Hero

Chapter Three

I woke up first out of all four of us who bunked on the floor of my bedroom on a pile of blankets and pillows. Kate and Tyler were stuck together like they were glued that way. Josh had one leg laying across my torso which I quickly shooed off.

After I detangled myself from the cluster of bodies I managed to pull myself onto my bed with great effort. I smirked at my friends in their deep slumber before retrieving the air horn from my bedside table drawer and pressed the little red button. Kate screamed and Tyler rolled off the makeshift bed hitting the wall and Josh was on his feet in seconds to rip the horn from my grasp.

"Are you fucking mad woman?!" Josh yelled and tossed the horn into my little trash bin.

I laughed, "I'd say so."

"The fuck? The sun hasn't even come up Piper. Why am I awake?" Tyler said standing up pulling on his shirt.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "the venue is 2 hours away and we still need to get ready and grab some food. Get up." I threw a pillow at Kate.

"Okay, fine, I'm up." After everyone was totally awake we dispersed to get ready, Kate to her room, Josh and Tyler to their apartment they shared down the hall.

I pulled on a bikini top and bottoms in case we went for a night time swim after. On top of that I chose a Rolling Stones shirt that I had cut into a cropped tank top years ago. My belly showed which made me a little uncomfortable but I don't want to get too hot. For bottoms I pulled on a pair of very short jean shorts which made me squirm with insecurities. The bottom half of my body isn't my favorite thing in the least. I heard a knock on the door but didn't respond, only looked down to my legs. I saw Kate give me a saddened look through the mirror.

"It'll be okay. Nobody will judge you there. You look nice." She sat on my bed and I sighed and finished getting ready by pulling on my Vans and my hair into a messy bun.

"Well, let's go then."

***

We had decided to just grab some McDonald's breakfast and eat while we dude so we made good time. Even though we had a skip the line pass we each agreed to bring fifteen canned goods because its not like it's a bad thing to do, feeding the hungry and all.

One of my favorite parts about road trips are the one with friends who all like the same music. We all took turns driving and picking out the music and the two hour drive was gone in no time which is always nice.

We made it there by 11:30 because traffic and all, but no matter, we flashed our passes and walked right past the absurdly long line of kids.

After we gave our food away we hit the big inflatable thing with where the bands would be playing and took everything down on paper.

***

The day flew by like a drunken Friday night at Rockin' Sushi. We ended up splitting up at around five when I wanted to see Motionless in White and Kate wanted to see All Time Low. And of course Josh wanted to go with me. So after the split we hadn't bothered to get back together because, well I don't know why, we just didn't regroup. Josh and I had so much merch already we had to make a trip to the car to drop it off and now we were just chugging down water before Falling in Reverse played. The trick to Warped Tour, if you like to be at the barrier, is to get there before your band goes one. So right now we we're standing off to the side of a smaller band watching a mosh pit.

It's dark now, there sticky sweat clinging to my body like a heavy blanket. Many if the people that came left because it stared raining earlier but it stopped and now it is just really muggy. Josh was rambling on about the people who complain about the heat and how much everyone hates them. Not that I blame them, it's like Satan's butthole in this place. It reeks of sweaty people and bad food.

I sighed and dumped the rest of the bottle of water over my head. "Alright, let's go." We tossed our empty bottles and made our way into the crowd which is filling up with Falling in Reverse fans faster than it dispersed with the others. Josh and I managed to get to third or fourth row from the barrier which isn't too bad I'd say. The more the crowd filled the more I got pushed into Josh. Which I get the pushing, I'm not complaining about that. It's the touching the ex part that makes me a little uncomfortable.

The crowd that stretched far past my vision roared a deafening sound that hit me like a brick wall when Ryan stepped behind the drums. Jacky and Derek followed behind him and immediately started playing the intro to I'm Not Vampire and the sound of the crowd unbelievably grew when Ronnie came on stage and started the song.

***

We had been in the crowd a good twenty minutes into the set and somehow magically got pushed back a little which was rather annoying but it was more of a good thing when Ronnie asked, "do you guys think you can hold me up?" The crowd went wild. We all knew what this meant. Ronnie's famous crowd walking. I'd seen it in videos of course but never had I imagined he'd do it now. Part of me prayed he would walk towards me so I could touch him and feel his sweat on me and the other part of me knew I wouldn't be able to hold him up if my life depended on it.

So security helped him down off the stage and into the crowd. It took him a while to get standing with a lot of "hold me up" "shut the fuck up" "You mother fuckers need to go home and do some push ups" but finally he was standing and steady. And with my luck he took a step to the left directly in my direction. He had started the little song he does every time and was pretty much directly over me now.

I felt his skin radiating heat like the sun. He was breathing heavy and I knew his heart was racing. It must take a lot of trust in us total strangers for him to do this. I mean, why stand on the provided stage when have a fucking amazing fan base to stand on.

Now that he was over me the crowd was too. All attempting to get a poke at him which was all too much for me. I felt my head start to feel really light like I had just sucked all the helium from a balloon. My legs wobbled underneath me and before I knew it there was feet stomping all over me. It was a blissful pain, one where I could die happy right now where I wanted to be. Being trampled to death can't be the worst way to go, right? And just as my world was staring to go dark I heard Josh scream my name and Ronnie yell into the mic, "whoa guys! Back the fuck up a girl fell down!"
A/N So the clip above is Ronnie walking on a crowd at one of his shoes. Check it out because it's pretty awesome!