Light up the Sky

The next morning, I woke up to the now-strange feeling of the bus not being in motion and Kevin yelling into my bunk. I groaned as I rolled out and stumbled to my feet. When I walked out into the bus lounge, only Kevin and Alex were awake, both busying themselves with making bowls of cereal.

" We're in Texas, and gates open in a few hours. Also, you look like death." Kevin chuckled, bringing another blush to my face. Yeah, it was going to take a while to get used to the boys and their humor.

"I need a shower." I said, cringing when I thought about how many days it had been since I had taken one. We had one on the bus, but I really wasn't up for getting naked one thin door away from a bunch of guys.

"There's one right here. We've got water, and nobody else is getting up any time soon." he said as he gestured towards the shower door. "There's towels and shit in there."

I sighed softly, knowing that I couldn't put it off any longer, especially not if I was going to be out in the heat all day. Defeated, I grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the shower. A few minutes later, when I had finally started to relax, the door creaked open, and... in stepped Jeremy. I gave a strangled squeak and tried to cover up as much as I could.

"Shit, sorry!" he shouted as he slammed the door shut.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart, and slowly sank down against the shower wall. For the first time in my twenty years, someone had seen me naked.

I finished my shower as quickly as possible and pulled on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt with 'ARMY' printed across the chest, and a pair of Toms, then went out into the lounge, where the rest of the band was sitting. They all looked up at me, Jeremy catching my eye for a long moment before looking away and continuing their conversation.

"Do you have a key chain?" Jeremy asked, holding out a plastic card to me. "They gave us all our passes a few minutes ago. You'll need to keep it on you if you want to get anywhere."

I nodded and clipped it to a carabiner that I kept my keys on, then clipped that to my belt. As the boys all got up to leave, I started packing a bag for the day, with a couple granola bars, my camera, and my Brita bottle (well, I was already lowering my sanitation standards for the day, I could at least get some filtered water). Jeremy came down the hall just as I was finishing up, and stared over my shoulder. I frowned and tried to ignore him as I tightened the drawstring on my bag, but it was difficult when I could practically feel his eyes burning into my back.

"Do you need something?" I asked, putting more venom in my voice than I had really meant to, and instantly regretting it.

He frowned and said, "Just wanted to talk for a bit. We've got a late set and an even later signing, so the rest of the guys are going and doing their thing, and I figured you'd be pretty lonely."

My brain instantly started going to work, trying to decipher whether he really wanted to spend time with me or if he was just being nice. My face heated up just a little, but I forced myself to get over it. He was attractive- really attractive, if I was being completely honest- and seemed pretty genuinely kind, making him exactly the kind of guy that I ended up falling for, but I told myself that that couldn't happen this time. Of course he was just being nice, he was in a band, and I was just the photographer. Why would he ever prefer to spend time with me?

"I'll be fine. I've never been to Warped Tour before, so I guess there'll be plenty to interest me." I said with a shrug.

He stared at me for a second with wide eyes before he said, "You've never been to Warped?"

I bit my lip and shook my head slowly. Concerts in general had never interested me; there were too many people, too much noise, and not enough space. Besides that, I preferred to listen to softer rock, not the bands that took up the majority of the line up at Warped. Warped Tour was like a normal concert times twenty. I guess that it was a bit foolish for me to choose to spend three months in a place that I would probably dislike, but I wouldn't be in the crowd. Instead I'd be on the entire opposite side of the barrier, separated from the screaming fans and pits by a big metal gate and five to ten security guards.

"You should- fuck that, you need to go experience this. Like now." he said, planting a hand on my back and pushing me towards the bus doors. At that moment, I was a bit more glad that it was just the two of us in there.

"W-where are we going?" I spluttered as he took my hand and pulled me past rows of buses and into the main part of the venue that contained all of the stages.

"To get a map, I think." he said, staring intently toward a sign that read 'MAPS $2' "Do you even know what bands are playing?"

I shook my head and received another shocked look in return.

"I'm don't much listen to the kinds of bands that play here." I said with a frown.

"Do you even listen to us?" he asked, looking utterly insulted when I said no.

He sighed softly and immediately changed directions, now heading back to the buses. I didn't protest- maybe he would just take me back to our bus and let me spend the rest of the day in relative peace.

Of course, my hopes were crushed when he sat in the lounge, turned on his laptop, and started playing a song. It hardly took me a second to figure out that it was his voice coming out of the speakers, that it was the very same band that I would be watching on stage later that day. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it- he had a nice voice, and the instrumentals weren't too heavy for my tastes. It was kind of poppy, kind of hard core, and I liked it more and more the longer I listened.

Through the first song, I stood awkwardly in the middle of the bus floor, but when the second song started, he patted the seat next to him and told me to sit. When that song was over, he shut the laptop, then shocked me a little bit more by disappearing into the back and returning with an acoustic guitar.

"I really should be resting for tonight, but I guess this is a special case." he said with a bashful grin. He sat in a seat across from me and sat the guitar in his lap, strumming a few test chords before starting to play.

"Have faith in me, cause there are things that I've seen I don't believe."

That was all it took for me to fall completely in love with his voice. There was something about hearing him sing in person- and to me personally- that just couldn't be replicated in a recording. The raw emotion that played through had my chest aching; whether it was because I could sympathize or because I was getting a little too hopeful about what the events of the past thirty minutes really meant, I couldn't tell. Whatever the reason, I didn't want the moment to end.

"I said I'd never let you go and I never did..."

As the song ended, I sighed softly. It was time to get back to reality, which I had never been less ready to face.

"Gates are gonna open soon." he said as he set his guitar down and looked over at me with a curious expression. "There'll be a lot of... what do you call them? Photo ops? Whatever, there'll be a lot of chances to get pictures at the tent."

I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, I would make a fool of myself. I still wasn't sure if he was genuinely inviting me or if he really just wanted me to take pictures. I shook my head at myself and walked back to my bunk, where my bag was still sitting. Thinking about the past few days just made my head hurt. Jeremy seemed like he was showing interest, but I had thought that about a lot of guys, and it always ended the same- me getting hurt. There was always the possibility that Jeremy wouldn't be the same way, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to risk it yet again.

When I walked back towards the door, Jeremy was waiting for me. I had to take a moment to breathe and try to calm my racing heart before following him out the door.