It's Called Warped Because Hell Was Already Taken

(Time Lapse; Week Later)
Pomona, California

“Alright guys! We’re here!” Jon called out to us.
We had arrived in Pomona, the first venue of Warped Tour we’d be playing.
Finally after an entire week lying back on the couch, I was allowed to get up and do what I’ve always wanted to do.
Black Veil Brides had missed a couple shows, which wasn’t good considering this was our first time playing Warped, and headlining it too.
“Finally!” Jake fell over dramatically.
I laughed, getting up slowly.
“You doing okay babe?” Ashley asked, stepping up towards me.
“Of course.” I smiled. “I’m too heavily medicated to actually feel anything, anyway.” I reminded him.
“True.”
“Well, what are we doing still on the bus? Let’s go walk around, meet some fans! Last time I went to Warped, I was in the audience and not the stage!”
“Jinxx! CC!” I called out to the back lounge where they were. “We’re going out!”
“Okay!”
I stepped off the bus, hit with a gust of hot air.
“Ugh, hello Californian sun!”
The sleek black tour bus was parked alongside several other buses in a large field. The actual venue was about a quarter of a mile away, giving us a sense of privacy.
“Hey Andy, Jake and I are going to go down there and see the fans.” Ashley called, pulling his cowboy hat over his eyes.
“You coming?” he asked.
I shook my head, I wanted to walk around a little bit by myself.
“I’ll catch up to you later.” I promised.
“Okay, love you babe.”
We kissed each other goodbye. It would have lasted a lot longer if Jake hadn’t started awkwardly coughing; hinting at us to break it up.
They walked off, towards the chain link fence.
“Andy!”
I turned towards the bus to see Christian running off.
“What?”
“Where’s Jake?”
“He and Ashley are heading down to the venue.” I told him, pointing their shrinking figures out to him.
“Oh, okay. Anyway, guess what!” he seemed overly excited.
“What?”
He gestured towards the bus, our airbrushed faces glinting in the sun.
“My face is on the bus!”
“Mine is too…and mine’s bigger.” I smirked.
“Go ahead, ruin the moment.” he pouted.
“I will. Anyway, I’m gonna walk around. I’ll see you later.” I turned, walking away.
I walked past a few buses, looking around. I could see the guys from Motionless in White getting of their bus.
I waved at Chris, we were pretty good friends.
I wasn’t really looking where I was walking and bumped into someone.
“Oh, sorry.” I looked up.
Bailey.
“Hey Andy.” she smiled.
“Hey.”
“How are you doing?” she asked, glancing at the ace bandage wrapped around my waist.
“I’ve been better.” I laughed softly. I wasn’t really used to calm Bailey…
Maybe Jinxx had finally talked some sense into her.
“At least it- Oh my god! Ronnie fucking Radke!”
With that, fan-girl Bailey was back.
“Ronnie! Ronnie!” she was screaming and jumping up and down as the brooding rock star ambled towards us.
“You know fans are supposed to be back here?” he told her, glancing at her.
“I’m not a fan, I’m Jinxx’s sister.” she corrected.
“Then…never mind.”
He smiled, hugging her quickly. Squealing she ran towards the venue, trying to catch up to Chris Motionless and Ricky Horror.
“She’s…something.” Ronnie laughed.
“Tell me about it. She used to be worse.” I laughed.
“Hard to believe. Anyway, I guess you already know I’m Ronnie.”
We hadn’t personally met before; but of course we knew each other.
“Andy.”
We stood in the parking lot, talking for probably ten minutes of who knows what.
“Hey, your probably hurting from standing. Let’s go back to my bus and sit down?” he suggested.
“Sure.”
The pain medication I took this morning was starting to wear off, and I didn’t really feel like heading back to my bus just for that.
Stepping into the cool bus, I plopped down on the small sofa, nodding a hello to their guitarist, Jacky Vincent.
“Better?” Ronnie asked, sitting next to me.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about me though; I have to handle it if I’m going to play a show later.”
“That’s true, but let’s save the suffering for later.”
“Fine.”

I ended up getting really close with Ronnie. We spent the next three hours just talking on his tour bus.
He was sitting sideways, leaning in towards me.
“You have a really nice smile.” he said suddenly.
I blushed, surprised by the sudden conversation change.
“Thanks. Ashley thinks so too.”
I thought I saw his face fall for a second, but when I blinked he was smiling again.
“That’s right, your dating your bassist.”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help the growing smile on my face.
“How’s that working out for you?” he asked, his hand on my knee.
“Great. He’s just absolutely wonderful and I’m completely in love with him.”
“Ah.”
Before I could reply, my phone started ringing.
“Situations! Are irrelevant now.”
I blushed when I realized that was his old song.
“Nice.” he smirked.
I answered the incoming call from Ashley, wondering what he wanted.
“Hello?”
“Andy? Where are you!” he questioned.
“In Falling in Reverse’s tour bus. Why?”
“We have a show to play…” he reminded me.
Damn it! I forgot!
“When?!”
“In an hour. You still need to get ready.”
“Thanks for reminding me. I’ll be right over babe.” I hung up.
“Have to go?” Ronnie asked.
“Yeah, I need to get ready for the show.” I said, getting up.
“Oh, ha, me too.” he looked at the time.
“Well bye.” I turned to go.
Ronnie surprised me, catching me in a hug. “Glad I met you Andy.” he whispered in my ear before letting me go.

Forty minutes later I was dressed in skinny jeans and an open vest. I left my hair wavy; because it was way too fucking hot to deal with my flat iron.
“Let’s go guys!” I called out to the rest of the band.
We marched towards the stage we were playing. There was a fucking enormous crowd gathered around the stage, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited as hell.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this!” CC shouted, settling at his drum set.
“Let’s give them a good fucking show.” Jinxx added.
I stood at the front of the stage, a microphone to my lips. Their faces had morphed into a blur of pure chaos.
“California!” I shouted, too lazy to bother with the name of the city.
“We are Black Veil Brides from Los Angeles, California!”
Cheering.
“In case you haven’t heard, we have a new fucking album for all of you! It’s called Set the World on Fire!”
The crowd was chanting our name, eager for us to start playing.
“This is our first time playing Warped Tour and we’re incredibly happy to be playing for you guys! You’re all lucky enough to be our first show, since my fucked up ribs made me miss the last few!”
“Our first song,” I continued. “Is from our new album! It’s called Love Isn’t Always Fair!”
Behind me, the notes started playing cueing me to sing.
“One look, and I am sold. You got me on my knees. You steal all my innocence, a love sick melody.”

“Love isn’t always fair!” I shouted, finishing the song. The crowd cheered, sending shots of adrenaline through me.
My ribs were killing me, I had forgotten to take another dose of pain meds before the show.
I stepped away from the microphone just to have a water bottle fly past my head.
It hit the stage with a thud, attracting my attention for a second.
“Hey, you missed tough guy.” I spoke into the microphone. “Nice shot, but you missed my fucking face.”
“We are the Black Veil Brides from Highland, California.” I spoke to the crowd. Jake struck a chord, urging me to continue on to the next song.
“And you know what? It’s way more comfortable up here than it is down there motherfucker.”
Honestly, it was hotter than hell up here but they didn’t need to know that. At least we were shielding from the direct sunlight.
“I’m not coming down there; fuck you.”
I turned slightly, letting out a quiet gasp. Fucking broken ribs.
“Plus, I’ve got three fucking broken ribs, are you serious?” I asked. “Are you trying to fight a cripple right now? Is that what you’re trying to do? All right then… We’re gonna play a song called All Your Hate.”

We finished our set, running off stage.
“Andy?” I heard Ashley call to me.
“Yeah?” my voice cracked; damn it.
“Are you okay babe?” he kissed my forehead.
“I’m good.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“Ribs. Fucking. Hurt.” I whispered between clenched teeth.
“Didn’t you take your pain meds?”
“No.”
“Andy…” he sighed.
Our first show had gone pretty well, with an exception for that bastard. We had only played one song and already shit had been thrown at us?
I couldn’t wait to see what else was in store.