Stranded

The ride to the airport in my mother’s extra car was made less awkward as I turned up Blink 182 loud enough so that it left no room for talking. I didn’t want to do that. Also, it covered up the noise when he started tapping his fingers on his thigh, which I found highly annoying. I sang quietly along to “Story of a Lonely Guy” (which was one of my favorite songs) and pretty soon, Alex had joined me.

“So read my book with a boring ending, a short story of a lonely guy.” I laughed while singing. It was my favorite line in the song, and I always let my Texan accent seep through when I sang it. I found it funny because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop from sounding hick.

With that mix being done, I popped in my Less Than Jake mix, proudly labeled ‘The Best LTJ Mix EVAHHH!’ First of all, “Bad Scene and a Basement Show” came on, my all time favorite Less Than Jake song.

“You and Rian are musical soul mates, I swear.” Alex commented, turning it down. I slapped his hand from the dial lightly, turning it back up. “And like Zack being the volume Nazi.” He laughed.

“I like my music is all.” I shrugged, glad we were finally at the airport. I pulled up to the side, going to wait in the car while Alex hopped out to gather his friend who liked to randomly show up where he was. I made a mental note to ask him why he was here when he came out.

“What’s up, girl?” Vicky greeted, practically pouncing into my backseat.

“Uh, hi?” I said, a little confused, Gabe occupied Alex’s previous seat. “Why did you just randomly decide to visit Utah? It can’t be for the weather…” I grumbled, remembering all the times in the spring when it was supposed to be sunny and warm when it actually snowed.

“I was reading this fantastic singer’s blog and they mentioned they were hanging in Utah for the next day or two.” Gabe replied while shining his nails on his shirt.

“I didn’t mention anything about Utah…” Alex put in; I pulled out of the lot, turning down the music now that I actually wanted to talk to the people in the car.

“Who said anything about you? I’m talking about your awesome ‘Remembering Sunday’ buddy.” Gabe clapped a hand on my shoulder and I blushed furiously, not used to the compliment.

“Thanks.” I mumbled, doing a head check as I switch lanes, mainly so that he couldn’t see my blush. “Though it’s a little creepy you know about my blog…”

“I’m not kidding! All the youtube comments praising this girl!” Gabe continued. “You’d think she was Madonna or something!”

“I’d prefer being compared to a millipede.” I grumbled, I hated Madonna and all that she stood for. Gabe looked over at me and smiled, then turned back to Alex.

“She’s cool, why didn’t you mention her before? Instead I had to find out about her all by myself. You’re a bad friend.”

“Don’t you have normal things to do?” Alex asked, apparently a little grumpy that he had given up his seat unintentionally. I was glad Gabe had stolen it from him as a matter of fact. Gabe laughed, turning almost fully in his seat to smack Alex’s leg. Uncharacteristically, I hoped it hurt. I immediately felt bad for my thought.

“We’re taking a breather before our next tour…”

“When are you going on tour? I would seriously love to see you guys again…I don’t get to see very many bands were I live…” I trailed off.

“Yeah, in the fall!” Vicky said, leaning up to say it in my ear. “It’s going to be fantastic! Want to come?” I raised an eyebrow at her, looking at her briefly before turning my attention back to the road. “What? I want to assure female presence…I don’t like the sausage fest…a girl needs some girl time.” She defended herself.

I shrugged, not really taking the question seriously. “I don’t know. I plan on starting up some more art classes and I have deadlines to meet and all this other crap that I’ve been seriously slacking on since I came on tour with All Time Low.” I rambled; sometimes I just didn’t know when to stop talking.

“Oh yeah, for our New York date, you’re meeting up with Marky from Glamour Kills.” Alex told me from the back. “I sent him some pictures of your work and whatnot, he says that there may be a part for you on their designing staff. Then he ranted about some girl quitting because she did blahblahblah. I don’t remember.”

“Oh.” I blinked, about two weeks ago he told me that Marky wasn’t really looking for anyone to add to their art staff. Plus, I didn’t think I was really that great at clothing…apart from all the original designs I made for the characters in my animations. “That’s great.” I sounded a little less enthusiastic than I wanted to be, but that was because I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to show all my excitement, what with me driving and everything.

By the time we actually got back home since Gabe and Vicky wanted a detour to grab some Café Rio, I was suffering from a food baby (Café Rio had the best Mexican food in Utah, but they tended to give you way too much food) and Jack and Makahla were home. So were the rest of the boys and my sister.

“Hey, Kay-Kay! Look who decided to hop on a plane just to hang out!” I shouted, entering the house. She looked over the couch at Gabe and Vicky T., her eyes bugging in a very anime-like style.

“Holy cheese nuggets!” Cheese nuggets? That was a new one. She stood up as fast as she could without falling over and hobbled over to us, engulfing them both in a hug. They immediately hugged back, the happy friendly people they were.

“How was your date?” I couldn’t wait anymore, I had to ask because she had a smile way too big to be just from meeting two members of Cobra Starship. “Fun, I presume?”

“It was so fun. Neither of us really know our way around Utah, so we just drove to the mall and we had fun creeping people out, and barely anyone stopped Jack and asked for his autograph. Then—this is the best part, trust me—we went to the mini glow golf place and we played miniature golf!”

“Uhhh….yeah, that’s what people normally do at that place…” I said slowly.

“No! It was…never mind, you would’ve had to have been there…the things that Jack says are best left unrepeated.” She shook her head.

“Sometimes, I need mind soap.” Rian interjected, coming from the kitchen with a glass of milk. I want apple juice…I wandered out to the kitchen and poured myself a big glass. I would’ve grabbed an apple also, but I was still way to full from Café Rio.

“So…what are we going to do now guys?” Gabe said excitedly and bounced a little on the couch.

“We have the bus back!” Matt came bursting into the house, super excited for obvious reasons. I cheered with everyone else, excitedly to finally be back in the bus with Makahla, and not Alex. “Finally, huh?” Matt added.

“I have a football on the bus!” Jack shouted, and ran out the door. Wow, so much was happening right now.

“I’ll be the ref!” Makahla went out the door after him. I left my glass half empty on the stand and followed everyone out to the large field behind my house. Everyone in the neighborhood had at least one acre.

“Tackle or touch?”

“Hmmm….” Rian and Zack looked at Vicky, Alley, and I, to which we exchanged looks also.

“Tackle.” We responded at the same time.