The Grey- Noah Sebastian

one

*Noah's POV*

I never thought that we would end up in a position to tour Warped Tour, not even a little bit. 

We put out our first album last year, which luckily was received well quickly. We agreed to do 18 days at Warped Tour and were over the moon about it! It was only a short amount of time, but we would take any time. They set us up to play on the Full Sail Stage and we couldn't be more excited. 

We spent two months prepping for it, ecstatic for what was to come. I'm not a fan of the heat, in fact, I would love to be able to tie in a colder wardrobe into our show aesthetics one day, but this was not the time to take the calculated risk on that. Those two months flew by, and it felt like we were on our bus heading to Charlotte, NC before we were ready for it. 

I'm not gonna lie, the first set was... rusty. We spent so long preparing for it, but sometimes no amount of preparation is enough for that first stop. It takes a few shows to get fully comfortable, so I think I'll feel more comfortable in a few days.

The boys and I decided to just hang out at our bus that day. Our set had been at 1 pm, so we had the rest of the days to ourselves, and I didn't quite feel like socializing today after not feeling good about that set. I couldn't deal with people lying and saying that we were great or just walking straight past us. I hope the rest of this time doesn't feel like this. 

We spent our evening screaming at each other over Halo, instead. Nicholas and I had bonded over every version of Halo for far too many years, and Folio happened to feel the same amount of excitement about it as us. Jolly and Vince ended up just hanging out in their bunks most of the day, just retreating as they usually do. I kept kicking their asses, as we kept drinking beers and eventually playing some people online. 

We eventually called it and went to bed. 

****

We slowly got better, and we were back in Virginia 5 days after we began tour. I love Virginia way more than I will ever admit; it is my home and I will hate the day that I need to part ways with it for my career. Our set doesn't began until 3 pm, so I decided to walk around and watch a few sets. I always loved watching the crowds for Knocked Loose, Fit For a King, and Wage War. I always took the chance to catch Too Close to Touch's set, since my best friend Keaton is the lead singer for it. 

The shitty part about being in a band is that the unspoken rule is to not get into mosh pits; if someone recognizes you and doesn't like you, they'll target you, and if they recognize you and love you, they'll go easy on you. I always find myself on the outside of the crowd, watching it from an appropriate distance. 

Keaton finished up "Sympathy" as their closing song, and I began to move away from the crowd to start towards the Wage War set, which is the last one that I had time for. I was putting my hair up into a bun when I realized that I couldn't feel my in-ears, which made me start absolutely spiraling since I was just in a crowd of people! You can't stop moving when you're moving around the fairgrounds at Warped Tour, but I'm shuffling through all of the pockets in my cargo shorts which, I know, they're not incredibly fashionable but they have more secure pockets for things like this, or so I thought. 

I'm digging through one of the lower pockets that have the velcro flap on it when I feel the ground slipping from under me, my right arm bracing the fall onto the big patch of mud that I must have slipped in. Holy shit, how fucking embarrassing. 

*Sutton's POV*

Too Close to Touch was absolutely incredible. I've always loved their music, but after seeing them live, I love them even more. 

Hands Like Houses were playing in about fifteen minutes across the fairgrounds, and I was damn near running to the stage. That's an exaggeration, I was mall walking for sure, though. I noticed the really tall man in front of me was really struggling to find something in his pockets, which wasn't really any of my business, but I noticed that he really wasn't dressed or decked out in gear as a Warped Tour attendant. I noticed that he had a cheap lanyard on as he put his hair into a bun, so maybe he's a crew member or something? 

He was really slowing down my pace, I'm going to be late. Like Jesus, dude, can it not wait or can you not step aside? As soon as those thoughts crossed, he had slipped on a pretty good puddle of mud and, honestly, ate shit on the way down. It was hard to not laugh, but I felt a moral obligation to stop and help him up since I was directly behind him. However, the person behind me didn't get the memo and sent me flying onto the ground, too, landing me mere inches away from this stranger. 

I hit the ground, pissed because I was stupid enough to choose a white tank top for today, and instantly mortified because me and this absolute stranger were making a scene. He must have caught that because he sat up way faster than I expected. "I am so sorry!" he started profusely apologizing to me. He held out a hand to me to help me up, and I began to notice how his speaking voice did not match the heavily tattooed tough guy demeanor he put forth. "Are you okay?" he asked with genuine concern. I stared at him for entirely too long, taking in his facial features, and wow, he is beautiful.

"I'm fine, thank you," I accepted the hand up. "Are you okay? You fell pretty hard." He pulled us all the way to our feet and pulled us out of the flow of traffic so that people would stop going around us. 

"I should be fine, I'm just sorry that you got dragged down with me," he said with a small chuckle. "My name is Noah, by the way." 

I like that name, but it explains the softer part of his demeanor, for sure. The Noahs that I have met in my life have been really chill. "Nice to meet you, even if meeting you ruined my shirt, I'm Sutton." He mentally took in the white Vans tank top that I was wearing and I could tell that he was mentally beating himself up. 

"Are you in a rush to be anywhere?" I looked at him confused, but I was thinking about how I would go just about anywhere he led me in this moment; I was too curious for my own good, and he's hot as hell. "I can settle the shirt problem for you for sure, but I don't want to hold you up or anything."

"I'll accept a shirt, thank you," I started walking next to him to... wherever. "So, what were you looking for?" 

A blush rose to his cheeks, he was clearly embarrassed by how all of this just went down. "My in-ears. It was stupid of me to take them at all, but I noticed after the Too Close to Touch set that I didn't feel them in my pockets, and they're expensive, so I freaked out." In-ears? 

"I'm sorry, but what are in-ears?" I asked stupidly.

"When someone is performing, it can help them hear themselves, as well as cues to keep them in time with their songs." Ah, that's what they're called.

"I had never been told what they're called before," I admitted with a chuckle. "Why do you need in-ears?"

"I'm actually the lead singer for a band called Bad Omens," he admitted with a small blush. "We play in an hour." He ducked into a tent and I followed, noticing that I was in their merch tent. "What size do you wear?" 

"A large," I responded quickly. He handed me one of their t shirts with a small but genuine smile on his face. "Thank you, how much do these cost?" 

"Don't worry about it at all, it's my fault." I started looking around the tent, finding out that they were $20 and handed him a $20 anyway. "No, Sutton, don't worry about it at all." I felt a blush form on my face when he said my name. 

"Too bad, I'm not taking a free handout when this is probably how you make a majority of  your money." I handed it to their merch guy instead, since Noah wasn't going to take it. "And actually," I dug out a $10 bill, "I'm gonna buy a CD, too." The merch guy handed me a CD with a cover of a person floating on a bridge with a red satin wrap around them.

"There's a possibility that that could be the worst $10 you have ever spent," Noah joked. His smile only got bigger as we spent more time around each other.

"I'm gonna say that I sincerely doubt that," I shot back cheekily.

"Do not take this the wrong way at all," he started with a small blush, "but if you want to, I need to go by our bus to change now anyway, if you want to come with me so that you don't have to change your shirt in a porta potty." 

"Sure, why not?" Maybe I can get some free air conditioner out of this. And maybe his number.