*A/N: so i'm writing about my own town, so I better not make any mistakes with this. If I do, i'll probably die because downtown Nashville is one of my favorite places, Hard Rock Cafe, the Tennessee State Museum, and a lot of the other places mentioned here are actual places and i love going there so I hope I don't get anything wrong or else I'd just die.*
I woke up the next morning and we went to the burial, then came back home and packed for Nashville, which took about three hours, and then went to the airport. I had changed into a black Glamour kills shirt, Alex's favorite hoodie when he was sixteen which was black with the Nike logo in white, and ripped American Eagle jeans with my favorite pair of combat boots. Yeah, the combat boots weren't exactly the best choice of shoe for sitting in for three hours on a plane, and my feet ended up swelling up, making me un-mobile for the first night of vacation. We got a call from Matt saying that fans were getting unruly and wanted a video or something to explain why All Time low had canceled their UK tour, so we set up the video camera on the Mac. "Hey, this is Alex," Alex said. "A lot of you have been asking why we've canceled our UK tour and I am here to explain why. So a couple of days ago my sister Heather -" he pointed to me, and I raised my hand and put it back down "- her best friend and basically my little brother committed suicide, and we had to go back to Baltimore for her to sing at the funeral. And it was then that I realized that for the past year we've been touring almost constantly, and in the middle of that I gained custody of Heather again. And with Danny's death, as well as the constant touring, has really put a wear on our relationship and how we act and feel, and we just really needed a break from all of the touring and from everything that takes away from who we are as people. We're not ditching our tour, so to speak, but we just really needed a break to think about everything that's going on. We will be where we are, which is Nashville, until Heather's school starts again, and until we find another tour to hitchike our way onto. So I hope that was enough of an explanation for you. And hold onto your ticket stubs if you have them because there might be a surprise for everyone in the UK that bought a ticket to see us and didn't get a chance to, because our manager Matt is working out a plan to have everyone mail those in and he will plan some alternate dates and those who still have their stubs from the Pop to Punk UK tour will get those tickets exchanged for free, and if you didn't get tickets for that or have lost your ticket stubs we'll find a way to hopefully get some of you guys in too. Thank you so much for being patient and respecting Heather and I's person lives as well as the other guys. Bye," he said. We shut the laptop after posting the video on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and basically every other social networking site including Buzznet and Youtube. Then Alex went to get more ice for my foot, leaving me impaired with a swollen foot.
He came back in a minute or two and threw out the empty bag and brought me a new one, and in about an hour my foot was back to normal. The plan was that Alex and I would spend two weeks alone in Nashville and the guys would join us for the last one, and we would fly back the day before Freshman orientation which was August 3rd, and school starts August 4th so we had some time. "How about tomorrow we go downtown and see what there is to do?" He asked, looking at a brochure that had everything downtown. I nodded.
"Yeah, sure. That sounds cool. I really wanna see some of East Nashville too, it looks really awesome," I said. He nodded.
"Okay. So tomorrow it's downtown and then Friday it's East Nashville. How does that sound?" I nodded.
"Awesome," I said. He looked at the clock and sighed, then looked at me again. I nodded and put the pillows that were on my bed on the floor and changed into my pj's, and then got in bed.
"Good girl," Alex said, kissing my forehead.
"I'm not a dog," I said with a small laugh. He shrugged and got into his bed, with his laptop. I decided to read for awhile and I finally drifted off to sleep.
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The next morning I woke up and took a shower, deciding on a vintage white Ringo Starr t-shirt and purple shorts with some black and white checkered Vans slip-ons. Then I went back outside to where Alex was trying to figure out how to get to Fort Nashburough, which I've always wanted to see. I'm obsessed with history and stuff like that, which is kind of weird but I think history is just awesome. I grabbed my phone and we headed out the door, after putting some sunscreen on my pale skin. First we headed to Fort Nashburough, which was nice. It was a re-production but was full of really cool facts. Alex understood none of it, which wasn't surprising. Because it was Alex. And if you know Alex, you know that he gets confused about almost everything. Then we went over to some place that I forgot the name of, and ate some really good burgers and chocolate milkshakes. Then we walked down to the Tennessee State Museum, which wasn't far. But it was a little embarrassing because Alex insisted on holding my hand when we were walking so I didn't get raped. Weirdo.
After we spent two or three hours at the Museum we got some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and ate by the river, which was nice. Then we went back to the hotel where we cleaned up and went over to Hayley's house for dinner, since she lived in Franklin. We stayed over there and played around her on the Wii and Xbox for awhile and then went back to the hotel. The hotel was pretty nice for in the middle of downtown. We got a great view and basically every channel you can think of on a TV including On Demand, which we charged to the room so we could watch the movie War Horse, which made me cry like fifty times. Then I logged onto Facebook as Alex took a shower, and scrolled through a few posts until I found the video I had posted. Some people were saying that the explanation of why they canceled the tour was bullcrap, but some said that they were happy that we were okay and that they were sorry about Danny. He came back outside on with a hoodie over his boxers, which I was used to. It was awkward, but I was used to it because I had lived with him basically my entire life. I fell asleep while I was trying to read something on my Kindle that was just really boring. I think it was Great Expectations, which I had to read to get into English honors at the arts school, which I was starting as soon as we got back to Baltimore.
The next morning I woke up because I got a call from my manager Reece. "Good morning, Heather," Reece said. I groaned.
"What, Reece? It's six in the morning," I said.
"Well it's seven here. And I just wanted to ask how the writing is going," he said.
"What writing?" I asked.
"Your brother said you'd have me at least fifteen songs ready to record and put on the album when you got back," he replied. I sighed. Of course Alex would forget to tell me that. I told Reece I'd call him back and went to wake up Alex.
"Why did you tell Reece I'd have at least fifteen songs ready to record?" I asked him as he ran his hands through his hair.
"Because I thought you could do that easily," he explained.
"Well you should have told me," I said.
"Yeah, I figured you'd have that many on your own in about three days." I sighed and pushed my bangs from my eyes.
"Alex, you should have at least told me! Especially if I'm releasing a freaking album!" I said, hitting him with the pillow after jerking it from under his head.
"Sorry. Just go back to sleep or something. It's six in the morning," he replied, handing me the pillow. I shook my head.
"I'm going to go downstairs and get some food. I'll be back up in a while," I said. I threw on my Aeropostale zip-up over Alex's old basketball shorts and Avenged Sevenfold shirt and put my black Toms on my feet and stuck my glasses on my face, then walked to the elevator and went into the breakfast room, where several people were already seated and eating. I grabbed a plate and put a few slices of bacon on it and got a bowl of Fruit Loops and sat down at a table by myself, which looked weird because people started staring. I ate all of the Fruit Loops and started on the bacon, which was very good. I dillydallied with it for about an hour and a half until I went up and got another plate of it.
"That's a lot of bacon, you know," a voice said. Alex stood there, in a hoodie and his gray skinny jeans. I nodded mournfully, chewing on a slice and then grabbing another from the plate. "I'm so jelly. You can eat all of that and are still the skinniest thing I've ever seen."
"Meh," I said.
"So what do you want to do today, my princess?" He asked, finishing up his waffle and wrapping an arm around my waist. I laughed.
"Honestly? Nothing. I feel like crap for some random reason I don't even know about," I said, slumping down in the chair.
"Okay, that's fine. How about we go to the Wal-Mart down the street and get some food?" He said, kissing my temple and pushing the hair back from my eyes as I put my head on his shoulder. I nodded.
"You know me so well," I said as we got up and drove the rental car down the street and back, grabbing the bags of food and taking them up to the room. We got some Twizzlers, Cheeze-its, Goldfish, gummy bears, Skittles, and some other random candies. I took a Sobewater from the fridge and drank some as I curled up next to Alex and put my head in his chest, my head resting just above the bag of Twizzlers. We turned on my favorite Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice, which I knew basically every line of.
"You never told me why you feel like crap, you know," He said, rubbing my arm.
"I don't know. It's just Danny I guess. I can't get him out of my head," I said. "And how similar it was to how Tom died." He nodded.
"Yeah, me too. All I thought was that everyone's dropping like flies and we're just standing by and watching them, wondering why they've done it, with just notes that say that they had to. But they had a choice," Alex said. I nodded.
"It stinks. Next thing I know you and the guys will be gone, and then Mom and Dad, and then everyone else that can be gone is going to go," I said. He laughed slightly and rubbed my arm again, my skin dancing with chill bumps and turning back to its normal texture.
"Hey, no pity parties without me," he said. I laughed a little bit. "And I'm not leaving you. I couldn't if I tried."
"But everyone else does," I replied quietly.
"That's just because you're too good for them," He commented. I laughed again.
"Really? This is why I can't have pity parties around you," I said, trying to get up.
"Ooh, that hurt, sis," he replied, pulling me back down. "That hurt me deeply." I rolled my eyes. "I'm just kidding. And the only reason they're leaving you is that they don't know how great you are. They just don't know what kind of crap that you've gone through which is why you've built so many walls around yourself. They just don't know that underneath all of the scars and bruises there's a beautiful girl just wanting to be loved by someone other than just their brother." I hugged him tightly, letting a tear form and make it's way down my face.
"Thank you Alex. That's honestly the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," I said. He laughed and kissed the top of my head. We turned the movie off after it was over and turned on the album Futures by Jimmy Eat World, and my favorite song by them, Drugs or Me, came on first since we had put it on shuffle. "I love you Alex," I said. "And I feel like I need to say that because I don't think I say it enough."
"It goes without saying, Heather. I love you too," he replied. I reached up and kissed his cheek, which made him laugh. Then his phone rang, and he paused the music to answer it. "What? Jack, talk slower, I can't understand what you're saying. Yeah, I'm with Heather. Yeah, she's fine, why? Wait, people think she's dead? Why? Oh. I'll sort it out," he said. Wait, why would people think I was dead.
"Wait, why do people think I'm dead? And why was Jack actually concerned for once?" I said as he hung up and started the music again, the song Nothing Wrong blaring through the speakers.
"I don't know. According to him there was a rumor where you got run over by a car or something, and that big brother wasn't there to save you and you died," Alex said.
"Um, that's awkward, considering that I'm very much alive," I replied. He shrugged and tweeted that I wasn't dead, and I Facebooked it as well. Then we pulled out the guitars and started playing random stuff until we went out to dinner at some random place, and I went to sleep right after we got back since I was still tired for some random reason.