Phrases Left On Paper [Alex Gaskarth] Ch. 1

Chapter 1

"Tell me again why I'm here Shaant?" I asked my cousin as he stepped off the bus behind me.
"Because I want you to just catch one weekend of what life could be like for you if you decided to be our merch girl, like I want!" he stated, annoyed.
Today was one of the first days of Warped Tour and my stupid, annoying, self-obsorbed cousin that I loved more than anyone else in my family had dragged me along to watch his band play for the weekend.
He had wanted me to be his band's merch girl this summer but I declined the offer for a number of reasons. The most obvious being that I didn't know any of the bands here at all, and I'm guessing that at this kind of thing you should probably know the bands if your going to be spending so much time with them.
"Yeah well, that still isn't going to happen dude." I told him.
He frowned at me. "Let's just walk around the place for a bit, and then I'll introduce you to some of my friends." Shaant suggested.
I sighed, frustrated and tired and nodded at his suggestion. Shaant was just too....Shaant like for me to deny him anything, except staying here all summer.
"Great!" he smiled widely. "Let me just go get my hoodie!" He ran back on the bus and came out a second later.
"Sooo...our set is in about three hours or so. I'm guessing that's definantly enough time to show you around." he said while walking.
I just stood next to him as he began to ramble about mindless things Warped Tour brought with it. He sounded like an car sales man trying to get me to buy the most expensive car in the lot.
"Save it." I told him. "I'm not staying here, you can't make me."
He frowned slightly before going off again on how cool everyone was from the bands and how many friends I would make.
"Oh yeah Shaant. I'm just a lovable teddy bear that everyone wants to hug all day." I said sarcastically.
"I look past the sarcasm in you and I'm sure everyone else here will get that it's your thing to bring a downtrodden spirit to everything you do." he explained, still not giving up.
"You make it sound as if I'm a teenage emo kid who wakes up wishing the world would end each day." I grumbled.
"You're not!?" he fake gasped.
I whacked him over the back of the head. "Shut the hell up before I ditch you today!"
"Nice girlfriend you've got there Shaant. She seems like a real charmer." a voice said from behind us. I turned around to face a very interesting looking guy.
"Ew." Shaant grimaced. "She's my fucking cousin you sick pervert."
The guy instantly grew embarrased by what he had said and the look on his face made me snicker. Shaant soon joined in, in the laughter.
"I can see how you too are related now." he mumbled. "Set's coming up soon dude. So, don't waste too much time showing your cousin around."
"Who are you?" I finally asked him, annoyed that we were having a conversation and I didn't even know his name.
"I'm Jeff Czum." he smiled. "I play guitar and piano in Cute. Who are you?"
"I'm Kaylee Simmons. What band is Cute exactly?" I asked confused.
Shaant and Jeff both stared at me as if I had two heads. "What? I seriously don't know!" I said frustrated.
"Kaylee! How many times do I have to tell you that Cute is What We Aim For is my band!?" Shaant questioned, looking very dumb struck.
"I know that you're in that band but Jeff just said he was in Cute. It's not the same name, maybe there are two bands with the same first word in their titles." I tried to defend myself.
"This is the girl who you want to spend all of Warped Tour with us to do merch? She doesn't even know the name of her own cousins band." I heard Jeff whisper into Shaant's ear. But it was quite loud anyway.
"I heard that you ass face!" I said slapping his arm.
"Ow! I wasn't talking to you!" he growled.
"You were talking about me! I don't like when people talk about me when I'm standing right infront of them." I scowled.
"Not even when they are saying nice things about you?" he asked me.
"Nope." I replied crossing my arms over my chest. Jeff just looked me up and down.
"Wow, this tour is going to be quite interesting with a bit-"
"Okay!" Shaant cut him off. "Let's meet people later Kaylee!" He rushed me off in the opposite direction than where Jeff was still standing.
"Another reason to not stay here all summer." I sighed.
"Oh come on Kaylee. You could have been a bit more social to the man." Shaant complained.
I pouted, knowing that he was right. "Yeah, but it's not like I'm going to see him again after this weekend."
"Yeah you are." Shaant said. "I already told your mom that this is what you were doing all summer, and she left to go with your dad for the entire summer in Europe. I was hoping that I didn't have to resort to telling you that, and you would have just come on tour with me anyway but, you're a stubborn person."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" I shreiked.
A few near by people turned to look at me.
"Shhh lower your voice, people are going to think I'm breaking up with you or something." he tried to make me quiet.
"No! I will not be quiet! You just took my entire summer away from my Shaant Hacikyan!" I shouted back at him, trying my hardest to kill him with glares.
"What's wrong Shaant? Can't keep your girlfriends under control?" someone chuckled from behind me.