of people at merch and Alex went down to figure it out. There's clothes everywhere.", Jack says.
"It was nice to meet you all, but it seems like someone is trying to take my place and I gotta go. See you later.", I smile and run out of the room.
I run down the hallway and out from behind the stage, jumping on Alex while yelling, "Job thief!"
We both fall the ground laughing.
"Finally, I thought I was gonna die. Good luck, kid.", Alex says, finally standing up, kissing my forehead, and walking away.
As I'm selling merch, people ask to touch my forehead. I gladly let them, as long as they tell a friend about waterparks or all time low.
I see Zach take a video of the weirdly hilarious situation out of the corner of my eye.
Once the line is gone, I watch Waterparks perform.
During a song that's called Powerless, I assume from the lyrics, Awsten looks like he's about to cry. As much as I hate getting involved in things that aren't my business, I know I'll feel guilty if I don't check on him. I make a mental note to ask him about it after the show.
Afterwards, I watch ATL preform and take their pictures.
Then I look around for Waterparks and Otto's girlfriend.
I see Awsten's purple hair shining in the lights.
I run up to them, my heeled boots clicking as my feet hit the ground.
"Hey!", I say, putting my arm on Awsten's shoulder.
"Hi pop star, we were just talking about you.", Awsten says looking at me.
"Oh really?", I ask.
He nods and points to Grace, "She is very excited that you two are breathing the same air."
I roll my eyes at him and walk up to the girl slightly hiding behind Otto.
"Hi! You must be Grace.", I smile.
"Yeah, it's so cool to meet you.", she says nervously.
"Me? It's cool to meet you! Otto talks about you so much and you sound amazing. You're so gorgeous in person by the way."
"In person?", she asks.
"Yeah! I watch your vlogs and stuff, you're beautiful on camera and stuff but in person, damn."
"Thank you so much. You're absolutely stunning yourself.", I open my arms and we hug.
"Otto I'm 100% gay for your girlfriend.", I half joke.
He laughs and then Alex walks up.
"Mom, we're gonna have a party kinda but not a party more like we're rockstars but still have no friends and listen to mgk. Come onnnn.", he pulls on my arm whining.
"Sorry guys, they're getting cranky.", i joke, "But I'll catch y'all later! So nice to meet you, Grace."
We say goodbye and I walk away with Alex.
——-
Once we all get to the buses and into our bunks, my phone goes off.
' @ Alexalltimelow tweeted;
wish i could've kissed all of you on the forehead tonight, hopefully touching nova's forehead kiss was enough. thank you for an amazing night, love y'all.'
I like and retweet it, and put my phone down.
It goes off again.
from; unknown number
hey :) - Aws
to; unknown number
heyyy, how'd u get my #?
from; aws 🍇
zach gave it to me in case I needed it, but i got bored. and here we are
to; aws 🍇
ooh that's l i t
wydddd¿
from; aws 🍇
did you just say lit as if it's not out of style yet?
anddd, laying here. everyone is playing mario kart, and by everyone I mean Geoff and Otto, but I'm too lazy to socialize with people I don't know. wbu?
to; aws 🍇
ouch #roasted
"anddd", that's too relatable.
i'm laying here, the boys are listening to angry music over the bus speakers and playing gta. very much my scene, but i'm really not in the mood to listen to machine gun kelly yell profanities. maybe tomorrow night though
from: aws 🍇
sounds like a whole bunch of fun
speaking of music, what kind do you like?
to; aws 🍇
good question.
i like all types of music. my favorite has to be alternative, punk, or rock. absolutely cannot stand country though. wbu¿
from; aws 🍇
good taste
same here, actually
to; aws 🍇
ditto
i have a q 4 u
from; aws 🍇
i have an a "4 u"
to; aws 🍇
are u alright? i meant to ask when I saw y'all but I forgot by then ):
from; aws 🍇
wdym by "alright"?
to; aws 🍇
during that one song, powerless I think, you seemed like you were about to cry or something. are u okay?
from; aws 🍇
it's no biggie, i'm alright
to; aws 🍇
i wanna yell at u for lying but my fingers feel like they're gonna fall off. call mee
A few seconds later he calls.
"That was clearly a lie, so what's wrong?", I ask.
"Long story short, I wrote this song about a girl. We dated, she cheated on me. No biggie.", he says, he sounds tired.
"Oh shit. I didn't know that song was about her. I'm sorry.", I apologize.
"You know about her? And don't be sorry."
"I follow you on social media and stuff, and why not?"
"No way!", he says suddenly excited, "and because, you didn't hurt me."
"Yes way, your Twitter is very entertaining. And yeah I know but still, I've been there before and it sucks."
"Oh damn, I'm sorry."
"No biggie.", I shrug.
"The boys wanna say hi, turn on your camera.", Awsten says, turning on his.
His hair is a mess and he has glasses on, he looks very tired.
Geoff looks energized and excited, and Otto is very focused on his phone.
"Hiiii.", I say as my camera focuses on my red hair.
"Hey.", Awsten smiles, causing the boys to look up.
"Nova!"
I smile in response.
"Awsten just screenshotted you.", Otto says loudly, exposing his friend.
Awsten quickly types something and says, "Leave me alone.", jokingly.
"If it's an ugly picture I'm going to sue you."
As soon as I finish my sentence my phone goes off.
' @ awsten tweeted;
a look?
attachment 1 '
I open it and it's a picture of our FaceTime.
I'm very big on the screen with my fiery red hair, dark freckles, and big glasses that are 100% not prescription.
And in the tiny square on the side, the boys are squished together.
' @ alexalltimelow tweeted;
that's why she's ignoring me >:('
I tweet him back.
' @ novagrace tweeted;
@ alexalltimelow still love u. come 2 me.'
He likes my tweet and i hear my bunk curtain open.
"Hi.", Alex says.
"Hi! I'm still on the phone with parx."
Alex moves me aside lightly and begins talking, "Listen here, she might like you guys but she's ours. Already have dibs."
"What if she ends up liking us more?", Awsten says, causing me to open my mouth slightly.
"She won't.", Alex says.
For a second I thought they were actually going to fight until they both start laughing.
"Alright, mgk and lisa are calling my name. Bye boys, see ya later nov.", Alex says, leaving.
"Alright, i'm gonna go get ready for tomorrow. But I'll text you tomorrow and I guess I'll see you at like 6. Byeee.", I say.
"Bye.", they boys smile and I hang up.
I slowly drift to sleep afterwards.