Light up the Sky

"You piece of shit! How could you quit on me right when I needed you!?"

I kicked my car's tire as hard as I could and collapsed, defeated, in the grass on the side of the highway. It had hardly taken ten minutes of driving for it to decide that it wasn't having it anymore. The thing hadn't been all that amazing since I had gotten it- it was a 1997 Totota, after all- but until today, it had never completely quit on me. Today of all days, when my entire career was on the line, it wanted to completely shit on my parade.

Just as panic was starting to set in, my phone started buzzing angrily in my pocket. A quick look told me that it was one of the very same men that I was supposed to meet about... twenty minutes ago. Perfect. Even if I didn't get chewed out, I would probably lose the first job offer that I had gotten in a while, not to mention the best.

"Hanna? Where are you?" a worried voice asked as soon as I picked up. "Did I give you the right address? Did you get lost?"

I took a deep breath- so far, so good- and said, "M-my car broke down. I'm really sorry, I didn't think to-"

"Where are you? We can come get you." he interrupted. I thanked him and quickly the address, then hung up.

I smiled shakily and picked myself up off the ground, then sat in my car to wait. When I heard the crunch of tires behind me, I stood up, grabbed my laptop case, and walked back to the van that had pulled up behind me. Inside were five guys, all smiling, all staring at me, all waiting for me to speak.

What had I gotten into?

For a split second, I considered running right back into my shitty car and cursing at it until it started, but- using every bit of my willpower- I forced myself to stay rooted in place as the passenger side window slowly rolled down.

"You must be Hanna." said the dark-haired boy sitting in the front seat. "I'm Alex."

"Yup, I'm Hanna." I said, forcing a smile.

"Want to call a tow truck?" Alex asked, motioning towards my car. I shook my head- my computer and cameras were the only thing that I even had with me, so now the car was basically useless to me.

Someone in the back slid the door open and scooted over to give me room. I sat as close to the door as I could without looking rude and focused back on Alex as he introduced the other three boys in the car. Kevin, Josh, Jeremy and Neil all waved back at me as their names were called.

"Are you still up for getting coffee?" Alex asked as pulled back onto the highway. "That's what we were planning on doing before, but I can understand if you don't want to."

"No, that's fine." I said, hugging my laptop to my chest. "I like coffee."

Alex looked back at me for a second and smiled warmly as he said, "Coffee it is then."

---

An hour and two lattes later, I was starting to feel pretty good about the three months of Warped tour that I would spend with those four guys. They were talkative, energetic, kind, and if their crazy tour stories were anything to go by, hell on wheels. Basically everything I usually avoided, but for some reason, it was what drew me to them. They were so alive, even in a nearly dead coffee shop, so I could only imagine what they were like on stage.

"So what do you think?" Jeremy asked as we all walked out to their van together. It was probably the first time he had talked to me, and I was a little bit shocked. "Would you like to be our photographer?"

It barely took me a second to say yes. Almost instantly, I was enveloped by five pairs of arms. The boys cheered loudly, like I was their long-lost member, not their tour photographer.

"Welcome to the team." Jeremy said, giving me one last squeeze. "I look forward to having you on tour with us."