Noise and Kisses

I grabbed the last of my bags and hauled them into the van.
Matthew smiled at me and his shaggy brown hair was in his eyes, “Thank you so much for helping me out!”
I laughed as I shut the car door, “No problems, it will be tons of fun.”
He stretched his skinny fingers out to turn up the music as I yelled, “Warped Tour...here we come!”
About one month ago my older brother, Matthew, asked if I would like to come to Warped Tour with him. Of course, this had been one of my biggest fantasies since I heard that he was in a band. So naturally I agreed. He worked out that I would be a merchandise girl for a band. Warped Tour regulations said that each band had to organize to bring along at least 1 helper. When all the bands arrived at the base venue, the helpers would be assigned a band to tour with for the next few months. Matthew’s band was just starting, so they probably wouldn’t need many merch girls/guys. At first I thought it was a bummer that I wouldn’t be touring with Matt, but then I realized I have a chance to tour with really big bands. Matt’s band was called Aggressive Exchange and he was the singer. Our first stop was to pick up the guitarist and bassist, who rented a flat together. We pulled out the front of a block of apartments and I could see two eager guys grinning and waving.
Matthew hopped out of the car to help Adam, who was tall and lean, and Dean, who had constantly messy black hair with green eyes, with their bags. I smiled to myself; this was going to be the best summer yet.
After three hours of driving, laughing, listening to music and telling Adam to stop grossing me out, we finally arrived. There were tons of buses lined up. A shiver of excitement rolled down my spine.
“Holy shit, this is it,” I breathed.
“This is the day we’ve been waiting for guys!” yelled Owen our drummer, who we had picked up last.
We were still sitting in awe in our little van, looking out the windows. What I saw was something out of my dreams. Everything looked so alive and I felt as though it was a scene I belonged in. There were guys with band tees, managers running around, girls decked out in converse and frilly skirts. I could see people carrying stage equipment and instruments and slutty groupies checking out their prey. I laughed to myself.
Matt’s voice broke my gaze away from the chaos around us, “Man, this is gonna be one hell of a ride.”
As we were unloading our bags from the car trunk a guy with a clipboard and permanent laugh lines came up to us.
“Hey guys. My name is Lomas, I’m one of the tour directors,” he smiled.
Matthew spoke up, I could tell he was nervous, “Um, yeah hey. We’re a band.”
I frowned at him; his nerves were getting in the way already.
Lomas laughed, “yeah I figured that much.”
Matt rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, “Haha, I mean, um we are the band Aggressive Exchange. I’m Matthew, this is Dean, Owen and Adam,” he said as pointed at everyone.
Adam continued for Matt, “And this lovely lady is our friend and Matt’s sister. We brought her along as a helper.”
Lomas nodded, “Alright guys, well I see you have a trailer to sleep in?”
“Yeah, we’re only starting out,” Dean pitched in.
“I understand. There are some other bands like you guys that are starting out,” Lomas explained, “Anyway, basically today all we are doing is setting up stages and making sure all the bands have arrived. So you guys are ‘checked in’ and later you will be called for a sound check. Make sure you listen to announcements,” he grinned, “Welcome to Warped!”
“Sweet as,” Owen laughed.
Then Lomas turned to me, “You’ll be coming with me. All helpers are being assigned bands now. Bring your bags and stuff, because once you find out who your touring with you can find their bus and drop your bags there.”
I nodded eagerly and picked up my bags. I quickly gave all the guys a hug and they said they’d see me later on. Lomas dropped me off at a massive white tent, where heaps of guys and girls were hanging around. I saw a sign which read, “Merchandise helpers: Please line up here.”
After a good ten minutes of waiting around I was finally called forward. I stood there, in a trio. A man behind a table started talking, “Right, you three are a merchandise team now. “
I looked at the people either side of me. One was a guy, with dark hair and a red bandana around his neck. He had massive blue eyes and some snake bites. On the other side of me stood a short girl, with choppy blonde hair and hazel eyes. She had a round face and grinned up at me. I smiled back at her.
She whispered quickly to me, “Hey, I’m Hazel.”
I laughed mentally because I just had been thinking about her eye colour.
“I’m Thalia-Jade,” I quickly replied.
We stopped talking when the man in charge started up again, “Okay you three will be permanently living with the band, The Used.”
I heard Hazel take a big breathe in and squeal, “Oh my god!”
The man continued, reading of a chart now, “Nate and Thalia will be their main helpers. Hazel you will bunk with The Used but you while also split your helping time with the band, Alexisonfire.”
I looked up at the cute guy beside me and realized his name must be Nate. He looked down at me and smirked in a friendly way. I held his gaze as he muttered, “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”
“Alright guys, you’ve probably heard this heaps of times now, but Welcome to Warped.”
I was still beaming as we walked out of the tent.
Hazel was laughing, “can you believe this?! We are living with the fucking Used!”
I nodded, I didn’t really know much about them but I had heard Matt talking about them before.
“Yeah it’s pretty intense,” said Nate.
“By the way guys, I’m Hazel,” she said as her blonde hair bobbed.
“I’m Nathan, but I liked to be called Nate.”
I smiled, “and I’m Thalia-Jade, but Thalia or Jade will do just fine.”
“Cool. I have a feeling we’ll be a great team,” giggled Hazel. I could tell that she was the easily-excited type.
“Okay then, let’s find the bus!” I said.
As we were walking, with Hazel in the lead, Nate and I continued chatting.
“Killer shoes,” he said.
I was sort of absent minded, getting nervous about living with a bunch of people I knew nothing about. I hope the band weren’t the type of guys that had lots of groupies…
“Hm?” I sighed and that I realized what he said, “Oh yeah, they’re pretty cool,” I said as I admired my blue sequined converse.
He laughed, most likely at my day-dream like state, “Man, I like you already.”
“Same,” I responded smiling.
“HERE IT IS!” I heard Hazel yell. She was jumping up and down outside of a red bus. “This is Bus 32! This is The Used’s bus!”
“She’s so excited, she must be a huge fan or something,” mused Nate.
When we caught up to Hazel she was still bouncing up and down.
“Ready guys?” she said, her eyes were bright.
“Yeah,” Nate and I said at the same time.
She reached out to the door and knocked on it.
We heard yelling and running from inside the bus. I looked up at Nate and pulled a nervous face. Before I was telling him about how I was scared cause I didn’t know the band at all. He laughed and draped one arm around my shoulder. I knew that we’d be friends really quickly. The yelling and laughing seemed to be getting louder. Suddenly it was quiet again.
I could hear someone just behind the door, there was laughing again.
“Please don’t be wankers, please don’t be wankers!” I thought to myself.
A male voice, pretending to be girly, shrilled out, “Whooo is it?” it sung.
Hazel looked back at us, biting her lip.
I answered for her, “Uh, it’s your merchandise people.”
Just then, the bus doors banged open.
A guy with a black fringe, big ear stretchers and snake bites, with lots of tattoos popped his head outside the door.
“Well hi there!” he said.
Hazel beamed back, “Hi!”
Nate laughed and stepped forward, reaching his hand out, “I’m Nate,”
The guy in the bus took his hand and shook it, “I’m Jeph Howard, and good to meet you buddy.”
Then a guy came running down the bus squealing. He was standing behind Jeph and was giggling, bouncing up and down. He instantly reminded me of Hazel…except dirtier…and he was a guy. He had long black hair and blue eyes. He also reminded me of a little boy on a sugar high.
“Are you guys our merch people?!” he said excitedly.
“We are indeed,” I nodded.
“Well get on in here!” he laughed, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
Jeph moved out of the door frame so we could walk in.
“I’m Bert, by the way,” said the guy with long hair.
Jeph grabbed one of my bags; Hazel and Nate were already in the bus.
“What’s your name?” he said to me.
“I’m Thalia.”
Bert started wiggling around and clapped his hands together, “You are pretty!” he said.
“Haha, um thanks.”
Finally we got all our bags in and Bert took off down the bus again. It was huge inside. There was a door at the end of the bus, which seemed to lead onto another section. There was a couch, and a kitchen in the section that Jeph and I now stood in.
“I’m the bassist by the way,” Jeph grinned.
“Oh, cool.”
“Also, this is just one of our buses. We like to call this bus, the sober bus,” he smiled.
“Hm, what’s the other one? Like the party bus?”
He laughed, “Actually, yeah.”
I was surprised that I guessed correctly, “Right.”
He suddenly took my hand and dragged me down the hall, “Come on, you have to meet everyone else.”
Inside I was pretty happy, they seemed nice thus far.
Jeph took me through the door which led to a room with 2 sets of bunk beds. Hazel was perched on one of the beds and Nate was digging through his bag on the bed above her.
A guy with glasses was sitting laughing with Bert. He had brown hair and a chain around his neck. When we walked through the door he looked up.
“Guys, this is Thalia,” Jeph said, introducing me.
“Hey man,” waved the guy I hadn’t met yet, “I’m Brandon, the drummer,” he finished.
“Thalia!” squealed Bert and he ran up and gave me a big hug.
“Uh, hey?” I said as he started laughing and danced around me again.
He was pulling on my hair cooing things like, “Pretty!” and “Mmm, long.” It was then that I first noticed that there was another guy in the room.
I first saw a shoe, dangling off the other top bed. A guy, with black and bleached blonde hair, was stretched out on top of the bed. His eyes were closed and he was wearing dark jeans and a tight blue top saying, “I hold up under pressure.”
Even though he was asleep I straight away admired his beauty. Jeph noticed what I was staring at and said, “Oh yeah, that’s our guitarist, Quinn Allman.”
Mentally I repeated the name, 'Quinn. Quinn Allman. It’s a nice name..'
Brandon grinned, “He hasn’t woken up yet. He likes to sleep a lot, but party more, if you get me.”
I thought to myself, “Great, there has to be one guy that is a big party boy. I just hope he isn’t a player...”
Hazel giggled, “Holy cow. He hasn’t woken up yet? But it’s 4pm!”
Bert giggled with her, “I like you!” he yelled at her face.
She scrunched up her nose in a cute way, “You’re funny.”
Nate laughed, “Lovers in the making!”
“Hey guys, apparently there is a party on tonight. As like a start to Warped Tour kind of thing,” said Brandon.
“Wanna go?” Jeph asked.
“Sure, I’m up for a party,” I grinned.
“Definitely,” nodded Hazel.
Nate just smirked and muttered, “This is the life.”