I'm Not In Love - Chapter Four

Jamie woke the next day in the hotel bed with another pounding headache. She opened her eyes and saw that Sisky and Mike were in the bed a couple of feet away from her. The alarm clocked shined a red 10:34 on the night stand next to her. Jamie pulled herself up, but then realized there was someone else in bed with her. Nate, fully dressed and on top of the covers, stirred next to her and opened his eyes.

“I punched him” Nate said. Jamie gave him a quizzical look. “Matt. I heard what happened, so I approached him. He told me that he wanted it to look realistic. I got angry and punched him.”

Jamie smiled. “Thanks.”

“Sisky let me in, because it was either I slept in here, or out in the hall to make sure you were okay.”

“Is it just me, or is everyone on this tour acting like my big brother?” Jamie asked. Nate shrugged in response. “Do you want to get some breakfast or something?”

“That’d be good” he responded.

“I just want to go and get changed and see if Andy wants to come.” She got up and headed right to the door. Her room was one room away, and she used the key to get in. It was dark, but she could see Michael asleep in the far bed, but Andy’s bed was empty. Jamie quickly grabbed some clothes out of her book bag and went to change in the bathroom. She turned on her phone, expecting to see some kinda of message from Andy, but there was nothing. Jamie scrolled through the numbers on the phone and hit the call button when she got to ‘Butcher’, but the phone went right to voicemail.

“Hey, Andy, it’s Jamie. Sorry about last night, we went really late and I didn’t want to disturb you. Me and Nate were going to go out to breakfast and wanted to invite you, but I can’t find you. If you could give me a call, that’s be great. I’m a little worried. I think we really need to talk about yesterday. Please call me back when you get this.” She hung up the phone proceeded to get changed. After a few minutes, she met Nate out in the hallway.

“Is Butcher coming?” he asked.

“I actually don’t know where he is. Something happened yesterday and he wouldn’t tell me what happened, I think it has to do with that.”

“Have you tried calling him?”

“Yeah, but it went straight to voicemail. I left a message, so I guess we should go. I can’t make him answer his phone.”

Nate and Jamie made their way down to the front desk to ask for a recommendation on a breakfast place. They found out there was a little diner with good food a little bit down the road, close enough for them to walk to. When they went in they saw that it was filled with a couple of families and teenaged girls that were whispering and pointing at Nate.

The waitress seated them, but before they could open the menu, a girl that look like she was in her early teen years approached them with a camera in hand.

“Uh, Nate?” The girl asked. Nate looked up and smiled. “Can I get a picture with you?”

“No problem.” He got up to stand next to the girl. “Jamie, can you take the picture?”

“Of course!” Jamie was delighted to help out and stood up. “Say cheese!!” The corny line made Nate laugh, but the picture turned out great. “Here you go” Jamie said as she returned the camera.

The girl was gleaming as she went back to her table. She showed her friends the picture and they all giggled. Nate and Jamie sat in silence so they could hear was they were saying.

“His girlfriend, Jamie, was so nice. She took the picture. But I kinda feel bad for her because Nate was obviously flirting with me. Before I walked away he whispered in my ear that he thought I was cute.”

Jamie’s jaw dropped and she asked Nate, “Did you really say that?”

“No, she’s just trying to milk it for all it’s worth.” Jamie smiled a wicked smile and opened her menu.
*****
They were walking back to the hotel when Jamie’s cell phone started playing the song “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, notifying her that she was getting a call. She looked down at the screen and saw the Butcher’s name.

“It’s Andy, I’m going to answer it.” Nate nodded. “Hey, where are you?” Jamie answered the phone and waited for a response.

“I’m back at the hotel. Are you going to be back soon?” Andy asked back.

“We’re literally twenty feet away from the front door. I’ll be right up. We really need to talk.”

“Okay” Andy answered and hung up the phone.

They walked to the elevator in silence and waited for it to open. An old couple got out, and Nate and Jamie walked in. The doors shut and pressed the ‘four’ button.

“Thanks for last night. And this morning” Jamie said in a low voice to Nate.

“Anything for a friend” He responded. She smiled and the silver doors opened. They went their separate ways down the hall. Jamie stopped outside of her door, turned and looked at Nate down the hall to find that he was looking at her also. She smiled, waving, and then unlocked the door and walked in.

Andy was sitting on the bed with his legs crossed and the television on. “Hey” Jamie said cheerfully and sat down on the bed next to him, but with her back to the television. “Where were you this morning?” she asked sweetly.

“I went for a drive” he responded coldly.

“Are you mad at me?” Jamie asked. She was worried that he had found out about last night.

“No, of course not. I got a call from home last night. My brother got in a motorcycle accident.”

Jamie’s jaw dropped. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s stable now, but last night and this morning no one knew what was going to happen.” Andy couldn’t look her in the eye.

“I’m so sorry I went out. If I had known, I would have stayed.” Jamie felt horrible for having so much fun while Andy was being tortured.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know, I didn’t tell you.” After Andy said that they sat in silence for a few minutes. Jamie crawled behind Andy and pulled him close to her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed the line of his jaw bone. Andy turned to face her and kissed her passionately. They moved down so they were laying on the bed and began to kiss more. Jamie grabbed the bottom of Andy’s tank top and brought it up and over his head, and he did the same to her. They’re faces didn’t separate as Andy navigated his way through her body. Just as he was about to un-clasp her bra, Michael burst through the door.

“Oh god, sorry” he began and turned so he couldn’t see them. Jamie grabbed her rumbled shirt and pulled it over her head. “Uh, Butcher, we need to go. We do have to play a concert in a couple of hours.”

“Shit! I forgot completely about that.” He got up and grabbed his shirt and turned to Jamie, “Uh, I need to go, but tonight, we should finally catch up on that date.”

“Okay” Jamie said and tried to smile. He gave her a quick peak on the lips before he ran out and shut the door behind him.
*****
She walked to the Sofapunch bus and knocked on the door. Alex went to open it for her, but didn’t say a word. No one would even look her in the eye.

“Hi guys” Jamie greet.

Ashley mumbled a ‘Hello’ under her breath, but Alex nudged her. She was the only one that responded.

“What’s the matter?” Jamie asked everyone.

Chris was the one that began to speak first. “Okay, Jamie, you know we love you, and always will. But we invite you on tour to be our merch girl, and you’re never around. You work the day, but then once you got out of clean up, and you don’t even hang out with us because you want to start hanging out with your famous friends.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I’m making friend. I’m there during the day, and yes, once I asked if I could skip out on cleaning up, but honestly, we don’t have that much stuff and there are eleven of us all together. I’m doing everything you ask me to do” Jamie retorted.

“Guys, she is right. Who cares if she doesn’t hang out with us.” Eric was the only one that came to her defense, but now that it was said, the rest of the guys looked embarrassed.

“Was there anything else?” Jamie asked. Eric got up and hugged Jamie. Jamie, who was completely confused, patted him on the back. “Okay…”

“We’re sorry.” Eric said.

“It’s okay.” Jamie smiled and walked away to get changed into something a lot cooler.
*****
An hour later, the Sofapunch table was set up and Jamie, Ashley, Mat, Alex, Eric, and Hans were sitting around waiting for the first of the teenage girls. Jamie grabbed a schedule from a young guy walking around and looked at who was playing when. Sofapunch was playing at 4:00 pm, The Academy is at 5:30, The Pink Spiders at 6:00, and Cobra Starship was playing at 7:00. She passed the schedule around for everyone else to check out.

“I really don’t feel like doing a meet and greet today” Alex moaned.

“Then don’t do one. You don’t have to.” Ashley said.

Everyone looked up as Butcher appeared at the booth’s front. “Hey everyone” he greeted before turning to Jamie, “Did you see that we’re playing at 5:30?” He paused and Jamie nodded. “Do you want to come and see us from the side of the stage?”

“Uh, Butcher, you know I would love to, but I have to stay here, I’m sorry.” He looked sad but Jamie grabbed his arm and pulled him as close as she could, given that there was a table between them. She gave him a kiss on the lips and then continued to talk “But, we’re still on for tonight right?” Jamie asked hopefully.

Butcher smiled and raised his eyebrows a couple of times. “Oh yeah! I guess I’ll see you later.” Andy was about to walk away, but Alex’s voice stopped him.

“Dude, she’ll be there. At 5:30, we can afford to have her gone for 45 minutes.” Alex finished and looked toward Jamie and winked.

“Thanks!” Andy responded and continued to walk away.

“You didn’t need to do that” Jamie said to them.

“Yeah, but we wanted to. We can tell that you really like him, and you only get this opportunity once…a year.” Alex finished.
*****
Jamie got to their bus at 5:15, and hung around while their tech guys did the work onstage.

“There are a lot of people here” William said, mostly to himself, but when he realized everyone was listening, he motioned with his chin to turn around a look at the crowd.

“William,” Alexis started, “Seriously? It’s Warped Tour. Of course there are a lot of people here.” She shook her head and took a sip from her bottle of water.

“Alexis, you’re almost out of water…” William didn’t get to finish his sentence before Alexis cut him off.

“I know, William.”

“I was just going to ask if I could get you more” William said sadly.

“Awww, thanks William.” She kissed him quickly on the cheek and William looked proud of himself. He trailed off to get some water for everyone.

“I remember the night you first met” Mike started. “You wrote your number on the check, and William had no clue was to do with it.”

Alexis was a little embarrassed, “Yeah, but he was so cute, he walked me home and everything.”

“Yeah, that was my idea” Sisky said.

“Really?” Alexis was totally surprised to hear it, and Sisky just nodded. “Oh jeez.” William returned and gave the water out.

Tony approached William from behind. “Guys!” he yelled at them. William had no idea he was there and ended up spilling the water that he was drinking down the front of himself. “We’re going on stage in 60 seconds. Get ready!”

Jamie had been behind the scenes at plenty of concerts, but this one was way more hectic and intense. Butcher was the first to guy to run up the ramp, then Sisky, Michael, Mike, and finally William. Alexis and Jamie walked up the ramp to watch from the side of the stage, and they could hear thousands of people screaming and yelling William’s name. They started by playing ‘Neighbors’ and even from the side, Jamie could see the girls mouthing the words. The song ended and the crowd went wild.

“Our next song is from our older record. It’s called ‘The Phrase that Pays’.” The girls screamed and the song started. All of the sudden Jamie felt a pair of hands slid around her waist from the back. She turned to find out it was Matt, smiling sweetly at her. Jamie walked past him and grabbed his arm to drag him down the ramp again.

“What are you doing here?” Jamie demanded.

“I wanted to offer you some stuff.” Matt answered.

“You know I can’t do it.”

“Yeah you can, and I know that you had a good time last time.” Matt paused and Jamie looked down in shame. “It’s different this time. No ecstasy. Just speed. No one will even know you’re on it.” Again, he paused and Jamie didn’t know what to say. “Just take two pills, if you don’t like it, then I’ll never bother you again.” Jamie looked down as Matt pulled two electric blue pills out of a bag in his pocket. Jamie took them in her hand and looked at them for a couple of seconds. Finally she decided, and popped the pills into her mouth. Matt smiled and handed her his water bottle.

Jamie laid next to Butcher wide awake the whole night. She was too excited to sleep, with the mix of butterflies in her stomach and the speed that Matt gave her. Butcher started to stir next to her, and when he saw that she was awake, he kissed her on the forehead and smiled.

“Good morning” he greeted her with. He pulled the curtain back and walked down to the bathroom. Jamie finally had an escape from the tiny bunk, so she pulled on a shirt and shorts and went to wait for Andy on the couch.

She heard the toilet flush and Andy made his way to the front of the bus again. He sat down next to her and pulled her close.

“So, have you heard from your brother?” she asked, hoping for good news.

“My mom called last night and said he had woken up and he was going to be fine.”

Jamie let out a sigh of relief and smiled, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. They sat in a comfortable silence, and Jamie’s thought began to travel to the night before.

Andy led her back to the bus and claimed that he had a surprise for their date. When they got to the bus, he started making a delicious smelling spaghetti sauce and penne pasta to get with it.

She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Smells delicious” Jamie said enthusiastically. She let go and moved to his side and Butcher held up a wooden spoon with a sample of the sauce. “Tastes delicious also. Where did you learn to cook?”

“Alex Suarez gave me this recipe when I told him that I wanted to make something special for you.”

When the meal was prepared, they sat down at the small table which Butcher had set with a white table cloth, candles, and a single red rose. The meal was delicious, though Jamie didn’t eat much of it. She played it off like she had a stomach ache and gave the rest of the dish to Sisky, who gladly ate it. Jamie felt bad because it wasn’t his food, she had just lost her appetite.