.chapter twenty-eight.

 

 

The line split into two; boys and girls. After everyone had been searched for cameras, weapons, and food/drink items, the group met up on the inside of the venue. As soon as everyone gathered Emma made her way to the nearest drinking fountain and splashed her face to cool off.

 

“Em, you feelin’ ok?” Roxi asked her, noticing how flushed Emma looked.

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” Emma assured her. “So, where to first?” she asked no one in particular.

 

The group meandered over to the big board that had all the bands and playing times posted on it to figure out where they should set off to. They noticed that MxPx was set to go on in about an hour. Social Distortion would be their next target; starting thirty minutes after MxPx should end. Green Day wasn’t playing until later in the day so they decided to check out random bands in-between. The sun seemed to be shining down right on Emma as she continued to get dizzy and light-headed. She didn’t want to impede on anyone else’s fun so she kept it to herself.

 

“This is gonna be so awesome!” Paul said enthusiastically as the group made its way towards the stage MxPx was playing on. There was already a large gathering positioned in front of the stage, so the group settled on being back row observers. As people would make their way out of the mosh pit, drenched in sweat, Emma could feel the heat radiating off of them making her nauseous. Still, not wanting to spoil anyone else’s day, she managed to hide the fact that she felt like crap.

 

About ten minutes before MxPx’s set ended, Benji nudged Emma and asked, “Wanna go get a better view for Social D?”

 

She nodded, not wanting to say anything just incase her stomach decided to react.

 

“I’m coming too.” Stephen nonchalantly stated. He grabbed Emma by the arm and followed Benji towards the stage Social Distortion was playing on. There were only a few random people at the stage watching the band setup.

 

Emma leaned up against the fence that separated the stage from the crowd and closed her eyes. She stayed this way until she felt someone jab their elbow into her ribs.  She looked up and noticed that many more people were standing around and the band’s equipment was all set up. She noticed Stephen talking to some guy that had a neon colored Mohawk, but she couldn’t see Benji around the area. Glancing over to her left she found him in the midst of the soon-to-be mosh pit. Grinning to herself she watched as he prepared himself for the show.

 

“What are you looking at?” Stephen demanded.

 

“Nothing.” She focused her attention on Stephen and gave him a sweet smile. Her stomachache had lessened but her headache was growing worse.  Resting her elbows on the fence she watched the sound check.

 

“Testing…. 1, 2…. Can you all hear me?” Mike asked the crowd, getting loud cheers and applause in response. “All right! We’ll be starting here soon.” They continued to strum the guitars and play a few beats on the drums until everything sounded like it should.

 

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Stephen told Emma. He made his way out of the crowd of people while Emma made her way closer to where Benji was.

 

“Hey. Where’d Stephen run off to?” Benji wondered.

 

“Bathroom.” She replied.

 

“You ready to get your groove on?” he smirked.

 

Emma laughed a little and responded, “Groove? Benji you are so weird sometimes.”

 

The two laughed then turned their attention to the stage. Mike stepped up to the mic and they began. The mosh pit took this as their signal and began jumping around like crazy. Emma, feeling slightly better, joined in. Halfway into the set Emma noticed that Stephen hadn’t come back. She figured that he probably couldn’t make his way back up to the front with so many people to fight through, so she shrugged it off. She figured wrong. Stephen was nowhere near the stage at all.

 

(That is definitely not the end of warped tour! I’m sure there will be another one… if not two more. I just thought that was a good spot to end this one. Suspenseful sorta. Haha… what is Stephen up to??? Ooo only I know! Mwhahaha. Ok enough of that! HEY! If you didn’t know or haven’t read it already- I wrote a chapter for my friends story @ www.geocities.com/imlametoo. I think it was chapter 28ish or something like that. Go check it out! And as always- sign the guestbook? It’s feeling neglected ^_^)