I hear Bert snap a few more photos as Nina starts her goodbye to the crowd.
"Thanks for everything, you guys! This was our first gig and it has been fucking amazing!" she screamed, gripping the microphone with both hands.
Nina gestured towards Nino as Nino belted out an impressive guitar solo, her fingers flying up and down the frets as the crowd erupted with cheers.
"We're broken clocks! We hope to see you some other time, motherfuckers!" Nino finished off, her guitar hanging from her shoulders as she pointed to people in the crowd.
Nino and Nina ran up to each other, engulfing themselves into a massive hug. They spun around in circles, jumping happily. They tore apart and threw their picks into the crowd, as multiple pairs of hands desperately tried to grab them.
Nino gave one last wave and a kiss to the crowd before grabbing Nina's hands and walking off the stage, Alex shyly following after them.
Taylor jumped up from her seat and ran to the edge of the stage, bending down to give the crowd high fives. One girl from the crowd held onto Taylor's hand, her grip firm.
"You are awesome!" Taylor complimented before handing her one of her drumsticks.
The girl screamed happily as Taylor retracted from her, throwing her other drumstick to the center of the crowd.
She threw up both of her hands, her two middle fingers up as she yelled out, "See you fuckers some other time!"
The crowd's response was crazy, a massive roar of cheers and waves of middle fingers coming back to Taylor. She smiled as she ran off the stage.
I gave her a high five as she came back to the stage, the others already back at the dressing room.
"You did so good, Tay. How are you feeling?" I exclaim, throwing my arm around her shoulder.
"It was amazing. This is my home, Gabi. I've never felt so good doing something before," she smiled, beads of sweat falling off of her forehead.
"I'm glad you like it because this is my home too, with you guys. I'm not leaving anytime soon," I gushed, my cheeks heating up as we looked at each other warmly, good vibes radiating off the both of us.
We made it back to the dressing room where we saw Nino jumping up and down, hands entangled with Alex.
"Can you fucking believe we just did that?" Alex gawked, his mouth hung open but his eyes twinkling with joy.
"Yes, we did, and we absolutely killed it," Nina replied, pumping their fist into the air.
Bert butted into our conversation, "Man, these shots I got are so rad. I'll have to save them onto a flash drive and then I'll pull them up on the laptop once we get back to the RV."
"You have to show me them," I nodded, my left arm resting on my hip.
"No problem," Bert promised, flashing me one of his award-winning smiles before returning his attention to his camera.
I turned to Nino excitedly, "That fucking solo you pulled at the end, holy shit," I squealed, thinking of the time Nino and I had first met, when she was only a month into learning guitar.
"You guys liked it?" Nino questioned softly, her eyes scanning everyone in the room.
All of us poured out supportive responses, the room filling up with excited chatter.
Mads stood up from the couch, "Guys, I know that was awesome but I am so tired and I could really use a shower and a nap."
"I vouch for that," Taylor said, her face in her hands.
"Yeah, so let's pack up and get out of here. We can celebrate tomorrow," Mads directed, her accent rolling off their tongue smoothly.
"Mads, I just absolutely love your accent," I complimented.
"Yes, Gabi, I know. You've told me this, like, almost everyday since we've met in person," she rolled her eyes, grabbing the case for her bass.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I still like it," I waved my hand at her, turning towards Alex to help him pack away his full setup.
I rubbed his shoulder comfortingly, "You did really good, Alex. You were rocking it out there."
"Was I? I hope I didn't look weird or anything," he said, his voice laced with uncertainty.
"No, I promise you didn't. The stage fright will go away as we play more shows," I assured, zipping up his keyboard.
"Thanks, Gabi," he smiled, swinging his case onto his back.
I nodded before grabbing my backpack, leading everyone out of the room one by one. The hallway was filled with indistinct chatter, as everyone was having their own conversations. I hummed as I trailed behind the group, through the exit door of the venue.
We made it to our RV as I urged everyone to get inside and that I would put away equipment.
"You sure, mate?" Mads questioned, her hand resting against the open RV door.
"Yeah, I'm okay. You guys go get comfortable," I assured, gently placing Nino's and Nina's guitars in the trunks.
As I'm putting away Mads' bass, my attention gets diverted towards the screaming behind me. I reluctantly turn around as I see fans herded up behind the fence surrounding
the parking lot.
I sighed as I shouted into the RV, "Anyone up for meeting a couple of fans?"
A chorus of groans came out from RV, only Nino agreeing to go see them.
"Okay, one second," I grunted, lifting up Alex's keyboard, which was unnecessarily heavy. I dusted off my hands as I shut the trunk.
"We'll be back in five minutes, don't do anything stupid!" I warned, locking the RV.
Nino smiled excitedly at me as we made our way over to the fence, the fans beginning to cheer as they noticed us.
"Nino! Nino! Please, can we get a picture together?" we heard a particularly excited fan scream, her hands were poking through the holes in the fence, rapidly shaking around her phone.
"Of course we can, sweetheart. What's your name?" she said warmly, grabbing onto the fan's hand.
"Oh my god," the fan gushed, "My name is Holly, I love you so much."
"I love you too, more than you think. Now let's get that picture taken, yeah?" Nino posed for the picture, throwing up a peace sign. I guess all of that hairspray really did come to use, her hair hadn't moved an inch!
I giggled softly as I watched Nino happily greet everyone, signing a few papers and snapping photos, a genuine smile plastered onto her face.
"Okay, guys. I have to go now, I'm sorry!" she frowned, touching everyone's hands before sadly turning away and making her way towards me again.
"Man, today was awesome. I can't believe we went from being a group of immature teenagers to an actual band," I exhaled deeply, a melancholy feeling taking over.
"All those years of all of us dreaming of actually making it, and here we are, our first gig. I'm proud of us," she admitted, playing with her fake eyelash.
"I'm proud of us too," I whispered.
