“Fuck!” I yelled slamming the bus door behind me and taking off at a full sprint towards the main stage and the hidden pathways that would get me to the backstage area. I had over slept and now Of Mice & Men were due to be on in five minutes.

“Can I see your badge please?” The security guard asked stopping me at the entrance to the backstage entrance.

I reached for my lanyard which usually hung around my neck and found that it wasn’t there. “Uh…” I began feeling all over my body and in my pockets praying I had it somewhere. I didn’t have time to run back to the bus now.

“No badge. No entry.” The man crossed his arms and widened his stance.

“You don’t understand, I have to be side stage for the Of Mice & Men set.”

“Uh huh. You and all the other fangirls.”

“I’m not a fangirl!” I yelled in frustration. “I’m Raegan…with All Time Low…” I said giving him a big grin and pointing to my face. Suddenly, I caught a familiar flash of ginger over his shoulder. “Alan!” I screamed.

He turned and walked over with a sly smirk on his face at the sight of me.

“Tell his ogre to let me in.” I said gesturing to the burly man still blocking my way who was now rolling his eyes at me.

“I’m sorry,” Alan said smirking. “I seem to have forgotten who you are after you tried to brutally attack me yesterday morning.”

“Oh, I am going to kick your little freckley ass when I get my hands on you!” I said trying to push my way through.

The security guard started pushing me away and back towards the crowds of people telling me to “get a move on.”

“Alan!” I screamed one last time.

“Ugh, okay Raegan!” He said dramatically sighing. “Hey, dude. Let her in here. I really do know her.”

“You do?” The security guard glanced between the two of us clearly confused.

“Yeah, she’s with All Time Low and we asked her to watch our set today.” Alan explained.

“I told you!” I said stomping past the security gate and into the backstage area.

“Well carry your badge on you from now on!” The security guard said to me as I gave Alan a dirty look and made my way towards the rest of the band.

Austin was walking pacing back and forth under a tent, headphones in his ears, screaming, “HEYYYY!” “YEAHHH!” over and over. Tino was sitting wetting his hair with some water and sent me a dazzling smile when he saw me. There were fans standing around and men bustling around setting up speakers and moving wires. Tino and Phil made the ramp that connected with the stage looking out over the crowd. Tino was drumming against the metal poles that created the railing. Alan flipped me off on his way by and I pushed his shoulder roughly. Aaron was guzzling water and was really pale.

“Aaron, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. My stomach’s just hasn’t felt right today. Thanks, though Rae.” He smiled and made his way up the ramp.

“Austin, let’s go!” Someone yelled.

I stood there watching Aaron’s retreating back knowing that something more was wrong with him and praying that he would make it through the set okay.

I made my way up the ramp to stand with the guys as the crowd started cheering, “Austin! Austin! Austin!”

“Ur boi! Ur boi! Ur boi!” Tino was chanting making me laugh. “They never chant my name!”

“Rae!” I felt my body suddenly pulled against someone else’s and I could tell just by the smell of the cologne it was Austin. “I didn’t even see you! I’m so glad you’re here!”

The guys made their way towards their trailer and stood around in a circle.

“We get to do this every fucking day! Let’s fucking kill it!” Alan screamed.

“Whatever Alan says on three!” Austin said.

“Let’s fucking do it!” Alan yelled again.

“Whatever Alan says on three!” Austin said.

“Raegan’s so annoying! One, two, three!” Alan screamed.

“One, two, three!” The guys said laughing and throwing their arms up in the air.

“You’re such an ass!” I said shaking my head at Alan as he walked by giving me a smile.
Their intro music began to play as they all excitedly made their way towards the stage, bouncing as they walked.

Austin hung back as everyone else walked out and the crowd erupted into cheers.

“Thanks for coming again, Rae!” Austin said just loud enough for me to hear and holding my gaze a moment too long.

I smiled wide as he ran out onto the stage; the crowd getting even louder than I thought was possible.

I walked closer to the stage so that I’d be able to see them perform better. Launching right into Ohioisonfire, the guys had the crowd going insane. I looked out over the audience, seeing the mosh pit and everyone just bopping right along with the music and couldn’t believe this is what an Of Mice & Men show was like. The atmosphere was completely different than All Time Low’s set, but still insanely exciting.

They were half way through the set when I saw it happen. Suddenly towards the end of The Depths,
Aaron fell to the ground. Everything felt like someone had just hit the slow motion button on the remote control of life. The guys stopped playing and worriedly looked over at Aaron before rushing to his side. Fans were screaming and trying to figure out what was happening. Stagehands were running out on stage and someone was getting the medics. I ran forward and pushed through the little gathering that had formed around Aaron.

“Aaron!” I yelled reaching down and grabbing one of his hands. His eyes opened slowly and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“I’m okay.” He mumbled as the medics arrived. “Finish the set for the fans.”

“We won’t have a singer!” Alan said worriedly.

“What’s the next song on the set?” I asked, my mind buzzing with ideas.

“Ben Threw.” Austin answered.

“Go play Ben Threw. I’ll figure something out and make sure Aaron’s okay.”

Austin nodded signaling for Tino, Phil, and Alan to follow him back out onto the stage. I made my way down the back set of stairs and found Aaron sitting under the tent drinking water again.

“Are you okay?” I asked him as a medic was checking his vital signs.

“Yeah, I think so.” His voice was hoarse he had been having a hard time hitting notes the entire set and I was wondering if he should have been singing in the first place.

“Who can we get to sing the last three songs with them?” I asked him.

“I don’t know.” He said sincerely.

I was suddenly hit right in the face with an idea so brilliant and daring at the same time, I couldn’t not go through with it.

“We’ll check up on you after the show, okay?” I said walking backwards towards the stage. He nodded and I turned and ran up the ramp. Ben Threw was coming to an end, it was only a matter of time before the next song started. I was standing on the right hand side of the stage as the song ended.

“Is Aaron going to be okay?” Austin said into the microphone looking at me. I nodded my head and started making my way towards the stage.

“Keep playing!” I called out to them.

“Okay…” Austin said and he signaled for the guys to start the next song, Still YDG’N. I took my place at Aaron’s microphone and did the little background vocals. Austin and the guys looked at me like I was crazy, but when we got to the chorus; I grabbed the microphone out of the stand and sang my heart out.

“Sinking apologies, knowing you’re leaving me on my own.
Sinking apologies, knowing you’re leaving me, all alone.”

Austin was smiling wide when I hit the last note and he continued to scream. The crowd was getting back into it again, accepting me as the clean vocalist. We finished and launched right into Product of a Murderer. I was getting more and more comfortable being on the stage and Austin and I were learning how to blend our voices together.

“I just wanna thank our good friend Raegan Jones for stepping in for Aaron.” Austin said causing the crowd to scream and cheer. “She’s usually playing acoustic sets with All Time Low, and here she is rocking out to metal with us. We’re not sure how Aaron is doing at this exact moment, but we’ll be sure to post on Twitter and Facebook as soon as we do know. This last song, is one I usually crowd surf for…but I’m not going to do that for time’s sake because I really just wanna make sure Aaron’s okay when I get off this stage…so I’m sorry to those of you who were looking forward to stealing my shirt and shoes tonight! Give it up for Aaron and Raegan one more time! This one’s called Second & Sebring!”