Backseat Serenade

“I was surprised to see you on the bus this morning.” My sister commented as we walked over to our merch tent to visit Holly, our bands merch person.

“And why is that?” I asked kicking a stone.It was only 9 am and already hot as hell. I couldn’t wait to get out of the sun. People were setting up tents and tables getting ready for the day to start.

“Because I would have expected you to still be on the OM&M bus.” She replied as if it explained everything.

“You thought I was going to sleep with him, didn’t you?” I couldn’t believe that she would think that I would do that.

She shrugged his shoulders, “I would have.You haven’t gotten any in forever and he is one fine guy.”

“I didn’t see you come on the bus yesterday with Alan.” I mentioned.

“Yeah well that doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything with him.” She said with a smirk.

“So that’s why he was gushing about how awesome you were when he got on the bus.” I laughed as we approached Holly and our merch tent. She looked a bit overwhelmed with tee shirts and what not all over.

“Thank God you guys are here!” She said looking a bit relieved.

“Need some help?” Sierra asked as she leaned on the table.

“Yes please. Harlem put things away last night and everything is just all mixed up.” She replied looking around.

“No problem.” I said and started going through some shirts.

***
“Hey Fox!” Somebody yelled. My sister and I both looked up from what we were doing. It was Alex Gaskarth.

“Which Fox are you speaking of?” My sister yelled back.

“He’s talking about me.” I informed her.

“Her.” Alex said pointing to me as he walked up to our tent.

“You know Alex Gaskarth?” My sister said looking surprised.

“We met briefly yesterday.” Alex informed her.

“What are you doing here Gaskarth? Want some band merch or something?” I had no clue why he wanted to speak with me.

“Some of us came up with a good competition and we were wondering if you would be up to it?” Alex asked.

“Should I be scared?” I questioned.

“No.” Alex answered. “How would you like to do a competition where you have to perform a cover of another bands song? Other bands will be the ones to vote and we do it on a bracket system. You go against one band. They have to sing one of your songs and you sing one of theirs.”

This sounded like a cool thing to do. “Who’s all in?”

“All Time Low, Of Mice & Men, We Are the in Crowd, We Came as Romans, Falling in Reverse, Sleeping with Sirens, Pierce the Veil, You Me at Six, I See Stars, Bring Me the Horizon, Our Last Night and Asking Alexandria.” Alex responded. “We’re still waiting on Black Veil Brides and Memphis May Fire.”

“You got Asking to go along with this?” Sierra chimed in.

“The stakes are good.” He said with a smile.

“And what are the stakes?” I asked.

“Every band has to buy a good twelve pack of beer, the winner takes all.” He replied.

“Sounds good to me.We’re in.” I said with a smile.

“Awesome. You’re against I See Stars first. Choose one of their songs and perform it during your set.” Alex responded and started walking away from us backwards. “Can’t wait to see you perform.” He turned and left the tent.

“I know the perfect song!” My sister said excitedly.

“I don’t know who they are!” I was freaking out. I had never heard a song by them! Why couldn’t we get someone like We Came as Romans or Bring me the Horizon or Pierce the Veil? I knew their songs.

“I’ve seen the way you pick up songs. You’re not going to have any problems.I already know the guitar part so I can help you with your part.” Sierra consoled me. “How are your unclean vocals?” She smiled.

***
The song that my sister had chosen was New Demons and by the time it was time for our set to start my throat hurt from doing the unclean vocals. How the hell were we going to pull this off?

“So I heard you guys got I See Stars.” Austin said coming up to me as the crew was setting up the stage for us.

“Yeah we did.” I answered. “I haven’t seen you all day.” I was glad to see him.

“Signings, and interviews.” He replied. “We got stuck with Falling in Reverse. We’re going to win of course. What song did you guys choose?” He tucked a hair behind my ear making me shiver involuntarily.

“Sierra chose New Demons.” I replied.

“That’s a lot of unclean vocals.” He noted.

I nodded, “Yeah you’re telling me.I don’t know how you do it every day.” I mumbled.

“Do you want me to perform the unclean vocals for you?” He asked with a smile. “We can do some sort of collaboration.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s cheating. And I don’t want to be disqualified, I want to win so that my band can eventually beat yours.” I said with a smirk. “That is if you survive to go against us.”

“You think that you guys can beat Of Mice & Men?” He asked looking amused.

“I don’t think, I know.” I replied cockily.

“Let’s see if you make it through the first round of eliminations and then we’ll see.” He responded.

“Come on Riley.” My sister said grabbing my arm and started dragging me on to the stage.

“I’m going to kill it, just watch me.” I smirked at Austin and then turned around, walking on stage of my own accord.

***
The crowd was bigger than the day before, I could see a few band members from the other bands in the competition in the back of the crowd and side stage. Oh boy here we go.

“So there’s this competition going around where we’re pinned against another band and we have to do a cover of one of their songs and they have to perform one of our songs. Well Alex Gaskarth informed me this morning that the first band we’re going against is I See Stars.” I said to the crowd and they cheered. “My sister chose the song so the last song we’re performing today is going to be New Demons. My boyfriend offered to do the unclean vocals, you guys know him as Austin Carlile. But I turned him down because I decided it would be considered cheering so please bear with me.” I looked back at Harlem and nodded, signaling to start the song off.

“I'm not your true love, Or your knight in shining armor! All of these games you play, And all this bullshit drama! I'll be free to be me and find my path in life! You think I'll die alone? Well I'm not alone tonight! Our love was a waste, This much is true. I pray I'd forget you! Yeah! Fuck you!”

When we finished the song the crowd went wild. Even though I knew I messed up a couple of times, I thought we did pretty well. Especially since we don’t have all the special synth stuff and what not.

I smiled at the crowd, “Thank you! You guys have been great!” I yelled and then me and the band left the stage.

“I think you just broke the hearts of a thousand fan girls.” Alan said as soon as I got off the stage. Austin was standing next to him grinning like a fool.

“What are you talking about?” I said taking a bottle of water that Austin was handing to me. My voice was a bit raspy and my throat hurt a little.

“You claimed Austin as your boyfriend.” My sister stated. “Are you ready for an onslaught of hate?” She seemed to be too gleeful at the thought of this.

“She’ll be fine.” Austin chimed in putting his arm around my shoulder.

“I’m not sure you want to do that. I feel disgusting right now.” I mumbled.

Austin shrugged, “I don’t care. You rocked that song by the way. You sounded very badass!”

“Thank you.” I smiled.

Notes

Back at school so hopefully there will be more updates ^_^