I'm Just a Moment, So Don't Let Me Pass You By

July 22, 2014

Everything in my life had been leading up to this moment. Today is the day I’m going to Warped Tour and (come hell or high water) I’m going to meet the band that has given me hope more times than I can count. The band that has made me scream with joy, laugh, cry, and has yet to break my heart. Today is the day that I meet All Time Low. I knew I would have to wait a while till I saw them, but I was anxious.

I was currently sitting on my front porch, banging my feet against the worn brick support wall waiting for my friends to show up to take us to the magical land of Warped Tour.

I occasionally felt bits of concrete nipping at the back of my legs. I had grown accustomed to the feeling after 18 years of sitting out front during the hot summers in Pennsylvania. And since today I was traveling south of the border to rock out with hundreds if not thousands of other rockers, I had to wear the shortest and lightest clothing I could. But because I’m not one who likes to show a lot of skin, I had settled with a pair of slightly worn blue jean shorts and an old purple tank top that was a size too big. And even though it was only 6 in the morning, the temperature outside was already in the upper 60’s and the forecast was calling for close to 95. So I had my recently re-dyed blonde hair swept up into a high ponytail with my bangs resting nicely to the left side of my face.

I twisted my body to reach my old drawstring bag. I had already checked and double checked to make sure that I had everything that every Warped Tour survival list had that was necessary. I had a tube of sunblock that was the highest SPF I could find, three water bottles (two of which were for my friends), my digital/video camera plus extra batteries, and money in a ziplock bag incase of water spillage. I wasn’t sure how much things would cost so I had saved all of my graduation money and birthday money which gave me a total of $400. I knew I was taking a risk bringing that much money, but I wanted to get as many things as possible.

Next to my bag was my old acoustic guitar safely placed in it’s case, a duffle bag with some clothes and other supplies, and my phone that I had currently hooked up to the charger. I checked it to see if either of my friends had replied back to me. The last text I received was 10 minutes ago and it was from my friend Kaylyn telling me that I will know when they were at my house. I of course responded with ‘what does that mean?’ but I didn’t get any reply. I quickly sent both her and our other friend Essence a text asking when they would be here and set my phone on top of my bag and went back to swinging my legs like a toddler.

After about 5 minutes I began to hear a thumping noise that I would normally associate with the bass sound of a prick playing his Dubstep too loud in his crap car, but as I listen closer I can tell that it’s actually the drums from Hell Above by Pierce The Veil. I look down my street to see a decent size tour bus driving up with all of the windows down. I dart up and ran to the end of my porch in time to see the bus pull into my larger driveway. The music suddenly cut off and out of the driver window pops Essence’s head, a huge smile spread across her face.

“ARE YOU READY TO PARTY,” she screams out to me. I reply by pumping my fist in the air. I quickly rush to my things and jog down the steps to be greeted by both of my friends waiting outside the bus.
“Aren’t you gonna tell your mom bye,” Kaylyn asks after giving me a hug.
“I already told her when she left for work this morning. Now, who’s ready to mosh with the best of them?” We all cheer and pile back into the bus.

As I enter the mobile house one question comes to mind. I turn to Essence who is sitting in the drivers seat fastening her seat belt. She looks up at me waiting for me to speak.

“Why did you choose a huge tour bus when there’s going to be the three of us?”

“Because,” she began, turning her body so she was seated properly in her seat with both hands on the steering wheel. “If all goes to plan tonight, we’re going to need all the room we can get.”

There was a devious sparkle in her eyes when she said that but I didn’t have enough time to question it because she waved for me to sit down. I took a seat across from Kaylyn on one of the short booths located in what I can only assume is the front lounge. With a quick left turn and only 2 cars honking at us, we were on our way to Warped Tour.

After we turned onto the interstate and Essence gave us the all clear to move about the cabin, I moved my duffle bag to the bunk area and chose the bottom bunk across from Kaylyn seeing as we both knew at some point in the night we would be imitating Jack and Alex, then sat down on the couch in the front lounge with my guitar and a pick in hand. I started to casually strum the chords to “For Baltimore” and Essence started to hum along with from the front of the bus. As I ended the song I remembered what I had wanted to ask Essence.

“What is your plan for tonight anyway?”

“Yeah. You didn’t tell me either,” Kaylyn said moving to peak around Essence’s shoulder and poking her cheek.

“Well,” Essence began with a sigh. “Since you are both SO impatient and can’t wait till we even get out of state, I’ll tell you. If all goes to plan tonight, we three will be partying with numerous bands. But the only thing is that means we have to actually invite bands.”

“So what bands are we inviting,” I asked packing away my acoustic and stretching out on the couch.
“Well I was hoping we could put it to a vote. We say what band or bands we want to invite and the other two have to agree on if the bands can be invited. How does that sound?”

“I’m cool with it,” Kaylyn said plopping down on the couch after moving my legs so they were on her lap. I nodded in agreement.

“Okay. So since your birthday was the most recent, what bands do you want to invite,” Kaylyn asked playing with the laces of my converse.

“Well All Time Low is going to obviously be a choice. Maybe Breathe Carolina, I've heard they can throw one hell of a party. Um... Pierce The Veil and Sleeping With Sirens would also be cool to invite. I think that’s all I want to invite. So out of those bands who do you guys agree with?”

“Well...,” Essence began in a tone that made my heart drop. “I suppose we can have Pierce The Veil and Breathe Carolina. I’m not so cool on the whole Sleeping With Sirens part though. I feel weird still since Jesse left.”

“Yeah Sleeping With Sirens is great and all, but it would be weird. But I’m cool with Pierce The Veil and Breathe Carolina.”

“But what about All Time Low?” I whined the bands name in a state of annoyance. Kaylyn just gave me a look that told me she obviously agreed with inviting them and I caught Essence’s smile in the rear view mirror.

“So... is that a yes?”

“What do you think,” Essence stated, using an overdone accent that sounded like a mixture of Scottish and British. I pumped my arms straight up into the air as a sign of victory and started singing the beginning to ‘Dear Maria, Count Me In’.

After little debate and a little bit of someone breaking off into song, we had chosen the bands we were going to invite back to the bus with us. We had decided on All Time Low, Pierce The Veil, Breathe Carolina, We Came As Romans, A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men, and Motionless In White. We knew not all the bands would say yes to partying with two 18 year olds and a 20 year old, but hopefully one band would say yes and if I had any luck, that band would be All Time Low.

Numerous songs and 2 hours later we were pulling up to the field that our tickets showed and after checking to make sure we had everything we would need for the day, we were making our way of the bus and into the mass of people waiting to party.