Do Overs and Second Chances

“Are you sure you don’t want to call your family back in Arizona?” Izy’s aunt Rebecca asked her the morning her and The Downtown Fiction were about to head out for the start of Warped Tour.

“I’ll call them from the road,” she said adding a maybe to the end of the statement in her head. She didn’t call back home very often. She felt guilty for not doing so but she tried to cut out as many reminders of Arizona from her life as possible.

“Alright sweetie take care of yourself.” Izy hugged her aunt and left the house to meet up with Cameron.

Her nerves started to kick in as she waited outside with her suitcase for The Downtown Fiction. She had gone to Warped Tour before, but obviously this was different. This wasn’t just one day where she could escape from reality for a while and get lost in the music. This was going to be two months of constant travel in extreme heat and even more terrifying she was actually going to have to play guitar on stage. In front of people other than Cameron. That scared her to death she was so nervous about messing up.

She pushed all her fears aside when The Downtown Fiction pulled up in with their van and trailer. Eric was driving and as soon as he put the van into park Cameron hoped out followed by the rest of the band.

“Hey you ready?” Cameron asked. Izy and him shared a quick kiss before he grabbed her bag and guitar case, so that they could head out. They boys quickly introduced them to their merch guy, Zack, before they all headed back into the van for the long ride ahead of them.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked once they had started driving. David was driving while Eric was sitting in the passenger seat. She sat forward from the seat she was sitting in with Cameron to talk to them.

“We are going to drive to a hotel near the first venue so we can be there nice and early for the first day of Warped,” David informed her.

“Super,” Izy commented before leaning back into Cameron’s arms. She had overlooked the biggest difference between going to Warped Tour and playing Warped Tour, waking up extremely early, which wasn’t something she really enjoyed over the summer.

“One more thing though,” Eric chimed in getting their attention. “Cameron, no PDA between you and Izy while in the van. Save it for when you’ll be in the hotel tonight and none of us have to see that.”

“We’re not that bad,” Izy defended them.

“Oh yeas you are,” Eric and David both agreed.

“Fine if that’s how you really feel,” Izy pretended to be offended.

“Yes that is how we really feel,” David said before turning the radio up and ending the conversation. The rest of the drive was pretty uninteresting and after what felt like forever they were checking into a small hotel. They split up the keys and went to their rooms.

The next morning The Downtown Fiction started their run on Warped Tour. Izy was woken up at what seemed like an ungodly hour. They checked out of the hotel to pack back into the van to make their way over to the venue.

Once they were there they all helped Zack to set up the merch tent. Cameron and Izy were walking over to the tent with a box in each of their arms making small talk. Izy was kind of out of it thought due to waking up early during the summer.

“The Summer Set, have you heard of them?” Cameron asked when he saw the tent that was set up next to theirs.

“I can’t say I have,” Izy told him. “What about you.”

“I’ve heard of them but I haven’t actually heard their stuff though,” Cameron commented.

They set their boxes down behind their tent. There was no one around them, the tents next to theirs were empty and David, Eric and Zack were all getting more boxes. “You know this could be one of the last times we are completely alone together during Warped we will probably be really busy all the time,” Cameron said.

“You’re right we should probably take advantage of our current situation,” she responded moving closer to him.

“Yes we should,” he agreed before kissing her. His hands were firm on her hips and his tangled into his hair.

“Get some,” somebody said from behind Cameron. Cameron and Izy broke apart to see who had interrupted him. The guy who had spoken had bleached basically white hair and was standing under the Summer Set’s tent with another guy Izy didn’t know with Blond hair. When Izy saw who else he was standing with though her heart stopped. For the first time in two years Izy was face to face with Stephen Gomez. She felt even more shocked when Jess Bowen came up to her and slapped Izy across her face leaving a stinging reminder of what had happened.

“Izy, what’s going on,” Cameron asked confused and with concern in his voice.

“Don’t worry about it Cam I deserved that,” she told him before facing Jess. “Could we talk?” she asked the other girl. Jess agreed and the two of them started to walk away from the boys.

“What was that about? the blond boy asked.

The other boys shrugged well all but one. “That’s her, that’s Izy,” Stephen said.

“Wait how do you know Izy?” Cameron asked feeling more confused.

“It’s a long story. You should ask her yourself?” Stephen replied.