Just Like You

At two, it's gotten pretty quiet, at least as quiet as Warped ever gets. It's just after the initial crush and before the built up excitement busts out. For now, people have been here for a while and have gotten out the pre-show excitement. Some people are still tickling in, but everyone who's going to come has already gotten here. The first bands have gone and have done it up to the excited crowds. Now there's an air of comfort as people relax and start talking about what bands they want to see, the ones they want to meet, and the merch booths they hit. Everyone's walking around as the bands not playing and the merchies are just chilling in their tents to hide from the sun.

Oli and I are sitting behind Drop Dead/Bring Me The Horizon's table, just talking about shit. His merch guy, Dave, is helping the occasional fan with the shirts. They have a signing in two hours and that's when it'll get really busy. There's a crowd across the way for the Dropkick Murphys, so we're basically left alone.

I'm sitting on Oli's lap, not really paying attention to the conversation. I rest my head on his shoulder, sighing a little as his fingers trace little patterns onto my hip. My long legs are stretched out in front of me to rest on the table. The last strands of sunlight are hitting them, tanning over my tan.

Oli absentmindedly kisses my exposed shoulder in my tank top and I turn my head to kiss his cheek. I'm sleepy from my late night last night and all I want to do is just cuddle with him. He smiles at me and gives my hip a little squeeze. His eyes are full of promise and anticipation for tonight.

I smile at the thought of what's going to happen tonight and I know I'm not going to be getting a lot of sleep tonight either.

Dave distracts Oli with a question and I content myself with laying my head back down. I watch the small crowd walk by through half closed eyes, a lazy smile on my lips. I feel Oli ghost a kiss on my head as my eyelids droop in sleep.

The next thing I know, Oli's shaking me away. “I don't wanna wake you, but we're up next,” he mumbles into my ear. I sit up on his lap, stretching and yawning. His hand takes advantage of my raised shirt to run his fingers over the smooth skin there. I smirk a little as I cover another yawn.

He kisses me quickly before I get off his lap. With a little hesitation, I follow him to the main stage. There will be no way I'm gonna be able to find more sleep today if I go to his set, but I want to watch him.

When he's on stage, he's like a different version of himself. His accent gets heavier and he's crass and crude. He yells at the crowd and the crowd yells back. It's so much different than my set and my fans. He encourages mosh pits while I avoid them like the plague. Sometimes when I watch his set, I don't even recognize him. But then he spots me on the side and smiles at me. Then he's my Oli and not their Oli.

Before he runs on stage, I pull him in for a kiss. We wrap closely together with each second more passion building.

The last call goes off and he pulls away. “To be continued.”

“Of course,” I smirk again before kissing him one last time. He grins at me before jumping on stage. He runs around, screaming at the crowd to pump them up as his band quickly finishes setting up. They then launch into a song, Diamonds Aren't Forever I think.

I lean against an unused amp, covering the occasional yawn. When Oli looks over, I blow him kisses which makes him laugh, no matter what he's doing. I love watching him on stage. It's so energetic and crazy, but it's a good performance. His fans love him and his haters have to admit that he's pretty good at putting on a show.

Finishing up Chelsea Smile, he comes right over to me to wrap me up in a sweaty hug. He lifts me up off my feet, making me squeal in disgust.

“Ugh, you smell terrible, Oli!” I try to pull away but he only holds me tighter. He presses me into him as he says something about me loving him musk. When he eventually lets me go, I fake gag to the side. He rolls his eyes and throws an arm around my shoulders. He leans over to kiss my cheek and I sigh.

“Why do I like you again?”

“I'm a fittie, that's why,” his accent is still thick, but I know soon it'll start to thin out. I smile him, doing a quick survey. His thin frame is encased in a loose tank top and tight, tight skinny jeans. His messy black hair is almost dripping in sweat and his tattoos that cover him are glistening with sweat. His hazel green eyes are watching me look at him with his lips twisted into the most beautiful smirk ever. I can't help but reach for those lips to meet mine.

“Jesus, let us pack up first, would you?” Nicholls teases me as he bumps into my back. Oli and I untangle and I stick my tongue out at him.

“You're just jealous because you don't have someone like me,” I continue teasing him as he's packing up his drums. He sticks his own tongue back at me.

“How do you know that? Maybe I'm hooking up with all the single girls and you wouldn't know that because your own tongue is always down Oli's throat,” he teases me back and I act shocked and outraged. Oli's watching our back and forth, laughing at the both of us.

“You two are bonkers, I hope you know that.” He pulls me away and I follow easily. I check the list again and see I'm going up in an hour.

“You go take a shower, I gotta go talk to my label,” I mumble, regretting what I'm going to do, but I don't see anyway around it. Oli raises his eyebrows at that, but he lets me go nonetheless.

Finding a shaded and quiet area, I sit down and pull out my cell phone. I call Hopeless and start talking to the AR guy who 'discovered' me.

“What's the problem, Quinn?” he sounds confused by my request.

“I can't work with people who don't support me,” I start to get a little annoyed as I think about what Emily and Kayla did. Mike's still confused by this and asks me exactly what I want. “I want a new drummer and keyboardist. It can be after Warped, but they gotta go.”

“I thought they were your best friends. You're the one who said you needed them.”

“Yeah, well now I'm saying I need them gone. If you want me to continue touring, you gotta get rid of them. Otherwise I'm just going to stay home and let my album be the only one.” With no other cards left, I decide I have to threaten them to get what I want. “I can't work with people who don't believe the same things I do. It'll just cause unnecessary conflict and I really don't need that.”

Mike sighs heavily, but says he'll get on that. He doesn't want me to leave the label, what with me now being their biggest artist since All Time Low left them.

I hang up and rest my head on the side of the building. Everything just melts away and all I can think of is my hurt. I don't really care that it's Oli they have a problem with. It just sucks that they can't be happy for me. They decided that they needed to try and completely ruin my happiness just because they think it'll end badly.

They don't understand what Oli's done for me. He's made me believe in myself and forget my fears of disappointing the crowds. We've talked about this late at night when no one else can hear us. Because of him, I've learned that I'm always going to disappoint some of my fans, but the impressions I leave on the ones who love me are more important. He 'officially' banned me from all message boards and comment sections because he knows what haters can do to self esteem.

If I didn't have him to talk about my fears with, I'd probably be a puddle of disappointment on the ground, just quivering and crying about my failures. Without him, I wouldn't be having much fun at all.

So for Emily and Kayla to throw it in my face that we're not going to work out is just... just cruel. I know it's not likely that we'll make if after this tour, but they can't even let me have this while I can. They wanted me to end it right now and not even have until the end of August. I only have one month left with him.

I need to cherish every moment with him that I can. Even if tonight is a bad decision, I'm not going to regret it, no matter what.

I'm falling for the big oaf.