Hello Sheffield

The afterglow of the Molly was beautiful. My spirits were high and nothing could rob me of my inane happiness. It was warm, the late morning sun beating down on my bare shoulders.

It was the first day of Warped Tour in Salt Lake City.

We were standing around a tour bus with our bags, waiting for Sheep to bring the code to let us in. I desperately needed to apply sun block and dig through my bag for my sunglasses. The sun would be killer this summer.

Finally Sheep arrived, holding a stack of folders, a key ring, and a small slip of paper. He punched in a string of numbers before we all boarded. All the girls had to share a bunk with someone (there was a small squabble over where Kelly would sleep) as a small amount of crew members had to sleep in a bunk also.

I stretched out on the top bunk that Oli chose. He poked his head up and then hopped in alongside me. It was a tight fit, we almost didn’t, but if I laid half on top of him we made it work. There were other sounds of general settling around the bus.

I hopped down after Oli and he affectionately showed me the little drawers hidden around to keep my bags in. I found the things I’d need for the day and tucked the rest of the things away. Around me, guys were cracking open beers and picking clothes to wear.

I went outside into the sun, gazing around at all of the other buses. Bands were getting on a bunch and crew members unloaded equipment from vans. I wore a pass around my neck, allowing me to navigate the festival as if I were in a band.

Without telling anyone, I began to wander.

All of the stages were up and sound checks were taking place. I could hear the chatter of hundreds of people. I glanced up at the schedule and put some of my favorites into my Blackberry. I nodded to myself and then wandered to some vendors.

I browsed through clothes, art, and CD’s for a long time, so long in fact, that I failed to notice that Warped Tour was officially open until I looked up from a pair of wooden sunglasses to see kids all around me. I lurked for a while longer amidst the younger crowd.

“Liv, yeh can’t just disappear without givin’ me a heart attack,” Oli said. I looked up at him and grinned. Within seconds he was surrounded, signing autographs. I spoke to one of the girls who was obviously working up her courage to speak with Oliver.

Eventually, she made her way to him. I stood by the Glamour Kills tent and watched him talk to her fondly. The sun glinted in his hair and his tall, thin frame couldn’t stand still. His eyes would search for me on occasion and I would nod about my presence.

When he came back to me, we hurried down the lines of tents. I knew he was scanning for the Drop Dead one. I would probably spend my days in the shade of this particular tent, selling the merch my boyfriend designed.
I greeted the girl and boy currently behind the table before making my way around. Sam and Jesse apparently, were there names, and with such gender neutralities I couldn’t say which was which. I sat in a chair while Oli conversed with them.

“Hey Jesse?” I said. The boy turned around, a lip ring glinting in the sun and his Drop Dead snapback pushed his straight hair around his face. I smiled and shrugged, pretending to be a ditzy bitch. I just needed to know who was who.

He still came over to me, leaning on another table and sighing. We sat silently before I started asking him questions. I went through a mental shock when I heard American accents. Obviously this was becoming a problem for me.

“Are you gonna be around here often?” he asked me, holding his hands up and referring to the tent. I shrugged.

“I’ll probably split my time up between here and Bring Me’s tent but yes, I will waste my time here.”

“That’s cool because Sammy’s boring,” he said, loud enough for the girl to hear. She turned away from Oli and the kids starting to mill around to glare at him. Her long blonde hair was long and wavy, cascading long after her shoulders.

“Maybe if you helped me sell this shit we could have some fun,” she seethed. I wondered if they often fought. Jesse laughed breezily and nudged my shoulder.

“Sammy’s got her panties in a twist.”

“Don’t call me Sammy; it’s Sam or Samantha, got it?” she hissed. Her glare paired with dark, stormy eyes was enough to make me get it. Jesse laughed instead, pushing off the table and slapping her ass lightly before helping someone.

Oli gripped my hand as we left.

“They’re the most annoying two that we’ve got but they do their job right. I think they used to fuck around or somethin’ because she’s way too angry for anythin’ like that to just happen,” he explained.

“Yeah, I kind of got that one.”

“Anyway, we have a while until our set but there’s an interview that Lee, Matty, and I have to go to. Yeh can come if yeh like, I think Becca’s goin’,” he asked. I nodded.

“Sounds fun, who for?”

“AP they’re usually fun, yeh’ll see,” he said. He flashed a pass and we were through, behind a stage and then walking toward our bus. I stepped onto it and felt air conditioning lightly kiss my skin.

“Oi, there yeh are Liv! Oli seemed to think yeh ran away!” Jona yelled from the small couch. His arm was thrown haphazardly around Kelly’s shoulders as she read through an issue of The Rolling Stone.

“Aw did yeh miss me babe?” I mocked his English accent perfectly, leaning up to kiss his lips. He rolled his eyes and kicked at Jona’s shins. The next few words he muttered started a shit storm if I ever saw one, and I’ve seen quite a few.

“Why don’t yeh go fuck your new slag or somethin’?”

Immediately the bus was in an uproar. Jona, Lee, and Becca were on Oliver’s ass in a minute, yelling profanities. Sheep pulled out his phone to record while both Matt’s tugged at their screaming friends.

Kelly herself stood up calmly and walked off the bus. Giving a backwards glance to my harassed boyfriend, I followed her.

I’d never gotten a chance to get to know the brunette. She seemed nice enough, funny and witty enough to have won the hearts of two men in the band. All I really knew about her was that she was American and going to school in England.

She walked for a while, head down, and I followed her. Eventually I watched her pale form sit and lean back against the fence. I sat next to her quietly, waiting for her to speak. After a lot of shaky breaths, she did.

“I fucked up so bad Liv, you know? Like, as soon as I got here me and Lee were just…I don’t know what we were but it was whatever. It was nothing serious to him I guess but when it was nothing serious to him it was serious to me and when it was serious to him, it wasn’t to me,” she explained.

“It’s okay, just let it out,” I whispered, rubbing her back gently. She took a deep, heaving breath as the tears spilt down onto her bare knees. Her legs were bruised somewhat extensively.

“Well, I dunno how it happened really. Jona and I started hanging out and I just…we were just…oh fuck, we were just friends I absolutely swear it. We were just fucking friends. And then he started acting different, Jona did, like pulling out my chairs and inviting me over to his.”

“Mhm.”

“So whatever that was, I dunno, I didn’t even acknowledge the difference at first. But then Lee started saying things, and our already fucked up relationship was fucking up holy shit, he would just bring random girls around, I’m not joking.”

“But, wait, so Jona is the one that started being interested in you?”

“Is it really that shocking?” she asked, rubbing snot and tears on the bottom of her t-shirt. I bit my lip. Everyone had thought (including myself and Becca) that Kelly had come onto Jona and that he had just accepted.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just mean, why didn’t you tell anyone? Do you have feelings for Jona?”

“Kind of, I mean, I like the way he smells and the way he hugs and the way he always says he’s sorry for putting me through this and the way he cooks tofu shit and thinks I’ll eat it and all his little mannerisms but it’s like, how could I do that to Lee? Shouldn’t I just fly home or something?” she asked.

“No, no, never! Sh, I think it’s apparent that you and Lee were a fling and that maybe you have feelings for Jona. I mean, I don’t know obviously, but it just seems like how I felt about Oliver in the beginning.”

“Really?” she perked up considerably though the aforementioned had insulted her, “I wish I could have a relationship like yours. Ugh, you two are just perfect.”

“Thank you,” I said sweetly, swelling with pride. I hoped that people thought that because that’s what I thought. “Honestly, I think you should go tell everyone the truth right now because everyone has some weird, warped perspective on the situation.”

“My mom says it’s no one’s business but my own.”

Bless this girl’s soul.

“That’s true, but we’re living in close quarters for a few months. I know you’re leaving before tour ends but wouldn’t it be so much better if we could all get along? I’ll talk to Oli about his comment but really, everyone’s at each other’s throats right now.”

“You’re right I guess, that would be for the better. I’m not really sure how to bring this up and Becca is too firey to even be able to bring it up calmly,” she laughed after she said this. I envied their relationship. Rebekah couldn’t even hear a bad word against her friend without launching a full scale attack that the Nazi’s would have been jealous of.

“Maybe just bring it up privately at first, with Lee you know?”

“You’re really smart Liv, I appreciate this,” she said tiredly. She rubbed her eyes and then leaned her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her as we sat, staring at buses and listening to distant bass lines and chanting kids.

“Hey, it’s no problem.”

I hoped she’d remember this for when I was in tears.