Made In America

One

The stack of college letters only seemed to grow on my dresser, but they were all the same. Regardless of their size, they all claimed I was special in some way and they all wanted me to apply because I was the "perfect fit." In all honesty, I didn't even know what I wanted. I went into high school with my mind set on engineering but music was my passion. The summer was tragic and the rebelliousness I'd been holding in for four years wanted to get out.

Every teenager in and around Philadelphia knew about the Made in America festival held on Labor Day weekend but this year was the first year I'd actually be going. Somehow, I'd convinced my mother to let me go with a friend of mine who was a freshman at Temple University. It was the perfect way to release everything I was holding in. I could spend 48 hours going absolutely insane before getting trapped in five AP classes until May.

Those 48 hours are where we begin.

I sighed, scrolling through Facebook in the back of my mom's car. We were sitting outside a residence hall at Temple University, home to a friend of mine, Brian. I wouldn't exactly call us friends. I needed a way into Made in America and my mom wouldn't let me go alone, so somehow we convinced her that this would be ok. A knock on the car window scared me and I looked out at the overly excited college boy.

He opened the door for me, hugging me to my surprise. "She's in good hands," Brian said through my mom's open window. She simply smiled and drove off, letting me let go of a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "I can show you my room and then we can head down to the parkway?" he asked, leading me up a set of stairs to a courtyard.

"Sounds like a plan," I said following him into a highrise. It seemed to me like everyone was staring at us together and I instantly felt out of place. Brian wasn't anywhere close to being my boyfriend, but nobody here knew that. He signed me in as a guest and we went up to his room on the tenth floor. There was a T-shaped kitchen and living room with bedrooms and bathrooms completing the rectangle.

"Do you need anything to eat or drink?" he asked, sitting on the couch beside me. I shook my head, looking out the window that nearly took up the whole living room wall. It looked out into a courtyard where people were talking and walking around. "I heard about Joe," he said, looking down at his hands. My breath caught in my throat again and I sighed, looking over at him.

"It's no big deal," I said quietly, thinking back to the end of June. I was in Los Angeles at the time and I was devastated, but I was over it at this point. "The festival just started," I said, changing the subject. "Why don't we go down and check it out?" He nodded, grabbing a drawstring before showing me back out into the hallway. He pointed out a few things as we made our way down to the subway and waited for a train.

Brian seemed different from the last time I'd seen him. He seemed relaxed and more friendly towards me than he did in high school. Within twenty minutes we were at the parkway, through security, and in the festival. It wasn't very crowded but it was still very early. Dust from the ground was already everywhere and all I could smell was beer and smoke.

AN - This is such a weird place to end a chapter but I need to skip a few hours until the next chapter. I tried writing it all and it was so awfully boring and the next chapter is going to be really intense. The next chapter really happened too, so it's strange to write it in a story setting for me. Anyone with any kind of anxiety will understand what I mean when I get there.

Also, I don't know why but I'm really proud of this cover. I've been using the same program I always use but I think the black and white with the creamier red and blue look really cool together. I do make custom covers if anyone is interested, but I do use Canva.Com for mine and it's a really good FREE program.

Lastly, I've decided to include a Girl and the Dreamcatcher video or picture in the top of every chapter just because I love them so much! They are playing the roles of Julia and Brian and I'm glad I found a story where they fit in quite nicely :)