I could've sworn my heart had stopped beating and I couldn't breathe.
We. Were. Opening. For. Fall. Out. Boy. WewereopeningforFallOutBoy. WE WERE FUCKING OPENING FOR MOTHER FUCKING FALL OUT BOY.
"Are you kidding?" Kim finally asked after a few moments of stunned silence.
Richard shook his head, "Nope. They decided to get back together and do a reunion tour and then hit the studio for a new album."
"Why us though? You'd think that such a highly anticipated tour would have bigger opening bands?" Alex said.
"Ah, but that's the exact reason. This tour will be—hell it already is huge. Almost every show is sold out and most of them are huge arenas and stadiums. You'll be playing for at least five to six thousand people every night. People who are just finding out about this tour are probably googling you guys to see what you sound like," Mike explained.
"Basically you're skipping some of the steps. Instead of starting out in small clubs you'll be playing sold out arenas. Of course, you aren't the headlining band but this will get you noticed and noticed fast." Richard continued.
Their strategy made sense but also made me a million times more nervous. We were going to be with Pete, Patrick, Joe and Andy, not to mention Josh, Matt, Ian and Mike from Marianas Trench who I was also a huge fan of. The rational part of me tried to tell me that they wouldn't even bother talking to us or acknowledging us but the hopeful fangirl blocked it out.
"I hope you guys have fun and call if you need anything. We have connections and help in every city," Mike said and then they left.
"Holy titty fuck!" Jack yelled.
"Oh my God," I said. "I cannot believe this is happening."
We all just stood there taking in everything until Matt came over to us.
"Are we leaving or?"
Alex snapped out of the silence first, "Yeah man, we should go."
We all nodded and then got into the vans. Kim took first driving shift and I took passenger's side. Haylee and Taylor piled into the back. We had taken the third row of seats out so we had more room to lay down and sleep.
"Where to first?" I asked.
"The tour starts in Chicago," She said. It made sense why the first show started there now.
She pulled out in front of Alex and headed towards the freeway. I turned up From Under the Cork Tree since I thought it was an appropriate time to play it.
We arrived in Chicago at around 6 in the evening. We would've been there sooner but Jack pulled over every hour to piss and we weren't going to drive away without the guys close behind or in front of us. None of us knew the country very well so if we were going to get lost we were going to do it together.
We drove to the venue just to make sure we knew where it was. That's where the adventure began. We had planned on parking somewhere random to sleep and not in a hotel. It was a waste of money to only spend one night and we needed to stay on budget just in case Dad cut me off at any time. We still weren't on the best of terms. Maybe we'd sort things out when we played in New York.
We weren't expecting a tour bus to be sitting in the parking lot of the venue. We didn't know whose it was so we pulled up a little ways from it and got out. Pretending to not notice the bus just over 100ft away we looked up at the huge venue.
"Can you believe our first show on our first tour is in a sold out arena in Chicago?" Alex said.
"Not at all," I said. "Someone pinch me I'm dreaming!"
Alex pinched me softly and I laughed. I heard a door open and looked over my shoulder to see someone get off the bus.
"Hey look, newbies!" The figure said. I couldn't clearly see the person but the voice was unmistakeable. Josh Ramsay started walking towards us – well more like skipping.
"Who's that?" Alex asked.
"What do you mean who's that?" Josh asked, obviously hearing Alex's bad attempt at being quiet. "How can you not know who I am? I'm Josh, duh."
I could tell by his talkativeness that he was slightly drunk already.
"The real question is who are you?" He asked.
"I'm Kayleigh, this is Alex, and that's Kim, Haylee, Taylor, Zack, Rian, Jack, Vinny and Matt," I said pointing to each person.
"Wow, there are a lot of you."
"Only ten," Haylee said.
"Yeah, only," He laughed, "So what're you kids up to tonight?"
"Nothing," I shrugged, "We just came to check out the venue and then probably find a dark alley to sleep in."
"Well that's no fun." Matt said from behind Josh. "Why don't we get a hotel and see what adventures we can dig up there?"
"Sounds like a plan," I nodded. They headed towards their bus and we all got back into the vans.
"What happened to not getting a hotel tonight?" Taylor asked as we followed the bus out of the parking lot.
"If you're so against the idea then sleep in the van," Kim said. "We're about to go party with Marianas Trench. Shut up and enjoy it."
I stayed silent but agreed with Kim. Taylor was always trying to rationalize things and she basically sucked the fun out of everything. She needs to stop thinking and start living.
A while later we pulled up in front of a fancy hotel I didn't catch the name of. Josh, Ian, Mike and Matt got out and the bus pulled away.
"Go park while I pay," I told Kim and got out, joining for four boys.
"Are you ready for one hell of a night?" Josh asked. He had a case of coke zero in one hand a bottle of Jack Daniels in the other.
I nodded and grinned, leading the way into the hotel.
"So, I'll just give you the money and you can book the rooms right?" I looked at Josh.
"You can't do it yourself?"
"I'm not 18 yet."
"Dude, seriously?" His eyes widened. "I thought you were like 19."
"Nope, I'm only 17." I laughed.
"We're going to party with minors?" Ian asked, "Even better."
I handed Josh my credit card and he went up to the desk. Kim and the others entered the lobby and came to stand with us.
"I love being me," Josh grinned, returning to the group and handing my card back to me.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"The chick at the desk knew who I was. Our two $400 rooms are now free."
He high fived Matt and then headed towards to the elevator with us following. We piled into the elevator, taking it to the 17th floor. We found rooms 1702 and 1703 and entered them. And that's when things went nuts.
It started with simple shots that turned into strongly mixed drinks that turned into drinking straight from the bottle. Mike and Ian had to do a booze run after we downed the two bottles we had. Somewhere in the twenty minutes they were gone the alcohol really hit in since none of us had eaten. I found the magical button that turned the stereo on and somehow in my half drunken state I managed to hook it up to the surround sound.
A lot more shots later, Kim and I started dancing on the beds, jumping back and forth between them. I attempted a flip and hit the ground face first. I lay on the ground for a good five minutes just laughing. Kim had fallen onto a bed laughing at me. I sat up, my head spinning in the bed way and tried to get up. Instead I fell back down laughing.
Across the room Jack and Vinny were having a puppet show with socks and empty beer bottles. Alex had completely disappeared with Rian and Matt with half a case of beer. I didn't know where Matt or Ian was and Josh and Mike were just laughing at nothing.
"Strip poker time!" I announced crawling across the floor to the table. I stood up with a lot of help from the table.
"Do you even know how to play poker?" Kim yelled at me.
"Nope!" I yelled back, grabbing the deck of cards. I wobbled across the room and opened the door to find Alex and Rian in the hallway. Alex was laying on his back laughing and Rian was sitting, rocking back and forth.
"Come play strip poker," I demanded, stepping over Alex and threw open the other door. Haylee and Zack were on one of the beds, half naked.
"What?" Haylee asked.
"I was going to make you come play strip poker but it looks like you guys have done enough stripping." I said leaving the room without closing the door. Alex and Rian had left the hallway and entered the room. Everyone had gathered around the table other than Jack and Vinny who were still doing their puppet show.
Josh dealt the cards since he was the most sober.
An hour into the game all I had left were my underwear, Alex had his boxers left, Kim had only dropped her sweater, Matt was shirtless, Josh had his shirt and underwear left and Rian was still fully dressed. Shots were still being poured and I was even more wasted than before.
"I wanna get naked too!" Jack yelled finally taking note of our game. He stripped down to his boxers and sat down on Alex's lap.
"Hey! Get off my boyfriend!" I said, going to push him but missed and almost fell out of my chair.
"My boyfriend now!" He said and kissed Alex on the cheek.
"No!" I yelled and stood up. Jack jumped off Alex's lap as I stumbled towards him.
"Missed me! Missed me! Now I gotta kiss your boyfriend again!" He sang jumping onto the bed. I chased after him, "No, mine!" I screamed.
We ran around the room until Jack lunged for the door and took off down the hallway yelling "Mine!" Without thinking I darted into the hallway, following the sound of his laughter.
"Alex is all mine. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha!"
I turned the corner just as Jack stepped into the elevator and the door started to close.
"Noooo, I'll get you! Better yet, I'll lock you out of the room!" I yelled at him. Without waiting for his reaction I turned around and started running back to the room. I stumbled a couple times but made it back and slammed the door behind me.
"Haha! I win!" I yelled at nothing then turned around to see Alex and Matt dancing around in their underwear. Kim had a camera and was recording everything. She panned the camera over to me.
"And here we have our lead singer who has just returned from a magical adventure in the hallway." She narrated.
I did a random dance before looking at her, "I locked our boyfriend out for coming onto my boyfriend."
"HAHA! COMING ON MY BOYFRIEND!" Alex laughed. "That's funny!"
I laughed even though it really wasn't that funny and went to the table with all the alcohol. I grabbed the bottle of vodka, and that's the last thing I remember.
A loud banging woke me up. The first thing I noticed is that I was still half naked. At least I wasn't completely naked. As I stumbled over to the door I took in the sight of the room. Empty bottles, toilet paper, clothing and people littered the floor. What the fuck did we do?
I grabbed a hoodie off the floor, slipping it on and then answering the door. There were two maids standing in front of me with cleaning carts.
"You haven't checked out yet?" One asked, trying to peer around me,
.I blocked her view, "Uh, no. What time is it?"
"Three in the afternoon," She answered.
Oh fuck. "Give us half an hour okay?"
Without waiting for her response I slammed the door in her face.
"Shut the fuck up!" Someone yelled.
"No. Get your lazy asses up, now!" I said. I counted the bodies strewn across the floor. 6 out of 14 people, including me. I checked the bathroom finding Matt and Mike passed out on the floor. Eight. I left to go check the other room while Kim and Jack slowly sat up.
Haylee and Zack were in one bed, Vinny in the other. Eleven. The only ones I couldn't find were Alex, Taylor and Josh.
"Wake up! We have half an hour to pack and get out of here," I yelled. Thankfully this room had remained clean. Haylee threw a pillow at me, signalling that she was awake. I went back to the other room. Matt and Matt were sitting at the table looking like they had been run over by a truck, Rian was still sleeping half on the floor half on the couch.
"Someone wake him up. Does anyone know where Alex, Josh and Taylor are?" I asked. They all shook their heads slowly, having troubles thinking straight, let alone trying to remember where three people had gone. I dug around in the filth until I found someone's phone. I dialed Alex's number praying that he would answer only for it to go straight to voice mail. I dialed Taylor next.
"He-hello?" She mumbled.
"Where are you?" I asked, or more like demanded.
"In the van," She answered.
"Why?"
"Because you guys went nuts last night and I couldn't sleep."
"Is Alex with you?"
"No. The last time I saw him he and Jack were giving each other piggybacks down the hallway." She answered. I don't remember that happening.
"Alright. Well, can you look for him and Josh?"
"Josh is in the bathtub in Haylee's room." She informed me then hung up. Good, now I know where everyone is except my boyfriend.
I set the phone down on the table and turned to Kim. "Put clothes on. You're coming with me," Then looked at everyone else. "We have fifteen minutes to get dressed and out of here. Meet at the vans in twenty minutes. Fuck the mess, they can clean it up."
I grabbed my pants off the ground and pulled them on. I zipped the hoodie up, which I realized to be Alex's. "If anyone finds my shirt, bring it with you."
Kim and I left the room while the others started to put their clothes back on.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Kim asked.
"Locking Jack out of the room and then going to get another drink," I answered. "What about you?"
"Roughly the same. I remember Jack coming back in because you didn't actually lock the door and then filming Jack and Alex's dance off."
"They had a dance off?" I laughed as we waited for the elevator.
"Yeah, I don't know what started it though," She grinned. "We can watch everything I recorded during and after the show."
The elevator door opened and we went to step in until we noticed someone sitting in the corner half asleep.
"Alex?" I tried to hide my laugh. "How long have you been in here?"
All I got was a long moan. I chuckled and tried to pull him to his feet but my weak little arms could get him up. Kim laughed at me and grabbed his other arm. With a lot of difficulty he finally stood up by the time the elevator reached the lobby floor.
"I feel like shit," He mumbled trying to balance on his own.
"When'd you end up in the elevator?" Kim asked.
"I don't remember."
That wasn't surprising. We walked out of the hotel and towards the vans. The heat did nothing to help our hangovers. Taylor leaned against our van as we slowly walked up.
"All three of you look like shit," She laughed.
"Shut up and find us Advil or something," Kim told her, rolling her eyes.
"What even happened last night?" She asked while rummaging through bags and tossing me a bottle of Advil then pulling three bottles of water from the case.
"I don't remember much," I answered taking the pills first then handing the bottle to Alex.
"I have most of it on film," Kim said.
"That will be amazing to watch." Taylor laughed again.
A few minutes later everyone else arrived.
"Those maids did not look happy," Jack laughed.
"I don't think have the hotel was happy. You guys were so fucking loud." Haylee said.
"Goddammit why can't I remember what happened!" I complained. The one drunken night I would actually like to remember and I can't.
"Hey Matt—" Alex said. Both Matt's turned to look at Alex.
"Wait! This isn't going to work," Jack said and pointed at the younger Matt. "You are now Flyzik. Problem solved. Let's continue."
"—Can you drive to the venue? I think you're the least hung over."
Flyzik nodded and pulled the keys out of his pocket. We all separated into our vans, or bus in MT's case, and headed back to the venue.
There were already line ups of people outside of the venue as we pulled in. The crowds started cheering as we drove by.
"If only they were lined up to see us headline," Kim sighed then chuckled.
"They will be one day," I said optimistically.
Kim pulled around back and backed in so that the trailer was in line with the loading doc. Security and workers flooded out and started unloading the equipment. I got out of the van and looked at Alex who was next to me.
"Something's missing," I said to him.
"What?"
"Fall Out Boy's tour bus."
"You're right!" He agreed looking around.
"Maybe they're already here and moved their bus so we could unload?" Taylor said hopefully.
"Well let's go in and check," Kim suggested grabbing her tour I.D and heading towards the door.
Sorry this sucks. Writers block sucks. The next one will be better I swear (: