Dead Boys // Sam Fender

5

After a long, tiresome, amazing day, my friends and I stumble into an Uber headed to Anna's apartment. I'm sandwiched between them in the middle seat.

"Hey," I slur really loudly to grab my friends' attentions. "I love y'all. Like really love y'all. Thank you for being there for me."

"I love you too, Ave," Anna hugs me. "I really didn't know if you'd make it through that song about suicide today. I'm really proud of you and how well you've taken care of your mental health."

We fell into a comfortable silence, and I reflect on my last few months. Anna is right. I've come really far. I spent weeks not leaving my dorm room after it happened, and withdrew from the social scene at school. I spent a couple months blaming myself, then another couple months blaming the world. I really had to put my trust in my friends, family, and the odd comfort that comes from speaking to a therapist. I still don't understand what happened, but I can at least think of all of the good times and be thankful for the time I spent with Kit.

After arriving at Anna's we all pass out on her floor.

-

"Wake up!" Ben screams as Anna and I shove our faces further into our pillows. "I'm serious guys! If you don't get up, we're going to miss the first set!"

This causes Anna and I to jolt up. For all of our years attending Bunbury, we never missed the first set. Usually people stumble in 2 or 3 artists into the day, but we always committed to enjoying the whole experience. We couldn't risk our streak!

"Can I borrow something less sweaty and gross?" I ask Anna. I have God to thank for being the most average sized human alive, meaning I can borrow at least one thing from anyone and make it work.

"Yeah of course," and she throws a fresh pair of high waisted denim shorts and a neon pink top at me. A little more attention grabbing than I'm used to, but I won't complain about her generosity.

We speed downtown, and get through security just in time.

"You had me scared, I thought we were going to break our streak," Ben comments and we all laugh.

We walk over to the sparse crowd around the first stage, and immerse ourselves in the soulful music and good vibes.

About halfway through, I tell my friends that I'm heading to the bathroom. There really isn't a big crowd and the bathroom is in open sight of the stage where my friends can watch me get there, so they let me go.