Chapter title is from the song Sure As Hell by Tonight Alive
Chapter 34 – Now I’m finally content.
It was nearing the end of April now and Tony seemed to be doing pretty well without Erin. He was a lot happier since he told us about the girl he liked. He still hadn’t said who she was though so I was kind of annoyed to be honest.
As that thought passed through my head, he came bounding down the stairs with a giant smile plastered on his face. He came stumbling into the kitchen where Vic and I were trying to make dinner for all of us. He’d invited the girls over for dinner and I told him I’d help. He didn’t believe me when I told him that I could cook.
“Have you told her yet?” Tony asked, hanging off the kitchen doorframe, half in the kitchen half not.
“No tony. I haven’t told Alexandra yet.”
“Told me what?” I said turning to face Tony.
“Can I tell her?”
Vic laughed and said,
“Go for it.”
“Andy, guess what?!”
“What?”
“Guess.” He said annoyingly.
I rolled my eyes and said,
“You guys are doing another Canadian tour?”
“No. We’re going to the Golden Gods! We got nominated for something!”
“What?! That’s awesome!” I said hugging him.
“So what’d you get nominated for?” I asked as I went back to helping Vic.
We weren’t making anything to extravagant, just some Spaghetti and Meatballs.
“I can’t remember.” Vic and Tony both said at the same time causing me to laugh.
“I’m so proud of you guys.” I walked over to Tony and ruffled his short hair.
He swatted my hand away and laughed before messing up my hair.
I just laughed and pushed a hand through my hair.
----
After dinner, I decided to hang out with the boys girlfriends. Vic’s girlfriend, Danielle, and Jaime’s girlfriend, Jessica, seemed far more outgoing than Mike’s girlfriend. I’d never even gotten her name. It was kind of weird hanging out with my last boyfriend’s new girlfriend. But she seemed cooler than me so it was okay.
“So, Alexandra,” Jessica said getting my attention, “Is there any special guy you’ve got your eye on.”
“Not really. I mean kind of, but I don’t think I have a chance with him.” I said shyly.
You all know who I’m talking about…
“Aww. What does he look like?” Danielle asked.
I smirked and said,
“Well, he’s covered in tattoos. He’s fairly tall, taller than me but then again who isn’t? He has short black hair and uh… I don’t really know how to describe him.”
“heheh, sounds like Tony, almost.” Jessica said.
Mike’s girlfriend laughed lightly.
“You two would be cute together.” She said
I could feel myself blush bright red.
“Oh my god! You were talking about Tony!” Danielle practically screamed.
“Danielle!” I whined, leaning back into the couch.
The boys were in the kitchen doing whatever it is that they were doing while we were sitting in the living room talking about everything and nothing.
“Isn’t it annoying being stuck with boys all the time and never having any girl company?” Jessica asked suddenly.
“I don’t know. I mean I guess I’m kind of used to being the only girl. I kind of grew up like that. Plus all my friends are guys except for Tay. Last female friend I had, slept with the guy I was dating, well tried to, and she also slept with one of her ex’s brothers… while they were together. She’s not the greatest.”
“Why aren’t you friends with her anymore?” Danielle asked.
She probably hadn’t heard much of what I’d just said as I’d spoken pretty fast.
“Because she tried to sleep with the last guy I dated while I was dating him…” I said biting my lip.
“Wasn’t my boyfriend the last guy you dated?” Jessica asked.
My eyes widened in surprise.
“Holy crap. He totally is. I’m not saying he’d do that to you. You seem to be more of his type than I was anyway.”
“Let’s hope.” She said with a big smile.
“Wait… ouch.” I said sarcastically.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Alexandra.”
“I know, Jessica. I’m just screwing around. You’re way cooler than me, anyway so you should be safe.”
“Safe from what?” Jaime asked plopping down on the couch beside her.
“What are you talking about? You’re way cooler than she is.” Tony said sitting down beside me.
Mike’s girlfriend wiggled her eyebrows at me and Mike burst out laughing when he saw.
I stuck my tongue out at her and Vic said,
“Okay, Children. Do we want to watch a movie?”
Just then, my phone started ringing.
I answered, leaving the room and walking into the kitchen.
“Hello?” I said once I was away from all the couples.
“Hey!”
“Oh, hey Sam!”
“How’s it going?”
“Meh. Vic, Mike and Jaime have their girlfriends over and the girls just interrogated me about romance.”
Sam burst out laughing and I heard more laughing in the background form other people.
“Taylor told me to call you. We were wondering if you were busy.”
“No, not really, why?”
“Are you up for band practice?” Ty asked.
“You know what? Yeah. I am. I’ll be over in about 20 minutes.”
“Okay. Just come on in when you get here. We have a really cool idea.”
“Okay.”
I hung up after that and then went back into the living room to find the children arguing about what movie to watch. It was between Mean Girls and Toy Story 3.
“Hey guys?” I said grabbing everyone’s attention.
“Yes?” Vic said.
“Is it alright if I go out for a bit?”
“Andy, you’re 20 years old for crying out loud. You don’t need to ask to go out.” Tony said.
“Excuse you?! Michael and I are her guardians! We tell her whether or not she has to ask and she does.” Vic said completely flabbergasted.
“Well, we’d appreciate if you asked. But I don’t have a problem with it.” Mike said.
“Yeah, go ahead. Any idea when you’ll be home?” Vic asked.
“I have no idea. I’m just going over to the guys’ house for a bit. Sam said they had an idea.”
“As long as it’s not an orgy.” Mike said.
“yeah, I agree with you there.” Vic said causing everyone to laugh.
“I won’t be home too late!” I yelled as I ran up the stairs to change into something a bit nicer.
I changed into a pair of black skinny jeans (duh) and a black Led Zeppelin t-shirt.
It was only about 6pm so it was still fairly light out, but it looked like it was about to rain. I grabbed my Glamour Kills Tay Bomber jacket with my Weird Kids patch on the back. Yes, I had the same coat as Tay. She’d kind of bought it for me. I slipped on the black Vans I’d bought about a week ago and brushed through my hair quickly.
I ran back downstairs as I pulled on my jacket then ran past the humans in the living room and out the door. I turned back around once I was on the grass because I’d forgotten my phone.
I stepped inside and everyone looked at me like I was nuts. I was so they weren’t wrong.
“I forgot my phone…” I said slowly walking through the living room and back up the stairs to grab my phone and ear buds.
I plugged in my earphones and put them in putting it on the first song that it played. It just so happened to be ‘Anywhere But Here’ by Five Finger Death Punch featuring Maria Brink.
---
I stepped into the boys’ house and was met with silence.
I looked around and noticed there were less boxes than there had been the last time I’d been there.
The 4 of them couldn’t afford 2 apartments so they decided to buy a house that was about 15 minutes walking distance from where I lived. It had seemed to be much more affordable for them and they’d all managed to get jobs at the local shopping mall. Speaking of jobs, I needed one of those still.
“Hello?” I yelled.
“Kitchen!” Colten yelled.
I went into the kitchen and saw the guys sitting there all babbling about something apparently great.
“So what’s this idea that you guys had?” I asked
“We think we should cover something by Paramore or Tonight Alive. Something that means something to at least one of us.” Sam chirped happily.
“Can it be Misery business or Playing God if it’s Paramore and if it’s Tonight Alive can it be Lonely Girl or The Edge?” I said right away.
“How about we pick one form each artist?” Ty said.
“That’s actually a really good idea.” Taylor agreed.
“Colten?”
“Misery Business and The Edge.” He said immediately.
“I’m pretty sure we all already now Misery Business.” Taylor said.
“I already know Playing God.” Colten said.
“Same.” The other 3 boys said at the same time.
“Sweet. So we already know Misery Business and Playing God. Which Tonight Alive song do you guys not know?” I asked.
“You’re probably the only one who knows their part for The Edge. So I think we should learn that. Colten and I already know Lonely Girl. We learned it after the whole Kendra thing.” Taylor said.
“Ugh, don’t remind me of her.”
“You’re awfully touchy on that situation today. What’s wrong?” Ty asked.
“She just keeps getting brought up and I find it slightly annoying. I’d rather not talk about her.” I responded a little frustrated.
“Sorry.” Taylor said.
“It’s okay. So what do you guys say? Should we start learning The Edge?” I said.
“Everything’s already set up in the garage.” Ty said.
We went into the garage and I was slightly shocked to see that they’d set everything up and put a few posters on the walls and put some more lighting in here. It also had air conditioning and a furnace. Taylors drum set was set up on a carpet and it pretty much looked like the room that Tonight Alive played in for the Starlight music video.
“Holy crap! This is sweet!” I said excitedly.
----
We’d been practicing for a few hours and we’d played Playing God flawlessly once. But every other time, one of us messed up. It wasn’t the same person each time either, or the same part. We’d spent about an hour tweaking Playing God and Misery Business before we started working on The Edge. We almost had it down.
We’d unplugged our instruments except for Taylor obviously and we were just playing like that.
“Okay, play that again.” I said to Colten as he tried to get the bass line down once again.
As he kept playing Ty and Sam slowly joined in.
I started singing and we managed to get through the one part we’d been having troubles with.
We plugged our instruments in and practiced that part a few times.
We ended up playing through the song once before Ty went over to his microphone just as the last few notes rang out.
“Guys, Fake it. Let’s show her.” He said.
“Is this some kind of code?” I asked into my microphone so I could be heard over them.
“We learned a song last week.” Ty said as they started to play a really familiar song.
And then Ty started singing.
“You sing!” I yelled excitedly.
He nodded his head as he kept singing.
“It’s true! You’re wasting my time you’re just a waste of time.”
They were playing Fake it by Tonight Alive.
“And I don’t see why I should listen to someone who can’t listen to themselves. Just listen to yourself. Fake it you’ll never get ahead of it, trace it back to where we started ‘cause back track, baby back tracking never got you nothing.” I sang
“One step forward and two steps back!” Ty sang.
“And if you fake it they’ll never know your real name trace it just to find you’re such a shame you wasted your chance tasting everything before you held it… Well I was never going to complain but why should I hold back…”
Ty continued for me because I forgot he lyrics. When the Chorus came again I belted it out.
“Fake it you’ll never get ahead of it, trace it back to where we started ‘cause back track, baby back tracking never got you nothing. And if you fake it they’ll never know your real name trace it just to find you’re such a shame you wasted your chance tasting everything before you held it in your hands. You’re shaking now don’t break it now we’ll break it down is this clear enough?!”
We played through Fake It and then we all stopped and took a break.
“I feel like the neighbours are getting annoyed with us.” Taylor said.
“We aren’t that bad!” Colten said.
Sam, Ty and I laughed.
“Just so you guys know, we have a show next weekend.” Ty said as he put his guitar on a stand after unplugging it.
Sam and Colten put their guitars on their stands as well and we ended up sitting in a circle on the floor of the garage just talking.
“So the boys are up for a Golden God.” I said breaking the silence at one point.
“What? No way! That’s awesome! You must be really proud.” Colten said.
He’d known how much I loved them before I found out about Vic and Mike being my brothers and obviously that love for them just changed into a different type of love afterwards.
“I really am. You know it seems like it was just yesterday that I was freaking out at you about this new band from San Diego called Pierce The Veil.” I said.
“And oh my god! You’ll never guess who 2 of the members are!” Tay said imitating my voice, “It’s those two brothers from Before Today!”
“Shut up!” I said laughing and hitting his arm lightly, “I was happy that they were still making music. Have you heard any of Before Today’s music?”
They all laughed at my excitement.
“Little did you know that they were your freaking brothers!” Sam said.
“I know, it’s crazy that a year and a half ago I was still listening to them and wishing that someday I’d be able to meet them. Now I live with them.”
I smiled at the thought.
“Anyways, I told Vic I wouldn’t be home too late and it’s already 8:45. I should head out.”
I said my goodbyes before going back into the house, grabbing my jacket and leaving.
We were playing a show next weekend. That was freaking awesome!
As I walked it started to rain so I pulled up my hood. After doing that I got a text. IT was from Sam.
Ty was wrong. The show is this weekend… Same day as the Golden God Awards. :/