She's Got the Rhythm

Chapter Seventeen: Do or Die

           The next few months passed by really quickly. School was pretty boring as usual with the exception of my occasional bad-mouthing argument with Chase. Somebody needed to talk some sense into that boy. What an asshole.

            On the Brightside, (haha, see what I did there) the battle of the bands was today and I could hardly wait to make Chase cry. This was going to be fun.

            As for me and Ryan, well, let’s just say we kind of kept our ‘secret dates’ up to par. It’s bad, I know, and we should probably tell the other guys but I’m still unsure as to how they’re going to react. I just don’t want them to find out the ‘hard way’ which would be them walking in on one of our make-out sessions. Not a pretty scene.

            “Is everything all set?” Blake asked as we all piled into the van.

            “Yup, we loaded everything in the trailer,” Ryan answered as he buckled up.

I pulled out my phone and checked my messages. There was one from Hannah, wishing me good luck.

            I smiled and slipped it back into my pocket.

            “Oh my god, watch where you’re driving, see the yellow line, dumb ass!” Blake yelled and honked at the other driver.             

            Me, Brian, and Caleb exchanged glances and I buried my head into my hoodie.

            Blake was definitely in a bad mood, and nobody could seem to figure out why. He had seemed fine a few hours ago when we ran through all of our songs but now that was definitely not the case.

            “Dammit,” he muttered under his breath.

            I could feel the tension in the van as we made the next turn. The drive was about another thirty minutes so it could only get better, right?

            Caleb tapped me on the shoulder.

            I lifted my head up.

            He pointed to his phone’s screen.

            I peered in for a closer look-it was Chase’s newest Facebook status: ‘Gonna kill it tonight, be sure to come watch us kick some serious ass!’

            I frowned and gave him a look that purely stated ‘don’t worry about it’ and he turned his attention to the window.

            To make things even worse, Brian was half-asleep next to me, and he was drooling. Awww, come on man, that was just gross.

            I tried not to groan and put my head back down.

            We finally got to the venue and I breathed a sigh of relief. Blake parked the van and said, after about thirty minutes of silence, “It’s go time everybody!” Brian and Caleb instantly woke up and we piled out of the van.

            “Ah, fresh air,” Ryan stretched his arms towards the sky, revealing a little bit of his rock hard abs.

            I forced myself to only take a peek and then went to the back of our trailer to help unpack. I took a look around the packed parking lot. It was mainly full of guys I had never seen in my life along with some girls that looked like wannabe Hayley Williams or something-it was pretty ridiculous.

            I decided to keep this to myself and prayed that I wouldn’t get any weird looks from them as I hoisted parts of my drum set over my shoulder. Ryan helped me carry the rest, and then we found our way inside.