Left For Dead

-Shannon POV
“Well we were walking through the park, he fell, he pulled me down and we kinda kissed..” Her voice trailed off towards the end. “Ally!” We all shouted and started jumping on the sofas, “we told you, we all told you!” Shouted vanna as she was laughing. When we had settled down, we all decided to sleep in the back lounge together again. “Now we just need to get echo and Alex together” ally said careful not to hurt echos feelings, because she is unsure how she feels. Echo shakes her head “guys we have gone through this--” we all sighed and nodded. We felt the bus grumble and we knew that we were on the road to the next venue. “So before we go to sleep, what are the plans for the morning?” The girls thought for a minute. “Well, we have to play a show at 2, so we have time to watch some sets before then, all time are on at 4, pierce are on at 12, and I think motionless are on at 5?” Echo said scrunching up her eyebrows. We all nodded, I sighed, “guys, I have been thinking, when Mike takes me to visit his parents, what if he wants to visit mine?” I looked down and fiddled with the thread dangling from the blanket. “Take him, I'm sure they will like him” echo said smiling, we all looked towards echo, “they can't really have an opinion echo” I said quietly. “I was young and my dad was into street violence, and he got stabbed and obviously didn't survive, whereas for my mum, she couldn't live without my dad, she left me a letter and I found her, when I arrived home from school, she was hanging from the pole in our walk in wardrobe” I shivered from the memory. “Oh I'm so sorry” she said slowly. “It's fine, you didn't know” I looked up and smiled. “Well when the time comes we will think of something” ally said while she clapped her hands together and yawned, “but I don't know about you but I'm tired as fuck, so let's all get to sleep”.
********
When I woke in the morning, I was woken up by knocking on the back lounge door, all the other girls were asleep, I don't know how, but they were. I quickly got up and opened the door. Standing at the door was the one and only Vic Fuentes. He looked past me and smirked, “do you guys do this a lot?” I nodded “it's bonding time”. He shrugged and asked if I could go for a walk with him. Me being a person who doesn't give a flying fuck, said yes and walked out into the summer breeze, in my pjs )http://www.polyvore.com/m/set?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=197700913, “who let you into the bus?” I asked as we started walking towards a bench bar the venue, “Kevin”, I made an ‘o’ shape with my mouth. When we sat on the bench, I crossed my legs on the bench and turned to face Vic. “So.. What's up?” He looked at me and smiled “I wanted to say thank you” I furrowed my eyebrows together. “What's for?” He smiled, “I haven't seen Mike this happy since we were younger, he really likes you, I guess that's why he likes being around you a lot, I'm sorry if you think he is to clingy…” I stopped him before he could say anymore. “I love having him around, he is my boyfriend, he's always there when I need him, and if he needs me I'm always here, it's kind of how it works” I laughed a little. He nodded satisfied with my answer. We talked more about Mike and their family and we decided we should get ready for our shows.
****
I waved goodbye and he did the same, and we walked back to our buses, “so your brother in law took you on a trip ay?” Vanna said wiggling her eyebrows, I flipped her off and went to get changed, http://www.polyvore.com/m/set?.embedder=17413076&.svc=copypaste&id=196969945, me and vanna decided to go and watch pierces set, for obvious reasons and I think ally and echo went to visit we the in crowd? We arrived just as pierce had gone on stage. Half way through their set, they had all noticed us standing there, and their faces lit up. Tony is a lot like a brother to me now. I watch my boyfriend do what he is good at and vanna is mesmerised by Jaime. I laughed to myself, and didn't realise they had finished their set before I got pulled into a sweaty hug, I hugged back already knowing who it was “its a good job I'm going to be sweaty in like an hour or I would punch you” we heard the rest of the guys laughing and they told us they had a meet and greet and asked if we wanted to sit with them while they were doing it. Obviously we both said yes, and started off towards the meet and greet, Tony, Jaime, Vic, vanna, Mike and me. Were walking right through the middle of warped tour, so we kind of lost each other. But we knew where the tent was so we knew the way. “Oh my god, I love you guys so much” said a girl with pink hair as she ran up towards me and Mike, I dropped mike's hand forgetting that we had already announced it to the fans. He laughed and grabbed my hand again, “can I please have a picture?” We nodded and signed a few things and took a few picture we got compliments on how we were a cute couple, and we walked towards the meet and greet and eventually arrived.
They received ALOT of stuff, and they had to have the tour manager help them take it back to the buses, I felt a tap on my shoulder and Tony pointed to the right of us, it was ally and echo motioning us to go to them “we better go play our set” I said to the whole of pierce and vanna nodded, we said goodbye and started running towards our band mates. “Kevin, is pissed guys we need to hurry” we ran as fast as we could towards the stage and as soon as we had made it, we basically got thrown onto the stage. We were so full of energy, echo, vanna and ally were all jumping around the stage and I was playing the drums probably the best I have ever played. During our last song, ally looked at me and shook her head to side stage, I looked towards side stage to see Leon bouncing up and down. Holy shit. I completely forgot, they had a few days off this month. I smiled and I wasn't sure this day could get any better.


Echo’s POV
Kansas city. That was where we were performing now.
My mind was somewhere else though. Nothing serious, but I just had an idea right before we got on stage and now I couldn’t get it out of my head.
That’s just how my mind works, whenever I get an idea, I want to immediately work on it. I had a very low patience level.
We did our bow and then I ran off of stage. The girls looked weirdly at me as I quickly took my towel, dapped it on my head and then gulped up a water bottle like I hadn’t seen any liquids in three months. I couldn’t help it. I was just so excited! I needed to go and tell the idea to Alex right now. He would probably think I was crazy and I probably was, but he would help me do it anyway. He never doubted me.
“Uhm, are you okay, Echo?” a very sweaty Vanna said, her dark blue hair stuck to her face.
I picked up my bag and hurried to the exit of the fence. “Yeah, I’m alright! I need to get to Alex now!” I yelled while walking away.
I heard Ally chuckle behind me and rolled my eyes as I walked. I made my way through all the kids with band shirts and colored hair. It was so crowded today that I almost didn’t see where I was going.
I had almost made my way to the ATL bus when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see a black haired girl. She wore a grey green day shirt and she was probably fifteen. Maybe a bit younger. When I turned around she smiled at me and let out a short squeal.
“Oh my god, I was right! You’re Echo from Left For Dead!” she said in a high pitched voice.
A warm feeling spread through me and I suddenly forget my idea. I still wasn’t really used to getting recognized. I was probably the most unknown member of Left For Dead anyway. Ally was the lead singer, so of course she got a lot more attention and Shannon and Vanna were dating members of Pierce The Veil. And then there was me. To old fans I was just the replacement for Lauren and to new fans I was just the bass player. Of course I got recognized sometimes by some hardcore All Time Low fans who knew I was Alex's’ best friend, but that was nothing compared to being Mike’s boyfriend or Jaime’s wife of course.
“Yeah, I am.” I said. “Do you listen to our music?”
“Yes!” she squealed again and I giggled. “I have been a fan of you guys before the whole Pierce The Veil thing happened.” She said proudly.
I tangled my hands together, not really knowing what to do with them. “You guys don’t have fan fights over who has been a fan for longer, don’t you? Please be nice for each other.” I said concerned. We only had a small fandom, but there was even a little drama in it. What can I say? Music caused passion and some of that passion can cause anger.
“Aww, you’re so sweet! You won’t leave us, right?” she asked. First I didn’t really understand what she meant by ‘leaving’, but then I suddenly realized that it the quitting of Lauren must’ve struck the fans too. It’s never nice when a member of one of your favorite bands suddenly quits.
I shot her sympathetic smile. If she would’ve asked this question a few weeks ago, I would’ve told her I didn’t know. But now, I knew the girls better and I knew what it’s like to perform. “Never. I’m here to stay.” I said and the girl’s face lit up.
I ended up taking a selfie with her and we made a funny face to the camera. It was still so weird to me that people actually wanted a picture with me. That they wanted to show other people that they’ve met me. I mean, there’s nothing really special about me.
I was still sunken in thought while walking towards the ATL bus. I was just thinking about the whole Lauren thing. Was that really what the fans were fearing? That one of us would leave? It would get so weird if one of us did. I couldn’t imagine LFD without any of the girls.
I was still with my mind somewhere else when I suddenly hit my head against something hard and fell backwards. Fortunately I fell on the grass, well maybe unfortunately because it left a big green stain on my dress (link). I sat up and moved my hand to trace the sore piece of skin on my forehead. I chuckled softly when I saw I had bumped up to the ATL bus.
I stood up and walked in without knocking, I was here half of the time anyway. I saw Zack and Alex sitting on the couch, playing video games.
They didn’t look up as I came in and just muttered a quick ‘hi’. I looked at the television for a moment to see them shoot some zombies. I tried to remember what I came here in the first place. Right, my idea. The fan and hitting the bus had blocked the thought of it for a while.
“Alex. I need your help with something.” I said, while focusing on his face.
He didn’t look up from his game and just moved his thumbs really fast over the controller with his tongue inbetween his lips. “Okay, what is it?” he asked a little absent.
I took a breath and then just fired my amazing idea at him. “I want a tattoo.” I said.
He quickly looked up at me with a surprised look on his face, which caused his avatar to get eaten by a nearby zombie. He opened his mouth a few times and closed it again. “Why…I mean…Why so suddenly? I never heard you talk about it.” he said.
Zack had paused the game and looked up to me with a grin. I knew he had gotten a lot of his tattoo spontaneously too.
“Yeah well, I had the idea just before I got on stage.” I said shrugging.
“Are you sure about it?” Alex asked. “I mean, it’s forever.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes at him. Sometimes I really hated the roll of big brother that he took in. And he couldn’t speak anyway, he had a tattoo on his hand. His freaking hand. “Yeah! I’m still young! I’m alive! Why not? I won’t regret it, Alex. I just want something to remember this band and this tour forever, because it changed my life. And I won’t ever let it be changed back.” I said, staring off in the distance. “Not that I want the band logo tattooed on me or something, but I just want to look at it and think: ‘damn, I got that one when I was on tour with Warped.’”
I looked back at Alex. His worried face was slowly fading into a smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to think about it?” he said, but I saw in his face that he was already convinced. Alex never needed much convincing to help me with my weird ideas.
Zack punched Alex in his arm, which probably hurt, because Zack was really muscular. “C’mon Alex, don’t be like this. Get the girl to a tattoo shop.” He said grinning. I shot him a wink as he looked at me and he chuckled.
Alex sighed. “Alright. I won’t be able to talk you out of it anyway, even if I wanted to.” He said.
I squealed, jumped up and down enthusiastically and clapped my hands. The guys just grinned at me and I just took a hold of Alex’s hands to drag him out of the bus.
He told me that he had seen a tattoo shop when we drove here. Now, we just had to hope the tattoo artist didn’t suck, because we didn’t know anything about him of her.
For some reason I wasn’t afraid or even nervous. I just knew everything would be okay, like this idea was planted inside my head for a reason. This was supposed to happen.
We got to a small tattoo shop with only one chair in it. A tall kid of my age was tattooing a guy in his forties. I looked around the shop and looked at the pictures that showed his work. He was actually good!
Me and Alex sat down on two small chairs close to the door until the kid would help us. This gave me the time to think about what I actually wanted. I probably should have thought about this before I went here, but I didn’t really think about it.
After a few minutes the guy seemed to be done with the man. The man payed and then left the room with a piece of plastic around his upper arm.
The guy, that had a lip ring and a tattoo in his neck asked if he could help us and I told him that I wanted a tattoo. Luckily I had just thought of what I wanted before he asked me. I searched my phone for pictures of my back yard and showed him the white flowers that were planted there. I had had a lot of family memories in that garden and the white flowers had become a symbol of home for me. The tattoo would tell me that my life might have changed, but that I shouldn’t forget where my roots lied and where I came from.
I told the tattoo artist I wanted the tattoo on my underarm and he told me to sit down at the big leather chair. I sat down, waiting for the guy to finish a design for it. I looked up to Alex and he shot me a convincing smile. Even though I was still not scared, his comforting smile did make me feel better for a moment. It always did actually.
When the guy was done drawing, he put the design down on my left arm and it left blue lines in my arm that formed beautiful flowers. I smiled when I saw it. Yes, this would turn out amazing and I wouldn’t ever regret it.
Then he started tattooing and it hurt like a mother fucker at first. It felt like I was scraping my arm over sand paper over and over again. After a few minutes, I got used to the pain and I almost didn’t feel it anymore at the end. It wasn’t as painful as I had expected. I mean, it was still painful, but I always imagined it would be feeling more horrible.
When he was done, I looked down at my arm and smiled. It was absolutely beautiful, this kid had a gift. I almost felt a bit emotional, looking at my first tattoo.
I wondered what the girls would think of it.

Notes

just another update.