Hummingbird

The kids in line were going crazy, “when will Chris be here?” “Is he doing a signing?” It was driving me insane!

Somehow at the beginning of the summer, Chris had convinced me to go on tour with him as his merch girl. Why had I done it? Oh yeah, because we’ve been friends since we were kids. Ever since we were little he’s had these big dreams about becoming a musician. When we were at the park, he’d always stare at the street performers, occasionally bringing change just to give to them. Finally when we got to middle school, he would invite me over just to show me what he had secretly been practicing on his dad’s old guitar. When it came time for his birthday, I told his dad what Chris had wanted, and he surprised him with a guitar. Ever since, Chris has been writing and singing to at first, small groups, then larger ones, and finally to the crowds of Warped Tour.

Sighing, I handed the screaming girl her poster and T-shirt, helping the next girl in line. Secretly, one of the main reasons I had come on tour with Chris is because one of my favorite bands, Escape the Fate, was going to be playing as well. I’ve had a major crush on Craig Mabbitt since his Blessthefall days. I had been so upset when Ronnie was kicked out because I didn’t know what was going to happen to the band, and then when Craig got kicked out of BTF, I wasn’t sure what would happen with him. Then Craig saved Escape the Fate from sure failure when he became their new lead singer. But it’s been almost a full week into the tour, and the most of Escape the Fate (or Craig) that I’ve seen is their merch tent, or the on stage when there’s was right next to Chris’s one day.

Back to reality. Finally, all of today’s merchandise was disappearing; we had sold most of what was meant for today. After another half hour of dealing with screaming fans, I had sold the last wristband, shirt, poster, and EP. For the first time all week, I would be able to go out and explore on my own. I just had to go backstage and find Chris first to tell him. Grabbing my water bottle (it was way to hot to go without one), I told the guy in charge of watching all the vacant tents that I was off. He nodded to me, and with that, I was off.

First, I had to find Chris. He was either in our bus, or backstage. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to bring my cell phone along today, and checked the screen. 2:45. There was still an hour until Chris and The Shout would go onstage, but I had a feeling that they would all be hanging out there. Making my way over to the Smartpunk stage, I was pushed and shoved by more people than I could count. What should have been a five-minute walk, at most, turned into a 20-minute journey. But finally, I made it to the metal fence that stood between me and my best friend. Flashing the security guard my pretty purple bracelet that let me anywhere, I walked right on through. Caleb, of course, was the first to see me.

“Niki!” He shouted. “What are you doing away from our wonderful little tent?”

Smiling, I replied, “Sold out.”

With this, every member of The shout turned to give each other and myself a high five. “Hey guys, where’s Chris?” I wondered out loud.

“He was right here..” Hayden told me.

All of a sudden, I felt my feet lift the ground. “Boo!” Chris yelled. He set me down, and I turned to face him.

“Christopher Drew Ingle, must you really sneak up on people like that?” I said smiling. His answer was an over ecstatic nod, a huge grin plastered on his face. All the guys were laughing at this point.

“Hey guys, I forgot my lucky pick in my bus, I’ll be right back. Hey, Nik, come help me find it.”
I said bye to the guys and looped my arm through Chris’s. Bracing myself for the sure screaming and pushing fans, I moved closer to my best friend. Of course, the second we walked through the gate, a group of girls saw us. Because we were without the “required safety measures for each band member”, we had to take off running. Sprinting through the crowds earning a too late look from many fans, we caused too much attention. We had barely made it to the metal gates that marked the buses before almost every girl and a couple boys in our path had noticed us. Once we made it through, we both stopped and caught our breath. Once that was done, we walked over to our bus. It was a pretty good size, and somehow they fit eight bunks in it. Sure, it was a tight fit, but it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t live with. The worst part was me being the only girl stuck on a bus with seven guys for almost 3 months. The only reason my mom had agreed to let me go (she wasn’t so sure about the one girl seven guys thing) was that I had been friends with Chris and Caleb for practically my whole life, and Chris’s manager was a friend to both mine and Chris’s families.

While Chris looked for his “special guitar pick”, I decided to change into a different outfit. I grabbed some clothes from my bag and traveled over to the small bathroom to change. Deciding on my NeverShoutNever shirt (I had to support my best friend), and some colorful shorts and Converse, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, Chris wasn’t. His entire suitcase, or so it seemed to be, was spilled out onto his bed. His face was distressed as he pulled the contents on another bag out onto the floor. He looked up at me with a panicked look on his face. Smiling, I reached over his head to grab the book on his pillow. In it was his guitar pick that I had remembered him using as a bookmark late last night.

“Here you go,” I grinned while he blushed as I handed him the little lime green object. I looked around at his newly made mess, and started picking up clothes that had fallen onto the floor. Either it was picked up now, or Chris’s clothes would “mysteriously” go missing tonight. The Shout guys would have too much fun with this is if they were to come back with all of Christopher’s belongings piled everywhere. All the bands had a mini prank war going on, and most of the time it was band members playing pranks on each other.

By the time we had finished, there was about 15 minutes until NeverShoutNever would perform. Throwing a forgotten shirt into his suitcase, Chris and me raced off the bus, ready to push our way through the crowds. It took almost 10 minutes to go from the buses back through the metal gates the marked the area behind the Smartpunk stage, and the guys were frantic when we arrived. Letting Chris catch his breath so that he could give a killer performance, I hurriedly tuned his guitars and uke. When the last string was tuned to perfection, The Shout was already making their way onto the stage. I ran to give Chris his first guitar, and then sprinted to the other side of the stage to put his uke and Dove onto their stands where Chris would grab them later during the set. I walked off to the side so that I wouldn’t get in Taylor’s way, and looked at Chris as he walked onto the stage.

“Hello, Houston!” He cried into the mic. In response, there were hundreds of screams.

“This first song is a single that makes me very Happy.” Right as he started to sing, he turned and smiled at me.