Hello Sheffield

The next time I met Craig Owens, I was sitting at the bar at the bottom of the hotel, drinking a club soda and looking a little miserable.

“A pretty girl alone at the bar, hm?” he asked, sliding into the stool next to mine. I grinned and shrugged.

“I like being a cliché.”

He smirked and looked down at my drink. I was only at the bar because I was bored out of my mind. I didn’t need a drink. My boyfriend was catching up on sleep, my girl friends were talking about drama, and all of the guys had magically disappeared. It was only 6 o’clock, so I figured somebody would want to eat sooner and later and the restaurant was in my sight.

“Where’s your whole crew?” he asked, taking my glass and sipping from it. He winked as I shook my head. I checked my phone out of habit and sighed.

“Probably running around terrorizing the townspeople as we speak, oh dear. I should have kept a closer eye on them.”

“Maybe the day will be saved by the Powderpuff Girls,” he suggested. I laughed but focused on a familiar redhead bustling towards us. Craig noticed him too and merely tilted his head.

“Liv, here yeh go, have some of this,” Lee said, shoving a small baggy into my hand. He was gone before I could say anything though. I sighed.

“Malia! What the fuck is this?” I yelled down the bar.

“MDMA,” he replied, continuing. I wasn’t sure where he was going or what he was up to. He was out of the bar and heading to the elevators now though and I could only shake my head and turn my attention to the drug I wasn’t sure about.

There were two capsules filled with white powder. At first, I thought they were filled with cocaine but it was an off-white color, mostly grey with little flecks of brown and green. I offered the bag to Craig who inspected it discreetly.

“Well, MDMA is ecstasy but this is the pure stuff so it’s molly.”

“I swear to god, I’ve been on this tour for seven hours and I’ve already gotten more drugs handed to me then all of my college years combined.”

That was a lie, of course. Throughout college I’d been exposed to a lot of drugs, though I didn’t really get too involved. I knew that Oli did drugs but I’d never seen this rock star side to the band. It freaked me out a little bit.

I earned a laugh from Craig. Hanging around Craig Owens was going to be difficult. Not only was he incredibly good looking but he was so incredibly good looking. I mean, damn, it was becoming a problem. I mentally reminded myself that my own gorgeous boyfriend was asleep upstairs.

“Well, you’re probably gonna see a lot more of them around here, especially with Jeffree on this tour.” He grinned and I shook my head. “The boys from Bring Me are notorious partiers though, didn’t you know?”

It was obviously rhetorical but I wondered if I really did know.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be half dead by the end of this tour.”

“Or maybe full dead, who knows it is Warped.”

“I’ll drink to that!” I said loudly, raising my glass and then finishing the last of the soda. He shook his head and chuckled, flipping his hair back into place. I fixed my own hair and slid the glass down to the bartender, a bored looking girl.

“Owens, if I didn’t know yeh I’d say yeh were tryin’ to get with my girl,” the sleepy voice of my boyfriend said. I turned to see Oli standing at my barstool, stretching and yawning. He smiled down at me before pressing his lips to mine.

I wasn’t dumb enough to miss the sign of possession.

“Sykes, if you let your girl sit alone at the bar I’m gonna be the least of your problems,” he shot back, another little “bro hug” ensuing. He and Oli shared some back and forth while I texted Becca, asking if her and Kelly were okay.

“Yeh wanna eat now love?” Oli asked and I nodded. I stood and he tucked me into his side. “What about yeh, Owens? Yeh coming with?”

“Nah, I’ll go look for the guys and see what they’re doing. It was nice talking to you Liv,” he said. I smiled and wrapped an arm around Oli’s waist.

“Yeah, it was nice talking to you too,” I said, smiling back. He walked away as we crossed the lobby to go into the restaurant across it. It was a nice Italian place and they seated us toward the back, seemingly aware of Oli’s rock star status.

We looked quietly through the menu, ordering soda’s quietly and ignoring the buzz of our phones. I loved the simplicity of this part of our relationship. We spent so much time sitting and eating in restaurants that it had become a routine.

“What’re you getting?” I asked.

“Lasagna, you?”

“Baked ziti,” I said, closing my menu and picking up my phone. I looked through my texts. Lee told me that he needed the pills back, he’d found someone to sell them to, and Becca told me that she and Kelly were fine, just walking in the city.

We placed our orders and I sipped at my water, looking at my boyfriend. He looked tired but was waking up more and more as the time passed. I could feel the excitement rolling off of him in waves. He played with his hair and then fixed it.

“So what did Owens have to say?” he asked.

“Craig, just said hello and then identified the pills that Lee slipped to me,” I answered, pulling the small baggy out of my pocket. Oli rolled his eyes and took them from me, inspecting them. “He just texted me that he wants them back.”

“Don’t give them! Say yeh took ‘em already, this is molly yeh know.”

“I’ve never had molly,” I said. That much was true; I had heard of it though. Pills of Ecstasy were usually mixed with another drug. It was like rolling a set of dice; you never knew what you would get. Molly was the pure form of E, not mixed with anything. That made it safer (not by much) than the mixed forms of Ecstasy.

“Later we can do it if yeh want,” he said casually. I noticed the way he watched me though, trying to gauge my reaction. I wasn’t a stranger to drug use and I wanted to prove myself to him.

“Yeah, can we? I’m so bored just sitting in this hotel,” I whined. He laughed and sat more relaxed, pleased with my acceptance.

“It gets borin’ sometimes love, yeh’ll get used to it. It’s more excitin’ when the free time is with fans and other bands though,” he said, absent-mindedly looking through his phone. I texted Lee back, telling him I didn’t have the pills anymore.

“The fans are actually really nice to me,” I said. “I wasn’t really expecting that. I guess I just thought they’d eat me alive from all the jealousy.”

He smiled, a cocky look falling over his features. “They’re great kids. Some of them will be rude little cunts but don’t let those ones get to yeh, they’re the right twats.”

Our food was placed in front of us and then the waiter was gone. It was weird that everyone around me spoke with an American accent now. Though it was distinctly different from a New York accent, it was still familiar and now so very different to me at the same time.

“Oh here we go, Blood On The Dance Floor just walked in,” Oli said, ducking his head and looking away. I looked with rapt attention at the colorful montage in front of me. I’d heard of this band and I’d heard their music too. I didn’t think it was bad per se, but it wasn’t my style.

Jeffree Star was present in their circle. He was an infinity times more fabulous in real life, and probably more graceful than I ever would be. I tore my gaze away from him and the others as I looked back to Oli. He was trying to eat and keep a low profile simultaneously.

“What? You don’t want to say hello?” I asked, smiling mischievously. He glared at me and I smiled wider. He dropped his fork to his plate and raised a finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet. “I’m sure they’d all love to say hi, Oli.”

“Olivia, I’ll kill yeh.”

“I call your bluff Oli darling.”

“Please, don’t do this to me. Just finish eating and we’ll leave in a right hurry, yeah?”

“Oh, don’t be rude! Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”

His glare was dark. I knew Carol would be encouraging my teasing, slapping his arm and making a commotion. I smirked at him and then cleared my throat, planning a comedic and punishing act.

“Oh my god! Oliver!” I shrieked, falling into the table in fake laughter. Most of the restaurant looked at us, including the group that I’d targeted. I heard chairs scrape back and the voice of Jeffree before the attack.

I had thought Oli was overreacting but now, I knew.

There were hugs and flurries of ringed hands. They ran through his hair (which I knew he hated, due to the cringes. He barely let me touch his hair, only ever really when we had sex or were drunk so I understood) and touched his shoulders. Then it was me next and they pinched my cheeks and tugged on my hair.

I thought it was a nightmare honestly.

Finally, when Jeffree was done torturing us, I was introduced to him, Dahvie Vanity, and Jayy Von Monroe. They seemed nice enough, if not a bit on the strange side. Oliver spoke to them for a little bit as I ate and conversed less and less.

A girl from their table became our savior when she called to them to order. They left with just as many hugs and cheek kisses as they came with, if not a few extra just to be on the safe side.

“I’m so, so sorry that I did that to us,” I said. Oli shook his head and laughed.

“When Jeffree sees someone after not having seen them in a long time, it’s scary. Well, actually, he’s just a bit scary himself, isn’t he?”

I reached across the table and slapped him half-heartedly. Jeffree Star had scared me, if only a little bit. I made a mental note to avoid him at all costs. It was, however, becoming ever more popular to see band members everywhere.

By the time we were finished eating, the guys from A Day to Remember and Mike Hranica from The Devil Wears Prada were sitting at a table to eat as well. When we left, I recognized Sean and Nate from 3OH3! coming in. As we waited for the elevator going up, Hayley Williams bounced by, talking a mile a minute on the phone.

Star struck wasn’t even covering it.

We made it back to the room without seeing any more celebrities or being attacked by them. I stretched out on the bed and groaned, holding my stomach. Oli pushed up my shirt and kissed my full belly, tickling me with his hair. He continued, working his way up until he kissed my lips gently. I sighed contently.

We lay side by side quietly. He took my hand and opened it, laying the pill flat in my palm. Molly; it made one think of a red-haired, freckled first grader that liked to read and got her hair pulled by boys. I looked at it for a long second before tossing it back, taking a gulp of water because I was a baby.

He smiled and kissed me, swallowing his own pill without water. We lay there, staring at the ceiling and waiting for something to happen. My heart raced in anticipation and my stomach jittered with nerves and then I wasn’t sure if they were nerves anymore and suddenly I wanted to dance and there I was, jumping from one hotel bed to the other and there was Oli and we laughed.

Jona walked into the room and shook his head, laughing. I hugged him and declared my love for him. I ran into the hall and declared my love for everybody standing in it. I distinctly remember hugging David Schmitt.

I ran back into the hotel room, running to the window and throwing it open.

“I fucking love Warped tour!”

I wouldn’t say that at the end of the summer.