Take Cover (all time low)

the proposition

I stared at my phone in awe.

I was purely amazed and extremely confused at why Jack Barakat would have DM'ed me, of all people. Surely he had millions of messages in his inbox, from fans and haters alike, so the fact that he replied to mine was enough to send me into cardiac arrest.

Nothing could have possibly prepared me for the notion that he might reply, therefore, I just sat on my bed, my fleece pyjamas keeping me warm, living a moment I would forever remember.

The message he had sent me had been simple, yet it sent my brain into overdrive. Perhaps that was the power of your idol sending you a proposition as absurd as the one he sent me.

I had spent years fantasising about meeting Jack Barakat, as well as the other members of All Time Low, yet with the message I had just received, it seemed that my dream could become a reality in the near-future.

I looked down at my phone again, making sure that I wasn't just imagining things. To my relief, the message was still there, waiting for me in my inbox.

'We actually can't change the setlist, it's already been made. We can, however, hang out afterwards. You seem like a cool person to be around.'

So that was it. The message that changed my life. Now begins the story of how it changed my life.

• • •

"Cassie," I yelled at my best friend, running after her across the school grounds until I could grab her by the shoulders and turn her to face me. "You will not believe this."

Her eyes widened, "Did you get a reply, Em?" and She asked, shocked by the possibility.

I handed her my phone out of my pocket and she unlocked it with her fingerprint.

"Holy shit." She mumbled under her breath, obviously shocked by what my Instagram DM's contained.

I nodded, eyes wide. "I know. I've been freaking out all morning."

"What did you say in the message, Em? He said you were a cool person to be around." My friend asked me.

I blushed slightly. "I told him to add take cover to the set list or I would choke him." I told Cassie, "Then I called him a fuckwad because he wasn't answering."

Cassie looked me straight in the eye as if trying to process the information and then burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"I can't believe this," She told me in between fits of laughter, "This is insane."

• • •

I tapped my pencil against the notes that I had been taking in my biology class, bored out of my mind.

We were currently learning about something I did not understand in the slightest, and I did not feel the slightest inclination to try and understand it.

A sudden vibration came from my back pocket, indicating that a text message had been received.

An Instagram notification.

My breath caught in my throat.

I open my phone, holding my breath the whole time.

You're gonna have to decide, hun.

I wrote a quick reply to Jack consisting of agreeing to go meet him and asking if I could bring a friend, in which he responded negatively.

"Miss Allard," My teacher, Mrs Barbarian looks at me with a scowl, "No phones in class."

I put my phone away and endured the rest of my boring biology class without my phone to entertain me.

• • •

"So what are we wearing to the concert tomorrow?" I ask her, looking through my best friend's  closet for something suitable.

Of course, every item of clothing was black. Black shirts and black pants. Although, there was a little pop of colour with the grey leggings at the back of her closet.

I finally gave up after rooting through her closet for a couple minutes, deciding on the next best option.

"Get up, we're going shopping," I told Cassie.

"Sit back down, you fucking bitch." She answers me, pulling me back down to the bed she was laying on.

I rolled my eyes at her, yet kept hold of her hand and pulled her up with me.

"Get up and drive me to the mall, Cassiopeia," I tell her, childishly stomping my foot.

She smirks at me. "The full name card won't work on me, Emaline." She tells me, using my own full name.

"Get the fuck up or I'll take your car by myself," I tell her and her eyes widen momentarily, seeing as her car was her baby and she wouldn't let anyone touch it. Still, she hesitated in driving me to the mall, knowing that I would drag her in there and make her try something on. Black, of course. It always had to be black.

She slumped her shoulders and finally gave in to my antics with a sigh. "Fine," She said, grabbing her keys and heading toward the door with me behind her.

• • •

"No," My best friend tells me for the fourth consecutive time, obviously just declining everything that I throw at her.

"The faster you agree to something, the faster we can get out of here," I tell her in a sing-song voice and give her a sweet smile.

She furrows her eyebrows, as if she had never considered that option, then nods at me. "In that case, I'll take that." She tells me with a small smirk.

"I knew you couldn't resist a cute top," I told her with a wide grin.

"I sure can," She tells me with a raised eyebrow, "I simply cannot resist the urge to get out of this goddamn mall."

And that was how an argument was started about what each other could and could not resist.

• • •