Heavy Wears The Crown

Eight

 "I'm so desperate just to see your face, meet me in this broken place."
------- Without You - Ashes Remain -------

I had to admit, being behind stage during a concert was kind of cool. For the first time in my "career" with Nolan I wasn't on the brink of a nervous breakdown of any sorts, I wasn't worried he was about to go flying off the handle, that he was going to disappear from under my nose, I wasn't tending to snakes or flushing pills. I was legitimately enjoying myself.

Nolan took on a different kind of character when on stage, it was like the cynical twat came to life up there. I had admittedly been pretty worried before the show with his being so sick. But it was great. He was great. I mean, they all were.

They played like one, looking towards one another at certain parts, exchanging a simple but telling smirk, feeding off mutual energy, it was hard to believe watching them now that they were so broken.

When there came a break between songs Nolan pulled the microphone to his mouth and addressed the audience in a way that surprised me. He was almost attentive, excitable even. "Ladies and gentlemen." He rasped still panting from the last song. "This is the part of the show where we'd like to take a moment to thank those who make this tour possible. You wonderful fans, our producer Ace Russell, our sound crew, and the many hands on deck handling equipment and the set.There's really a lot that goes into one of these shows, a lot of awesome people came together to make this dream of ours a reality." He breathed and paused to accept a water bottle from Derek.

He nodded to Derek after taking a drink and handed it back to him before turning back to the audience who immediately erupted in applause just from his glance. He smirked and waited patiently for them to calm down before taking the microphone again. This time he pulled it out of the holder and walked casually towards the front of the stage.

"There's been a lot of talk lately. About me, and a certain special lady."

The other members all exchanged glances, clearly not sure where Nolan was going with this. The band was supposed to take a member from the audience up onto the stage and let her sing along to close out the show, what Nolan was up to, well I hadn't a clue. The nervous pit in my stomach returned ten fold.

"I'd like to address that now, clear some things up." He turned toward me and opened his arm up. I didn't budge. "Come on out dollface, don't be shy!"

I mouthed NO.

"Come on guys, give her a hand!" Nolan urged the crowd. Like sheep in a herd the clapping began. Finn rose from his seat behind the drums and Nolan motioned calmly for him to sit down. Reluctantly, he did so and Nolan's gaze turned back to me.

I mouthed no several times and shook my head vigorously. Nolan returned the microphone to it's stand and jogged across the stage to catch me just as I was trying to make a run for it.

Nolan caught me by the wrist. "You can either come out here smiling and waving or I can throw you over my shoulder and drag you out there."

"Nolan I- I don't, that crowd, I can't have that many people looking at me okay, I just can't, the crowd-"

He fake lunged towards me and I leap backwards.

"Okay! Okay! Gosh!" I huffed. He took my hand and dragged me out to the center of the stage.

He promptly let go of my hand to take the microphone again, much as I hated Nolan, I'd actually felt a little better about this when he had my hand. "Ladies and gentleman, Carter Reid!" He yelled and pointed dramatically to me.