Many, many, many Monday’s passed. I didn’t even know what day it was half of the time. The summer passed by with a drag. All of the days just kind of mashed together; I felt a little cloudy. I was probably getting a little depressed again just from being so alone all of the time, but I was okay.

I looked up when there was a quick ring, indicating that someone had walked into the shop. Expecting my mom, I smiled easily, picking myself up from my hunched position over the counter.

My eyes widened, though, when I saw that it wasn’t my mom.

“Oh my god!” I jumped up with excitement and darted around the counter, colliding into Vic and hugging him as tight as possible. He chuckled, hugging me back gently. “Er, sorry,” I laughed nervously and loosened my arms around him, blushing embarrassed for my outburst.

Vic just laughed and pulled me in for another hug once I calmed down. This time I gently wrapped my arms around his neck, rested my head under his chin, and sighed happily. He rubbed my back and swayed a little back and forth.

“It’s good to see you,” I said. “Also, hello stalker,” I teased. Vic smiled brightly, his eyes lighting up and oh god I missed that look so much. I loved his smiles. They were so honest.

“It’s good to see you too, Savi. Really. And,” he laughed, “Jaime Facebook stalked for you mom and asked where you worked so we could surprise you,” he said. His hands were on my waist and my arms were still loosely around his neck, and I really didn’t want to move, but when he said “we” I got excited again.

“We?!”

Vic laughed and nodded, dropping his arms and moving to the side. The door dinged again when three more big tattooed guys walked into the shop. They all had smiles on their faces. “Hi guys!” I exclaimed excitedly. I skipped over to them, too, hugging all three of them at once.

“Hey little one, how’s it goin?”

“Oh gosh, it’s so great to see you guys, I’m so happy right now,” I admitted. “When did you guys get back?” I asked, looking back around to Vic for an answer. The other three released me from the hug and all five of us cramped into a booth—me on the inside wall, Vic to my right, Mike on his right, Jaime across from me, and Tony next to him. Vic had his hand on the top of my thigh, squeezing it every so often, but I tried not to act too flustered.

“We got back Sunday. We literally slept for two days and then decided to come see you,” Jaime said.

“Aw, I bet you guys are exhausted. How was the rest of the summer?? You all look so tan, a little sun burnt too! Tell me about your shows!” I said energetically. I haven’t had this much energy in weeks. They all laughed at me but were just excited as I was, telling me about their tour. They told me about a cool photo shoot they did with a rising photographer who was bald, they told me funny stories about Vic being a jerk whenever the others had nerf gun fights on the bus, and they told me how amazing the shows were.

“A little sore, not going to lie,” Vic said, lifting his other hand to his throat.

“Aw,” I cooed, leaning into him a little. He squeezed my leg again; I loosely wrapped my arm around his. He moved his hand up and our hands fell into each other’s grasp under the table. I smiled to myself. Jaime looked at me and winked, though, causing me to blush.

“Are you guys hungry? Want pizza or anything before we close?” I asked. “I think there’s a leftover pie back there.” The guys shook their heads.

“Thanks though Savi,” Tony smiled. “Actually, I should probably get going,” he said.

“Yeah, me too. We have a week rule where we can’t all be together at once after a long tour,” Jaime said with a laugh. “We reunited early just for you, Savi,” he said.

I laughed. “Aw, that’s funny,” I said. “I bet you’re sick of each other by now.”

Mike leaned forward from the other side of Vic, looking at me. “You have no idea,” he said.

“Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me buddy,” Vic cheered, throwing an arm around his brother.

“No, no I’m not,” Mike laughed, shrugging Vic’s arm off of his shoulders. “I’m going to stay at a buddy’s tonight. Actually, she’s probably expecting me soon,” he said with a wink. He leaned forward again. “It was nice to see ya Savannah. When the week of separation is over, I’d love to see you around,” he smiled brightly, just like Vic.

I laughed. “Okay Mike. It was nice seeing you too.”

With that, everyone started to stand up. Vic lingered around while I said bye to the other three.

“Are you sticking around for a bit?” I asked hopefully once they were gone.

“If that’s okay with you,” he said.

I nodded, smiling. “I’ll see if Sam’ll let me sneak out early,” I said.

Luckily, she said that I could leave thirty minutes before we closed. Since it was Tuesday and there wasn’t a lot of activity, we didn’t have that much to do. A lot of the process of closing was done in advance, anyway, and the last thirty minutes was literally just us waiting around for the clock to strike ten.

“So, is he your boyfriend or something?” she asked curiously, looking at Vic who was sitting at a table on his phone. I admired him a little from afar before I answered.

“Um, well, no…not really, well… no,” I said awkwardly.

“Oh,” she wiggled her eyebrows. “I see,” she grinned. I laughed and shook my head.

“Nooo,” I said. “Um, no yeah that didn’t happen either. Just really good friends, and we talk pretty often I guess, uh,” I scratched the back of my neck. It was weird talking with Sam like this. She was a nice girl and all, but we never talked too much in work, let alone outside of work. I was in here working a lot, nearly all week, but she was only Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I put away some oven mitts. “Hey, wait, I feel like I know him from something,” she realized.

“Oh, you might! He’s in a band, they’re really good I like them a lot,” I said. “That’s where he was all summer, on tour,” I said, remembering my time with them at warped.

“Oh yeah you’re right!” Of course I was. “Pierce the something… something, something, oh, Pierce the Veil! Yeah! My brother listens to them, they’re pretty cool. He has their poster in his room, that’s where I’ve seen that face. He’s a cutie for sure.”

“Oh, aw, that’s sweet,” I said, blushing lightly.

“Are you like a groupie of there’s then?” she asked. Sam was kind of a provocative character, I’ve realized. Or maybe she was just joking.

I laughed. “No, no no no,” I denied. She laughed and nudged me, teasing evident in her eyes. “Like I said, good friends. They’re really cool guys,” I said.

“Well that’s cool then. It’s nine-thirty, you can go ahead. Have fun with your ‘friend’,” she winked. I rolled my eyes with a laugh.

“Thanks Sam,” I shook my head. She grinned slyly at me and I hung up my apron, waving bye to her. “But actually, thanks a lot, I really appreciate you letting me skip out early,” I said.

“Hey, anytime sista. You’ve done the same for me a lot more, anyway,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. It was true, I let her slip out early a lot, usually because I just liked to be alone in here.

I smiled and waved again, she winked at me.

“Hi,” I said to Vic, standing next to where he was sitting.

“Hey!” he looked up excitedly. He stood up to be on my level. “Do you wanna hang out?”

“Nah, I just made you sit here for thirty minutes for no reason,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Oh okay, I see, I see how it is,” he mocked being hurt. I smiled happily at him—I haven’t been so excited or happy to be in someone’s presence like this all summer—and, without even thinking about it too much, I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on my toes, hugging him happily. He chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair.

“C’mon, let’s go,” he said. He snuck his arm around my waist as we walked out of the shop, causing a small blush to rise on my cheeks.

“Do you have your car here or anything? If ya want, we can hang out at my place, um, if that’s cool with you?” He sounded nervous and he dropped his arm from around me once we got outside. I turned to him and shook my head.

“No, I don’t drive anymore,” was all I said with a little grimace. I wiped it off of my face though quickly. “But my mom’s home, so unless you want to deal with her we can go to yours,” I laughed a little.

“Aw, why not? And okay, fine with me,” he grinned.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I haven’t really been able to drive. I’m a little afraid, kind of,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. His face fell a little, remembering my accident.

“Oh, shit I’m sorry Savannah,” he said. I shook my head again.

“It’s really okay, don’t worry. I only live a mile away, so I usually just walk.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Through these neighborhoods at night?” he asked worriedly. I shrugged my shoulders again, keeping my brain from thinking back to the few scary encounters I’ve had.

“I usually listen to music. It’s nice time alone,” I said. Even though I was mostly alone every other moment of the day, too.

“Oh, okay,” he said. “Well are you okay in cars in general? I have mine here but—”

“Yeah, it’s okay, I just can’t really drive myself,” I said, gently interrupting him.

“Okay! Let’s go then,” he smiled. He took my hand and led me to wherever his car was.

“Where do you live, anyway?” I asked curiously. I never really thought about the fact that my favorite band—and now I guess friends—lived in the same city as me. Although, it was a pretty huge area. I imagined that they lived in a nicer part, towards the coast.

“I was actually going to blind fold you so you can’t tell where you are, don’t want to be mobbed by fans or anything,” he said with a smirk.

“Ha, ha, ha,” I rolled my eyes as I got into the passenger seat. He had opened the door for me.

“It’s about thirty minutes west,” he laughed. “By the beach actually. And it’s not too populated where we are, which is a nice change. I actually just moved out of my parents’ house to live with Mike since his old roommates left. We were debating just both moving back home since we’ll be doing a lot of traveling and stuff but it’s nice having our own apartment, for now at least, y’know?” I nodded along.

“That sounds nice,” I said.

“Yeah,” he smiled as he looked at the road. “Oh, is your mom cool with you being out and stuff? Don’t want her to get mad at you… or me for the matter,” he laughed nervously.

“Oh it’s all good. If I were home she’d probably practically push me out the door to go out,” I said. I had texted her telling her that I was ‘hanging out with Vic now that he’s back’ and to ‘please don’t wait up for me.’ She replied with a simple ‘ok,’ and since it was already pushing ten o’clock I knew she’d fall asleep and forget about me eventually. I wasn’t too worried.

“Okay, cool,” he said. He reached over to the radio and lightly turned on some music.

There were a few minutes of silence, just Vic humming along to music and me looking out the window in thought. It was nice. I didn’t feel pressured to say anything specifically.

We talked a bit about music, and he asked when my classes started up at the University of San Diego. I didn’t really want to talk about that, though, because I didn’t know what I was doing with my life yet. He said that I didn’t have to know right now, but it still worried me. I definitely couldn’t see myself as a businesswoman, even though I was going into the business department for marketing. I scrunched my nose up at the thought.

“So, I was thinking a lot this summer,” Vic started to talk again after we had gone quiet for a few minutes. We were almost to his apartment.

Me too, I thought. “What about?” I asked.

“Well, just stuff in general. The band is picking up… we’re planning a lot of tours—which I expect you to go to, by the way,” he grinned teasingly.

“Of course I’ll go,” I giggled. They were still my favorite, after all.

“But yeah… there’s a lot going on with that… but I thought about you a lot this summer, too,” he said, his voice quieting at the end. I smiled a little. “Um, one sec,” he said. I looked out the windshield and saw that we were pulling into a parking lot. He parked it, shut the car off, and turned to me with a smile before exiting the car. I got out too and he walked around the side of the car, so he was standing in front of me and my back was to the door. He smiled a little shyly again.

“I was afraid that the summer away would ruin whatever we had going… but I realized how much I like you and love talking to you and that only grew the longer I went without seeing you. And now here I see you again, and I just look at you and realize I like you so much and I’m glad that that didn’t go away while we were on tour…” he bit his lip and then laughed a little to himself. “I’m rambling.”

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “I like you too,” I said shyly. He grinned.

“I don’t know if this is too soon but I just can’t help myself. Will you be my girlfriend, Savannah?” he asked, stepping forward and grabbing my hands carefully. I gave them a reassuring squeeze and smiled widely.

Of course I wanted to be his girlfriend. But I’ve never had a boyfriend before—well, unless middle school relationships counted. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say.

I looked at him shyly. “I’d love to be,” I said quietly, smiling and hiding my face a little. His eyes lit up with excitement.

“You’re so cute when you’re bashful like that, Savi,” he laughed lightly, leaning forward and kissing my forehead. I closed my eyes and smiled. I couldn’t really explain what I was feeling. Excitement, happiness, even some tingles of nerves. Mostly happy, though.

We walked inside together, hand in hand. I was so excited to just be with him. The summer was so lonely. But there was a lot of tension in the air it was practically palpable. I didn’t think it was a bad thing, though. It was just there. My stomach was fluttering and I think I just wanted to kiss him. Maybe he wanted to kiss me too and that was where the tension was coming from.

“What do you wanna do?” he asked once we were inside. We lingered unsurely in the doorway. I couldn’t help but giggle for some reason. “What’s so funny?” he laughed, squeezing my sides. I squirmed and he wrapped his arms around me. I linked my arms around his neck.

“I dunno,” I giggled again. My cheeks heated a little.

He laughed and leaned into me. My back hit the closed door. I bit my lip. He grinned and leaned in. I kissed him back quickly, maybe a little too eagerly but I didn’t think he minded. I just really wanted to kiss him.

“Do you think I could borrow a shirt or something? To get out of this pizza grease?” I blurted. Vic chuckled and pulled away with a nod.

“Sure. You just want to steal another shirt, don’t you?” he teased.

“Yeah, they’re soft. That’s the only reason why I’m sticking around,” I teased back. He snickered and led me to his room.

“Uh, excuse the mess,” he said, kicking clothes that were on the floor to the side.

I laughed. “Here, a buttery soft shirt, just for you,” he said, tossing it to me.

“Here, a pizza sauce covered shirt, just for you,” I countered once I took my work shirt off, tossing it into his face, more specifically his slightly dropped jaw and doped out eyes because I had just taken my shirt off in front of him. I put on his shirt and hugged myself in it. Vic put my work shirt to the side and swept me up into his arms.

“Want to go to the beach?” He asked, setting me down.

“Sure! I haven’t been all summer, actually.”

“Really? That’s surprising, since you love the nighttime and stuff I figured you’d always want to go to the beach and walk there.”

I shook my head. “It’s just a little too far away for me without driving.”

“Oh, right, right, yeah.” He grabbed my hand as we walked out of the apartment. “Can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?”

“Have you talked to Casey at all? How is all that?” We crossed over the boardwalk onto the beach and kicked off our shoes, hand in hand, before I answered.

“No. No, I haven’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s over, y’know? I’m going to college in three weeks. It’s a new part of my life and I intend to leave all the bad things behind,” I explained with a small smile.

“That’s good then, Savi. I’m glad you’re okay and moving past it.” He squeezed my hand.

“Me too.”

We ended up sitting a little ways away from the tide, side by side. I tilted my head on his shoulder sleepily.

“Any other fun stories from warped?” I asked.

“Nah, nothing really too crazy. We had a really, really brutal day in New Jersey, so we had a water fight with like balloons and water guns and stuff by the buses in between sets. That was fun. I just love performing. Every show was so great, I’m so happy.”

“You guys are so good, too, and you can tell how much you love being out there. It’s so cool to see.”

“Thanks, Savi,” Vic leaned into me and smiled. “I’ve been trying to write a lot for new songs, but it’s hard to do on the road.”

“Yeah, I bet it is. I can’t imagine being able to do that myself, like I already have a difficult time writing when I’m by myself in my room for three days straight,” I said light-heartedly, even though it wasn’t much of a joke. It was true.

“Aw. Can I see things you write sometime, maybe?”

I blushed a little. “Yeah, maybe, if you’re good,” I giggled. Vic laughed and pulled me down next to him, so we were lying in the sand. I nuzzled my face into his shoulder.

“Are you excited for college?” He asked.

“Yes, I am, I’m excited for the change. Part of me wishes I was going to live on campus to get the whole experience, y’know?”

“Oh yeah, I definitely get what you mean. I was there for two years actually, and it was a lot of fun and cool to experience while it lasted.”

“I don’t think my mom and dad would let me drop out of college no matter what I decide to do with my life,” I said with a frown. “You’re lucky.”

“I guess so. But I come from a family of musicians, so that’s a little bit of a different story. And having a degree will help you with credibility no matter what you end up doing. If we were to fail, I don’t have anything to fall back on. There’s plenty of time to figure everything out, and college is supposed to be the best four years of you life, so, you might as well stay in it,” he explained. He ran his fingers up and down my arm as he spoke, and I closed my eyes.

I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I am a little nervous for it.”

“It’ll be okay, you need to get out of your house, anyways,” he said. My breath caught in my throat a little at his words, I didn’t expect him to say something like that, not that it was a bad thing I was just surprised to hear it. I didn’t think he knew that that was what I really needed, and that he cared enough about me to think about it. He was right. It’ll be good for me to get out of my house and switch up my routine, mental health wise.

“Speaking of your house, it’s getting pretty late, do you want me to take you back?” he asked.

I pouted and rolled onto my left, throwing an arm across him and holding him tightly. I shook my head. He chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair. “Well, I’d love for you to sleep over, but I’m not sure if your mom would love that,” he suggested with a laugh.

I lifted my head up and rested my chin on his chest. “Didn't we have, like, three sleepovers in a row at warped?” I challenged.

“That’s a good point. Your mom was not happy about that.”

I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “She got over it,” I giggled. He held his hands on my waist and grinned. “Plus,” I continued, hovering on top of him, “she’s asleep now and I can just say I left the house early for a run or breakfast or something.”

“Sneaky,” he laughed. He sat up, with me straddling his lap and my arms draped over his shoulders. He reached up and tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

“Or I can say it was an honest accident,” I added. Vic leaned forward and touched his forehead to mine. My eyes drooped a little. I was exhausted from working so much, and now that I was able to take a breather, relax a little with him, it all caught up to me.

“You’re too funny. C’mon, let’s go.” He kissed my cheek and we stood up. I looped my arm through his.

“The beach at night is so cool, but so scary,” I said, watching the waves crash as we passed. “It’s so dark and vast. Like a void.” I shuddered. I smiled, though. Something about it was eerily calming.

“I come out here really late at night sometimes to think,” he said.

We walked up the boardwalk and down the street back to his apartment. We dragged ourselves up to the second floor and he jammed his key into the door. We both hissed a little when he flicked on a light. He turned it back off immediately after.

“We don’t need that,” he laughed, locking the door behind him. We navigated past the dark kitchen and into his small room. I glanced at his digital clock that sat on his bedside table: it was three in the morning.

“Oh my god, we’ve been out for so long, I didn’t even realize!!” I exclaimed.

Vic handed me sweatpants to put on instead of my jeans. “Time flies when you’re talking to your beautiful girl,” he said sweetly, changing into pajamas himself.

I giggled. “Yes, I love talking to beautiful girls,” I joked.

Vic gasped. “I am not a girl! Looks like I’m going to take you back to your house, now,” he said. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up. I laughed.

“I'm just kidding!! Don’t make me go back there,” I whined, petting his hair. He set me down and pulled me over to his bed. I curled up next to him and we snuggled under the covers together.

He kissed me gently. His eyes drooped tiredly like mine. “You can stay for as long as you want,” he said.

I squeezed my arms around him. “I will stay for as long as you want me to,” I murmured, closing my eyes.

“I’m so happy to see you again, Savannah. Sleep well.”

I smiled. “Goodnight, Vic.”

Notes

hey !! sorry this took so long again. but this is a long chapter so i hope that makes up for it hehe
what do y'all think of their new song?? i love it so much.
also, i went to warped tour (didn't get to meet them, unfortunately, i wasn't in line fast enough to get a wristband) but it was so fun and they put on a great show and that's all that matters at the end of the day, right? but yeah it reminded me of this story haha so cute
and i have the rest planned out roughly, like i know that it will be 40 chapters total, with two epilogues (one vic epilogue, one savannah epilogue). and it'll have a happy ending :) so that's something to look forward to!
hope everyone's doing okay! just so you know bc i never mentioned this before, i kind of just took this story over again by myself. but i wanted to tell anyone who's still reading this that scarlett is doing well :)
so yeah!! let me know what you think in the comments, any predictions for how you think the story will end, or just a what's up bc i love talking to everyone! have a great day/night xoxo

- claire