We spent the rest of the day walking around the grounds of Warped, enjoying the music, listening to our favorite bands, checking out new ones, and just enjoying each other’s company.

The sun had been beating down on us all day, the heat making us all exhausted, but now it was sadly setting, which meant two things. One: the moon was rising and night was falling, and, two: the amazing day Casey and I had with the guys was unfortunately drawing to an end.

I felt like a toddler on the inside; internally, I was whining about not wanting to go home just yet. I hated to see this day end, but I also wasn’t about to cry about it—it was just bittersweet, but I knew all good things must come to an end.

“Where is the next date of Warped, again?” Casey asked as we all sat in a circle of their tour bus, cooling off in the nice air-conditioned atmosphere as opposed to the suffocating heat.

“San Francisco, baby!” Jaime said excitedly.

San Francisco was almost six hours away from Pamona—how in the world they were going to get there in time for the next shows?

“We have a long road ahead of us, boys,” Mike sighed, and I wondered for a second if he had the impossible power of reading minds, but then I figured that the heat was just making me delusional.

“So do we, Savannah,” Casey said, referring to our two-hour drive home. I nodded in agreement—words failing me. Casey was more of the spokesperson in our friendship.

“When do you guys need to go?” Vic—who I was sitting next to—leaned into my side with a slight nudge as he asked the question, and I assumed that this was him showing me that the question was addressed for me to answer.

“I’m not sure. Probably soon; my mom will flip out if we are home too late,” I explained.

“That’s too bad,” he frowned, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. I nodded in agreement, staring down at my crossed legs. I absentmindedly toyed with my shoelaces for a few moments, my mind wandering and reflecting on the day.

“That girl from earlier was right,” I said. Vic looked confused for a moment before I spoke again: “That Casey and I are lucky to hang out with you guys. Thanks so much for today. It was a lot of fun,” I said. The bus erupted into a chorus of “aww’s”, and I blushed heavily.

“We are glad you girls had fun,” Vic smiled in return, pulling me into a half-hug.

“Thanks, Vicky. I really did have a lot of fun,” Jaime grinned, batting his eyelashes and imitating a girl.

“I think he meant these girls,” Mike gestured towards me and Casey, “not you, Himes,” he said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I think your right. Besides, I’m not a girl,” Jaime said seriously. After a moment’s reflection, he added: “I’m a woman,” he said in a deep but feminine voice, and we all burst into laughter.

“Okay, Jaime,” Vic shook his head with a chuckle.

“That’s Mrs. Preciado to you,” Jaime said seriously.

“Now that’s just plain creepy,” Casey giggled.

“Jaime, I think the heat is getting to your head,” Tony said with a grin. Tony was soft spoken, like me—I was glad I wasn’t the only shy one of the group.

Jaime sighed dramatically. “It was a scorching day,” he agreed.

“Yeah, how are you feeling?” Vic nudged me again.

“I’m good,” I said truthfully. My bones weren’t stiff and it didn’t hurt to breathe, so that was obviously a good sign that I made it through the day alive—my mouth was dry and I felt a little lightheaded, but that was because of the heat, not my accident.

“Savannah, we have to go, now. My mom doesn’t want me driving too late,” Casey informed me. I frowned and sighed.

“Okay,” I said, obviously not going to argue with her because just then I had noticed that my mom had texted me, asking when I would be home.

“Sad Jaime!” Jaime whined, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning at the fact that we were leaving.

Casey laughed as we all stood up, preparing our goodbyes.

“Have a safe trip home,” Tony said, giving us each a hug.

“Thanks,” we responded simultaneously. Mike hugged us, next.

“The day was blazing hot only because you two were here,” Mike said with a wink, and Casey and I responded with a roll of our eyes while his brother smacked his arm. “Aha, well it was nice meeting you, ladies. Until we meet again,” he bowed, a smirk across his face.

Before I had any time to react, gravity suddenly shifted and the ground fell from beneath me. I squealed, realizing that Jaime had swung both Casey and I over his shoulder.

“Sorry, you guys can’t leave,” he said with a serious tone.

“What—a—shame,” I giggled and gasped, my ribs aching at the sudden movement.

“Wow, Jaime, you’re strong,” Casey said, mockingly flirting with him by feeling his upper arms.

Jaime winked at her, and then he set us both down. “Thanks for spending the day with us. It was a blast,” he said, engulfing Casey into an enormous bear hug, swinging her around. She giggled, but I was silently wondering how she wasn’t passed out on the floor due to intense fangirling. I was proud that she was able to act normal in front of them.

“Tell Jeffry I say hi, ‘kay?” Jaime turned to me next, hugging me. I was glad he didn’t squeeze me as tightly as he squeezed Casey—he must have noticed that I was a little sore.

“Of course,” I giggled, suddenly looking forward to cuddling with the stuffed unicorn.

“And your mom,” Jaime added, resulting in the rest of the guys exploding with laughter—I must have missed an inside joke, or something. I raised an eyebrow at him, but suddenly I wasn’t looking at Jaime anymore—I was looking at Vic.

“Don’t mind him,” he grinned. “We are sad to see you go, but today was awesome. We couldn’t have asked for a better opening Warped Tour day,” he said, hugging Casey first.

“Thanks for having us!” she said, hugging him back.

“Yeah, thank you so much; this was so much more than I would ever ask for or even imagine,” I said, feeling at a loss for words. I just couldn’t thank them enough for the way they treated me since my accident. “And thanks for being there for me, guys, when, y’know,” I stammered a little and blushed.

Vic chuckled. “It was our pleasure. We’re glad that you guys could come, and that you are okay,” he said, pulling me into a hug. I shyly wrapped my arms around his middle, my face against his right shoulder and his hands on my back. I could feel his heartbeat against my ear and his breath against my forehead. I blushed a little when I realized I was paying too much attention to the details of my hug with Vic and that I didn’t want to let go—I didn’t want to go at all.

But, I had to. I pulled away reluctantly and smiled shyly again. Casey grabbed my hand, dragging me to the door. I felt a little irritated with her—was she seriously rushing the goodbyes? “My mom is bitching,” Casey whispered, and my irritation with Casey quickly dissolved. I didn’t want to get her in trouble.

“Thanks so much,” we said together again. The guys waved, and the smile on my face stretched widely that it almost hurt. It fit the situation, though; I was sad to leave, but happy to have been in their presence, so the parting smiles were bound to be a tad painful.

The guys followed us out of their RV, watching us as Casey and I put our stuff in the backseat of her car and then reluctantly buckled ourselves in the front seats (they had prior arranged us to have priority parking at the warped grounds, which was right by the buses).

“Bye!” We all said as Casey drove away.

We drove silently for a little while. I gripped the seat around me in nervousness, and Casey made sure that the music was low to avoid distractions. I leaned my head against the window, staring at the blur of trees while we zoomed on the highway.

“Feeling a little star struck?” Casey asked with a giggle, breaking the silence.

“Ha, just a little,” I mumbled.

“Can we have a sleep over tonight?” she asked.

“Is that even a question?” I retorted with a short laugh.

“More like an awake over. I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight,” she added.

“First, you are so lame,” I giggled at her made up phrase. “Second, I agree,” I said with a sigh. Yes, I was a little star struck, I guess, but it was more than that. The guys felt like actual friends to me—they had treated us like normal people—and I felt like I knew them more personally, like my car accident oddly connected us. It was weird, but it was how I was feeling.And, as usual, my mind was definitely going to be running at full speed tonight; sleep was out of the question.

Well, maybe sleep wasn’t totally out of the question—I was so exhausted from walking around all day that before I knew it, we were back at my house, the right side of my face red from being pressed up against the window while I slept in the car. “Oops, sorry,” I said, feeling bad for making her drive in silence.

“S’all good,” she said sleepily. “Come on,” she said, and we grabbed our stuff—which included our several items of merch that we purchased and random free stuff that were imposed upon us, all stuffed into our drawstring bags—and slipped inside. Casey went straight to my room, and I went to my mom’s to let her know I was home. The time was nearly midnight, but she was half-awake.

“Hi, sweetie,” she yawned. “I hope you had fun today.”

“I did, it was amazing. You can go to sleep now,” I said, kissing her cheek before exiting her room. My mom has always been like this—she had this thing where she wouldn’t fall asleep until I came home, and she always made sure that I remembered to go see her before I went to bed. She was just being a protective mother, and I didn’t mind.

“Yo,” Casey nodded to me as I walked into my room. She was sprawled out on the floor in a star shape, staring at the ceiling.

“What are you doing, buddy?” I laughed at her clearly exasperated appearance.

“I’m recovering,” she huffed. “Savannah, it was so fun,” she whined and scrunched up her face.

“I know, I know,” I laughed.

I reached over for my lap top and laid on my stomach next to her.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going on Twitter. I want to see if they posted any pictures from today,” I said, logging in. I hardly used Twitter, but they had told me that they were going to put pictures up and tag Casey and I.

“Oo!” she squealed, rolling over and flopping next to me. My computer was the equivalent of a dinosaur, so it took a while to load. When it finally did, though, my eyes widened at the amount of mentions I had.

“Looks like they posted something,” Casey giggled. I scrolled down quickly—ignoring the mass of mentions so I could see the picture first.

“Aw,” I said quietly, seeing that it was Vic who had posted a few pictures. One was of the entire group with the caption: ‘The clan.’—we were all smiling and facing the camera, Mike on the far left, then Casey, then Jaime, then Tony, then Me, and then Vic on the right. It was an adorable picture; we all looked so happy, and it really summed up the day nicely. I saved it to my computer.

The next picture was of just me and Vic: his left arm swung over my shoulder, holding me tightly with an enormous grin on his face, and myself leaning in to him with a laugh across my features. The caption read, ‘Got to spend the day with @S_outhWest today. Happy that you are recovered and well, Savi! We will miss you!’ I grinned stupidly at the picture and caption for a moment (and slightly blushed at my twitter username—I wished that I had changed it earlier because it was so cheesy and now I looked dumb) before Casey snorted from next to me: “Welp, there’s a good Christmas card picture,” she said. I slapped her arm but laughed next to her—what she said was kind of creepy, I guess, but it really did embody the perfectness of the picture. Lucky shot, I guess.

“Time to see what the rest of these mentions are all about,” I said, slowly scrolling up.

I had about thirty mentions—I’m sure Casey had a bunch, as well—and most of them were nice, people commenting on how “cute” the pictures were and how “happy” they were that we had a good time. There were a few random “follow me vic I love you”’s, and of course there were some nasty ones.

I tried not to let the jealous tweets get in my head though. One stood out in particular, though, not making me sad, but making me angry. It said: ‘bitch probably crashed her car on purpose. @S_outhWest is an attention whore’.

“Damn,” Casey breathed. The initial shock of seeing how brutal people could be sparked a flame inside of me, but then I shrugged my shoulders. It obviously wasn’t true, so it didn’t really bother me that much.

“Later hater,” I said, blocking the girl who tweeted that.

“Are you alright?” Casey asked—she knew how sensitive I could be sometimes.

I stared at her seriously. “Dude, we just spent an entire day with our heroes. We have amazing pictures and memories that will last forever. A damn tweet couldn’t ruin it at all,” I said truthfully. Maybe the tweet would bother me in a few days when I was off of my pleasant high, but I didn’t think too much about it. I was too happy for bitches to bring me down.

I closed out twitter and slid my laptop away, cuddling Jeffry the Unicorn into my chest.

“Ah, I think I actually do need to sleep,” I confessed—the long day catching up to me—but then I realized that Casey was already comatose. I lacked the strength to move her somewhere more comfortable than the floor, so I just swung a blanket over her, also giving her a few stuffed animals that the guys had given me to hold in her sleep. I slid into my bed and snuggled in my covers, sighing satisfyingly as I curled into a ball and held Jeffry the Unicorn.

The car crash was distant in my memory finally, and it didn’t cross my dreams once for the first time in two weeks. Instead, I dreamed about our day; I was sad that the entire experience was over, but it was definitely an experience that I would never forget.

Notes

La la la laa, Claire here!
I'm sorry that it took me like 10 days for this update. I'm a horrible person!

**Passes writing stick to the male flying slug cough I mean Scar**

xoxo