Feet First

I walked along the rows of buses and the sun baking my back and sweat dripping down every available surface of my body.

I listened to the voices coming form some of the buses, the yells of excitement, the pleasant and unpleasant conversations, and sometimes, the silence.

But nobody was outside the buses, I was guessing because of the heat.

But what was I expecting? It was the middle of June, and it was 87 degrees. I knew the heat would only get worse. But being here, it was well worth it.

I mean, this is Warped Tour. I’d been dreaming about this since my first Warped show when I was a freshman in high school.

Dreaming of being on the other side of that barricade.

And now, I was.

I’d made it.

I looked over toward my band climbing out of our small van.

Well, I should say, we made it.

Andrew, Matt, Sam and I, this was all of our dream.

“Liv!” I heard Andrew yell, while standing by our van. “Is this not the coolest thing ever?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “It’s unreal, actually.”

“First day of Warped, better not fuck this up!” Sam said, patting Andrew’s head.

Matt joined us, and the boys talked about the incredible line up, and all the people they idolized that would be here. And they were soon interrupted by our manager; James.

“Okay boys we need to get our shit to set up this tent and hope someone will come talk to you today.
So Sam, since you’re the only one with muscle tone grab the tent and Matt and Andrew start grabbing boxes. Do you know where out tent is going?”

“Yes James, you woke us up early to show us.” Sam said, gaining a tone.

“Well go then.” James said, smiling.

They grabbed what they needed, and scampered off.

They all yelled and joked with each other.

They reminded me of little kids; their excitement for being here so completely genuine and it was only magnified by all of their talent and passion for music and the brotherhood among them.

I couldn’t have better boys to be in a band with.

They were my family.

They loved me whole-heartedly like I was one of them, one of the boys. Even though I was the girl singer.

These boys were better siblings to me than I’d ever had, better in many ways than my actual sibling.

And they knew that, and loved me anyway.

But that love, it wasn’t out of pity, it was unconditional.

They put everything else about me aside and opened me up to this incredible new family I never thought I could have.

James broke my train of thought.

“Liv, go with the idiots, make sure they don’t ruin anything.”

I nodded, and began to walk.

I reached them, and they’d already successfully put up the tent, for which I was surprised, and were now trying and failing to organize the various shirts and EP records that were in the boxes.

“I was sent to make sure you don’t break anything.” I told them, light heartedly.

“Thanks mom.” Matt said.

They began putting our EP’s in a pile when Sam almost dropped one.

“Holy shit,” He said, grabbing Matt’s arm. “That’s Alex Gaskarth.”

I stopped cold.

I knew this was going to happen, I knew they were headlining this year.

Maybe he wouldn’t recognize me if he didn’t see me up close.

I hid my face and tried to appear to be folding shirts under our table.

“Should we say hi? Or wait? I mean he’s just walking and drinking coffee.” Sam said, freaking out.

I knew all of them were big fans of his band, and really looked up to them, but I’d never said anything about him, Jack, Rian, or Zack.

I just really hoped they didn’t call him over here; I wasn’t ready to handle this, not quite yet.

“Hey Alex!” Matt yelled.

Alex gave them a little wave and started to walk over.

Oh no.

“Hey guys.” He said, greeting us.

“Hey I’m Sam and we’re all in Five Feet Under, and we’re all big fans.”

“Oh, hey, thanks that’s awe-“ He started to look around at all of us, and then his eyes locked with
mine.

He looked at me with confusion for a minute.

“Maggie?” He asked.

I stood up, meeting his eyes.

I hadn’t been called that in years.

“Maggie Collins, well I’ll be damned. How are you?” He said, walking toward me and pulling me
into a hug.

I felt obligated to hug him back.

“Hey Alex, I’m good, just hot.” I responded, forcing a smile.

Then Andrew chimed in, “wait, okay confused how do you two know each other?”

“And who’s Maggie?” Sam asked, obviously also confused.

Alex looked at me, “Does nobody call you Maggie any more?” He asked.

“No it’s Olivia. Remember, Margret’s just my middle name.” I explained.

“Olivia. Got it.” He said quietly.

“Still confused as to how you two know each other.” Matt asked, grabbing his drumsticks out of a
box.

“Mags- I mean Olivia and I went to high school together.” He said, giving me a big smile.

“He was in Annie’s class. They were really good-“ I paused and looked at Alex, “friends…”

“Yeah, how is Annie, I haven’t talked to her in years.”

“She’s fine.”

“Good, well I have to get back to the bus but, when I tell then guys you’re here we have to catch up okay? God damn Maggie Collins on Warped, small world.” He said, hugging me. “We’ll talk later?”

“Yeah.” I said.

And he walked away.

“So ‘Maggie’ how is it that you’ve failed to mention you know All Time Low?” Andrew asked.

“You never asked.” I said quietly.

“Well this is awesome, now we can hang with them! Why didn’t you tell us before though Liv? You know we look up to them.” Matt asked.

“I don’t know, it slipped my mind.”

But it hadn’t.

I knew how much they looked up to those guys, but I also knew how quickly I could crush that and make their heroes human in a matter of seconds.

But I wouldn’t dare, but I could.

Easily.