Fireworks

Everyone was crowded in the backyard, lumped together while seated in lawn chairs, or simply sitting on the ground. Some people had even overflowed into the house. It had been so long since everyone was home at the same time, allowing us all to get together. Warped Tour had just ended, and we were celebrating the next months we would enjoy at home. This could have been a small celebration between us friends that the massive tour has ended, but after being gone for so long, it was a celebration of finally being home.

Three months on the road, never in one place for too long. You’d think other tours would have prepared you for it, but nothing really quite compares to the exhaustion and the heat of a summer-long tour.

Finally, we were home. And we could stay here without worry that we were leaving again for some other tour for the next couple months.

No one liked to dwell on the thought for too long, but we always missed it here in Tempe. Home was just a place you wanted to be after being gone for so long. At times, all you wanted was to escape. And at other times, the only place to be was home.

I slipped through the open sliding glass door, approaching the kitchen to grab a drink. The night was still young, as the sunlight was only now disappearing. I hadn’t even had my first drink yet. That, though, was what I was hoping to solve with my venture into the kitchen.

Not too many people were inside, some scattered in the kitchen or in the living room. I didn’t recognize some faces, strangers who had been invited one way or another. Neighbors, perhaps. Either way they didn’t make much of a difference as I grabbed a red cup and selected the drink of choice. I could still hear everyone outside as I filled my cup, breathing in the fresh smell of summer air that the open windows allowed in.

With lazy legs I made my way towards the open sliding glass door, preparing to join the crowd of my bandmates in the telling of our crazy stories. I didn’t make it quite that far though, as someone else’s body prevented me from even making it down the hallway to the door.

“Oh God, oh I’m sorry!” the voice said. I didn’t look up to see who it was though, because my entire front half was no longer dry.

Whatever this person was drinking was now being absorbed by the fibers of my shirt and jeans, earning a grimace from me as I realized my drink was no longer in my hand, but on the floor, seeping into the carpet.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled.

“I’m really sorry!” the voice said again.

“No, no… it’s uh, it’s okay.” I bent down to pick up my cup, finding that my head had now made uncomfortable contact with what appeared to be another head.

A simultaneous “ouch!” emitted from both our lips, and for the first time I found myself making eye contact with the offender who had soiled my clothes.

Our faces were only inches apart, both of us with a hand up to the sore spot on our heads that had contacted with the other’s. Instinctively I scooted back a few inches, picking up my cup and observing the damage my drink was doing to John’s carpet.

It was hard to focus on the stain that would soon appear when the eyes my own met were such a shocking shade of green. I’d never seen these eyes before.

It took me a moment to break the eye contact, instead now tracing over the other features on her face. Her lips, her nose, her cheeks.

The drink that had spilled out of my hand was not even a thought on the radar right now. And the fact that the front of my t-shirt was sopping wet seemed to fade into oblivion while I just kneeled on the floor with a strange girl I had never seen before. Her eyes locked once again on mine and I found myself in some sort of trance.

I wasn’t sure what was going through my mind other than “I must know who she is.”

I let the oxygen travel to my brain as I sharply inhaled in hopes of regaining functional thoughts. “Well, I uh, I better get this cleaned up before John finds out,” I muttered. “He’ll kill me if this stains…”

“Here, let me help,” she said, looking up at me as I stood up, preparing to go find a towel in the kitchen. “I mean, I kind of ruined your shirt and all.”

I just glanced down at the large wet spot that on my shirt, noticing the other speckles of water--or whatever it was--on my pants as well. I just tossed a hand up in the air, making a small scoff. “Oh, what, this? No, this is nothing. It’s fine, really.”

Well, maybe I was slightly worried that my shirt was going to be ruined. But I had other shirts.

“Well at least let me help you clean up this mess,” she said, standing up and gesturing to the puddle of liquid that was slowly being absorbed by the carpet.

“Okay,” I said, heading off to the kitchen and tossing my now empty red cup into the garbage can. She followed behind me, throwing away her own empty cup, grabbing a hand towel off of the counter and heading out to the hallway. I watched her leave, realizing that I should probably head back out there and try to help.

So I fumbled around in some drawers, looking around for another hand towel to clean up my mess with. I found one, sprinting into the hallway and kneeling down quickly beside her.

“So what’s your name?” she asked, looking up at me as I started scrubbing the carpet with the towel that didn’t seem to be doing me any good,

“I’m Kennedy. And you?” I looked down to the carpet, finding that none of my spilled drink was being absorbed into the towel.

“No wait, here,” she said, grabbing my hand and removing it from the towel. “You’re doing it wrong.”

She proceeded to then show me the correct way to clean up the mess we both took part in creating. “You can’t scrub it like that, otherwise it’ll just spread. Just put pressure on the towel so that it gets absorbed.”

I watched as she demonstrated, noticing that her ways of cleaning up a mess were much different than anything I could have ever come up with. But I suppose that was just the difference between males and females.

“I’m Julienne, though,” she said, smiling as she sopped up the rest of the mess with her efficient, non stain-inducing method of cleaning.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, the words being an involuntary reflex. But this time, I actually meant it.

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Kennedy,” she said, standing up and brushing off her hands on her shorts.

I had the two wet towels in my hands, standing there awkwardly while I wondered what she would say next.

“I’ll uh, see you around then,” she said, a smile on her face that displayed her shiny white teeth. I watched as she headed back to the kitchen, likely to get a fresh drink as I just stood there looking like an idiot holding two wet kitchen towels.

My brain regained its train of thought however, sending messages to my legs that I should get moving now if I didn’t wanted to look handicapped. I flung the two wet towels into the laundry room for John to deal with later, whenever he did his laundry--if he did laundry, that is.

I slipped through the hall, heading into John’s bedroom in search of a new shirt to wear. My jeans were salvageable, as I prayed they would be dry within the hour. My shirt was a lost hope as of now though, and I let my hands wander through John’s closet to find something to wear. I decided on a tank top I hadn’t seen him wear often, slipping off my shirt and sliding on the new, dry fabric.

I left my wet shirt in his bathroom, reminding myself not to forget it at the end of the night when I left.

Everyone’s voices were still being heard as I made my way back to the kitchen, secretly hoping Julienne would still be there. Maybe if I was lucky we’d run into each other again.

She was nowhere to be found though, and I filled my cup silently while I listened to everyone talk and laugh outside. I heard John’s voice all the way in the kitchen, his laugh so distinctly audible through everyone else’s laughs.

My voyage back to the outdoors was successful in that I didn’t spill my cup again, yet I wondered where Julienne was hanging out. John’s backyard wasn’t very big. There were only so many people here, and yet she was nowhere to be found. My mind drifted away from thoughts of those captivating green eyes as I felt someone rope their arm around my shoulders and pull me towards the crowd.

“There you are!” Garrett shouted, steering me towards where everyone was sitting in lawn chairs, or alternatively sprawled on the grass.

“Here I am!” I mocked, smiling as I took a seat on a chair next to Jared and Pat.

“Where’ve you been, dude? It took you like ten minutes to get a drink,” Jared commented.

“Oh, I uh, I ran into somebody on the way out,” I said, craning my neck around to get a better look around the yard. Maybe she was out here and I just couldn’t see her.

They all just kind of nodded, turning back to the conversation that John was currently orchestrating. I could tell from his facial expression that he was in the midst of one of the numerous stories we had stockpiled over the summer.

I sat back and let my mind wander, gazing up at the sky above me that had not given into darkness just yet.

My mind had been off somewhere else for quite some time now as I watched everyone’s mouths move, but didn’t really hear a word they were saying. I wondered where Julienne went. I wondered who she knew that got her here. Did she know one of the guys? Was she someone’s friend? I don’t know, but she was full of mystery.

It appeared as if it only took the simple task of learning how to properly sop up a spilled drink that had me going for her, and she’d only left me with a few words that weren’t relevant to anything else other than how to clean spills.

There were a few sounds that penetrated my thoughts though, slowly shaking me away from the alternate reality I had created in my head.

“KENNEDY!” a voice came loud in my ear, jarring me on every level as I jumped in my chair a little.

“What?” I asked, looking around feverishly at everyone who was surrounding me. They all stared, smiling a little bit as they laughed.

“Are you wearing my shirt?” John asked, leaning forward in his chair with his eyes slightly squinted, drink in hand.

“Um, yeah,” I said slowly, not sure what exactly had gone on while my mind was MIA.

“Oh, okay,” John said, relaxing back into his chair as he sipped on his drink. “But… why are you wearing it?”

“A drink spilled all down the front of my shirt,” I said, coughing a little and rubbing my face.

He just nodded, sipping his drink again and continuing on with whatever conversation I had previously excluded myself from. I tried to pay attention this time though, for the sake of my friends thinking I was right in the head and whatnot.

More tour memories were still being spilled, a communal reminisce between the five of us who had experienced every day of Warped Tour. All of our friends from home who weren’t in bands heard plenty of what went on during every tour, although the majority of our friends were involved in some sort of music business. Whether it be teching or managing, there were many friends around here who helped us out somehow.

I got up from the chair, muttering something about going to the bathroom. It merely was only a ploy to search the house though, for that sandy-colored head of hair. I hoped she was around here. If she wasn’t in the backyard with everyone else, where could she be?

My eyes swept the living room that held maybe ten to fifteen people, twenty at the most. I didn’t know who most of them were, but apparently John knew them somehow, to allow them into his house and all. They were just talking though, and I heard at least one or two voices I recognized as belonging to a few of our techs.

The kitchen tiles were under my feet once again as I poured myself another drink, finding that I had mindlessly sipped away at the previous one in my hand.

Maybe something to drink would ease my mind. I just needed to forget that stranger. She wasn’t anyone I knew, and I wasn’t positive any of the guys knew her if she wasn’t outside with us. Thus, that proved I wasn’t likely to see her again.

More booze, problem solved.

Until I caught those green eyes looking at me from the living room, hiding away in a corner with another girl on the couch.

I just smiled, watching her return the gesture as I wished time would stop then and there.

But my feet had alternative plans, carrying me away from the kitchen as I sent one final glance her way, catching the tiny wave she gave me.

I found myself outside again with the guys, who were still engrossed in conversation.

It was past three in the morning by the time we had all broken up and decided it was a good time to go home. I hadn’t seen Julienne since I last refilled my drink.

I doubted I’d ever see her again.