He slowly lifted up my tank, examining my fairly new tattoo. “You be the anchor that keeps my feet on the ground, I’ll be the wings that keep your heart in the clouds,” he read the words, his lips pressed to my skin.
I shivered.

“My favorite Mayday lyrics,” I breathed.

“Beautiful,” he mumbled into me again. He kissed my tattoo, then slowly made his lips up to my neck, my mouth. He kissed me so urgently, so passionately. He bit my bottom lip, and I let out an inevitable sigh.

That’s all I remember from the party. All I know is that we were all drunk as hell, and that Vic and I had the best sex of our lives. When I woke up, his arms were tightly around my waist, and his mouth was on my shoulder blade. God, I loved being so close to him.

But I still felt slightly drunk, so I had to sit up. “Where you going, baby?” Vic murmured in his sleep. I kissed his lips softly.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered.

“Mkkay,” he said drunkenly.

I slowly walked to the door, walking into the main living room. I laughed when I saw Mike curled up with his The Nightmare Before Christmas pillow, in only his boxers, on top of the counter. Sleeping close next to him was Alex Gaskarth, and I almost erupted into laughter.

I stumbled around aimlessly a little more, until I saw a flash of blue in the corner of my eye.

Parker! On the couch! With Tony!

I raced back to Vic’s room and jumped onto the bed.

“Woah, there,” he said.

“I think Tony got with Parker,” I said excitedly.

“That’s great,” he smiled, holding out his arms for me. I don’t know why I was so happy about that. I think I just wanted Tony to be happy.

I snuggled close to him. “I love you,” I breathed.

“I love you, too,” he said back. He kissed me, and then we fell asleep together again.

~~

We woke up again to loud music playing. “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” I heard Jaime singing loudly around the house.

“Jaime,” I groaned.

“We have to go, soon!” he yelled repeatedly throughout the house.

It wasn’t long until everyone—which included Vic, me, Tony, Parker, Mike, and all of All Time Low—was circled around the living room, a cup of coffee in hand.

“What time do we have to get to the airport?” Mike yawned.

“Four,” Jaime said. “It’s a red eye flight, so we’ll get to Florida some time in the morning. Then show time,” he smiled. Damn, Jaime looked so happy.

Last night was also a pre-tour party; You Me At Six weren’t in town, but Mayday Parade and All Time Low were able to make it. Today, we fly to Florida for our first show of the tour. We were doing the tour in an opposite direction; we start it on the east coast, then we make our way back to San Diego.

And we were flying the entire tour. No bus for us.


The rest of the day consisted of last-minute packing and recovering from last night. We had a new tour photographer—Adam Elmakias was already booked with a different band this summer—and he followed us around as we made our way through the airport. We carefully dropped off all of our instruments and equipment at bag checking, and then went to our gate. The airport was fairly crowded, so we tried to remain inconspicuous, but sometimes we’d run into some awesome kid, and we’d talk to him or her for a bit.

The photographer, John, snapped a lot of pictures of all of us goofing around. I was enjoying this, until we boarded the plane. Luckily I was sitting next to Vic, who held my hand when we took off and landed. I hated flying.

It went by fast though, and we finally were at the hotels, checking in. I was pleased to see that Tony had brought Parker along as a merch girl, but then saddened realizing that it didn’t solve the problem of Jess being alone.

The day went by incredibly fast, preparing for the show. The fans were insane already, considering this was the first tour date after being away for a long time. Some were already lined up at the venue. We visited the early ones, expressing our gratitude and just hanging out with them.

Touring really was the fast life. I felt like we were in Florida for all of five minutes, and we were already doing out sound check.

“Show time,” Jaime had the biggest, happiest smile on his face. Everyone was so excited to be back on the road.


And the show was absolutely amazing. The crowd went absolutely insane when Vic “proposed” to me for the second time in front of fans. I enjoyed listening to Jaime banter with Vic, I occasionally looked back at Mike, head banging, singing along, and having the time of his life playing the drums, and I watched Tony basically have sex with his guitar. Everything was how it should be.

And I couldn’t believe we were headed to an after party. The music was loud, and the drinks were strong, and the vibes were fantastic.

Well, the vibes were fantastic, until I left Vic with Jaime for one minute to dance with Parker, and then the next minute someone’s grimy hands were over my mouth, pulling me away…



~~


I woke up, thoroughly confused and terrified. I looked to my right; I see my shirt, ripped and mangled on the floor. I look down on myself; I notice scratches and bruises that weren’t there last night, lacerations on my ankles, rope still tied around my wrist.

“Oh, shit, what have I done?” I looked to my left, shaking. There stood John, pacing around in front of me, mumbling to him self.

“It’s only four in the morning, Vic probably doesn’t even know you’re gone,” he continued to mumble to himself. Then he quickly jerked his head, making horrifying eye contact with me. His eyes were blood shot and his arms were shaking, he was all coked up.

“You’re going to keep this a secret, right?” he sent threatening daggers at me with his eyes. I didn’t know what to say. I could feel my chest tightening up, I could sense a panic attack coming.

“You wouldn’t want to have to interrupt the tour because of this right? It would be so selfish of you,” he snarled.

“L-l-let m-me go,” I said shakily, yanking at my wrists.

His eyes burned like fire, and he rushed over to me, his grimy hands on my throat. “Only if you promise not to tell,” he growled.

“I-I-I promise.”

“Good girl,” he smiled creepily, undoing the ties on my wrist.





I banged on Tony’s hotel room. “I’m coming, I’m coming, what do you want?” he answered.

“Is Parker in there?” I asked.

“Uh,” he scratched the back of his neck.

“Damnit, Tony, is Parker in there or not?”

“Er, yeah,” he blushed.

“I need to talk to her. It’s important,” I said fiercely.

“Okay, okay,” Tony said warily. “One sec,” he said, turning. I heard him call out to Parker, telling her that I was there for her. I started shaking with anxiety.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said sharply.

“Hey, what’s up?” Parker blushed, tucking under Tony’s arm, which was resting on the doorframe.

“Hey, can I talk to you somewhere private?” I asked, looking around nervously.

“Yeah, of course… where—”

“Here, you guys can talk in the room. I’ll go to Jaime’s or something. He’s probably lonely,” Tony yawned, and then walked down the hallway to Jaime’s room.

“Claire, it’s five in the morning what—”

I immediately burst into tears when the door closed, and Parker stopped talking.

“Oh my god, what’s wrong? Did something happen with Vic?” she asked, hugging me tightly.

I shook my head. “No, no,” I sobbed. “I—I, last night… this morning…”

I couldn’t form sentences. I didn’t know what to say. “He said n-not to tell anyone, otherwise I’d ruin—otherwise I’d ruin yet another t-tour, and t-that it would be selfish to tell,” I made no sense, and I spoke nonsense through my heavy tears.

“Claire, what the fuck happened? Who are you talking about? What are you talking about?”

I took a deep breath, swallowing back the knot in my throat. “Last night,” I began. I clutched my chest. I breathed. “Everyone was so drunk,” was all I was able to say.

“I know, sweetie, we all were. What’s your point?”

“Parker, he h-hurt me,” I cried and cried and cried.

“Who?” she said severely. I rolled up my sleeves and showed her my wrists. I pulled down my shirt just past the collar bone, showing her the bruises and scratches. Her eyes went wide in horror.

“Holy fucking fuck,” she said.

“H-he drugged me, and t-then h-he r-r-raped me,” I cried. “The photographer. John,” I said, and then I released myself from her grasp, raced to the bathroom, and threw up into the toilet.

She raced over to my side, holding me. “You can’t tell anyone, Parker,” I said.

“To hell with that! I’ll have him arrested!” She retorted.

“No, don’t. It would ruin the tour. We haven’t toured as a band together in so long, I can’t bear to keep them from it any more,” I groaned, getting sick again.

“Well, are you going to tell Vic?” she asked, rubbing my back.

“No! Especially not him! It would kill him,” I said. “He can’t know.”

“Sweetie, that’s a bad idea, you can’t keep this a secret,” she said softly.

“That’s why I’m telling you,” I cried. “He can’t know, at least until the tour is over, he can’t know,” I said. It would be selfish.

Parker sat quiet for a minute. “Alright,” she stood up. “I’m going to get you some morning-after pills, just in case,” she said. “And I’m going to drop you off at your hotel room, okay?” I nodded.

“And here, take this,” she said, handing me a clean, long-sleeved shirt. “If he asks where you were, just say you were hanging out with me. Do you think you’re going to get sick again?” I shook my head.

“Thanks, Parker,” I said, giving her a tight hug.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, then she darted off.

I carefully opened the door to me and Vic’s room. I sighed in relief when I saw him still passed out on the bed.

I didn’t crawl into bed with him, though.


I sat in a chair, tucking my knees into my chest, away from as much physical contact as possible.


Boy, was I fucked up.

Notes

let the drama unfold!

this just opened many new doors to continue this story, soo yes, more to come soon! :)


ALSO. i'm going to write a new story soon--i'm thinking a horror story. what do you all think?