The *** of Warped Tour

It was getting towards the end of the day. I had just driven back into the city to leave my car at the apartment. It couldn't stay out at the warped tour venue all day. I took a look around at my apartement. It was spectacularly clean. It always was right before I left to follow Warped Tour around the country every summer, but normally I didn't go back to my apartment to park my car. Normally I just cleaned up, packed, and left quickly. Normally I didn't meet an amazing friend who would give me a job as one of the hottest new bands on the tour's stage hand. There was nothing normal about me anymore.

I thought back about today. About both Ben and Ronnie. How strangely they were friends, though Ben was a huge ass hole and Ronnie was a really cool person.

I don't like this one bit, how Ben could at any minute tell Ronnie all about me. How, in fact, anybody could. I just want to see, if maybe i'm not a bad person at all. If maybe my reputation precedes me. Like, I think i'd make friends had he not spread it around that I was such a whore. Fuck. I shouldn't have let people think I was a whore either.

Ever hear about how girls get called sluts? Ever call a girl a slut Just because her shirt's too short and her boobs hang out? And then that girl just goes on confidently, continuing to dress and act the way she does because she doesn't care? I tried to. I tried to not care. But oddly enough, the pornstar cares if people thinks she's a whore or slut or whatever.

Well, I suppose I wouldn't care if people called me that. If it were true, I would have no problem what-so-ever being flamingly labeled "THE BAND WHORE OF WARPED TOUR!".

Truth is that i'm not, though. I'm just a normal person with an unfortunate job. I'll act cocky as shit, but underneath this is me. The girl who wants you all to know the truth.

Then i'll go and contradict myself. I want people to know the truth. I fucked Ben Bruce, he hurt me by telling everyone, told them i'm a whore, and i'm a porn star, but i'm not really a bad person. I don't actually fuck everyone I meet, like a real whore would. But I don't want Ronnie to know because i'm sure he wouldn't want to speak to me again.

"Why do I have to be so difficult?!" I shout to the empty walls of my apartment. "Do I care? Or Do I not care?! I don't know anymore. I just-" I start crying and smearing my makeup.

"Want someone else to care about what you do?" Ronnie said, walking in to my apartment.

"You said you'd stay in the parking lot." I mumbled. "And you didn't knock!"

"I heard shouting." He said and he knocked on the door.

"Fuck." I laughed, there was black smudges all over my hands.

"You look like a raccoon!" He smiled, pointing at my face. "It's scary."

"You are so, ughh, leave me alone, will you?" I mumbled.

"Look, you're crying, I'm here to make you feel better. Come on, let's fix your face." He said.

"You're not making me feel better! You're being mean!" I accused him.

"Sorry." He held his hands up like I was accusing him of something.... wait, I was.

"It's okay. Actually, I'm sorry. I know we have to leave soon."

"Yeah." He nodded. "But first, have any wet wipes?"

I shook my head.

"Makeup remover?" He asked.

I nodded and walked into the bathroom to get it and a wash cloth.

"See, this'll work." He poured some remover onto the cloth and wiped my face clean with it. "Fabulous!" He struck a gay pose. I laughed and smiled. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that he defied me to come in here after all. I do like him when he’s not making fun of me.

"See, this is why I’m here. Bet you feel a lot better now." He said. I nodded. "You're not saying anything."

"I'm embarrassed." I admitted.

"For what?" He wondered.

"Crying. And talking to myself."

"That's okay. I don't think any less of you. But I will if we don’t get the fuck out of here in time..." He urged me to go.

"Goodbye little apartment!" I shouted.

"You're cute." Ronnie shook his head.

"How so?" I asked, locking the door.

"That thing you did right there was just funny." He laughed.

"Oh." I said stupidly. "Well let’s go before we're late. We have to walk all the way back to the venue."

"A whole 10 blocks."

"That's about a half hour of walking."

"Then we need to run because we have fifteen minutes." He said, grabbing my hand and making a run for it.
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When we got to the venue the buses were about to leave. My bags were still outside FIR's bus, though we told the driver to get them.

"They must have forgotten." Ronnie said.

"Yeah." I heaved. My bag was quite large.

"Let me get that. You'll take forever. And we're in a hurry." He picked it up over his head. I took the time to admire his muscles. Not only did I admire them because they looked nice, cause man did they look nice, but they were useful in picking up large objects. They also looked like they’d be of great use in a fight. Note to self, if I ever get stuck in a fight with some bitch again, scream for Ronnie.

"Uh, wow." I said, closing the door behind us.

"What?"

"You're very strong." I noted.

"Why thank you." He said. "Your bed's here." He took me down a narrow hallway.

"Aww, I wanted to be on top." I said this then Ronnie started laughing. I started laughing too. I heard a couple of other voices.

“Ronnie man, tell your groupie to be quiet.” Ryan laughed.

“I’m not a groupie!” I declared. Another band member decided to come out and see what was going on.

“Sure look like one.” Jacky Vincent smiled at me.

“Yeah, well you know what they say about the covers of books?” I asked him.

“No, because while everyone else was reading, I was shredding the guitar.” Jacky laughed and high-fived Ryan. I rolled my eyes and smiled at the cocky joke. In fact, that’s one thing I’ve noticed about most band guys. They are almost all really cocky. Well, not legitimately cocky, more times than not they think it’s funny to make jokes and references to their alleged awesomeness. Granted, they are pretty fucking awesome, and have the right to be so pompous, though it’s not really funny when they joke about it constantly.

“Guys, this is Bell. She sets up the stage. And she just started today, which is why she’s moving in right now.” Ronnie laughed at Jacky.

“Were you the bitch that gave me the wrong guitar earlier?” Jacky cocked an eyebrow upwards. I shook my head slowly. No I wasn’t. “Then you’re cool.” He hugged me. “And nice to meet you.”

“Seriously, you dress like a groupie…” Ryan shook my hand, which stuck out from behind Jacky’s monstrous hug.

“I get that a lot.” I agreed.

“So you’re here.” Ronnie tossed my bag on to my bed. “And I’m in here.” He pointed to a room. Must be nice having your own miniature bedroom on the bus. That’s pretty chill. “Goodnight.” He hugged me. I actually hugged him back. He didn’t attack me like Jacky did.

Once Ronnie was gone, Jacky and Ryan decided we should play a game or two. Rather, that they should go through my clothes while I shouted at them to stop it. It was fun for them.

“We’ve struck gold!” Ryan shouted, holding up my bra.

“We love you Dcup.” Jacky bowed. I giggled a little, but then returned to being mad. They went through my pajamas, and my band Tshirts, and my panties, which I quickly slapped away from them.

“Ryan, what’s your last name?” I wondered, while he was in the middle of trying on one of my shirts.

“Seaman.” He answered, and he ripped my Metallica Tshirt right down the side.

“YOU BITCH, YOU BITCH! I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO THROUGH THOSE!” I shouted at him, jumping on top of him and punching him repetitively while Jacky pulled me away from him.

“Bell, was that necessary to scream like that, I’m trying to sleep!” Ronnie stormed out of his room, right down the hall from us and yelled.

“Ryan ripped my shirt in half.” I flicked Ryan off. “And they are going through my things.” I was still flaming mad.

“Okay children.” Ronnie rolled his eyes at us. “Simple solution, Bell put your shit in my room so they can’t touch it. Ryan, Jacky?” He looked at them.

“Yeah?” They wondered.

“Stop being such morons!” He shook his head. He was pretty pissed too. Ryan and Jacky sulked off to go find something else to do. Ronnie helped my shove my clothes back into my bag.

“I’m sorry.” I explained.

“It’s cool.” He shook his head and held up the bra. “Where’s this go?” he asked with a straight face, nonpervishly. This says a lot about his personality. That he can be serious, and that not everything’s a joke with him. And I’m glad he is being mature right now, otherwise I’d be bright red and embarrassed.

“Here.” I snatched it away from him, and shoved it in a zipped compartment with all my other bras.

“C’mon you can sleep in here tonight in case they try to screw with you again.” He walked to his room and set my bag inside. “They just like having someone around to mess with. And it’s especially funny when it’s a girl.” He smiled. He had tired eyes. So I didn’t want to argue or make him mad because he was sleepy and angry as it was.

“Okay.” I agreed. “And thanks. For everything today.” I shut the door behind me.

He yawned, and his mouth stretched open like a giant monster going to eat something, or like it did when he was going to scream on stage. But he shut it quickly and grinned sheepishly. He was really adorable.

“You’re looking at me funny.” He said.

“Am not.” I said.

“I suppose you’re right. You’re actually staring me down like you want to eat me. Did I make you mad?” He asked, wondering what he did.

“Oh! No just tired.” I lied. I didn’t want to eat him but I was definitely staring at him.

“Okay beautiful, let’s get to bed!” He said, laying down.

“Aww! That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me!” I smiled.

“Huh? I was talking to myself.” Ronnie laughed.

“You are a real piece of work, Ronnie.” I gave him a light shove and lay down the opposite way of him.

“Why are you cuddling up to my feet?” He asked me.

“No!” I explained. “I’m just laying the other way so this is not weird.”

“Dude, you’re feet are in my face.” He gave me an ‘are you serious’ look. “This is completely awkward.” I laughed when he said this.

“You’re right.” I turned the other way. “Goodnight.” I smiled, and he turned out the lights. The bed was not the biggest, so we were squished a little, but it’s not like we were all over each other. Or having sex. It’s just two adult friends sleeping in the same bed together. And one’s very attracted to the other. I added the last part. Because honestly, I did find him very, very attractive.