My Warped Summer

Allison’s Point of View

I grin when I see Scarlet being carried over the shoulder of none other than Kellin Quinn. I am so making her tell me the details later. Vic gives a soft laugh beside me, his arm still draped around my shoulder.

“That was fast,” he says and gestures toward the exit they just ran through.

“You’re telling me,” I reply, laughing along with him. We both stand there in silence, looking at each other. Suddenly, Vic’s arm on my shoulder slides down until he catches my waist.

“Your turn,” he says with a devious smile appearing on his face.

“No way,” I tell him, squirming out of his grip. “You are not-“

He quickly settles for my wrist instead, and guides me along to the back of the tent. He stops when he sees the people gathering in the back corner.

“Allison,” he says. “I have some people I want you to meet.”

Jaime Preciado steps out of the shadows and extends a hand to me. I shake it and smile.
“Hi, I’m Allison,” I introduce.

“I know,” Jaime replies. “You’re the one Vic can’t stop going on and on abou-“ Jaime was cut off by swift elbow to the ribs from Vic.

I smile once more and tilt my head in attempt to hide the blush threatening to appear on my face. Thankfully, Tony and Mike appear beside Jaime, moving along the conversation.

“Hey, you’re Allison, right?” Mike says, looking straight at me.

“Yep, that’s me,” I say, trying not to sound as fangirly as I felt.

“Sweet,” Mike says, smiling. “You guys’ set was awesome.”

“Thanks,” I tell him excitedly. “That really means a lot, especially coming from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mike replied putting his hands on his hips, pretending to be offended.

I laugh, and Vic doles out another elbow to the ribs, this time to Mike. This only makes me laugh harder. Tony laughs quietly along with me as he sits down on a red cooler behind him. Jaime plops down next to him. Mike takes a seat on the dirt beside the cooler. Vic gives up his fight with his brother and walks over to a pair of foldable chairs opposite the cooler.

“You can sit there if you want to,” he says, pointing at a navy blue one.

I sit down in it, and face the guys by the cooler.

“So, tell us about yourself,” says Jaime after an awkward silence.

“Well,” I start. “I mostly sing and read when I’m not trying to get Scarlet out of trouble.”I pause, glancing at Vic. “Singing is my favorite, though I usually don’t have much time to do it.”

“Nice,” says Jaime, clasping his hands together. “So, I’ve been wondering... How did you end up onstage today? Didn’t Girls in Skirts have a different lead singer a while ago?”

“Yeah,” Vic said and cleared his throat. “Alex.”

“It’s kind of a crazy story, actually,” I tell them, continuing the conversation.

“Good thing we like stories,” Tony says with a smile.

I launch into a full-blown narrative of Scarlet and I’s sneaking off and driving to get to Warped Tour. They all laughed when I told them about the part about the McDonald’s drive thru. I continue to them about how we ended up at the restrooms right as the band began fighting and with Scarlet’s audacity, we somehow joined the band.

“It’s kind of fate,” I concluded. “How Scarlet and I ended up here. I am now on a tour with some of my favorite bands. I am going to be playing alongside people that inspired me to sing in the first place. It’s just surreal.”

“That’s amazing.” said Vic, stunned. “So, you just happen to show up as Girls in Skirts are losing band members that you and Scarlet have the necessary skills to fill in for?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I reply, shrugging.

“That sounds like something out of a story,” Jaime says.

“It really does, doesn’t it?” I reply, but I am drowned out by an upbeat rap song blaring from the speakers. I stand up to look around for the source of the song, but I am soon jerked backward by a strong force.

“You’re coming with me,” Cassie whispers in my ear, as she drags me to the center of the tent, where a couple people are gathering.

“Wait, what’s going on?” I ask Cassie.

“Chill, we’re just dancing,” she replies and motions for me to sway along to the beat of the song. I roll my eyes and reluctantly started to sway with her.

The song kicks in and everyone surrounding me begins to dance. The music turned out to be one of those songs they always play at the school functions, accompanied by an eight-count of steps you keep repeating. Sure, I knew the dance, but doing it I looked like a paralytic. Not wanting to seem out of place, I danced along anyway.

As bad as I was, I had fun dancing throughout the whole song with Cassie by my side. Soon, Emma and Genevieve showed up and danced along with us. I wonder where Scarlet went off to. She’d be loving this! Finally, the song ended. We got a few hollers and whistles coming from the opposite ends of the tent.

“Bravo,” I hear Vic’s voice say behind me. I whip around to see his face light up as another song came on.

“Dance with me?” He offered and held out his hand.

I take it and we begin to dance along to the song. During those two minutes, I couldn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling. My heart swelled in my chest as I still try to complete coherent steps. Vic softly laughs at my feeble attempts to keep it together.
“You okay there?” He asks, peering down at me.

“I’m fine, I’m just not one for dancing,” I reply, blowing a loose strand of hair out of my face. Vic takes a step closer.

“Me neither,” He admits, brushing the hair behind my ear. “Let’s get out of here.” He nods toward the exit.

But as we turn to leave, I stumble into a figure that turns out to be Genevieve.

“I don’t think so,” she says, looking straight at me. “It’s almost curfew, party’s over.” She takes my arm and gives a glare toward Vic. “Maybe next time.”

I walk in silence as Genevieve pulls me outside the tent.

“Genevieve!” Cassie calls out, halfway inside the tent. “What are you doing?”

“Allison was feeling a little sick, so I agreed to take her back to the bus,” She called back to her. Cassie, my only help, ducks back into the tent without any questions.

“Genevieve,” I plead as her grip on my arm tightens. “Just let me go, okay?”

“No thanks,” she says, continuing to walk. I glance up as we pass the Sleeping with Sirens bus. Just then, I hear the crunch of boots on pavement and a voice that could only come from one person.

“She said to let her go.” Scarlet appears, hair flowing wildly behind her, with Kellin Quinn standing at her side. Genevieve reluctantly lets my arm drop.

“That’s right,” says Scar. “Don’t you ever think about doing that to my friend again, okay?” She comes beside me, and puts her arm around my shoulder. “Come on,” she says. “We’re going back to the bus.”

Scarlet gives a wave at Kellin, and he disappears into the shadows. Genevieve turns and walks away, back to the main tent for the party.

“You alright?” She asks me, as we board the steps to the black and red plaid bus that was now our home.

“Fine,” I said, plopping down onto the couch. “Now, you get to tell me what happened with you and Kellin.”

Her eyes lit up and she begins to tell the story.

*#*

Halfway through the conversation, I hear a frantic knocking at the door. Scarlet pauses her story as I walk down the steps to find Vic anxiously waiting outside of the bus.

“Hey, what’s going-” I start, but I am smothered by Vic’s chest as he wraps me into an enormous hug.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” He says, holding me tighter. “Kellin told me what happened out there.”

“I’m fine,” I reply into his shoulder. “Really, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Wasn’t that big of a deal?” Vic huffed, pulling away to stare at me. “Genevieve’s insane! Who knows what she could have done to you!”

“I’m okay, I swear,” I say, looking down at my shoes.

“Fine,” he replied, and a smile appears on his face. “I’m just sad we didn’t get to finish that dance.”

He holds out his hand for me as he had before. I hear Scarlet banging around inside the bus, obviously girling out over what is going on.

“I’ll get the music!” She suddenly yells, her head appearing in the doorway. I turn my head around to face her.

“Oh my God, Scarlet.” I say and laugh at my friend. Vic laughs with me and pushes his hands back into his pockets.

“I better get going,” he said, turning to leave. “See you later, Allison.” Before he blinks out of view, he turns and hollers, “Bye Scarlet!”

I smile and climb back into the bus.