A Love Like Warped

I haul my luggage over towards the waiting van. Mama just dropped me off, and I’m ready to start the summer of a lifetime! Ok, spending over two months living in a van with five other people may not sound ideal to most other twenty-somethings, but to me? I hit the jackpot.

First, I scored this dream internship with To Write Love On Her Arms. Then, I found out that they’re sending me on fucking. Warped. Tour. So living out of two suitcases and a duffel bag in a van is beyond worth it to me.

“Hi!” a small girl with long dark hair bounces up to me, literally bounces, “I’m Taylor! You must be Marley,” she beamed.

“How did you know?” I give a small smile in return.

“You’re the last girl left to get here. Now we’re just waiting on Jared,” says the tall blonde making her way to us. “Spencer,” she holds out her hand, “We spoke on the phone.”

“Right! It’s nice to meet you finally,” I shake her, my boss’, hand.

“That’s Adrienne over there,” Spencer points to another brunette a few yards away on the phone. Adrienne smiles and waves and I do the same in return. “And Cody is in the van setting up camp for the summer if you want to do the same,” Spencer finishes, nodding at the open van doors.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Here let me help you,” Taylor grabs one of my suitcases and leads me to the back of the van where I load my suitcases in with the others’ belongings. I carry my duffel and my pillow and blanket to the side door of the van where a skinny boy in a beanie is climbing out.

“Hey, I’m Cody,” he says when he sees me, reaching out to shake my hand.

“Marley.”

“Well, everyone else here has already claimed a spot, so I guess you’re either in the very back with me or in the middle of the middle.”

“I’ll switch with you if you really need a window seat,” Taylor pipes up.

“The back sounds perfect actually. Thank you, though!” I clamber into the back of the van as gracefully as possible — which is not actually graceful at all — and smile back at her, glad that I seem to have already made a friend without having to try too hard.

My biggest anxiety has always been that no one ever actually likes me. I have friends at home, and school. They give me no reason to feel this way. It’s just what my brain tells me for no real reason until I’m nearing tears, shaking, and trying very hard not to text everyone I know apologizing profusely for my very existence. I know it’s weird, but it’s why I can be kind of shy. I’m so convinced no one will like me, that I don’t really reach out to people for friendship myself. So it’s lucky for me that Taylor seems to be so outgoing and friendly.

I finish “setting up camp” as Spencer called it, and a tan, muscular boy climbs into the van with his stuff.

“Hi,” I say, a little quieter than I had really intended. Still, he nearly jumps out of his skin.

“Shit! Hey! Hi. I’m so sorry I didn’t see you back there.”

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” I say, trying not to laugh, “I’m Marley.”

“Jared,” he gives a small wave and sets his backpack in the floor before arranging his pillow and blanket between Taylor’s and Adrienne’s.

“So that’s everyone,” says Spencer as she climbs into the driver’s seat and starts the van, “and right one time, too. Hey, Adrienne! Time to go!” she calls as Taylor and Cody join us in their spots. I notice that Cody was even less graceful than I was, practically falling into his seat with an “oof!”

“Okay. I love you. I will. I know, babe. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I miss you already, too. Babe… Babe, I gotta go. I love you, too. Bye,” Adrienne hangs up from her call as she takes her spot in the van, “Sorry about that guys, it’s the first time we’re going to be apart for this long.”

“That’s totally fine! I thought it was so cute!” Taylor smiles at her, bubbly as ever, “I’m Taylor.”

“Jared.”

“Cody.”

“Marley.” We each say in turn as Adrienne nods at us.

“Nice to meet you guys.”

“Alright, everyone good to go?” Spencer calls back to us. We all respond with various affirmations and she puts the van in gear.

As the wheels turn beneath us, I lean over to watch out Taylor’s window until we hit the highway, heading for Portland. Try as I might, I can’t suppress my smile.

Cody nudges my leg, “Excited?” he asks

I open my mouth to respond, but at first nothing comes out. I laugh at myself, “Honestly, there are no words for how I’m feeling. Excited would be such an understatement.”

“Same,” he laughs with me.

Jared looks back at us with a grin, “I was on this trip last year, and the feeling doesn’t go away. I’m still pretty psyched.”

“Me too,” Spencer calls from the driver’s seat, “and this is my fourth year.”

“This is gonna be the best summer, like, ever,” Taylor adds.

“A toast!” Cody lifts his water bottle into the air and we all follow suit. Taylor with a can of Arizona, Adrienne with a Gatorade, Jared with an iced coffee from McDonald’s, Spencer with a blue Monster, and me with a Mt Dew Voltage (because it’s not a road trip without one).

“To us!” Spencer calls over her shoulder.

“To Summer!” Adrienne says.

“To Warped Tour!” Jared yells.

“To new friends!” Taylor adds.

Everyone but Spencer looks at me, though she does glance up into the rear view mirror for a second.

“To the first day of the rest of our lives. Whatever happens this summer, we’ll never be the same.” I say still smiling from ear to ear.

“To all of that and more!” Cody yells. We all cheer and drink, laughing at each other before falling into separate conversations.

Notes

Ok so this is my first ever ATL fanfic. and also one of my first ever fics that i'm, like, sharing publicly... to the world... for everyone to read and criticize... Yeah, this is totally not terrifying.

Anyway, classes are starting up in a couple weeks, and I work at the bookstore which means lots of hours dealing with people and their textbooks, so I don't know how often I'll get to update. Hopefully it won't be too long between chapters. I already of have the next one pretty much ready to go, and i'll probably start on the third one tonight?

I feel like I'm taking a bit of a risk having so many OCs and in fact an entire plot line that's nothing but OCs (Lucas and Marley) but i've had this story and these characters in my head and i'm too attached to let them go just yet. so please please just bear with me. i promise the silly band boys we all know and love will be making their way into the story very very soon

so yeah leave your questions, comments, concerns, gripes, and/or grievances below and please subscribe if you want to see more!