Left For Dead

Echo’s POV
I was a bit off while playing today. Right now we were playing our show at Houston and the crowd was going wild. I really tried to get into it, but it just wasn’t as convincing as it normally was. I head banged and jumped across the stage, but it just lacked energy.
After this show we would have a day off, which was great for everyone else, but not for me. You see, I had been kind of off the last few days, luckily I don’t think anyone noticed. Because I was always kind of shy, people didn’t really see that I wasn’t as upbeat as normally.
There was only one reason for my behavior these days. That freaking kiss.
It wasn’t like I was suddenly developing feelings for Alex or something, but the whole thing did make room in my mind to think about things I had never thought about before.
Before this all happened, I never even thought about the possibility of us being more than friends. It was just not happening. We had had a brother sister relationship since we met and it has just never even been something that was possible. Like ever.
And I really thought he had thought the same about it. No. He did feel the same about it. I mean he had told me the kiss was an accident, right?
For exactly this reason, I didn’t feel like having time off right now, it would mean that ATL wanted to hang out with me and I just couldn’t face Alex right now. I just couldn’t. When he had left after we had made things up, I thought things were alright between us, but it just made all these weird questions pop in my head. Did I actually like kissing him? Have I ever felt more for him than I thought? Has he ever had feelings for me? And as usually I was overthinking these questions too much.
Ally wrapped up the show and soon we were bowing at the front of the stage. When I was walking off stage I could already see a group of people waiting for us. I could see Vic, Mike, Jaime, Kellin, Chris and Holden. I guess they were all here to hang out before they had to go back to their own sets. And of course the person I had tried to avoid was here too.
He walked towards me with a cautious smile and my mind just went crazy. I think I was just afraid I would act differently towards him, because of the kiss. This was exactly why I never wanted anything like this to happen between us. I would just get awkward and that was a shame, because he was the only person I could really be myself around.
“Hey Echo, do you want to hang out with me and the guys?” Alex asked while the rest of my band went to talk to the rest of the people waiting for us. “Jack wrote a song about burritos and he wants you to hear it.” He chuckled saying the last part.
I wondered why his behavior towards me hadn’t changed after everything. I think he was just a less awkward person as I was. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing really came out.
“Uhm, Sorry I can’t…I still have to do, uhm, this thing. Yeah. So I’m gonna go.” I stammered and I walked passed him. This hadn’t been the first time this had happened in these last few days. I had been avoiding him everywhere.
I saw Ally’s gaze follow me as I walked past the rest of the group of people. She must’ve heard my very short conversation with Alex.
I pushed myself through the crowd at Warped and tried not to get noticed. The last thing I wanted now is to get noticed by fans or something. I normally loved that, but all I wanted to do now is get to the bus.
I opened the door of the bus and walked straight to the bunk part. I climbed in my bunker and buried my head in my pillow. What did I just do? I just made a total fool of myself in front of him again. Any more behavior like this and he would think I actually have a crush on him. and I repeat, I didn’t.
I heard the front door open and I quickly sat up, causing me to bump my head to the bunk above me. A short flash of pain went through my head and I went over the painful part with my hand.
Then I heard footsteps and next thing I know Ally stands in front of me. “Hey, why did you leave so suddenly?” she asked softly.
Shit. She couldn’t know. “I just needed to do…” I quickly grabbed a random object from the bag that stood on my pillow and held it up. “this.”
Ally raised an eyebrow and looked at me with a confused look. “You ran away from us, because you had to brush your teeth in your bunk?" she asked.
I looked at my hand and saw I was indeed holding a toothbrush. I tried to quickly come up with something. “Yeah, I was on stage when I suddenly remembered I hadn’t brushed my teeth this morning and of course I wasn’t going to brush them in my bunk, silly. I was just grabbing this flashy, pink toothbrush from my bag.” I said and I tried to add a convincing smile.
Ally crossed her arms over each other. “Not a very convincing excuse, Echo. I saw you brush your teeth this morning. Now tell me why you really ran off.” She said with a bit of attitude.
I sighed and put my toothbrush back in my bag. There was no way I could get myself out of this anymore. “Alright. I just didn’t want to talk to Alex.” I said and Ally’s expression softened.
She climbed in my bunk and sat down next to me. I was kind of afraid of what she would say. From day one she had suspected that I actually liked Alex as more than friends.
“What happened?” she asked and I just looked down at my hands. “I thought you guys made up again.”
I crossed my legs beneath me and lied my hands down in my lap. “I don’t know. I just have been thinking about it a lot and every time he comes close it’s like my mind screams at me to get away from him again.” I admitted.
I heard her let out a breath. “Do you think you might be developing feelings for him?” she asked carefully.
I shook my head. “No. I have been wondering that a lot lately too, but I don’t think so.” I said. “It’s just that I tend to overthink things a lot. And I never had to deal with this stuff either. I never really had a boyfriend before and all this stuff is new for me. I bet if this happened to one of you, you would just be like: ‘oh well fuck. Let’s go on with our lives.’”
Then Ally shook her head. “Not me. I would probably freak out too. I have never had a boyfriend either.” She said.
This came a bit as a surprise to me. I mean, she was super beautiful and fun to be around. I looked up at her with wide eyes and she chuckled. “Really?”
“Really.” She said. “It’s kind of the reason why I followed you so quickly a few moments ago. I have been kind of doing the same to Kellin. Avoiding him I mean.”
“Why?” I asked.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I think he has been trying to ask me out to that fourth of July party and it kind of freaks me out.” She said.
Although I could kind of understand why now I knew she was quite new to this kind of stuff too, I still asked her. “Why? You like him, right?”
“Yeah, I do, but I just have never been on a date before and I don’t know if I’m ready for it. That’s a big reason why I never had a relationship before. I’m just not ready.” She said.
For me it had been exactly the opposite. I was ready for it. I was a big romantic and had always been dreaming of my own fairytale. Boys just never liked me. I regularly had crushes on people. They just never liked me back. It fucking hurt. “I’m still single because no one likes me that way.” I said and I tried to not sound too pitiful while saying that.
“Well, at least you have Alex liking you that way now.” She said and for a second it seemed like she had said something she shouldn’t have said. I ignored it. She was probably just scared to bring up the topic again.
I shrugged. “I don’t think so, Ally.” I said and I couldn’t decide whether I liked that or not. It would be quite nice for someone to actually think I’m worth having feelings for. Although I rather wanted it to be someone else. “He has made it quite clear that the kiss was just an accident.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” She said quickly. I was kind of confused. Why did she agree with me? Did she finally stop shipping me and Alex like an over excited fangirl on twitter?
Before I could think any more about it though she added: “Look at us. Two women in their twenties having love problems that are very much like love problems thirteen year olds would normally have.” She grinned at me.
I laughed at the accuracy. “O.m.g my best friend kissed me! What now? O.m.g a guy I like asked me out! What now?” I cried out like I was a typical thirteen year old.
Ally threw her head back and laughed. “Let’s write it down in our diaries, Echo!” she said acting along.
After that Ally and I actually decided to stay a little longer in the bunk just talking and goofing around. Neither of us really felt like going outside anymore.
Neither Kellin or Alex were mentioned in our conversation anymore, but I guess we both felt a better about these things now. Just because we had made the topic a bit lighter by joking around about it.

Shannon POV
I was currently sitting on the couch in our bus with Mike, I sighed “it seems like everyone's either having boy trouble, or is just sad lately” my head was in Mike's lap and he grabbed my hands and started to play with them. “When was the last time you had a day with just you and the girls?” I thought for a minute “couple days before we left for tour”. “Why don't you have a girls day with the girls then tomorrow?” I smiled at his idea, “thanks Mike” he laughed “it's what I'm here for” then we heard the door to the bunks open. “I was going to suggest that ASWELL, I need to talk to the other managers” says Kevin as he walks in and sits next to us.
-later when the girls arrive at the bus-
The girls were all sitting in the sofa as I was going to tell them the idea. I grabbed mike's hand and walked him to the door. “I will see you in 2 days, we won't have our phones tonight though” he nodded and smiled “good luck” I kissed him on the cheek and he left.
I turned around on the balls on my feet “so we are going to actually going to hang around for a full day with NO BOYS just us ok?” And I walked up to ally holding my hand out gesturing for her to give me her phone. She looked at me like I had four eyes but eventually put it into my hands, I did the same to all of the other girls. “And no phones for tonight”. I think they started to catch onto what I was doing and started smiling “right go and get every blanket and every pillow in this bus” that's when the rampage started when all the girls began running around the bus and putting them all in the front lounge, it literally looked like a cushion palace. We all ran and jumped into the mess of pillows and blankets and started talking about everything, since we hadn't really had a good catch up. The rest of the night we watched films,and ate a shit ton.
When we woke up it was quite late and we all woke up looking refreshed, “so do you have any plans for today?” Vanna asked. I nodded my head. We made more food and sat back in the mess of blankets and pillows for another hour. Then I made them, get changed into the appropriate clothing and we set off into the heat. Me and Mike were looking up places to have fun around here yesterday before he left and we found a place full of trampolines all over the walls and floors and it looks really fun so we booked us some places. We walked through the town getting some stares, because we were being quite loud, I'm just happy that they all seem happier than they have been.
When we reached the outside of the trampolining place, I smiled and paused, this is today's plan. I dragged them in and told them my name and they give me the special socks you have to wear. We all pulled on the socks and walked into the room. That's when the girls eyes lit up. “Woahhhhh” echo said as if she had won a prize. As soon as we entered we all started laughing, I wanted to try something so I made the girls pause and I ran across the floor of trampolines and ran at the wall and tried to back flip. And landed on my back. All the girls tried to do the same but we all failed. We spent the whole day trying to do somersaults and failing at a lot of them. We had a great time, and I think the girls are really happy now. It was a distraction for them.
Walking home it had began to get late and the sun began to set, we were all laughing up the highway at vanna saying that she feels like she is going to wake up a twig and echo was holding her sides from laughing to much. When we arrived back at the venue, we saw ALOT of the bands outside having a chill out sort of thing. We all nodded at each other and we knew that we would talk more to each other later. I saw Mike and tried to sneak up behind him, all of the boys knew what I was trying to do and tried to act normal. As I reached the back of his chair I quickly went and kissed his cheek, he jumped and shouted “ay I have a girlf---” then he looked at me. I snapped my fingers “oh darn it I better go--” the boys started laughing. “Noooooooooo” he moaned. I looked around and saw the girls in a circle near our bus. I nodded towards them and Mike nodded and kissed my cheek, “I will see you later”. Then I went to talk to my girls.

Notes

ok so Shannon and kenia are writing a story called on here so go on their profile and it will be on there and read it