My Calling

Later on that week, we met up with a representative for the tour to go over technicalities. Our business meeting was at a steak house downtown, much to my displeasure as I did not eat steak. The man we met, I soon forgot his name, was dressed in an expensive looking suit and had a crooked mustache. By his appearance I would have assumed he didn’t even know what the Van’s Warped Tour was.

"Now, as an unsigned band, we are giving you the opportunity to play on the Kevin Says stage. With the amount of hits you received you are able to play the entire tour, should you choose. How many people are you going to be accountable for?” the guy spoke while twiddling his thumbs.

“It’s just the three of us,” Blaze said, motioning with his hands.

“No tour managers, technicians, anything?” the man asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No sir,” Cassadee spoke up,” we manage our own equipment and affairs. We never had the need for anyone else.”

“Very well. And I’m assuming you do not have a tour bus?”

We shook our heads no and he continued,” That’s fine. Many newer bands we pick up don’t have one yet. There are a few bands that have done the tour before that have enough space on their buses, they like to open them up and act us mentors, so to speak. We can make arrangements for you along those lines, although it will not be set in stone until the first day. Before the tour we would like you to do a couple of interviews, get your name put out there. I can set that up for you. Now unless you have any further questions we have some papers to sign and that will be it,” he finished in a huff, pulling a stack of papers out of a briefcase.

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That afternoon, Cass and I were sitting in our living room playing around on her laptop.

“Let’s see who else we’ll be playing with!” she said excitedly, typing in the website.

“The Downtown Fiction, nevershoutnever, The Pretty Reckless, The Summer Set... um never mind let’s do something else!” she said quickly, slamming the screen shut.

“Cass, what are you doing? I wanna know the rest!” I said, trying to take the computer out of her grasp.

“It’s probably not a good idea. We’ll just, uh, let it be a surprise,” Cassadee said, shifting her eyes.

“If you say so,” I muttered, giving up and picking up the remote control.

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Days seemed to fly by as the tour crept closer. We had an interview with some music magazine, and the next day we were flying to wherever the first show of the tour was. I hadn’t paid much attention to Blaze and Cassadee as they went over all the details, although I should have. It didn’t matter to me where we played or how many people we played in front of, just getting to play was enough for me.

We met the reporter at our favorite coffee house in Savannah. I sipped lightly on my Iced Chai, not planning on saying anything. I always let Blaze and Cassadee do the talking for me, everything just worked better that way.

“So,” the reporter started, pen in hand, “let me get your names and what you play to start with.”

“I’m Blaze Kensington, I play bass and sing,” Blaze said while flicking the lighter he held in his hand.

“I’m Cassadee Jaymes, I play the drums. And this right here is Alexis Sanders, she’s on guitar,” Cass said while pointing at me. I nodded my head slightly.

“Alexis Sanders? As in the Alexis Sanders?” the reporter asked, sitting up straighter.

Blaze and Cass gave him an odd look. “Excuse me?” I whispered.

“The one the songs are about?” he said.

“What songs?” Blaze asked, looping his arm around me in a protective way.

“The All Ti-”

“Don’t you have other questions to ask us?” Blaze cut him off quickly, a harsh edge to his voice.

The reporter gave him a questioning look but seemed to take the hint,”Uh, sure. When did you guys meet?”

I tuned the rest of the interview out as my band mates took over. Stirring the ice around in my drink, I couldn’t get that question out of my head. Had they really wrote songs about me?