Just Like You

“You’ve been great. You all look beautiful and I hope to see you up close and personal over at the ATT booth at seven!” Justin yells into the mike before he and the rest of Motion City Soundtrack file off stage. Techs descend on the stage, quickly taking down MCS’s instruments and putting ours up. Emily’s waylaid Justin and has started talking animatedly with him. Justin’s on Emily ‘To Be Friends With’ list and I can already tell that they’ve got a friendship started.

Emily calls me over and introduces me. I shake his sweaty hand and smile until one of the techs calls over Emily to soundcheck. Justin soon leaves and I’m left standing awkwardly alone, the rest of my band involved in getting ready.

“Hey,” an accented voice says and I smile.

“Yo Paulie,” I say, still looking out onto the crowd waiting for me. The guy besides me chuckles.

“I’m not 'Paulie,' I’m Oli.” I look over to see the guy from before smiling at me. My heart stops for a second just by being this close to this gorgeous guy.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were Paul Griffiths… I’m afraid all British accents sound the same to me,” I smile apologetically and he frowns.

“I’m nothing like that bloke,” he sounds defensive. I’m a little confused, but I let it drop.

“So are you going to watch my set?” I ask and he looks surprised.

“You’re Quinn?” he sounds shocked and not in a good way. I nod a little and his eyes widen before he starts laughing. “Oh, I’m so daft,” he walks off without another word, leaving me confused and a little hurt.

What does it matter that I’m Quinn? Does he have something against me? I’ve just met him though… All those doubt and fears I pushed down this morning resurface and I blanch. I sway a little from the sudden fear of getting on stage and Ace comes over to me.

“Quinn, are you alright? You don’t seem okay,” he looks at me, so concerned. I can’t let my band see how fearful I am. I shake my head and take a deep breath. I mentally shove all those fears back into their cave and lock the door.

“I’ll be okay, I just got a little over heated,” I tell him, but I can see he doesn’t believe me.

“You know you can always count on me, Quinn,” he tells me, but I shake him off. I can’t show them how afraid I am of all of this going away as quickly as it came.

“Quinn, you’re on,” a sound tech tells me as he hands over an earpiece and a monitor. I slip the monitor into my back pocket and put the earpiece in. Some 3oh!3 starts playing and the crowd yells and screams. My band gathers around me for a second as we all jump up and down, singing along to Don’t Trust Me, to get us pumped. They head out onto the stage and take their places. Another tech hands me my hot pink wireless microphone and I launch into my first song off stage. I bounce to the middle of the stage.

“I’m talking pedicures on our toes, toes, tryin on all our clothes, clothes. Boys blowing up our phones, phones,” I continue to move around the stage as I sing. The crowd responds well and to my amusement, I see a mosh pit start. We finish the song and I pause to take a sip of water.

“Well fuckin HELLO WARPED TOUR!” I yell and the crowd yells back. “It’s the first fucking day and you wanna know what?” I pause for their response, “This is my first ever Warped Tour! And I gotta tell ya, I’m loving it.”

I launch into my next song with a drum flare in the background. The set continues without a hitch and I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

“Up next is Bring Me the Horizon! Check them out if you love gorgy guys from England!” with that said, I head off stage to cool off. I grab a towel I brought over and wipe off some sweat from my neck and chest. Bring Me the Horizon passes me without a word to get set up. Emily starts to pull me away as Tommy and Mark start putting away our instruments, but I tell her I want to watch the next set.

In the crowd, I notice the scenesters and average people have left the front row. The crowd seems to have been taken over by hardcore kids. Bring Me the Horizon starts quickly and I’m a little surprised. I’ve never really heard their music before and that loud screaming coming from that gorgeous guy shocks me. They finish their song and Oli looks over at me. There’s a smirk on his face and disdain in his eyes.

“How many of you blokes watched the last set, Quinn? Raise your hands!” A bunch goes up and I smile a little, thinking he’s going to compliment me.

“Wasn’t that a load of pop trash? So generic and boring. I think there’s about a hundred other girls with the same sound,” Oli looks over at me, still smirking. My chest hurts for a second as the bottom of my stomach falls out. Oli sees my shock and hurt feelings and grins.

“Ready for some REAL music now?” he asks the crowd, and the crowd roars, louder than my crowd was. I spin around and walk away quickly, wondering how someone like him could be so cruel. I stumble down the steps as my eyes fill with water. I blink away the tears as I walk back to my bus.

Pacing the aisle between the bunks, my temper flares. How dare he say that about me?! He doesn’t even know me, he probably didn’t even watch my set! How dare he judge me so quickly.

The front door bangs open and Kayla rushes over. “I just heard about what happened! What a total asshole!”

I look over at my friend and just smile. “We need to come up with a plan to get him back. He can’t be allowed to go around saying whatever the fuck he wants.” My smile widens as various revenge schemes flash through my mind. Kayla smiles back too and her eyes are full of mischief.

“Well, if you wanna get revenge, I know a way,” she starts and I nod for her to continue, “What’s the worst thing to do to someone who hates you?” I shrug, not knowing. Kayla’s smile widens. “You make them fall in love with you.”

“Oh my god, that’s so perfect!” I say and she laughs. She flips her hair with a smile on her face.

“So let’s plan this out, huh?” she says and we take a seat on the couch. We start plotting and don’t even notice the next two hours going by. A notebook sits in front of us, filled with notes, some crossed out, some circled and highlighted. When I finally look out the window, I realize it’s time for my signing.

I nudge her and we head out for the Bbycakes booth. There’s a large crowd and I smile when I see Paul in the middle of it. He breaks out of the crowd and we rush for each other. We hug and he pulls back to look at me.

“I heard what that wanker said about you,” he frowns a little, “I’m sure it’s my fault. Our clothing companies are rivals and he hates me,” he looks apologetic. M eyebrows rise a little, but I shrug it off. I’ve spent too long planning this revenge scheme to drop it now. Plus, why does Oli have to take it out on me? Why not just go after Paul? Oli’s a dick and he’s gotta know he can’t get away with this kind of shit.

“It’s all gonna be fine, Paulie. I’ve got it all figured out,” I smile and he just chuckles.

“Should I be afraid for him?” I ponder for a second before nodding quickly. Paul laughs again and leads me behind the merch table. Paul’s girlfriend quickly gets everyone into a line and I start signing anything that’s thrust out to me. Some of the fans talk a little, some guys try to hit on me, but mostly it goes quickly with squeals of ‘I love your music!’ and ‘Oli is an asshole and doesn’t know what he’s talking about!’

At a little past seven, the crowd has thinned out and Paul and I are talking more about different things. He mentions an after party and I’m surprised.

“There’s after parties for these things?” I ask and he laughs.

“Duh. You pull together over fifty bands and most of them like to drink, you’re going to have some hardcore parties,” he laughs at my naïveté. I smile, looking forward to the fun. My band comes and collects me soon and drags me off to Breathe Carolina’s set.

I chat a little with David Schmitt before his set and watch a while. Emily and Kayla stay to watch with me and we end up dancing and singing along back stage. David looks over a couple times and laughs.

“Hey, how many of you have heard about Quinn?” the crowd roars in response, “And how many have heard about what Oli Sykes said earlier today?” the crowd boos and hisses. I can’t help but smiling, “That’s the right reaction! I’ve just met her and she’s damn good at singing, so when you guys leave here, go bitch out Sykes for me! Let’s make him the Kanye of Warped Tour!”

I giggle as David grins at me. “And with that said, our next song is I.D.G.A.F,” David launches into the song and I grin, finding myself agreeing with the chorus.

After they’re finished, David comes over and asks if I’m going to the party in the lot after the last of the crowd leaves.

“I kind of have to, don’t I?” I smile at him and he chuckles. I can tell by the way he’s looking at me that he’s interested in me and more than just as a friend.

“Well, I’ll see you there,” he says as he towels off. I nod with a little smile on my face.