The Miraculous Second Life of Blue Eyes
Tour Is So Far Away Without You Here
Austin’s POV
The phone buzzed in my back pocket. I really hoped this was news from Jules about Warped Tour! It was two months away and I needed confirmation from her that she could travel with us!
I couldn’t wait for those next few months with her. She was like a little sister to me. Jules was a sweet girl whom we all adored. She’s a talented photographer and a spectacular friend. We’ve kept in contact for a while and I went over to see her and her little pug a while ago. I brought back pictures of Tank to all the boys, who cooed over them.
Ricky had even asked me to forward them to him. He hadn’t even met the pug but had fallen in love with him nonetheless!
I took the phone out of my pocket and saw the caller: Adam Elmakias. I grinned and clicked to answer. The bald one is another pretty amazing photographer I’ve had the pleasure of working with as well.
“Hey, Adam! What’s up?”
All I could hear was sniffles on the other end. It sounded like he had been crying for a while. I passed a curious glance over to Phil who was hanging in the front of the bus with the rest of the band. The boys were all stretched out over the couches, just lazily watching TV or playing on their phones. Alan looked up, recognizing me saying Adam’s name.
The sniffling continued as I grew more and more worried. It sounded like he was in real pain. Only terrible images could come to mind of what he was going through. Did he need us to come and get him?
“Adam, talk to me. What’s wrong?” And at these words, the entire band looked up. Aaron passed a confused look as he looked up from his laptop. They all fell deathly silent.
“It’s J-J-Jules. S-s-she’s gone!” He wailed into the other end, breaking into another round of choking sobs. I paused. What was going on?
I looked around the vehicle, my eyes flickering from member to member. Alan’s face was pale. Phil put down his newspaper, hands coming up to his mouth.
“Adam, stop the crap. What’s going on?” I demanded stonily, the humor going out of this. If this was a joke, it was certainly a cruel one. I clicked on speaker phone, making sure everyone could hear that this all had to be a joke.
“I’m not joking! Jules killed herself!” And he broke into more sobs. I heard Mark meowing on the other end. The speaker rung out in loud cries of sorrow.
The phone nearly dropped out of my hand at the news. Tears started to prickle at my eyes, little rivers forming down my cheeks. I couldn’t even look up at the others, but I knew from the bowed heads that the others were crying just as much.
“No…” Aaron breathed.
“She took a bottle of pills and left a note. I went to her apartment because I was around town and she hadn’t responded to any of my calls and I no one had talked to her in sometime. Her apartment was unlocked and she was in the bedroom with the empty bottle in her hands. Tank was locked outside. She left a note telling whoever found him how to take care of him. She’s dead. They called it. They buried her already.” Adam broke out tearful sobs. I broke down, collapsing on a couch, phone dropped onto one of the cushions. The last words I heard from him were, “I’m so sorry.” And then the conversation clicked off.
I’m so sorry.
Alan broke out in noisy sobs of sorrow, the animalist wails coming from his hands clasped over his mouth. I leaned into his side, biting my lip as hard as I could to keep from wailing.
“Not her! No, not her! She said she was happy! She told me everything was fine!” Phil basically screamed to the world. Tino jumped up, almost breaking into a sprint out the door. Whenever he was upset, he went for a long walk. Aaron would go after him sooner or later.
“Why? Why? Why?” Aaron mumbled over and over, grabbing tissue after tissues from a lonely little box on the sink counter. I was thinking the exact same thing.
Why?
Alan sobbed into my shoulder and I sobbed into his. I wiped my eyes the best I could, but they seemed to never be ending. I couldn’t stop this flood of emotion.
“We lost our little sister.” I mumbled. Alan sniffled, grabbing some of the tissues that our bassist was currently hogging.
Moments, maybe minutes, maybe hours, but eventually we disbanded. I leaned up against the bunks, having no more tears to shed. I was dry and dizzy from all the sadness.
A bottle of pills had ended her life. She had so much potential, and now it was all gone. Alan was still sobbing in his bunk. I looked as Aaron got up, retreating from his spot of solitude on the couch of the front lounge. He wiped the corners of his eyes with his jacket sleeve.
“I have to go get Tino.” He mumbled before exiting the vehicle. The door whispered softly as it shut behind him. I had no clue where Phil was, but he had to be here holed up in the bus somewhere, perhaps sitting in the driver’s seat with his feet up on the dash, just staring out into blank space. Perhaps hiding in the back lounge, maybe on the roof. Just, somewhere.
All we could think was: She’s gone…
It was a month.
A month of sorrow, a month of tears, a month of crying, a month of nothingness. There was something hollow in our hearts. The void just couldn’t be filled. The entire social media had blown up with her death. It had faded away now, but it seemed like there was little memories of her everywhere we looked.
Warped just wouldn’t be the same.
Speaking of which, it was coming up in about three weeks or so. The bad news was that none of us had any happiness or energy to spare to give a good concert, let alone many over the course of the summer. The only good news was that we were not along in our suffering: Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens were going on tour as well and they were experiencing the same agony we felt.
All the bands on the tour had felt it. Sure, Jules hadn’t photographed all of them, but her name was passed around between the bands and she was pretty well known. I just don’t think she realized how many people knew about her and cared about her well-being.
I was interrupted by my thoughts as my pit bull came bounding through the room. Echo barked sullenly, pushing her nose into my thigh. I tapped my pencil against my desk, trying to find inspiration to write a song for the upcoming album, Restoring Force.
“Hey, girl. What’s up?” I asked quietly, stroking her ears. I instantly relaxed, feeling a little better with her presence next to me. Dogs always made me feel relaxed. The rest of the band loved my pit as well. She was a sweet puppy over all.
I looked into her eyes and sighed. She whined a little and nosed my knee again, trying to jump up on my lap. I saw the life in those eyes and chuckled.
I remember Jules’ eyes. They were this icy blue that you would recognize from a mile away. That’s one of the most memorable things about her. You could never forget about those blue eyes that seemed to read your soul. They were always so kind and peaceful. I miss those blue eyes.
And that’s when I got inspiration.
“Woof!” Echo barked as her tail wagged, almost as if reading my thoughts. I rubbed her head affectionately as I picked up my phone and started to dial in Tino’s number.
“Hey, what’s up?” His exhausted voice whispered over the speaker. I bet he was laying on his couch, just relaxing right now. Ever since…her end…he didn’t have any energy to practice. I used to call him and only hear drums in the background. He always tried to multitask by calling me and practice at the same time.
Now, it was just silence in the background.
“I know how to fill the void.” I exclaimed.
“What?” He asked sadly.
“The void she left behind.”
“Oh, yeah, that.” Was his only response.
“I know we can’t replace her, but I know what we can do to move on, to help fill the void.” I scratched my dog’s head as I spoke. Tino seemed to hesitate a moment before answering timidly.
“And what would that be?”
“We get a tour dog.”
There was a long break of silence. At one point, I was wondering if Tino was even on the line still.
“Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m just thinking.”
“Come on, let’s get a tour dog, you know, a puppy to be with us throughout Warped. It’ll keep us company and keep our spirits up. It’s what Jules would want.” I coaxed him. He relented for a moment, just a moment.
“But Tank was already given to Horror.” Tino complained.
“No, not Tank. A new dog to keep with us on tour.”
More silence, eternal and unending. An eternity later, Tino relented with: “Let me call Alan.”
And I knew I had him hooked.
The phone buzzed in my back pocket. I really hoped this was news from Jules about Warped Tour! It was two months away and I needed confirmation from her that she could travel with us!
I couldn’t wait for those next few months with her. She was like a little sister to me. Jules was a sweet girl whom we all adored. She’s a talented photographer and a spectacular friend. We’ve kept in contact for a while and I went over to see her and her little pug a while ago. I brought back pictures of Tank to all the boys, who cooed over them.
Ricky had even asked me to forward them to him. He hadn’t even met the pug but had fallen in love with him nonetheless!
I took the phone out of my pocket and saw the caller: Adam Elmakias. I grinned and clicked to answer. The bald one is another pretty amazing photographer I’ve had the pleasure of working with as well.
“Hey, Adam! What’s up?”
All I could hear was sniffles on the other end. It sounded like he had been crying for a while. I passed a curious glance over to Phil who was hanging in the front of the bus with the rest of the band. The boys were all stretched out over the couches, just lazily watching TV or playing on their phones. Alan looked up, recognizing me saying Adam’s name.
The sniffling continued as I grew more and more worried. It sounded like he was in real pain. Only terrible images could come to mind of what he was going through. Did he need us to come and get him?
“Adam, talk to me. What’s wrong?” And at these words, the entire band looked up. Aaron passed a confused look as he looked up from his laptop. They all fell deathly silent.
“It’s J-J-Jules. S-s-she’s gone!” He wailed into the other end, breaking into another round of choking sobs. I paused. What was going on?
I looked around the vehicle, my eyes flickering from member to member. Alan’s face was pale. Phil put down his newspaper, hands coming up to his mouth.
“Adam, stop the crap. What’s going on?” I demanded stonily, the humor going out of this. If this was a joke, it was certainly a cruel one. I clicked on speaker phone, making sure everyone could hear that this all had to be a joke.
“I’m not joking! Jules killed herself!” And he broke into more sobs. I heard Mark meowing on the other end. The speaker rung out in loud cries of sorrow.
The phone nearly dropped out of my hand at the news. Tears started to prickle at my eyes, little rivers forming down my cheeks. I couldn’t even look up at the others, but I knew from the bowed heads that the others were crying just as much.
“No…” Aaron breathed.
“She took a bottle of pills and left a note. I went to her apartment because I was around town and she hadn’t responded to any of my calls and I no one had talked to her in sometime. Her apartment was unlocked and she was in the bedroom with the empty bottle in her hands. Tank was locked outside. She left a note telling whoever found him how to take care of him. She’s dead. They called it. They buried her already.” Adam broke out tearful sobs. I broke down, collapsing on a couch, phone dropped onto one of the cushions. The last words I heard from him were, “I’m so sorry.” And then the conversation clicked off.
I’m so sorry.
Alan broke out in noisy sobs of sorrow, the animalist wails coming from his hands clasped over his mouth. I leaned into his side, biting my lip as hard as I could to keep from wailing.
“Not her! No, not her! She said she was happy! She told me everything was fine!” Phil basically screamed to the world. Tino jumped up, almost breaking into a sprint out the door. Whenever he was upset, he went for a long walk. Aaron would go after him sooner or later.
“Why? Why? Why?” Aaron mumbled over and over, grabbing tissue after tissues from a lonely little box on the sink counter. I was thinking the exact same thing.
Why?
Alan sobbed into my shoulder and I sobbed into his. I wiped my eyes the best I could, but they seemed to never be ending. I couldn’t stop this flood of emotion.
“We lost our little sister.” I mumbled. Alan sniffled, grabbing some of the tissues that our bassist was currently hogging.
Moments, maybe minutes, maybe hours, but eventually we disbanded. I leaned up against the bunks, having no more tears to shed. I was dry and dizzy from all the sadness.
A bottle of pills had ended her life. She had so much potential, and now it was all gone. Alan was still sobbing in his bunk. I looked as Aaron got up, retreating from his spot of solitude on the couch of the front lounge. He wiped the corners of his eyes with his jacket sleeve.
“I have to go get Tino.” He mumbled before exiting the vehicle. The door whispered softly as it shut behind him. I had no clue where Phil was, but he had to be here holed up in the bus somewhere, perhaps sitting in the driver’s seat with his feet up on the dash, just staring out into blank space. Perhaps hiding in the back lounge, maybe on the roof. Just, somewhere.
All we could think was: She’s gone…
It was a month.
A month of sorrow, a month of tears, a month of crying, a month of nothingness. There was something hollow in our hearts. The void just couldn’t be filled. The entire social media had blown up with her death. It had faded away now, but it seemed like there was little memories of her everywhere we looked.
Warped just wouldn’t be the same.
Speaking of which, it was coming up in about three weeks or so. The bad news was that none of us had any happiness or energy to spare to give a good concert, let alone many over the course of the summer. The only good news was that we were not along in our suffering: Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens were going on tour as well and they were experiencing the same agony we felt.
All the bands on the tour had felt it. Sure, Jules hadn’t photographed all of them, but her name was passed around between the bands and she was pretty well known. I just don’t think she realized how many people knew about her and cared about her well-being.
I was interrupted by my thoughts as my pit bull came bounding through the room. Echo barked sullenly, pushing her nose into my thigh. I tapped my pencil against my desk, trying to find inspiration to write a song for the upcoming album, Restoring Force.
“Hey, girl. What’s up?” I asked quietly, stroking her ears. I instantly relaxed, feeling a little better with her presence next to me. Dogs always made me feel relaxed. The rest of the band loved my pit as well. She was a sweet puppy over all.
I looked into her eyes and sighed. She whined a little and nosed my knee again, trying to jump up on my lap. I saw the life in those eyes and chuckled.
I remember Jules’ eyes. They were this icy blue that you would recognize from a mile away. That’s one of the most memorable things about her. You could never forget about those blue eyes that seemed to read your soul. They were always so kind and peaceful. I miss those blue eyes.
And that’s when I got inspiration.
“Woof!” Echo barked as her tail wagged, almost as if reading my thoughts. I rubbed her head affectionately as I picked up my phone and started to dial in Tino’s number.
“Hey, what’s up?” His exhausted voice whispered over the speaker. I bet he was laying on his couch, just relaxing right now. Ever since…her end…he didn’t have any energy to practice. I used to call him and only hear drums in the background. He always tried to multitask by calling me and practice at the same time.
Now, it was just silence in the background.
“I know how to fill the void.” I exclaimed.
“What?” He asked sadly.
“The void she left behind.”
“Oh, yeah, that.” Was his only response.
“I know we can’t replace her, but I know what we can do to move on, to help fill the void.” I scratched my dog’s head as I spoke. Tino seemed to hesitate a moment before answering timidly.
“And what would that be?”
“We get a tour dog.”
There was a long break of silence. At one point, I was wondering if Tino was even on the line still.
“Are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m just thinking.”
“Come on, let’s get a tour dog, you know, a puppy to be with us throughout Warped. It’ll keep us company and keep our spirits up. It’s what Jules would want.” I coaxed him. He relented for a moment, just a moment.
“But Tank was already given to Horror.” Tino complained.
“No, not Tank. A new dog to keep with us on tour.”
More silence, eternal and unending. An eternity later, Tino relented with: “Let me call Alan.”
And I knew I had him hooked.
Notes
Hello everyone!
I hope you're enjoying the chapters so far! It's going to get more exciting for here, I know it's a slow start and I'm sorry for that, but I promise that it will only get more exciting from this point on!
On other news: If you kept up with my past story, Rage, you'll have seen in the last couple of chapters that I recently got an internship with Infectious Magazine (go check 'em out!) and I'll be a concert photographer much like Adam Elmakias. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not photographing the OM&M concert this month in Denver, but I WILL be photographing the BoyMeetsWorld concert June 15th!!!!! I'm super excited to get to do that as my very first concert shoot! :)
Go follow me on Twitter and my Tumblr for updates!
https://twitter.com/rebelphotoshoot
http://rebelphotoshooter.tumblr.com/
Thanks everyone! :)
This is so cute!!
12/4/15