Worlds Apart

Epilogue

- This is going to be a long one guys, be prepared. There's some notes at the end about anything revolving this book! -

I let the microphone drop from my fingers, but the thump as it hit the stage was barely heard over the roar of the crowd. Gasping for breath, I dug my hands into my hair, dragging it back away from my sweaty forehead. There were countless faces spanning far ahead of me until they melted into darkness. And here I was, on my knees and sweating.

At that moment I was ridiculously grateful for waterproof makeup.

That thought sparked a laugh onto my lips, which succeeded in me not only picking up the microphone but pushing up to my feet as well.

Still laughing, I raised the mic to my lips even as I let my hand run down until I caught it on my own shoulder. "And here I was thinking I was the only one," I said casually, my voice being amplified throughout the stadium.

My words were only met with approving screeches. The things dreams were made of, this was. I laughed again, but had dropped the microphone down, though it was still gripped in my fingers at my thigh. Turning away from the crowd I'd whipped into a proper frenzy about three hours before, I changed my attention to the drink that I'd left on one of the many amps about the stage.

This time I replaced the microphone for the beer, and as I chugged down the remaining dregs, the crowd roared their approval. Crowds always condoned alcoholism to an alarming degree. I only shook my head, tossing the plastic cup out to them carelessly.

Gaining a few seconds of time due to the turmoil that caused, I took it to pull the fraying guitar strap over my head, the guitar following moments later. Only when I placed it carefully back into its stand did I notice the eyes on me. I raised a questioning eyebrow at my band, which Lizzy responded to with a fake yawn while Brandon laughed at her.

Since the crowd was too loud to be heard over top without a microphone at this point, I settled for just winking at them. Carl made sure to respond with an eye roll before I was picking the guitar back up and turning towards the crowd.

"This is going to be our last song for you guys -" the crowd interrupted with echoing boos "- oh, boo fucking hoo."

My words had the booing turning into laughter as I stepped forwards.

"Some of you might know by now that we don't do encores -" cue more booing "- big waste of time if you ask me. Only pricks are going to walk off the stage to pretend they're not coming back out, only to come out ten minutes later like we all knew they would." That had the booing cut out entirely, erased in the mixture of laughing and cheering. In response, a smile spread across my lips as I looked out at the countless faces before me. "We decided to play you two more songs instead of that bullshit."

This time the approval rocked the stadium in the amount of noise the crowd made and I was laughing again. "So this is our last song, and we thought we'd cover some New York legends for tonight. Not you, motherfucker," I said. My words went with a pointed look to the middle of the floor, where I'd caught sight of that obvious red hair hours before. I continued on, "You get more credit than you deserve anyways."

The announcement was solidified by Brandon shouting out the count from behind me, and then both Lizzy and Carl jumping into The Strokes song in unison. I supposed that was me being told to stop fucking talking.

As always, I rolled along with it, spinning around at the front of the stage and bouncing up and down on my heels. My movements were mimicked by the crowd that was absolutely pulsing. "If we don't watch the sun it will rise. If we don't take our time it's not wise. Putting posters up for your band..."