Before It's Over

My days off of touring were spent with Ross. One might think that living with a person for weeks and suffering from intense heat, an offensively smelly van, limited hygiene and other trials and tribulations of Warped, might make you hate each other. I didn't know if that was true for some, but as for me and Ross, it had the opposite effect.

The time that I wasn't spending with my best friend, was spent texting Kyle. Over the course of the week, Kyle became a person I could talk to about a lot of things. Once I had opened up to him about how I felt about my brother that night in the bus lot, it was easy to tell him other things. We talked about our childhoods and our parents. Kyle told me about his first concert with Marc. I told Kyle about the summers I spent with Ross and Evan.

When I first realized how easy it was for Kyle and I to get along that well, I was a bit scared. In the short amount of time I spent away from tour, we had gotten to know each other so well. I was worried. I know from previous experience with boys, that I take a liking to them too easily. Travis was a perfect example; we had buddied up right away. However, my friendship with Travis wasn't the same as my friendship with Kyle. Travis wasn't interested in me like Kyle was.

I was constantly reminding myself of the conversation I had with Caleb the night I slept over on the FTSK bus. Every time I did, I felt awful for letting Kyle get as close as he had. Although there were times when I wanted to avoid Kyle's texts at all costs, I was willing to admit that sometimes I missed talking to him. However, I would miss Kyle and the rest of Warped Tour no longer! The Forgetting Curve was on its way to Orlando, Florida.

It was nice to be in the van again. It had sort of become a second home for the guys and me, and we missed it like we had missed Texas. I was driving, singing loudly to Say Anything with Ross. Shane was sleeping, the lump. Aiden was talking to Adam, which was my favorite way to see my brother. Adam sort of brought down his OCD level.

"Don't you look at her! Don't you even say a word!"

"Avery," Shane spoke, his head popping up from behind the back seat. "Why don't you sing more often?"

"Because I have no reason to." I answered easily.

"Didn't Ryan ask you to sing with him at his acoustic set?" Adam asked. He was always butting in on other people's conversations.

"Yeah," I answered. "So?"

"Doesn't that count as a reason?"

"No," I answered. "That counts as a request. I can choose to say yes or not."

"I think it's a good idea," Aiden said, looking up from some Warped papers. "Widen the fan base, won't it?"

"Yeah! People will, like, get to know you at the sets, and you can tell them to check out our stuff!" Ross said excitedly, hitting my shoulder.

"But our bands sound nothing alike!" I argued.

"So? Maybe Between the Trees fans are varied. Maybe they like a lot of different kinds of music. Ya know?" Adam offered.

"Yeah," Aiden agreed, catching my eye in the rearview mirror. "As your manager, as well as your older brother, I'm demanding you sing at the Between the Trees acoustic set today."

;;

The minute I had turned off the engine, Ross flung himself out of the passenger door.

"Warped Tour!" He shouted, flinging his arms up in the air. "I've missed you!"

As I exited the van I saw Curtis Ward and Matt Nicholls looking at Ross weirdly as they passed. Understandable, since he had started spinning in circles with his hands still in the air. I laughed at my best friend and headed around to the trailer where Aiden had already started unloading the merch tent and tubs of merch.

Shane appeared behind me to help with the merch as well. Shane and Aiden grabbed the tent and I grabbed a tub labeled '$HIRT$' in thick Sharpie. Ross was still spinning when I passed by with the tub. I shook my head and headed into the busy venue.

Doors weren't open yet, but there were tons of people running around. Stages and tents were being built and inflatable water slides were being blown up. Alicia, of the Warped staff, waved to me quickly as we crossed paths. I saw the boys setting up the tent on the end of Merch Avenue next to Mayday Parade's. I put the tub down in front of tent and started helping in the effort to get it standing. Once the tent was up Ross, who had been unloading the rest of the tubs with Adam, was able to set up the merch with me. The rest of the guys went off to catering while Ross and I started inventory.

"I just counted three-hundred EPs even," I said to Ross a few minutes later.

I watched him write it down before turning to the tub holding black t-shirts. Just as I was about to kneel down next to tub, a certain voice caught my attention.

"Avery!"

I turned quickly and smiled at Ryan and Wes as they approached our tent. I stood up again and ran around our table to meet them half way. When we did, I gave both the boys short, friendly hugs. Ryan was wearing a To Write Love On Her Arms shirt, a regular occurrence, and Wes sported a plain white tee.

"How was break, Ave?" Ryan asked, following me back into the shade of our tent. "I feel like I haven't seen you for a while."

"You haven't," I said. "I'm sorry about that. There was just a lot of drama with Kyle and working the tent and playing-"

"It's fine, Ave. Besides, I have an idea of how you can make it up to me," Ryan said, leaning against our table.

Wes smiled and said, "It's a good idea."

I laughed and sat down next to the tub of shirts again. I started making piles of ten shirts, trying to count in my head and still pay attention to Ryan and Wes. It seemed as if I could try balancing my work with time with friends rather well. Normally, I'm rather bad at multi-tasking.

"So what is it I can do?" I asked, starting the second pile of ten.

"You can sing at our acoustic set! I've only been asking you since we met," Ryan noted.

I nodded in agreement with a smile, saying "Yeah, you have. I guess I could sing with you today, Ry."

"Yes!" Ryan and Wes shouted before coming over and giving my rather clumsy hugs.

"Well, we got a interview to get to, but we'll tell you when the set is later. Well work out what song to sing and stuff too."

As Ryan spoke excitedly, he had already started backing out of the tent. The smile on his face was wide and it reminded me of someone I wanted to see. Ryan and Wes waved once before turning down Merch Avenue back in the direction of the buses. I laughed, deciding I was in a good mood and started making my third pile of shirts.

"Way to introduce me to your friends, Avery," Ross said sarcastically from the other side of the tent. He was smiling though, so I could tell he wasn't really upset.

"Come to the acoustic show, then. I'll introduce you."

"Introduce who to who?"

I froze at the voice. I must be really popular this morning. I turned my head to the right with a smile, and my eyes landed on a pair of camo shorts. I raised my eyes to the head of peroxide blond hair that I had missed. Kyle's smile was wider than normal and his arms were outstretched in expectation. I laughed, stood, and walked quickly into his embrace.

I only came up to the middle of Kyle's chest so Kyle had to hunch his body so he could rest his head on top of mine. When we separated Kyle took a big breath and let it out slowly.

"Hi Avery," Kyle said smiling down at me.

"Hi Kyle. How was tour without having me to bother?" I asked playfully, leading him back under the tent like I had done with Ryan and Wes not two minutes before.

"Miserable," Kyle exaggerated. "All I could do was poke Jonathan in the side repeatedly! It was torture."

Kyle plopped down into the grass next to me. I started my piles again and noticed Ross had stopped counting out bracelets.

"Hi Kyle," he greeted.

"Oh, hey Ross. What's up man?"

"Oh you know, getting back to Warped Tour. What about you?"

"Oh you know," Kyle mocked. "Catching up with Avery."

"Well, I'll leave you to that then," Ross said to Kyle as he smiled slyly at me. "Ave, we'll finish inventory after we both get breakfast."

Ross Callum Cessford is my best friend for many reasons. His matchmaker tendencies and commitment to the quest to set me up with someone are not on that list.

;;

It seemed that unimportant news travels fast at Warped Tour. Besides my band, only Kyle knew of my plans to sing at the Between the Trees acoustic set. Yet, somehow, the acoustic show was packed with other Warped Tour acts. Travis and Zack from All Time Low stood in the corner of the Myspace tent chatting quietly with each other as Ryan tuned his guitar next to me. Evan and his goofy band mate, Davey Hoogerwerf, were goofing off in front of the tent, waiting for the set to start. That was bad enough, but for some reason, members of well established bands showed up at the set, including William Beckett and Adam Siska, Andrew McMahon, and Stephan Christian of Anberlin. I had never personally met these amazing performers, aside from Ross' encounter with William in the catering line, and yet they were here to watch a little acoustic show.

"Ryan," I whispered so that I didn't draw attention to our conversation. "Are all these people normally here to watch your set?"

Ryan smiled slyly and shook his head. "Travis comes occasionally, but everybody else wants to hear you sing."

"Why?" I asked nervously. Talk about pressure.

"You and your band attract more attention than you give yourselves credit for. That, and I'm pretty sure Kyle spread the word."

"Of course he did," I said dropping my head into my hands.

Ryan chuckled at me and I mock glared at him. He strummed his guitar once and tapped the mic in front of him. A sizeable group of Warped goers were circled around the tent with cameras at the ready.

"Hey," Ryan said shortly into his mic. "Hopefully you guys know I'm Ryan from this wonderful state of Florida, but this pretty girl next to me isn't a member of Between th Trees. So, guys, this is Avery Goodman from the Forgetting Curve. Everyone say hi to Ave."

"Hi Avery!" The crowd said with giggles, like kindergarteners answering their teacher.

I waved sheepishly and cleared my throat. "Hey, guys."

"Now be nice to her. She's not used to being the one in front of the mic," Ryan said. "So, I know we normally do requests, but we're gonna start with something Avery really likes."

Ryan took the first verse and the crowd instantly began to sing along. He smiled at me and we sang the chorus together and I heard Evan whooping obnoxiously in the back of the small crowd.

Stand close to me
Don’t sail way, baby
Let them see your heart
Let 'em see just how beautiful you are
You're like no body else

I fumbled the next line when I saw Kyle's smiling face towering over the crowd. I looked away, embarrassed, and turned my attention to Ryan's guitar playing. We continued the song with the crowd singing along. When it ended, claps and cheers followed. I smiled at the crowd nervously until Kyle and I locked eyes. He waved childishly and I silently smiled and shook my head.

Kyle had either weaseled his way trough a crack in the layers of walls I had built around myself or was breaking them down steadily. Whichever it was, it seemed that whatever he was doing made me a bit more open to everyone else as well. I hadn't decided if that was a good thing or not.