I was walking around the venue when I saw an ambulance zooming out of the parking lot.

“Oh my god! What happened?” I asked Kellin as he stepped out of his bus.

“Cleo…she had a heart attack,” he choked out.

“W-what?”

“They said I found her just in time, so hopefully…”

I crumpled to the ground and began to sob. As if I hadn’t caused enough worry for everyone, now this happens to Cleo. Part of me thinks that the whole female line of my family is cursed.

“Kay, don’t cry. She’ll make it, don’t you worry,” Kellin soothed.

“How can I not? She’s family!”

“I know. But you have to pull yourself together. You have a show in a few hours. You have to be strong. Cleo would want you to.”

“You’re right,” I sighed, wiping my eyes and slowly getting up from the ground, “Please, just let me know if you hear anything?”

“I promise,” he grimaced.

I nodded thankfully and walked slowly back to the Pierce the Veil bus. Drew, Ben, and Derek always hung out on their bus before the shows.

“Hey chica! What’s up?” Mike asked as I got on the bus.

“Are my boys in here?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re in the back lounge,” he mumbled, confused.

“Thanks.”

I shuffled to the back lounge and saw the boys playing some video game with Tony and Jaime.

“Guys…” I said.

“What, Kay?” Derek asked.

“Cleo had a heart attack. She’s been sent to the hospital.”

The boys dropped their game controllers and stared at me.

“What?”

“Kellin got to her just in time, I think, but I don’t know. I’m just as terrified about this as the rest of you, but we have another issue,” I sighed.

“What would that be?” Drew asked, messing with his red hair.

“We need someone to fill in for her on stage. I know she wouldn’t want us to cancel our set. Do you guys have any ideas?”

“You could get Zack and Alex to help out. They already had their set earlier today,” Ben suggested.

“Is that okay with the rest of you?” I asked.

Drew and Derek nodded.

“I’ll let you know when I find out anything. I’m going to head over to the All Time Low bus. I’ll see the rest of you in a couple hours.”

I let the boys returned to their game and I excused myself from the bus. As I strolled over to the ATL bus, I couldn’t help but to notice how sunny and bright it was outside. To think that something so bad could happen on a day like this….

I knocked on the bus door knowing if I barged in then I’d have a ninety percent chance of running into a naked Jack Barakat. After waiting a few moments, Alex opened the door.

“Hey, Kay. What’s wrong?” he asked, taking notice of my puffy, red eyes.

“Cleo had a heart attack. Kellin is going to keep her company in the hospital, I think. Can I come in?”

“Of course,” he said, letting me on.

“I need to ask for a favour, if that’s okay,” I said, settling down on the couch.

“Sure. What do you need?”

“Forever Eternal still needs to perform, but with Cleo gone we don’t have anyone to play bass and do backing vocals. I was wondering if Zack could learn the bass parts and you could learn the backing vocals.”

“We’d be more than happy to help out. If there’s anything else at all that you need…”

“Thank you, Alex. You’re really sweet,” I smiled, giving him a small peck on the lips.

---

“Alright, so I’d like to point out the obvious right now. Cleo isn’t here right now because she had a heart attack earlier today. It would mean the world if you could send her good wishes her way. However, since she isn’t here, I’ve called in a few favours. So, Zack Merrick and Alex Gaskarth are going to be taking care of her bass playing and backing vocal duties,” I told the crowd.

A large amount of screams came from the crowd. All Time Low fangirls, I swear….

We flew through most of our set. I was pleasantly surprised to see, well more like hear, how well Zack and Alex were doing. It still didn’t feel right without Cleo, but I wouldn’t want to be in this situation with anyone besides Alex.

“We have one last song for you guys, and since we have half of All Time Low here, I thought we’d do a cover of one of their songs.”

The crowd roared in excitement and I looked at Alex and Zack who were wearing goofy grins on their faces.

“This is ‘Backseat Serenade!’” I announced.

The guys began playing their parts and Zack and Alex were already on top of it. I smirked knowingly at Alex as I sang. I could practically feel the sexual tension growing between us as Alex joined in with the harmony. It seemed that after every line we got closer to each other and our energy sparked. I knew that a good portion of the crowd were probably working out that something was going on between Alex and I, but as long as there was no proof, no harm would be done.

The song ended and I said a quick thank you to the fans and walked offstage. I felt Alex wrap his arms around my waist and plant his lips on my neck.

“Not here!” I laughed, “Do you want Brian to chop your balls off?”

“Um…no,” he said, peeling his body off of mine.

As if on cue, Brian and the rest of The Summer Set made their way backstage. Brian made eye contact with me and then with Alex. I cringed as Brian stormed up to Alex.

“What exactly are you doing here?” Brian hissed to Alex.

“Just filling in for Cleo,” he calmly responded.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from Kay?” he growled.

“You did.”

“Then why the hell are you here?”

“Because I wanted him to be here, Brian. Is it a sin for me to be friends with him?” I spat.

“Yeah. I told you I didn’t want you to go near him, and what do you do?”

“I’m a grown adult. I’m allowed to make decisions for myself! You can’t always control me!”

“The last time you made a decision for yourself you almost killed yourself!” he shouted.

Everyone backstage went quite. I could feel all of the eyes on me; judging me. I felt the panic attack a mere minute from starting.

“Thanks for shouting that to the world, you asshole,” I whispered.

“I-I, Kay, you know I-“

“Just leave me alone, Brian.”

I ran away from him and the rest of the people who were staring intently at me. I went to the first place I could think of: the All Time Low bus.

Notes