My Warped Summer

“Hey, how are you?” I say brightly to a fan on the other side of the table. I try my best to hide the sense of worry rising up inside me. Where is Scarlet? I keep my eye out for her as I continue with the signing. Usually, she’s pretty early for these things. She’d do anything for the fans. Now, she’s a no-show.

Genevieve seems to notice my searching and gives me a pitiful glance.

“She’s probably hiding off somewhere with Vic- I mean, Kellin,” she whispers in my direction.

“I highly doubt that’s what you meant, but thanks for the input,” I whisper back.

I can hardly find the time to get angry with Genevieve. My thoughts are focused on finding Scar. We continue down the line of fans, but she still doesn’t turn up. Something must be wrong, I think to myself. Scarlet would never just bail like this. By the time we finish, I immediately begin asking around to find out what happened. The rest of the band, seeing my distress, begins to help me as well.

“You guys go find Rob,” Cassie says to Emma and Genevieve. “We’ll go check the bus.”

Emma and Genevieve head off, looking for our manager. Meanwhile, Cassie takes my arm and leads me in the direction of the bus. As we approach the red and black tour bus, a very angry Kellin storms out the door.

“Hey, what happened?” I call out to him as he walks past us. He continues to walk without saying a word. Cassie turns to me and gives me a startled look matching my own. Both of us could process the situation. Something very bad had happened between them.

“You better go talk to her,” she says, after a minute’s pause. “I’ll go tell Emma and Genevieve we found her.”

I nod, and stride up to the bus. Taking a deep breath, I open the door to find my friend in a heap on the floor.

“Scarlet?” I say softly, kneeling down beside her. She slowly looks up at me, and I could tell she had been crying. “What happened?”

Scarlet took a deep breath before she began her story. She managed to get through most of it without crying again, but when she got to the part about her and Kellin, she broke out into sobs.

“It’s all my fault,” she says in a defeated tone. “I shouldn’t have been out there in the first place.”

“It wasn’t your fault at all,” I say, giving her a tight hug. “Kellin just took it the wrong way. He’s being jealous. This’ll all blow over in a few days, trust me.”

“I hope so,” Scarlet says wiping away her tears with her sleeve. She lets go of me and rises to her feet. I do the same.

“Oh shit, did I miss the signing?” she says, looking at the time on the microwave. It was nearly 6:00 - two hours after our set ended.

“Eh, it’s alright. Everyone was there to see me anyways,” I said with a shrug.

Scarlet laughed. She seemed to be returning back to normal.

“Come on,” I say, happy that she’s feeling better. “Let’s go get some dinner before catering stops serving.”

We avoided all signs of Kellin during dinner. Thankfully, Emma saw him and some other guys leaving to go out to eat. Scar and I hurried back as soon as we were done, just to be sure.

“I’m going to straighten this all out,” Scarlet decides as we walk back. “I can’t just leave it like this.”

“Good,” I say with a smile. I reach in my pocket for my phone, but to no avail. “Aw, crap, I must have left my phone at the table. Go on without me, I’ll be right back.”

Scarlet waves and continues on her way. Thankfully, my phone was still on the table where I left it. I grabbed it and started making my way back. Though, Genevieve, appearing from the shadows, stopped me.

“If you’re looking for your proof, this is it,” she declares.

“What are you talking about?” I ask with a sigh.

“About Vic and Scarlet. I mean, come on,” she says, throwing her hands up. “The whole fight with Kellin? Scarlet totally did that on purpose.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I reply, exasperated. I am just about done with Genevieve’s ridiculous stories.

“But I’m not,” Genevieve continues, twirling a piece of her wavy black hair. “Don’t you think it’s a little fishy that the crowd happened to be there, ready to take pictures when Jaime got that close to her?”

“She fell,” I respond, my voice growing quiet. Genevieve can’t be right. There is no way this is all true.

“Right, she fell,” Genevieve repeated sarcastically. “In a clear area directly in front of fans. Please, they were practically begging for attention. They put on a show for ‘em. A good one too. One they knew would get Kellin mad.”

“So what? What does this have to do with Vic?” I ask, getting anxious now.

“You haven’t figured it out?” she says with an arch of her eyebrow. “Hm. She’s breaking it off with Kellin so she can go be with Vic.”

“She what?!” I demand, louder than I would have liked to. I hate that I am letting her get to my head. Yet, in some part of my mind I am letting myself believe it.

Genevieve laughs, “So you do care.”

“I don’t,” I reply, trying to keep it together. “You are ridiculous. I’m going back to the bus.”

I tried taking a small walk before heading back to the bus, but I couldn’t shake off the nerves I was feeling. I know I shouldn’t be letting Genevieve’s crazy stories get to me, but there is some nagging feeling that won’t let it go. After a while with my thoughts, I finally decided I just needed to talk to Vic about it. I zip up my jacket in the cold wind and head for the Pierce the Veil bus. By the time I got there, I was too worked up to even bother with knocking.

“Hey, sorry for walking in like this I just-” I started, but stopped dead in my tracks.

There was Scarlet, sitting next to Vic on the couch.

“Oh my God,” I whisper to myself, looking at this. I can barely breathe. This can’t be happening. Genevieve can’t be right. But looking at Scarlet there, it seemed she was. Why else would Scar be here?

“Allison?” Vic says, noticing my reaction.

I quickly look away, hoping he can’t see the tears stinging at my eyes. I am not going to cry; not here.

“Don’t mind me,” I say, mustering all the spite I can. “You guys continue. I won’t be a problem anymore.”

My voice cracked on that last word, followed by a sharp breath. It’s taking every ounce of me not to break down.

“What’s wrong?” Asks Vic, standing and reaching for my hands.

I can’t take this anymore. I jerk my hands away, and head straight out the door. Vic calls out behind me, running to keep up with my pace. I ignore him and whatever he is saying, and continue on my way back to the Girls In Skirts bus.

Now, looking back at it, it was crazy that Vic was even interested in me in the first place. Of course it couldn’t have been real. Stupid, stupid me, blindly falling for this boy I barely knew. And to think he really felt the same way? Yet another mistake on my part.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by the blinding of bright headlights from my left. They were traveling straight toward me, and fast. I let out a scream and brace for impact.

“Allison!” I hear Vic yell from close behind me.

I am forced to the ground from a running tackle. My head hits the ground with a definite smack. Slowly, the world around me blurs at the edges.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” I hear Vic murmur as he cradles my head in his hands.

I manage to keep my eyes open and look up at him. He breathes a sigh of relief and wraps his arms around me. We lie there on the black concrete, holding each other in dizzy silence.