Burned At Both Ends

"So, Andy, why are you at Warped Tour?" I ask bringing my gaze to meet his piercing blue eyes.

"I sing in a band, Black Veil Brides," he states, a certain sparkle coming into his eyes when he mentions his band. I can tell that he is very passionate about what he does, the same thing happens when the guys talk about their band.

"Really? Actually, I'm not that surprised," I snicker, taking another puff of my cigarette.

He, on the other hand, looks slightly offended, "What's that supposed to mean?" he asks defensively, crossing his arms over his chest, the leather from his gloves and jacket squeaking from the action.

I wave my free hand dismissively, "Oh, you know, you have the typical 'front man look'."

He looks slightly amused, "Oh? And what does this 'front man look' entail, exactly?"

I lift my head, blowing out the last of the smoke before dropping the cigarette bud to the ground and stomping it out with the toe of my right shoe. "You know, tall, skinny jeans, attractive and-"

"Attractive, hmm?" he smirks at me.

"And cocky," I finish, giving him a smirk of my own. I lean against the side of the bus that we were standing by, as my feet were getting tired from all the standing.

He chuckles, "Yeah, maybe. But why are you over here instead of back there being the life of the party?" I smile at the fact that he thinks that I would be the 'life if the party' when in reality, it's the complete opposite. I would rather stay home and read books or watch movies than go out and get drunk, only to not remember a single detail about the night before.

"I don't drink, bad things happen when people drink, I didn't even want to come, I was dragged," I roll my eyes.

"By who?" he asks, his eyebrows raising in curiosity.

"Motionless In White," I answer, smiling slightly.

"What about your band?" he questions sending me into hysterics.

"I'm not in a band," I tell him once I calmed down.

"Then why are you here, are you part of the crew? I never would have pegged you as a tech geek," he smiles.

"That's because I'm not. God, do you also ask this many questions?" I ask, crossing my arms, "now, as much fun as I am having talking to you, I think I am going to go back to my bus, my feet are starting to hurt." I say, starting to walk away before a warn hand grasped onto my arm.

"Why don't we continue this talk in my bus, you seem like a cool girl and I would like to get to know you better," he says giving me a warm smile, showing off his pearly whites.

I start to connect the dots in my head and curse myself for being so stupid for believing that a guy would want to just talk to me without an ulterior motive. "No," I shake my head slightly and take a small step back, pulling my arm out of his loose grip, "Sorry, you'll have to find someone else, I don't do the whole 'one night stand' thing," I say in disgust.

His face turns up in surprise before his cheeks turn red, "No, no, no. I mean... I don't... it's not that I wouldn't want too... it's just... I have a girlfriend, I just that you would be cool to hang out with, that's all..."

"Oh," I blush and tug my sleeves over my knuckles, a nervous habit that I have, "Yeah, sorry. I'd love to. I just thought..." I trail off.

"No, it's cool, I understand." he runs a hand through his hair, nervously.

"Yeah, let me just text the guys and let them know where I am so they don't freak." Once I do, we walk to his bus, which happens to be right next to ours, which he and I both thought was pretty cool.

"So why are you here with Motionless In White? Is one of them your boyfriend?" he asks once we get on his bus and get settled on the couch in the front lounge.

I pull my legs up and sit Indian style and turn to face him, "No, I'm just friends with them," I answer, not phased by the question. Growing up, they were my only friends, so people naturally thought that I was having sex with at least one of them. People just don't understand that you can have friends of the opposite gender, and not be banging them behind closed doors.

"Oh," he nods his head in understanding, "How long have you been friends with them?" he questions.

"Uh, pretty much all my life, our mom's were all friends all through college, and afterwards they all moved into houses right beside each other. They all got married, had children, we became friends and Ta-Da, here we are." I answer vaguely, hoping he doesn't pry for details, "But what about you? How did you meet your band members?" I ask, hoping to switch the subject off of me for a while so I'm kept out of the limelight for a while.

"Nothing special, I am the only original member left of the band. It started off with just me and two other people, but they turned out to be... not the best people in the world. So, I slowly found new members," he shrugs like it's no big deal, "but I wouldn't change it for the world, the band has the perfect members and we couldn't be happier."

"Wow, you make it sound like you're all married to each other," I tease him.

"And some days, it feels like it. I know everything about my band members, everything. I'm surprised I don't need therapy, they do some fucked up shit." he laughs. I laugh along with him knowing exactly what he means.

There was one time when we were in our junior year of high school, and Ghost had a girlfriend of six months. She cheated on him with James Johnson, the captain of the football team, and then broke up with him in front of the whole school, humiliating him. We lost our shit, but Chris went over to her house and slashed all four of her tires. She couldn't drive anywhere for a week, she was so pissed, it was awesome.

Chris never did get caught, but it's not like it would have mattered, because as he put it, "If I go to jail for vandalism, It'll be worth it." It was crazy, but you do crazy things for the ones that you love.

"Yeah, I get it. So enough with the deep, sentimental shit. What's your favorite movie." I ask, hoping to move onto easy questions.

His face immediately lights up, "All of the Batman movies, in fact I have all of them here, in a drawer in the back. I'm assuming that you're a fan too by the necklace you're wearing?" he asks, hope lacing his voice.

"Yeah, I prefer the early comics to the movies, though, the comics are just a classic. The movies are trying to hard to modernize Batman rather than stay true to how it was originally written. I'm not saying the movies are bad, the movies by themselves are good, but put them next to the comics and they don't stand a chance," I shrug, nonchalant.

A smile spreads across his cheeks so wide, that I start to wonder if it is going to be permanently stuck there, "Where have you been? None of my band appreciates Batman like I do. I know you don't like the movies too much, but one day, me and you are going to have to have a Batman movie marathon."

"Okay, do you have a pen and paper?" I ask.

"Yeah, Here..." he gets up off the couch, grunting from the effort, and going into the back of the bus. He comes back with a Sharpie in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. "I didn't have a pen, but I found a Sharpie," he says, handing them to me.

"That's fine," I say, taking the maker and unscrewing the cap and writing my number on the paper. I put the cap back on and hand them both back to him, "For when you want that marathon," I explain. I kind of didn't want to give him my number because I really didn't want to hang out with him again. It's not that he isn't a cool guy, he is. I just don't know if I am ready to bring another person into my life yet, friend or otherwise.

Suddenly, the door to the bus flies open and the smell of alcohol fills my nose. I turn my head to see a very drunk Jake stumbling through the door, "W-What is she-" he pauses to hiccup and try to regain his balance, "-doin' here," he glares at me. "You were gona' fuck my- hiccup- bandmate? Slut," he slurs his words together.

"Jake!" Andy stared at him in disbelief.

I flinch and memories flood my thoughts. Alcohol and hatred don't mix very well, I have to get out of here now, "I-I need to go, it's late, text me when you want that movie marathon," I give Andy a weak smile, then carefully step around Jake and book it out of there.

I rush to unlock the door to my bus with tears rushing down my face. I throw open the door and lock it behind me. I walk back to my bunk and yank the curtain closed. I take a couple deep breaths to try and slow the tears. From the silence that is only broken by my occasional sniffs, I can tell that the guys aren't back from the party yet. I breathe a sigh of relief, they see me like this too often. It's times like this where I feel like a burden, I am constantly needing their comfort and I hate it.

I hastily wipe my tears and decide that I will get on Twitter to help myself calm down. As soon as I open the app, I am bombarded with notifications.

Motionless-In-Me: @CarterMason, Wow, am I the only one that noticed how fat she's getting?

Ghost-Notice-Me: I can't believe they're friends with her... ew. @CarterMason doesn't deserve them and they could do so much better than her.

Balz-Is-Mine: Who else doesn't believe that? @CarterMason is only friends with them? I bet she's had sex with all of them at least twice by now. Fucking whore.

Chris-Eyebrows: What do they see in @CarterMason? All I see is a failed abortion.

Rickys-Fine-Ass: I bet @CarterMason has to pay them to be friends with her. No way would they do it willingly, not with her face. Pathetic.

Ryans-Dick: God, @CarterMason must weigh a ton, she's so fat. No amount of makeup will fix ugly.

Chris-Is-Fine: Why doesn't @CarterMason do the world a favor and go kill herself?

I had to turn my phone off and stop reading the tweets. So much for using Twitter to help calm me down, maybe a movie will help. I step outside of my bunk and walk to the front lounge. I put in Hercules and sit down on the couch. I can feel my eyelids getting heavy about fifteen minutes into the movie, I try to fight it, but I soon let sleep consume me.


Ricky's P.O.V

We stumbled onto the bus about one o'clock in the morning, only to find Carter passed out on the couch, and the Hercules movie playing on the TV. I guess she got done talking to Andy and wanted to watch a movie. I'm glad that Warped Tour is forcing her to branch out and talk to new people. I hope her and Andy become friends, it's not that we mind being her only friends, it's just that she needs to learn to trust people more. I'm hoping Andy will help her do that.

I grab the remote and turn the television off. Chris grabs a spare blanket and covers her sleeping figure. We all decide to go to sleep so, hopefully, we won't be too tired tomorrow when we have to play our set.. After I say goodnight to the guys, I curl up in my bunk under my blanket and quickly fall asleep.

My eyes slowly peel open to find the bus pitch black. I feel around for my phone to check what time it is. I am momentarily blinded by the light radiating from my phone, but as my eyes adjust, I can see that it's only five am. I throw my feet over the edge of my bunk and yawn while rubbing my eyes. I decide that I probably won't be able to get back to sleep any tie soon, so I might as well go ahead and get up. I stand up and make my way to the kitchen to make some coffee, pausing in the front lounge to check on Carter. I grab a mug and put it under the machine and wait for it to finish brewing.

I grab the now full mug, and walk into the front lounge. I set my coffee down and pick up Carter's feet so I can sit down before I put them back down in my lap. I turn on the television with the remote and turn the volume down so it doesn't wake Carter. I sit there for ten minutes, just watching TV and sipping coffee when Carter starts to get restless. She keeps tossing and turning as if she can't seem to get comfortable and her face looks like she's in pain, but I know her well enough to know that her not being comfortable wasn't the issue, it was another nightmare.

I set my coffee aside and lay down behind her, in between her and the back of the couch. I run my fingers threw her hair soothingly and she turns around to snuggle her head into my chest and her body relaxes. I rest my head on top of hers and sigh, "What are we going to do with you, Carter?" I whisper into her black hair.

Notes

Sorry if there are any mistakes, I was in a rush today. Let me know what you think!