Rock and Roll Ruined My Life
Temptation’s A Monster
Rock and Roll Ruined My Life- Chapter 41- Temptation’s A Monster
“Bye, Julie. I’m sorry I can’t stay,” Kat reached out to give me a hug. I stood up and walked over to her so that I could say goodbye.
“Bye, Kat. Thank you for everything,” I muttered. My throat was sore and my head was throbbing like hell.
Deanna, Billie, Juliana, Zack, and Hayley all said goodbye to her too. Zack helped her carry her bag out to her mom’s car, which was in the front of the lot. I sat back down in the booth around the kitchen table and tried to fight back the new wave of tears that threatened to fall from my eyes. Last night kept flooding through my mind. I could not believe that I had let everything go that far…
“Julie, do you want some ginger ale or something?” Juliana asked me. I shook my head ‘no’ and avoided her eyes. I felt like I was unworthy to have their sympathy. Who wants a cheater around them?
“Jules, we’re here to help you. We’re here to listen,” Hayley said. I stole a glance at her through my bangs; she was being sincere.
“I can’t talk about it,” I shook my head.
“I’ll leave if that’s what you mean,” Billie said, standing up.
“No, no, no. It’s not that…. I just don’t feel like I deserve all of this.”
“Julie, we know it wasn’t entirely your fault,” Deanna spoke up.
I shook my head and let a few tears stream down my face.
“Everyone makes mistakes, Julie,” Hayley knelt down next to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I fucked up big time,” I whispered.
“Maybe if you tell us what happened, you’ll feel better?”
“I don’t know…”
“Just give it a try, we won’t be mad at you, we promise.”
“Okay,” I breathed shakily. I lifted my head up and they all gathered around to listen. I took a deep breath and wiped the tears off of my cheeks.
*Flash Back *
“Hey, you played an awesome show tonight,” I smiled as Jack walked over to me.
“Thanks,” he returned the smile and pulled me into a hug.
“Tired?”
“A little, but I want to party, so LET’S GO!” he yelled, taking my hand and pulling me onto Avenged Sevenfold’s bus- which was completely packed with people.
The music was so loud the windows were rattling, and there was tons of food. Jack and I walked over and piled on chips and various veggies.
“Stop eating and get your party on!” the Rev called over to us over the music.
“We’re going!” I laughed.
“Alright, alright! Save a dance for me!” I added dramatically before taking a swig of his beer and walking away.
“Jimmy’s the best,” I grinned.
“Yeah, he’s awesome!” Jack agreed.
“Hey guys! We’re doing shots in the back! C’mon!” Alex appeared before us. I looked at Jack hesitantly.
“I’ve never done shots before!” I called back.
“They’re fun! C’mon, please?” he begged us.
“I could do a few,” Jack shrugged.
“I’ll see,” I added as we walked to the back of the bus.
“ALRIIIIIIGHT!” Rian, Hunter, Tyson, Jeremy, Mike, Chris, Nick, and Josh yelled as we entered the back of the bus.
“Ohh Julie’s gunna do shots?” Tyson asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Maybe. I’m just going to watch for now,” I replied, munching on some more chips.
“Well, at least have a beer,” Chris showcased the cans they had lined by the couch.
“Bud, please.”
“Oh! Look at her go!” all of the guys from Paramore and AAR shared surprise looks.
“My girl can take it!” Jack smiled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder
“Yes I can,” I nodded.
“Then take some shots with us!” Jeremy encouraged.
“Look, its like kicking back medicine,” Alex said as he poured tiny amounts of vodka into cups.
“Take one,” he told everyone as he finished pouring. All of the guys took one and there was one extra one left over. Everyone stared at me expectantly- talk about peer pressure!
“Ugh fine. I’ll try it.”
“Just drink it, you don’t even taste it,” Tyson shrugged.
“Don’t push her, if she doesn’t wanna do it then leave her alone,” Jack spoke up.
“No, no. I’ll do it,” I assured him, reaching out and grabbing the cup.
“Woohoo!”
“Alright!”
“To tour!” Alex proposed the toast.
“TO TOUR!” We all echoed and threw back our heads.
I held back the urge to vomit, but let out a series of small coughs.
“Ha ha!”
“She did it!”
“Yeah, Jules!”
“Keep it down, keep it down.”
“Let’s do another one!”
“Yeah!”
In the end we all had about five shots each. I felt the world start to tilt and Jack caught my arm.
“Easy, does it,” he laughed.
“Let’s go dance!” I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him back to the front of the bus where the music was pounding with good beats.
I didn’t hold back on how I danced, what did I care if anyone saw me? They wouldn’t remember tomorrow anyways. Plus, there were so many people here it wouldn’t matter.
“I’m gunna go get another drink!” Jack called to me over the music.
“Get me something?” I asked.
“What do you want?”
“Anything!” I grinned.
“Alright! Be right back,” he winked at me. I smiled and bit my lip in reply.
“I’ll be back in one second!” he added quickly before he began weaving his way through the crowd.
I started dancing by myself, no one really noticed because everyone was doing their own thing.
“Hey you,” I heard someone call out to me. I looked up and saw Alex appear in front of me.
“Hey!” I smiled.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, stepping forward.
“Just dancing! Jack’s getting drinks,” I explained my lonliness.
“Oh, alright. Well, how about you dance with me?”
“Okay!” I nodded, taking one of his hands in mine as I did the side-step to the beat.
As we were dancing I began to let go and do some of the moves I did with Jack. Alex was like a brother to the both of us, he would just laugh along, right?
Wrong.
As I did a little hip sway Alex dropped my hand.
“You alright?” I asked, still doing the two-step to the music.
“Yeah,” he nodded, taking another step forward. I nonchalantly took a step backwards and he stepped forward again. I repeated my previous move but this time my back hit the wall.
“Alex, what’re you doing?” I asked, my vision blurring a little bit from the shots and the beer.
“I don’t feel like dancing anymore,” he moved in closer.
“Okay, so?” I shrugged, what does this have to do with me?
“You know, you look really hot tonight,” Alex said as he checked me out.
“Um, thanks I guess…” I trailed off.
“Don’t be shy,” he laughed, stepping closer still. He was right in front of me now.
I knew I had to push him away, but that wouldn’t be nice. We were always so mean to each other, pushing is no good. We learned that in pre-k.
Suddenly, Alex leaned in and closed the gap between us. He wasn’t as tall as Jack so I didn’t have to tilt my chin or anything. I felt my arms lock at my sides. This was wrong! Alex should know better! I tried to move forward in hopes that he’d stumble backwards, but no such luck. He took it as an invitation to grab the belt loops on my jeans and run his tongue over my bottom lip. I felt a shiver go through my body and I felt my mouth fall open the tiniest bit.
I felt him smile as his tongue parted my lips the rest of the way. I felt my defenses weakening as he continued. He knew just how to get under my skin. He moved his hands from my belt loops to my waist. He applied the tiniest bit of pressure and then pressed himself against me. This was wrong, but why can’t I move? Is it because I didn’t love Jack? No. Is it because I’m drunk? Maybe. Is it because I was curious? As soon as I thought it I knew that’s what it was. I couldn’t kiss him back though, Icouldn’t!
Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to hold up any longer, I felt Alex be removed from me. I saw Jack standing there, hurt, anger, and the promise of a fight written all over his face.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” Jack looked back and forth between Alex and I.
“I-I’m -bro-,” Alex slurred. I saw Kat and Zack run over to us.
“YOU LITTLE-” Jack raised his fist to punch Alex, but Zack reached out and held him back. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Jack’s face. I had never wanted to hurt anyone, especially him! I felt myself sober up immediately as the impact of my actions came crashing down on me.
“Julie? Julie are you okay?” I heard Kat talk to me, but I could only stare at him trying to break out of Zack’s grip.
“Julie, answer me, please!” I felt her shake my shoulders.
“How could you kiss him?” he asked me.
“What’s going on here?” Rian asked.
I couldn’t speak. I felt my eyes fill up with tears; I did nothing to hold them back. Slowly, I felt one slide down my face.
“I’M GUNNA FUCKING KILL YOU, MAN!” Jack yelled at Alex, trying to break out of Zack’s grip again.
*Present *
“Julie, it wasn’t entirely your fault!” Juliana said as soon as I finished recalling everything I remembered.
“It was! I should have been able to push him away!” I felt my head throb with pain; thank goodness the shades were all pulled down.
“Julie, it was both of your faults,” Deanna said.
“Well I could have pushed him away and I didn’t!”
“You tried though! And you knew it was wrong.”
“I knew it was wrong and I didn’t push him away!” I smacked the table and winced at the sound and the sting it left on my palm.
“Don’t be upset… Listen, I know this may sound kind of weird, but I know from experience that when someone starts kissing you and you’re that drunk, you really can’t do anything,” Juliana told me.
“It’s like you can’t function, you can’t move, and you want to move, but you can’t sometimes. It depends on how used you are to it.”
“That was my first time doing shots,” I muttered.
“Damn, I wish I could have seen that,” I heard Billie chuckle. We all turned to stare at him.
“What? Sorry,” he held up his hands innocently.
“Why aren’t you taking this seriously?” I asked.
“I know you’ll work it out, Jules. Seriously, you will.”
“But that’s only one possibility! What if Jack never wants to see me again? Never talk to me? He was so angry last night, I was so scared,” I felt tears stream down my face.
“I would be angry too if I saw that octopus all over my girl,” Billie muttered.
“I can’t believe he just came onto me like that and I didn’t do anything!” I sobbed.
“Julie, please… I’m gunna go and get you a change of clothes and some medicine, give me your keys, please,” Hayley stood up and held out her hand. I pulled my lanyard from my hoodie pocket and handed it to her.
“I’ll be right back,” she said before shutting the door. I winced at the light and the sound the door made. My head was throbbing and I couldn’t stop crying.
“What time do you guys have to be home?” I asked.
“I was supposed to be home by 12 last night,” Deanna frowned.
“Oh my God! You’re going to be so dead! This is all my fault!” I sobbed.
“Julie, it was my fault! I was the one who decided to crash here.”
“No! You have to get home. Please I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”
“I won’t Julie, I won’t.”
“Billie, you gotta drive her home for me, please?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure thing.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Juliana nodded.
“I don’t live that far away it’s fine,” Deanna said.
“You need to get home,” I stared at her, my eyes and face soaked with tears.
“Okay, okay. I’m going. Julie, promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” she came to kneel beside me. She looked into my eyes and didn’t look away until I nodded reluctantly.
“I’ll text you okay? Thanks for everything,” She gave me a hug before she and Billie left.
“I just wanna sleep,” I sniffed.
“You can sleep in a few, just wait until Hayley comes back with comfier clothes for you,” Juliana patted my hand sympathetically.
“Okay,” I nodded, giving her a small smile.
Hayley’s P.O.V
‘She keeps her stuff on MCR’s bus. This oughtta’ be interesting,’ I thought to myself as I walked across the lot.
I realized that the vans were right across the way from their bus when I got to the front door. I quickly tried all of the keys until I realized that the door had never been locked in the first place, and I had just made my life so much harder by thinking they had the brain capacity to lock anything. I sighed and slowly opened the door.
I felt my jaw drop. There was people, food, and empty beer cans everywhere.
“Holy crap,” I muttered as I tip toed through the bodies on the floor. I finally got to the middle of the bus where Julie had pulled her suitcase from last. I opened the first closet and stifled a scream. Frank had somehow ended up in the closet. He also happened to be sitting on top of Julie’s suitcase. I hesitated, would he get mad if I woke him up? He didn’t seem like that type of person, but I did not want to chance my luck.
I crossed over to Julie’s bed to find that someone was in it. I felt my stomach lurch when I saw Alex, passed out on the mattress. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a pair of sweatpants sticking out from under Alex’s calf. I crept forward and slowly began pulling them towards myself. Half way through this process he moved, and I had to jump out of the way as he swung his leg out and over the side of the bunk. Well, that made my job a lot easier. I picked up the pants and zigzagged through the people again.
I stole a glance over to the vans, where I saw Hunter, Jeremy, and Zac leaning against our van with sunglasses, hoodies, and hats on. They saw me and waved. I waved back and closed the bus door.
“C’mere,” I heard Hunter whisper-yell. I nodded and quickly jogged over, pulling my hoodie closer to me as I did so. It was like being in a wind tunnel here in Manhattan.
“How is everyone?” I asked, referring to the rest of our band and ATL in the vans next door.
“Josh is still out cold, Rian is still out cold, Matt and Mark are still out cold, Zack went for a walk, and Jack… well… we went to check on him and he’s not doing too good.”
“What happened?” my mind began racing with all of the possible outcomes.
“He woke up this morning and puked his brains out.”
“He has a killer head ache and he wants to murder Alex for some reason.”
“Yeah he kept muttering that over and over again when we helped him back to the van.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Why did you steal sweatpants off of Julie’s bus?”
“Where is Julie? -”
“-Geez, guys. For people who have hangovers you sure do notice a lot,” I sighed as I began explaining what happened.
“Alex came onto Julie, who for some reason decided to do, like, six rounds of shots- which she threw up in the middle of the night,” I shot Jeremy and Hunter looks. They had been part of that whole shot thing. “And when he came onto her she tried to push him away, but because she wasn’t used to having that much alcohol she couldn’t do it. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t move him away. He started kissing her and basically tried to get in her pants, but Jack came over and ripped them apart and Zack had to hold Jack back and Julie was a mess- she still is.”
“Holy shit!” Hunter exclaimed, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.
“Damn.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Zac asked. I shrugged,
“She can’t stop crying. We tried to have her talk it out, and when we told her it wasn’t entirely her fault she didn’t believe us. Then when Deanna told her she never got home she blamed it on herself too. I’m worried about her…”
“Julie would never let something like that happen in real life.”
“Yeah, Alex is always talking about having sex and shit, so I don’t put it past him. But I can’t believe he came onto Julie!”
“Him and Jack are, like, the best of friends. And Julie and Jack are so close!”
“I know, I know… is Jack up now?” I asked, lowering my voice. I didn’t realize how loud I was talking until then.
“Um, I don’t know, Lemme check,” Jeremy walked over to their van and peered in through the back.
“He’s awake… I think …,” he said as he walked over, “He’s propped up, but his eyes look half closed.”
“Well, someone better go check on him soon. And also, when everyone wakes up, don’t go blabbing to everyone about everything. Just warn Alex and that’s it. I’ll tell Lindsey when she comes around. We’re on MSI’s bus, alright? Text me what’s going on,” I asked as I leaned over to give them final hugs; I planned to spend the whole day with Julie since everyone else had to go home at some point.
“Okay.”
“We will.”
“You text us too.”
“Okay, bye guys,” I waved as I walked off.
“Bye, Julie. I’m sorry I can’t stay,” Kat reached out to give me a hug. I stood up and walked over to her so that I could say goodbye.
“Bye, Kat. Thank you for everything,” I muttered. My throat was sore and my head was throbbing like hell.
Deanna, Billie, Juliana, Zack, and Hayley all said goodbye to her too. Zack helped her carry her bag out to her mom’s car, which was in the front of the lot. I sat back down in the booth around the kitchen table and tried to fight back the new wave of tears that threatened to fall from my eyes. Last night kept flooding through my mind. I could not believe that I had let everything go that far…
“Julie, do you want some ginger ale or something?” Juliana asked me. I shook my head ‘no’ and avoided her eyes. I felt like I was unworthy to have their sympathy. Who wants a cheater around them?
“Jules, we’re here to help you. We’re here to listen,” Hayley said. I stole a glance at her through my bangs; she was being sincere.
“I can’t talk about it,” I shook my head.
“I’ll leave if that’s what you mean,” Billie said, standing up.
“No, no, no. It’s not that…. I just don’t feel like I deserve all of this.”
“Julie, we know it wasn’t entirely your fault,” Deanna spoke up.
I shook my head and let a few tears stream down my face.
“Everyone makes mistakes, Julie,” Hayley knelt down next to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I fucked up big time,” I whispered.
“Maybe if you tell us what happened, you’ll feel better?”
“I don’t know…”
“Just give it a try, we won’t be mad at you, we promise.”
“Okay,” I breathed shakily. I lifted my head up and they all gathered around to listen. I took a deep breath and wiped the tears off of my cheeks.
*Flash Back *
“Hey, you played an awesome show tonight,” I smiled as Jack walked over to me.
“Thanks,” he returned the smile and pulled me into a hug.
“Tired?”
“A little, but I want to party, so LET’S GO!” he yelled, taking my hand and pulling me onto Avenged Sevenfold’s bus- which was completely packed with people.
The music was so loud the windows were rattling, and there was tons of food. Jack and I walked over and piled on chips and various veggies.
“Stop eating and get your party on!” the Rev called over to us over the music.
“We’re going!” I laughed.
“Alright, alright! Save a dance for me!” I added dramatically before taking a swig of his beer and walking away.
“Jimmy’s the best,” I grinned.
“Yeah, he’s awesome!” Jack agreed.
“Hey guys! We’re doing shots in the back! C’mon!” Alex appeared before us. I looked at Jack hesitantly.
“I’ve never done shots before!” I called back.
“They’re fun! C’mon, please?” he begged us.
“I could do a few,” Jack shrugged.
“I’ll see,” I added as we walked to the back of the bus.
“ALRIIIIIIGHT!” Rian, Hunter, Tyson, Jeremy, Mike, Chris, Nick, and Josh yelled as we entered the back of the bus.
“Ohh Julie’s gunna do shots?” Tyson asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Maybe. I’m just going to watch for now,” I replied, munching on some more chips.
“Well, at least have a beer,” Chris showcased the cans they had lined by the couch.
“Bud, please.”
“Oh! Look at her go!” all of the guys from Paramore and AAR shared surprise looks.
“My girl can take it!” Jack smiled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder
“Yes I can,” I nodded.
“Then take some shots with us!” Jeremy encouraged.
“Look, its like kicking back medicine,” Alex said as he poured tiny amounts of vodka into cups.
“Take one,” he told everyone as he finished pouring. All of the guys took one and there was one extra one left over. Everyone stared at me expectantly- talk about peer pressure!
“Ugh fine. I’ll try it.”
“Just drink it, you don’t even taste it,” Tyson shrugged.
“Don’t push her, if she doesn’t wanna do it then leave her alone,” Jack spoke up.
“No, no. I’ll do it,” I assured him, reaching out and grabbing the cup.
“Woohoo!”
“Alright!”
“To tour!” Alex proposed the toast.
“TO TOUR!” We all echoed and threw back our heads.
I held back the urge to vomit, but let out a series of small coughs.
“Ha ha!”
“She did it!”
“Yeah, Jules!”
“Keep it down, keep it down.”
“Let’s do another one!”
“Yeah!”
In the end we all had about five shots each. I felt the world start to tilt and Jack caught my arm.
“Easy, does it,” he laughed.
“Let’s go dance!” I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him back to the front of the bus where the music was pounding with good beats.
I didn’t hold back on how I danced, what did I care if anyone saw me? They wouldn’t remember tomorrow anyways. Plus, there were so many people here it wouldn’t matter.
“I’m gunna go get another drink!” Jack called to me over the music.
“Get me something?” I asked.
“What do you want?”
“Anything!” I grinned.
“Alright! Be right back,” he winked at me. I smiled and bit my lip in reply.
“I’ll be back in one second!” he added quickly before he began weaving his way through the crowd.
I started dancing by myself, no one really noticed because everyone was doing their own thing.
“Hey you,” I heard someone call out to me. I looked up and saw Alex appear in front of me.
“Hey!” I smiled.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, stepping forward.
“Just dancing! Jack’s getting drinks,” I explained my lonliness.
“Oh, alright. Well, how about you dance with me?”
“Okay!” I nodded, taking one of his hands in mine as I did the side-step to the beat.
As we were dancing I began to let go and do some of the moves I did with Jack. Alex was like a brother to the both of us, he would just laugh along, right?
Wrong.
As I did a little hip sway Alex dropped my hand.
“You alright?” I asked, still doing the two-step to the music.
“Yeah,” he nodded, taking another step forward. I nonchalantly took a step backwards and he stepped forward again. I repeated my previous move but this time my back hit the wall.
“Alex, what’re you doing?” I asked, my vision blurring a little bit from the shots and the beer.
“I don’t feel like dancing anymore,” he moved in closer.
“Okay, so?” I shrugged, what does this have to do with me?
“You know, you look really hot tonight,” Alex said as he checked me out.
“Um, thanks I guess…” I trailed off.
“Don’t be shy,” he laughed, stepping closer still. He was right in front of me now.
I knew I had to push him away, but that wouldn’t be nice. We were always so mean to each other, pushing is no good. We learned that in pre-k.
Suddenly, Alex leaned in and closed the gap between us. He wasn’t as tall as Jack so I didn’t have to tilt my chin or anything. I felt my arms lock at my sides. This was wrong! Alex should know better! I tried to move forward in hopes that he’d stumble backwards, but no such luck. He took it as an invitation to grab the belt loops on my jeans and run his tongue over my bottom lip. I felt a shiver go through my body and I felt my mouth fall open the tiniest bit.
I felt him smile as his tongue parted my lips the rest of the way. I felt my defenses weakening as he continued. He knew just how to get under my skin. He moved his hands from my belt loops to my waist. He applied the tiniest bit of pressure and then pressed himself against me. This was wrong, but why can’t I move? Is it because I didn’t love Jack? No. Is it because I’m drunk? Maybe. Is it because I was curious? As soon as I thought it I knew that’s what it was. I couldn’t kiss him back though, Icouldn’t!
Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to hold up any longer, I felt Alex be removed from me. I saw Jack standing there, hurt, anger, and the promise of a fight written all over his face.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” Jack looked back and forth between Alex and I.
“I-I’m -bro-,” Alex slurred. I saw Kat and Zack run over to us.
“YOU LITTLE-” Jack raised his fist to punch Alex, but Zack reached out and held him back. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Jack’s face. I had never wanted to hurt anyone, especially him! I felt myself sober up immediately as the impact of my actions came crashing down on me.
“Julie? Julie are you okay?” I heard Kat talk to me, but I could only stare at him trying to break out of Zack’s grip.
“Julie, answer me, please!” I felt her shake my shoulders.
“How could you kiss him?” he asked me.
“What’s going on here?” Rian asked.
I couldn’t speak. I felt my eyes fill up with tears; I did nothing to hold them back. Slowly, I felt one slide down my face.
“I’M GUNNA FUCKING KILL YOU, MAN!” Jack yelled at Alex, trying to break out of Zack’s grip again.
*Present *
“Julie, it wasn’t entirely your fault!” Juliana said as soon as I finished recalling everything I remembered.
“It was! I should have been able to push him away!” I felt my head throb with pain; thank goodness the shades were all pulled down.
“Julie, it was both of your faults,” Deanna said.
“Well I could have pushed him away and I didn’t!”
“You tried though! And you knew it was wrong.”
“I knew it was wrong and I didn’t push him away!” I smacked the table and winced at the sound and the sting it left on my palm.
“Don’t be upset… Listen, I know this may sound kind of weird, but I know from experience that when someone starts kissing you and you’re that drunk, you really can’t do anything,” Juliana told me.
“It’s like you can’t function, you can’t move, and you want to move, but you can’t sometimes. It depends on how used you are to it.”
“That was my first time doing shots,” I muttered.
“Damn, I wish I could have seen that,” I heard Billie chuckle. We all turned to stare at him.
“What? Sorry,” he held up his hands innocently.
“Why aren’t you taking this seriously?” I asked.
“I know you’ll work it out, Jules. Seriously, you will.”
“But that’s only one possibility! What if Jack never wants to see me again? Never talk to me? He was so angry last night, I was so scared,” I felt tears stream down my face.
“I would be angry too if I saw that octopus all over my girl,” Billie muttered.
“I can’t believe he just came onto me like that and I didn’t do anything!” I sobbed.
“Julie, please… I’m gunna go and get you a change of clothes and some medicine, give me your keys, please,” Hayley stood up and held out her hand. I pulled my lanyard from my hoodie pocket and handed it to her.
“I’ll be right back,” she said before shutting the door. I winced at the light and the sound the door made. My head was throbbing and I couldn’t stop crying.
“What time do you guys have to be home?” I asked.
“I was supposed to be home by 12 last night,” Deanna frowned.
“Oh my God! You’re going to be so dead! This is all my fault!” I sobbed.
“Julie, it was my fault! I was the one who decided to crash here.”
“No! You have to get home. Please I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”
“I won’t Julie, I won’t.”
“Billie, you gotta drive her home for me, please?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure thing.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Juliana nodded.
“I don’t live that far away it’s fine,” Deanna said.
“You need to get home,” I stared at her, my eyes and face soaked with tears.
“Okay, okay. I’m going. Julie, promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” she came to kneel beside me. She looked into my eyes and didn’t look away until I nodded reluctantly.
“I’ll text you okay? Thanks for everything,” She gave me a hug before she and Billie left.
“I just wanna sleep,” I sniffed.
“You can sleep in a few, just wait until Hayley comes back with comfier clothes for you,” Juliana patted my hand sympathetically.
“Okay,” I nodded, giving her a small smile.
Hayley’s P.O.V
‘She keeps her stuff on MCR’s bus. This oughtta’ be interesting,’ I thought to myself as I walked across the lot.
I realized that the vans were right across the way from their bus when I got to the front door. I quickly tried all of the keys until I realized that the door had never been locked in the first place, and I had just made my life so much harder by thinking they had the brain capacity to lock anything. I sighed and slowly opened the door.
I felt my jaw drop. There was people, food, and empty beer cans everywhere.
“Holy crap,” I muttered as I tip toed through the bodies on the floor. I finally got to the middle of the bus where Julie had pulled her suitcase from last. I opened the first closet and stifled a scream. Frank had somehow ended up in the closet. He also happened to be sitting on top of Julie’s suitcase. I hesitated, would he get mad if I woke him up? He didn’t seem like that type of person, but I did not want to chance my luck.
I crossed over to Julie’s bed to find that someone was in it. I felt my stomach lurch when I saw Alex, passed out on the mattress. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a pair of sweatpants sticking out from under Alex’s calf. I crept forward and slowly began pulling them towards myself. Half way through this process he moved, and I had to jump out of the way as he swung his leg out and over the side of the bunk. Well, that made my job a lot easier. I picked up the pants and zigzagged through the people again.
I stole a glance over to the vans, where I saw Hunter, Jeremy, and Zac leaning against our van with sunglasses, hoodies, and hats on. They saw me and waved. I waved back and closed the bus door.
“C’mere,” I heard Hunter whisper-yell. I nodded and quickly jogged over, pulling my hoodie closer to me as I did so. It was like being in a wind tunnel here in Manhattan.
“How is everyone?” I asked, referring to the rest of our band and ATL in the vans next door.
“Josh is still out cold, Rian is still out cold, Matt and Mark are still out cold, Zack went for a walk, and Jack… well… we went to check on him and he’s not doing too good.”
“What happened?” my mind began racing with all of the possible outcomes.
“He woke up this morning and puked his brains out.”
“He has a killer head ache and he wants to murder Alex for some reason.”
“Yeah he kept muttering that over and over again when we helped him back to the van.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Why did you steal sweatpants off of Julie’s bus?”
“Where is Julie? -”
“-Geez, guys. For people who have hangovers you sure do notice a lot,” I sighed as I began explaining what happened.
“Alex came onto Julie, who for some reason decided to do, like, six rounds of shots- which she threw up in the middle of the night,” I shot Jeremy and Hunter looks. They had been part of that whole shot thing. “And when he came onto her she tried to push him away, but because she wasn’t used to having that much alcohol she couldn’t do it. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t move him away. He started kissing her and basically tried to get in her pants, but Jack came over and ripped them apart and Zack had to hold Jack back and Julie was a mess- she still is.”
“Holy shit!” Hunter exclaimed, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.
“Damn.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Zac asked. I shrugged,
“She can’t stop crying. We tried to have her talk it out, and when we told her it wasn’t entirely her fault she didn’t believe us. Then when Deanna told her she never got home she blamed it on herself too. I’m worried about her…”
“Julie would never let something like that happen in real life.”
“Yeah, Alex is always talking about having sex and shit, so I don’t put it past him. But I can’t believe he came onto Julie!”
“Him and Jack are, like, the best of friends. And Julie and Jack are so close!”
“I know, I know… is Jack up now?” I asked, lowering my voice. I didn’t realize how loud I was talking until then.
“Um, I don’t know, Lemme check,” Jeremy walked over to their van and peered in through the back.
“He’s awake… I think …,” he said as he walked over, “He’s propped up, but his eyes look half closed.”
“Well, someone better go check on him soon. And also, when everyone wakes up, don’t go blabbing to everyone about everything. Just warn Alex and that’s it. I’ll tell Lindsey when she comes around. We’re on MSI’s bus, alright? Text me what’s going on,” I asked as I leaned over to give them final hugs; I planned to spend the whole day with Julie since everyone else had to go home at some point.
“Okay.”
“We will.”
“You text us too.”
“Okay, bye guys,” I waved as I walked off.
.
2/7/15