We Came Alone but Left Together

I was sat at my desk, clicking through my emails as was ritual. I got about 18 a day, so I had to delete junk and make sure they didn’t build up. That’s when it caught my eye. “New photo comments” that’s what lead me to MySpace. When I went to my MySpace homepage, I saw I had a new message too. It was from forever the sickest kids, some random pop-punk band that Loren tried to drag me into. I opened the message idly, chewing a hangnail.

“Hey Sophiinder,
(That’s your name, no syke?)

You entered into the competition, to guess which member of the band would be the first to break, what they had given up
Jonathan – wearing baseball caps
Kyle – dying his hair
Caleb – flirting
Kent – polishing his keys
Marc – sleeping with the light on
Austin – wearing Capri pants.
In which we would choose two separate suggestions with good reasons
Well, we thought yours was hilarious...”

I stared at the screen at utter disbelief. My entry was a total joke. I was actually really harsh about the red haired one. My entry was short and sweet, and insulting.
‘The red haired one. Live journal says he’s a man-slut.’ I laughed even recalling it.

“We have selected you to join us on vans warped tour. Along with the other winner.
And may we just say, live journal has the right impression.
He’s going to love you.

FTSK (Austin)”

I sat there and stared at the screen for almost ten minutes. Until I burst out in shriek of laughter. The fact there was millions of girls that had tried out for this, and thought about it properly made me laugh so hard. And the fact they chose me. I was most definitely going. Despite the fact, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the band; I simply had to be at warped. It was all set, I was going.

I decided to write a sincere reply. After all, they had chosen me.

“Dear FTSK,
Let me just say thanks guys! I mean for choosing mine.
Obviously, I meant no offence to the red haired one.
But live journal is the equivalent to the bible to teenage girls.

Could you send me details; where I need to be, when, what sort of clothes to bring, money situation, and how long is warped?
Thanks a lot.

And it’s just Sophii.
Sophiinder’s a nickname,
But Austin fer real?
Like Austin powers?

Sophii xx”

I figured that was good enough. And that they also wouldn’t think I was this total bitch.
But then I also guessed that they would think I was stupid, I mean what teenager doesn’t know how long warped is right?
Me! I only just moved to America. I was so used to my little town back in England, things in America were pretty new to me, and 3 months just isn’t very long.

The reply from the band was really random, But super helpful.

“Hello again, Austin had to go improve his masculinity, so he was prepared for female company.
Its Jonathan here, we all laughed at your entry, even Caleb. Which makes a total change, he usually takes major offence when people make his intentions sound less innocent, shall we say?

Okay, warped is like 2 months?
You won’t need a lot of money, were funding your trip.
But you will be expected to sleep on our bus, with all of us.
You will both have separate bunks, obviously.
It will be very hot, so bring summer clothes. But be prepared for rain. And I would say comfortable shoes, because obviously warped means crowds, great bands, etc.
Also, could we exchange numbers, for the sake of keeping in touch between now and Wednesday?

Ya’ll might think about investing in an IPod, travelling is really tedious.
Jonathan. Xx
(Yes it’s really Austin.)”

This should be fun.