“Alright, let’s get this started,” Alicia said as she sat down in front of the microphone. She placed the earphones over her head. “My name’s Alicia here at the Creep Show and today we’ve got the handsome Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil, and the marvelous Meedie MontClair from Meadows. Welcome you two!”

“Thank you so much for having us,” Vic said as he smiled his shy smile.

“Of course!” Alicia smiled. “Now, you two are on the front of Alternative’s Press’s magazine this week as the Most inspirational male and female rockers. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?”

Vic spoke up right away. “Yeah, AP wanted to get more personal with their issue this month, and they wanted to do most inspirational rockers, and Meedie and I were honored with the title.”

“That’s got to just feel so amazing.” She turned her attention over to me. “Meedie, since your band, Meadows, is still fairly new, how does it feel to be recognized for this?”

“Oh,” I smiled, “It's so amazing. I mean, I’ve done so many different things in my life already, and all I ever wanted to do was make an impact, and to know that I’ve finally done that is so…humbling…and like Vic said, it’s an honor to know that we’re influencing people out there. And then to be recognized in a magazine for it? It’s unbelievable.”

“Oh, I bet, I bet.” She smiled. “Now, you say you’ve done so many different things in your life. What do you mean by that?”

“Well, my brother and I have drabbled around in everything. Let’s see… I’ve tried painting, modeling, photography, graphic design, I was a teacher for a few years after college…umm…guitar technician, you name it, I’ve done it.”

“Porn?” Vic asked right away with a smirk on his face.

“Hey, you never know what happens when you’re drunk. These warped tour parties can get pretty crazy,” I laughed. “No, not porn.”

Vic laughed at me a little bit before speaking up. “Yeah, you should see their house. Her and her brother have shit everywhere. Easels, cameras, she has a stylist chair, she has a mini tattoo parlor in her kitchen…it’s insane.”

Alicia laughed a bit. “Since you’ve seen her house, I’m going to say it’s safe to assume you two are friends then? Outside of tour?”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I went to high school with Vic and his brother, Mike.”

“Oh, so you’ve known each other for a long time then? That’s awesome.”

“Yeah, it’s so cool. Before Vic and Mike were really tied down to a stable band, my brother and I used to head over to their house and we would cover songs all the time and just jam out together. We never formed a band together though. That’d be too much,” I explained with a laugh.

“It’d be like a band of siblings,” Alicia laughed a bit.

“That’s funny that you say that,” Vic laughed. “I consider Meedie to be a sister, and I consider Marky, her brother, to be like family as well. But Mike, well, he’s different. He sees Marky as a little brother, but Meedie…that’s a different story.”

“What do you mean?” Alicia asked.

“Well, since I…you know…I’m into girls,” I said awkwardly, which I’m sure she already knew because it wasn’t exactly a secret. And I had just won the most inspirational female rocker because of my openness to my sexuality. “Mike sees it as a challenge to be the one guy that thinks he can turn me straight.”

“It’s not that he’s into her like that, he just wants to be able to say that he was the one who got her in bed with a guy,” Vic added.

Alicia began to crack up histerically. “That’s so funny. I can only imagine what it’s like when you’re all drinking and hanging out. That’s too funny,” she laughed again. “Now that brings me to something I actually wanted to talk about. I hear you have an interesting story about your sexuality and a particular band member in Pierce the Veil. Would you mind sharing that?”

I sighed. “Yeah, well, Tony Perry, their guitarist, had this girlfriend who I became really good friends with while we were all touring together, and well…I kind of ended up stealing her away from him.” I gave a guilty smile and laughed.

“How did Tony feel about that? Was he pretty upset?”

“He took it surprisingly well,” Vic said.

“Yeah. I guess they were having some problems in their relationship, so when she broke up with him, he wasn’t all beat up about it. But when she found out that she was leaving him for me, then he felt kind of weird about it. But, everything is fine now. We’re all pals and it’s not awkward or anything. We joke about it sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Vic began to laugh. “We always tease him and say that he’s the reason she turned lesbian. That he ruined her perception of guys so badly that she had to turn to girls.”

“But we all know that’s not true,” I corrected. “It was actually because I was just so amazing that she had to turn to girls to be with me.”

Alicia smiled. “That’s adorable. Are you guys still together?”

I bit my lip. “Yes.”

“How long has it been now?”

“Three years.”

Alicia gave me and impressed smile. “Wow, congratulations!” she smiled again. “Have you ever been with a man?”

I laughed. “Yes! Of course.”

“If you and your girlfriend ever break up, do you think you’d go back to men?”

I shook my head. “I mean, I still find them attractive. But I think that I’d stick to women. But I honestly don’t see myself with anyone but Lindsay, she’s so—“

I turned off the TV and sat at the edge of the hotel room bed with my face buried into my palms.

“You okay?”

I pulled my hands back to slick all of my hair out of my face. “Yeah,” I replied. “I was just thinking about her again.”

Marky gave me a sad smile as he held a couple of duffel bags in his hands. His arms were shaking at the weight. I got up and walked over to his side, pressing the back of my hand to his forehead to check his temperature before taking one of the duffel bags from him.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I wiped the sweat from his forehead onto my jeans.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He smiled. “You worry too much.”

“I’m your big sister. It’s my job.” I could tell by his skinny arms and sunken eyes that he was not okay. “Just, I know this is hard for you, Marky. Trying to get clean while on tour. If you’re having a bad day, just let us know and we can get someone else on tour to fill in for you. We just want to focus on getting you better.”

He rolled his eyes and walked toward the door. “I told you, Miranda, I’m fine.”

I sighed when he used my full name and followed him out of the hotel. We saw Vic and Jaime walking towards us.

“Hey,” Vic said.

“We were just coming to see if you needed some help,” Jaime explained. He looked over Marky’s sweaty appearance and then back over to me to make sure that everything was okay. I gave him a hidden nod as Marky continued to walk.

I could understand why Marky was so irritated with everyone babying him, but he had to understand what we saw. He had lost a substantial amount of weight because of his drug addiction, and now that his body was still going through slight withdrawals, he was constantly looking like he had the flu – sweaty, feverish, pale. He looked sick, and the fans were worrying about him. We were worrying about him. Surely it couldn’t be easy – constantly being around the parties and the substances. It had been a strong month now, but part of him still seemed missing. He wasn’t himself yet, and we needed him to know that it was okay for him to worry more about his health than performing. The fans would understand. But he loved the fans too much. He would do anything for them, and he felt that because of his addiction in the first place, he owed it to them to give them one hell of a live show.

We walked onto the bus and shoved our bags into the back before discussing plans with Pierce the Veil about what was going to happen once we arrived at the venue. We all departed and headed out to the next city.

-

Marky gave it his all out on stage. He seemed like himself as soon as you put a guitar in his hands and shoved him in front of the fans. He always performed with every ounce of his energy and health, and for a while, I was convinced that he was back to his usual self again. But as soon as the last song ended and we said our goodbyes, he was throwing up into the trashcan at the side of the stage just barely out of sight from the rest of the area. I would try to comfort him – my big sister instincts always took over in a moment like this. But he would shove me away and continue to hide his embarrassment into the bin that he poured his stomach into.

After the show we were all sitting in a bar, as usual, and celebrating another night well played. I was having a bad day – Lindsay was on my mind, and I just wanted to forget her. Once a cheater always a cheater. I should have known better – she cheated on Tony with me, what made me think she wouldn’t cheat on me, too?

I sipped on my alcohol as the girl next to me placed her lips onto my collarbone. I sat in the booth with people all around me, this blonde girl on the right side of my body, and my eyes staring forward with nothing but the image of Lindsay in my head.

The girl had her hand dangerously high up on my thigh, but I didn’t pay any attention. Her touch meant nothing to me – she would be another girl to try and forget Lindsay, and another girl that wouldn’t make a difference to my heartbreak.

“Meedie,” Mike stood in front of me, breathless and sweaty. He panted a few times as he stared at the girl next to me with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head before speaking again. “Where’s Marky?”

I looked up at him as I took another sip of my alcohol. “What do you mean?” I asked with caution in my voice. I scanned the bar and didn’t see him sitting there like he usually would be.

“He’s not in the bar,” Mike said with worry in his voice.

Tony came walking up behind us. He saw the girl to my right but said nothing. “Meedie, it’s Marky,” he said with panic in his eyes and urgency in his voice.

Without thinking twice I pulled away from the woman. She protested and told me to wait but I ran out of the bar behind Mike and Tony. Tony lead us straight up to our bus that was sitting in the back of the parking lot. We burst through the doors and immediately smelled the vomit.

People were sitting around in the front area of the bus – people that I did not recognize. I knew that they weren’t on the tour. That’s when I saw the white powder sitting on a plate in one of the people’s laps.

“Where the fuck is Marky?” I shouted, looking at all of the unfamiliar faces. “Where is he?” I shouted again.

“Relax, girl,” one guy said with his hands up.

“Meedie, back here!” Tony called from the bunks. I looked to Mike for help.

“Get the fuck out of here and take that shit with you!” Mike shouted to the people. I never knew he could be so menacing.

I rushed back to where I heard Tony’s voice calling out Marky’s name over and over again.

I pushed open the door and saw Tony holding Marky in his arms. The lower half of his body was still in his bunk as Tony tried to completely pull him out.

Tony hit Marky’s cheek repeatedly. Vomit outlined his mouth and tainted his shirt. He was unconscious. Not moving. Not breathing.

“Mike, get help!” I screamed as loud as I could. I collapsed next to Marky’s body and pulled him out of his bunk completely. I sat on the other side of his head and tried to shake him by the shoulders. I pulled the sheet off of his bunk and used it to wipe his mouth clean.

“Set him down flat,” I demanded through tears. Tony gently, but quickly set Marky’s body down on the ground. I stopped cleaning his mouth, not caring if I had gotten all of it or not and began to perform CPR on his unmoving body. I pushed through the vomit on his shirt in a desperate attempt to get him to breathe again.

I pressed my mouth to his and tried to fill his lungs with air, but the air pushed right back out. His throat was blocked by his own vomit.

I still continued to try and perform the CPR. Tony pushed himself up against the bunk behind him with his knees pushed up against his chest and his head in his hands. He gently rocked back and forth as tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Marky….Marky….Marky…” he said silently as he rocked.

I wouldn’t stop trying to wake him. We sat there for thirty minutes until the ambulance arrived to get him off of the bus. I screamed his name out as they pushed me away to check his vitals. Vic was there now, holding me back as I tried to reach after my brother.

“Let them help,” he said to me.

“That’s my kid brother,” I screamed out as I tried to release myself from Vic’s arms. They pulled Marky off of the bus and told Vic to keep me back. Vic kept his arms around my waist as I continued to fight him. I watched through the windows as the paramedics slowly lifted Marky’s body into the back of the ambulance with a white blanket over his cold body. Before the doors could shut, the man in the back pulled the white sheet over the rest of his body as another shut the doors.

“That’s my kid brother!” I shouted again, this time letting my body go limp in Vic’s arms. I fell to the floor, taking Vic with me.

I cried into his chest. With every inhale I smelt the vomit on the sheet beside us, and with every exhale I could feel my heart breaking inside my chest. And with every sob, I could feel my world crumbling beneath me.

Notes

New story! I have some really exciting plans laid out for this story. I've had this idea floating around for a week now, and I'm finally going to try and piece it together.

I apologize if this first chapter is pretty rocky. I'm trying something new here.

Comment, rate, and subscribe!

I'm working on a story on each other the band members. I already have the following stories going:
"We Don't Make Sense" - Mike
"A Night We Won't Forget" - Vic

I am yet to make a Jaime story. But I do have somewhat of an idea going for it.

Thanks for the support!

xoxoxo