second-hand | joe jonas

chapter 3

It's the day of the concert and I wake up as early as I can to get to the venue at noon. There are strict rules enforced that state that lines start forming by then and that there's no camping allowed. The good thing is that the inside also has a casino and endless drinks and food.

It's currently 10 A.M. and I'm finishing getting ready as Vanessa's on her way to my place. She's already ready but we want to get to the venue a little before noon to gamble some of our money away.

I give her a quick call and she answers straight away.

"Hey cutie, are you almost here? I'm almost done with my hair, after that, I'm ready to go." I say while curling the last section of my hair.

She laughs and bluntly states, "I've been in your driveway for the past 20 minutes but I accidentally fell asleep, I'll come in right now."

I look at my phone in surprise and laugh when she hangs up. She's always been one to do stuff out of the ordinary and I love her for it. Sometimes I wonder where I would be if I didn't have her.

My front door opening snaps me out of my melancholic thoughts, and she looks beautiful as always, her brown wavy hair cascading a little below her shoulders. She's wearing a shirt that says 'I Love Hot Dads' with some cargo pants and platform Converse. She's wearing little to no makeup aside from her mascara and lip gloss, showing off her natural beauty.

"You look beautiful, Nick is so gonna divorce Priyanka after seeing you," I say jokingly, and she smiles at my comment.

"So do you, Joe's gonna jump off stage just to have a closer look at you," she compliments, "you ready to go?"

I nod and grab my house keys, heading out the door and locking it behind me. The concert starts roughly around 9 hours, yet my legs keep going numb and I feel very nervous. It's been years since I've been to a Jonas Brothers concert, and the last time I went, I was blonde with a gap between my front teeth. Now I have burgundy hair with the gap gone.

This feels like a full-circle moment

It was a 30-minute drive to the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, with traffic and all. Thankfully, there's free parking. We find a parking spot and hop out of the car, my anxiety taking over and my heart beating out of my chest. I'm having trouble taking in a deep breath but I know I'll be fine. We start walking to the elevator to take us to the floor where the entrance is, snapping candid pictures of each other now and then.

Walking into the casino, I get hit with the smell of Cuban cigars, knowing it all too well because I have Cuban parents myself. We walk around for a bit, I buy myself a mimosa and Vanessa grabs a margarita.

We head to the blackjack tables to test our luck, and while doing so, I order a round of shots to calm my nerves. Three shots in and I stop it at that, not wanting to go overboard. I won way more than I came with so I'm perfectly content with that, but Vanessa on the other hand has lost all of her money. I practically need to drag her away from the table.

"Let's go make the line before it gets long, you want barricade, right?" I say, trying to convince her.

"Yeah, you're right," she sighs defeatedly.

We walk over to the general admission line and we're surprised that we're fourth in line. We expected it to wrap around the whole hotel. We spent time taking bathroom breaks and turns to get drinks and snacks while the other stayed in line, and we genuinely enjoyed it.

As time passed, we got our wristbands and it finally started feeling real. The security started letting us into the pit at 7 on the dot, and the walk inside felt excruciatingly long, but with time, we finally got there and ran to our spots. we got barricade and stood in the middle, giving us the perfect view of the whole stage.