Legendary

"What do you mean Mom watched your set and you guys didn't meet?!" Lacey practically shouted from her spot on the brown leather couch that sat in front of me.

"Lace, I thought you didn't care about all these details?" I chuckled at my fifteen year old daughter's new found interest in the story.

"Well, it's interesting now that you and Mom were so close!" the girl yelled, throwing her hands up in the air out of frustration. "Or... oh, God, did you meet Mom and you were with Grace? Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no..."

"Lace, calm down. I'm fast forwarding a little more, so--," before I could finish, Aiden cut me off.

"Thank God!"

"I'm fast forwarding only a month forward, since we only played the first month of Warped 2006," I said, rolling my eyes at my son.

****

It was about 9:30am when I had finally heard the alarm on my phone buzzing loudly on July 15.

"Dude, where are we even at?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. "Who the fuck is even driving?"

As a group of four teenagers, we had to come up with a driving system, since we were in a van and not a big, fancy tour bus.

Every few hours or so, we'd switch out drivers so that everyone could get an equal amount of sleep. It was working fairly well so far.

"I'm driving," Rian's voice called from the driver seat. "We're in Washington. Fifteen miles outside of Seattle, to be exact."

"Fucking Seattle," Jack's tired voice croaked from his spot in the passenger seat, while Zack and I were sprawled out across the backseats.

"Alex?" Rian's voice sounded again. After I let out a loud, "hmm?", he continued. "Isn't yours and Grace's one month soon or something?"

Rian was right, actually. He had known this purely because I talked nonstop about it for the last week and a half. I wanted our one month to special. I really liked Grace and I just needed something special to do. Something memorable.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, picking a shirt out of my suitcase that laid open on the floorboard.

"What day exactly?"

"The twenty-first..." I said, hesitantly. "What's with the third degree, dude?"

"Alex, this is our last show on Warped..." Rian said awkwardly, avoiding any eye contact with me it seemed.

"What? No, no, no," I said, suddenly feeling a little anxious. "We have to have a show somewhere around the twenty-first. Even the twentienth would do. The twenty-second even."

"On the eighteenth, it's a Canada date, and we're not signed on to do any of those, so we're leaving before those start..." Jack intervened with the conversation.

"Then fucking sign us on for them!" I screamed, waking up Zack.

"Alex, dude, it's okay," Rian said, trying his best to console me. "You guys will most likely still be dating, so you can call her or she can come to Baltimore and spend the day with you or something."

"You're right, you're right. I'm worrying over nothing..."

If I had only known how wrong I was.

*****

We had finally arrived at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Seattle at and I was filled with eagerness to see Grace.

"Can I get out the van now?" I asked for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Go for it," Rian said, sounding annoyed and I didn't blame him for two reaosns - for one, I would have been annoyed with me too and two, I didn't have the time to blame him.

I finally found Grace, just as she was stepping out of the Keep A Breast bus. Luckily, she had seen me just about the same time. "Hey, 'Lex!" she waved over at me.

When I finally reached her, I picked her up and spun her around, planting my lips firmly on hers. "I missed you."

"Alex, we saw each other yesterday," the red head giggled, kissing my nose and wrapping her legs around me, as I still was holding her. "What's with this whole romantic thing this morning? Not that I'm complaining."

"Today's All Time Low's last show. I wanted to make sure today was a good day," I grinned, holding her closer to me.

"Seriously? You mean you won't be here for our one month?" the girl pouted, resting her forehead against mine.

"That's what I came to talk to you about actually!" I exclaimed, as I set her down carefully. "I was thinking maybe you could come back to Baltimore on the twenty-first. Then I could fly you back out to Nasvhille or something."

"Alex, I can't do that... I'm working this entire tour," Grace said awkwardly, squinting her eyes at the bright sun.

"Oh..."

"I'm sorry. Maybe we can make today just as special, though!" Her mood seemed to have suddenly brightened.

"I hope so," I nodded, not entirely sure what to say. The last thing I wanted to do was leave Warped.

"I've really liked this past few weeks with you, you know?" Grace said in barely a whisper.

"I've really liked them, too," I replied. "Best summer, ever."

"Definitely," she grinned, wrapping her arms around my neck. "It sucks that this has to end today, though."

My heart stopped. This has end today. "What's ending?" I asked, feeling panicked.

"This," she repeated, pulling her arms away from my body, motioning to the air between us. "Me and you."

"What? Why?"

"Alex, it has to. You go back to Baltimore after today. I stay on this tour for another month or so," Grace said this all like it was so obvious. "There's no way it would work."

"Of course it would work!" I heard my voice rising, startling myself. "I could drive out to the east coast shows, like Pennsylvania or New York, and come see you. Then I could--"

"Alex. Even if you did do that, that's only two shows out of a month's worth of shows. Then after this tour, I go back to Nashville -- over 700 miles away from Baltimore."

"This is bullshit and you know it, Grace," I ran a hand through my already sweaty hair. This wasn't happening. I had spent this entire time telling myself that Grace was "the one" and that I wasn't going to let her go.

But what are you supposed to do when the person you can't let go is letting you go?

Grace even had the audacity to laugh. "Alex, did you think this was going to last? This was just a summer fling, Alex. Sadly, not even the whole summer, but that's okay."

"Just a summer fling?" I scoffed. "Grace, you have to be fucking stupid to think that's all this was to me."

Grace's eyes widened at my language. "You must be fucking stupid to think that you can talk to me that way. You had to have known what you were getting into, Alex. We lived miles and miles apart. You have to be fucking stupid to think this could ever work!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "I can't believe I wasted my time on you. God, I thought you were something different, Grace."

"What are you saying? That I'm cliche?" her eyebrows knitted together.

"Are you trying to turn this around on me?" I laughed out loud, really hard. "This is so fucking stupid, oh my God."

"Alex, come on; we can talk about this later, okay?" her eyes softened. "This is our last day together; let's make it special like we wanted to."

I shook my head. I liked her so much; why did it have to end?

"Look, 'Lex, I'll go watch your set today and we'll have fun, alright? It'll be just like every other day on Warped that we've shared," Grace offered, reaching for my hand, but I snatched it away.

"Don't bother," I rolled my eyes, sauntering back over to the van.

*****

"God, I knew I hated Grace for a reason!" Lacey shouted, obviously getting more into the story.

"Lacey, shut up," Aiden rolled his brown irises at his sister's enthusiasm.

"Be nice, kids," I chuckled softly. "So, that was the ending of The Summer of Grace and Alex. It was a sad ending, but I got over it."

"Did Mom go to another Warped Tour date?" my daughter asked anxiously.

"No."

"Are. You. Serious." Aiden huffed loudly. "This is going to take FOREVER!"

"Calm down, Aiden. Every girl I tell you about is very important, I promise."