Tattoos Together | An Original

13

Dominic

Reese and I aren't taking the rest of our time together this week for granted. We spent the morning getting ready for Lollapalooza day three today. I'm not performing today, but some of my artist friends are. Reese and I are going together, with some of her family members, plus Mark and Sage.

I'm here for the next week, since I'm performing at Lolla again next weekend. On Monday, we're all going up to Reese's grandparents' lake house to relax for a few days. To take it easy, and spend time away from the city while we have the downtime.

Once we get to the park, everyone kind of disperses. Sage and Mark head to the main stage with Taytum, Andrew and Milo, and then Maeve and Landon head to one of the side stages. Those too usually seem to be kind of independent from the rest of the group. I've noticed that when Landon's not around, Maeve hangs out with everyone else more. Reese has mentioned this before as well.

Reese and I are waiting in line at one of the food trucks. We're going to grab a couple of snacks and some water before the show starts. It's a sunny day today, and I know it's going to be hot. It's barely eleven in the morning, and I already feel like I'm breaking a sweat from being in the sun.

A couple of teenage fans approach us, wanting a picture with Reese. She happily takes the picture with them, and then compliments their outfits for the festival. The two girls seem elated that Reese likes their outfits, and she takes the time to ask them a couple of questions about themselves. They leave after a couple of minutes, and then Reese smiles at me.

"You just love meeting people, don't you?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. It depends on the vibe. They were cuties."

"Yeah, I can definitely say that I've met some interesting people."

Reese giggles. "Yeah. Me too. Like you."

We both laugh as I nudge her elbow with mine. "You goober."

After Reese and I get our food, we head to a picnic table to sit down. The shows really don't start for another forty-five minutes, since we all got here early for pictures.

"When do you think we'll be able to visit each other again?" Reese asks. "I wanna be able to have something for us to look forward to together, so it's not as hard for us to say goodbye this week."

"Wait," I say. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"What if we consult Sage to help us facilitate surprising each other? We have to have a middle man, so we don't accidentally fly to each other's city at the same time. But, we always will have surprises for each other to look forward to, and it quite literally means we'll never know when we're going to see each other next. It could be such a fun way to do this."

"I love that," Reese says. "But I still wanna plan some of our visits out. Just so we have some structure to it.

"Yeah, definitely," I say. "I think I have a week or two in September off, but I'll probably be in LA, and I know you'll have school."

"We'll figure it out," she says. "I know I'll have a week off of school during October. Maybe we can see each other then. I'm also not opposed to weekend trips. I know they'd be short, but at least we'd have some time together."

"I have quite a few tour dates in the midwest coming up. We could definitely try to get you to some of the weekend shows. You could stay with me in the hotels."

"That would be fun," I say. "Will Sage be on tour?"

"For most of it, yes. She's getting her college degree online, so she can be with the band. Sage is really involved with the crew, and our travel logistics and stuff, so she's usually around when we're on tour."