Hope It Gives You Hell

[Sarah's Point Of View]

Things are absolute insanity now. My life now consists of stretched days and insomniatic nights, not much to fill the void in between except Fridays with Gabe and the occasional moments with William. After high school, everything just seems a little strange.

What's worse is that I don't even have anyone to share this time with. In the middle of June, Patti's going with The Academy Is... on Warped. Liz is even going, though she's bunking with Gym Class Heroesuntil Pete gets her and Patrick to make up. Maybe I shouldn't have taken Gabe liking me for granted. Well... it wasn't really taking it for granted. I was scared and I really shouldn't have been.

I'm thinking too much.

That's what happens when I walked around town like I am now. I over-think things and get myself all riled up for nothing. I shouldn't be worried. I should just take in the nice scenery of this park. Trees, the river, Gabe, oh there's a squirrel over... Gabe?!

"Sarah!" He yelled, jumping out of Nate's car and running over to me.

"Uh, hi?" was all I could reply. He just shocked me half to death, coming out of no where.

"We've been looking for you all day!" And to prove his point, he motioned Nate over, who pulled the car to the side of the road, rolled down his window, and waved to me.

"Why?"

"Because, silly. Must we have a reason?" I raised my eyebrows and he sighed. "Okay there's a reason."

"Knew it."

"Come on Warped with us!" He shouted, scaring a few of those squirrels I noted... and some children too.

"Wait, come again?" It sounded like he just said come on Warped with us but I couldn't be sure. Maybe this whole thing was a mirage or a dream...

"You heard me. You have to come on Warped Tour with us. It's been escaping my mind to ask you, but I had someone viciously remind me yesterday, so HERE WE ARE!" He started jumping around, and I'll admit, it was frightening. But hey, I knew I shouldn't have worried.

"Gabriel, please stop having sugared cereal for breakfast."

"Way to ignore my entire statement."

"How am I supposed to go with you? My mom's signing me up for some weird college-prep summer course crap and bla bla bla... I don't think I can go." Sadly, this was all true.

"Damn. Your mom just wants me to hate her, doesn't she?" He thought aloud, then his eyes went wide. "No, that's not what I meant I swear!"

"It's alright, honestly." I couldn't help but laugh at how freaked out he was getting.

"I'm sorry! I just... I meant... ugh, I'm going to shut up now."

"Seriously, it's alright. I'll try my best to convince her to let me go."

"YOU'RE 18 FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" He shouted all of a sudden. "You can make your own decision, and you want to go with us, so you're going. Her worrying about you guys going to the concert alone was reasonable. Her keeping you from being around me was slightly pushing it. Now this is just ridiculous." He looked like he was going to murder someone at this point, and it was really scary.

"Gabe, no! She'll kick me out if you try to make her let me go, and then I won't have anywhere to stay! Don't do anything too drastic!" I tried to reason with him, but I failed epically.

"Nowhere to stay? You think I'm a hobo or something? Good god, you can stay with me, or W- Nate!" He paused and bit his lip for a moment before continuing. "Any of us would let you live with us, you know." Then he grabbed my hand. "We're going to talk to your mom."

"No, really, we can't."

"Yeah. We can. Meet you back at the hotel Nate!" He yelled and signaled to Nate, who nodded and drove off. Then he proceeded to practically drag me back to my house.

"God, no, please don't!" I pleaded the entire way, but he refused to listen to me. When we finally got to my house, he looked at me, and then pointed at the door.

"Alright. Let's do this." Heordered told me, nudging my arm slightly.

"Why now? We have at least a week until Warped starts... can't I spend that last week in my own home?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't make me do this. Sure, I probably should learn how to stand up for myself... but I really didn't want to.

"Quit being dramatic. You and I both know you have to do this." He pointed at the door again, and I sighed, then opened it and walked in. I closed the door behind myself so he wouldn't be able to talk back when my mom started yelling.

"Hey ma, can I talk to you for a second?" I called into the living room, slowly getting more and more nervous.

"Yeah, sure." She answered, not looking up from the computer.

"I wanna go on Warped Tour." I said, not daring to look at her.

"You're not in a band. And you have those college prep courses," was her quick response.

"I've already gotten into the college I want."

"You shouldn't have applied for Washington State. Staying here is better, you won't have to get an apartment or anything. And it's expensive." She looked up for a second, just to glare at me.

"But I want to go there. And I really want to do this."

"There's no reason for you to go on Warped. What are you gonna do, stalk them?"

"A friend of mine in one of the bands invited me to stay with them. Liz and Patti are going to be there too." I winced the moment I mentioned my friends.

"Just because they're doing something doesn't mean you have to too. You're not staying on a bus with a bunch of boys! Wait, this is about Gabe isn't it?" She finally looked up at me, but I could tell she was pissed as hell with me.

"He might have been the one to invite me." I almost whispered, even though that wouldn't help deflect the next blow.

"There's no way in hell I am letting you stay in that kind of enviroment with him. I can understand liking the music, but he doesn't like you, and it's not going to work out, I'm going to tell you that now." She rolled her eyes before turning back to the computer.

"You don't know if he likes me or not." I said stupidly, instantly regretting it. That definitely tore the string.

"Grounded. The entire summer until you take your plane to Washington. I'm calling your uncle and having you stay with him when you start school so he can keep you away from that boy." She stood up and walked into the other room to grab the phone, and I just stared. This did not just happen.

"But-"

"No. Go to your room." I stood slack-jawed for a while longer before it sank it. Slowly, I made my way to the door and opened it up to see Gabe standing there, literally twiddling his thumbs.

"So?" He asked, stupidly hopeful.

"House arrest for the rest of my life. I hope you're happy." A tear or two found its way onto my cheeks before I quietly closed the door in his shocked face.