A Match Into Water

To say the band meeting was interesting would be an understatement.

I won’t go into too much detail on what happened, but let’s just say that there was more playtime then there was work time. For starters, Justin and Gabe’s flight got delayed, so that meant that when it was time for the meeting to start, neither Tony, Kellin, Justin, or Gabe were present. Chris, PTV’s tour manager, thought it would be a good time to start going over a few of the smaller, not so important details of the tour, but Mike thought otherwise. In short, after about 30 minutes of trying to calm down and silence Mike- Chris even tried throwing his shoe at Mike -I finally threatened to leave the meeting and go home, and Mike apparently didn’t like that idea too much, so he agreed to settle down for the time being. Thankfully, the rest of the guys arrived from the airport a few minutes after that, so Chris started the meeting and everyone got down to business.

Of course, there was a lot of goofing off and messing around while they worked, but eventually, everything that needed to be taken care of was taken care of and the boys were free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day. I did, in fact, fulfil my promise to myself and called out Kellin for being an asshole and forcing me to drink all that alcohol, but he was still recovering a bit from the hangover himself, so he more or less agreed with me and walked away mumbling ‘Bad Kellin’ under his breath.

I don’t remember who it was, but someone had the bright idea to go to Dave and Busters after the meeting, so we all piled into each other’s cars and drove off to go eat, drink, and play video games. I ended up getting squished into Vic’s car with Kellin, Justin, and Gabe, and after a 15 minute car ride of being sat in between Justin and Gabe in the backseat, I discovered that Vic was right in saying I’d get along with those two just fine. In fact, I somehow ended up getting a piggyback ride into D&B on Gabe’s back while Jaime and Mike complained about it and the rest of the guys just laughed.

The night at D&B was loads of fun, and when the night ended and I went back to work the next morning, I immediately started thinking about the show for next week. While Sleeping With Sirens wasn’t actually playing at the show Friday, Kellin and Justin planned on flying in on that Friday to watch the show and hang out for the entire weekend. I was kind of sad to hear that Gabe wasn’t coming along, because honestly Gabe and I were almost instant friends and he was just a really cool dude to hang out with, but I knew that before the guys kicked off the tour, the rest of Sleeping With Sirens was going to come down and have a giant barbeque with Pierce The Veil, so there was a chance I’d be seeing him then.

As for the rest of the week, the days went by pretty slow and most of them were quite boring. The guys had several long and intense band practices that week, and due to the timing of my work schedules and their practice, I rarely saw Vic or anyone else that week. There was one day though were I came home from work just as Vic was about to leave and he invited me to come see them practice, but I had had a long day of work and decided that I would just be a distraction anyway for them all, so I told him that maybe I’d tag along some other time. Vic understood though and after that, I saw Vic maybe once or twice in passing. Both Jaime and Tony came in to the pizza place to pick up some food for their practice sessions at one point and I only saw Mike with Vic in passing that one time, so by the time Friday came along, I was super excited and ready to see the boys, because honestly, I’d miss those four shitheads.

Friday itself was another day I had off, whether that was by coincidence or Rosie already knowing ahead of time I’d be going to the show/sound check I’ll never know, but that gave me time to relax and get ready before Vic and the guys came to pick me up before sound check. I slept in that morning for the first time in weeks and lounged on the couch with a cup of coffee and book for about an hour before I realized what time it was and then rushed to get ready.

I took a quick 10 minute shower and then quickly dried off before running over to my closet and looking for something to wear. I knew that it was just a concert and that casual, everyday clothes would be more than acceptable, but I just felt the need to be more than ‘just casual’. Eventually, I picked out a charcoal and light grey raglan, my nicer light blue skinnies, and my usual black vans and decided that it would work for the concert.

After I got dressed and did my hair, which quite honestly didn’t take that much time to do, I slipped on my paper airplane necklace and started to madly search around my room for some bracelets to wear. I owned quite the collection after years of accumulating them, and after cycling through practically all of them, they’d all been discarded from the box they were supposed to rest in and were currently scattered around the room in different nooks and crannies here and there.

To be honest, I never had been the most tidy or organized when it came to my room, and no matter how many times I tried cleaning or putting things away, everything got messed up sooner or later and I’d eventually end up searching the room for some random item I’d misplaced (go me).

About 15 minutes later, I did end up finding a handful of bracelets, including the new PTV one I’d purchased earlier that week, so I slid those onto my wrists and did one last check on my hair in the bathroom before exiting the room and going back out to the living room to wait.

I ended up not having to wait that long, because not long after, there was a knock at the door followed by the sound of someone letting themselves into my apartment.

“Leia!” Tony called out in sing-song voice.

A grin broke out across my face and I ran into the kitchen to meet him. “Yeah Turtle?”

“You ready?” he asked with a smile.

“Yep, let me just grab my keys.” I quickly ran over to the bowl in my living room, grabbed the set of keys sitting inside, and then ran back over to Tony.

“Awesome, let’s go!” he cheered, casually throwing his arm over my shoulder and walking me out of the apartment. I locked the door behind me and we made our way to the elevator.

“So where’s the rest of the crew?” I asked, pushing the down button on the elevator.

“Well, Vic had to go pick up Mike, so he’s currently driving back over here to pick us up,” Tony explained. “As for Jaime, he’s going to meet us at the venue.”

“Oh I see, is Jaime too good for us now?” I joke, causing Tony to chuckle a bit.

“Nah, he just had something to take care of before sound check,” Tony replied. “Besides, this way we don’t have to worry about the three of us being squished together in the backseat.”

I laughed a bit at this and said, “More like me being sandwiched between you two while you’re completely fine.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Tony asked, feigning innocence.

“Shut up,” I say with a laugh, playfully shoving his chest. Tony laughed at this too and the two of us started messing around out front until we heard a car horn beep at us. We both turned to find Vic’s car pulling up and Mike sticking his head out of the front window.

“Get in losers, we’re going shopping!” Mike shouted at us.

“Um, don’t you mean ‘going to sound check’?” I heard Vic ask from inside the car.

Mike turned around to face his brother and said, “Hey, let me have my Mean Girls reference, alright?”

“This just in, ladies and gentlemen,” I announce as Tony and I got into the backseat, “Mike Fuentes has finally admitted to his love, and possible obsession, with teen chick flicks.”

“I’m not afraid to kick you out of this car, Dean,” Mike threatened, but when he looked at me in the rearview mirror, I could see the smirk spreading across his face.

“Excuse me, but this is my car,” Vic sassed, giving his brother a look as he drove away from the apartment building. “If anyone is kicking anybody out, it’s me-”

“Okay, Mom,” Mike said, rolling his eyes at his brother and looking out the window.

“-and for starters, I’ll be kicking your scrawny ass out to the curb anyway.”

“What?” Mike shouted, turning to his brother in shock while Tony and I busted up laughing. “Why?!”

Vic shrugged and didn’t even look at his brother. “Because why not?” he said casually. “I mean, you were all for kicking out Dean, so-”

“Hey, just because you’re protective of your girlfriend doesn’t mean I have to be kicked out of the car for it,” Mike snapped.

The car went incredibly silent at that point, the only sound being the faint music coming from the radio. Nobody even attempted to talk, but then again, I don’t know if anybody knew what to say. Mike may have been joking around, but that didn’t mean it affected everyone in the car, specifically two people. I knew my cheeks had turned a bright pink and from where I was sitting, I could see color rising to Vic’s cheeks as well.

“We’re not dating,” I blurted out, the first to break the awkward, tense silence.

“Yeah, we’re really not,” Vic mumbled, trying to keep his focus on the road as he turned off into an intersection and navigated his way to the right exit.

“We’re just good friends,” I added on, hoping that this would work in our favor. “And neighbors.”

Mike looked between the two of us and awkwardly said, “Yeah, um, I know that. I- I’m sorry, that joke was uncalled for I guess. I just- I don’t know you guys-”

“How about we just drop it, alright?” I suggest, looking around at everyone in the car. “Let’s just forget about it and talk about the show or something.”

There was a bit of a consensual mutter of agreement that passed through the car, but after that, we all went back to being silent. The radio still droned on softly in the background, Vic was focusing on driving, Mike was quietly drumming some simple patterns on his legs, and Tony was texting someone on his phone. That left me to sit there twiddling my thumbs and staring out the window like a loser. Quite honestly, the silence was deafening and it was slowly driving me insane. I would have rather been in the awkward conversation from a few moments before than have to sit through this.

Unfortunately, I’m too much of a chicken to change that and start up a conversation, so for the next five minutes in the car, we all sat there in that uncomfortable silence. When Vic finally pulled up to the venue, a decent-sized music club, I couldn’t get out of that car fast enough. The breeze that hit my face was like a breath of fresh air and I felt the tension slowly slip away. There was a certain buzz in the air that reminded me that there was a show today, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Everyone else stepped out of the car and felt it too, and it was almost like that awkward conversation forgotten.

Of course, it wasn’t really gone. It was all lingering in the back of our mind, or maybe just mine and Vic’s, but right now, that was the least of our worries. There was a show to put on, soundcheck had yet to be done, and right now, there was a small mob of fans lined up early for the show that had spotted the guys and I and they promptly proceeded to flip their shit.

“Should we run?” Tony piped up.

“Nah, maybe we could say hi to them or whatever,” Vic said. “I mean, we could be a little late for soundcheck and they look harmless-”

Loud shouts and cheers cut him off and a few fangirls with a crazed look in their eyes came rushing our way. Their shouts and words being said became more clear as they got closer to us and some of it was a tad disturbing.

“Harmless, you say?” I ask a bit sarcastically.

“Yeah, no, definitely run,” Vic said, placing a hand on my back and all but pushing me forward as the four of us took off running towards the side entrance. The mob of fans of followed us to the side and we barely made it inside without them following us inside.

“Jesus,” I breathed, slightly out of breath. “Are your fans always like this?”

Mike shook his head at me. “Nah, a good majority of our fans are pretty chill,” he told me. “It’s just that there’s a few eccentric fans-”

“Right, because eccentric fans scream ‘You can have my babies even though I’m 14!’,” I tell him sarcastically.

Mike just shrugged and said, “It’s kind of a normal thing.”

I shook my head at him and said, “Whatever. You guys have soundcheck though, so I’m going to leave you to that and-”

Chris came running up to the guys at that moment looking rather distressed and a little out of breath. “We’ve got some bad news guys,” he said.

“What’s going on?” Vic asked.

“I just got a call from Johnny and basically we’re without a guitar tech tonight,” Chris explained.

“Well, we can tune our own stuff for tonight,” Tony started to say, but Chris cut him off.

“Sure, but what about the guitars you guys need to switch out in between some of the songs?” he asked, giving the guys a pointed look.

Vic and Tony looked at each other for answers, and they almost opened their mouth to say something, but something in my brain finally clicked and I couldn’t help but open my mouth.

“Wait, did you say you needed a guitar tech?” I blurted out, looking over at Chris.

Chris gave me a bit of a ‘no-duh’ look and nodded. “Yeah, it’d be nice, but I highly doubt we can just pull one out of thin air-”

“Show me where their stuff’s at,” I quickly say, walking past everyone and heading towards side stage. The four of them looked at me in shock, but Chris snapped out of it and started to follow me.

“All their cases are set up on the side over here,” Chris explained, showing me the exact location of their equipment. “But I-”

“Just trust me,” I tell him, barely glancing at him as I grabbed the first case I could find. It was labeled ‘Tony’ and when I opened it, I found a black guitar with gold trim and a gold ‘SD’ lying there. I pulled it out of it’s case and checked it over for anything that needed to be fixed before going over to an amp, adjusting the settings, and then plugging the guitar in. I strummed a few chords before tuning it and once it was in tune, I played a quick little riff before I was satisfied with it.

After taking care of Tony’s guitar and then hanging it up carefully on the rack, I went back over to the other cases and started doing the same with Vic and Jaime’s gear. As I went around doing what I needed to do, I was barely aware of the various pairs of eyes watching me. I was completely focused on what I was doing and I was trying hard not to become too nostalgic over the entire ordeal.

In a matter of minutes, I had all the guitars and basses tuned up and ready to go for the guys. I wandered back over to Chris, who was talking with another one of the set-up guys, and told him, “There you go.”

Chris looked at me momentarily in confusion and quickly wrapped up with the crew member before turning back to me. “What do you mean?” he asked. I nodded my head towards the guitar rack and I swear, Chris had to do a double take.

“Did you do all of this?”

“No, a bunch of magical leprechauns that I pulled out of my ass did it.”

Chris gave me a look, clearly not amused with my sarcasm. I just shrugged and he shook his head at me. “Well, I honestly can’t believe it,” he continued on. “I also can’t begin to thank you enough for stepping in when we needed it.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I reply with shrug. “Glad I could be here to help though.”

Chris nodded his response and then started to yell at some of the crew, something about how that mic wasn’t a plaything or something like that. I took that as my opportunity to do sneak down to the pit so I could listen to the guys do their soundcheck and basically just be out the way.

I plopped down on the ground and watched the last small group of crew members wander around on stage. I also let that large, empty place soak in, and let me tell you, the ambiance of the place was incredible; you could almost feel the energy from all the bands that had played here before coursing through your veins. If I closed my eyes long enough, I could see the bright lights, hear the cheering fans, and envision those bands playing their hearts out on that stage. The very thought of it gave me chills and it made me appreciate the experience of this concert even more.

Not long after I had taken my seat in the pit, the boys, now including Jaime, ran on stage with their equipment for soundcheck. I started to clap and cheer obnoxiously, shouting, “Woo! Yeah! I love you, Pierce The Veil!”

The guys laughed and Vic grabbed his mic to speak in. “We love you too, audience!” he cheered, sending me a playful wink. As I laughed, he added, “And thanks for coming tonight- it’s great to see that we have such a large turn out-”

“Just play some music already!” I shouted back, a wide grin spread across my face.

Vic chuckled at my enthusiasm and said, “Alright, alright, geez. No need to get so pushy.” I laughed a bit at that and the guys exchanged a few words between them before launching into the beginning of Besitos.

I had to hand it to them, they were amazing live. Even though this was just sound check and they weren’t doing full songs or anything like that, it was still amazing. There were little bits and pieces that I was picking up on from everyone that I necessarily didn’t catch in the studio recordings, and there was also just something about watching them perform live that was incredible. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t think this was soundcheck; the guys performed like their life depended on it, yet they looked like they were having the time of their lives. It brought a smile to my face to see my friends in their element, and if I could, I would trade my life to live in a moment like this for the rest of my life.

The rest of soundcheck went really well, the guys played through without a single hiccup and nailed down the rest of their set. Once they played their last note and looked at each other with knowing smiles, I stood back up from the ground and started clapping again.

“Great concert, boys,” I joked.

This got a few chuckles out of the guys and Jaime smirked down at me. “If you thought that was great, then just wait for tonight.”

“I don’t think I can,” I say with a bit of a laugh myself, pulling myself onto the stage. Vic held out a hand to help pull me up, which I gladly accepted, and gave me a bit of a curious look.

“Well, we can’t thank you enough for helping us out with tuning our equipment,” he began, “though I have to ask-”

“How did I do that?” I finished. Vic nodded and I continued. “You know how I worked at that music venue in my hometown? Well, my main job there, along with cleaning up and waitressing, was actually as a guitar tech. Music groups would come in and I’d be there to tune up the equipment to fit the venue’s acoustics, work some of their sound, and just made sure everything ran smoothly.”

“Woah, really?” Tony asked, coming up behind Vic with Mike at his side.

I gave them a bit of shy smile and rubbed the back of my neck. “Um, yeah.”

“Dude, that’s fucking awesome!” Mike cheered.

“It is!” Tony chimed in with a grin. “And you did a really great job, Leia.”

“You really did,” Vic said in agreement. “Maybe we should take you with us on all our shows so you can help out.”

I let out a soft chuckle and shook my head. “Uh huh, right,” I say, taking Vic’s comment as a joke. Vic looked like he was about to say something else, but was quickly interrupted by Jaime.

“Dean!” Jaime called. “Come here real quick, I have someone I’d like you to meet.”

I gave the three guys a small smile and said, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.” With that, I turned and went off to where Jaime was backstage. When I approached him, I saw a beautiful girl with short brown hair and blue eyes standing next to Jaime.

Jaime smiled at me when I came up to them and he said, “Dean, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend Jess-”

I let out a bit of an excited gasp and asked, “Wait, you’re Jess?”

She laughed a little bit and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Oh my God, it’s so nice to finally meet you!” I say, not even thinking as I pulled her into a hug. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Jess let out another laugh and didn’t seem to mind hugging me back. “Hopefully it’s all been good things,” she joked, sending a playful glare Jaime’s way.

“Don’t worry,” I say with a chuckle. “There’s no need to kill Jaime, I’ve heard nothing but good things about you from all the guys.”

“Well good, at least they all know not to make look bad in front of new people,” Jess says. I laugh a bit at that and she just smiles in response. I saw Jaime smile as well out of the corner of my eye and he walked away from the two of us to go back to the other guys chuckling under his breath.

“You know,” Jess speaks up as he leaves, “I’ve actually been dying to meet you too. It’s not every day that someone comes around and can not only handle those four goofballs all at once but can also win their hearts so fast either.”

“Really?” I asked.

Jess nodded at me and gave me a reassuring smile. “Really. You mean a lot to those guys, especially Jaime. He actually talks about you a lot and was really excited about bringing me here so we could meet.” She shrugged and added, “You’re kind of like his little sister, in a way.”

I chuckled a bit at that and smiled at her. “Honestly, I think I’m a little sister to all of them,” I admit. “I know Jaime and Tony especially are like brothers to me.”

“What about the Fuentes brothers?” Jess asked with a bit of a smirk.

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit more at that. “Mike’s kind of like my brother too, but I mainly see him as like a best friend, you know?” Jess nodded a bit and I continued. “And Vic...I don’t know,” I admit, looking off to the side for a moment and catching Vic’s eye. He smiled at me and sent me a playful wink, something that made me smile and shake my head. “I’m pretty close with him, and he is definitely someone I could easily call my best friend, but I can’t see him as my brother. And in a way, I don’t really want to.”

My sentence trailed off a bit as I stared down at the floor and inspected my shoes. I could tell Jess was looking at me, and after a few moments of silence, I looked up to see Jess crossing her arms over her chest and smirking a bit at me.

“You like Vic, don’t you?” she asked.

“What?!” I sputtered, hoping the the red rising to my cheeks wasn’t too noticeable. “I- I- no! Not at all- well, not like that anyway-”

Jess started giggling uncontrollably and giving me a rather teasing look. “Oh my God, you totally have a crush on Vic!”

“Shh!” I hissed, looking around to make sure nobody heard her exclamation. “Be quiet! And besides, I really don’t-”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her eyebrow shooting up in a questioning way. “Because you’re blushing like crazy and denying this a bit too much.”

If it were possible for my cheeks to get redder, they would have. “I- I don’t…” my sentence trailed off as my mind started sifting through all of the information. Did I have a crush on Vic? No, or at least I didn’t think so. Now did I think he wasn’t attractive? Hell no, Vic was definitely attractive, and he had a great sense of humor and a great laugh and was really talented and had a great voice and it was pretty great waking up next to him last week-

I let out a loud groan and buried my face in my hands. “Oh my God,” I mumbled. I heard Jess burst into a fit of laughter and without looking up, I just stood there and grumbled, “Shut the fuck up.”

“Nah, this is too cute,” Jess told me. I finally looked up from my hands to glare at her and she had this sly smirk plastered onto her face. She laughed a bit at my glare and shook her head at me. “Dean, it’s fine! It’s just a crush, it’s no big deal or anything. But, if it’s any consolation to you, you two would make a pretty cute couple-”

“Again, shut the fuck up,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. Jess laughed again at my reaction and I felt a bit defeated and a little annoyed. “You know Jess, I would have been better off not knowing any of this and living in my little bubble of ignorance-”

“And why is that, Dean?” Jaime asked with a smile, coming up to Jess and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

My cheeks flushed and I cut Jess off the moment she opened her mouth. “No,” I stated. “You’re not telling him-”

“Then you tell him,” Jess said with an innocent shrug. “But if you don’t, just know that I’d be telling him eventually, so-”

I let out another groan and shook my head in mild annoyance. “I hate you, Jess-”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure you love me, Dean,” Jess countered with a wink.

Jaime chuckled a bit at that and then turned his focus to me. “So what is it that you need to tell me?” he asked with a bit of a smirk.

I glared at the couple in front of me and said, “You both suck.”

The two of them laughed and Jess turned to look at Jaime. “It’s about a guy-”

“Jess!” I hissed, about to say something else, but Jaime looked at both of curiously and opened his mouth to speak.

“Is it Vic?” he asked.

My mouth fell open at Jaime’s words and I couldn’t help but be shocked. “How- how did you know?”

Jaime shrugged and looked at me like the answer was obvious. “Well, for starters, we all know there’s something going on between you and Vic-”

“We’re just friends, Jaime-”

“-and I kind of figured you liked Vic anyway,” Jaime finished.

“Really?” I asked with a bit of shock. “How?”

“Dude, it’s kind of obvious,” Jaime said with a laugh. “You two are constantly looking at each other, you sit next to him all the time, you blush around him, and after hearing about what happened earlier this afternoon in the car-”

“How the fuck did you find out?” I asked in shock.

Jaime just shrugged said, “Tony told me about it.”

“I can’t believe this,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands again. I heard Jaime laughing at me and I immediately looked up to glare at him. I smacked him on the arm and snapped, “Shut up, Jamie!”

Jaime pouted at both the slap and the misuse of his name and let out a pathetic sniffle. “That was a little uncalled for-”

“I don’t care, just don’t tell anyone about this- that goes for you too, Jess,” I add, pointing at her and giving her a stern look. “This conversation doesn’t leave this circle, okay?”

“Don’t worry, Princess, I won’t tell anyone,” Jaime told me with Jess nodding in agreement. “But, just because I’m curious, why do you want to keep this under wraps so much?”

“Because I-” I tried to get the rest of the words out, but I couldn’t. Surprisingly, I actually wanted to tell them why I was scared to death about liking Vic, but I couldn’t bring myself to do. I could feel some tears well up in my eyes, but I pushed them back and took a deep breath. “I’m scared,” I quietly say. “I...I can’t tell you why, but relationships don’t work for me. Trust me. I would lose not only Vic but all of you if anything more than ‘friends’ happened between us.”

I pushed past Jess and Jaime and walked away from them as soon as I felt more tears come on and my anxiety rise up in my chest. I heard both Jess and Jaime call out for me, but I didn’t turn around. I just needed to leave for a moment, get some fresh air maybe. As I headed for the front door, I caught sight of Vic and that just made everything worse.

“Dean?” he called out, obviously seeing me in distress. I just ignored him and kept on going for the back door.

The moment I set foot outside, the cool San Diego air hit my face and calmed me down. I took a moment to take in a breath through my nose and exhale through my mouth. Was it a bad thing to like Vic like that? In theory, no, but for me, it was a bad idea. In fact, my subconscious was taunting me for this, saying that getting close to everyone was a bad idea. Maybe it was a bad idea, but there isn’t anything I can do about it, and in all reality, I didn’t want that to change anyway. But this crush...it was a bad idea, and I needed to fix it. Now.

Little did I know that feelings like this can’t be changed so easily. And I would definitely be paying for them later.

Notes

Writers block sucks.

You guys have no idea how many times I've rewritten this, and even now, I'm not entirely thrilled with the way this chapter turned out. Anyway, I'm sorry for taking two weeks to update (oops) and I'm hoping to have the next chapter, the second half of the concert, up in a few days at least.

And for the those of you who have been oh-so patiently waiting for the romance in this story, it'll start to develop from this point on, so definitely stayed tuned for that!