The Pen Pal Project // Alex Gaskarth

43.

Flash forward five years and it's safe to say that everything had changed.

The times, the technology, the styles, the language and music.

The early 2000's punk scene died with only few acts remaining. Bands like Blink-182 and Green Day still toured and put out albums but they weren't as relevant as they had been in years past.

Instead of having three or four bands form from each high school, it was soon a rarity to find a band with guitars and drums in it at all.

The age of reality television and crappy music with boybands and Justin Bieber emerged.

_______________

Flash forward five years after high school graduation where most things had changed except for the fact that Kendall Carney still loved books.

That was about all that was the same though.

She still had her brown hair and brown eyes and her petite frame but her personality had grown.

In college, Kendall found herself; she joined clubs, participated more in class and even made friends. She graduated with a near perfect GPA and immediately found a job that would allow her to work in the morning and study to get her master's degree at night.

She still loved music but refused to give money to buskers who played their guitars on the streets of Baltimore.

Kendall lived alone in a small apartment that had a full wall covered in books. At least that hadn't changed.

_____________

Flash forward five years from graduation and Alex Gaskarth was backstage in a nameless venue in a nameless city on yet another tour.

The band had essentially blown up. Each tour was bigger and louder, with each album climbing higher and higher on the charts.

The band had recognition from bands like Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, bands that dominated in a time when all kids wanted to hear were synthesizers and no-name rappers do a thirty second rap that had nothing to do with the actual song.

All Time Low were by no means necessary a household name, but they were on the map, and that was half the battle.

Alex had loved every second of the ride he and his friends were on.

Appearance wise, everything had changed, his hair seemed to change every month, sometimes long sometimes short. At the moment he liked straightening it instead of leaving it wavy like it normally was. But his hair was nothing like the long, unruly hair he once adorned in high school.

He also got a tattoo and wore shirts that were a size too small to try to show off the small amount of muscle he had.

Alex had fallen back into his cycle of insomnia and had fallen more in love with the night sky and what was beyond it all.

He detested books, and usually threw them off the bus when no one was watching.

Alex lived on a tour bus nine months out of the year but when he didn't he resided in a house he and Rian had bought. It was too big for the two of them, and made him feel like he was a stranger in his own home.

However he did make sure that he had a balcony where he could climb onto the roof and stare at nothing and relax. At least that hadn't changed.