Can't Stop Lovin' You

"How was the show?" Riley called in from the bus she was at.

It had been two years since graduation and it was the boys' second summer without any company from Riley or Savannah. Riley decided to take on New York for school of fashion designer and left the boys all alone. It was summer 2008 and the boys got themselves an opportunity to play on Warped Tour in some states and that includes Texas. They played a show in Dallas and they felt pretty excited about their summer tour.

"Are you coming over for our little party before we go on tour?" Zack asked as Alex grabbed the phone off his hand.

"Riley, you should definitely come to the party! Baltimore ain't that far from New York, you know. I'll pay for your bus or train ride back home!" Alex said trying to convince Riley to come home as she laughed on the other line. "What? What's so funny?"

"I am on my way home, scum bag. Tell the other guys I'll be home for the party tonight." Riley added as she dropped the call.

Riley finally reached Baltimore and she was finally on taxi home to get her car and drive to her best friends' place. On her way back home, she passed a boutique she knew belongs to her-used-to-be-best friend's mother's boutique and she decided to stop by to take a look. Even though she had tried to find Savannah through the workers there and found nothing, she thought it was right to dropped by and ask a few questions. As Riley opened the door, the boutique assistant looked pretty messed up and she clearly needed some rest or coffee.

"Ah, sorry about all these messes." She sighed.

"That's fine Matilda. Remember me?" Riley giggled as she helped Matilda with some stuff.

"Ah! I remember you. Savannah's friend, right? Riley?" Matilda asked as she nodded. "Ah, its so helpful with you around. Its so hectic here and I don't know how to handle all of the shop orders. Its so much easier when Martha was around!" She spat uncontrollably.

"You knew where Martha is?!" Riley asked as Matilda went quiet and slowly shook her head. "Come on Matilda." She begged.

"Well, I do. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone. Sorry..."

"I'm her daughter's best friend." Riley pouted but Matilda won't tell her a single thing.

Riley decided to stay a while longer and talk to Matilda, hoping she would just blab about the Ash's position, too bad she didn't. But lucky Riley who decided to stay, she just got herself a job offer. The fact that the boutique's designer decided to quit gave her an opportunity to work as the new designer at the shop, even though that counted as internship, but an intern is all she needed to finish her school.

As Matilda told her to wait and they exchange personal information. As Riley went home, Matilda called Martha to tell her about Riley's visit and her interest to fill in the designer's position for her boutique while Riley grabbed her car and drove to Alex's house to meet up with her-used-to call-partners in crime.

Martha was relieved to know someone is willingly filling in the spot to be her designer even though she knew that means she had to hired her daughter's best friend to work with her and that may blown everything Martha and Savannah had tried to built for their new life in the past two years, but she couldn't let her main store ran out of business and agreed that Riley would be their current designer for the summer line that they had been neglecting due to their conflict with the previous designer.

"I'll take it from here, Matilda. Thank you so much for keeping the business in order." Martha said as she hung the phone up and continued doing her dishes in the kitchen's sink.

As Martha did her job in the kitchen, she heard her grand son, Shane cried inside the room, so she hurried with the dishes and came inside the room with a bottle of warm milk for Shane and gave it to Savannah as she put her son to bed. It was his nap time and Savannah had to do her so called homework. Since she left Baltimore, she decided she didn't want to become a journalist because the chances of her meeting Jack and all time low would open wide. She decided to take business management for her major and she took extra classes during summer to make up all the classes she missed.

Even though Martha is so proud of Savannah, she was still hoping Savannah would move on and continue living her life as she used to be. Ever since they moved out of Baltimore to Dallas, Savannah had never spent a day out with friends, it was so unlike her. The daughter Martha has had changed, she used to go out and hang out with people, and then she just changed 180.

Savannah turned on her laptop and started doing her paper, trying to gather all the information she needed, suddenly she found a local site that talked about concerts and every shows that was held in the very own Dallas. She clicked the link and found out that All Time Low was scheduled to play on Warped Tour at Dallas.

"I knew it you'd make it." She thought inside her mind as a tear of joy escaped her eyes. "I miss you, Barbara-Cat." She whispered.

Savannah didn't want her mother to see her crying so she decided to went out to grab some coffee, and Martha was gladly letting her out of the house, in fact, Martha let Savannah out of the apartment for as long as possible with hopes she can make friends.

"Don't be home too soon, sweetie!" Martha said as she closed the front door and went back to Shane's room.

---

Savannah went to the nearest starbucks by her apartment as she decided to stay there for a while. She remember the time she used to hang with her friends back in Baltimore and realized that the only thing missing in her life was her so called stupid friends. She was just walking by the streets when she passed an instrument store and saw a les paul guitar she sure Alex would've loved.

Savannah decided to get into the store and looked around the store when suddenly a girl approached her and asked which guitar she liked. Savannah didn't know which guitar is good and which is don't because the last time she went to a guitar store was more than two years ago and it was with her musician friends, of course they picked the ones they loved playing.

"Are you here to buy anything, miss?" The girl asked when she realized all Savannah did was staring around the store. "Miss?" She waved her hands in front of Savannah's face.

"Yes? Uhm I'm sorry, I was lost at my own thoughts." Savannah answred as she shook her head lightly.

"Are you going to buy anything?"

"Actually I don't really play instruments, I came here to look around."

"You don't? I really thought you play though, because you went straight here and looked at this guitar. This thing is the dope!" The girl said excited and it reminded her of Alex.

"You think so?"

"No! I know so! I'm a musician myself and I would die to buy this, too bad I don't have enough cash to make this sweet babe mine."

"You know what? You remind me a lot of someone I used to be so close with, the difference is, he was a guy." Savannah chuckled as the girl scratched the back of her head.

"I'm Tara. Tara Bright." She offered a hand as Savannah gladly shook it.

"Savannah."

Tara and Savannah managed to talk more than they should, turned out, Tara was a huge fan of music and she was just so passionate about the music. Tara was a little shock when Savannah told her she had been in the town for two years but haven't met her at all, and she was even shocker to know Savannah prefer to be inside her apartment and that makes Tara to one conclusion. She decided to make friend with Savannah and she would take her around the town once her shift was over, which was only 15 minutes away.

Savannah didn't really want to take the offer as she called her mother and asked her opinion about Tara. In fact, Martha was more than glad Savannah found a girl like Tara. As Tara finished her shift, she took Savannah to her favorite place to hang and it was a small coffee shop around the corner of the street. Tara started telling Savannah about her life, including her obsession of bands. All Time Low was one of her obsession, and turned out Tara had a non identical twin brother who took part time job in an indie clothing line store just two blocks away.

After the coffee shop, Tara asked Savannah to follow her to a skate park, another place Tara love to spend her time at. Based on Tara’s explanation, she always come to the park with her brother because he was actually an amazing skater, she just couldn’t wait to introduce him to Savannah.

Their last destination was Tara’s twin’s brother’s office. Savannah hadn’t had a friend she can almost relate to everything since she left Baltimore, and finding Tara gave her a new hope and it sure brought memories to her mind, but she was done with all the past. She didn’t want to recall everything and regret her decision. She just wanted to live her new life.

“Tara? What are you doing here, girl?” A guy who looked like Tara’s age said as he walked toward Tara and Savannah.

“Randy! Meet my new friend, Savannah. Believe it or not, we shared the same kind of music taste!” Tara squealed.

“Really? That’s awesome! Hi Van, I'm Randy.” Randy said, offering his hand to shake and Savannah froze.

“That’s what I wanted to call her too, Randy! Van.” Tara grinned as Savannah smiled.

“Well, I don’t really like being called Van because I feel like a car, so Sav is good.” Savannah denied politely as Randy and Tara respected her decision.

“By the way, my boss gave me four tickets to Warped Tour the day after tomorrow. He wanted me to work there though, promoting the new summer line, but All Time Low will be playing there as well, what do you say, sist?” Randy asked Tara as she screamed and nodded. “Well, I'm only taking my girlfriend and you, so I guess we still have one free ticket. You want it, Sav?” He added.

“Of course she will come with us! It’s All Time Low!” Tara said as she grabbed the ticket for Savannah.

Savannah just froze up hearing and realizing she would be at ATL’s show, having the mixed up feelings and felt butterflies filling her stomach.