My Warped Summer

Allison's Point of View

A few days of touring later, we somehow end up in Orlando. Even after two weeks, I still don’t know the schedule for my life. Though, to my relief, I found that we had a day off after our show this afternoon. Of course, we still had a ton of interviews and I had a couple of photo shoots, but other than that we were home free.

“Whatcha plan on doing tomorrow?” Vic says in my ear as he comes up from behind me.

I jump and press my hands to my mouth.

“Don’t do that to me,” I say, swatting at him.

“I’m sorry,” he says with a laugh. “Maybe this will make you feel better?”

He hands me a small rectangular ticket which reads, ‘Universal Orlando Studios.’

“No,” I say in excitement. “You didn’t.”

“But I did,” he says taking the ticket back from me and putting it in his pocket. “Girls In Skirts, Pierce the Veil, and Sleeping with Sirens are all officially going to Universal tomorrow.”

I smile and bounce in anticipation. This is going to be so much fun, especially with Vic and the rest of the gang coming along. Vic smiles at me as he makes his way out of the bus.

“You’re so cute when you’re happy,” he says, closing the door behind him, leaving me to prepare for the day to come.

*#*

“Oh my God, we are going on that,” Scarlet says, immediately pointing to the giant green roller coaster at the front of the park.

“No, a million times no,” I tell her, eyeing the terrifying structure.

“We’ll come back to it later,” Kellin says, unfolding a giant map before him. “So, uh, shall we go to Hogwarts?”

“Duh!” Says Mike, flashing his Deathly Hallows tattoo. He skips ahead of me and slaps an arm around Cassie’s shoulder. “We are doing this.”

“Actually,” Cassie says, gently ducking under Mike’s arm. “Genevieve, Emma, and I are headed toward Jurassic Park if anyone’s interested.”

“Oh,” Mike says, rubbing his arm. Meanwhile Jack, Gabe, Jesse, and Tony join the group headed to Jurassic Park.

“See you guys!” Cassie says, with a wave. “We’ll catch up with y’all at lunch.”

Mike gives an enthusiastic wave followed by a disappointed scowl once she left.

“Next time, buddy,” Vic says, patting him on the back.

Our group of six heads out to go find the Harry Potter section at the end of the park. I jump up and down when I see it. Mike does too. We look at each other and laugh, walking arm-in-arm into the park. Once we rode all the rides there, we head over to a food cart to get butterbeer with some churros.

“Why are these things so freaking good?” I ask aloud, biting into the cinnamon deliciousness that is a churro.

“Because anything Mexican is usually delicious,” says Justin with a satisfied nod.

I laugh and miss the sneaky hand coming to take the churro out of my hand.

“Hey!” I say, watching Vic take a bite into it.

“Thanks babe,” he says handing it back to me. I stand there clutching my half-eaten churro as he quickly kisses me on the forehead. I grumble, eating what is left of the churro and throwing it’s wrapper in the trash.

“Where to next?” Says Jaime to Kellin, who was turning the map to find the right side.

“That one,” Scarlet says, heading straight toward the giant green roller coaster she pointed at earlier. Justin, Jaime, and Kellin follow straight after her. Vic stays beside me, noticing my mortified expression.

“Come on,” Vic says. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be right there beside you the whole time, okay?”

He guides me to the line for the roller coaster, and we slowly make our way to the front. Finally, we are the first in line for seating. I can’t believe I am doing this. I sit in the middle between Vic and Jaime, both ineffectively telling me encouraging words as the metal bar comes down on top of me.

“Shit,” I whisper, and close my eyes. Vic grabs my hand, and I squeeze it in return.

“What are you even doing Kellin?” Scarlet asks from another row.

“I AM USING YOU AS A HUMAN SHIELD FROM ANY FLYING OBJECTS.”

I turn around to face Vic.

“Flying objects?” I ask with my eyes widening.

“There are no flying objects, Allison,” Vic says in a reassuring tone. He turns around to Kellin who is still talking to Scarlet. “Hey buddy! Stop scaring my girlfriend, won’t you?”

Meanwhile, Kellin jumps and grips Scarlet’s arm as the ride starts to rise. I manage to open my eyes to see the ground beneath me become farther and farther from view. I grip Vic’s hand along with the seat handle and take a deep breath. The ride starts and finishes in a blur. Most of what I could remember was “HOLY BALLS” and “WHY DID I AGREE TO THIS” coming out of my own mouth. Naturally, they were accompanied with a string of curse words. The ride finally ended, and I wobbled out of the green seat.

“Allison? Are you okay?” Vic asks, looking at me with concern.

“That. Was. Awesome.” I say, blinking a few times to regain my blurry vision.

“See? That wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be,” Vic says with a laugh.

“No,” says Kellin, hobbling along with Scarlet. “It was worse.”

We all gather around a fuzzy monitor to view the wonderful picture the ride takes of us being scared to death. Jaime and Scarlet both flash rock signs with their hands. Kellin is buried in Scarlet’s shoulder. Justin makes a face I cannot even begin to describe. Vic is laughing at whatever I was saying at the time, and I was making a the most joyful yet terrified face I have ever seen in my life. Needless to say, I bought the photo.

We walk around the park for an hour or so, going on small rides here and there until it was time for lunch. I spot Cassie and the others heading over to the small boardwalk outside the parks. We all meet up and eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Afterward, we gather our things and head back to the busses to get ready to leave for tomorrow’s show.

*#*

Before it’s time to head out, Vic walks me back to the Girls In Skirts bus. We both stand there, not wanting to leave this place or each other. I smile at him, rubbing my crossed arms in the cold. Vic notices this, and slings the warm gray hoodie off his shoulders. I laugh at the sheer cheesiness of the situation, but take the jacket anyway because of how cold I was.

“Today’s been fun,” I say, zipping the hoodie all the way up to my chin. “We should do it again sometime.”

“Definitely,” Vic says, taking a step closer. Soon we were inches apart, bracing the wind. Since when is it this freezing in Orlando? I barely had time to process the thought before his lips met mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and slightly rose up on my toes to match his height. Of course, due to my lack of balance I nearly trip over. But Vic catches me with his arms already around my waist.

“Gotcha,” he says close to my ear.

“Stop,” I say with a smile as his kisses trail down my neck. He looks up and smiles back at me, making my heart melt.

“I love you,” he says, pulling me closer.

“I love you too,” I reply.

Maybe it was just the heat of the moment, but suddenly I realized how much I really did love this guy. It’s only been two weeks, but it feels like so much longer than that. Although it truly scares me how fast I’m falling for him, I stay hopeful. Some people wait their whole lives for a moment like this. And with that, I kiss him as hard as I possibly could. He kisses me back, leaving me breathless.

I turn my head away, hearing footsteps coming toward the bus. Genevieve shows up, standing with her hands on her hips in front of us.

“It’s time to go,” she says, staring straight at me.

Vic looks at me, shaking his head and begging me with his eyes to stay. I give him a guilty look back at him, knowing Genevieve would give me hell if I didn’t go. He registers my decision and gives Genevieve a scowl. He gives a defiant peck on my cheek, and hug around my waist.

“See you tomorrow,” he says with a wave, and heads off into the darkness with his head hung low.