Wanderlust ✓

13. Amazed

Looking out of the Uber, I could see the long line of anticipated young adults, waiting to get through the gates and into the festival. I looked down at my outfit, feeling self-conscious and plain compared to the other girls clad in bralettes, booty shorts and the typical festival wear of flower crowns and body glitter. I began to tap my fingers slightly against my thigh.

As we stepped out of the car, I immediately felt the heat hit my face and body. It was already 80 degrees and I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature continued to increase, being in Florida and all.

My stomach did flips in nervousness as we neared the entrance, a banner hung off of the entrance and with a large font read, "Welcome to Wanderlust!".

I've never been around so many people at once. It was overwhelming. Anxiousness crept its way through my body as I shivered, goosebumps present on my arms.

You're fine, Paige! Just keep thinking about how fun this is going to be and all the bands!

I wasn't paying attention to Parker and what he was doing since I continued to look around in paranoia. I hugged my bag closer to me, my hands fiddling with the straps.

"Here. They scan our bracelets at the entrance," he said, sliding on the thick band over my right wrist.

I nodded back, as we fell into comfortable silence but the noise of chatty people never stopped around us as we moved forward. The large crowd must've caused the heat to rise as it was at least ten times hotter now. Or was that just me freaking out?

I tried to speed up, wanting to weave through the crowd as quickly as possible to get to the queue of people lining up. I felt a small tuck on the back of my shirt. I turned around to see Parker who had a small grip on the fabric.

"Don't wanna lose you in the crowd," he removed his hand from the back of my shirt and slipped it into my clammy palm. Together, we made our way forward to the back of the line. We hadn't gotten the really expensive VIP tickets but if I'm being honest, I wouldn't have expected it. They're a smallish radio station, I was surprised at the hotel room with how nice it was, I thought that they'd just stick us in some motel for the week and then leave us there until it was over.

The queue was slowly moving forward and our hands were still intertwined with one another's. A sigh left my lips as my train of thought was smashed with the noise pollution the crowd was creating. I looked over to Parker once we had shuffled forward some more, he too looked as though his thoughts had been wrecked by the increasing crowd.

In a frantic manner, we finally reached the entrance tent where a young man checked inside our backpacks, too quickly to my dismay, and then scanned our bracelets. As soon as we got to the other side, I let out a huge breath I was holding in. There was much more space and I finally started to feel calm again.

We stood frozen, taking in our surroundings.

"Woah... this is...," Parker gave out a wide  smile, spinning his head around to look in every direction, finally landing on me.

I grinned at him back. "Yeah... This is pretty amazing and it hasn't even started yet."

Something clicked in his head and he looked down at his watch. "Grouplove comes on in fifteen. We better go find that stage."

"Who?" I replied, reaching into my bag to fish out my printed copy of the schedule and map of the festival grounds.

"You know the song Tongue Tied? They're alt, you'll like them."

I nodded, ignoring his words and searched the paper for stages, finding it immediately.

"This way!" I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him along to the left, giggling and already enjoying myself.