My Warped Summer

Scarlet's Point of View

“Scar, wake up,” a hoarse whisper tickles my ear. I turn over in my bunk. Squinting my eyes I try to make out the figure in front of me.

“Emma?” I manage to croak.

She shoves her phone into my face, the light blinding me temporarily, “It’s 10:00 am, we’re in Denver, and we need to get our bags to a motel room for our quick stop.”

“As in Denver, Colorado?” I groaned and threw my blanket off.

“Yes. Welcome to the tour life,” Emma chuckled.

As I got out of bed I looked out the bus window at a small motel, the Sleeping With Sirens tour bus, and the Of Mice & Men tour bus. I also noticed my big mess of hair in the reflection – at least no strands were caught in my piercing. I saw everyone was still in their pajama bottoms, so I threw on a black hoodie and some gray TOMS. I took a second glance at my hair. Quick finger combing and a ponytail should do the trick.

Our group soon entered the motel and found our room. On the way there, I spotted Austin Carlile and waved. He waved back and smiled.

“I feel like taking a really nice hot shower,” Allison collapsed onto the tiny bed.

“Don’t we all. We have at least 5 hours before we need to get to the venue,” Emma also settled into an overstuffed armchair.

Cassie perched on the arm of the chair, “We’ll meet back here at 3:00 pm sharp!”

Soon everyone either got dressed in normal clothing, took a shower, or raided the snack bar. I stayed in my gray TOMS and settled for a pair of black skinnies and a light blue plaid shirt.

There was a knock at the door. I ran to answer. Dang motel didn’t have peep holes.

“Who is it?” I yelled.

“Well it’s certainly not an axe murderer,” a familiar voice answered. I smiled – Kellin.

“Well, howdy stranger,” I swung open the door where he stood in basically what I was wearing except he had on an Anthem Made shirt.

“Hello, pardner,” he replied in a terrible Texan accent. I giggled. “I was wondering if you wanted to take a walk in Washington Park?”

I turned my head back to look at a grinning Allison. She nodded avidly, “Yes! Go on, I’ll be fine here!”
I turned back to Kellin, “It’s a yes then.” I smiled.

“Awesome,” he laughed. “It’s a short walk from here, so you don’t need to worry about transportation.”

I made sure I had my phone and a room key. We walked out of the motel together. As we walked to the park, we chatted about touring and how it was going to take a heck of a long time to get used to it.
We soon arrived to a scenic park with a huge, clear blue rectangular lake.

“This place is beautiful,” I turned to him and we locked eyes.

“Beautiful,” he whispered looking down at me.

A couple seconds of silence, “So what can we see here?”

He thought a moment, “We could go to the pool.”

“Oh no. Oh heck no.” I widened my eyes.

“What?” A devious smile started to spread across his face.

“No! Kellin we are fully dresssed!” I crossed my arms. “We are not going to swim in skinny jeans.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Kellin started to turn away, but in a flash he had caught my left hand and started to pull me towards small pool.

“Kellin noooooo!” I tried to tug back and stay in place.

He laughed and soon I gave up and walked beside him. He didn’t let go of my hand.

We arrived at the edge. It was only four feet, but I still dreaded the thought of jumping in while fully dressed

“Is this even legal? We’re going to get kicked out!” I exclaimed.

“Who cares! We’re on Warped Tour! We only have one day in this place!” he spread his arms out wide.

“You are so gonna owe me for this,” I rolled my eyes as he grabbed my hand.

“Ok fine. All we have to do is jump in and get back out. It’ll be a nice refreshment to this hot summer day,” he said with an overdramatic lilt in his voice.

“Oh gosh. Ok on the count of 3 - “

“THREE,” he yelled and before I could do anything he had already grabbed my hand and pulled us both underwater.

We popped back up to the surface at the same time. Kellin hauled himself over the edge and pulled me up out of the water as well. Everyone was staring.

“Yeah, I’m really getting you back for this,” I ruffled Kellin’s sopping wet hair.

He laughed as he pulled my completely wet hair to the side of my neck, “That’s better. Now we probably should start walking if we want to dry off and avoid these rude onlookers.”

I giggled and he took my hand in his as we trudged sopping wet around the lake.

A few minutes of silence stood between us.

“That was fun wasn’t it,” he spoke up. “You actually enjoyed it.”

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help smiling.

He laughed, “I knew it! Admit it Scarlet Smith – you enjoyed it!” He pumped his fist in the air.

“Ok fine! I enjoyed it!” I playfully punched his arm.

“Well I’m glad you did finally admit it,” he said. “Do you wanna go back to the motel now?” He brushed a strand of my wet hair behind my ear.

“Hmm,” I thought about it. “I kinda like anything better than that crappy motel.”

“Agreed. So where to?” he asked as we linked arms.

“How about we get something to drink. I’m dying of thirstation right now!” I concluded.

He closed his eyes and chuckled, “Thirstation.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

Arm in arm we walked over to a small drink vender. Fortunately the line wasn’t too long.

“Oh my gosh! Are you Kellin Quinn! Holy crap AND Scarlet Smith!?” We both turned around to face the high pitched voice. A girl of about 15 was bouncing up and down along with two other girls of the same age.

“We are indeed,” Kellin replied calmly. Of course, he would be used to fangirls by now.

Surprisingly, one of the girls with blue hair streaks turned to me first. “Can you sign my arm please?!”

“Sure,” I replied. I took the Sharpie she extended to me. I glanced at Kellin and he smiled and gracefully took the pen and signed another girl’s t-shirt.

Once we had finished, we were at the front of the line.

“Well that was different,” I said to Kellin.

“You’ll get used to it,” he laughed.

We both got our drinks and started walking back to the motel. Once we arrived at my room I noticed it was only 1:30, so none of the girls were around.

“You can come in if you want, I guess,” I shrugged at Kellin.

“I shall,” he smiled. God, his smile.

I settled on the armchair and he sat down on the edge of the bed two feet away facing me.

“So,” he said.

“So,” I said as well. “Is ‘so’ our new catch phrase?”

He leaned back and laughed, “I guess so.”

“On a more serious note, I just wanna say thanks,” I started. “No one has ever really done that for me. Made me feel special you know? I was just that punk, messed up girl who plays guitar. It really means a lot to me.”

He leaned in closer across from me, “You are special. That’s why I’m doing this for you. You’re special to me. I’ve never met anyone like you. Even if no one else thinks you’re special – you are to me. And I’ll be here, ok?”

“Thank you. So much,” I started to blush. A few seconds of silence followed.

“Scarlet,” I heard him whisper.

“Kellin,” I replied and looked up. My eyes locked with his.

“I think I love you,” he moved in closer.

“I think I love you too,” I slowly moved in.

As our lips started to meet, both our mouths parted just barely touching. Then he moved in. It was soft at first, but it slowly grew faster. It was like we had been waiting for this moment for so long and we were trying to get everything we could from each other. He wrapped his arm around my waist and the other he used to take my hair out of its ponytail. I wrapped my arms around his neck and lightly tugged his hair with my fingers. He gently pressed me against the wall and ran his lips down my neck.

“I really do love you. Everything about you,” he mumbled.

“Kellin,” I said as his lips moved back to mine.

We were wrapped in each other’s arms and everything felt perfect.

Then there was a knock at the door. We both stared at each other, our eyes wide in fear.

“Um,” I cleared my throat. “Who is it?”

“It’s Emma! I forgot my room key!”

“Oh okay, I’m coming,” I yelled back.

I yanked the door open.

“I brought everyone som– “ she paused mid-sentence when she spotted Kellin standing behind me.
Taking one look at my hair out of its ponytail and at Kellin’s awkward stance in the middle of the room a slow grin grew across her face.

“I’ll leave you guys alone,” she quickly closed the door.

“Wait, no, Emma!” I yelled, but it was too late. She was already halfway down the hall.
I turned around to see Kellin doubling over in laughter.

“You see! This is what happens! This is why we can’t have nice things!” I threw my hands in the air.

Kellin made his way over and gave me a quick peck on my nose, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You are hilarious, Scarlet Smith. I gotta go though, it’s almost 3:00. See you at Warped.”

And with that he winked out the door.