Summer Is When Everything Could Happen

“So, let’s be clear again. Stephen accompanied you to the dentist and then John took you out to dinner in one same day?”, Dana concluded with her brows cocked up.

I stir my cold banana and strawberry smoothie with the clear pink straw. “Yep, that’s kind of all of it.”

“Kind of?”, Pat’s eyes widened after he took a sip of his mango smoothie. “What do you mean ‘kind of’?”

“It’s mean there’s something more.”, Lance wiggled his brows.

“Guys.”, I groaned with my legs pulled up onto the wooden chair and crossed them Indian style. The sun was scorching down today but we were protected by the white giant umbrella outside the smoothie café.

We decided to have a ‘band day’, where we would just hang out, the four of us. Pat and Lance’s hands probably itched to play video games all day, but Dana and I needed to drag them out of Pat’s basement just for a day.

I looked around to my band mates and their eyes were on me. a heavy sigh escaped my lips. “Fine. well, John and I made out.”

Pat and Lance’s eyes widened and I could hear Dana’s quiet gasp. “See.”, I whined.

“Ally.”, Dana put her hand on my shoulder. “You really need to sort this out.”

“Yeah. You left Warped as a star, but you’ll come back as a supernova.”, Lance exclaimed.

“Dude, did you just really quoted Gossip Girl?”, Pat snickered.

Lance slapped the back of Pat’s head and followed by Dana and mine laughter. I really missed this kind of normality. After we were done with our smoothies, Pat and Lance excused themselves to get rotten in Pat’s basement again.

Dana and I walked around downtown, just enjoying the summer sun. It was nice to see some people who we went to high school with, just living their normal lives. Sometimes, I envied them. They didn’t have thousands of people watching their every move. They didn’t have thousands of people having high expectations to them. They didn’t have fangirls sending death threats to them cause’ they were friends and dated their favorite band guys.

“Hey, Ally.”, Dana waved her hand in front of my face. “You okay?”

I shrugged my shoulder. “I don’t really know. I wished I live a normal life.”

“What do you mean?”, she raised a brow.

“I meant, I wished we lived a normal life, you know. Go to college, and just be…normal.”

“But this is our dream.”

“I know.”, I sighed. “What am I talking about? We’re rocking Warped for two years now, we’re friends with the bands we admired since we were a junior, and now, I even lost my fucking virginity to a band guy who cheated on me.”
Dana narrowed her eyes and pointed right to my face. “Please don’t be so damn sarcastic.”

We froze at our own spots. I hated it when Dana and I got into a tense fight just because of my sarcasm. “I’m sorry.”

She nodded and smiled. “It’s okay. But seriously, you can’t be sarcastic about this. Ally, we went through a rough path to get to where we are right now. Do you remember when we were still playing on Kevin Says stage last summer? to only a bunch of kids?”

My lips trembled, holding back the laughter. Last summer, we only got to play on Kevin Says and then promoted to Hurley.com because we modeled their summer line. Only a bunch of kids knew who we were or knew our songs, but after last summer’s warped, after we got signed, our band was like a bomb.

More kids knew who we are, and more crowd went to see our sets. It was like a dream come true and I felt really blessed to have it all. I was so deep in my thoughts until I ran into someone. “I’m really sorry!”, I squeaked up.

“No, it’s okay.”, the guy replied. I looked up and greeted by John’s smile. “Hey Ally.”

“Okay, I have something other in my schedule, I leave you two alone.”, Dana smiled and sauntered away before I could say anything.

“Where were you going, John?”, I crossed my arms and tilted my head to the side.

He shrugged his shoulder. “I was on my way home but after you ran yourself into me, I’m thinking of something.”

I cocked my eyebrows. “Like what?”

John’s smile grew wider as he took my hand and pulled me closer. “I’m dying for a slurpee and maybe after that, we could go back to my place, see a movie or something.”

“That would be nice.”, I wrapped my arms around his waist. He rested his head on the top of mine as we walked to the nearest 7/11. After last night, it felt like we were already a couple. It was unfair to John when he poured all of his heart to me, but all I did is mourning over his brother who cheated on me.

When I was with John, all of the burden and the thoughts about Stephen washed away. I really needed some times away from his brother and I counted John to do the deed. when we walked into 7/11, the air conditioner felt so good on my skin.

John walked to the slurpee machines while I wandered to the snack aisle. I grabbed a bag of Lays and then, I went to the hotdog corner, pouring melted cheese into a salad bowl. We met up at the cashier and John insisted that he would pay for it all.

After that, we went outside and sat on the table with the giant umbrella, protecting us from the sun. I opened the bag of Lays and dipped it into the cheese before offering it to John. He smiled and took the cheese smothered chip with his teeth from my hand.

“It tastes good.”, he smiled as he munched.

I nodded. “Yeah, Pat and Lance found out about it. after that, it’s our favorite snack ever.”

He took a sip of his slurpee and I had to smile when I saw there were two straws in there. “Aw, two straws?”

John’s cheeks turned into a shade of red as he scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah…I figured you won’t share a straw with me, cause’ it’s kind of disgusting for you…”

I just smiled there and leaned forward on the table before pecking his lips quickly. “It’s okay.”

John’s eyes widened after that but then, his lips formed into a wide smile. I leaned back onto my chair and my eyes wandered around to our surrounding. Then, I saw Stephen with a blond, linking her arm with his, walking into the store. For the first time, I didn’t give a damn about it.