Are We Losing, or Beginning?

"It's not very deep, Mr. Fuentes, you're going to live." The nurse smiled at Mike as she finished cleaning up his head wound. I'd gotten us here as soon as I could, the front of the tour bus was wrecked but that was about as much damaged as I'd caused (and trust me I felt insanely guilty for it) Casey was a few rooms down getting his arm put into a cast (I felt insanely guilty for that also.)

"Aw, don't I at least get CPR?" Mike smirked, the nurse rolled her eyes with a smile as her cheeks flushed pink. I felt a little awkward stood in the corner observing my little brother hitting on a nurse so I went to find Casey so I could apologize for the millionth time.

"Knock, knock." I said as I entered and Casey's head snapped up, unlike before we came to the hospital he smiled as I entered.

"Hey Vic, wassup?" His forearm was in a cast and the guilt that had washed away previously came rushing back, I sighed hard. Why couldn't I have just stayed awake?

"Nothing man, just checking you're okay, you know I'm really sorr-" I started but he shook his head and spoke up, cutting me off.

"Don't even go there, dude. Look it was an accident, it’s alright, besides I've still got my fingers, I'm not completely immobile." He smiled wiggling his fingers as proof; I smiled too, appreciating his kindness and optimism regardless of how shitty he was probably feeling on the inside. I mean, has anybody heard of a Drum Tech with only one useable hand?

"Thanks," I said appreciatively, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time and the little notification in the corner told me I had a Facebook message, I smiled thinking of Savannah and how it was probably her.

"What are you smiling at?" I heard Mike ask as he entered the room and patted Casey on the back, a very manly gesture. I pushed my phone back into my pocket thinking I'd have to read it later and reply then.

"Nothing," I wiped the smile off of my face "Er, uh, you guys ready to go? Can't be late on stage." I said monotonous.

"Depends, are you planning on attempting to murder us in the near future?" Mike questioned jokingly.

"Ha-ha." I dragged out sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. "Come on."

"What's going on?" Tony asked holding his head as Casey, Mike and I hopped back on the bus.

"Oh, the boy who lives!" Mike exclaimed dramatically and I chuckle at his Harry Potter reference.

"How much did I drink last night?" Tony questioned, his eyes not even fully open yet.

"Probably equivalent to your own body mass." I laughed recalling how wasted he was.

"Explains the headache..." He frowned. "Hey, why are we at a hospital?" For a guy who'd just woken up and was hungover he sure asked a damn lot of questions.

"Long story, bud." I couldn't be bothered to explain, I was about to go wake Jaime up considering Warped was a ten minute drive from the hospital we were currently at. I squeezed past Tony and headed towards the bunks, I heard Mike say.

"Well, it’s not a long story actually, Vic went all homicidal and tried to kill us all, but it’s okay now, we took him to the hospital and got him some electrocompulsive therapy."

"Fuck you, Mike!" I shouted with a smirk in my voice as I continued to head for the bunks. I heard him laugh and I could picture him probably giving me the finger. I quickly pulled my phone back out of my pocket, the idea being to read and reply to Savannah while no one was around so nobody could wind me up about it. I opened up Facebook and saw that my prediction was right, it was from her. I opened it.

Hi Vic! We got home safely last night… we were so tired and fell asleep at home almost instantly. Thanks for checking up on us.

We had a great day with you guys! Thanks, a lot! We hope you guys had fun, too! And good luck with the rest of the tour and travel safely! Tell the rest of the guys that me, Casey, and Jeffry say hi!”
I grinned from ear to ear as I read it; I imagined the words being said in her light, but slightly nervous voice.

I hit reply.

Happy to hear you got back alright. No thanks necessary, it was amazing too meet the both of you.

I typed. I ignored the 'travel safely' part, the irony of it almost unbearable. I continued to type

Everyone says hi to you, Casey and Jeffry too.

Okay it was a little lie, I just didn't want everyone to act like Casey did earlier when I smiled at my phone so I just didn't mention it to them, I'd tell them she said hi later.

Hopefully we'll see you guys when Warped is over, who knows.

I hoped I didn't sound over eager, I thought it was about time to just wrap it up.

Talk soon.

Vic.

P.s. I tried to get you tickets for today's Warped but there was literally nothing I could do. Maybe next time? See ya soon.

I erased the last paragraph, not wanting to end the message on a pessimistic note.

"Hm, I don't know." I spoke out loud to absolutely no one before retyping the paragraph I just erased and hitting send. At least it'd show that I meant it when I said I wanted to see her- er, them again. I pushed the phone into the depths of my back pocket of my skinny jeans and carried on my mission to wake Jaime up.

I reached the bunks and bent over so my head was level with Jaime's bunk.

"Oi, Hime-Time, get up." I hollered, no reply. "Jaaaaime." Still no reply, I patted what I thought was his body but turned out to be too squishy, I frowned momentarily before pulling back the covers, revealing, of course, pillows. The most cliché disguise ever and so unlike Jaime.

"Jaime?" If I knew Jaime - and I thought I did, he was probably playing a prank on me and was going to jump out and scare me half to death.

"Hime?" I raised my voice, making sure he could hear me. I entered the back lounge.

Nothing.

This was weird. Something was going on.

"Tony?" I headed back to the mid section of the bus where Tony, Mike and Casey were collected, standing around making small talk.

"Yeah?" Tony replied, chugging a whole bottle of water straight after he spoke. Boy, he must have been feeling shitty.

"Where the hell is Jaime?" Everyone fell silent, looking at each other awkwardly and then back at me.

“Have you checked his bunk?” Tony asked, looking as confused as me.

“Yeah, he’s done that thing with the pillows to make it look like he’s in bed when he’s not.” I had a feeling they knew something I didn’t but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure so I didn’t ponder it too much.

“I’ll call him.” Mike said, rapidly whipping out his phone and dialling his number, he pressed the phone to his ear as I checked my wrist watch, we were on stage in almost four hours but we had to get our bus parked and practice, it isn’t okay to just arrive ten minutes before you go on stage and even if it was okay, it isn’t polite. “Yeah, Jaime, where you at, bro?” Mike started talking into the phone, I tuned him out though, trying to figure this out in my head: Jaime was unconscious when we crashed, when we arrived at the hospital he was asleep, we were in the hospital an hour so he couldn’t have gotten too far. Mike had stopped talking and I tuned back into reality to find out what was going on.

“Voicemail.” He explained, shaking his phone before throwing it gently on the table.

“Well, what do we do now? We can’t go on stage without him and we can’t not go on stage at all...” I wouldn’t not go on stage, that wasn’t fair to the fans or the band and it was a real honour to play Warped Tour, you had to be specifically asked and to get an opportunity like that was mind blowing and I was a little irritated that Jaime was throwing it all away.

“Let’s just get there and I’ll text him and let him know where we are and if by chance he checks his phone, he’ll know where to come.” Mike shrugged. I must have looked rather pale because Mike put his hand on my shoulder. “Vic, it’ll be fine, calm down. I’ll drive okay? You haven’t even slept yet so go lay down and sleep, we’ll let you have a couple of hours sleep and we’ll wake you like an hour or so before we go on stage. Sound good?” In all honesty it did but too much was going around my head to agree.

“You definitely need to get some sleep.” Casey chimed in and I nodded robotically.

“Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.” I headed towards the bunks again and slumped down in mine, my head kind of spinning. What if we couldn’t go on stage? What if the fans turned against us because of it? They were right I really did need sleep, I was becoming paranoid an unbearable to be around. I closed my eyes and I must have really been exhausted because I fell asleep almost instantly.

---

It felt like I was only asleep for a few minutes when somebody shook me awake.

“Vic, yo, Vic.” I groaned and rolled over, burying my head furthering into the pillow, hoping to completely drown the person out.

“Vic, dammit, get up! We’re on stage in five minutes!” that got me; I shot up in the bunk, smacking my head off of the bottom of Mike’s bunk.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, rubbing my head and rushing out of my bunk. It was Mike who was waking me up, he smirked as I nursed my sore head and looked stunned at how little time I had to get ready. “What?” I asked, seems I was in a better mood before I’d slept.

“Don’t rush too much, we have like thirty minutes,” he double checked his watch just to confirm.

“I only told you that so you’d get up like now.” I shook my head at him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Jerk” I mumbled, heading to the front of the bus for a beer. Casey was sat at one of the two tables we have, on his phone, he looked up when I entered and smiled like he had a secret he was bursting to tell.

“’Sup?” he tried (and failed) to sound casual.

“Is this a dream or is everyone actually acting as strange as they seem to be?” I spoke my thoughts out loud.

“What do you mean?” Casey questioned, again, trying and failing to sound casual, he looked around nervously.

“Never mind.” I shook my head; I needed time to wake up before I thought too in depth about anything. I cracked open a beer and sipped it slowly. “I’m going to shower and warm up my vocals before we hit the stage.” I announced for some reason, Casey nodded, more interested in whatever was on his phone screen; I sighed and headed towards the shower.

----

I was bouncing on my toes with nerves, we were on stage in ten minutes and Jaime still wasn’t back yet, Tony was fixing his guitar strap and Mike was twiddling his drum sticks through his fingers at top speed, they seemed calm, unbothered by the absence of our bassist and on the other hand my heart was beating at an unnaturally fast rate. I patted my hands against my thighs and chewed down on my lip, trying to hide the fact I was nervous. I think it was apparent to anybody who even glanced at me though.

Calm down, Vic, calm down, we still have seven minutes.

It was amazing to me how the fans were at the other side of the stage completely oblivious to the drama going on back here. I couldn’t wrap my head around the madness.

“He’s back.” Someone spoke up; I didn’t have time to figure out who said it because I was too busy marching up to him.

“Jaime what the fuck, man?” my irritation was more than evident. He threw his bass strap around his neck and onto his shoulder, adjusting it so his guitar fit him perfectly.

“I know you’re mad, but just hear me out.” Mike came over and handed him his ear pieces and began helping him sort them out and everything, once they were in place and he was sorted Jaime continued. “I got you something.” He explained and my eyebrows creased, not fully understanding what he was talking about. He walked away for a few seconds and disappeared around a corner, I looked at Mike and Tony who were smiling like they knew what was going on.

Was I the only one oblivious to this shit?

He reappeared a few moments later, and as I looked back at him my jaw dropped.

Was that...? No it couldn’t be.

He headed towards me, pulling Savannah along with him. She had the biggest smile painted on his face and her cheeks were rosy red.

“You’re here.” I breathed, disbelievingly, I looked at Jaime and then back at Savannah and then back at Jaime again.

“Hi, Vic.” Her voice was quiet and nervous, as fragile as I remembered.

“But how?” I asked Jaime, he smirked and put an arm around Savannah.

“Well. I know Savvy really enjoyed Warped yesterday, I mean who wouldn’t? We’re awesome,” he joked “But I caught a flight, it didn’t take very long and I kidnapped her to come and spend the day with us for a second time,” he beamed at us both and I chuckled in disbelief.

“This is...wait- how? You don’t have a pass or tickets or-“

“Victor Fuentes, contain yourself! Am I your best friend?” He tilted his head to the side.

“Yes.” I replied flatly wondering where he was going with this.

“Do you trust your best friend?”

“Yes.”

“Then trust me when I tell you I’ve taken care of absolutely everything and that you don’t need to
worry about anything.” I smiled, this was Jaime in his prime and he meant an awful lot to me, all earlier irritation disappeared into thin air and I embraced him in a man hug.

“Pierce The Veil, you are on in one minute!” someone informed us, I grinned at Savannah.

“You okay?” I asked, she nodded with a smile.

“Yeah, are you?” she returned the question.

“Yes,” I answered truthfully, it didn’t matter I only had a minimal number of hours sleep or that I thought everything was going to fall apart earlier, I was happy right now and that’s what mattered. “Are you watching from the side of the stage?”

“Apparently so,” she smiled with a small shrug looking at Jaime in appreciation. “This is surreal.” She exclaimed softly.

“Isn’t it, just?” I agreed.

Notes

YO!
Fuentits here!

FIRST OF ALL I AM SO SO SO INCREDIBLY SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT WAS MY TURN.

Thank you all for being so patient, you're all stars!

**hands le writing stick to Claire in hope she'll update a lot quicker than I did.**