timeless melody ↝ eddie vedder

𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

We finished hugging and smiled widely at each other after pulling away. Looking over his shoulder, I saw the rest of the band coming in our direction one by one. I moved back a bit from Stone so that I could properly greet everyone.

I congratulated all of them and we started to make our way back to the table.

After a minute when the conversations had started, I realised someone was missing.

I turned to Jeff, "Hey, where's Eddie?"

"Oh, he went out back." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "I think he needed some air."

I nodded, "Oh, right yeah."

I let another minute pass before making any kind of move. I turned back to Jeff again, "Hey, I'll be back in a minute."

He only nodded a response- he was too interested in Layla to be paying proper attention to anything else right now.

I chuckled at them as I walked over to the bar.

I leaned slightly forward over the bar so that the bartender could hopefully hear me a little better. "Can I just get a glass of water?"

"What?!" He leaned his head closer to me, with his ear closest to my mouth.

"Water!" I had to shout this time.

He gave me a thumbs up and poured a big glass of water straight from the tap. He put it on the bar and pushed it over to me, "Water's free."

Instead of having to yell again, I smiled at him, grabbed the water, put my hand over the top of the glass, and started walking in the direction of the back door.

I reached it and pushed it open, looking to my left and my right for any sign of the singer in the parking lot that was behind the venue.

Looking to my right, I saw him sitting on the curb with his elbows resting on his knees, and his hands holding his head while his fingers were tangled in his hair.

I spoke with the softest voice I had, "Hey."

He suddenly tore his head up to see who it was, and looked a bit startled. He let out a heavy breath when he saw it was me.

I made sure to let the back door gently close behind me before continuing speaking. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I nervously chuckled a little

"No, you're good. Don't worry about it." He offered a small smile.

He looked absolutely exhausted.

I decided to try and make it quick, not wanting to bother him. "I know you probably want some space, and I don't wanna intrude on that, but I thought that you might like some water?" I held up the glass as my words came out as a question.

He looked surprised.

"Oh, I mean, yeah. Thank you." He cleared his throat a little and held out his hand as I started holding out the glass of water. He took it out of my hand and chugged most of it straight away.

I laughed at a him a little, and he returned it, finally looking a little more relaxed than he did earlier. I squatted down next to him.

"That was amazing- you were amazing, Eddie."

"Really?" He looked like he needed reassurance.

"Really."

We sat in silence for a moment, and then I became hyper-aware of my own presence. I stood up and wiped my hands on the sides of my jeans.