Paper crowns (James Marriott)

Part 11: Adrenaline

Readers POV

It had been around 2 hours and the show was over. Though to Rennie it seemed like it had lasted days.

She surprised herself with how naturally preforming on stage came to her. After years hunched over a computer, she had become used to the comfortability of being in control of what people saw.

The rush of adrenaline was still pulsing through her as she collapsed into a sofa backstage, half an hour after the show had finished.
She was so overwhelmed in fact, she didn't process James sitting down beside her. Throwing his left arm over Rennie's shoulders and laying his head back against of the structure of the sofa, sweat glistening on his forehead and hair messy, out of breath from singing in front of thousands.

"Fucking hell, Renna." He said
"Like... Fucking hell!"

"What, James?" Rennie was slightly concerned with his shock,
"Did you play shows before? Like... did it come naturally? I'M still slightly nervous sometimes, and you, like, completely owned that shit."

"Ohh, umm... I guess I just thought it was fun."

The whole band looked at her in shock.

"What, so it just came naturally?" Another asked

"I suppose, yeah."
She was slightly confused, was she really as captivating as the others said she was? To her it seemed normal. She played some solos, perhaps exadurated some parts but nothing seemed too incredible. Guess she was wrong.

After everything was packed up, and the bus was loaded with the equipment they drove off to another show, where they did almost the exact same thing, but a different mixture of songs. And needless to say, Rennie adored it just as much as the first one.

"Wanna go get food before we check into a hotel?" James asked.

"Absolutely. Im fucking starving." Rennie said eagerly.

But the others denied, saying they could order up to their hotel rooms.

Rennie ans James looked at each other awkwardly.

"I guess lets just go together then."

Soon they where both sat opposite each other in a pretty standard Nandos they had came across just ten minutes from the hotel. And they where both as painfully aware as each other that this looked exactly like a date.

And after they had ordered the forced conversation started.

"Rennie, do you mind me asking why you don't talk in public, like... on stage?" James asked.

Rennie didn't really know what to say without admitting to the real reason she had to remain anonymous. Because of her faceless identity on YouTube. So she just picked the most simple excuse.

"Well, I suppose im just shy. And I don't want people to use something I say against me in the future."

"Oh, I see. You're kinda like Ash."

"Kabosu?"

"Yeah. He's just naturally quite shy. You'd probably get on. Are you a fan of Lovejoy? Or do you just know his name because of the whole Twitter account situation?"

She didn't want to come across as obsessive and borderline creepy with her absolute obsession with Lovejoy. The members, and all the music. And despite being friends with Wilbur, she never told him how much she loved him as a whole. Music and content. And him as a person.

So she tried to sound as casual as possible.

"Oh, yeah. Im actually quite a big fan. I mean, I know all the songs and I've known about it since Wilbur announced he was going to make a band on stream."