"Hey, how much time do we have left until we have to get back to the bus?" I asked Sierra as we were looking at the window display of some store that I didn't bother to learn the name of, but it had some pretty cool stuff in it. Sierra pulled out her phone, and looked.
"We should probably start heading back now." She said, readjusting all of her bags, so as to carry them more easily. I did the same, and we started pushing our way out of the mall, and outside. It was about a block from the mall we were at to the buses, so we just walked back. It was around two o' clock in the afternoon, and me and Andy were due for our first date about thirty minutes from then.
We finally got to my tour bus, flung the door open, stepped inside, and dropped all of our bags on the floor.
"Wow, that was an intense shopping trip. Now, more importantly... What are you wearing on your date?" She asked dramatically. I started rifling through our bags, including hers, and finally pulled out a decent outfit. It comprised of a black Motley Crue shirt, black skinnies, piano studded belt, motor boots, studded bracelet, black bracelet that said Love on it, a SWAGG rubber bracelet, white, feather, dangle earrings, black fishnet gloves, and a necklace with a feather type thing, a triangle, and a cross.
"How about this?" I asked, having laid it all out on the floor, seeing as how it wouldn't fit in my arms.
"It's got my seal of approval." She nodded, and then waved her hand as if to say 'What are you wasting your time here for?', so I went to the bathroom to put it all on.
"Dude, get in here, I need help with makeup!" I yelled to Sierra, and she came in a second later. She wordlessly started rummaging through my makeup supply, and came up with black eyeliner.
"Put this on!" She commanded, shoving them into my hands. I put it on, and when I got finished I turned around for her to see.
"Dude, you look hot!" She exclaimed. I nodded in thanks, and we went back into the living area. I pressed the play button on the remote for my iHome, which was on the coffee table, and it started playing First Date by blink-182, as funny as that is.
"In the car I just can't wait! To pick you up on our very first date!" We yelled in each other's faces. We were interrupted by groaning coming from the bunk part of the bus. Three very tired looking members of my band came out looking irritated.
"Guys! Can you please shut up! We're trying to sleep!" Ronnie yelled at us. We looked at them quizzically.
"Guys, it's like two in the afternoon, you needed to get up anyways." I stated calmly, but loud enough to where they could hear me over the iHome.
They grunted, and went to go and fix something to eat. Soon after that, Dear Maria, Count Me In by All Time Low came on. Sierra and I sang that, but, again, we were interrupted by a knock on the door. Ronnie opened it, and Andy stepped onto the bus. He was wearing black skinny jeans, as always, and an Alkaline Trio t-shirt, with all of his various accessories.
"I have no idea how one person can look so beautiful in just a t-shirt and jeans." He stated, causing me to giggle. Sierra and the guys fake gagged.
"You don't look too bad yourself. Come on, let's go." He grabbed my hand, and led me off the bus. We walked for about ten minutes before curiosity got the better of me.
"Okay, where are we going?" He looked to his left, and then stopped. He then proceeded to stand behind me and put his hands over my eyes. We walked for a little bit more, then he stopped again.
"Are you ready?" He asked, turning me to my left, so I can only assume that I was facing something.
"I don't know, I can't see." I stated simply, causing him to chuckle
"We're here." He took his hands away from my eyes, and moved to the front of a tattoo place, spreading his arms wide.
"A tattoo place? Not a very traditional first date place." I said, crossing my arms, and raising one eyebrow. He pulled a piece of paper out from behind his back, and looked at it.
"Number twenty-seven on Tidal's list of things to do before she's thirty; get a tattoo." He read off. I gasped, and grabbed the list from his hands. I looked at it, and sure enough, it was my list of things to do before I turned thirty.
"Where did you get this?" I asked, a little in shock, waving the list in front of his face, as he just stood there grinning.
"I found it on your kitchen counter. I have decided to take it upon myself to help with your list. So far, you have dated a rockstar, have been in a band, went on tour, and visited a blue's bar in Chicago. I am going to help you with this list, and if it's not finished, most of it will be by the time this tour is over." He explained, the smile never leaving his face.
"Well, thanks. That's really sweet. Come on, what are we waiting for then?" I asked, grabbing his hand, and pulling him inside. There was a lady with several tattoos and piercings there to greet us. The place wasn't very busy, it was brightly lit with fluorescent lights, and had a bunch of tattoo stencils on the walls.
"Hello, which one is getting the tattoo?" She asked with a smile.
"Her." Andy said, pointing to me. She nodded, and told us to look around. After a couple of minutes, I saw this really cool one that was a rose surrounded by a bunch of hearts. It was called the song of love rose.
"Have you decided?" The lady asked, coming up next to us.
"Yeah, I want this one." I said, pointing to the one that had caught my eye. She nodded, and yelled to someone in the back.
"You're both over eighteen, right? I.D.s please." She said, holding out her hand. We pulled out our ID cards, which she checked, and gave back to us. She then led us to a back room where a guy was waiting.
"Okay then, where do you want it?" His voice was deep and scratchy. He was bald, and had the overall look of a biker. I pointed to my left forearm.
"Okay. So, what are your names?" He asked as I sat down in the chair across from him, and laid my arm across the table.
"My name is Andy, and that's Tidal. What about your's?" The guy had just finished getting his tools or whatever ready, and was about to start on it.
"Mike. You two look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" He started on the tattoo. It really wasn't that bad, it was just like a scratching sensation.
"Probably not. I don't think that we've ever met you." I replied, watching him work with great precision.
"Oh, yeah, I know who you guys are. You're from those bands My Pain of Heart, and Black Veil Brides. My son and daughter talk about you two all the time. My daughter has a crush on you," he said, directing his comment towards Andy, "and my son has a crush on you." He said, talking to me.
"Tell them we said thanks." Andy said. He laughed.
"They're going to freak out when they hear that I did your tattoo." He told me, finishing up the bud of the rose, and starting on the stem.
"Yeah, in my opinion, you two are pretty good. A lot better than most of the stuff that's out right now." He said.
"Thanks. We work hard." I said, watching as he started on one of the leaves.
"I would imagine so. My son, Hayden, makes me watch your music videos twice a day. All of them, and some of your performances. You have got one set of pipes. You too. They were so disappointed when they didn't get to go to your concerts." He said. From the way he talked about his kids, I could tell that he cared about them a lot.
"We're sorry. We would've loved to have had them come to the concert." Andy said, looking genuinely sorry.
"It's fine. Maybe next time, right?" We nodded, and the room fell into silence. About ten minutes later, he finished up.
"So, what do you think?" He asked. I looked at the tattoo, now permanently etched into my skin, and smiled in approval.
"I love it." He smiled in appreciation, and ran over the guidelines of taking care of it, and for how long. We got back up to the paying place, and I started to pull out my wallet, but Andy stopped me.
"I got it." I started to protest, but he had already handed the girl the money, and was pulling me out of the place by my right hand.
"I could've paid for it, you know." I said, not feeling good about Andy paying for my tattoo.
"I know you could've, but I was the one taking you out on the date, so therefore whatever we do I'm paying." He stated simply. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes, and lighter from his pocket, and lit one.
"You really should not do that. Those things are slowly killing you." I said, gesturing to the pack of cigarettes that he was now depositing back into his pocket. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, and blew the smoke out and turned to me.
"I will most likely be smoking for the rest of my apparently shortened life. Many have tried, and many have failed to get me to stop smoking." He said, taking another drag from the cigarette.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, where are we going now?" I asked, looking around. There were a couple of fast-food restaurants, and a bunch of stores, but nothing else.
"Well, what about McDonald's? Jake hasn't forced us into it since the beginning of tour, and there are no better fast-food places." He said, gesturing to a McDonald's across the street. I smiled, and nodded, so we walked over, and inside.
"So, Matt and I were discussing this earlier, and we came to the conclusion that you and Sierra are basically the girl versions of us." Andy stated once we had gotten our food and sat down. He had chicken nuggets, fries, and Coke, and I had a medium order of fries, and an Oreo McFlurry.
"How do you figure?" I asked, eating one of my fries.
"Well, you two are best friends, and act like complete idiots around each other. No offense. And, then, you do everything together, and you're both in bands, and you're both very attractive, and you're partners in the Bryan Stars interviews." He ticked off on his fingers, finishing up with a smile. I replied after I had eaten some of my McFlurry.
"I have never heard the word 'and' used so much in one sentence. While most of your statements are true, those things are completely shallow and meaningless. Which one would I be?" I asked with a smile.
"Oh, you would most definitely be me." He said with a smirk.
"Well, then, that means that you two are our guy counterparts. If you're me then that means that Matt is Sierra. Oh, she'll love that." I said, finishing off my fries, and setting to work on my Flurry.
"Oh, yes, she'll be jumping with joy." He said sarcastically. I laughed, and put my spoon in my mouth, feeling the extreme creaminess of the ice cream.
"So, what's your favorite classic rock band?" He asked, sipping his Coke.
"Either the Beatles, KISS, Black Sabbath, or the Rolling Stones." I said. He looked at me in disbelief.
"The Beatles? Why?" He asked incredulously.
"Because, they're amazing, that's why! I take it that you don't like them." I stated, eating more of my ice cream as he finished up the last of his food.
"Well, it's not that they're bad, because they're not, they're just not the kind of band that I would normally listen to." He said, making slurping noises with his straw.
"Well, they're awesome. When I first got into them, I had a crush on the 60's Paul McCartney, and then I had a crush on the 60's Ringo Starr." I said, scraping the rest of the Oreo from the bottom of my cup.
"Ringo Starr? Really? His nose is so... Not to be mean, but it takes up like half of his face." He said.
"I happened to love his nose. I thought it was adorable. And, then, his eyes... Those were the best part." I really couldn't believe that I was talking about my past crush on Ringo Starr with my current boyfriend, but there we were.
"Well, as long as you don't still have any current feelings for him, then I'm cool." He said, giving me a thumbs up sign.
"Don't worry, I don't. Besides, he's old now. So, what were some of your past celebrity crushes?" I asked, leaning back in my chair, and smirking. He blushed, and looked down.
"Nobody." He mumbled, causing my smirk to grow wider.
"Your blush suggests otherwise." I stated.
"Well... Last year... I had a crush on Megan Fox." He turned crimson red as I burst out into fits of giggles.
"I'm sorry... It's just that... Megan Fox! Okay, I'm not laughing, I'm not laughing." I said, calming down a little, but still smiling.
"Oh, come on! You had a crush on Ringo Starr for crying out loud! The drummer with the insanely big nose!" He cried defensively.
"I am not ashamed of my previous crushes. I'm also not afraid to say that I used to have a crush on Billie Joe Armstrong." I said with another smile on my face. He stared at me open-mouthed, and then got up to throw his trash away, taking mine with him.
"So, what do you want to do now?" He asked, sitting back down, this time beside me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and looked at me expectantly.
"Why don't you come up with something? While I answer my phone." I added on as my ringtone started playing. Fixed at Zero by VersaEmerge. Sierra had Holiday for her ringtone.
"Hello." I said, not even looking at the caller ID.
"Dude, I know you're on a date with Andy and everything but your friend Sandra is here, and she wishes to see you two." Kailee said from the other end of the line.
"Hey, put Andy on the phone, I want to talk to him." I heard Ash say.
"Pushy." Kailee said before I handed the phone over to Andy. He took it with a confused look on his face.
"Hello?" He said more like a question. "No, dude, it's the first date! What is wrong with you? Put Kailee back on the phone." He handed the phone back to me, and this time I took it with a confused look on my face.
"Hey, what happened?" I inquired, and I heard groans of pain somewhere from the side.
"Oh, nothing, but let's just say that Ash might not be moving for a while." Kailee said cryptically as I heard, "Get off of me! I can't breathe!", from the side as well.
"Who's sitting on Ash, and why?" I asked.
"Sandra and Moron. You don't need to know why." She said, again, cryptically. It was beginning to get frustrating.
"Okay, well, we'll be over soon." I said, hanging up. We stood up, and silently made our way back to the buses. As soon as we were within twenty feet of the bus, we heard total chaos. People were stopping to stare at it. We rushed in, and what we saw horrified me.
Not really, but I thought that that would be really dramatic. However, it was chaotic. Ash was on the floor, and Sandra and Morana were sitting on his stomach. Sierra was sitting next to them, yelling at Ash for asking some unknown question, and Ash was screaming for Sandra and Mor to get off of him. BVB was there, and Ronnie and CC were fighting over who was a better drummer. Ronnie was for CC, and vise versa. Jake, Jinxx, and Kailee were fighting over which kind of guitar was better. I don't even know which kinds they were talking about, because they were being drowned out by everyone else. On top of that, someone had left my iHome on, and Paranoid by Black Sabbath was blaring from the speakers. Yeah, total chaos.
I let go of Andy's hand, and walked over to the iHome to turn it off. I did as such, and all talking immediately ceased. They all stared at me, and then looked over to Andy.
"Yeah, hey. Seeing as how I don't want the rest of the bus to be destroyed, I would like to ask some questions. Sandra, Morana? Can you get off of Ash? Ronnie, CC, admit that both of you guys are freaking awesome drummers, and no amount of arguing will convince the other otherwise? Jinxx, Jake, and Kailee? I'm sure both of the guitars you're talking about are plenty amazing, so please shut up!" I asked as sweetly and calm as I could. Sandra and Morana then got off of Ash.
"Hey, Sandra, what are you doing here?" Andy asked, walking over to give Sandra a hug. I followed suit.
"Well, since I missed your concert in LA I have decided to grace your next concert with my presence." She said, placing her hand over her heart dramatically.
"Great. Which tour bus are you staying on?" I asked.
"BVB's." She stated simply.
"Great. Well, I guess we should go. Bye, Tidal." Andy said, placing a kiss on the top of my forehead. They walked out, and Sandra gave me a thumbs up, and mouthed 'Nice' on the way out.
"Well, that was interesting." Mor stated, plopping down on the couch.
"Indeed." Sierra said, sitting beside her. I then sat beside Sierra, and Kailee and Ronnie sat beside me.
"Check out my new tattoo!" I said, holding out my left forearm. I was the first one in the group with a tattoo. They all admired it for a minute, and then were done.
"We had plans to go out tonight. Are you guys sure that you don't want to come?" Ronnie asked with a raised and suggestive eyebrow. We shook our heads, and they set about getting ready to go.
"Hey, you're getting a video call." Sierra said, pointing to my open laptop, which did indeed have a video call in progress. From Sammi! I hadn't talked to her in forever. I quickly accepted, and soon Sammi's face showed up.
"Hey, Tide, how you doing?" She asked, looking for a second at Sierra then back at me.
"I've been great. Sammi, this is Sierra, Sierra this is Sammi." I said, introducing them.
"Hey, nice to meet you." Sierra said. Sammi nodded. Then, a pretty girl about our age with red hair, and carrying a bowl of popcorn sat down beside Sammi.
"Hey, what did I miss?" She asked, putting a piece of popcorn in her mouth.
"You're not at a movie. Scout, this is Tidal, and Sierra, guys this is Scout." She said, introducing us.
"Oh, yeah, you're Andy's new girlfriend. Congratulations, you two seem great for each other." She said, putting another piece of popcorn in her mouth.
"Thanks, you know Andy?" I asked, figuring that he might've mentioned her, and racking my brain for any memory of it.
"Yeah, we go way back. He talks about you all the time. From what he tells me, you're really cool." She said, while Sammi ate a piece of popcorn herself.
"Cool. So, what have you been up to?" I asked, mostly to Sammi because I had no idea what this Scout girl did.
"Oh, not much. Some stuff with the band. You know, the usual. But, guess what? Pouty Scouty and I are coming to visit you guys on tour." She said excitedly.
"I was not aware of this." Scout said.
"It was a recent occurrence. Anyways, I will be sleeping with Jinxx- shut up-, and I was kind of hoping that Scout could sleep on your tour bus." She said with a nervous smile.
"Yeah, sure, we have one more bunk. We would love to have you here. So, Scout, what do you do?" I asked, leaning forward a little bit. Sierra did the same.
"I'm an actress. I love My Pain of Heart, you guys are awesome." She said with a smile.
"Thanks, I'll look for some of your movies. Aw, Sierra, are you feeling left out?" I asked Sierra, seeing as how she hadn't spoken yet.
"A little bit." She responded truthfully.
"So, Sierra, what do you do?" Sammi asked, leaning forward like we did. Scout was about halfway through her popcorn.
"I'm the lead singer of VersaEmerge." She said proudly. "What do you do?" She asked.
"I'm the keyboardist for My Satellite. We aren't particularly big, like not at all, but we've been getting a little more popular recently." She said.
"Cool. So, what are some of your songs?" Sierra asked.
"Gustor, Mirrors, Tidal Wave-" Sierra and I bust out laughing after that. "What?" She asked with a confused look on her face, but she was smiling.
Once I calmed down enough to answer I said, "We recently did an interview with Bryan Stars, and he asked what our porn star names would be and mine was Tidal Wave." I said, and this time all four of us burst out laughing.
"Well, that's nice. Yeah, you know, that song was actually about Tidal. Not really. So, what are some of your songs?" Sammi inquired.
"Well, our most popular song is Fixed at Zero." We went for a while longer just talking about random stuff, and getting to know each other better when Sammi and Scout announced that they were getting tired, and Sierra left to go back to her tour bus.
I picked up my notebook, and opened up to my song, expecting to write a little bit more, but nothing came. I heard the door bang open, and Andy rushed inside, holding his phone, a piece of paper, and two hoodies. He sat down next to me on the couch, and stared at me, but didn't say anything.
"Can I help you with something?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. He just smiled, and held out one of the hoodies to me. I grabbed it warily, and unfolded it to see that it was just a hoody with a red heart on it with scissors running along one edge, and it said 'Cut Here'.
"Is there a reason you have given me this hoody?" I asked again. He unfolded his hoody, and showed it to me. It was black with a red heart, and that was basically it. He put it down, and picked up the piece of paper.
"Number forty-two on Tidal's list of things to do before she's thirty: reenact all of the Pon and Zi comics with your boyfriend at the time." I blushed at that one. I fell in love with the comics, so I just had to add that to the list.
"You want to reenact the Pon and Zi comics?" I questioned a little amused. I just couldn't picture Andy reenacting those.
"If it means helping you with your list, then yes. Now, look at these." He demanded and held out his phone. I took it.
The first picture was of Andy, of course. He was wearing the hoody, holding a flower. The next, Andy had a bandage on his head, and was holding a piece of grass. The next, he was opening some curtains on his bus, and sunshine was filtering through. The fourth was Andy pretending to put his arms around something, and the fifth was Andy holding his pillow, and looking insanely sad.
"Why do you look so depressed in this one?" I asked, pointing to the picture.
"Because, it's what the comic called for. I did a bunch of the comics that only required the yellow one, which is mine, and all I have left to do for these is add the captions. Now, please, put the hoody on, and pull up some of the comics." He asked, putting his own hoody on, and zipping it. I did the same, and pulled up the comics on the dude's website.
"Wow, you really are a good boyfriend. The first one who ever offered to help me with the list actually." I said when we approved of the easiest on we saw on first sight; the yellow one puckering its lips, and the blue one just staring. It said, "When I put my lips like this, I want you to kiss me."
"Okay, let's just use your computer's camera, because both of us are in this one, and Jinxx took the rest. He was laughing the whole time. Eventually, I told him that he'd do the same for Sammi, and that shut him up." Jinxx and Sammi had been together for about five years, so I took his comparing our relationships was a good sign. I brought up the camera, and set it to go off in about five seconds.
I stared at Andy, trying hard not to laugh as he puckered his lips. The camera went off, so he relaxed his lips, and stared at me, too. Soon we burst out laughing.
"That felt weird." He said, after a couple of minutes of uninterrupted laughing. I agreed, and we became quiet again.
He leaned over, and kissed me on the top of my head. After his lips disconnected, I turned to him, and kissed him hard. He kissed back with the same amount of intensity. He brought his hands up to the side of my face as I brought mine around his neck. His lips were soft, as they always had been, but his lip ring was cold, and instead of tasting like cigarette smoke and gum, he tasted like cookies. When we pulled apart, we looked at each other.
"When did you have cookies?" I asked jealously, causing him to chuckle.
"Of course you would ask that. You know that comic where the yellow one tells the blue one that it made it a cookie but it ate it. I figured if we did the comic, I might as well make it true. I brought you a cookie though." He pulled a small, plastic, Ziplock bag from the table beside the couch that I hadn't notice him carry in. He handed it to me, and I opened it, pulling out the chocolate chip cookie. I ate the cookie in about three bites.
"Hungry there?" He asked, laughing.
"No, I just love cookies." I said, laughing too. He picked up my discarded notebook from the couch, and started flipping through it.
"No, no, no! No one is allowed to see that at the moment!" I tried to grab it from him, but he leaned away from me, and stretched out his arm that never seemed longer. Finally, he pulled back, and I snatched the book from him.
"Is that a song that you're writing?" He asked. I sighed, and flicked through the pages.
"Trying to write is more like it. I just can't seem to find the inspiration to write it." I said, getting irritated at the fact that I couldn't write it the way I wanted to.
"Well, maybe I could help." He suggested, reaching for the notebook again. I threw it into the bunk area.
"No, I want to do it myself." He sighed, and threw his arm around my shoulders.
"Okay. If you need any help with the song, you can ask me." I nodded my head, and leaned it on his chest.
A/N: Okay, so what do you guys think about a story about Scout, Sammi, Sierra, and Tidal called The Marvelous Misadventures of the Fantastic Four? Or a story about My Pain of Heart throughout their high school years? Both, maybe? Okay, I'm being selfish. What I want to know is what you guys want to see in the story, in the future. So, give me your ideas, and I'll do my best to incorporate all of them into my story. :)