Everything was fine up to the music festival. The morning after Newt was drunk Thomas told him he loved him as they made breakfast and Newt kissed him about a hundred times before saying it back. The music festival went amazing, the three absolutely killed it. Thomas brought Rose and her friend Addison who was probably more than a friend but Thomas didn't pry. It was after the show when everything started it's stealthy spiral downwards.

Thomas brought Rose and Addison backstage, totally for their enjoyment and not as an excuse to see Newt. He looked good after his shows with the bandana he tied around his head to keep his hair out of his face, his tight jeans and his sleeveless shirts.

When Newt saw Thomas he grinned and pulled him into a hug before kissing him. "Hi."

Thomas couldn't stop the stupid grin from spreading across his face. "Hello to you too."

"Hi Newt!" Rose piped up as she appeared behind Thomas. She was holding the blonde girl's hand which was even more suspicious but again, Thomas didn't pry.

"My favorite Edison child!" Newt grinned as he high fived the girl. "What's up?"

Rose went off on a ramble about how good they did and how amazing they are while Thomas slid his arm around Newt's waist and rested his head on his shoulder.

"I think I need to thank you properly Rose," Newt said as he pressed a kiss to Thomas' head. "I like your brother quite a lot and he told me you dragged him to our show."

Rose nodded. "He was practically drooling over you the whole time."

Newt snorted out a laugh as Thomas glared at his sister.

"Rosie shut up you're not supposed to tell him these things!"

Newt just smiled and patted Thomas' cheek. "Don't worry pretty boy I was thinking the same things about you...anyways Minho sucks at social media and is going to run us into the ground if he keeps at it so what do you think? Wanna be the official manager of our instagram?"

Rose's entire face lit up. "Seriously?!"

Newt nodded. "I trust you more than Minho."

Rose smiled so hard Thomas thought the girl was going to break her face.

Thomas fished into his pocket and handed her a crumpled up ten dollar bill. "Here, both of you go get some food or something and make sure you drink water!"

Rose nodded and took the money, shouting a thank you over her shoulder before running off with her possible girlfriend.

"You're so nice to her," Thomas said as he kissed Newt again.

Newt just wiggled his eyebrows. "That get me some good boyfriend points?"

Thomas nodded. "Might even be enough to get you laid later."

"Fuck yeah." Newt grinned as he hooked his arm around Thomas' shoulders and pulled him closer to kiss him.

"Gross!" Minho shouted from behind them. Thomas jumped a bit before turning around and frowning at the drummer.

Newt groaned. "Minho why are you always like this?"

Minho shrugged as he flipped his drum stick in the air. "Ran into Thomas' sister, took a picture with her and the blonde girl and they told me where you were."

"So you're bothering us because you're bored?"

"Essentially yes."

Newt rolled his eyes, sliding his arm back from around Thomas' shoulders before asking, "where's Teresa?"

"I think changing, we were gonna hang around here for the rest of the day and she said her heels we're comfortable. You down?"

Newt nodded. "Dude yeah, Awolnation is headlining, I'm not leaving before seeing them live." Newt looked at Thomas. "You stayin too?"

He nodded. "Rosie and Addison wanna stay the whole day and I'm driving them home."

Newt clutched his heart. "Ouch, it's not just because you wanna spend the day with me."

Thomas huffed out a laugh. "Shut up."

"Hey fuckers," Teresa said as she appeared out of literally nowhere and jumped on Minho's back.

"Bitch why?!" Minho yelped as he grabbed her legs to hold her steady.

Teresa had on ripped jeans now and a pair of worn out vans, she had on some t-shirt but Thomas couldn't tell what was on it.

"Why can't we be that cute?" Newt teased as he pinched Thomas' side and watched Minho almost drop Teresa.

Thomas snorted out a laugh. "Yeah they look really adorable right now."

"It's not my fault Minho's a bitch, can't even hold a one hundred and thirty pound girl." Teresa huffed as she got off him and fixed her hair.

"It's not my fault that you just randomly jump on people's backs!"

"Hey I have a gift for you," Newt said as he gently squeezed Thomas' hand.

Thomas cocked his head in confusion.

Newt grinned as he reached down into his bag and pulled out something that looked like a shirt.

He unfolded it and held it out to him. It was a WICKED shirt, it had their logo printed across the black front of the shirt.

Thomas smiled as he took it. "You got your own shirts now?"

Newt nodded happily. "They made some for this music festival, they were selling them out front. I got one for my favorite Edison too."

"Would you stop calling her that?!"

"No."

"Is Rose gonna manage our instagram?" Teresa asked as she rested her elbow on Newt's shoulder.

Newt nodded. "She was really excited about it."

Minho snuck up behind Teresa and grabbed her behind the waist, picking her up which made her scream.

"Minho what the fuck?!"

"See? I can pick up twig bitches like you!"

Newt shook his head as he watched them. "They're children."

"You smoke before the show?" Thomas asked softly as he threw the shirt over his shoulder.

Newt frowned but nodded. "Yeah, just one. It was my second one this week. I'm barely denting a pack each week."

Thomas pulled him toward him and pressed a kiss to his head. "I'm proud of you."

Newt smiled, the relief evident in his eyes. He definitely thought he was going to be yelled at.

"Hey!" Newt snapped as he watched Teresa shove Minho to the ground. "Can you two stop it!"

They both pointed at each other at the same time, muttering "He/She started it!".

Newt rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Can we just go out there now?"

The two nodded and Teresa helped Minho up off the ground.

As they were leaving from backstage, a man stepped out in front of them. He looked to be about in his early thirties but there were specks of gray in his hair and his lips just naturally turned downwards.

"You guys are WICKED right?"

The four of them exchanged a look before Minho spoke up, practically puffing out his chest which made Newt facepalm. "We are, why?"

"My name is Janson. I'm the assistant director of Right Arm records. I was hoping we could speak briefly. You guys are new to the whole music scene right?"

"Fairly new I'd say," Minho said as he relaxed a bit. "We've played around a bit but this was our first real gig."

"I think that you guys have potential."

"We do," Teresa said and Newt looked like he wanted to slap her.

"So what exactly are you offering?" Newt asked as he took a step forward so Teresa and Minho were farther behind him. Newt probably was the most equipped to handle the talking, Minho was never not sarcastic and Teresa was slightly a hot head.

"I'm offering to possibly be your manager. I think that we can get you guys set up as on opening act on a tour. Maybe even on your own. We've been looking to take on another group and after seeing you guys live, my team has decided that if you guys agree we'd like to manage your band."

Thomas didn't miss the way their faces all lit up. Teresa was trying to hide her smile but failing desperately. Newt coughed then, covering up his look of pure excitement. "Can we think about it? Or meet up some other time? I think we're all kinda tired from the show."

The man nodded and handed Newt a small little white card. "The number on the bottom, you can call it if you want to know more. We can set up a meeting or discuss a few terms over the phone. You're right, this really isn't the best place to talk about it and we don't want to pressure you into making any hasty decisions."

Newt nodded and put the card in his pocket before shaking the man's hand. "Thank you."

The man smiled at them before turning to leave. As soon as he was out of sight the three were practically jumping on each other in the weirdest group hug he'd ever seen.

Thomas felt himself smiling as he watched them. He took out his phone and took a picture before sending it to Rose, if that wasn't instagram material he didn't know what was.

"A fuckng tour!?" Teresa practically screamed as they got off each other and fixed their clothes. "We could go on tour! We've been dreaming about this for ages!"

"We can't get too worked up yet," Newt said as he re tied his bandana. "We have to set up a meeting and see this guys full offer first."

Minho nodded. "Newt's right, we can't get too excited yet."

"It's still amazing!" Teresa exclaimed. "We're actually getting somewhere Min."

Newt smiled softly. "She's right...but let's worry about that later okay? Right now we got this whole festival for free, we should go take advantage of it instead of hanging around backstage like losers."

A collective nod of agreement went around.

Thomas smiled as Newt walked over to him.

"Remember what you agreed to?"

"Which thing?" Thomas asked as they exited the backstage.

"If I go on tour you'll come."

Thomas nodded.

"You still down for that?"

"Yeah," Thomas answered honestly. Hell, he would go anywhere with Newt.

"Good." Newt grinned. "Don't think I could stand not seeing your pretty face for more than a week."

Thomas rolled his eyes in a teasing manner. "Glad that you only want me around for my insane good looks."

Newt smiled at that. "Maybe I also like you a little bit...seriously though I'd miss you too much."

They headed out to the lawn, getting a special spot up front in a roped off area that he guessed was for the bands and VIP's. Some girls behind the barrier asked for a picture with the three which Thomas took on her phone for her. The whole interaction made Newt really happy, even Minho was beaming after he signed the girls arm with a sharpie she handed him. Maybe it was a little weird that people were starting to notice them in public now but the three seemed to love it so Thomas tried to pay it little attention. Maybe it was a form of weird jealousy, maybe he just didn't like sharing Newt.

Rose and Addison met up with them and since they were with Thomas they got to come up front which Rose thought was awesome. Newt gave her the shirt which almost made her cry. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly around the waist. Newt pointed to her and mouthed to Thomas "more good boyfriend points?". Thomas just smiled and took a picture before mouthing back "maybe you'll see tonight". Newt winked at him before agreeing to take yet another picture with Rose which Teresa and Minho totally photobombed. Rose was happy about it though. She uploaded it to the instagram right then and there, announcing her new position at the band instagram manager to their followers. She was so happy, it made Thomas happy. She took Addison's hand again and Thomas made at face at his sister who just rolled her eyes and held her middle finger up to her brother. Thomas had no idea who was even playing at the festival but when the next band started the crowd got hyped. There were lights flashing across the stage despite it being still kind of light outside because it really was only six o'clock. Thomas even swore he saw someone crowd surf which he immediately told Rose she couldn't do. He in fact did see someone climb up onto the outhouse and jump off of it into the massive crowd of people which of course Newt thought was awesome. Teresa climbed onto Minho's shoulders at one point and took her shirt off so she was just in what Rose described as a bralette. Half the girls Thomas saw were just wearing one of those. Newt was ridiculously playing the air guitar and flipping his hair which made Thomas laugh. They all seemed to be having so much fun, it almost made Thomas regret not being more into it earlier. Music was weirdly powerful, during a song that Addison seemed to like she reached over and pulled Rose to her and kissed her basically confirming Thomas' earlier suspicions. The first time he saw Newt he was going at it on the guitar and it was weirdly hot and made him seem a lot more confident than he actually is. It was weird to think about what a couple instruments and a voice could do to people, how happy it could make them.

Yeah Thomas definitely wasn't used to the whole music scene but he liked it and not just because he got a boyfriend out of it. Yeah Newt was great, but Newt opened him up to this while other world that he was never really a part of before. Rose was always really into it but he just never was, he never saw the appeal of it until Newt. He didn't even really think that he could explain it, but the energy he felt at the concerts pumped him up and maybe that's why people liked it so much. He knew absolutely no one in the crowd besides the group he came with but the fact they were all there to see the same thing almost made him feel connected to them, like he was one of them. And maybe in a way he kinda was.

It wasn't until a week later that Newt called him screaming. Literally screaming. Thomas had to yank the phone away from his ear to avoid his eardrum from being blown out.

He could barely make out Newt's scrambled words of "YOUDONTEVENUNDERSTANDHOWEXCITEDIAMTOMMYDOYOUUNDERSTANDWHATTHISMEANSTOME."

"Newt. Hey. Newt...NEWT," Thomas screamed into the phone which finally shut the boy up. "How about you take a deep breath then SLOWLY tell me what's going on."

He heard Newt take a breath before he slowly spoke into the phone. "We're opening for the Blink 182 tour."

Shit now he knew why Newt was screaming. Newt idolized Blink 182, I mean, he named his cat after them.

"Tommy do you get it, I get to meet Matt Skiba! Matt Skiba! I get to play on the same stage as m a t t  s k i b a!"

Thomas felt himself smiling softly. "I'm really happy for you Newt."

"I think I'm going into cardiac arrest Tommy."

"You're not going to go into cardiac arrest."

"BLINK 182 TOMMY."

"Really? You haven't mentioned that before. How did that happen?"

"Me and Min and Teresa went to meet that guy who came up to us at the festival. We went to his office like three hours ago and we talked about so much stuff. He said he was helping manage Blink's tour and they were in need of an opening act and that we should consider it. I mean of course we said yes, I held it together pretty well in front of him but Minho and Teresa knew how much I was dying inside so as soon as we left and got into the car I screamed as loud as I could, I swear I saw stars. This is literally a dream come true, Tommy I still feel like I'm dreaming."

"You deserve it," Thomas said matter of factly and it was true. Newt did deserve it, they worked so hard and he was so good, he was good enough to play on the stage with the men he idolized.

"I'm gonna cry, Tommy I'm gonna meet them and make a fool of myself. Oh my god what do I even say to them?! Bloody hell I'm meeting the men who inspired me to play guitar, to form a band do you understand how big this is for me?! I know opening act isn't that big of a deal for us but we're opening for BLINK 182!"

"So now do I have to worry about you leaving me for whatever his name is?"

"Matt Skiba. You better learn the name of the man we're going to have a threesome with."

Thomas snorted out a laugh. "I'll keep that in mind."

Newt paused. "You're still going to come right?"

"Yeah Newt, I'll still come."

"Tommy?"

"Yeah?"

"I haven't smoked since the festival."

Thomas felt himself smiling. "Newt?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Newt hesitated a moment which made Thomas scrunch up his eyebrows in confusion.

"Hey do you think you can you come over?"

"Yeah," Thomas frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"Maybe," Newt said shortly. It was like a complete change from the beginning of the phone call when he was screaming of pure uncontainable excitement.

"Hey, seriously, Newt is everything okay?"

He heard Newt swallow hard. "Yeah, everything is okay."

The phone line clicked dead which made Thomas' heart rate pick up. Newt said everything was fine, he had no reason to not believe him.

Except Newt was a damn liar and everything was definitely not fine.

____
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(look guys I charged my phone)