You Don't Know What You Do to Me

I leaned down to tie my shoelaces. We had been on Warped for a little over a month and I had started running every morning so I could get myself back in "beauty pageant shape." The boys weren’t very happy with me running by myself so Kennedy began running with me.

I went outside and saw Kennedy already dressed in shorts and t-shirt.

He smiled and said, “Hey, are you ready to go?”

“Yep. Let’s get running.”

Kennedy and I took off running on a trail that was close to where the venue was. We were out east now and I really liked how beautiful it was. I was starting to miss Arizona though.

Kennedy and I had been running for about five minutes when he looked over at me and said, “Hey Parks, do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Sure, Ken. What’s up?”

“Well… you can’t get upset but, do you like John?”

I was shocked at what Kennedy had asked but tried to play it off by laughing and saying, “Of course I like John, Kennedy. He’s my best friend.”

Kennedy sighed and said, “No, I don’t mean it like that Parks. I mean, are you in love with John?”

I didn’t know what to say so I just mumbled, “Yes.”

Kennedy sighed again and said, “That’s what I thought. You hide it pretty well so for a while I couldn’t tell if you really were in love with him or if I was just imagining it. Why don’t you tell him?”

I laughed bitterly at this and said, “Yeah, I’m sure that will work Kennedy. It’s John, we’re talking about! He’s made out with at least five different girls while on Warped. If I tell him that I love him he’ll tell me that he doesn’t feel that way and then our friendship will be ruined. I can’t lose him, Kennedy.”

By this time Kennedy and I had finished our run and were back at the van.

Kennedy turned towards me and said, “You never know until you try Parks.”

Kennedy then walked back into the van to probably go back to sleep. I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the showers as the conversation that had just taken place replayed in my head. There was now one more person who knew about my feelings for my best friend.
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I walked back towards the van after my shower and saw that none of the guys were there. I decided to head over to the merch tent because I had to start working soon and I figured that’s where the guys were.

I found the boys at the merch tent and sat down so I could begin selling.

“Well are you just going to ignore me and not even say hi, Miss Lawson?” A voice said from behind me.

I turned around and saw my favorite sort-of-ginger standing there. “Nick! Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?”

“Well I decided to come here and surprise everyone. Since you guys are out east I figured I could hang out with you guys for a couple days. You obviously don’t like my surprise though. I’m disappointed because I was thinking about making you the future Mrs. Santino.”

John leaned over and hit Nick on the back of the head as I laughed and said, “You are such a drama queen. I really am glad you’re here though.”

“We should have a party or something since Nick’s here.” Garrett said.

“Well I think Alex and Jack were talking about getting a lot of the bands together for a celebration tonight so we can just go to that.” Jared answered.

“Sweet! Warped party!” Pat cheered.
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Alex and Jack’s idea of a “celebration” was having people from different bands get together and playing the game “Never Have I Ever” with shots.

We had been playing for a while and quite a few people were tipsy. So far I’d luckily only had to take one shot.

It was Alex’s turn to make a statement and he looked around to see who was in danger of being eliminated. He looked at the lone shot glass in front of Travie McCoy and smirked.

“Never have I ever kissed anyone in this room.” Alex said while staring straight at Travie.

“That was a cheap shot.” Travie said as he drank his last shot and then muttered, “I’m out.”

Katy drank her shot and I tried to sneakily drink mine also.

I wasn’t sneaky enough though because Pat yelled out, “I knew it! I knew you’ve kissed Nick, Parker-Blaine.”

Nick glanced down at my newly emptied shot glass and smirked at me as he said, “I’ve never kissed Parker-Blaine. I wish I have, but I’m not the reason she drank that shot.”

This caught the attention of nearly everyone in the room and soon I had the eyes of The Maine boys, Alex, Jack, Nick and Katy among others.

“Who in this room have you kissed?” Garrett and Pat kept asking.

“I hope she kissed Katy. That’d be so hot. Hey Katy, is Parker-Blaine the inspiration behind your song?” Alex smirked as I glared at him and Katy flipped him off.

“John, didn’t you have three shots just a minute ago?” Garrett suddenly yelled.

“Uhh… I… well.” John stuttered.

“Holy shit! You and Parker-Blaine have kissed. I thought you guys were best friends but I guess you’re more like friends-with-benefits.” Jack said with a smirk.

“Shut the fuck up.” John said and then stormed out.

Everyone turned to look at me and I began to feel extremely uncomfortable so I mumbled, “Well I guess I’m going to go now.”

“Keep your hands to yourself, Parker-Blaine!... Ow!” I heard Travie say as Katy hit him.

I had a feeling that things were about to become extremely awkward.