You're Not Alone Anymore

It was getting close to the end of the show now so I decided that I should head back to the merch table. I walked back out into the venue walking alongside where everybody was standing. That’s when I saw him.
Josh was at the Of Mice & Men show.
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He caught my gaze and smirked at me.
I stopped in my tracks, “No, no, no. Not here, not now. I can’t handle this.” I thought to myself. I kept looking back at the stage and the exit. I was trying to decide whether I should just go back behind the stage and wait for one of the guys to escort me to the merch table or just suck it up and walk past Josh.

On the one hand, I didn’t want to make it look like I can’t take care of myself, but on the other I didn’t really want to confront Josh. I knew that wouldn’t end well.

So I decided to do the rational thing and head backstage and wait for one of the guys. As I was walking up to the guards to show them my pass I turned around and saw Josh trying to walk towards me. I quickly flashed my pass and went backstage as fast as I could. When I got to the back, the show was over and the guys were just walking off stage.

I saw Alan and I rushed over to him.
“Hey, Dakota! How did you like our show tonight?” Alan said while wiping the sweat off of his face. Then he gave me a questioning look, “Wait, why aren’t you back over at the merch table?”

“Well here’s the thing,” I said as quietly as I could, I didn't want to start a scene, “Josh is here at your show and he was trying to talk to me and I’m not in the mood to deal with him, so I was wondering if you would escort me back over to the merch table?” By this point, I was shaking, the fact that Josh was here made me uneasy.

“What!? He’s here!?” Alan said very loudly and he was quite obviously very angry.
“Shh, shh. Alan, I don’t want to make a big deal about this. Will you please just walk me back over so I can do my job?”

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry Dakota, but you know that I care about you so much and I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you.” Alan said placing his hands on my shoulders and giving me a gentle smile. “Let me put down my guitar and I will take you over, okay?”
“Thank you.” I said. I was very relieved to have someone like Alan in my life.

Alan set down his guitar, walked over to me, and put his arm around my shoulder, “Shall we?”
I nodded.

We walked out into the venue, the place was now empty except for a tall figure leaning up against the wall in the corner of the room. It was Josh. Of. fucking. course.
He saw Alan and I walking towards the exit, propped himself up and started walking our way.

“Great. Alan, what do I do?” I said in a panic.
“Don’t worry about it. I will handle it okay?” Alan said squeezing my shoulder tightly.
“Hey, Dakota!” Josh shouted over at me, “Can we talk?”
“No buddy, she can’t talk. Why would she want to talk to scum like you?” Alan basically hissed.

“Look, Alan, I know you’re being a good friend and looking out for our sweet little Dakota here, but she’s an adult and can take care of herself.” Josh said back while practically spitting in Alan’s face. “Look Dakota baby, I’m sorry for how everything went down and I was hoping that you would accept me back? You know we are meant to be together.” He said pleading.

How pathetic.

I finally gathered up the courage to say something, “Look, Josh, I don’t deserve someone in my life who cheats on me multiple times. If you had truly cared about me you wouldn’t have went off and slept around. So the answer is no and would you please stay away from me.” I actually felt somewhat confident.

“Look, babe, we all make mistakes and obviously you can’t live without me in your life. So why not just face the facts and come home with me, huh?” Josh said darkly while grabbing onto my arm tightly, trying to drag me away from Alan.

“Hey, buddy she said to leave her alone!” Alan said furiously while pulling me back with my other arm.
“Oh, shove off.” Josh said, his grasp getting even tighter.

And that’s when Alan lost it. He let go of me and practically pounced on top of Josh, hitting his face repeatedly. Josh didn’t even have a chance.

“Alan! Josh! Stop it! I said yelling with tears rolling down my cheeks.” This was exactly what I was trying to avoid from happening.

Austin, Phil, Aaron, and Tino were walking out from behind stage when they saw what was going on. Austin and the guys rushed over and pulled Alan off of Josh. “Dude, Alan, stop! You’re gonna kill him!” Tino said while helping the guys get him off of Josh.

Josh was beat up pretty bad and there was blood everywhere. Alan was breathing so heavy and his eyes were still filled with anger. Josh got up and ran out of the venue. “Yeah you better run you little piece of shit!” Alan yelled at him.

“Dude what happened!?” Austin asked very worried. But Alan was still out of breath and couldn’t get much out. The guys all turned their heads to me. “Dakota sweetie, what happened?” Austin said gently while walking over to me, kneeling down with both knees on the ground and putting his arms on my arms.

“I was watching your guys’ set tonight and when it was the end I started to head back to the merch table and that's when I saw Josh standing there by the exit. He saw me and tried to pursue me, but I decided to go backstage and get one of you guys. Alan was the first person I saw and I asked him if he would accompany me back to the table.” I said trying to not talk too fast. “It’s when we were walking back that Josh approached us and he was trying to get me to go back with him and he was holding my arm so tightly that it hurt…” I started sobbing, “And…and that’s when Alan started fighting with him.” I said completely losing it.

I had come on tour to get away from everything that had happened and yet it was somehow following me and I was getting the guys involved. I felt absolutely terrible.

Austin hugged me, “Shh it’s okay, he’s gone now and look, I’m so proud of you for handling this so well and coming to one of us to help you.” He said smiling up at me sweetly.
I just nodded my head and gave a small smile back while wiping the tears off of my face.

“Alan are you okay?” I asked very worried.
“Don’t worry about me Dakota, I’ll be fine.” Alan said shrugging it off, “It’s you I am worried about. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am fine. Thank you so much for protecting me. I owe you big time.” I said. I am so thankful to have Alan in my life.
“You don't owe me anything! I would never let anything happen to you in a million years.” Alan said kindly. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Alright buddy, let's get you taken care of!” Aaron said.
“Yeah okay.” Alan agreed.
Aaron, Tino, and Phil escorted Alan out of the room to help him get cleaned up.

“You don’t think Selena and Shane will be mad at me, do you? I feel horrible.” I said to Austin very worried.
“No of course not. I will explain to them what happened tonight. I’m sure they’ll understand! They both really like you.” Austin said reassuringly while getting up off of the floor and patting the dirt off of his black jeans.
“Okay, good,” I said feeling a little less guilty.
“Alright, lets get you back to the bus and get you to bed. You’ve had a long night.” Austin said putting his arm around me as we are walking out of the venue.
“Yeah, that sounds great.” I said while leaning my head on his shoulder.

I hope nothing like this ever happens again.

Notes