The Grey- Noah Sebastian

two

*Noah's POV*

What the fuck am I doing right now? 

I let Sutton onto the bus with me, letting go of the breath I've been holding. Nicholas was in here, but the other guys were no where to be found. Nic looked up from his sketch book and gave me the most confused look.

"Hey, Nic," I started. "This is Sutton, I ruined my clothes and her clothes because I decided to have a cuddle session with a puddle of mud and accidentally took her down with me. I figured I owed her a t shirt and a safe place to change." Nic nodded while I spoke but clearly was still really confused. I turned to Sutton and guided her to the bathroom. "I'm sorry if it smells like men, it's only men on this bus, but this is our bathroom." She gave me a small salute and went in, closing the door behind her.

Nic started with a wild look in his eyes, clearly uncomfortable. "So is she like-"

"No, she literally has never heard of us before, I can tell," I said, whisper-yelling. "I was stupid and brought my in-ears with me and thought I lost them and got too caught up looking for them, slipped on the ground, and she got knocked down with me. I owed her a shirt, that's all." He relaxed some more, but I would be lying if I said that she wasn't gorgeous. She wasn't too much shorter than me, had the most beautiful blue eyes, and her hair was dyed to a copper orange color. I could tell she could handle herself, as well, which is automatically hot to me.

"Well, as long as you don't make this a habit or anything, now go get ready, we need to head over since the other guys are already there." I nodded and frantically dug through my suitcase, pulling out some ripped black skinny jeans and a plain black t shirt. She came back out, her hair was a little wet, I guess from getting mud out of it. I smiled at her and traded spots with her to change my clothes. There was also mud in my hair, so I took it down and washed it out and put it back up and then changed into my new clothes and shoes. 

*Sutton's POV* 

I sat down near Nic, but not right next to him. I noticed his sketches, which were really cool.

"Are you drawing for anything in particular?" I began. 

He raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised that I asked at all. "Yeah, I'm actually a tattoo artist when we're not touring," he started. 

"That's so cool! What state are you guys based out of?" I wanted a lot more tattoos than I have now, I just have one on my shoulder and a huge sunflower on my hip right now.

He chuckled a little. "Virginia, actually. We're from Norfolk." 

"No shit! So am I. I totally will be hitting you up for some work when you guys slow down." He smiled at me, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by Noah coming out of the bathroom, clearly ready to go.

"Hey, Sutton, do you want to watch from side stage?" Noah asked. My eyes must have popped out of my head because he definitely laughed at me after I reacted. "No pressure at all, but I personally think it's cool to see shows from side stage at least once in your life." 

"Absolutely! Now let's go, you're going to be late." We exited the bus and Nic locked it behind us. They started bracing themselves like they were about to race each other, and sure enough, they started sprinting. I sprinted behind them to keep up, but also to call who actually won their race. Noah has long legs, but Nic has the spirit. Noah definitely won. 

Noah calmed down enough after his victory to introduce me to Folio, Jolly, and Vincent. Such fun names, and then there's Noah and Nic, which are such basic names in comparison. They kept their momentum by bouncing around in their little huddle now that Vince, Nic, and Jolly had their instruments. Within the minute, they went out on stage and while the crowd wasn't big, they were welcoming. 

They only had enough time for 6 songs, but the crowd gave them their full energy for those 6 songs, and they went absolutely wild for the 5th song, Glass Houses. Even if today wouldn't have happened the way that it did, I would have been happy to find them because their sound and  vision is incredible. 

They finished out with The Worst In Me, and I gave everyone high fives as they jogged off stage. "That was incredible!" I said honestly to Noah as he met me off stage. He gave me the biggest and most authentic smile.

"Thank you," he said back bashfully. We got them unloaded and disassembled and worked away from the stage. "So what other bands do you want to go see today?" I looked at him curiously. "I'm free for the rest of the day and down to do whatever," he answered with a sincere smile. 

"Well I definitely want to see Our Last Night and Movements," I started and he gave a slow nod with one of his small smiles. "Our Last Night plays in 20 minutes and Movements plays in an hour," I offered. 

"I'll race you to Right Foot!" He said, and then just took off sprinting. I was mad enough about the fact that he started unfairly that the adrenaline made me beat him in the race. We stopped in our spots on the outside of the crowd. When we stopped, I shoved him playfully.

"It's not a race if we don't have an equal start!" I started to argue with him. 

"Yeah, yeah," he said, shutting me down. "Come with me." He offered his hand to me and I took it because fuck it, why not? Soon enough we were walking backstage, him passing me one of the passes that he has. He walked over to Woody and started shooting the shit with him, eventually bringing him over to me.

"Oh my God, hey, Sutton!" Woody said, hugging me.

"You know each other?" Noah asked.

"She's just come to so many meet and greets with her friends Callie and Olivia that I can't forget them!" Woody explained. He got pulled to the stage and they performed their set. I was getting as into it as possible with me not being in the pit and I can tell that Noah was enjoying seeing me in my element. When the set ended, I gave Woody another hug and followed Noah back to the Full Sail stage, this time not running. 

"So how many times do you have to meet them for them to remember you?" Noah joked with me, him adorning a shit eating grin. 

I tallied it in my head. "3, but Woody is easily the coolest and most attentive." 

He let out an actual laugh, not a chuckle this time. "You're absolutely correct, Woody is my favorite." We approached the Full Sail stage again and it wasn't too overwhelming of a crowd, but I guess that that's the point of it. We didn't get too close to the stage, but this is also a band that's nice to just vibe to and enjoy and not as much of a moshing band or anything. 

(A/n: in case any of y'all fact check me... I know they weren't playing a song that I'm about to talk about here just yet but I simply need it for the plot.)

They sound incredible live. The energy and the crowd were such a vibe and it was such a nice wind down after the heavier bands that I just saw. Not that they were bad or anything, but I just like to mix things up. 

The chords for my favorite song, Daylily, began, and my body visibly slumped, knowing that I'm probably about to start crying since it's such a sentimental song. Noah clearly notices because I feel his full attention shift to me. I felt a tear escape my eyes and I tried to wipe it away before he noticed, but he definitely noticed. 

I felt him cautiously grab one of my hands to guide my attention to him, and as soon as I met his eyes, he took my other hand and started to guide me to dance with him. I felt a smile creep to my face and I decided to go with it, since he clearly was trying to make me feel comfortable and better. He had us sway to the tempo of the song, so it wasn't slow but it wasn't fast either. He just held my hands and swayed me back and forth with him. I must have had a tear escape my eye again, because he wiped it away. I realized that we haven't broken eye contact the entire time, as though we were both trying to remember every part of this moment. When they were wrapping up the song, Noah mouthed the last "you should stay for a while" to me. Or I think it was to me? Maybe it was in general and I'm overthinking this. 

I broke the staring contest between us and applauded with the rest of the crowd.

I have no idea what is going on.