Not Dead After All (Tony Perry)

She Was My Friend

Vic's POV (Omg a new POV finally)

"Come on, I need to stretch my legs!" Jaime says and the rest of us laugh. We had just arrived to our first stop of Warped Tour and we were all sick of being in the bus. Jaime jumps out of the bus and we all follow. "What other bands do you think are here?" Mike asks and we all turn to see three people. Two girls and a guy. One of the girls is on the guys back and squealing.

"I can't believe All Time Low is here! I'm gonna go say hi!" The brunette that was on the guys back jumps off and runs to the All Time Low tour bus. "Izzy wait! And....She's gone." The other girl called out and then rubbed her face with her hand. "Have mercy on those boys." The guy said to the girl and she laughed. "They're gonna need it!" The girl yelled with a smile.

"Who are they?" Tony asked to no one in particular. "I don't know. Probably a new band..." I say as my eyes make their way to the bus a few feet from the members. "Hell on Hello apparently." The rest of my band nods. "We should say hello to Hell On Hello." Jaime laughs and I roll my eyes but smile anyway. We all approach them and hear more of their conversation.

"Go after her before she kills one of them." The guy tells the girl and she groans. I cant really see her face because her black hair is in the way, but I can still tell she's upset. "But Dustin! I don't wanna!" She whines and the guy, well Dustin, pushes her lightly. "Go. She's your sister." The girl groans again but jogs off. That's when we all come closer and get the guys attention.

"Hey." Mike says and Dustin jumps before turning to us. When he sees us he smiles. "Oh, hey. Sorry, you guys scared me a little. What's up?" I already liked him. He seemed really laid back. "Nothin much. We were just walking around and seeing the other bands on tour." I tell him and his smile grew bigger.

"Oh, sweet. My band and I were doing the same before one of them saw her favorite band and then she freaked out. I'd be surprised if you didn't hear the squealing." He laughs and we do the same. "Yeah, we heard her. Kinda hard not to." Jaime jokes and Dustin shrugs. "She's just excited, we all are. This is our first big tour. We really aren't that popular of a band."

I nod. I knew how he was feeling. I still remember the first big tour we went on and how I felt being there for the first time. It was extremely exciting but also extremely terrifying.

"Well don't worry, we could help you all get used to it if you need help, right guys?" I turn to my band and they all smile and say a quick 'yeah.' "That's great! The girls and me would really appreciate it. Could I get you guys names? Oh, and don't be offended if you're a really big band and I don't know you. I really only listen to, like, four bands." He says the last part quickly and nervously.

"Don't worry about it, I get it." I pat him on the back and he smiles. "I'm Vic. I'm the lead singer. That's my brother Mike. He plays drums. That's Jaime and he plays bass. And that's Tony, who plays guitar." I point to each of my friends and they wave. Dustin waves back. "Cool. I'm Dustin, by the way. I play guitar. The girl that ran after All Time Low was Izzy, our singer. Then we have our drummer, Claire."

I couldn't help but tense up when he said the last name. I look to Mike and I see that he did the same. My eyes fell to the ground. We haven't heard that name in so long and honestly, I never stopped thinking about it.

My brother and I both know that it couldn't be the Claire that we knew, but the name still brought back memories. When I looked back to Mike, I could see the small tears building in his eyes. He was struggling to fight them back, I could tell.

"Hey, dude, are you alright?" I looked up when I heard Tony talk. It wasn't until now that I noticed I had been crying. I quickly wipe away the tears. "Yeah, I'm good." Dustin puts his hand on my should and stares at me with concern. "Are you sure? I didn't mean to say anything to hurt you, if I did." I shook my head.

"No no no. Its not your fault. Its just.. I knew someone a while back with the name Claire. She was my best friend..." All of their faces seem to light up a bit, except for Mike's. I thought of why no one was asking if Mike was okay but then I remember how I was the one that cried, while Mike refused to let his tears go. "She... She committed suicide." All of their faces drop.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know." Dustin takes a step back to give me space. "No no, it's fine, really. It was a long time ago." I give him a reassuring smile and he nods. "We should probably go anyway. We'll let you get back to your friends." I say and gesture towards the rest of his band off in the distance.

Claire was pulling Izzy by her shirt while Izzy tried to walk in the other direction. "I just wanna say hi!" Izzy yelling and tried to get out of Claire's grip. It didn't work. "I'll see you guys later then." Dustin told us and jogged up to his friends.

Jaime tapped me to get my attention and I looked at him. He moved his head in the direction of our tour bus. "Come on, you've got some things to explain." He said and I looked down. Mike and I never told them about Claire.

We all walked back inside and took our seats on the couch. The order we sat in was Mike, me, Jaime, then Tony. The four of us sit in silence for a few minutes. I tried to keep my tears back and judging by the look on Mike's face, so was he.

"So who is Claire?" Tony asked after about 10 minutes. That's when I couldn't hold it back anymore. I let a couple tears fall. The two boys gasped. I popped my head up to see what had happened. They were both staring at Mike. He was crying. We never see him cry. I could tell that this was when Jaime and Tony knew that this was a serious topic.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Jaime said quickly but I raised my hand up to stop him. They had the right to know about her. Her story deserved to be shared because she thought no one cared, but we did. I glanced at Mike for approval to talk about it, even if he would be in tears the whole time. He waited a couple seconds before nodding slowly.

So I told them everything. Every. Single. Thing. From the soccer ball to the letter. It took a while to explain, but they both listened intensely. Mike didn't speak for the whole thing. He just sat there and stared at a blank wall. Another tear would fall from his eyes when I talked about a certain memory. I can't say anything though because I did the same thing. That's why it took so long for me to tell the story. I kept choking on tears.

"So that's when I noticed a piece of paper stuck between our fence. I opened it and found, what me and Mike believed to be, Claire's suicide note." My friends gasp and they look at me sympathetically. "Yeah.. I don't remember what the exact words were but it said something like.." I was cut off by Mike getting up and walking to his bunk. He reaches to the back of it, where the bed touches the wall, and pulls out a paper.

He comes back and hands me the paper. I unfold it and read it. It was Claire's letter. My eyes went wide and I look up at Mike but he's avoiding my stare. He takes his seat back and stays quiet. I take a few seconds before looking back to the others.

"Her exact words were... Dear Mike and Vic, I don't really know what to say but I don't have much time to say it. I'm leaving. I'm leaving for good. The possibility of either of you seeing me again is very low. Close to impossible. But I just want you both to know. I love you guys. Vic, I love you so much. Mike, I love you just as much. I will always remember you and you will always be in my heart. Goodbye forever."

I take a deep breath. More tears come and I hold the paper tightly before setting it down on the small table so I wouldn't wrinkle the paper. My two band members get up and hug me. Tony pulls Mike up and adds him into the group hug. We all stay there for a minute before pulling back.

When we do I turn to Mike. "Why did you bring this on tour? Why is it by your bed?" I ask him and he still doesn't look at me. "So I can read it every night like I always do when we're on tour." I stare at him, shocked. "Why would you do that?" I don't yell, but you could tell I wasn't happy. I didn't want my brother torturing himself like this. "Because I still have hope." He says finally. "Hope for what?" That's when he finally meets my eyes.

"That's she's still alive."

I made a new one! How do you guys feel about it being in Vic's perspective? How do you think the boys will react to finding out Claire is alive? Well you'll find out soon!