Count Down

(( ONE ))

The crowd was so silent. Daffodil's heart was pounding hard, and rapidly if that was even possible in her chest as she neared the center of the stage, playing with the mic with both her hands to keep her preoccupied. The atmosphere suddenly felt so thick and suffocating to her, and more so every face of the people watching her was becoming more present than ever. The silence baffled her and at the same time made her feel nervous as hell for she couldn't be sure if the silence was meant to be a good one, or not. And her anxiety over the probability of maybe any moment now they could be throwing things at her because they already knew what she was about to say was gnawing her guts bit by bit.

Idly at the center of the stage with the feeling of lump in her throat growing that made her more difficult to speak, she settled with glancing back at where she came from to find some sort of motivation. But when her eyes couldn't see anyone, she closed her eyes and cursed within for feeling nauseated before opening them again and looked back at the crowd.

"You can do it, Daffodil!" a familiar voice rang through her ears and as her vision focused at the people standing in the front row, her face lit up incredibly. "I can do this." She muttered under her breath, raising the mic to her lips.

"How are you guys doing?" she asked the crowd tentatively with a huge grin. "Have you added new artists on your favs already?" she continued the query, more relaxed now as she wiggled her brows that made some people giggle and murmur names with delighted faces. "Hope this show have helped you discover new awesome people!" she then beamed with expectant tone in her voice. "But most importantly that I wish each of you here tonight have discovered," she paused briefly as an effect to her next words which she uttered with serenity, "is a new part of yourselves." She ended with a loving smile.

The crowd chorused different tones of 'awww' returning her lovely smile. In which gave her a bit more guts to say the next thing she should be saying. She looked down and deeply breathe in, "Speaking of new. I'm afraid to say that Glo Blitz won't make it on stage tonight. Their drummer, John" – she paused then exhaled quietly, gulped then took a deep breathe in again before continuing– "caught a flu last night. They are very sorry for this and because they couldn't really back out just like that, they made arrangement with one of our town's best and undoubtedly pride to be proud of."

Daffodil trailed off and now looked forward to the people who were apparently looking anything but angry or disappointed. She smiled, and her system relaxed to its fullest. Ok let's do this! She cheered in her mind. "Do you have any guess who's the next artist will be?" she beamed. And it was then the crowd's turn to cheer and share their guesses with each other.

She heard 'Mayberry' mostly, making her wonder for a second if she's actually being pranked instead of just being helped by her smartass best friend. She eyed Marga who's standing front row together with Bradley, Mary and Joseph. They were all smiling like there should nothing to worry about. Shouldn't there be? She wondered in her mind and swallow a lump in her throat.

A note strummed by a guitar very familiar to her ears startled Daffodil back from a fleeting trance. It was too familiar that it shocked her senses to what's really going on. She glanced towards the backstage and as expected, her eyes met a smirking Hector, slowly strumming his guitar strings now, looking straight at her. Daffodil being her fangirl self, felt her heart stutter and she grinned like a foolish kid who just saw a candy for her sweet tooth.

She lowered the microphone and looked gleefully to her boyfriend and best friend standing in front row, mouthing, "Oh my God, that was Heartbeat!"

Nodding, her boyfriend gave a two thumbs up knowing this is his girlfriend's favorite song of the band. Actually it was their favorite song. Onto the other person dear to her, though, Daffodil's best friend crossed her arms in annoyance and half whispered, half yelled, "Girl, we know you love them and we also heard the guitar strums. But knock it off now! People love them too and they would want to see them now more than you standing there."