Left For Dead

Echo’s POV
I felt kinda weird about the whole thing going on with Lauren today. She had been showing up without a warning and it seemed to piss the girls off a lot. I mean, I understood why, she had been so mean to them.
The weird thing was, she was actually nice to me. I would’ve thought she wouldn’t be, I mean I was the person that replaced her in the band she had been in for so long.
The girls had been really quiet the rest of the day and I didn’t know how to cheer them up. Every time I tried talking about something to cheer them up, they just started groaning and complaining about what happened. I guess they were all still sad about what had happened. She had been their best friend and she left them. I wouldn’t know what to do if Alex did the same to me.
I was wondering the ground of Warped now, seeing everything get broken down. We would drive off to the next city in an hour, because we had to perform at Las Cruces the next day already. It was pitch dark and the place was lit up by street lanterns, giving the surroundings a golden glow.
I looked up at the sky and sighed. I wish you could see the stars here. That was the worst thing about highly populated places. You could only see a few stars. I grew up in Baltimore, so I didn’t see a lot of stars in my youth either, but I definitely remember going on vacation with my family to a small village in England and just seeing the sky lit up with little balls of light.
“Hey, I have been searching for you everywhere.” I heard a familiar voice say from behind me and I looked over my shoulder, to see Alex.
The light of the street lanterns was caught in his eyes and they sparkled a little. “Hey! I’m glad I can still say goodbye to you before the busses leave.” I said and I wrapped my arms around his waist in a hug.
He hugged me back and chuckled. “We’ll see each other tomorrow again, Echo.” He said against my hair.
I let go and looked at him, smiling. “Yeah, but I’m still really glad to see you.” I said.
He shot me a wide smile. “I’m always glad to hear that. How have you been feeling about the whole Lauren thing?” he asked caringly.
I shrugged and straightened my dress (http://www.polyvore.com/echo_kiss_alex/set?id=197371432). “I feel okay about it. The girls seem very upset about it though. I wish I could do something to make them happy again.” I said looking down at my shoes.
I heard Alex chuckle and looked up confused. “What?” I asked confused when I saw that he had the sweetest smile ever on his face.
He shook his head and this time it was his turn to look down at his feet. “It’s just, It’s so amazing that you’re always so concerned about other people. A person like you shouldn’t be so self-conscious.” He said.
I was a bit taken back at his sincerity. I mean, he could be very sweet if he wanted to, but I had never heard him sound so sincere before. “It’s because when people have finally decided that I deserve their compassion, I just want to make sure they don’t leave.” I said, deciding to also be sincere to him. It would be fair.
He raised his head again and looked straight into my eyes. For a very quick moment, I exactly knew why all these girls were crushing on him. His brown eyes lit up golden in this light and the pink streak in his hair seemed orange. “You don’t need to work as hard to keep us, Echo. This is not high school anymore. You’re not getting bullied anymore, these people are actually your friends because they like you.” He said and I felt tears well up in my eyes. Maybe it still felt a bit weird to me that people actually cared about me, even though high school was two years ago.
“I know.” I said blinking away the tears in my eyes. “I just like to make sure they’re happy. I care about my friends. I care about you. You know that, right? That you are the most important person in my life? I probably would be dead without you, Alex.”
He looked at me with his lips slightly parted. I saw something in his eyes I had never seen before. It felt like it was an emotion that he had been pushing away before. I couldn’t quite place what it was.
And then he did something that completely shocked me. Within a few seconds I felt his lips crash on mine. His hand cupped my cheek and I just stiffened.
No. This wasn’t really happening. Al though his lips were soft and his hand left my cheek tingling, all I wanted to do was stop this.
The words of Ally went through my mind. “He likes you not her. I know it. I can feel it in my gut.”
Those words triggered me to move and I was finally able to push him away from me. I looked at him with big eyes and he seemed fearful too.
Thoughts were now going through my mind. Was he…attracted to me? That was the scariest scenario I could think of. Love would lead to breaking up and breaking up would lead to losing him. I couldn’t stand that thought. This would change everything! God damn it! This boy was all I had!
The tears that I had blinked away at first, returned to my eyes and slowly fell down my cheek. I felt my breath speed up and I looked away from him. I couldn’t look at him anymore. This was only my second kiss ever and he knew how bad my first one had been. Even when he didn’t really like me that way, he would’ve known that I didn’t want this. I had made this so clear to him.
As I felt my world crumble down, I rushed away, feeling like I couldn’t stay here anymore. “Echo wait!” I heard him yell after me, but I didn’t look back. There was no way this was going to end well. This would change everything between us. I guess having so many friends was too good to be true anyway.
After running for a while, I saw that I stood in front of the left for dead bus, so I stormed in and slammed the door behind me. The girls were sitting on the couch close the door and looked up as I came in. I didn’t even realize they were there as I was to absorbed in my own thoughts.
I considered walking back and talking this out, so I walked towards the door, but then paced back, knowing that it would be too late. Only when I had repeated this ritual three times in a row, the girls seemed to have woken up from the shock of seeing me walk in crying.
“Echo, are you okay?” Vanna asked and her voice sounded careful, but caring. The sound of her voice made me break down in sobs and I covered my face with my hands.
I eventually felt two arms wrapped around mine and I knew it was Ally because I smelled her perfume. “You can tell us, Echo. You know that, right?” she said softly and she dragged my hands away from my face.
I let out a breath and then everything just came out. “I was walking outside and I bumped up to Alex and we started talking and then he kissed me.” I said, still a bit out of breath from crying.
I looked up at the girls and they all looked a bit confused and maybe relieved at my words. “But that’s great!...right?” Shannon said and she added the last part a bit confused.
I shook my head and felt a few tears escape my eyes again. “No it’s not! He is my friend! The only friend I had for a long while! You guys don’t understand. He was there for me when I got bullied and counted out in high school, he has always been there for me even though I can be freaking annoying sometimes. If this kiss meant more to him than it should, then this friendship is doomed to end. I can’t have that.” I said and a few deep sobs came out.
I still felt like they didn’t understand quite yet, but at least they were there for me. I didn’t know what I would’ve done if they wouldn’t have been here. “Sorry guys. You probably have your own shit to deal with right now. You guys can’t have mine too.” I said.
Vanna stood up and wrapped her arms around me. “Don’t be stupid, Echo. You’re one of us now. We’re here for each other. I guess I kind of understand why this is so devastating to you.” She said and I smiled at her as she let go of me again. “Really?” I asked and she nodded.
“Was he really that bad that you had to stage all of this?” Shannon asked and grinned.
“Shannon!” Ally said in a warning tone, but I knew Shannon was just kidding, so I chuckled at her.
Just as I was about to say thank you to them, there was a knock heard on the door. All of our heads shot up. “Echo, please let me in! I can explain!” We heard Alex say from the other side of the door. He sounded desperate.
I froze right at that spot, not really knowing what to do. Did I even want to hear his explanation?
Ally walked to the door and held the handle. She looked at me for permission and I nodded, not being able to speak. She opened the door and a frightened and sad looking Alex rushed onto the bus.
He came closer to me and I stepped back. I guess it was a bit of a reflex after what happened. He let out a breath and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Echo. I shouldn’t have done it.” He started and he sounded confused, like he didn’t know what to say. “I just…It was just the moment and everything you said. You looked so pretty and it was kind of beautiful out there. I didn’t know what I was doing, okay? Can we please just go back to the way things were before? I value our friendship too much.”
I looked down at my hands. I think his explanation meant that he at least didn’t have feelings for me, right? He didn’t actually say it and I just needed to hear it from him. “You don’t have feelings for me, right?” I said softly, but it was so silent in the bus, that everyone heard me.
He was quiet for a little while, but eventually he answered. “Nothing but friendly feelings. You’re my best friend and it would be a shame if we let this ruin us. I’m sorry, okay? I won’t do it again.”
I looked up at him and sighed. For some reason I knew he wouldn’t. It was just a moment of weakness and it didn’t mean anything. My worst fear had been laid to rest.
Besides, he was right. We couldn’t make something like this be the end of us. “It’s okay. Maybe I overreacted a little.” I said and I stepped a little closer to hug him. Jeez, I had been hugging a lot this past hour.
He hugged me back. “Overreacting is kind of your thing. It suits you.” He said chuckling. “Are we okay again?”
I nodded into his chest and knew that everything would be alright again.
Shannon POV
I woke up in Las Cruces yesterday was eventful, I sat up and stared blankly outside of the bunk window for a few minutes. I guess you could say I'm doing better over the Leon thing, I'm not completely over it though, the girls and Mike are helping me and I couldn't be more grateful. I yawned and jumped out from my bunk. I looked around at the other bunks to see that they were all empty.
Well fuck I must have woken up late.
I was still in my pj http://www.polyvore.com/m/set?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=197335575 , but I decided to go and find my friends and walked to the front of the bus, to see Kevin sitting on the sofa on his own watching tv. I guess he must have heard me walking through because he looked up at me and smiled. “They're are all by Pierce’s bus, hanging before the gates open” I smile and thank him and begin to walk down the steps and over to Pierce’s bus.
As I was getting closer, I could hear vanna laughing loudly. The whole situation with jaime has kind of calmed down they just don't speak to each other. Real good marriage they got there. They were all in the same chairs from yesterday and they were laughing about something. “SHANNON!” I had my arms crossed over my chest and I shook my head slightly continuing walking towards them. Everyone began chanting my name and I just grinned at the floor.
“I thought you were dead” said vanna casually sitting on echos knee. I shrugged, “you could have woken me” I said. “Kevin said we should leave you for a little while longer” I nodded and inwardly thanked Kevin. I studied everyone who was here, all of atl, miw, sws and ptv. I turned around to see Mike with his arms open. So I grinned and accepted the place on his lap. “I like your choice of clothing Shannon” Vic said smiling like an idiot. I laughed “me too, I mean the deathly hallows is the best” I said pointing towards my shirt. Everyone began to shake their heads, accept from Mike who high fived me. “Match made in heaven” I heard Tony mutter to jack Barakat.
-after everyone has performed-
Me and Mike had just finished watching we the in crowd perform and were walking around the venue just talking. “I wanna go to the lake” I said loudly out of the blue. Mike made a noise as if he was thinking. “Let's go then? We can get the others” I nodded frantically and I grabbed his hand and set off back to the buses where we had rounded everyone up to go to the lake I was wearing thishttp://www.polyvore.com/m/set?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=198411329 so that I could swim and stuff. And the rest of the girls were wearing something similar we have all rented cars and are going to a lake not far away.
When we had arrived at the location, we all cheered and started to laugh. The boys were the ones who emitted the stuff we had brought with us from the trunk and went to set it up bythe lake. It was getting quite late towards the afternoon, we had around three hours? And I was going to make these three hours count. As soon as my feet hit the warm sand, I started departing with my clothes and called for ally to do the same. As we did that, we began to run towards the water and we walked into the blue liquid, it was slightly cold but nothing we couldn't handle. We heard a few screams so we both looked behind us and saw all of the members of atl coming into the water, we laughed at Rian as he fell face first into the sand and I knew this day was going to be good.
-later on at the lake -
So, it had been an amazing day and we had to go back to the venue soon, I looked up to the sky to see a gradient of red, yellow, orange, and pink. It was amazing. I had put on my shirt over my bikini because it was getting cold and right now the rest of the group are sitting further up lake shore, because I told them I needed time to think so they let me go, considering everything that has happened the last few days. I was sitting cross legged on the warm sand near the ocean and it all just felt right. I heard the sound of sand being moved and looked to my right to see Mike, joining me on the sand. He looked out into the lake . He nodded “now I know why you like the lake so much” I smiled back at him and looked back at the sunset. “So, I have been thinking” he said quite slowly “well that's new” I said while smirking. He laughed slightly and carried on what he was going to say “I like you a lot” I smiled at him “and I kinda want you to be my girlfriend?” He said quickly. “Is the mikey whiskey hands asking me to be his girlfriend?” I said smirking. He nodded slightly. “Yeah ok” I replied.

Notes