A Match Into Water

“So what are you doing out here, Cutie?”

My head snapped up at the familiar voice and I smiled when I saw both Kellin and Justin walking my way. “Just waiting for you two shitheads to get here,” I joke, causing both guys to laugh.

“I didn’t realize we’d be getting a welcoming committee,” Kellin said in response, coming up to me and giving me a quick hug. “You been out here long?”

I shook my head. “Nope, not really,” I told him. In all actuality, I had been standing outside the backdoor for about an hour now. I should have gone in long time ago, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. My head was still reeling from finally accepting that I had feeling for Vic, and it had really done a number on both me and my anxiety.

“Great, then let’s go in then.” Kellin opened the door and entered the venue with both Justin and I on his heels. “Honey, I’m home!” he obnoxiously called out, gathering the attention of a few nearby crew members and Chris.

Vic popped around the corner and smiled when he saw Justin and Kellin. “Hey, you guys made it!” he said, embracing both Justin and Kellin in ‘bro hugs’.

“‘Course we did, Vic,” Kellin spoke with a smile. “I mean, we almost didn’t make it because someone thought it was a good idea to bring his toenail clippers on the plane with us-”

“Hey, I already told you, Kell, it was an accident!” Justin exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“And I told you not to pack them at all, Justin!” Kellin sassed, giving him a rather dirty look.

“Break it up, Ladies,” I joke, stepping in between the two guys. “We all know that Justin wasn’t purposefully trying to take down the plane with his nasty toenail clippers, so let’s just give it a rest, yeah?”

Justin nodded at me gratefully and muttered, “Thank you.”

Kellin on the other wasn’t so willing to cooperate. “We almost missed our flight, though!” he whined.

I rolled my eyes at him and just said, “Grow up, Quinn. You’re 24, not 5-”

“Actually I’m 4-”

“Kellin!” I snap, giving him a small glare. I heard Justin chuckling softly behind my back and I’m pretty sure I heard Vic mutter something along the lines of ‘knew it’. Kellin gave me a guilty, shameful look and looked down at the ground to avoid my gaze.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

I nodded and let out a breath. “Good. Now behave and go say hi to the rest of the guys.”

Kellin sighed dramatically and started walking off. “Yes, Mom,” he muttered just loud enough for me to hear. He locked eyes with me momentarily as he smirked before he took off running, jumping onto Jaime before I could say anything else to him.

“He’s such a child,” I said with the roll of my eyes.

Justin chuckled next to me and shook his head. “You have no idea,” he said. “Speaking of, I probably should go follow him and make sure he doesn’t break anything.”

I couldn’t help but giggle at that and smile. “Yeah, it might be a good idea,” I say. “Let’s catch up later though, yeah?”

“Of course,” Justin said with a nod before running off to catch up with Kellin. I watched him go for a moment and almost forgot I wasn’t alone until I heard someone speak next to me.

“Can I ask you something, Dean?” Vic suddenly asked.

I looked over at him and raised my eyebrow in confusion. “Um, yeah, sure.”

“Is everything okay with you?” he continued, giving me a bit of a worried look. “It’s just that I saw you leave earlier and you looked kind of stressed-”

“Oh, yeah I just needed a breather,” I say, attempting a bit of a smile. “I sort of got overwhelmed, I guess, and needed some fresh air, you know?”

Vic visibly relaxed and returned the smile. “Yeah, I understand,” he tells me. “I just got worried when I saw you leave like that.”

I’m pretty sure my cheeks turned a light shade of pink and I sincerely hoped it wasn’t all that noticeable. “Really?” I asked.

“Of course,” Vic said with a light laugh. “You’re my friend, I’m going to worry about you whether you like it or not.” This made me laugh a bit and Vic just smiled as he continued. “If you do ever have any problems or just need someone to talk to, you can always come to me, alright? I don’t care if it’s about work problems or how bad Jaime’s feet smell, I want to be there for you when you need it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that as well (and I hope the pink color rising in my cheeks wasn’t all that noticeable). “Jaime does have pretty bad smelling feet, doesn’t he?” I joke. I shook my head and added, “Thanks Vic, that really means a lot to me.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Vic replied as he gave me a warm, caring smile. “Although, we all hate Jaime’s smelly feet, so it’s not a big deal to talk about-”

“Hey! Stop talking about my feet and get over here for pre show, you dick!” Jaime shouts, causing both Vic and I to laugh at his outburst.

“We’ll talk later, okay?” Vic says, still smiling at me as he looked at me with hopeful eyes.

“Of course, yeah,” I say with a nod, smiling a bit as well. At that moment, I caught sight of Jess standing in one of the corners and I felt a pang of guilt wash over me. “I actually need to go talk with someone anyway.” Vic nodded his response and then went to go over to the rest of the PTV guys. I took that opportunity to go run over to where Jess was standing, and I had every intent on apologizing to her, but as soon as she saw me coming over, she gave me an apologetic look and spoke up.

“I’m so sorry, Dean,” Jess blurted out. “Jaime and I didn’t mean to set you off like that, I swear, we just-”

“Woah Jess, calm down, it’s fine,” I reassure, giving her a soft smile. “I actually wanted to apologize to you; I shouldn’t have gone off like that, but it’s just that I don’t think I’m really ready to accept any sort of feelings like that.” What I said was partially true, I really wasn’t ready for feelings like this, but it wasn’t the only reason why I didn’t want to feel this way.

Jess let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at me. “You’re totally fine, Dean,” she told me. “Jaime and I were probably a little pushy as it was anyway and- oh Dean, I know you’re okay with everything, but I just feel so bad-”

“Honestly Jess, it’s fine,” I respond. “Let’s just forget about it, alright?”

She nodded her response and then nervously bit her bottom lip. “So,” she began, “does this mean we can still try to be friends?”

I smiled and then pretended to think it over, cradling my chin in my hand. “Hmm, well, considering that all of my friends are currently guys, then yes. Yes please, actually,” I added with a laugh.

Jess laughed too and then pulled me in for a hug. I returned her hug and a few moments later we broke our embrace and just smiled at each other. We eventually started up a conversation, mainly about random topics, but after a little while I started to ask her about her relationship with Jaime. You should have seen the way she talked about him; her eyes lit up when I asked her about it and she had the most adorable smile on her face as she talked about how they met, how long they’d been together, and just all of the time they spent together. She also admitted that sometimes it was hard because of how much he was on the road with Pierce The Veil and how her job sometimes sent her out of town for conventions and whatnot, but the time that they did get to spend with each other made it all worth it.

Listening to her talk about everything between her and Jaime made me smile. It was clear that she loved him and I could tell Jaime loved her. They were such a great couple and Jess was such a great person. I couldn’t help but be happy for the both of them.

While Jess and I were talking, we could hear the chatter and occasional cheers and shouts from the audience out by the stage. Show time was closing in, and the boys knew it too. Mike called the rest of the band together and they huddled up with their equipment in hand. They started clapping a bit and Vic told Kellin and Justin, who were just standing against the wall next to them, to join in on the huddle. Once all six guys were in the circle and situated, they all started clapping and chanting their pre-show ritual. I had never seen it before and I don’t think I’d seen something like that to begin with. There was just something about their little chant that was special and unique and I didn’t know what it was, but it spoke to me on so many levels that it was hard to explain.

The chant continued, and when they had gone around to everyone, they all crouched down and shouted, “P. T. V!” They all cheered and clapped each other on the back, getting a few more things situated with each other before they started to go on stage.

“Want to head over to the side?” Jess asked me.

“Sure,” I say, the two of us making our way over to side stage. The boys had just gone on, and as they began to launch into their opener, the crowd went nuts. I couldn’t blame them though. If I was down in that crowd with all of the fans, I would have done the same.

Kellin and Justin joined Jess and I side stage and we all sat back to watch the boys perform. The concert itself was amazing; they played each song with ease, and just like with soundcheck, they played through without a single hitch. Kellin did end up joining the boys on stage when they launched into “King For A Day”, and as expected, the crowd went ballistic. They screamed the lyrics with Vic and Kellin, and eventually, when the concert had come to an end, the crowd was still cheering as loudly, if not louder, than before.

“Thank you, and goodnight!” Vic shouted into the microphone, smiling out into the audience and waving. Vic, Jaime, and Tony threw a few pics out into the audience, and after Mike did a little fill on the drums, he stood up and threw his sticks out as well.

All five of the guys, Kellin had stayed on stage since “King For A Day” was the closer, slowly made their way back to side stage and began hanging up their equipment on the racks. Chris had come up to me at that moment and asked if I could help make sure all the guitars and basses were in order before they were put away, but before I could give an answer, Vic called out my name and came running up to me.

“Sure Chris,” I quickly replied before I was tackled in a hug by Vic. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit as he hugged me and I tried pushing him off me. “Ew, gross! You’re all sweaty Vic!”

“And?” he asked with a bit of a grin.

“Just get off,” I said, still laughing as I tried to get him off of me. That was when Mike obnoxiously shouted ‘GROUP HUG’ and I was soon enveloped in a giant hug that consisted of not only Vic, but Mike, Jaime, Tony, and Kellin as well.

I started laughing even harder and tried to squirm out of the giant, sweaty hug. “You’re all a bunch of assholes!”

A chorus of laughs and ‘we love you too’ came from all five guys, and eventually, they all let go of me and I was free of the nasty group hug. My laughter finally had started to die down and I exaggerated in wiping off my sleeves in front of them. “Great, now I’m going to need a shower too,” I joke.

“Well there is a shower we can all share-”

“Yeah, that’s so not happening, Mike,” I say, giving him a pointed look and taking a step back.

“Speaking of showers,” Jess spoke up, getting everyone’s attention, “how about you guys go take a shower before we all head out, and Dean and I- and Justin or Kellin if they want -will help clean up here. Sound good?”

The guys, minus Kellin, all muttered their agreements and made their way towards the back of the venue for some showers. I went to go check on the guitars, Justin followed and offered to help with Jaime’s basses, while Jess and Kellin started helping with the tear down crew. Between Justin and I, we managed to check the equipment and safely pack it away by the time the guys came back from the showers.

“Who’s ready to par-tay?” Mike cheered, coming out from the back with the other three on his heels.

“And by party, you mean drink, right?” I asked with smirk.

“But of course,” he replied with a wink.

I laughed a bit at that and loaded the last of the guitars and basses into the trailer with Justin. “Well, let’s go find Kellin and Jess and get this show on the road!”

The guys cheered in agreement, and as soon as we picked up Kellin and Jess, we all piled into Vic and Jaime’s car before driving off to some sort of bar or club the guys had in mind. We eventually landed at a small club, and after getting through the bouncer, we all headed straight for the bar. All of the drinks were ordered and at that point, we became a little scattered. Jaime, Jess, Tony, and Justin headed out to the dance floor, Mike went off to go hit on some girl he spotted when we came in, and Kellin, Vic, and myself sat off to the side at a small table with our drinks.

“So what did you think of the concert, Dean?” Vic asked after a little while.

“It was amazing!” I told him with a smile. “You guys are great live and I can honestly say that this has been the best concert/group I’ve seen live-”

“Hey!” Kellin cried indignantly, pouting a bit as he did so. “What about us?”

I laughed at Kellin and patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry Kellin, the Sleeping With Sirens concert I saw was great too, but this concert was just a tiny bit better-”

Kellin scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Rude,” he mumbled, though I could see the smile he was trying to hide and I knew he wasn’t being serious about this.

Vic on the other hand just laughed and smiled at him. “Dude, just accept the fact that Pierce The Veil is better than Sleeping-”

“Never!” Kellin cried, pounding his fist on the bar table. “We’re so much better-”

“That’s not even true-”

“Yes it is.

“No it’s not-”

“Yes-”

“No-”

“Yes-”

“No-”

“Yes-”

“Ladies, ladies, you’re both pretty,” I jump in. “Can we just agree you’re both in great bands and get on with our lives?”

Kellin sighed dramatically and groaned, “Fine.”

“Sure,” Vic says with a bit of a shrug, taking a drink from his beer. The two stayed silent for a long time and refused to look at each other, which ultimately caused me to sigh and shake my head.

“You’re both so immature,” I muttered. The two boys heard me and immediately started to shout in protest. I ended up laughing at the two of them and we soon went back to our casual conversation. It wasn’t until Jaime came up to us that the natural flow of the conversation stopped.

“Hey Vic, can I borrow you for a second?” Jaime asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Vic said, finishing off his drink and sliding off the bar stool. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just think you’d do a better job of breaking up the possible fight between Mike and this douchebag he ran into,” he replied simply.

Vic sighed and rolled his eyes. “I swear, every freaking time,” he grumbled under his breath, wandering off with Jaime and leaving me alone with Kellin.

I looked over at Kellin with a bit of a smile and asked, “So I take it this happens a lot?”

Kellin chuckled a bit as well and returned the smile. “Probably more than you’d think,” he jokes, shaking his head and taking a large gulp from his drink. He set down the glass and wiped his mouth on his sleeve before turning to look back at me. “So Dean,” he began, “what’s going on between you and Vic?”

I choked on the sip of my drink I had been drinking at the time and had to clear my throat before I could talk again. “Wha- what do you mean?” I asked, not even looking at Kellin.

Kellin just laughed and said, “Come on, Dean, you know what I mean. It’s kind of obvious there’s something going on between you and-”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Kellin, we’re just friends-”

“The car ride to the concert begs to differ-”

“Okay seriously, how the fuck does everyone keep finding out about that?” I snapped, sighing in annoyance and going for another drink.

Kellin’s mouth turned up in a smirk and he shrugged. “Both Mike and Tony thought it was interesting conversation matter,” he told me. I just let out another annoyed sigh and Kellin continued. “But seriously Dean, I’ve seen the way you two are around each other. Plus, Vic is my best friend and I can tell when he’s crushing on someone.”

I didn’t look up Kellin, but I knew he was looking at me, and I really hoped that he didn’t notice the color rising to my cheeks. “Kellin, I swear to you, Vic and I are just friends,” I say. “We aren’t dating, we’re not friends with benefits, and we’re nowhere close to being a couple. There is literally nothing going on between us.”

There was a silence between us for a few moments until Kellin burst out laughing. Startled, I looked over at him and furrowed my eyebrows together. Kellin was still laughing, but he’d calmed down enough to start speaking again.

“I’m sorry Dean,” he said between his giggles, “but you’re so in denial and it’s just-” He let out another loud laugh and shook his head. “You must be blind if you don’t think there’s at least a small spark or something between you guys.”

I started blushing again, but this time it was from embarrassment. I didn’t like the fact that my attraction to Vic was so obvious, mainly because I didn’t want to feel this way, and I felt stupid for being so blind to something like this. Not wanting to be around Kellin in this state, and also because Vic could come back to the table any minute now, I quickly got up from the table we were at and mumbled something about getting another drink before quickly heading off to the bar.

It was true that I actually did want another drink, considering mine had run out a few minutes ago, and the timing just worked out perfectly. When I got up to the bar, the bartender had been wiping down the bar and looked up in time to see me walk up.

“And what can I get you tonight, ma’am?” he asked, straightening up and putting the towel in his backpocket.

“A Guinness, please,” I tell him, grabbing a few dollars and throwing them down as payment

“Coming right up,” the bartender said, collecting the money before going off to retrieve the beer. A few minutes later, he came back with my beer and asked if I needed anything else. I shook my head, telling him ‘no’, and then walked back over to our table.

Vic had come back to the table while I was getting my beer, and when I sat back down, he looked at me with a bit of a pout and asked, “You didn’t get me anything?”

“Shut up, you’re a grown man, Vic,” I say with a small laugh. “You can go buy your own damn booze.”

Vic scoffed and rolled his eyes at me. “Rude,” he said, though he didn’t even try hiding his smile.

I just laughed and gave him a look. “So you’re taking to copying Kellin now, huh?” I ask.

Vic gave me an innocent shrug and said, “What can I say? Kellin has some pretty sick moves-”

“Damn right, I do,” Kellin said proudly, smirking at us as he finished off his drink. He looked down into his empty glass for a moment before looking back up at us. “Welp, I think it’s my turn to go get a drink, so I’ll just leave you two here to converse among yourselves- and don’t you even think about asking me to get you a drink Vic,” Kellin sassed, pointing his finger at Vic and giving him a pointed look. Vic just held his hands up in surrender and Kellin nodded his response before heading back over to the bar.

“Aww,” I gushed, drawing a little heart in the air, “you and Kellin are so adorable together!”

Vic let out a low chuckle and shook his head at me. “Dean, we’re not even a couple-”

“You’re fans tend to disagree with that,” I add with a smirk.

This time, Vic was full on laughing and I could have sworn I saw his cheeks go red a bit. “Oh my God, shut up,” he said, lightly shoving my shoulder.

“You’re denial only makes it worse, Fuentes,” I tell him casually, shrugging and drinking a sip of my beer.

“But we’re both straight men,” he protested. “He’s married and, well, I’m not taken but I may or may not have feelings for someone.”

I saw Vic blush as he admitted that last part and I would be lying if I told you I didn’t feel the butterflies flying around in my stomach. I may not have liked these new feelings all that much, it still didn’t mean that the possibility of Vic liking me didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. While my subconscious was hopeful though, I was doubtful. No matter what Kellin or anyone else said, I knew Vic couldn’t ever like me that. I mean, how could anyone like me like that?

“What you’re giving me is excuses, Vic,” I joke, trying to distract myself from the butterflies in my stomach. “It’s real, and you know it is-”

“What’s real, Deanie-Bean?” Kellin asked, plopping down into the barstool and taking a sip of his beer.

“Apparently Kellic is,” Vic spoke up, rolling his eyes a bit.

Kellin choked on his beer and looked over at me with wide eyes. “What the- NO. Absolutely not.” He shook his head before continuing. “Dean, not everything you hear on the internet is true.”

“I know that-”

“Then don’t listen to that specific part of the internet!” he cried, shaking his head again and rubbing his face with his hands.

I couldn’t help but to laugh. Vic glared at me a bit, though still not failing to blush, and Kellin still had his face buried in his hands. I had heard about the weird fan ‘ship’ after talking with Mike awhile back, and especially after seeing how these two reacted from it, I couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“Whatever, I still ship it,” I say with a shrug, taking another sip of my beer.

Kellin let out a groan and laid his head down on his arms on the table while Vic let out an annoyed sighed and rolled his eyes yet again. “Of course you would,” he grumbled.

I giggled at the two and shook my head. “C’mon guys, lighten up,” I say encouragingly. “Just accept the fact that your fans have their cute little quirks-”

“Cute?” Kellin questioned, picking his head up from the table. “Yeah, you try being in a constant position of fans wanting you to kiss your best friend.”

“Well, I’m not ever going to be famous or be in that position, so I’ll just stick to supporting the fans and their fantasies,” I say with a wink.

“All of their fantasies?” Vic suddenly asks with a knowing smile.

I rolled my eyes at him and added, “Okay, maybe not all of them, but you get my point-”

“No Dean, I don’t think I do,” Kellin butts in, smirking at me with that devilish grin of his.

I just gave Kellin a pointed look and shook my head. “Just shut up and drink your beer, Kellin.”

Notes

So this isn't my best chapter, but it's something. That, and I'm still struggling through writer's block, and for that I apologise to you guys. Anyway, as most of you probably have heard, there's word going around that this site may be shutting down, and in light of that happening, I want to make sure all you lovely people can still have access to this story. With that being said, I've tranferred this story over to wattpad! I'll still be updating here, but like I said, just in case this site does get shut down for some reason, I want to make sure I can continue this story and allow you lovely people to read it :)

I you are interested in looking me up on wattpad, my username is piercethekeyscreen(I had to adjust my name since the original is too long for wattpad settings) or you could just search for 'A Match Into Water'.

I hope you all are still enjoying this story! I'm still enjoying writing this and I honestly cannot believe the support I've gotten on this. The views are incredible (almost 3,000 you guys??) and I cannot thank you enough for all the lovely comments and just general support. I love each and everyone of you and I hope that I can continue to impress and entertain with this story.

Stay classy, my friends ;)
Dean's Concert Outfit