Besitos

4

"Okay, so we have rehearsal at 1, we have a signing at 6 and then youre on at 8:30 but I need to you guys in you dressing rooms by 7 the latest. I need everyone on time. And I mean right on time." Ray says, filling us in about the day and giving us shit at the same time. Its a skill hes mastered. I've seen others attempt it but no one can do it like he can. He has a way of making himself sound so condescending and ashamed by us at the same time. I asked him to teach me it once and then got to listen as he scolded me for real. I took notes either way.

"You guys have until 5am tonight to make it back to the bus or it leaves without you." he warns.

While 5am seems late for others, for us its still about the time we're out until. You see we're always still pretty hyped up from being on stage, so we take our adrenaline to the bars. It also doesn't help that we have, if we want, a string of fans to keep us entertained. We also have a ton of alcohol to keep us up and drugs for when the alcohol fails.

"And just to be clear, I mean OUR bus. Don't go on a tech bus because ours has left already." Ray warns, pointing his statement more towards Mac than anyone else.

I don't see why I'm getting targeted, but okay." Mac says.

In Mac's defense, he thought it was our bus until halfway through the journey. So we can't really blame him.

"Because you're the only idiot that doesn't know what his own bus looks like." Lila says not even glancing up from her phone.

"I know what the bus looks like!" he protests.

"What colour is it?" Ray asks him pointedly. 

Mac glances to the side as if hes able to see the colour of the bus from here. When he realizes it wont work, he looks at me for help but the only thing I give him is an entertained smirk. I am not drowning with him here. Plus I don't know the colour either. I just know that there's an orange strip on the door.

"Its black." he says, obviously guessing.

"Its green." Ray says, his face unamused. "Anyways, not the point. I gotta run, but its 11:30 now so I'll see you at the venue in an hour and a half." he says as he walks off without saying goodbye.

"It looks black in the dark!" Mac yells after him. He looks at us. "Its a dark green! It looks black at night."

I mean ...he's right...

"I can't believe he's still with us." I say more to myself than anyone but they still hear it.

"Yeah, after six years you'd think he'd give up." Lila says. "We've only gotten way worse since than."

"He likes the money that comes with us." I say, the clear answer thats right in front of all of us.

"He better. We're like the biggest band in the scene right now." Lila says triumphantly. 

"Pierce the Veil might take that over from us soon." Mac says. "You seen their following?"

Lila tosses her hair over her shoulder. "Please, those guys could never. Our sound is better. They only have so many fans because they're cute."

"Ohhh, you think they're cute?" Mac teases. "Let me guess, you're more of a Mike type. Or, wait, actually, Tony. The feisty ones always love the quiet ones."

Lila scrunches up her nose at this. "I wouldn't go for any of them, actually. Its unprofessional."

This causes both Mac and I to burst out laughing. Lila? Professional? Thats never happened once since the start.

"Fuck off." she says but we can see a slight smile forming on her lips. "You guys know what I mean. Even I don't sleep with anyone in the band we're touring with. Its the worst idea. Worse than sleeping with fans." she glances at her phone to check the time. "Should we go get pizza?"

She has a point. Fans leave once we leave the city, but the other band? We're trapped with them until the tour is up. This is a five month tour and we're only two weeks in, so if anything is to happen then we're fucked for the next four months. We play it safe on tour. Only way you're allowed to hook up with the other band is if theres less than a month left on tour. Its one of our  eight rules.

Our rules are simple and they stay the same for every tour we go on since our very first one.

Tour rules:

Rule 1. Get blackout drunk on the first night no matter what.

Rule 2. No hooking up with anyone in OUR band

Rule 3. No hooking up with anyone in a different band unless the tour is almost complete (less than four weeks left).

Rule 4. Act like every single performance is either the first or last one we do.

Rule 5. No hookups stay on the bus for more than 24 hours.

Rule 6. What happens on tour stays on tour (within reason).

Rule 7. We get at least one slice of pizza in every city we go to.

Rule 8. Only one person can have bleached hair at a time.

They're simple rules. Some need to be updated a little, but we still stick to them no matter what. Well, except for that time that Mac and I broke rule #2. But then again rule 2 isn't the best one. Our best one has been the pizza. Its a ton of fun to head off into a different city and get some pizza especially since they taste so different depending on the state we're in. We all have our favourite states when it comes to pizza. Lila's is New Jersey, Mac's is Arizona, and mine is Chicago. Ray joined us a couple times and decided his favourite was Massachusetts, which is a weird choice but respectable. 

"Yeah, I need to eat." Mac says. "We better hurry too, can't have Ray giving us shit again."

"You just want to go now because we're in Arizona." I point out.

He grins at me. "Fuck yeah, I do."

He gets up and practically sprints off the bus, yelling at Lila and I to hurry. We grin at each other and run after him, ready to do our favourite thing beside perform - eat pizza together.