|June 2014|

---

I knocked on the bus, my nerves making my palms sweat with anticipation. I was so nervous, but I shouldn’t be. I have nothing to hide and I have nothing to be scared of.

You got this. You got this. I thought to myself.

The door opened and he stepped out, his eyes traveling over my body. His frame towered over me more so than usual with him still standing in the doorway of the bus.

“Whoa, Ellie, I-wow.” I looked down.

“What?” I was only wearing spandex shorts and a giant flannel that was Beau’s and my combat boots.

“Nothing, I, you look good.” The comment made blush flourish on my face.

“Hey Austin,” Adrian and Garret Rapp (The Color Morale’s vocalist) wave from behind me. They got picked up along the way. He waved to them. It was a moment of silence awkward before I cleared my throat and spoke up.

“We were going to get breakfast at iHop. We were, I was uhm, do you and Alan or whoever, want to come? I mean, you don’t have to. Adrian’s paying.” Adrian snorts.

“Let’s make it a party here Lights,” He says.

“Lights? I mean, sure I’ll come.” Austin gave Adrian and I a funny look before going inside and screaming Alan’s name.

“LIGHTS!” I turned around to see Scout, Tyler, and Michael running after me.

“Hey-whoa,” Michael picked me up and spun me around. I squealed as I felt the vile rushing up my throat.

“This is for hitting me with the car!” He yelled before setting me down.

“We only came because we heard Adrian is paying for breakfast.” Tyler said. Adrian groaned again.

“I’m going to be broke.” He sighed. “Screamers in a band only make so much money.”

“I’m paying for us, don’t worry.” Scout said before walking to me. “How are you feeling?” just then, Austin and Alan walk off the bus, Alan gives me a smile when he sees me. Austin glares when he sees Scout’s hand over my shoulder.

“I don’t know.” I whisper.

---

|Austin P.O.V|

At the iHop, it was Tyler, Ellie, Scout, and Adrian across from me, Michael, Alan, and Garret.
It was just all too real. Here she is, six months later out of the blue, sitting in front of me, looking better than she did the day of that day.

When Ellie left, it gave me six months of a relationship (a now serious relationship) with Emily and here she is, all friendly with Scout.

I guess, I kinda see what she sees in him. I mean, he has amazing skin. The gauges really bring out his facial structure and he’s attractive. Have they been dating the whole time she was gone? Is that why she’s here on Warped Tour?

Well, whatever the reason is, I’m glad. And she still looks beautiful as ever. Her hair was back to its natural color, which I always thought made her look even prettier, but it looks a little darker with a purple tint to it.

She looks healthy, she’s smiling and laughing, and eating.

“Come on Michael,” she pleaded. I look next to me to see Michael glaring at her. “It was by accident! I even filled in for you on stage!”

“What’s going on?” I ask, still not taking my glance off her.

“Lights here hit me with a rental car.” Ellie cuts me a glance before turning her attention back to Michael.

“It was by accident. Tyler was bitching about his ex-girlfriend.”

“Lights?” Alan questioned. Her smile faltered as quick as it came.

“Uhm, yeah, that’s my name.”

“But I thought-”

“How have you been?” I asked her before Alan could questioned her any further. He gave me a ‘WTF’ look.

“Oh, uhm, I guess okay. I moved out of L.A,” she started fiddling with her shirt before looking up and smiling. “And I’m here on Warped. With David.” I nod.

“Hey L” Tyler poked her in the hip and she flinched majorly, squinting her eyes shut and clenching her teeth. She quickly covered it with a smile and a laugh before she looked at him.

“Yeah Ty,”

“If I get the stack of pancakes, will you share with me?” He batted his lashes. I looked around to see if anyone else saw this when my eyes meet Scout. He looked towards her and I nodded.

He saw too.

“Yeah, but I swear if you drown it in syrup, I will drown you.” We called a waitress over and placed our orders. Two giant stacks of red velvet and blueberry pancakes.

“So why’d you change your names to Lights?” Alan asked again, this time, more snarky. ‘Lights’ glared at him, ignoring the question.

“She got her name legally changed, because there was already a signed band named "Lights". They were suing her with a lawsuit with all her previous work under LIGHTS, so the only way she could keep her stage name and to not pay the money was to get it legally changed to her name,” Tyler spoke.

“Alan.” I barked at him. He rolled his eyes.

“Nah I’m just curious man. After all, we all know she didn’t move out of L.A, she fled out of L.A.” Alan cut her a look and the blood drained from her face. “I mean, quoting Issues here, ‘she packed her shit and she ran like a coward when the thunder struck’ in quote.”

“Alan,” Tyler snapped, looking to him.

“No. I mean, it’s like she doesn’t even care. Changed her name, moved to an unknown location. And here she is smiling like everything’s fucking rainbows and sunshine. Didn’t even bother seeing how Austin felt, did you?” he looked to her.

“I-I-” I saw how fast her chest was rising and falling with each breath she took. Something was wrong.

“I mean, literally two months after he was born, she gave him up and went to Warped. Did you know how Austin felt? Do you know how he dealt with it?!” Alan stood up and slammed his hands on the table, scaring everyone in a five-foot-radius.

“Alan!” Adrian barked, standing up himself and grabbing a fistful of Alan’s shirt.

“I mean, she obviously doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings.” He continued. “ I bet you, she hasn’t even been to either of their graves.”

“There weren’t any bodies to recover!” She yelled, her voice cracked. And she was right, there wasn’t any bodies to be recover. It’s like they had never existed at all.

“She didn’t care when she cheated on Vic,”

“Stop,” Michael snapped.

“Or when she hooked up with Ben, oblivious to Austin’s feelings.”

“Stop!” Scout yelled.

“Or when she dated Andy Glass,”

“Dude, seriously, chill the fuck out.” I said.

“Or that one secret time when she and Shayley hooked up.” That even shut me up.

“ALAN! THAT IS ENOUGH!” It was Garret. Ellie, (Lights, or whatever the fuck her name is now) was breathing heavily. Garret got out his seat and Scout and Tyler moved over to let Ellie through. Scout and Garret led her out.

That one secret time when she and Shayley hooked up.

Two plates of pancakes were placed in front of me.

“Here’s your orders.”

Notes

Finally, I'm where I want this stoyr to be. Alan's being an asshole, Ellie has some secrets and Austin is confused as hell with the wrong thought of who Ellie's dating.

Scout Acord is now an important character in this story guys.

And let's face it, he does have awesome skin: