My Understandings

~Austin~
“Yes, is this Maria from Rise Records?”
“Please hold.” I groaned and slumped my head on the couch.
“So. How’d the talk go?” Tino asked.
“Well, it went well in my defense. Though he was a little shock to see me.”
“Well, what happened?” he asked, gripping my arm.
“Well……”
“What do you want Carlile?” I glanced at the ground. Remember, I am doing this for Ellie and I, just remember.
“I need to ask you something personal.” He gave me another look of surprise before stepping off the bus.
He sighs. “Sure.”
“So, you’re basically like a sister to Ellie right?” I ask.
“I mean, yeah. I’ve known her a while because of David, why?”
“I need relationship advice.” I sigh. It was sad I was coming to him for any relationship advice.
“Why don’t you ask Mitch?” it took all my might not to punch him in his god damn nose.
“He’s busy.” He shrugs his shoulders.
“Alright man. Hit me.” so I explained to him my whole situation and my feelings for her. I gave him a little bit about our past. I told him what Alan said and told him I was thinking about giving up.
“Man, you fucked up big time.” I shot my head up and glared at him. He laughed. “But, uh. Give her some time. You know. When’s the next tour date that you and her will be at the same venue?”
“The 24th. At Ventura fairgrounds.” I kicked the dirt from beneath my feet.
“Well, talk to her. then I don’t know, have fun with her at the fair. But remember, Alan is right.” I sighed even more. It was ten at night. We’re getting ready to leave.
“Thanks Ronnie.”
“Whatever.” And he slams the door shut.
“Asshole.” I muttered.
“Are you gonna do it?” Tino asks, snapping me out of my thought.
“Yeah. I mean, I want what’s best for her. And if for now Vic and space is, then I will give her space and I will give her Vic. I only want what’s best for her.”
“Man, you’re actually serious for once.” Which I’m never am, rarely. I kicked my feet up on the table and took a swig of beer.
“Yeah. She has that effect on me.”
On the Bright Side
~Ellie~
“Okay, who’s not gonna believe me when I say this, but Rise Records wants us to come down and talk about the possibility of being signed!” I yell. The previous night had all came in a blur. We were drinking out of our minds and I face timed Vic, but I was too drunk to remember what happened with the call. But Austin had called. It started off with yelling and fighting, but in the end, he told me what he did. He explained that he was sorry for what he did and in return, he sent a video mash-up of our performances and sent it to his current record label, Rise Records. Our current labels are Epitaph Records, thanks to Ronnie and now Oliver, and Equal Vision. But we dropped out of Equal Vision. I remember we couldn’t get signed to Fearless Records because my brother was signed there, but my brother is also signed to Rise Records too. When I told Austin about it, he simply said.
“They know.” They know and they still want to sign us! I needed a song to perform, in case they wanted to hear one. Miley slammed her phone on the table.
“Shut up! We would be singed to same record as your brother, Seeping with Sirens, Memphis May fire, uh….” She was so focused on the fact that we might get signed, she hadn’t even notice she was pouring an energy drink in her coffee.
“……Miss May I, Crown the Empire, Of Mice and Men.” It was so excited. We walked off the bus and took in the foggy air. The fair hasn’t even opened up yet, but you could feel the energy rocking off the rides.
“We have to ride the roller coaster first.” A voice speaks into my ear.
“Andy, are you sure you would even fit, you are rather, tall.” Both of us don’t perform until tonight, so we have the chance to enjoy the fiar.
“Tall? Psh. I’ll manage.” After helping everybody else set up, the fair gates open and we had fun. Miley was piggy backing on Jinxx’s back. We split our separate ways. Andy, CC, Ashley and I went to the right, towards all the fast rides while everyone else, except for Ryan and Max, went to the food court. We are all dressed in black, I mean it’s normal for them, but for me, it was a first. We went on to the roller coaster. CC was screaming and throwing his hands up in the air. Andy on the other hand was about to puke and I happened to be next to him. Ashley was making out with a girl next to him. Me, well, I was having the wind knocked out of my lungs. When the ride ended, Andy struggled to get out the cart. But when he did, he stumbled over to a trash can and puked.
“Whoa! Sick!” CC yelled. Next thing you know, I was huddled over the same trash can puking up my insides, even though my insides are empty. Next Ashley dragged me to a tent that did hair dyes. I got my hair dyed black. It’s not that bad. CC than takes control and takes me to get a tattoo. I get the dream catcher tattoo I wanted, but this time, on my back and then Andy drags me to get my lip pierced.
“Andy, are you sure about this?” I ask. CC ad Ashley stand by.
“You are going to make a beautiful addition to Back Veil Brides.”
“Yeah, but why a lip ring?” I ask.
“Because, yo daddy has one.” Andy interjects. Good thing it was being done on my left, because like Austin, Andy, and Vic, my nose ring is on my right. I sit on the seat and they give me mouthwash to rinse my mouth out with. Andy dots thte part on my lip where the ring will be placed. The clamp it and then they tell me to take a deep breathe. On the exhale the stick the needle through the inside out. While they are putting the ring in, I muttering one word to Andy.
“You bitch, you bitch you bitch.” But it came out more like. “Do ditch.” Weird. Within minutes were done. My whole body feels sore and to make it worse, we still have a show to do.
Fuck my life.
-Showtime-
~Andy~
Seeing them perform for the second time was amazing. I had face timed Juliet so she can hear them. She had on a Suicide Silence shirt and her band was rocking it.
“There's something in the look you give. I can't help myself I fold. I can't help myself at all. There's something in each touch when we kiss. I scream "God forgive me please," Because I want you on your knees
But I don't wanna think about it now. I know I won’t get out if I'm falling. So I don't wanna think about it now. It's dark in my imagination. It's dark in my imagination.
Something in the look you give. Now, are you giving you to her, 'cause I'm not entirely sure. Can't help but wonder where you've been all day. To say when I'm so far away. Let you give yourself a taste.
I don't wanna think about it now. I know I won’t get out if I'm falling. So I don't wanna think about it now. It's dark in my imagination. It's dark in my imagination. Dark in my imagination. Dark in my imagination. I don't wanna think about it now. I see her in my head, Are you somewhere waiting to meet? I don't wanna think about it now. Is this all that you said (?) All the secrets that you keep. But I don't wanna think about it now. I don't wanna think about it now. I don't wanna think about it now.” While Miley did the rest of the singing which was repeating “I don’t wanna think about it now.” Ellie climbed up the ladder that lead to a ramp that has an overlook on the crowd. I felt a weird pain of déjà vu.
“Babe, you okay?” Juliet looked at me.
“I….I don’t know. I feel like something bad is about to happen.” I admit.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” I turn her to face the crowd when it happen. She was getting off the ramp when it moved and her foot slipped. She disappeared in a space between the stage and the stairs. I turned the phone back to my face and Juliet’s face was shocked.
“Juliet,”
“Andy, make sure she’s okay.” I ran past the crowd to the spot where Ellie fell. Here’s where the déjà vu kicks in. just like me when I fell and broke my ribs. Here she is lying in an almost fetal position, constantly moving. She turned on her back and put her legs up. She must be in pain.
~Ellie.”
*Couple minutes before accident*
It was a song that I wrote about Ryan and Austin. How they’re fucking up my system of peace. I climbed the ladder that led to the ramp. In the crowd I could see Andy holding his phone out to me. on the screen was Juliet. She has never heard me sing before, so we agreed to face time her. I held the mic back to my lips as Miley kept singing below.
“I don’t wanna think about it now…………I don’t wanna think about it now.” The ramp began to move as I put my foot back out to the ladder, but my foot slipped and I fell. I bashed my face on the ladder and then I dropped a good fifteen feet and fell on my back and rolled to my side. My cheek took a pretty good blow from the ladder. I coughed out in pain and began to groan. I’m not much of a crier when it comes to physical pain. I try to breathe, but it’s hard to. They come out in short pants. My stomach is killing me, my lungs mostly. Within minutes, people are rushed to my side. They began to touch me and I scream in pain. I roll onto my back and I groan again. I bring my knees up and I pant again. Andy is by my side and is looking at me.
“Yup. Just like yo daddy. Not only do you get a lip ring like him, but you gotta break your ribs like him too.” I laugh and then groan again.
“Dammit. Help me up.” I say. Our manager and Max help me up and I have to lean on Max for support. “Hand me the mic.” They all give me a confused look.
“Did I speak German? No, now hand me the damn microphone before I rip one of your fucking throats out.” I spat. One of them hands me the microphone and I drag myself to the stage. Max gets behind the drums. Miley comes up to me.
“What are you doing?” she hisses. The crowd is looking at us and some are giving us hoots.
“I’m not stopping this show. Everyone else thinks low of us because were the rookie band. I broke some ribs. Great. Now let’s take it from the bridge and finish the song.” I say while trying to breathe regularly. She nods and takes her position. She taps her foot three times and we start again. It may have hurt as hell, but I managed to finish the last three songs. At the end, I dropped to my knees as the pain became unbearable. The crowd was cheering and some were giving me looks of surprise. I remember Andy running to me before everything turned black.

I woke up to the screaming nascence of my band. My current spot, the couch it feels, was becoming more and more uncomfortable. I used my elbows to prop myself up, but it came out as a grunt and a groan. I slumped back down and the wind left my body. I felt around for my phone, which is under my ass, and pulled it out. I looked into the screen and gasped. My cheek had a nasty bruise on it and my nose and under my eyes are a deep purple. There was a little blood coming from my nose. I unlocked my screen and saw several missed calls and texts. I read the first one.
Unknown: hey Ellie, it’s Juliet. I was checking to see how are you, since I kinda saw you drop. Text me back as soon as you can.
I saved the number under the contact Juliet and read the next text.
Alan: shit girl. Are you okay? Call me.
Kellin: how are you? We saw the video that your merch girl put on youtube.
That little bitch! Oh well I’ll deal with that later.
Brother: hey sis. Are you okay, we heard what happen. Text me.
My back ache. My lips ache. Gosh, why did I let them talk me into getting another tattoo and piercing when I was going to fall fifteen feet to my death? I text back David, since he was probably being a complete ass.
Ellie: just woke up. Everything is sore. Not only from the tattoo and lip ring, but my stomach aches and my face is bruised.
He responded almost instantly.
Brother: you got another tattoo?! And lip ring?! I swear I’m gonna choke Andy! Well how do you look?
I take a pic of my bruised my face and send it to him. Then I go to finish reading my texts.
Ronnie: how you holding up?
Loser ex whose number I can’t delete: hey, are you okay? I heard what happen. I’m proud you got back up there and performed. Rise records saw the video and I gave them your number. Expect a call soon. Be safe……..love you. </3 okay, a little cliché. Anyway, get better.
Austin? Being cliché? Wow. He really has changed. I change his contact name to Austin and read on.
Mexican BF: hey babe. Are you okay? Call or face time me asap.
Andy: you make yo daddy proud. Good job at breaking five ribs. Love ya. Face time me.
First, I call back Juliet. We talk for a few minutes and she tells me how awesome I sounded. Then she tells me how she saw me just vanish in the space. I laugh a little and we talk about arranging times for us to hang out. I text back everyone else telling them I’ll talk to them later and I face time Andy first.
“Hey, how you doing?’ he says in a fake New Jersey accent.
“Look at my face Andy! It will never be pretty again.” He chuckles. I just glare at him.
“Relax. You took a pretty nasty fall. You broke five ribs. Three on your left, two on your right. You broke more than I did. But because of you getting back up to perform, your show in California is blowing through the roof.” He takes his arms and jerks them back for action. I smile, but quickly diminish it because my face began to throb.
“I’m surprised I didn’t break my leg.”
“Close, twisted ankle.” I gave him a confused look, but when I looked at my leg, my left leg, my ankle was in a cast.
“Dang. I hadn’t even noticed that.” it began to itch, so I rubbed it against the couch. That’s when CC and Ashley joined him.
“Dude. That chick I was kissing is sending me nudes now. Day. Made.” He crosses his legs and diverts his attention back to his phone. CC took the phone and now it was me and him.
“The video of you falling has reached over a million views in just a day. You just made Warped tickets blow. People are buying them nonstop and we have you to thank.” I blushed heavily and shrugged my shoulders.
“What can I say? I’m clumsy.” My phone vibrated and it was a text from Alex. I haven’t talked to him since he asked me to go to the beach with him.
Alex: hey are you okay? I heard what happened. I guess……..uhm. Call me. Bye.
“Well. Guys.” I huffed. “I’m going to talk to Vic. See you whenever?” they all nodded and ended the call. Alex has a Galaxy, so I can’t face time him. But I will for sure call him. I looked through my contacts and landed on Vic’s. I started the call. Within seconds, the black screen popped up the Mexican. Who is Jaime.
“Hey Hime.” I finally figured who’s who and now I’m even calling him Hime.
“Sup-whoa! Your face! did you get run over?! I thought-geesh!” I laugh, groan, laugh, and grunt.
“Yeah I know. It’s pretty bad.” I sigh.
“No! I didn’t-” I silently laugh.
“It’s okay. I know.” Mike and Tony soon come and join the call. They began to ask me all these questions on how it happen and then they showed me the video. You could hear my groans and my cussing. Even the loud grunt I made. Then you see me trudging my weak self to stage and finish singing the song. I cover my face with my hands. If I look bad now, it was nothing compared to how I looked on stage.
“So. How many ribs? What’s the damage report?” Mike asks.
“Five broken ribs. Three on my left. Two on my right. Twisted ankle,” I show them the cast. “Busted face.” they laugh and Vic pops in. they all scurry away.
“I told you guys to stay away from my phone!” he yells. He was about to end the call when I groaned. My ribs are aching. “Ellie! Hey. Sorry about that. I haven’t been in the best mood. But how are you-whoa. Your face.” I roll my eyesand drop my upper half of my body back on the couch.
“Gee. Thanks. I’ve heard.” We talk for an hour. He tells me about their performance in Denver and how crazy the fans were. They had this party and tells me that Mike is in a heat of trouble. He cheated on Frenchi with a groupie (A/N for those who don’t know. A groupie is a girl who hooks up with band members. Any band members.) and he has to yet tell her. So I tell him about my chaotic day at the fair. I show him my tattoo, my lip piercing and my newly dyed black hair. Then I tell him about how the accident happened and how many injuries I have.
“Gee, you did more painful stuff then fun stuff.” I laugh. I soon realized it was getting dark, well, at least where I was. “Vic, I’ll call you back later.” He nods and I hang up. I call back Alex, but it goes straight to voicemail. So much for that. but my phone begins to ring. At first I thought it was Alex, but no. this number was blocked.
“Hello?”
“Yes. Is this Ellie from Sorry Not Sorry? This is Maria from Rise Records.’ I nearly drop my phone.
“Holy fuck muffins.” I mutter. I regain myself and put the phone back to my ear. “Yes. This is she.”
“Okay. So I have a request from Mr. Carlile about signing your band to our records. We saw the mash up video and we have listened to one of your singles. We have also saw the video from you performance and unfaithful accident in Salt Lake City. We understand that you and a couple of bands haven an off week in July. We are wondering if you could take that off week to bring you and your band here in L.A to do a live performance, interview and to go over somethings. Because Ms. Schmitt, we would love to have you singed to ur records.”
“Oh, yes! We would love to. But wait. My brother is still signed to your records.”
“Actually. Breathe Carolina, from the requests of Mr. Schmitt and Mr. Evan himself; have dropped out of our record. Because if he was still signed, we wouldn’t have given you this call.” David and Kyle dropped their record for us to be signed. I will totally have to make this up to them. This is happening. We are really going to get sign.
“Yes. We would love to.”
“Okay Ms. Schmitt. We will see you prior to a few weeks. Give my regards to Mr. Schmitt and Mr. Evan. And I will give your regards to Mr. Carlile. Have a nice day.” She hung up and I sat there frozen. This is really happening.
We are getting signed to Rise Records.

Coldness. I really would love to stick my head in freezing cold water in an glacier. But for now, I will settle for an ice pack. We canceled our shows, but we promised to make them part of our Headline tour to make it up for the two cities we missed. So now we’re driving through Nevada to get to our show in California. My face is healing pretty well and my ribs, but my ankle still hurts. Vic says he couldn’t wait to see us because our band is doing a duet to promote our album. There are six bands, including us making seven.
Pierce the Veil, Falling in Reverse, Breathe Carolina, We Are In the Crowd, Memphis May Fire, and You Me At Six. We haven’t met the last three bands so we’re pretty excited to see them. Miley walked through the lounge and sat in the chair across from me.
“How’s that pretty little face healing?” she asked. I laughed. Lately, she’s been calling me pretty little face so she can make me feel pretty again.
“Healing nice and steady.” I go through my twitter feed. “Are you excited to meet the bands?” I ask.
“Totally. I’ve been listening to some of their music and I love You Me At Six’s Bite My Tongue with Oli. It’s amazing. I really want to meet them.” She bounced.
“So. What about your hair and tan?” I take a pic and post to twitter, smiling gets me through. With all the cover up I have on, it’s hard to tell I bashed my face at all.
“Slight tan. Pale is cute. But not too pale. I want my hair multi-color.” She gets up to get a beer and plops next to me. she takes my phone and takes a pic of herself.
“You have a pretty face, especially with black hair. It brings out your eyes.” I blush. Good thing I have lots of cover up. My phone buzzed and began to play the specific ring tones I set. This one is playing Shadow Moses, so I know it’s Oliver calling.
“Hello?” I say in my “my body is aching but I’m really happy that I can’t kill you until I see you in person” voice.
“Hey, Ellie. So guess who’s on the bus with us while we drive around about.” This didn’t sound like Oliver.
“Matt?” out the corner of my eye, I saw Miley eying me weird.
“Yea.” He says. There’s a giggle in the background that is a little too high for it to be a man’s giggle. Trust me, I’ve heard Austin giggle.
“Who’s in the background?” I ask.
“That’s what I wanted to-”
“OLI!!!!”screams a girl.
“Matt. Start explaining.” I get up from my spot on the couch and hop my way to the bunks. I wave to the guys and sitnext to Max.
“Oliver’s ex-girlfriend showed up at our show and now she won’t leave, but we had to keep going. We’re trying to find a spot to ditch her about.” I gape my mouth open. Well one, I had no idea what he said, sort of. Like why does he always adds about at the end of s sentence. Second, well, she could get kidnapped!
“You guys can’t drop her off at some random city! She could get raped!” there was two snickers in the background. “Shut up Matt and Jordan!” the keyboard Matt begins to laugh while the Matt on the phone groans. “Just ditch her at a concert!” Max yells into the receiver.
“Or put her on the wrong tour bus.” Ryan pitches in.
“MATTY BOO WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO???!?!?!” I bring the phone away from my ear.
“Oliver’s girlfriend’s friend.”
“OLI HAS A GIRLFRIEND?!?!” next thing you know her voice is in my ear.
“Tell your friend to break up with Oliver. He’s mine!” and the receiver clicks. I hop back to the living room and I tell Miley everything.
“And she thinks Oliver wants her?!” she rolls her eyes. “Well, I don’t put up a fight for nothing.” I laughed and texted Matt back on his phone.
To Drummer Matt: she’s feisty.
From Drummer Matt: and annoying as hell, wish we could throw her out and about
I rolled my eyes. There he goes again with that about. But it was better than trying to understand what he’s saying. I don’t know how Miley even understands. Well, she did travel a lot as a kid.
To Drummer Matt: when our bands perform together, me and you gotta go get some drinks
From Drummer Matt: hellz yea!
I smiled. In the past couple days I’ve grown quite close with Matt.
To Drummer Matt: get on FaceTime and about
From Drummer Matt: :p don’t mock my accent
Soon enough, the BMTH ringtone played out. The black screen turned into a British dude’s nose.
“Matt!” his gray beanie came into focus and soon his face.
“Ellie!” it sounded more like olly, but eh?
“So. How’s that forklift thing been going?” Lee Malia has been daring Matt to drive forklifts because of his past job at Morrison’s.
“I drived it everywhere. I drove it about.” I gave him a questioning look.
“Drived it?”
“Yeah drived.”
“Seriously drived? It’s drove. Don’t drive a forklift about.” I mocked. He stuck his tongue out.
“So, where you going now? It hurts to have your face bashed isn’t it?” isn’t it sounded more like ain’t it.
“California. And yeah. It does.”
“So, would ya rather have your face bashed or your ribs broken?” I made a sizzling sound.
“Gee. That’s hard. Bash my cheek on a ladder or drop fifteen feet on my back? I would probably break my ribs. At least I can manage with that and black out.” He smiled and bonked the screen with his nose. What a geek.
~Oliver~
I have finally convinced the crazy lad to leave me alone. My excuse was I needed to write a song, which isn’t true. If I was writing a song, it would be in an isolated area with no human contact. And even if I wrote one on this bus, her constant nagging and need for attention would be distracting. It would be so tempted to pick up a bottle and smash it on her head and dump her body somewhere. So whenever she came back here, I had my notebook out writing. But really I was doodling and listening to Matt’s FaceTime call with Ellie.
“You’re a geek Matt.” She stated. This time, I acted as if I was asleep. But really I was daydreaming and eavesdropping. I always tell Miley what gossip I have, since her love for gossip has grown on me.
“But I’m a cute geek eh.” Matt? Flirting? He’s really flirting with Ellie? He likes her! That’s why he’s always texting her!
“Whatever.” She giggled. “Hey Matt. I have an issue. I really don’t know anyone I can talk to about it, except for Alan. But he’ll choose Austin’s side in a heartbeat.”
“Yea. What’s the problem?”
“Well-”
“ELLIE! COME LOOK AT THIS SHIT!!!!” Miley’s voice pierced through the room. I heard Ellie sigh and they bid their goodbyes.
“Oli, you can stop faking sleeping yeah.” I open one eye to see Matt staring at me.
“I was only pretending because that lad of a chick won’t leave me alone.” I mumble.
“She’ll leave. They always do.” he murmur.
“Yeah. Wait, what do you mean?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”And with that he stalks off to the living room.

Notes

Oh, what do you think Miley saw???? Double update later in the day, got homework to do, bleh -_-