This Time It's Me on My Own

Within the first five minutes, I was about ready to abandon ship. I think I would’ve rather walked everywhere on the VWT than sit in a van that smelled like baked ass, but this was something I was going to have to get over. After all, there was only going to be one other girl with us this summer. My best friend, and for all intents and purposes-my sister- Sam, was coming with us to do Amely’s merch. She was meeting us at the venue today. To tell you the honest truth, she would probably be done setting up by the time all of their stuff was onstage, waiting for their set.
Once we got there, I went to find Sam and the boys went to take care of their stuff. As predicted, she had most of the stuff set up. I snuck up behind her and poked her in the side, making her jump and knock over a metal chair that had a lot of merch piled on it.

“AJ, I am so glad that you are here, but damn it! Now I have to pick all of that up.” I stuck out my bottom lip, knowing she couldn’t refuse it. Sure enough, she started to smile, which made me smirk. After the eye roll, that I knew was coming, I helped her pick up the t-shirts, then dug out my camera to take a few pictures.

“So AJ, are we excited or what?” I shrugged nonchalantly.

“Or what.” She laughed and saw my comment for what it was-complete and utter bullshit. It had been a dream of mine for a while to be able to be part of warped tour as more than an attendee. “Dude, I am freaking out. On the way in here, I saw Sean Smith from The Blackout and Alex Fucking Gaskarth in the first two minutes.”

“Aah, and did you talk to either of them?” I just stared at her like she just suggested I do a slamma jamma on Pluto.

“Um, no. I was kinda intimidated.” She laughed at me and gave me a shove as the boys started walking over.

“Oh come on AJ. You have never been intimidated as a fan.” I sat in Patrick’s lap as he stole the chair I was going to sit in.

“Yeah, but now, I don’t know. I guess they are kind of like co-workers, and that’s just weird.”

“No chicky, I think it is you that is just a little weird.” Petie said, ruffling my hair.

“Hardy har har.”

“You walk into the room, and I , I, I ,I…” I heard Stuttering-by Friday Night Boys- playing, and I knew it was the magazine calling to make sure my press pass worked fine. I answered and told them everything was good. Once off the phone, I finally had a good chance to look around. I figured now would be as good a time as any to figure out who was going to be around us. To the left, it was the Music Saves Lives tent, which I was excited about. When I looked to the right, I figured that it must have been a tent that belonged to a band that I had never heard of.

“Hey Sam, have you ever heard of The Maine?” I asked, reaching back to play with Patrick’s hair. Sam’s eyes bugged bigger than I would’ve thought humanly possible and she started swiveling.

“What? Where?” She asked, obviously going temporarily insane.

“Right next door numb nuts.” I said, pointing to the tent to our right.

“Oh my fucking god!” She said, then slumped back into Petie.

“You alright Sampson?” Petie asked, using the nickname he knew she hated.

“No I am not alright. Why didn’t you tell me we had a tent right next to The Maine?”

“Uh, hon…you are the one that has been setting up a tent right next to theirs for the last two hours. I just got here.” She calmed down for a second to look at me.

“You are kind of right.”

“I know honey. Now, why are you going mental?”

“Only because one of my favoritest bands in the world is going to be stationed next to me for the next couple of months.”

“Oh.”