iBelieve

“Wow. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“It’ll be fun! Just like old times.”

“Why in the fountain where everyone can see me?”

“I’m doing it too.”

“But Of Mice and Men are gonna see us! What will they think of me skinny dipping in a public fountain a night?”

“They’ll think we’re awesome.” I roll my eyes at Adele. Currently we’re, in a park in San Francisco, resting. Well, was.

Adele thought it’s fun to go skinny dipping in the park water fountain, while everyone else can see us. We’re not butt naked, but instead have on bathing suits, which I think is twice as worse. A skimpy bikini in the middle of a freezing night to be touched by freezing water while Andy video records this.

“I really hate you right now.” Adele smirks at me. People start to plow out of their buses. Tyler, Austin, Zach, Jimmy, Luke, and Alan.

Alan! He can see me! In a bikini! God, I hope Belle doesn’t see this.

“1….2….3!”
Adele and I start running towards the fountain at lightning speed. The dry grass crunches under my bare feet as we near the fountain. Adele flops forward into the fountain, landing with a big splash. I run and cannon ball into the water. It rushes up at with me with a cold force, it chills my bones and makes my teeth chatter. When I resurface, Adele’s head pops up and he cheers.

“That was so awesome!” he stands up from the fountain and grabs towels. I run my fingers through my hair before getting out myself. A towel hits my face and I gratefully take it, wrapping it around my freezing body. As I walk towards my bus, a hand is clamped on my shoulder. I freeze under the persons touch.

“Wow.” I turn around and squeal.

“Telle!” I hug Tyler in a bone crushing hug. He hugs me back, lifting me off the ground a bit.

“Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Before I can protest, he’s dragging me to the Dayshell tour bus. Dayshell, along with Of Mice and Men, is a band I’m not familiar with. Outside are two men laughing with a can of beer in their hands. “Hey Shayley!” The guy with the long brown hair and the lip ring looks up at Telle. His blue eyes shined through the night like a flashlight.

“Hey Ty.” As we approach them, both of them stand up from the chairs.

“Hey, this is Gwen. She’s headling Austin and the guys.” Shayley's eyes flicker to mine and study me for a moment.

“Hey Gwen. I’m Shayley. Ex-bassist and clean vocals for Of Mice and Men.” My eyes bulge out of me sockets.

So, Aaron is the current clean vocals and bassist and Shayley is ex? I wonder why Austin didn’t mention that.

“Uh, hi Shayley. I’m Gwen from Mandalay. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you the ex-bassist?” he smiles at me.

“No, I don’t mind. Come on.” He ushers me onto his bus. Telle tells us he’s going on back on his bus, which leaves me, Shayley and the other guy.

The inside of the Dayshell tour bus wasn’t that big, but it still looked nice. The thing that made it nice was the stairs that led down to the bunks. Shayley disappears down the stairs, leaving me.

“I’m Raul.” The other guy speaks. I smile and hold my hand out.

“Gwen.” He shakes it and goes into the kitchen.

“Do you want anything to drink Gwen?” he asks.

“Just a water. Thanks.” Shayley comes back with sweatpants and a shirt.

“I didn’t want you to be cold.” He hands them to me. I thank him and drop the towel, putting on the clothes. Shayley and Raul gawk at me. I take the water from Raul’s hand as I sit on the couch. “Um, right. So,” Shayley sits next to me while Raul hops on the counter.

“I was in Of Mice and Men for three years and two full length albums.” Shayley starts. I nod and take a sip of water. “Around the end of finishing what is to be my last album with them, The Flood, I start to feel depressed. Don’t get me wrong, I love that band. No matter how many formation changes we had.”

“Formation changes?”

“Yes. Austin and Jaxin met in 2009 after he left his former band Attack Attack! In 2010, it was Jaxin Hall as bass guitar. After the release of our self-titled album, Austin had to leave the band due to heart surgery. We had a temporary replacement for him. Jerry Roush. That replacement was to the be on Pop Goes Punk volume three, when we did Blame It. After a while, Jaxin let the band and sometime in early 2011, we asked Austin to join back. Which he did, bringing Alan with him. That moved him to rhythm and me to bass guitar.”

My breath caught in my throat. This is all so much to wrap my mind around.

“So, in 2011, I was feeling depressed. I suffer from anxiety and I’m a recovering alcoholic. I didn’t want to stay in that band in the condition I was in. before our set, I had a major anxiety breakdown, which resulted in calling the cops. No one got arrested, but the scene made me realize I needed help. I need treatment, the treatment I still need today. If I had stayed in Of Mice and Men, I’m positive that I wouldn’t be here today. I probably would’ve went and killed myself. ” I gasp.

“People were actually looking up to me and that wasn’t the example I wanted to set on my fans. I’m supposed to be their rock and what would happened if I had killed myself? So I left. At first, when I left, Austin and I weren’t on good terms. He made sure everyone knew of that when he did interviews. But after a while, he kinda came through and saw it from my point. So when they did Warped 2012, they had Aaron to be bass and clean vocals. That’s when they released the Re-Issue of The Flood with four new songs.

“I went home and spent some time with my girlfriend, writing some music of my own. When I heard that Raul was in town, I asked for him to come over. After working for weeks and weeks, we came up with some new material and made a new band.”

“Where did you get the name Dayshell from?”

“It’s my middle name. Shayley Dayshell Bourget. I don’t know what drove my mom to name me that. After a while, we got a call from Sumerian Records asking about a record deal. Of course, we took the opportunity and we got signed to them. We made a music video for our song Share With Me.

“This music that we’re writing is purely from experience. Share With Me is about how every morning when I wake up, I just never feel good enough, I wake up with anxiety. Then, just to feel normal, I just drink. I don’t want to fall back into that pattern and I feel this band will help me as much as it’s helping others.

“This is my first tour as Dayshell, our first tour as a band and I’m hoping to play at Warped in 2014.” I nodded and tried not to cry.

“Shayley, I wouldn’t, that’s, man, I’m proud of you.” This is who I’ve been looking for. Someone who understands, someone who I feel like I can trust. I take a deep breath. “I understand you.”
His eyes darken.

“How?” he asks, almost in a mocking tone.

“It started after the birth of my daughter,”

Notes