What Separates Me From You

June 25th: Houston, TX

The Houston even was going just as planned. So far, there was no site of Jeremy, which for me was a very good sign. I made my way over to the Vans Tent where I decided to spend my free time selling merchandise to kids since everything was up and running.

“What’s the different between the S and the M?” a girl who had to be at least 13 asked me. Her hair was teased up to a ridiculous height, revealing the clips to her blue extension pieces. All I could think was ‘fake’. What level had I stooped to? I was judging kids almost ten years younger than me. I needed to get a hold of myself.

“You mean besides the size?” I asked sarcastically. “The price, probably.”

The girl glared at me with her over lined eyes. Whatever raccoon face, you don’t know who you’re dealing with. She handed me fifteen dollars and I handed her a small white Vans tank. As she pulled it out of my hand, I looked up to see Jeremy and the rest of his band walking towards the tent. My tent.

God, please have mercy on me.

“OHMIGAWD, A DAY TO REMEMBER!” screamed the scene tween. “Please sign my shirt.”

“Sure thing,” Jeremy says with a smile, taking the shirt from the girl. “Have a marker I could borrow, Greene?”

I looked at Jeremy with a bored expression and handed him a black sharpie. Scene girl squealed like a pig. Pretty soon my ears were going to bleed. Jeremy handed the shirt back to the girl and the marker back to me. I tossed it over my shoulder. Yeah, I’m a badass.

“Good morning, McKinnon,” I greeted in monotone.

“Olivia Greene! Just the person I was looking for,” Jeremy said with a smile as he leaned against one of the tent’s supports.

I rolled my eyes. In my head I imagined taking the support beam and challenging him to a joust. But that was for another day. I brought my attention back to Jeremy as I folded up some shirts. Jeremy did not seem to be enthused by my lack of enthusiasm for his enthusiasm. Hah, what a sentence.

“Just wondering if you had a second,” he added.

“What for?” I asked disinterestedly.

“To chat.”

“We’re chatting now,” I pointed out.

“The boys and I were hoping that you could take a second of your oh-so busy schedule to address out set situation.”

What was this? A problem of Jeremy’s I could actually fix? It couldn’t be! Yet it was… this was definitely a job for me. I was getting tired of Jeremy’s waste of time requests like fixing food.

“Set situation? What’s wrong with your set?” I pretended to look concerned.

Jeremy’s smile grew wide, “Well, it appears that it conflicts with a previous engagement that our band has.”

I gave an empty laugh, ”You’ll have to cancel your previous engagement then.”

“Can’t do that, babe.”

“Olivia” I corrected.

“That’s what I said.”

“What is this important engagement that cannot be cancelled?” I asked putting down the shirts I had folded and placed my hands on my hips.

“Hide and seek,” he said simply.

“Excuse me?” I asked surprised. This had to be some sort of joke.

Jeremy stood up straight, surrendering his post on the tent’s support beam. “The guys and I are going to play hide and seek.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No,” replied Jeremy in a matter-of-fact tone. “And you have to find us in time or we won’t make it to our set.”

“Jeremy,” I warned, crossing my arms over my chest.

“And,” he added. “You can start now.”

Before I knew it, all five guys ran in different directions. I reached out to grab Jeremy’s shirt before he could run off but I missed by an inch and ended up falling out of the tent. Yeah right if I was going to look for these kids.

30 minutes later…

Cue panic mode. It had already been 30 minutes and I had only managed to find the drummer from Jeremy’s band. The guy had decided to hide in their tour bus—one of the first places I had looked in. When I found Alex I had pulled him by the ears from the bus to backstage of their set. Joey, my trusty assistant, was set to guard Alex and all the others I found after him.

There were only 15 minutes left until their set. They should have been up there already, doing sound check and tuning instruments and such, I thought angrily. I can’t believe that I was actually stooping to Jeremy’s level and searching for him. I needed to find them and quick.

I stomped angrily through a crowd of people and stopped when something caught my eye. A rent-a-cop reached for his belt and pulled a walkie talkie to his mouth. Duh! I thought. I reached for my walkie talkie.

“Attention, all Vans personnel. Stop what you’re doing right now. We have an emergency. Be on the lookout for the other four members of the band A Day to Remember. Send them to Joey behind the main stage if found.”

It took all of five minutes before someone found the rest of the band. Well, the rest of the band minus Jeremy. Melissa, one of the Vans employees, had found the other three members at the bar. Talking up the bartender. That left just one person left. Jeremy. I glanced at my watch again. Ten minutes until show time. The boys would know where Jeremy hid.

“Where is he?” I questioned the four captured members.

They all looked at each other and shrugged. Did they really not know or were just that stubborn to tell me?

“Relax, relax. Did you really think I’d bail on the fans?” that annoyingly familiar voice asked from behind me.

I turned around and found Jeremy walking towards the group. “Where were you?!” I asked in exasperation.

“At our merch tent,” Jeremy said with a smile.

That’s it I had enough. I got up and started to walk away from the band. I had done my part. There was no need for me anymore.

“Where are you going?” Jeremy asked.

“I’m going to the bar,” I replied.