Through the Lens

I sat back in my chair in John's office, sipping on a cup of tea, index finger anxiously tapping on the side of the ceramic mug. Coffee was never my thing.

The four guys sat across from me. My eyes wandered over to Tony for a moment.

"Alright!" A loud clapping sound from John caught my attention, jumping a bit and almost spilling hot tea onto my hand. My eyes then darted to John who had entered the office and closing the door behind himself and then looked to me. "So, basically what's going to happen is you're going to be on tour with these guys for a month. Hitting all the major cities in Europe."

"W-wait... Europe?!" My eyes widened with a bit of shock to John.

John nodded. "Yup! Weren't you just saying the other week how you've always wanted to go to Europe and fall in love and-"

"Stop there." I held my index finger out as if to shush him.

I heard a light giggle from Vic and my eyes switched to him. He immediately stopped laughing as I looked at him. He slowly sank back into his chair looking away. Yes, I could intimidate the lead singer of Pierce the Veil if I wanted to.

"So, tell me, Rax... are you free for the next month?" John gave me a wide smile.

I then looked back to John and sighed, then smiled. "I mean... I guess if I have to be away from home with my favorite band for a month... I think I can clear my schedule."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guys giving each other high fives.

"Then we're all set!" John cheered clapping his hands together again. "You leave in two days from San Diego International. Pack lightly."

This time I nearly spit out the tea in my mouth and back into my cup. Coughing a bit, I looked at John. "Can you stop hitting me with all of these surprises at once? Two days? I don't even think can find my passport in two days."

"Well you better find it!" John said as he walked over to his desk and handed me a several page document. I reached out my hand to it and took the papers. My skimmed over it. Pretty basic release form that needed to be signed. Flipped through the pages to continue skimming.

"Give me a pen so I can sign my soul away for a month." I reached my other hand out towards John, eyes still looking over the document.

"Vic is the soul collectorrrrr..." Jaime murmured and giggled to himself as Vic elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hah..." I chuckled and John handed me a pen. I gave no hesitation signing my name at the bottom of the last page. I handed the forms back to John and then sat back in my chair. I looked back to the boys.

"So, what's the game plan?" I asked, looking at Vic in particular, hoping he could fill me in on all the finer details.

"Well, we'll be flying out of San Diego International at 2pm on Sunday. It's an international flight, so I suggest we all be airport early to make sure everything runs smoothly. The plane can always be late, but it would really suck if it were early and we missed it." Vic said.

I nodded. "Yeah, been in that situation before. Not fun."

"We're going to try to be there around noon. I'm assuming you have your own car you can drive to the airport? If not we can always arrange a ride for you."

I nodded. "I've got a car, so that's taken care of."

Vic nodded back and then pulled a small folded piece of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it and then took a few steps forward to hand it to me. "Here are all of our personal numbers in case you need to get in touch with us within the next two days."

I froze a bit. Their personal numbers. Shit, I hope I wasn't blushing. Yup, I was blushing...

"O-Oh, okay. Thanks. I'll let you know if I have any questions." I said as my eyes looked over the four numbers. I folded the paper back up and slid it into the back pocket of my jeans.

"We should be set for n-" Vic began to say as Tony poked at his arm.

"Don't you want to invite her over tonight...?" I heard Tony whisper to Vic, not sure if he meant for me to hear what he was saying.

"Oh yeah! You wanna come hang out with us tonight? Having a sort of pre-tour party. Sorta a tradition to do before every tour. In reality it's just us four hanging out and taking shots and playing video games in a hotel room." Vic chuckled a bit. "It's actually sorta lame."

"Doesn't sound lame at all. I'll definitely come hang out with you guys for a bit." I was seriously cheering inside out of excitement. "I'll text one of you in a bit to get the info. For now, I should head home and actually start packing... and finding my passport. I have a feeling I will be hungover on Saturday and will NOT want to pack then."

All the guys laughed a bit. "Good planning. See, I like her already." Tony piped up.

Ugh, no matter how much time I spend with them, I think Tony will always make my heart have that little pitter-pat.

John patted my shoulder a bit. "Aren't you glad I woke you up early today?"

I sighed. "Yeah, but any other reason and I'd kill you, so please don't make a habit out of it, John."

Being me, my camera was around my neck. I looked at the guys for a moment and smiled, taking the SLR in my hands, as I switched it on and brought the viewer to my eye and focused on them, I pressed my finger onto the shutter button as it made a clicking sound.

The first photo on a journey I know I'd never forget.

... and today was supposed to be a normal day in sunny California...

Notes

Yay for chapter 2! Hopefully Rax doesn't lose her cool with Tony around. ;P