~*Rachel’s POV*~

I was not even fully aware that Lottie wasn’t following behind me until I turned round and saw Tony leading her down the hotel steps and over towards where we were standing by the two awaiting cars, his hand resting on the small of her back, and it made me smile; we may have only just gotten acquainted with both bands, but I already have a rather small inkling that we are going to get along just fine with them.

Due to there not being enough room for everyone to take one car to the fancy Italian restaurant that Jaime had managed to locate on Google named ‘Bella Notté‘, so the members of All Time Low clambered into one car with their Tour Manager, Matt Flyzik and their Sound Engineer, Evan Kirkendall; while the members of Pierce The Veil clambered into the other, which left a seat free in each car for both myself and Lottie but the question that needed to be answered was, who was going to travel with who? Looking over at Lottie, I could tell that she was going to travel with Pierce The Veil, mainly due to the way that she was looking at Tony, which meant that I was free to travel with All Time Low and spend some more quality time with Alex.

As soon as the All Time Low car started it’s journey out of the hotel parking lot, the guys thought that it would be amusing to play the ‘All Time Favourites’ game, one which they admitted to creating during one of their drunken party hazes on Warped; in other words it was basically ‘Truth or Dare‘ and I‘m rather envious at the fact that Lottie had managed to escape from the sheer embarrassment of it by riding with Tony and the other members of Pierce The Veil.

So far, Alex has confessed that he loves everything to do with Space and randomly Googles facts about the universe when he can’t sleep, Rian was dared to lick Zack’s ear while Zack was dared to say that he loved it before licking Rian’s back, and Jack admitted that he likes to sleep with a cuddly doll of Kevin McCallister from Home Alone. Then, it was mine turn…I wasn’t feeling very brave or confident enough around them yet to choose ‘dare’, so I ended up choosing ‘Truth’ but as soon as I heard the question that Alex was curious to know the answer too, I really did wish that I had been brave enough to choose ‘dare’ instead.

“So, Miss. Rachel…out of the band members of Pierce The Veil and All Time Low; which member holds a special place in your heart?” Alex asks, his eyes glistening with curiosity as he looks across from Jack at me.

“Now, that’s not a very fair question, Gaskarth. Every single one of you has very unique qualities that stand out to me, so I couldn’t possibly choose just one of you.” I answer honestly as I look between them, taking in each of their smiles as they beam at me with what seems to be of respect and admiration, all of them accepting my answer…well, all of them except from a certain Mr. Alexander William Gaskarth.

“Come on, it‘s a perfectly easy question to answer; out of every band member on tour…who means more to you than the others?” He asks, refusing to drop the subject matter.

“Forget it, Gaskarth. I’m not going to choose between any of you as it wouldn’t be fair to anyone. Besides…whose to say that any of you mean anything to me other than your music; for all I know, you could all be raging, horny psychopaths.” I smirk as the others burst out into laughter, while Alex just sits back in his seat, pouting in disappointment that I hadn‘t answered him for the second time in a row.

I couldn’t help but let a triumphant smile ghost across my own lips as I turn to look out of the car window, pausing for just a second to send a quick glance in Jack’s direction, noticing that he was smiling warmly at me, his hands tapping nervously against his thighs as he shifts his own gaze to the window next to him in order to watch the passing scenery.

Why does Jack seem so nervous? He can’t honestly like me…Could he? My inner thoughts speculate curiously as I keep my gaze focused on him for another couple of seconds. Come on, Rachel. Do be serious; why on earth would Jack like you? You‘re wasting your time even thinking about such a thing. He’s just being nice and welcoming like everyone else.

Of course, my mind is right; there is no way in hell that Jack could possibly like me, I mean why would he; he‘s like Alex…a super human, whereas I’m just…me, I’m just the plain boring girl who was in an abusive relationship and lives with her best friend because she has nowhere else to go. There’s nothing at all likeable about me; especially not to a rock star.

“Well…This is quite the game…” I murmur into the awkward silence that had fallen between us all, choosing instead to go back to glancing out of the window to see how far we were from the hotel and from what I could remember of what Jaime said; we were almost at our destination.

I must have soon zoned out as the next thing I know, Rian exclaimed in an excited tone of voice, “We have arrived; bring on the food!”

Letting out a relieved little sigh, I push open the car door as soon as it was put into neutral and jump out, grateful to be able to stretch out after sitting in a car with six guys for the past twenty minutes. I saw Pierce The Veil’s car pull up behind All Time Low’s a minute later, the doors swinging open to reveal a very excited Jaime who yelled something about finally being able to fill the empty void in his soul by eating copious amounts of food, which earnt him a high five from Rian before they put their arms around each other and rushed towards the entrance of the restaurant. Mike and Vic soon followed out of the car, shaking their heads at their fellow band members antics until it was just Tony and Lottie left to emerge, a smile forming on my face when I saw them shuffle across the seat to the open car door, smiles placed firmly across their faces.

“I‘m glad to see that you‘re having fun…” I greet Lottie with an amused tone as soon as she clambers out of the Pierce The Veil car a few seconds after Vic, her hand holding onto Tony’s as she steadies herself and walks over to meet me by the entrance of the restaurant.

“Well, what can I say? The guys in Pierce The Veil are charming, funny and very welcoming.” She smiles even more brightly as I notice Tony giving her hand a little squeeze which causes her to look up and smile at him as a blush makes its way onto her cheeks.

As they both followed after Mike and Vic into the restaurant, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at how well she’s getting along with Tony already; I know that she’s had a huge crush on him for the past two years, but I would have thought that she would be taking things a little slower than this. I am happy for her though; she’s finally finding some confidence within herself and I know that Tony will be good for her in the long run.

I was just about to follow them when I felt a hand tug on my arm, pulling me back and around so that I was staring right into the chocolate brown eyes of Alex Gaskarth which causes me to let out a little sigh, in frustration more than anything.

“Hey, wait a minute before we go in…are you ever going to answer my question.” Alex asks with a look of pure interest etched into his features. “Because, you know I really would like to know the answer to it…”

“Well, then I guess that you’ll just have to keep on wondering as I told you before; it’s not fair to make me choose between you all…but, let’s just say that I have a little ‘thing’ for guitar players.” I reply, sending a flirtatious wink in his direction as I turn round and follow Jack into the restaurant with Alex trailing along behind me a couple of seconds later after he had managed to get over the initial shock of my response.

As the restaurant doors close behind us, we receive a warm welcome from the Front of House Lady, but as soon as her eyes landed on Alex who was standing beside me, she paid all of her attention to him, and him alone. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her; she looked exactly like I did when I first saw him face to face and she gave him the ever so famous ‘I’m your biggest fan’ speech even though she looked like she was at least thirty years old and I let out a small scoff, which earns me a little nudge in the ribs from Lottie, who was standing on my other side, her eyebrows raising as she watched me carefully.

Alex, on the other hand, remained completely oblivious to my glares and scoffs towards the woman standing in front of us, instead he politely asks her if it would be possible to takeover one of the conference rooms; what with there being twelve of us, it just made sense to book out a big room and because there is so many of us there would no doubt be a lot of noise too, so by having some privacy we would be free to be as loud as we would like without disturbing any of the other diners.

After being directed into the conference room, we begin to take our seats. Alex and Jack decided to sit across from me, Tony and Vic both sit on either side of Lottie and Jaime, Rian, Zack, Mike, Matt and Evan all take a seat near the very end of the table; it seems to me as though they wanted to be isolated from the rest of us so that they could have their own little conversations.

Alex thanked the Front of House Lady as she handed out the menus and informed us that a waitress will be in any minute to take our orders, but before she left to head back out to her post, she took down our drink orders and with one last look towards Alex she then left us all to our own little conversations.

“A little word of advice; do not order anything that you can’t pronounce.” Alex mumbles towards myself and Lottie, causing us both to giggle lightly, as everyone opened up their menus.

I quickly glance over at Lottie, who was sitting across from me a little to the right, and noticed that she was beaming from ear to ear. It seemed like she was in a complete daze when she stared at Tony and I didn’t blame her; I’d do the exact same thing with Alex but only if I was in a different room, I may be a typical girl but I don’t want to make a fool out of myself in front of him. I feel myself smile as I look away from them, turning my gaze instead to my left where Jack was sitting and I saw that he was staring straight at me, his eyes never blinking, even as I wave a hand in front of his face.

“Erm, Jack?” I whisper shyly, my cheeks blushing a faint pink colour.

He shakes his head as if he was coming out of a trance and asks nervously. “What?”

“You’re drooling…” I mutter as I giggle lightly to myself.

Okay, so maybe Jack wasn’t technically drooling but in a sense, he seemed like he was about to if he didn’t stop raping me with his eyes. It was kind of disturbing. Everyone let out a snort of laughter before turning their attention back to their menu’s, and after a few minutes of browsing through the list of main’s, a waitress came over excitedly and started to flirt insanely with each of the band members as she took down their order. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her obvious behaviour and I couldn’t help but think; This is mine and Lottie’s dream, not yours…so back off… but the glare that Lottie was giving me made me behave almost immediately as I placed my own order.

Although Alex had warned us all not to, I decided to order a dish that had a couple H’s, a couple A’s, and at least a dozen L’s in the name, just to mess with his head a little. It seems as though Jaime and Mike had the same idea as me for ordering difficult to pronounce dishes as when theirs arrived to the table twenty minutes later, they kept calling out Alex’s name before taking a mouthful of their meals and pulling different faces of disgust as they swallow and stick their tongues out with their eyes shut. Just watching them pull stupid faces at Alex was making Lottie, myself and the rest of the bands laugh, causing us to almost choke on our own meals while Alex just rolled his eyes at them before shaking his head and turning his attention to me.

“So, Rachel…how many boyfriends have you had?” Alex asks as he take a bite out of the fancy pasta dish. I was confused as to why he had wanted to know this, out of all the questions that he could ask; he had to go with that one.

“I don‘t know, Alex; how many girls have you slept with?” I retaliated as everyone turned to us and burst out laughing, all except for Alex who just sat there with his head looking down at his food, his cheeks blushing a brilliant red colour, but he doesn’t say anything back which I must say; surprised me.

“Oooh…Burn! Your comebacks are so witty, Rachel…” Jack announces, with an amused smile spreading across his soft looking lips. Just looking at him, I could see that he had the same look that Lottie had when she gazed at Tony, and if I’m honest with you; it was kind of un-nerving.

“Jack…Could I talk to you for a moment in private please. I need to talk to you. Now.” Alex says coldly as he slams his fork down onto the table next to his plate.

I was confused as to why Alex looked so upset, it just didn’t make any sense to me and I didn’t know what to think about it. They could just be having a man to man conversation or they could just be…I don’t know…Alex and Jack stood from their seats, excusing themselves before they walked towards the bathroom. I look back at the others and notice that they were all watching me, the silence floating around us was thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.

“So…” Vic says in an attempt to start a conversation.

Everyone who was still sat around the table, all turned back to their plates, each of them remaining quiet as they push their food around their plate with their forks, everyone except Lottie who started to giggle nervously. It was kind of embarrassing as when I looked over at her; her face was turning the shade of a freshly picked tomato and it looked as though she could hardly breathe. I don’t know what she was giggling at, but it was nice to see her so happy for a change, I just really wish that she would try to calm herself down a little.

“Lottie!” I laugh awkwardly along with her. “Calm your shit down, girl!”

Lottie just kept on giggling, her breathes coming out in short gasps as she excuses herself from the table before rushing in the same direction of Alex and Jack; towards the bathroom. I let out a small sigh before excusing myself from the table and following after her to make sure that she doesn‘t choke to death on her own breaths.

Before I could even reach the ladies room, I could feel my whole body freeze in place as the sound of angry, hushed voices reach my ears from the direction of the men‘s room. I didn’t even need to think twice about who they belonged to, I can recognise the sound of Alex and Jack’s voices from anywhere. Taking in a deep breath, I force my body to creep closer to the door of the men’s room so that I could hear their words more clearly but I wished that I had just kept on walking towards the ladies room.

“Dude, I don‘t care! You don’t just sit there and freely flirt with and stare at the girl that I like, Jack!”

My mouth dropped open at Alex‘s words.

“Oh, come on! Like you haven‘t done that with any of the girls that I‘ve liked before?!” Jack snapped back, his voice getting louder and louder with each word that he says before I hear him let out a deep breath, as though he was calming himself down. “Listen, it doesn‘t matter anyway; we can‘t both go after her, you know that and I know that. Besides, we don‘t even know if she‘s interested in either of us and I don‘t think that it’s a good idea for her to find out so soon into the tour as she‘ll freak out and get all confused and I for one, don‘t want to do that to her. Do you?”

There was a moments silence before Alex spoke up in a quieter tone. “No, I do not want to do that to her and, you’re right; it is too soon for any of us to be getting feelings for each other. Let’s just…I don’t know, let’s just both back off and just get to know her before we do anything that will scare her off. I’m serious though, Jack - do not try anything on her because I will find out.”

“I could say the same thing to you. But I‘m happy with letting her decide who she wants at the end of the day anyway…because I swear to you that the best man will always win.” Jack says in a low voice, and I could tell that he has a smirk on his lips.

“You just keep on thinking that, Jack…Come on, we better get back to the table before they start thinking that we‘ve killed each other.” Alex replies before the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the door. My eyes grew bigger as I push my body away from the door and quickly rush into the ladies room until my body was stopped by the sink as I took in a deep breath. It took me a couple of moments to hear the sound of whimpering coming from one of the stalls, I knew that there was no one else in here other than Lottie, so I take a couple of steps towards the closed stall door and tap it gently.

“Lottie?” I call out softly. “Lottie? Come on…Come out, please?”

It takes a few minutes of persuasion but eventually Lottie opens up the stall door and steps out, her eyes red and puffy from crying. I take a quick look at her before pulling her into a tight hug.

“Why are you crying?” I ask her as she sobs quietly into my shoulder. She doesn’t say anything at first, but finally her breathing started to even out to a steady pace before she pulled away and started to wipe away the tears from her eyes.

“I just made a total fool out of myself and the most embarrassing thing is, I don‘t even know why I was giggling so much…I just made a complete and utter fool out of myself and in front of Tony too…What the hell is wrong with me?!”

“Hey, hey…You listen to me, Lottie. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, do you hear me? So don’t you even dare to think that! Hey; I mean it, there really is no need for you to think that.” I say as I reach out to wipe a couple of tears from her eyes before leading her over to the sink to grab a paper towel and running it under the tap, holding it out to her so that she could wipe the mascara from her cheeks.

“He most probably thinks that I‘m some kind of a pathetic freak…” She sighs as she attempts to put a small smile on her face but failing.

“I‘m sure that he doesn‘t think that you are a freak because you are absolutely in no way, shape or form; a freak. Lottie, I’m serious. You are a gorgeous young lady, and you should never forget that.” I tell her truthfully as I smile at her. “Come on, Lottie. I bet that they‘re wondering where we‘ve gone…Honestly, please don‘t let this ruin your day as you haven‘t embarrassed yourself at all. I promise.”

I grab hold of her hand again and proceeded to the bathroom door. As I take a step out, I see two guys running back into the conference room; more specifically, I see Alex and Jack running back into the conference room. I can’t believe that they were listening to us and I couldn‘t help but laugh. Walking back into the conference room with Lottie in tow, I look over towards Alex and Jack; they couldn’t look guiltier if they tried. They knew that we knew that they were listening, I just hope that they didn’t know that I had listened to their conversation first. I take to my seat again and Lottie does the same before we enjoy the rest of the night with our favourite people.