The Words to Define These Feelings

I slammed my fist down on the alarm clock buzzer and fell out of bed, purposefully, and lay on the floor for five minutes. “Paige!” I yelled into the carpet, before lifting my head to yell more properly. “Paige, it’s time to get ready for work Paige!”

“I’m already awake” Paige replied, poking her head in the doorway. She was dressed for work, a glass of orange juice in her hand. “I didn’t stay up late last night staring at my computer.”

“Know what” I grumbled, picking myself up off the floor with a great amount of difficulty. “If your computer had Caleb’s face stuck in it, you would stare at it.” Paige laughed and patted my head and went back to the kitchen while I got ready. I pulled on my favorite hoodie over my work shirt (it was an FTSK hoodie that Kyle had donated to me ‘Because you’re cold lots and this can keep you warm even when I can’t’) and waltzed into the kitchen.

“What do you and Kyle even talk about for so long that necessitates you staying up till ungodly hours of the night?” Paige asked, quirking an eyebrow at me.

“Well um…” Our conversations were never really important. I think we both just liked to be able to see that the other still existed. The ‘I Love Redheads’ tour had ended about three months ago; Valentine’s Day was in a week. “Nothing really. Last night we talked about the article a little bit, he says the pictures I took of him make him look fat.” I rolled my eyes and Paige laughed.

“And are you ever going to tell me what happened ‘that one night’?” Paige had a grin on her face, and I groaned. I’d been avoiding telling her that Kyle and I had sex, even though I wanted to tell her, I could sense endless teasing. My usual response to questions about that night was ‘none of your business’ as Caleb had said to Kyle and I.

“Fine…but I’d think that you could’ve guessed. I mean really, it’s not that hard.” Paige squealed and covered her mouth.

“I KNEW it; I just wanted to hear it out of your mouth. Caleb thought he heard noises.” I groaned and slapped my palm to my forehead, feeling my face turn pink. “Oh calm down, don’t be embarrassed. Caleb and I just snuggled the whole night.” We both just kind of sat there and looked at each other.

“I miss him Paige” I said softly, hugging the soft hoodie closer to me and sniffling.
“It’s okay…I miss Caleb too. We should go to work.” I glanced at the clock and jumped, we had to be at the AP offices in half an hour. I darted into my room and grabbed my camera bag, and we were out the door.

Today I had a photo shoot with Andrew McMahon, which I was more than a little excited for. “I’ll see you later” Paige whispered to me before sitting down at her desk and gathering her things for her interview with Fall Out Boy.

“JEALOUS!” I yelled after her as she darted off. But Mike stopped her at the end of the hallway and re-directed her to me.

“I’ve got another assignment for you two” he said quietly, leading us to his office with a bounce in his step. I grinned over at Paige and giggled excitedly. These surprise assignments excited me quite a lot. We followed Mike into his office, where he sat behind his desk and smiled at us.

“I would tell you what your assignment is” he began, clearly trying to keep his excitement to a minimum. “But I thought I’d have your subjects today tell you instead, as I know that you’re both very fond of your subjects and I thought it’d be fun for them to tell you. But” he said, wagging a finger at both of us. “You have to finish your work before they tell you anything.”

“DAMMIT” I yelled, even though my insides were twisting with anticipation. Mike laughed and shooed us away. “MAYBE FALL OUT BOY AND JACK’S MANNEQUIN ARE TOURING TOGETHER!” I announced, causing both of us to fall down laughing. That was an unlikely possibility.

“Okay I’m gonna go now” Paige said, running off to get her interview over with. I smiled and stood up, eager to go photograph one of my idols.

I walked into my small studio, where Andrew was already seated on (yes on, not at) a baby grand piano. “Hullo” I said, waving shyly. “I hope you haven’t been waiting too long, my boss wanted to torture me a bit before I actually did any work today.”

“Hi!” Andrew said, hopping off the piano and shaking my hand. “You must be Phoebe. And no, I haven’t been here more than five minutes.” I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. “I’m guessing you want to do this quick so you can find out what your next assignment is?”

“No!” I said hurriedly, blushing and beginning to set up all of my equipment. “I’m gonna take my time and make these pictures awesome, don’t worry.” The photo shoot progressed quickly, consisting of me giving poor Andrew a mini interview and him answering each stupid question with a smile. Andrew helped me pack up my stuff, and when everything was back in it’s place and we were both ready to go, he started to leave.

“WAIT!” I yelled, blocking the door. “Aren’t you gonna tell me what my assignment is?!”

“Oh yeah!” he said, laughing and sitting himself down behind the baby grand. He played the opening notes to ‘Drunk Girl’ and I raised an eyebrow at him curiously. He sang the first verse, and I leaned against the piano, completely confused. “I know I am not the one, I know I am not the one!” He paused, his fingers hesitating over the keys, before he slammed them down again and sang a different chorus. “YOU’RE GOING ON WARPED TOUR!” he sang, and I squealed, pulling him away from the piano in an enormous hug.
“So you’re excited?” he asked, laughing and patting my back.

“I’m excited!” I yelled, bouncing up and down. “Thank you Andrew” I said quickly, hugging him again and holding the door open for him to go. I bolted out the door and over to Mike’s office.

“He told you?” Mike asked, not looking up from a pile of papers on his desk.

“Mmm” I nodded like a bobble head. “Where’s Paige.”

“She’s on the roof I think” Mike said, but I was out of his office as soon as I heard the word roof. I burst through the heavy metal door and indeed, Paige was sitting there with Fall Out Boy in a little half circle in front of her.

“I don’t get it” she said, and I flitted over to her to see what she was looking at. The interview had clearly ended, as her recorder and paper lay next to her. In her hand was handful of photographs. She fanned them out in her hand, and I giggled. Warped wood, warped metal, warped plastic, each object in the photographs was warped.

“Think about it” Patrick said, leaning forward and looking at each one. “These all have something in common.”

“Yeah, they’re all deformed or something” she commented, a puzzled expression set on her face.

“There’s a special word for these kinds of deformities” Andy added, and I giggled again, keeping my hand pressed to my mouth.

“Be quiet!” Paige yelled, swatting at me and causing me to only giggle more. “Oh, they’re all warped. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well” Pete said, grinning over at me. “What do you think your assignment would have to do with that word Paige?”

“Warped…warped…warped” she repeated, her eyebrows furrowing together. “OH!” she cried, leaping out of her chair.

“I think she got it” Joe whispered, and I started giggling even more.

“WE’RE GOING ON WARPED TOUR!” Paige yelled, running over to me and hugging me tightly. “Thank you guys, the interview was excellent” she said hurriedly, shaking all of their hands and smiling brightly. I hugged them and ran away. We returned to Mike’s office, where he glanced up at us and laughed at the giddy expressions on our faces.

“I want you both to cover Warped Tour. The FTSK thing was such a hit; we’re going to do something similar for Warped. You’ll have a special website to upload pictures and videos to, and you can post blogs and stuff like that. I want to do a special issue of AP all about Warped Tour when it’s over. Paige, you’ll be interviewing every band on tour, Phoebe, you’ll be photographing every band on tour. I want you to get fans in on this too, and techs and merch guys too. I want this issue to have everyone’s opinion on Warped.” He smiled and I swear, I was going to cry with happiness. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. “The kickoff party is in April, and the tour itself starts June 26th.”

“Do we get our own tour bus?” I asked sarcastically, causing Mike to smile even more.

“Actually, I figured you’d rather be with one of the bands.” I raised an eyebrow at him and bit my lip. That could prove awkward if we didn’t know the band that well.

“And what band will we be rooming with Mike? 3Oh!3?” I burst out laughing, and Mike rolled his eyes at us.

“No. I can arrange that though, if you’d like.” We shook our heads and Mike nodded knowingly. We liked 3OH!3, but that would be a little too crazy. “The band is at your apartment right now, I think they have pizza for you. You can take the rest of the day off to get to know them, but I expect you both here tomorrow ready for work, we have Blink 182 tomorrow remember?”

We both nodded and ran home, literally. We were both panting when we reached the door, and I hesitated with my key in the door. Why would Mike let a random band hang out at our apartment? “Ready?” I asked Paige, smiling up at her.

“I suppose” she said, shrugging and smiling back. I turned the key, and pushed the door open. I was greeted with the sight of six boys sitting at our kitchen table, and this time, I think I did let a tear leak from my eye.

“Guess who you guys get to share a bus with for two months?!” Jonathan yelled. They all had huge smiles on their faces. After staring at each other, they all got up and Paige and I ran into the apartment, and we met in a huge group hug. “We missed you guys.”

I felt myself being tugged out of the group, and soon I was wrapped up in Kyle’s arms, his lips pressed to mine. “I missed you more than any of them did” he whispered, a goofy grin on his face. Caleb and Paige had disappeared already; Paige was never one for PDA. I’m guessing he grabbed her before the group hug even ensued. The other four were already on the couch starting up the PS3, arguing over what game to play. I rolled my eyes and tugged Kyle off to my room, where we sat on the bed and he kissed my cheek.

“I missed you too Kyle” I said, resting my head on his shoulder. He tilted my head towards him gently and kissed me again, less eager than the first time and more sweet. “I missed you a lot.”

“Are you ready for Warped Tour?” he asked, lying down on the bed and pulling me with him. I stayed quiet for a minute while Kyle played with my hair absentmindedly. This was going to be very long, very hard, and very hot. It was going to be fun, but it was going to be an immense amount of work. I smiled up into his bright blue eyes and nodded, kissing his nose gently.

“I’m ready when you are.”