The Girl At The Rock Show

The phone ringing was the first thing that woke Tessa up. She groaned as she rolled over and blindly reached for her phone on her nightstand. Finding it just as it went to voicemail; she groaned and unlocked it, wincing at the bright light as she pressed a few buttons to figure out who had called her.

She glanced at the top of her phone to see that in was only seven in the morning on her day off and she made a mental note to kill whoever it was who had called her. Everyone knew it was her day off, and after the hellish first couple of months at her job, she was finally soaking up her first off day and wanted to do nothing more that sleep in and do nothing all day.

1 missed message: Carol

Ok, well at least the call was from her boss so she couldn’t be that upset, but she really didn’t want to have to talk to her boss when she wasn’t having to go in for another three days. She had been proud of herself for taking off on a Friday so she could catch up on her sleep that day and then spend the weekend out instead of catching up on sleep for the next two days. But apparently her boss decided to bug her and she just prayed that the call wasn’t going to turn out that her boss needed her to come in. Then she would really want to shoot someone.

Figuring she mind as well get it over with, she pressed call and pressed the phone up to her ear listening to it ring. “Hey Tessa, I know it’s your day off and I’m really sorry for that.” Was the first thing her boss said to her when she picked up.

“No it’s fine Carol, sorry I didn’t get to the phone in time.” She replied, clearing her throat to try and get the sleepiness out of it.

“It’s alright Tessa, really.” The woman replied and Tess rolled her eyes just wanting her to get to the point so she could, hopefully, get back to sleep. “Anyway, the reason I’m calling-”

She listened half heartedly once she realized that she wasn’t even needed at the office and that her boss had just called her to tell her about a new assignment she was given. She had just graduated from the local college in Baltimore with a double major in journalism and photography.

As soon as she had graduated, a local music magazine hired her and for the last three or so months, she had been working her tail off to prove herself and earn her spot as a regular in the magazine. So far she had only done a few pieces, but mostly took pictures at some of the live shows that came in town. She was still waiting for that big break that would show everyone she could do what she was hired to do.

“-So I was wondering if you were ok with that?” her boss continued, pulling Tessa from her sleepy daze.

She blushed, even though she was the only one in the room and asked her to repeat herself since the phone cut off. It was a total lie, but she was willing to do it since she didn’t want to admit to her boss that she hadn’t even been listening. That wouldn’t go over so well.

“Oh, sorry, my phone does that sometimes.” Well, at least she bought it. “I was just asking if you would be ok with going on Warped to take pictures and do a piece on what it’s like for the bands on the road. We would give you whole three pages for pictures and whatever it is you write and I’m asking you since you have connections with one of the bands on tour this year and no one else really doesn’t want to do it.”

Was she being serious? Three pages to fill in a magazine about her experience on Warped Tour? As in the Warped Tour, as in her favorite summer tour that went through America once a year? Um, hell yes!

“Oh my goodness Carol, that sounds amazing! Thank you so much!” Tessa gushed as she sat up with a huge smile on her face.

Her boss gave a sigh of relief, “So you mean you’ll do it? You’ll go on the tour?”

“Yes, I’d love to.”

“Oh thank you Tessa, you don’t know how much I appreciate you doing this. No one else would do it and if you said no then I might have had to do it myself.” She said as Tessa cringed.

Yeah right, Carol Lewis on Warped Tour with her expensive dress suits and high heels. Her hair was always in perfect order and she flipped if it wasn’t or if anything was in perfect order. Tessa couldn’t even imagine her boss surviving a few hours on Warped, let alone months.

She got up from her bed to write down everything that her boss told her about the tour, mentioning that she would probably be able to find her own transportation since her brother was also going on that tour. Once she finally got off the phone, she smiled to herself as she read through what she had written down. Glancing at her bed, she realized that she wasn’t nearly as tired as she had been a few minutes ago, and was nearly screaming with excitement. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep after that news.

So she grabbed her phone again and dialed her brother’s number. She knew it was early and that he would most likely kill her knowing that it was so early since he just got off the last tour, but she honestly didn’t care. She was too excited to keep it to herself until she saw him later that night.

“You better be calling because your apartment is on fire and you need me to come pick you up because you’re too much of an emotional wreck to drive yourself to my place.” Her brother mumbled into the speaker once he finally picked up.

“Vinny, you will never guess what just happened!”