All the Wrong Reasons

Brooklynn pulled her light brown hair into a loose ponytail and fluffed her pillow. Her face was washed, her teeth were brushed, every object in her room that gave off light was either turned off or covered up, and last, both doors were clicked shut. All of her nightly compulsive rituals were taken care of, and she could finally go to sleep. Brooke closed her eyes and began to relax. The last day of her internship was done and over with.

Brooke was almost completely asleep, but that was too easy. Brooklynn could never doze immediately into sleep. Most of the time, it was because of her mild case of Insomnia, but not always. A sudden noise came from her laptop across the room, as the screen relit. YOU’VE GOT MAIL.

Brooklynn sat up with a groan, “I knew I forgot something.”

She stumbled across her neatly kept room to the corner that the computer was kept. Before she turned the laptop off, the subject of the new e-mail caught her eye. ‘Gabanti’s favorite fangstas’
Gabriel Eduardo Saporta, you are the biggest loser ever.

With her conscious telling her to ignore the e-mail and wait until morning, Brooklynn clicked on the message, and read it anyway.

--Brooklynn Rae
It seems that you were wrong, yet again. You, my dear, said that you wouldn’t see us until Warped came to New York, but you were so wrong! Ha. You are coming with us. Right now, you are asking yourself “Where?” Quit denying it. You are. And the answer to your question is simple. Nat told us your little internship was over. So now, you and the lovely Natalie are coming with us on Warped. The whole thing. That is not a question. Go pack your bags…or shop…or do whatever you girlies will need to do in order to leave by Wednesday. Peace.

--Gabriel

P.S. Cougar Alex says hey. Now Ryland said hey too. Guy Ripley just slapped Ryland for saying hey first. Victoria says she will be sure to protect you from our devilish ways. YEAH RIGHT. Nate says to take out the trash. WTF? Get lost Nate.
Night!

Brooklynn smiled as she thought about what the Warped tour would be like hanging out with her old friends in Cobra Starship. Then, reality kicked in. There was absolutely no way Brook could just get up and leave for the entire summer.

She quickly stood up to find her roommate, “Natalie Henderson!” she shouted as she tried making her way to the door in the darkness. She tripped on the leg of her chair and came crashing down against the hardwood floor.

Natalie rushed in and turned on the lights. “Isn’t the loud thud supposed to come after the name screaming?” she laughed, while helping Brooklynn up.

Brooke cast Natalie an intense glare, “I could honestly kill you right now.”

“And that’s the thanks I get for helping you,” Natalie remarked, letting go of Brooklynn, and sitting on the green chair that Brooklynn had stumbled over.

“What the hell were you thinking?! We can’t go on tour with Cobra Starship!” Brooke shouted, her voice growing more angry with every syllable.

“Gabe said we could come?! I have to pack, I have to buy a new outfit! Hell, I have to buy a new wardrobe!” Natalie began pacing, opening and shutting dresser drawers, and pulling put random items of clothing,.

“Natalie, calm down!” Brooke demanded.

Natalie dropped everything and froze.

“First of all,” Brooklynn started, picking the clothes up off the floor, “this is my room…my stuff. Second, we can’t go.”

“I know, I know, Brooke. I already told Gabe we couldn’t afford it. If Gabe said we can come, that means that they’re taking care of it.”

Brooklynn let out a sigh ran her fingers through pieces of her fallen hair. “You just don’t get it, Nat. We’re in college. We have responsibilities. We can’t just pick up and leave.

Natalie was getting quite agitated. Brooklynn was the one who didn’t understand. She didn’t get just how big the Warped Tour was.

“Brooklynn, I am ordering you to listen to me. You are finally done with your internship. We go on break in a week. So what if the tour’s longer that break? You haven’t missed a day of school since we moved out here. We can go.”

Brooklynn had nothing to say. They could go, but it wouldn’t be the mature thing to do. Brooke covered her face with her hands.

Natalie continued to defend her view on them leaving. “Not to mention we haven’t seen much of Cobra at all lately. You missed their last concert because you had an exam the next day. We moved to New York for excitement, for fun! College was just our excuse. Brooke, we have to go.”

Natalie couldn’t see Brooke’s expression through her fingers, but she was sure that her answer would be no.

After a short moment of silence, Brooklynn looked up with a smile on her face. “Fine, but I get first pick of Cobra’s friends in the other bands.”

“It’s a deal,” Natalie nodded laughing, “but your first pick ends after you pick the first guy.”

Natalie left the room and immediately started searching for her luggage. Brooke decided she would try to get some sleep. But it was Brooke, and with her, that never happens.

XXX

Standing outside with her arms crossed, Brooke began tapping her foot impatiently. It was 12:03, and the summer sun was working at its hardest.

“Brooklynn, calm down. They’ll be here any minute,” Natalie assured her friend, trying to settle her nerves.

Brooke looked at her cell phone clock once again, “Would that be any minute before or after I die of heatstroke?

“God, you’re overdramatic.” said a voice coming from behind them.

Brooklynn turned around to see Alex and Ryland standing on the sidewalk. “You’re late.” she scoffed , trying not to show that she was startled.

“You jumped.” Alex said while Ryland laughed at her.

“Shut up. You’re still late.” Brooklynn barked back.

“Well, maybe if you didn’t live on such a busy street, we would have been able to turn down it, and Ryland and I wouldn’t have had to walk down here to get you two.”

Natalie began walking in the direction that Alex and Ryland had come from and the two guys followed. She stopped when she realized Brooklynn wasn’t with them. “What are you doing?” she asked, looking at Brooke and all the bags, both hers and Brooklynn’s.

“You expect me to carry these for you?” Brooklynn inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“No. Guys, go get the bags.” Natalie ordered, while continuing to walk.

Ryland and Alex paused, “Woah, woah. That didn’t come with the job description.” Ryland stated before continuing to walk, only picking up the pace a bit.

“Uh, no.” Brooklynn declared before taking off down the street, Natalie following behind.

Ryland and Alex looked at each other and both let out a sigh before trailing back to get the bags.

When Natalie and Brooklynn figured that they were a substantial distance ahead, they slowed down their pace and began walking the last twenty or so yards to the end of their long New York street.

“So Brooke, are you excited yet?” Natalie managed to get out between long sips of her frozen coffee drink.

Of course Brooke was excited, she was about to go on tour with her best friends and whoever else was going to be there.

Natalie was right before when she said that Brooke hadn’t seen Cobra for a while. It wasn’t until she knew that she would see them again that she knew how much she really missed them. Her and Alex had been friends since preschool. They had been through everything together. They were even married underneath the old oak behind the school playground in fourth grade. They were each other’s first kiss in seventh grade. The same day they realized that they had no romantic feelings for each other.

Befriending Ryland came naturally, and soon they were just as close as Brooke and Alex. When the two boys joined Cobra Starship, Brooklynn became one of their biggest fans. It was at one of their concerts that she met Natalie. While ranting about how amazing Gabe was in Midtown, Brooklynn decided she would introduce Natalie to the band.

“Yeah,” Brooke answered quietly after a short pause. “Of course I am. This is going to be just how it was in the past.”

“Only better!” Natalie corrected as she began skipping. Surely, she looked like an idiot skipping down a crowded street in New York, but she wasn’t one to mind.

“It’d be a lot easier to be excited if I knew what was going on,” she admitted, going back to her pessimistic ways, “Are we going to have to stay in a crowed bus with them the whole summer?”

Natalie chuckled as she tossed her empty cup into a trash can, “That doesn’t sound half bad to me,” she smiled.

They quickly found the van that they were to board, for it was filled with three people in brightly colored outfits screaming out their names. They quickly navigated their way around the taxis to the bus and hopped in.

“God, they‘re rater slow, aren't they?” Gabe sneered as he watched Ryland and Alex struggle with the bags. Once they finally got to the van, Gabe made sure to surprise them with an annoyingly loud honk of the horn.

The two entered the car, Ryland hitting Gabe across the head as he made his way into the last open seat in the seven passenger vehicle.

“You jumped,” Brooklynn teased Alex. In defense he stuck out his tongue. And the bickering began. The car ride would stay this way for the entire ride to the airport.