Warped Tour Should Be the Definition of Fun

I held an ice pack against my nose, sitting on a chair in our band’s tent as I watched Mitchell selling some merch to people. I poked the sore spot on my nose unpurposedly and winced. Boy, did Dani beat my nose pretty well. She’d gotten tougher since the last time I beat the crap out of her.

Alex came into my view, wayfarer covering his eyes. “That wasn’t nice,” he said, taking a seat next to me.

“The fighting?”

“Mmhm. A girl shouldn’t be in a fist fight.”

“It wasn’t really a fist fight.”

“A physical fight, then. While yelling and screaming and swearing, during another people's set? You got our attention back then – I swear we kind of stopped performing for a few seconds because we couldn’t believe what we were too seeing.”

“Well, it’s me and Dani – what do you expect, us holding hands and have sleepovers and shriek over cute guys?”

He scrunched up his nose as if he really was imagining me and Dani being goody-goody with each other. “No, but it’s not my point. You should hold your anger, for Christ sake – or bring the fight somewhere else.”

“She was the one who jumped on me like a fucking cheetah attacking its prey! You expect me to lay back and let her hit me?”

“Not exactly.”

“So what’s your point here, then?”

He shrugged. “I actually have said it but you spoke against it. How about we get some ice cream?”

“Sure, sure.” I threw the ice pack into the cooler next to me and got up. As we exited the tent, I winced as the heat attacked my nose. I couldn’t wear sunglasses because of my nose and the heat made my nose feel sore.

We arrived at the ice cream van just a few meters away from the venue. He got himself a grape popsicle and I got myself a root beer popsicle. I love root beer in any form – liquid, Slurpee, popsicle... you name it.

“Warped’s going to end in a few weeks, are you sad?” Alex asked as he unwrapped his popsicle.

“I guess so,” I answered before licking mine.

“You guess so? Are you nuts?”

“No honey, I’m a human.”

“Ha-ha. Funny. Seriously though, aren’t you going to be sad? I mean it’s your very first Warped and all, and my band is not going to be on Warped next year.”

“Sucks to be you,” I replied.

“Really, Namora! Don’t you feel a little...”

My mind wandered as Alex continued blabbering about the last weeks of Warped and all that stuff. I suddenly remembered about my mom and that I didn’t attend her funeral, it made me feel really guilty. Maybe things were different if I didn’t go to Warped. Maybe, just maybe, Mom would still be alive.

Gosh, I missed Mom. I missed her green eyes and short blonde hair and how the apartment smelled like pancakes or eggs or bacon or coffee in the morning. I still remembered when Mom told me about Dad (I hate him so let’s just call him Dave – that is his name, anyway) – she told me he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her life, and when I saw his picture, she was right. Dave was really good-looking – at least, back then.

Most of my physical appearance was from Dave. Brown hair (I dyed it blonde) and blue eyes, the nose and the mouth and all.

I’ve never seen Dave with my own eyes before. When I was twelve I accidentally found some letters that Mom’s best friend wrote to Mom. It was said that Dave left her when I was only a few months old and she never heard from him again ever since.

Turned out Dave was the boyfriend of Mom’s sister Aunt Stella, and Dave had had this ‘sexual desire’ to Mom for quite some time and when nobody was home Dave found his opportunity and took Mom’s virginity. Mom was pregnant with me when she was only sixteen and Dave didn’t want to be responsible about it. The family hated Mom after that – they accused her for ‘stealing her sister’s boyfriend’ and she got kicked out of the house for having an 'unprotected sex', therefore bringing down the family's reputation.

Mom’s bestfriend Aunt Tiffany let Mom live with her until I was born and she got a job. After I was born, we still lived with Aunt Tiffany for a while (around two years, to be exact) and then we moved to the apartment that I called home until this moment. Aunt Tiffany moved to Rome a few years later because of her husband’s job and all.

Now I was thinking that I would have to live alone now. Mom’s family practically dislike me and Aunt Tiffany is overseas. Not that it would be a problem – I have a job and I have friends that would help.

I blinked as Alex snapped his fingers in front of me. “Are you listening?”

“No. Yes. Maybe,” I answered, licking my popsicle.

“God, you’re such a bitch sometimes.”

“God, you’re such a dick sometimes,” I retorted.

He opened his mouth and was about to reply when I linked our arms together and pulled him back to the venue, reasoning that I wanted to hang out with other people.

I actually couldn’t really wait for Warped to be over – I needed my home.