The Sky Under the Sea

[Bo]

As it turned out, we were on at the same time as Pierce The Veil. Chloe had kept an eager eye out for Vic the whole time, hoping that he’d walk by but he didn’t. None of them did.


We had a few hours to kill before our set at 12:30, so all four of us decided to explore the festival and watch some of the other bands performing. 
The day was getting warm, but still had a chilly edge to it as we made our way from stage to stage, soaking up the atmosphere. Part of me was stoked to be wandering around unnoticed, but the other part of me was just dying to get on stage and see if there were any fans here. I got my wish soon enough.


Tom was waiting side stage for us, a huge grin on his face.


“You guys ready for your first set of Warped?”


“Fuck yes.” Jeremy fist pumped, speaking for all of us as we began to haul out our gear from the travel cases.
 Nerves had been rattling me all morning, mixed with eagerness about our first set. However, as soon as my I felt the familiar weight of my bass slung over my shoulder I felt at ease, the action of playing was almost as natural as breathing as I warmed up both my hands and my voice.


Tom called a one minute warning and we did our little chant to get pumped, before running out on stage. We were pleasantly surprised to see quite a few kids already waiting in front of the stage, and I think I even spotted one of our T-shirts in the crowd.


"How you doing Portland!" I shouted into the microphone, shortly after we launched into the first song of our set and it felt amazing. Without a doubt this was the best place to be, on stage with my three best friends doing what we loved most.

Some of the crowd sang along, getting really into it and it was amazing to know that halfway across the world people knew the words to our songs. 
Half an hour passed much too quickly for my liking, and soon enough we had to say goodbye and begin to pack up our equipment. In the background, we could hear PTV playing the next stage over and they sounded good. Really good.


Once the stage was cleared for the next band, the four of us walked out from behind the stage and were almost assaulted by a group of fans.
 Their presence and enthusiasm shocked us as we were bombarded by American accents asking for pictures and autographs to which we happily obliged for a good hour or so, talking to the people who stuck around for a conversation. 
Going by the look on Chloe’s face, it blew her away as much as me that this was actually happening in America, and that we were so far from home.



As the fans began to dissipate, Chloe’s face lit up light a Christmas tree. I followed her line of sight to where the boys of PTV rounded the corner of the stage, sweaty and grinning. Chloe caught my eye and I winked at her.


“Looks like it’s your lucky day.” I said, making my way over to her as Jeremy and Sam had already wandered off.


“Oh god, I’m all sweaty and I smell and-”


“So are they.” I finished for her with a small smile. It was cute how she had a massive crush on their front man, making sure she looked okay in case he walked past.
 Jaime’s eyes held mine for a moment as they stopped in front of us.


“What’s up newbies?” Mike grinned, leaning against the fence. “How was your first ever Warped Tour set?”
 Chloe seemed too dumbstruck to speak so I filled in.


“Hot. Sweaty. But pretty fucking awesome, I can’t believe we have fans so far from home.” I took a swig of my water bottle and I noticed that the bassist’s eyes were still on me.

Why was he always looking at me?


“You right there?” I asked with a cheeky smile and he looked away, embarrassed that I caught him staring.


“H.. Hi” Chloe finally stuttered out and I mentally face palmed at her behaviour.


“Hi.” Vic smiled back at her, everything going silent for a bit. Wow, this was awkward.


“Want to join us for lunch?” Tony spoke, motioning towards the catering tent and breaking the awkward silence.


“Love to.” I grabbed Chloe’s hand before she had a chance to answer and dragged her along behind Tony.


“Where were you guys yesterday? Didn’t see you at the buses.” Vic said, and once again Chloe was unable to speak.

Man was she crushing on him bad or what?


“Someone-” I poked my friend in the shoulder, 
“-managed to empty their whole bag all over the hotel room and had to re pack in the morning and make us late.” She poked her tongue out at me and I rolled my eyes. 
Vic nodded and we spent the rest of the walk in silence.


The catering line was huge and it seemed like we stood there for hours until finally getting a plateful of food. Luckily, most of the tables were empty as we plonked down next to Jeremy and Sam who were halfway through their meal already, clearly starving judging by the amount of food on their plates.


“So, how are you guys enjoying the great USA so far?” Tony said, digging in.


“It’s pretty awesome, but the time difference is fucking with us so bad.” Jeremy said through a mouthful.


“What time would it be in Australia right about now?” Vic asked. I checked my phone and did a little thinking.


“It’s 1:30 now, so.. dinnertime tomorrow night.”


“That is a big difference.” Mike added. I nodded, unable to stop myself from stealing quick glances at their bass player.

What was I doing?


“Are you playing all of Warped?” Vic asked, halfway through a mouthful. Chloe nodded, finally finding her voice.


“Sure are and we’re stoked. It’s still hard to believe that we’re actually here.” Vic’s eyes never left her as she spoke.

Interesting.

“What about you guys?” 
Mike nodded.


“It’s awesome, Warped is always so much fun. Too hot for my liking though. Do they have Warped down under?” 
I shook my head, swallowing my food.


“We have Soundwave, which is pretty much the same thing. We’ve played it what, four years in a row now? It’s not as big as Warped here though.” Sam nodded to back me up.


“Soundwave has about four or five stages while this has like ten.” 
He added. We loved it though, the whole atmosphere of the place was just incredible.


“So you guys are obviously pretty well known over there?” Jaime finally spoke for the first time throughout the whole meal.


“I suppose you could say that, I mean without bragging or anything.” Sam said in reply.


“Nah, we’re totally the biggest band to come out of Australia and everyone says we’re the best of any band ever.” Chloe flipped her hair sarcastically and everyone laughed. I simply rolled my eyes, noticing for what seemed like the tenth time that day that Jaime was staring at me.

What was up with that?


We cleared away our plates and walked back to the buses, idle chit chat passing between us as we joked around. Jaime remained quiet most of the time, staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets.

Wasn’t he supposed to be the hyper one of that lot?


[Jaime]



I kept my eyes open as much as I could for Ephemeral, but I didn’t see them anywhere. The last time that I had actually seen them was the night we stayed in the hotel side by side, and that was almost three days ago.

They weren’t in the lobby yesterday morning, either. Not even seeing them at the meeting this morning, and I was a little disappointed to see that we were playing the same time slot as Ephemeral. I’d really hoped to catch their set and see what they sounded like, since I had no time to look them up online.


Vic was doing the same, except he was mainly focused on the blonde girl, not shutting up about how cool it would be to have friends from Australia, when in reality we all knew he just wanted to get closer to their drummer.


All through lunch I was quiet as everyone else talked, simply loving the way their accents sounded. Aussie accents were my absolute favourite, and I found myself listening to their voices and not their words. I also couldn’t help but stare at Bo. There was something about her, something that I felt drawn too but I couldn’t explain. She kept catching me staring, calling me out the first time but not saying anything afterwards. Really, I didn’t mean too but I just could’t stop myself.


Small talk passed between us as we walked back to the buses, swapping funny tour moments and stories before parting ways.


“Dibs first shower!” Mike yelled, running into the bus and locking the bathroom door behind him. We had press in an hour and needed desperately to scrub up before any interviews. 
My mind was on Bo the entire time, and I was so absorbed in my own thoughts I didn’t even realize it was my turn to shower. Vic had to come and get me which rarely happens since showers are like gold on a tour like this.


“Preciado, get your smelly mexican ass in the shower right now! I want to start this tour actually being on time to everything and we’ve done pretty well so far... Jaime, are you even listening to me?!”

His voice echoed through the bus and I nodded, aimlessly showering and dressing without much of a conscious thought, other than that strange desire to go and find that red headed girl and figure out why I was so drawn to her.