Who They Really Are

twelve

"I really don't know why I'm trusting you right now," Elissa said, laughing.

They'd been waiting in line at the will call booth at Madison Square Garden for over 30 minutes, and Kat wouldn't tell Elissa why.

"Because you love me," Kat replies.

"Mhm.. I'm starting to question that."

The girls laughed, and Kat nervously looked at her phone to check the time. It was already 7:20 and the concert was supposed to start at 7:30. There was probably an opening acting but she was still getting worried since Noel told her to be there at 7:00.

"Hey we're up," Elissa nudged Kat.

"Hi..," Kat told the ticket attendant, not really sure what she needed to say.

"Name?" He said in an exasperated voice.

"Oh. Kat Riley."

The attendant turned and looked through a stack of envelopes to his left.

"Hmm.. Do you know what section the tickets were for?" He asks Kat.

"No I don't, sorry," she replies as Elissa gives her a skeptical look.

The man turns around and gets up, walking over to a box on a little desk behind him. He sifts through it for a minute then says, "Ah, here it is."

He comes back to the counter and hands Kat two lanyards along with two tickets.

"Thanks!" Kat tells him, then pulls Elissa over to a bench by the booth.

"Are those what I think they are?" Elissa asks her.

Kat looks down at the tickets, wondering the same things. Sure enough, she had two tickets and two lanyards with plastic cards in her hand.

"Yup. We are officially VIP's!!!" She yells.

"That's freaking awesome! How the hell did you even manage that?"

Kat just smiles and shrugs, then looks down at the tickets.

"How about we go find our seats?"

Kat and Elissa make their way into the arena, and down the steps towards the floor. The stage was set up at the back of the room with a straight walkway going down the center of the floor. They find their seats, which are about 6 rows from the front and directly on the end by the walkway.

"This is amazing, Kat!" Elissa says, taking the second seat as Kat sits down on the end.

"It's no biggie," Kat replies as the opening act comes on stage.

"Hey everyone! Who's ready to rock with Blank Cassette tonight?" The lead singer asks. The crowd erupts with cheers, and Kat and Elissa scream along.

"Well we're here to get you guys rowdy enough for them to come out. They like their crowds as rowdy as they can get. So let's get started!"

The band starts to play, and they have a similar sound to Blank Cassette. They only play maybe 3 songs but they're really good, and Kat and Elissa dance along to music. Once they're finished, they go offstage and the lights come back on along with the noise of the crowd chattering.

"They were so good!" Elissa yells.

"I know!!" Kat yells back.

"Here, let's take a selfie for my snapchat," Elissa says, opening the app on her phone.

Kat puts her chin on Elissa's shoulder and does the duck face, doing the rock on symbol with her right hand.

"Love it!!" Elissa says.

They spend a few more minutes taking selfies and posting pictures on Instagram and Twitter, then the lights go down again and the crowd is once again roaring with screams.

The drummer comes onstage, and starts playing a beat.

It's still really dark, and a guitar chord seems to come out of nowhere.

Kat looks around the stage, trying to see if Noel had come out yet, when all of a sudden bright spotlights shine on each of the 4 boys as Noel yells. "Are you ready New Yorkkkkk?"

The crowd screams in response, and the band starts into their first song. Kat and Elissa dance along, singing the parts they remember from the after party.

Noel, the other guitar player, and the bass player all walk around the stage as they play, and they take turns walking down the walkway. Each time Noel walks down Kat tries to catch his eye but he's really into his music. Kat smiles to herself as she notices this.

The band plays mostly fast, rocking songs but after a while they slow things down. Sitting on stools that someone brought out for them.

"So as you guys know, I'm Liam," the other guitar player says. "And this song means a lot to me. I wrote it once when I was in love a while back. Well I'm still in love now but I wrote it back then," he says as the crowd laughs.

Noel sits to Liam's right, and as Liam talks he's looking through the crowd at the fans. He waves to a couple different fans, probably making their entire life, and Kat finds herself smiling at him again. She watches as his eyes make their way through the crowd as if they are searching for someone. Then they stop searching, and he smiles.

Wonder who he's looking at, Kat wonders. She watches as he mouths something to the person, but she can't tell what he says. She looks up at his eyes again, and this time she realizes who he was looking at. It's her.

He laughs, realizing she didn't know he'd been mouthing at her. She raises a questioning eyebrow at him to let him know she doesn't know what he said, but then Liam starts to play and Noel joins him.

The song they play is slow, and Liam sings the whole time. They play the whole song seated, and it's a very different side of the band that Kat finds very sweet.

But the slow doesn't last long, because after the song finishes they're right back to more fast-paced pop-rock songs.

Kat and Elissa spend the whole concert dancing and enjoying themselves, and Kat genuinely feels free and without worries. She hadn't felt so great in a very long time.

So of course it all ends too soon.

The concert and encore are both over before she knows it, and Kat sits down as the lights turn back on.

Elissa joins her, saying, "Wow."

"I know right.."

"So how do we use these thingies?" Elissa asks, holding up her lanyard.

Kat looks down at hers, reading the small print on the back. "I don't know.. Let's just ask that worker over there."

Kat and Elissa stands up, and Kat says, "Excuse me? We have a question."

The man turns around. "How can I help you?"

"Where do we go for the VIP thing?" Kat asks.

"There is no VIP tonight. The band had a sound check meet and greet before the concert," he says, starting to turn back around.

"Um, we have these VIP lanyards though," she says, holding it up for him to see.

"Those aren't VIP," he says laughing. "You buy those at the merch stand. They're just little souvenirs." He shakes his head then walks away.

"Well that freaking sucks," Elissa says.

Kat just nods, not wanting Elissa to see how truly disappointed she is. She looks around to see the arena mostly empty, the other concert goers all already gone.

"Let's just go," Kat says, walking towards the side exit. Elissa follows, and they wind around the stage to the side then start up the stairs.

"Hey! Where are you going??" A voice below them yells.

Kat turns around, looking for him.

"Over here! Hurry!" He yells.

Kat looks toward the side of the stage where there are stairs going down underneath.

And standing there with the door popped open just a crack so no one will see him is Noel.