The Girl At The Rock Show

Tessa woke to the smell of fresh coffee brewing. Giving a loud obnoxious yawn, she stretched and then forced herself up out of her bunk and wandered toward where the delicious smell was coming from. The only other people up where Danny and Colussy, everyone else was dead to the world, and honestly, she had thought that she would be too. She hadn’t gone to bed until late the night before, and even though she had limited herself to two beers, she usually slept in longer. But it really didn’t matter, as long as she had some coffee to wake herself up more.

“Morning Tessie,” Colussy mumbled when he saw her walk in.

She just waved, not really caring about responding until she had some caffeine running through her veins. Grabbing a Styrofoam cup, she poured the steaming delicious liquid inside and left it black, waiting impatiently for it to cool down before she could take a sip. She turned toward the couch and took the seat next to Colussy, setting the cup down and pulling her legs up to her chest.

“What are you doing up so early?” Colussy asked as she started to play with the heart shaped locket around her neck.

“Randomly woke up and figured I mine as well get up and get some coffee since God knows I probably won’t be able to fall back asleep.”

The door to the bus opened and Matt walked inside randomly talking to someone on the phone. When he saw Tessa, he smiled as he continued through the bus to the back lounge and came back a few moments later with his laptop and finishing up the phone call. When he hung up, he gave them all a cheery good morning as he rummaged through the cupboards for some food and pulled them out putting them on the counter for the others.

He seemed like he was the only really excited person at the moment, which was sad because everyone should have been super stoked for the day since it was the first official day of Warped after all. But everyone, who was up at least, were acting like total zombies and getting annoyed with Matt’s cheery attitude. Tessa just hoped that she woke up enough to get rid of the urge to punch the overenthusiastic tour manager. Not that she actually would.

“Ok so I’ve got the list of the time and stage we’re on today so we’re going to have to get the rest of the crew up soon to take it all out.” Matt said once he grabbed something to eat and sat between Tessa and Colussy. She just ignored him, taking a sip of her coffee and then stealing half of Matt’s bagel and shoving it half in her mouth.

Colussy nodded, seeming to wake up a little more. “What time they on today?”

“Two,”

“And it’s nearly nine now, meaning we have a few hours to get the boys up and set up. When is the signing? Before or after?”

Matt grabbed some of the papers on the shelf behind the couch and shuffled through them. “Um, after. I’ll get the grease board filled out soon. I’ve just been a little behind today.”

The bus door opened again and Tessa glanced up to see Zack jog up the steps breathing heavily and sweating. Of course he had no shirt on and his hair was sticking to his forehead and Tessa just rolled her eyes. Typical Zack to go on his usual run no matter what, even after how much they had drank and partied the night before.

“Morning Zacky,” Tessa said as he nodded to her and grabbed an apple from the bowl. He sat down next to Danny who instantly started to complain about how sweaty he was and Zack just laughed as he reached over and pulled the tech into a hug, making him complain more.

“Why are you so loud?” Vinny asked, walking in and holding his head. Instead of going over to some of the other open seats available in the room, he went over to Tessa and plopped down on her lap, resting his head on her shoulder. “Morning Tessie,”

“Hi Vinny, how are you feeling?”

All she got in response was another groan as he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Zack got up and disappeared back by the bunks and everyone stayed in comfortable silence. Her coffee was done and she really wanted to get up and get another cup but she knew Vinny wasn’t going anywhere any time soon so she just sighed and looked to Colussy who was playing with his phone. She was about to convince him to get her another cup when a loud noise filled the silence.

Vinny started whining as Matt grabbed his phone and checked it. Whoever it was calling him made him smile really widely as he pressed a button and put it up to his ear. “Hey babe!” He said as Tessa rolled her eyes at the boy. He was like a teenager when it came to his girlfriend; he put everything down immediately whenever she called. It was annoying but adorable.

“Hey, anyone want to join me go check out the grounds?” Zack asked when he walked back in. Tessa noticed that he had changed clothes and also had his camera in hand and it gave her the idea to go take some pictures too. It might be good to get some pictures of the whole set up for the article, she never knew if they would come in handy.

She voices that she would come and Zack helped her get Vinny off of her so she could go get ready. Once she was free of her passed out brother, she rushed to the back, grabbing the first things she found in her bag and rushing to the bathroom to change.

When she came back out, everyone was where they had been when she had left, only Vinny was now snoring lightly from where he was sprawled on the couch. She smiled to Zack they walked to the door and out into the warm summer day. They didn’t say anything as they walked away from the busses and to the fair grounds. But Zack usually didn’t say much, unless he was hyper or drunk, but she was totally fine with that. She liked hanging out with Zack regardless and really didn’t mind the silence.

“I think I saw a hill over that way,” Zack said after a while, pointing toward the north. “I was thinking that maybe if we climb it we could get some good shots. It overlooks the whole grounds here.”

She nodded enthusiastically as he led her toward where he had found it. When they stood in front of it, she was starting to get a little nervous about it. It was really steep and she really wasn’t all that athletic unlike Zack. He was probably looking at it and laughing at how easy it looked while to her, the hill was the one laughing. Zack must have known what she was thinking because the next thing she knew was that he was picking her up and throwing her on his back.

She squeaked as she tried to figure out what had just happened and he laughed as he started up the hill. “Wait, Zack, what are you doing? Put me down!”

“Calm down Tess, I’m just giving you a piggy back ride up the hill. You looked like you were about to cry.” He replied as she just glared at him for his comment about the crying. “Besides, it’s a good work out, not that you weigh a lot or anything.”

She could just imagine the blush on his face when he realized how that had sounded, but she hadn’t taken it like that. Zack would never offend anyone like that, he was too much of a sweetheart to say something like that, even when he was angry, not that she had seen him angry much. But now that she thought about it, she really had only seen him angry once, and it really wasn’t even that bad.

Holding on tight as he continued to climb the hill, she noticed that he had been right about how good the view was. It was beautiful. She could see the whole park from there, the parking lot where all the busses were parked, the open area where all the stages were being set, and the other area where all the merch tents and other things were being set up also.

When they got to the top of the hill, Zack put her down and she smiled as they both set their cameras up and began to find the best shot. They really didn’t say anything besides the occasional advice and comments on their photos and such and enjoying the moment of peace. It was really the perfect way to start off the first day, until Tessa’s phone rang.

“Yes Matty Mouse?” She asked when she picked up.

“Where the hell are you guys? You’ve been gone for nearly two hours.” He demanded as she glanced at Zack and noticed that he could hear Matt through the phone even though the volume was on low. Yeah, he was being that loud.

“We found a great place to take pictures. Anyway, why do you have your panties in a twist now?”

She heard Matt sigh, “the gates just opened and I need to go over the schedule with everyone.”

“Fine, we’ll be right there.” She grumbled before hanging up without saying anything more. Looking to Zack, she sighed and told him that they had to go. He just nodded as he bent down so she could hop on his back again, saying something about it would be faster. She didn’t even try to argue since she wasn’t looking forward to trying to go back down the steep hill.

~*~*~

“We’re All Time Low, thanks so much for being here. This is our last song,” Alex yelled into the mic as the beginning notes of Dear Maria blasted through the speakers.

Tessa smiled as she watched the boys on stage. She was holding her camera close in hand as she watched Jack dance around stage as Alex’s voice sang through the speakers. She always loved to see them perform. Next to her, Tay was jumping up and down singing along to the song and Cass had a huge smile on her face.

She had joined both girls when they decided that they wanted to go check out the first shows of the bands and instantly all wanted to see the boys. We Are The In Crowd had already played and Tessa had gone to see them also and they had just enough time between the sets to make it so they could see All Time Low perform also.

For the first day, Tessa had decided to only take pictures. She had plenty of time to still get interviews in and get a feel of what the tour was going to hold for her. At that moment, she just wanted to lose herself in the music and not have a care about anything. And that was exactly what she was doing. Music always had that effect on her, and that’s exactly why she had decided to pursue a career in music journalism.

“So, which band next?” Tessa asked the two other girls once their set ended. The crowd was all leaving to go to the signing at ATL’s merch tent, leaving the girls to figure out where to go next. But there were so many bands, it was going to be hard to chose, thank God they had the entire Warped to see everyone they wanted to…