Be My Escape

No Rules

Present Day

Kaelyn's Perspective

We were having breakfast in the catering tent. I was loading up my plate with pancakes and eggs. I saw the condiment station filled with packets of ketchup and the like, and I thought of Lisa's reminder that Zack liked ketchup, so I grabbed a fistful of the packets and brought them back to the picnic table, where All Time Low and Cute were sitting together, along with their crew and "posse" such as Lisa, Kara, and I.

"Here Zack, I got you some extra ketchup packets," I said, handing them to the bassist, who was seated across from me.

Zack blushed, but grinned widely at me, his hazel eyes sparkling. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I said, sitting down next to Jeff from Cute and Flyzik. Alex, who was next to Zack, raised his eyebrows. "Better lower those caterpillars, Gaskarth, before they turn into butterflies and fly away," I said. He just glared at me. Whatever.

Sometime later, Jeff and I were locked in a heated debate about Hannah Montana, the new Disney Channel show that had premiered a few months ago. I found it entertaining, so I watched it occasionally, but Jeff thought it was stupid.

"Come on, she has like, five songs about how she has a double life and that she's Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana and not one single person has figured that out?" Jeff asked.

I shrugged, popping a tater tot into my mouth. "It's a kids' show, Jeffrey, you can't over-think it."

"It doesn't make any sense! Like seriously, no one has noticed that Miley and Hannah sound the same?" He asked.

I shrugged again. "People are stupid. People don't notice obvious shit all the time." I couldn't help myself, aiming that dig at Alex, who hadn't noticed me crushing on him for two years.

To my shock, he snorted and said, "yeah, you would know," which caused everyone to look awkwardly between us. When neither of us elaborated, everyone went back to their separate conversations.

I didn't even notice that Alex had been listening to my conversation and his comment made no sense. Had he known I'd liked him all along? And could it be that he was mad at me for not telling him? But how could he be mad, especially if he didn't feel the same way? Wasn't it just better to not tell him and have kept the peace all these years than tell him and have it possibly end our friendship? It was only the second day of tour and already I was questioning whether I'd been right to assume Alex hadn't liked me at all, but I was also questioning my own feelings. Who was this jealous, over-protective guy and where had my loving, chill best friend gone?

--

Alex's Perspective

I couldn't believe it when I overheard Kae say that people don't notice obvious shit. It made my blood boil. Hadn't I spent the last two and a half, almost three years, trying to get her to notice that I liked her? Okay, maybe I didn't go about it in the best way, sleeping around and dating Lisa on and off. I mean, what kind of message did that send? But if I recalled correctly, Kaelyn had been the one to push Lis and I together. Maybe she'd known about my feelings for her and had thought that by setting me up with Lisa, she wouldn't have to deal with rejecting me. The whole thing made me feel so fucking pathetic.

And now here she was, getting ketchup for Zack and flirting with Jeff. I shouldn't fucking care. I should just get over Kaelyn and enjoy being with Lisa. Lisa would've been the perfect girl for me. She was kind and smart and gorgeous. She loved animals, just like me, and she was patient, too patient. I didn't understand why she kept taking me back again and again. I gave the outward appearance of self-confidence to the point of arrogance because that's what everyone expected from the frontman of a band, but I didn't really see what I had to offer.