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Chapter 4

Waiting by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

"Yeah so, remember when I said you should dance like no one's watching? Well apparently Ash Cole was." 

It only took Izzy a minute to get over her disbelief and start cracking jokes at her sister's expense.

Luce however, still can't quite believe it's real.

"Seriously, Luce. What did you do to catch his attention? I mean, he literally wants a reply from you."

Luce shrugs, bringing a hand to her forehead.. "I... I don't know. Maybe he's confused or something?"

"What do you mean 'confused'?" Izzy scoffs, "Unless there was someone else wearing a Sex Pistols shirt in VIP tonight, which I highly doubt because they're ancient, he's talking about you. And what do you mean you don't know? You had to have done something to make him notice you. And why did he add an I love you sign at the end?"

Luce taps her fingers along her thigh as she thinks back. Then it clicks.

"He winked at me during one of the songs. I didn't even think that far into it," she shakes her head. "I figured it was all for fun."

"He winked at you? And you just conveniently forgot that that happened?"

"I didn't forget," Luce tries to defend herself. "I just... concerts are one of those things that when I'm in the middle of it, I really just kind of live in the moment. For me at least, once it's over, sometimes the details blur because I was so high the entire time."

"And the I love you emoji at the end?" Izzy grills again.

"I may have flashed him that sign at the end without thinking," Luce says, sheepish. "But it's not that big a deal! People use that sign all the time without really knowing what it means. I can't believe he even caught that," she adds as an afterthought.

"Luce you're an idiot," Izzy says flatly, "All of that and you 'didn't think that far into it'?"

"Hey," Luce holds up two hands defensively, "Ash is probably the biggest flirt out of all the guys in the band when he's on stage. I'm sure he winks at a lot of fans."

"Could be, but I don't think he's ever called one out before on a public forum. And he mentioned wanting to see you again at the Charlotte show tomorrow night? Like, in person, face to face? To meet? Luce, this kind of thing only happens in crappy romance books." Izzy points at the phone screen again where she'd taken a screenshot of Ash's Instagram story.

"You might be getting a little ahead of yourself, Iz. Besides," Luce sighs, "the show in Charlotte is sold out."

"And? I think you should send him something back."

"And what makes you think he'll notice my one message out of the hundreds he's probably getting right now?"

"Because he noticed you out of the thousands of people that were at that show tonight. And he's probably going to be keeping an eye out for a response."

Izzy pauses for a moment, thinking. "What were you doing when he winked at you anyway? And how did you react?"

Luce bites her lip. "I don't know, I was just singing along to one of the songs," she feels a small smile take over her face. "My favorite song, actually. And he just happened to look up at me during the chorus."

"Okay. And what did you do after he looked at you?"

"I kept singing. He'd been kind of looking over the whole crowd, and I swear Iz, he looked disappointed. I don't know if you've ever seen Ash perform, but this man always has a smile on his face. And when he looked up at me he looked a little thrown at first, like he was confused I knew the words. And I guess I just kind of... flirted a little bit? I ended up..." Luce puts a hand over her heart, "Kind of doing like this and pointed down at him while I was singing. He finally smiled really big and sang the rest of the chorus with me. I signed 'I love you,' then he winked and took back off across the stage. And I know I had to have had the biggest smile on my face too."