Left For Dead

Echo’s POV
I honestly think that we would remember independence day 2012 forever. At least I would. At home the fourth of July had always been a bit boring. I didn’t have friends to celebrate it with and Alex was mostly away that day, so I mainly just celebrated it with my two year older brother, my parents and my grandmother. It was nice, but nothing like here.
Everyone was eating and laughing and watching the fireworks. It was so different from what I was used to and I loved it. The best thing about it was that me and Alex were okay again. Like never had ever happened to us, we had played ‘fuck, marry, kill’ with Jack, Rian and Zack. At some wasted point we even did animal impressions. It got pretty weird, but at the other hand things always turned out weird when I was hanging out with Alex and I think I loved that the most about him.
Right now, we were in St. Louis in Missouri. We had moved north a bit, but it was still unbearably hot outside. We had already performed. It felt kinda weird though, performing again after a day off. We were also all hungover from the night before, but it still was amazing. Performing was just always awesome.
After the show I had found shelter in the air-conditioned ATL bus. I was lying spread out on the couch with my feet on Alex’s lap. He had made a few attempts to get them off of him, but I had just put them back until he let me be and rolled his eyes in response. I had known him for so long, I knew how to get my way around him.
“Ugh it’s so hot in here!” I groaned as I put my face in the pit of my elbow, but that made things just worse. The bus was cool compared to outside and I was already wearing just a bikini top and shorts (link), but I was still sweating. And I wasn’t the only one. Alex’s hair was dripping wet and Jack had sweat stains on his shirt the size of Texas.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll leave then.” Rian said jokingly and I rolled my eyes as I took away the arms from my face.
“Is the air conditioner on the highest mode?” I asked.
Jack moved his sight away from his phone to a little device hanging above their fridge. “Yup. The only thing left you can do to cool down is get naked. I don’t think anyone in this room would mind.” He said grinning at me.
I knew he was kidding, but I flipped him off anyway, trying really hard not to laugh along with the four guys.
The laughing was interrupted by a familiar blonde head that appeared on the doorstep. Shannon looked around the bus, saw me and grinned. “I’m coming here to kidnap you. We’re having a meeting with the girls.” She said.
I moved myself up a little and rested my weight on my elbows. “Why? Did something happen?” I asked. I didn’t really feel like talking about interviews and shit so I hoped it wouldn’t take long.
“Well yes! A lot has happened! I mean me and Mike are thing, Vanna and Jaime are officially a thing but I think they will be in every other way soon too and then the whole Ally and Kellin thing. And well you…and uhm…” she said and she moved her eyes for a split second to Alex. Even though no one else saw it, I still felt myself blush.
“Oh! You’re going to talk about boys! Can I join?” Jack said as he leaned forward from his chair and blinked his eyes really fast. Shannon just responded by putting out her tongue to him.
I looked at Alex, to see if he minded. We had just made up and hadn’t had much time yet to make up for the days I had avoided him. He just grinned at me. “Yeah go! I don’t think Shannon will accept a no anyway.” He said. I looked at Shannon. Yeah he was right.
I wanted to stretch the moment a little though. I let myself fall down on the couch again. “But it’s too hot to move from this couch.” I whined.
“I know how to make you get off the couch real fast.” I heard Alex say matter-of-factly. Before I could ask what he meant, I felt his fingers tickle my feet. I felt the ticklish sensation and quickly pulled my feet away. “You did not!” I exclaimed. He knew tickling was my weakness, pretty much everywhere on my body. I guess I had sensitive skin.
I saw him grin and then his fingers attacked my waist and I started to make weird movements to get out of his touch. My high-pitched giggle was heard around the entire bus until I realized that the only way to get out of it was stand up. So before I realized it, I stood in front of Alex.
He grinned at me knowing he had won. I pushed his face away, blushing slightly. “Asshole.” I mumbled. And before I knew it, Shannon had taken my wrist and pulled my out of the bus.
We walked for a while until we reached our bus and got on it. I sighed when I found out it was actually cooler in there than on the ATL bus.
We moved to the back lounge and when we got there I saw Ally and Vanna already sitting on the black leather couch. Ally had four champagne glasses in her hands and Vanna held a bottle of champagne with golden words on it. She moved it up when she saw me. “There’s our missing member! Let’s pour this shit into glasses now.” She said as she started pouring champagne in the glasses Ally was holding.
I let myself fall on the couch next to Ally while chuckling. “We were drunk yesterday. Is it really wise to drink again?” I asked.
“Who cares?” Shannon said as she let herself fall on my lap. As soon as she did that she looked behind her to me. “Sorry. I guess you could say that I’m used to sitting on laps by now.” She said and shrugged.
I rolled my eyes, smiling. “Nice to know, I’m the replacement for your boyfriend.” I said giggling.
“I just need constant love, okay!” she exclaimed, faking to be mad at me. I threw my head back in laughter.
“Well girls, to Left For Dead.” Ally said as she each handed us a glass.
“And to an unforgettable girls night!” Vanna said, already gulping down the content of her glass.
We all toasted and drank our champagne in silence. Ally was the first to break it. “So Vanna, how are you and Jaime?” she asked and she wiggled her eyebrows.
I felt Shannon move forward interested. Vanna got a color red I didn’t think I would ever see on her. Vanna blushing was just a rare event.
A smile grew on my face, when I realized I had been right about them. Maybe I really was some sort of love guru.
“We…Uhm…We had a lot of fun yesterday. And he is actually being really…sweet.” She stammered and she let out a breath at the last word. It was cute. Damn, I hoped they ended up together. “We are actually sort of seeing each other tomorrow.”
“Oooh! Vivi has a crush!” Ally said teasing and I chuckled.
Vanna responded by blushing even more and punching Ally in the arm. “You can’t really speak, girl! You’re crushing so hard on Kellin!” she said and now it was Ally to turn red and hide her face in her hands.
“THEY SAY THAT LOVE IS FOREVER. YOUR FOREVER IS ALL THAT I NEED!” Shannon sang loudly to mock Ally, but it just made her laugh really loud.
“Please stay as long as you neeeeeeheeed!” I finishing the chorus, not thinking at all about if it sounded good. Which resulted in me and Shannon singing ‘if I’m James Dean, then you’re Audrey Hepburn” really loudly. Ally just took the nearest pillow and buried her head in it. “Stop it!” she whined.
I was afraid she really minded us teasing her, so I stopped and Shannon did too.
“Did you guys kiss?” Vanna asked intrigued and she leaned her elbows on her knees and he head chin in her hands.
Ally got out of the pillow and shook her head. “No, we didn’t. We just shared a really cute hug when the fireworks gone off.” She said and blushed. We all awed and Ally’s face found its way back to the pillow again.
“So, what about you and Mike, Shannon?” I asked, patting her on the back.
“Yeah, we kissed.” She said matter-of-factly.
“GURL WE KNOW.” Vanna said laughing. “You guys made that kind of clear. But I guess my dear friend meant: how far past kissing have you guys gone?”
I felt Shannon chuckle and she moved her hand up to go through her hair. “Not much. I want to though. He is hot.” She said dryly. I laughed really loud at her comment. I don’t know how she did it, but Shannon was just naturally funny. “Echo, stop laughing, it makes me sit uncomfortable.” She said teasingly.
We all laughed and then Shannon let out a sigh. “No, but in all seriousness. I don’t want to rush things, no matter how much I want to. I actually want to do good with this one.” She said and a serious tone was hearable in her voice. It showed how much she actually cared about Mike and how badly she didn’t want to fuck things up. I guess I could kind of understand that.
It also made me realize that even perfect-looking relationships like the one Shannon and Mike had, had their difficulties. Not necessarily problems, but just difficulties.
I let out a sigh. “I’m just happy I don’t have a crush or a relationship. It sounds like a lot of drama.” I said and for the first time in my life I actually agreed with it. Why did I even need a guy?
“But Alex-“ Ally started, but I cut her off. “Stop it, ally. I don’t like him that way.” I said.
“You two looked pretty cozy when I picked you up just then.” Shannon said and she shrugged.
“I’ve known him for almost seven years, Shannon. We’re just familiar with each other.” I said. I hated that this topic was brought up again.
I heard Vanna sigh. “Give the poor guy a chance, Echo. I know you’re afraid to lose him, but you might be missing out on something amazing. Just wonder about if you could be attracted to him, just let it cross your mind now and then.” She said.
I didn’t want to. I really, really didn’t want to. Maybe I was afraid that I would actually develop a crush on him if I did. And crushes always ended in heartbreak and going separate ways, whether he had feelings for me too or not. I just couldn’t stand the thought of us not being friends anymore. Our friendship had so much more value to me than any relationship would ever have.
But I knew myself. My brain would think about the possibility now that Vanna had said this, whether I wanted to or not.


Shannon POV
We had been in the back lounge for half of the day just gossiping, and then we started talking about things we did when we were younger, I brought up how I went to gymnastics for a while and we all decided to have handstand competitions on the grass. We were now currently all laughing on the ground because we had all flipped over onto our backs instead of back onto our feet.
“What's so funny?” We all raised our heads a little to see all of sleeping walking towards us with shopping bags in their hands. “Oh nothing” we all said in unison. “What's with the bags?” I said raising an eyebrow. “Well, a shit ton of bands went walking around into the city and started buying shit, the shops here are so good!”. We all laughed “you're more of a girl than we are” the boys started laughing my comment. Echo gestured for them to join us on the grass, and they were actually pretty eager to show us what they have brought.
“How come we weren't informed on this whole shopping situation?” Ally said in a high pitched voice. Justin shrugged and carried on talking about the city. We were sitting with sleeping for around an hour just talking and having fun, until we looked behind them and saw multiple more men with more shopping bags. “What the actual fuck?!” Vanna said loudly. Pierce and all time were walking up to us laughing. Putting their bags next to sleepings, together there was around 28 bags? Jaime sat next to vanna and me and echo started nudging each other and vanna gave us a glare. I felt a pair of rough hands cover my eyes and was made to close my eyes also. “Hold up your wrist” I did as I was told and felt a cold sensation around my wrist, “you can open them now” I opened my eyes to see everyone looking at me. Vic was grinning like a proud mother. I looked down to my wrist to see a beautiful bracelet it was silver but had an aqua sea shell in the middle http://www.polyvore.com/m/thing?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=166808431
Everyone went back to their conversation. I smiled widely feeling myself being picked up off of the grass and placed on his lap. “Well I know your favourite colour is aqua and you love anything to do with the ocean etc so I bought it for you” he smiled looking proud of himself. I turned around and softly placed one of my hands on his cheek and kissing him passionately. “I love you” I grinned. “Ditto” Mike said and winked. I laughed and he did too and we all sat talking about how tour has gone so far
It was getting late but we were still out on the grass, Kevin and the rest of the managers had joined us, “so we are having a party for echos birthday” Vanna said jumping up loudly. Echo waved her hands in response “no you don't have too”. Alex choked slightly on his monster. “Don't have too? Echo you are turning 21! It's mandatory” we all nodded in agreement. I know echo never really had many parties growing up she only had little get togethers with her brothers and her family, so it would feel kind of strange for her. I don't know what to give her, this is the issue I'm not good at buying gifts. I know everything about the person, but I just can't seem to buy the right thing. I rubbed my eyes realising how late it was. “It's getting late, we should probably hit the hay” the rest of the other bands agreed. We all stood up and Mike made his way over to Vic, so I started making conversation to ally and vanna about what to buy echo while she was hugging Alex. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see Mike “Vic has kicked me out of the bus” he said scratching the back of his neck. I peered behind him to see a smiling Tony and Vic. “Why?” I laughed slightly. He shrugged. I grabbed his hand and laughed at how nervous he was. “Looks like you are sleeping in my bunk then” as me and the rest of the girls started to walk back to our bus. “Are you sure?” Mike asked. I nodded. I told all the girls what had happened and they all laughed and told Mike we would get them back for it. I yawned again and decided to get changed into my pjs . http://www.polyvore.com/m/set?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=197797748I walked out of the bathroom into the front lounge to see people getting drinks and ready for bed. They all looked up at me and smiled except for Mike. Ally turned around and saw mike's face “yeah she sleeps in her boxers” she laughed. Mike just nodded. And we all made our way to the bunks, the girls climbed in and we all said our good nights while Mike went to remove his clothes in the bathroom.
I was in the bunk on my phone until, I saw the curtain slide back and a shirtless Mike slide into my bunk. He closed the blind and wrapped his arm around me. I locked my phone, and looked towards Mike, “wanna tell the fans?” He thought about it for a second and nodded. I took a selfie of Mike kissing my cheek, and you can obviously see that we are in a bunk and he is shirtless. I uploaded it to Instagram with the caption “creepy tall man in my bunk” @ptvmike” he laughed at the caption. I locked my phone and put it on silent. Vanna snored extremely loud and Mike laughed slightly, “yeah she has a problem with that” we both laughed. I kissed Mike and said goodnight, before laying my head onto his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around my waist, before my breathing became slow and my eyes fluttered shut.

Notes

hey it's Shannon, so we are making a Sequal to this hopefully, we only have a week left of warped