Six Feet Under The Stars(Alex Gaskarth)

Stuck In The Middle With You

Chapter Four

"Oh my God." Cassie sighed and pulled my arm away from Jack. "Leave the poor girl alone, guys. She probably already thinks Americans are weird enough" She smiled at them, leading me into a corner in the room, where a disheveled blue couch was.

I fell onto the material and watched as Rian and the band assembled themselves. Mr. Nose Piercing and Alex gave me odd glances, I guess they were trying to siphon answers from subtle looks. Cassie passed me a can of Pepsi and I smiled gratefully. My attention was no longer towards the loud instruments in front of me.

"So, you rescued Alex from his deadly drunken state?"She asked, trying to stifle her laughter," I would've left him."

I nodded, trying to stifle my own giggles." Well, I couldn't just leave him there. I've never seen someone that drunk before."

Just then the room erupted into a noise that was euphoric. It was a sound that I had never heard before. I was no stranger to good music, but this almost surpassed all of the others. The beat of Rian's drums, Alex's voice....his voice was totally mesmerizing. Cassie was obviously used to the beautiful sounds of All Time Low because she was just too calm.

"They're good, huh?"

"Very good. Rian said that his band was decent, but he never told me that they were absolutely amazing..."

My voice trailed off. Cassie turned and shook her head, and mouthed at me 'let's get out' and walked to the door and I followed, even though all I wanted to do was listen to Alex's voice for the rest of eternity.

"Sorry to drag you out of your trance, but you can't hear a thing in there. I'm going to buy them some food; the vending machines will be the death of them." She was talkative, which instead of being annoying was nice. I admired people who can keep a conversation going for long enough to hold interest, without being boring. "Rian was really excited about you coming, so were the guys. Do you like it here?" She asked as we walk into a doughnut shop. Being British, I was amazed by the fact that there were shops that could only sell doughnuts and nothing else. I nodded as we took our place in line.

"It's okay. Other than the lovely encounter with a piss drunk Alex, it's been pretty toned down, to be honest. Way different than I expected."

Cassie shook her head.

"He never gets that drunk, especially the night before a tour. I'm totally surprised that you actually helped him out. Lisa wouldn't dare do that. Although, she might be the reason why he decided to go on a drunken frenzy. You're lucky by the way, getting to stay on that bus. Tons of girls would kill to do that. But after a while of knowing those boys, the thought of sharing space with them becomes unbearable. " Her eyes sparkled as she laughed. When she ordered and her paper bag was clutched in her hand we turned to leave.

"You don't stay on the bus?" I asked and she shook her head. I felt a bit down, it would've been nice to have another girl in a testosterone filled room.

"Nah, I'm just going to get on with my life and miss him while he's gone. It makes it nicer when we're together. Besides, I'm in my own band. We toured with the guys last time, which was great. But I've had that experience and I can't follow him around forever."

"You're in your own band? Wow."

"Yeah, it's pretty great when you can turn around and go, 'Fuck, this is actually my job'."

"Aw, I'd love that. I'm a waitress, or I was anyway. So ... Do any of the others have girlfriends?" I asked, trying to keep a steady flow of conversation with her.

"Only Alex. If you could even call her that. She does a bad job of showing it." Cassie replied, and for a moment,I felt my stomach drop. At that moment I didn't even know why I cared. I desperately hoped that the new shade of red on my face wasn't visible."Well,their relationship has been a bit of a disaster. Her name's Lisa,you know I was talking about her earlier. She's kinda gorgeous in a Barbie doll type of way. I don't know why some guys would be interested in that. Anyway,there relationship is constantly on and off,it's off-ish right now,but it will always be back on in a week. She's kinda desperate and he can't trust anyone, being famous. She cheated on him,he cheated on her, but ... they miss each other." Cassie shrugged.

"Jack and ... Zack? They don't have anyone?"

We're approaching the club building again.

"No. Zack's on the lookout, but I don't think he'd take anything too seriously right now and Jack, well, he doesn't have anyone, but he was certainly eying you up." She said this with a playful smile and no hint of embarrassment. I blushed hoping that she wouldn't notice. When we got back, there was a sea of noise and little speech. The guys didn't say anything to us because they didn't notice. Their manager stood and shouted criticism and encouragement and I watched in fascination. When everyone stopped for a break, the silence was painful. Rian turned to grin at us from behind the drums. ALL TIME LOW is emblazoned across the bass and I smiled; it's a good name.

"What do you think?" Zack called out, watching for my reaction as the others peeled off their guitars and wiped sweat from their signature messy hair.

"Fuck." Is all I could say, anything else would have been a collection of incoherent words. Alex laughed.

"Sounds good," Alex remarked, striding over with Jack whilst Cassadee held out the white doughnut box, the bag tossed to the ground, and they each grabbed one. He fell down next to me, pushing himself closer as Rian slipped in beside his girlfriend and Jack forced his way to my other side. I felt weird energy from sitting between both Jack and Alex, so my ninety percent lyrical brain feels the need to tell me to sing and I do.

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

Rian said something that sounded like "pretty much." and Alex, laughing, slipped an arm over my shoulder as Jack gave me a hug.

Acceptance in life felt pretty good.