My Warped Summer

I heard a screeching of tires and yelling just after Vic went out the door. I burst out and almost collapsed. A car was plowing towards Allison. Vic ran and pushed her away, thank God.

“Allison!” I screamed. I ran over to where they were in a heap on the asphalt.

“Scarlet?” Allison looked up through squinted eyes.

“I think she’s going to be okay, Scar,” Vic slowly untangled himself from her.

Everything next happened in a blur. Allison was carried to the medic station at the venue and was being checked over for bruises and scratches.

I was standing outside looking in the window every now and then. I leaned my head back against the medic bus and forced my eyes to stay closed as tears threatened to fall.

I heard a sigh next to me. I opened my eyes and out of the corner of my eye I saw Vic next to me in the same position. I jumped

“How is she?” I asked him.

“Oh, she’s fine. Just a few bruises and a cut,” he turned to me. “She’s fine, Scarlet.”

I breathed out and turned back to the stars in the sky.

“Did they find out who was driving the car?” I said, suddenly becoming angry.

“No, the driver jumped out at the last minute. They still have the car though,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Who would do that?” I ran my hand through my hair. “Who in their right mind would want to hurt Allison? She’s as harmless as a fly.”

“Well, we all know who seems to have it in for both of us,” Vic squeezed his eyes shut.

“Genevieve?” I asked, but it felt like more of a statement.

Vic didn’t say anything.

“That bitch is getting it now,” I started to walk off, but Vic caught my arm.

“Scar, we don’t know if it was her. If you start calling her out now, it’s going to look bad.”

“Well what are we supposed to do?” I was furious. “We can’t just brush this off, Vic! This is serious. She almost died!”

“I know, I know,” he said calmly. “All we can do is make sure this doesn’t happen again. People with the authority are looking into it, okay?”

“Fine,” I said sliding down the side of the bus and buried my head in my hands.

Vic slid down next to me. I suddenly looked up.

“Why did she say that?” I questioned.

“Say what?” Vic asked.

“She said ‘I won’t be a problem anymore.’ And then she walked off,” I said.

“I’m not sure,” he responded. “I think she thought I was cheating on her with you…”

“What,” my eyes snapped open. “Why would she think that?”

“I don’t know!” he held his hands up. “Speaking of which, do you think you’re okay now?”

“Yeah I’m fine, thanks for agreeing to talk to Jaime,” I smiled weakly. “I want to talk to him face to face, but I think the tension is just too much right now.”

“No problem,” he smiled back. “I know what it’s like to be in that situation, what with all the ladies who want me.”

“Way to complement yourself,” I punched his arm and laughed, but quickly stopped remembering Kellin.

Vic seemed to know what I was thinking about.

“Kellin?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said quietly. I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and shot the hair band over a fence. “We had quite a fight.”

“Don’t worry, he’s kind of over-reactive sometimes,” he patted my arm in what seemed to be an attempt to make me feel better. “I’m sure he’ll realize it was a misunderstanding.”

I sighed. Although I was mad at Kellin, I understood why he was acting this way. I mean, Jaime had me in his arms like one of those romance novel covers. Dang you, Jaime.

“If it makes you feel better, I heard they set up a practice sort of area since we’re staying here for another day. It’s a room on the west side of the venue. It has a bunch of amps, microphones, pedals, whatever you need. You should try it out,” he nudged my shoulder.

“I think I will,” I smiled. If there was one place I could hide, it was with my guitar. I’ve been playing ever since I was 10. I was quite the sweet little girl.

I entered the bus and quickly changed. It was getting to be 100 degrees out there, even at night. I changed into a black tank top with a GIS logo on it, ripped black shorts and black converse. I grab my guitar and head over to the practice room. I walk in, but immediately pause. Vic was right, this room had everything. I head over to a corner with a medium sized amp and a pedal. No need for a microphone, I was pretty much tone deaf.

I debated for a few minutes which song I would want to play while I hooked everything up. Thanks To You from All Time Low seemed pretty appropriate. I sort of liked All Time Low. I mean, I was a fan, but some of their song are a bit too pop-y for me. They were my feel-good band.

I put headphones on and quickly jumped into the guitar intro. Such an ass kicking intro. I felt myself getting lost in the music. Guitar was like my security blanket; as long as I had hands, I would play every day. I closed my eyes and let my hands climb up and down the fret board. There was no need for eyes because I knew the frets like the back of my hand.

I switched into Lost In Stereo, also by ATL – story of my life. I guess it was because of my headphones and my closed eyes that I didn’t notice someone walk in. It wasn’t until I reached the end of the first chorus that I opened my eyes. I realized there was someone watching me intently. And that someone was Alex Gaskarth. Well. I took my headphones off and just stood there, like an idiot.

“That was amazing,” he grinned. “Sorry, if I interrupted, I was walking by outside and I heard the songs and well, yeah.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I wasn’t gonna stay in here too long if you need to use the room.”

“Well, since I’m here and since you’re here, might as well practice,” he jumped off the large amp he was sitting on. “I’ll go and grab my guitar if you want to do a song?”

“Yeah sure!” I said quickly.

“Cool,” he smiled.
I smiled back and he headed out the door. Dang, he looked fit in those jeans. Jesus Christ what are you thinking, Scarlet. No. NOPE.

A few minutes later Alex walked back in.

“So what song do you want to do?” he asked as he hooked up his guitar to an amp. “Of course, you’re doing lead and I’m rhythm, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Well, what songs are you playing in your set?”

“A shitload,” he said blankly.

I laughed.

“Well fine Mr. Positive,” I smirked. “How about Break Out?”

“Sounds good,” he laughed and put a microphone stand about 1 foot in front of me. I discovered I was at least 2 inches shorter than him.

I think he asked if I was ready, but I wasn’t sure so I winked as I adjusted my headphones.

He smiled, slid on a pair as well and we both started into the song. I closed my eyes just as he started singing. He sounded amazing live – people just don’t realize how good he really is.

We finally finished and as our guitars went out we both opened our eyes and grinned at each other.

After we cleaned everything up, we headed outside. It must’ve been at least 9:00 pm.

“That was fun,” he turned to me. “What band are you from? You look extremely familiar.”

“Scarlet Smith, from Girls In Skirts,” I replied. “And you are…”

We both started laughing because of course I knew who he was. I put a hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t know, man,” I steadied my breathing and put on the most serious face I could manage. “I’m pretty sure you‘re Rian Dawson.”

“Of course,” he put a hand on my shoulder too. “You must be Genevieve Thompson.”

I wrinkled my nose up and grabbed a bottle of water from a small stand.

“Mmm, the last person I would want to be is Genevieve,” I replied.

“Oh really? She never looked really nice,” he took my water bottle and unscrewed it for me. “You’re welcome.”

“I totally could have opened that myself with time, okay?” I stuck my tongue out.

“Of course, cause it’s not like you were totally struggling with that?” he raised his eyebrows. He actually had really nice eyebrows. Geez, what am I saying?

“Shut up, dweeb,” I rolled my eyes playfully.

“Hey!” he laughed. “So when is your next set?”

“I’m not sure,” I lifted my hair up to try and cool off. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a rubber band for once. “We usually play at 5 ish?”

“Cool,” he smiled. “See you around then?”

“See ya,” I yelled as I turned around.

“Bye, dweeb!” he yelled back as he headed in the opposite direction.

I laugh and keep heading towards the GIS bus.