When The Curtain Falls

3 ~You Again~

As the girls walked from the parking lot into the amphitheater, Bella noticed that Jenna was wearing the shoes of the mystery man.

"Hey, why are you wearing those?" Bella asked, angry and confused.

"What? They are my size!" Jenna said, trying to play it off.

"Ok..." Bella said, skeptically.

The two friends headed to the concert, held at First Bank Amphitheatre. They arrived early at their front row seats. Jenna was ecstatic to see the band, while Bella didn't know what to expect, but was still excited. This was the first concert they'd been to post-covid.

It soon got very loud in the theatre as people began to flood in and their anticipation grew.

"Woah, I didn't realize how big they were." Bella turned to look at all the fans gathering in the arena, all wearing all their band merch or dressed like hippies. "I'm excited to hear this band now!" Bella said to Jenna, anticipation growing inside of her as well.

The entire amphitheater stopped their chatter as the house lights went out. Just then, it started with a loud sound of the mellotron... scaring the two, and a flash of light from the stage illuminated a silhouette of the frontman. Jenna freaked out "Oh my God! That's Josh Kiszka!" She said, tapping Bella's shoulder very aggressively.

"Who?" Bella asked.

Jenna didn't get the chance to answer as the lights shined down on Sammy, the bassist/pianist who was playing the mellotron. Then another beam of light lit up Danny's Ludwig drums as he crescendoed the kick bass and cymbals, building even more anticipation in the crowd. Then there was a loud crash of the cymbals that started the ethereal organ and acoustic guitar. Now the entire stage was lit up, making Josh the frontman and Jake, the guitarist visible.

Jenna seemed to know it, by all the jumping and screaming she was doing, "Ohhh my goddd! One of my favorites!" Jenna belted out.

The song momentarily got quiet before Josh came in with the lyrics to Heat Above.

Before they knew it the song was over and they went straight into the next one. As every second passed they seemed to enjoy their night out even more. Jenna had her camera with her and was skillfully taking pictures of the boys as they performed.

The guitarist, Jake, came up to the front of the stage to play the iconic riff of "Safari Song". Just then Bella saw something oddly eye-catching. She seemed to recognize the guitar player now that he was up closer, But she wasn't completely sure where she'd seen him before.

Then it hit her. Bella's eyes widened in disbelief, she froze.

"Jenna!" Bella gasped. "That is the man! That is the man I slept with last night!!!" Bella shrieked with utter shock and excitement.

"Jake?" She laughed. "You're not serious," Jenna replied in disbelief. Although she knew those were Jake's shoes, she couldn't fathom Bella having a one-night stand with a big rockstar. "You were drunk. You're probably just mistaking him for a guy who looks like that."

"I wouldn't forget his face," Bella insisted, her eyes still on Jake, who was not noticing her.

"Well, you weren't too sure about him when I asked you if you remembered him this morning," Jenna screamed over the loud music.

Just then, he made direct eye contact with her, almost shocking himself. At this point, Bella was sure that it was him, and she was pretty sure he recognized her too.

She was mesmerized by him. Flashbacks of last night flooded her mind. He played the same way he fucked: hot and fast.

As the show went on, Bella and Jake kept making eye contact trying to hide the fact they were glimpsing at each other. Jake made a few mistakes and Jenna even noticed. She nudged Bella quite a few times trying to tease her. "Is he messing up because of you?" Jenna said, continuing to poke fun.

The show went by extremely fast. Probably because she was focusing on Jake the whole time. Jenna seemed to have a great time though, taking photos and feeling the music.

"That was unlike anything I've ever experienced before! What did you think of it, Bella?" Jenna asked, still amazed by the grand production of the concert.

"Yeah, I liked it," Bella said plainly, unable to think of anything other than Jake. She hadn't really focused on Jenna or the rest of the concert. The girls' night out had sort of been ruined.

"You're thinking about the guitarist, aren't you?"

"What no!" Bella gave up lying about her obvious crush. "Yeah," she sighed.

"SIMP," Jenna called Bella out, pointing at her.

"SHH" Bella hit Jenna "Quiet down!"

"Haha let's go see if we can meet the boys now," Jenna reminded Bella as they followed the crowd back into the lobby of the amphitheater.

"What! I forgot about our passes! Jenna, I can't go back there and see him!"

"Oh please, he probably doesn't even remember last night, he was drunk, now come on! Your eyes are probably just deceiving you, it's most likely not him, Bella." Bella followed without saying a word.

As they found their way backstage Bella grabbed Jenna's arm and stopped in her tracks "Wait."

"Bella, come on! Just try not to think about it, if we see him don't make any eye contact." Jenna said, pulling Bella all the way into the "meet the band" room.

There were about 20 crazy fans, waiting impatiently to see the band. After about 10 minutes, a man with a clipboard and a headset came into the room to inform everyone that the band would be in shortly. As soon as that man left, the crazed fans went from 10 to 100 in a split second. Jenna looked over to Bella who she could now tell was really nervous. She took Bella over to the couch in the back of the room because she knew the fans weren't helping Bella's nerves.

"We can go home if it's too much, Bella," Jenna said as they sat down on the green-cloth sofa. "I didn't realize you were this nervous."

"No, no! You obviously love this band. I would never take that away from you. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Might just stay back over here though," Bella said, sitting back on the couch, hoping that the fans would block Jake's view of her.

The boys came in soon after and all the fans flocked to them like moths to a flame. Jenna decided to wait with Bella for a little, for things to clear out. She watched the boys carefully. They were all respectfully shaking hands with the fans, taking pictures, signing autographs, and talking about music.

She noticed that Sammy was a more anxious person, with a calm voice. However, Danny was very smiley and nice to everyone, laughing at what anyone said. Both Danny and Sammy were whispering to each other and making jokes the whole time. Jake was very chill, just having casual conversations with the fans, Jenna really couldn't read him. Josh was very similar, but you could obviously tell he was putting on some sort of front when talking to these people he didn't know.

After about 10 minutes, Jenna left Bella to go talk to the boys after patiently waiting and observing them. She went over to Danny and Sammy first who were not talking to any fans at that moment. She greeted them and got their autographs.

"I was wondering if I could get permission to post and sell the pictures I took of you during the concert. I am a photographer and have a little print shop. I always like to ask the rockstars if I may sell their photos first, even though none of you probably care," Jenna nervously chuckled.

"Of course! You know, I really respect you for doing that. It's normally out of our hands what people post, so I've stopped caring, but thank you for that," Danny said, thoughtfully.

"Can we see the photos?" Sammy asked, with his mouth full of the trail mix he was eating. Jenna showed them the photos and they were quite impressed. "Woah, these are amazing... Jenna was it?" Sammy asked and Jenna nodded her head and thanked them. "Do you...mind if I borrow your camera for a sec? I wanna show my brothers these photos."

Jenna looked around to see Josh still talking to a fan and Jake....where was jake? Jenna scanned the room and in the corner of her eye, she saw him walking over towards where Bella was sitting.

"You again." Jake crossed his arms looking at Bella. He seemed to remember exactly who she was.