Pieces of Us| h.s.

Chapter Nine.

Sydney Archer

It's the day of Festival X.

Yesterday, I had my heart broken but today is the biggest night of my life and there is nothing that will get in the way of that. It hurt. a little seeing that picture of Julian, it hurt having him come here and try to defend it as if the photo didn't speak for itself, but i think the fact I had mentally convinced myself that he was cheating helped with coming to terms with it.

We had some drinks last night and it was actually really nice. Everybody was so happy and in high spirits with tonight being our headlining show, so I had a great time, with very little spare moments to sit and think about the fact that my love life no longer existed. Everybody was proud, joyous and there were so many emotions in the air that banished any melancholic feeling.

This morning I woke up, had a cigarette and put on my favourite dress and favourite platforms. I felt good, looking in the mirror I saw somebody my younger self would've looked up to and suddenly, I was reminded of who I am. For the first time in a while, despite the heartbreak from the previous night, I felt pretty. I looked at myself and saw somebody who looks like they deserve to headline Festival X and I knew that today was going to be one I'd remember as an achievement, not as one where I faced heartbreak.

The boys left to go to the festival earlier than me, they wanted to get the free breakfast from the van that sits behind the stage for all the performers. I however, opted for an extra hour of sleep and couple more minutes to make myself look and feel my best,

Eventually I joined them, the last one to arrive and as the car drove closer to the festival, I could hear the sound of crowds spilling into the field as the earlier acts played on stage. Excitement came swimming through each chamber of my heart, like the emotion was a hand wrapped around my lungs preventing them from expanding. I was so excited I could barely catch a breath.

'Woah!' Myles exclaimed, flashing me a friendly wink as I approached them all. 'Look at you!'

'Looking spectacular Sydney,' Jamie grinned, following his compliment with a sarcastic wolf whistle.

'Heartbreak looks good on you, Christ.' Harry chuckled, passing me his already lit cigarette. 'You look well good.'

'Shut up.' I laughed. 'I'm blushing...but actually keep going.'

Laughter soon filled the air, joined by cigarette smoke, nerves, excitement, happiness, pride and almost every emotion that exists under the sun.My sister, her husband and Jude were there, Kyla was there, everybody's parents and some friends were there, everybody we wanted to experience this moment with us was there and it made it a whole lot more special.

Singing and dancing to acts that were playing earlier on, under the burning sun in the hight of summer, it felt almost perfect. Previous acts would come over to our tent and discuss our music with us, talk to us about how we inspire them and those are conversations I'll never be sick of. I have a lot of time for those conversations, because I can't quite believe we've reached the stage where there are other musicians freaking out over us, over the fact we're back here dancing to their songs. That used to be us.

It is strange to hear a song played live and have a sing along to it behind the stage, then for that very artist to come over and tell us how much they love us, and that we inspire them as a musician. It's incredible because never in my life had I imagined we'd be somebody's inspiration, or 'musical idol'.

Jude was having the time of his life, dancing with all the boys, playing air guitar with Harry, and pretending to drum with Myles. It was very sweet seeing everybody play with him, he was just as excited for our turn on stage as we were, all of our family and friends were just as excited as all of us.