I Hate You, I Love You { mitch grassi }

XXV

Mitchs P.O.V

We touched down in Tulsa, Oklahoma and made our way to a small hotel just off the highway. I was told we were going to be playing at the BOK center, so we all went to scope it out soon after we landed.

It wasn't a very big arena, but it had promise.

Since Cressida visited so much in her childhood, and we would be here for two days, we went to her for what to do here.

"Well, let's not focus on that. Right now you have a sound check to go to, and then an interviewer is stopping by for a bit, then another sound check and a recording session. Then, and only then, will we talk about what to do here," She said.

We all headed up on the stage.

"Tonight, you're shaking stuff up," she said.

I laughed, "And how do you figure?"

"I spoke to Ben on the phone, and he suggested that we don't follow a planned son list or choreography or anything. You just do whatever you want, sing whatever songs you want. Basically just winging it," she told us.

"Cress, babe, there's only one thing that can end with," said Scott, with all of us following it with, "Disaster."

"Hey, it wasn't my idea, it was Bens," she laughed.

I sighed, "Is he trying to kill our career?"

"Probably," she chirped and locked arms with Kirstie before they ran backstage.

"Wait, I have an idea," Scott said.

"Shoot," replied Kevin.

"So, we're setting this all up, right? Because Mitch and I will actually freak out of it gets time and we're not prepared at all," he said.

"Yeah, I guess," Avi said.

"Why don't we do all of the volumes just in a row? It's something we've never done before and it would last about as long as the concert would regularly."

I nodded, "Yeah, we could, yeah."

"Can we perform a few from That's Christmas To Me?" Avi asked, "It's always so fun doing White Winter Hymnal, and we've never done it live."

"Okay, okay. Yeah," I was lowkey freaking out.

"So, let's get started."

***

There was an hour left until the concert, and we kicked it into ultra-mega-fast mode. I don't think we've ever been more focused in all of tour.

We were running around on stage like wild animals.

"Scott, when are we doing chair girl?"

"Are we going to sing the songs in order?"

"Let's do a live Q&A!"

"Are we going to start with Starships?"

"How often are we going to break between songs?"

Questions were flying around at a million miles a minute and no one could keep track.

Sooner than we thought, it was time for the show.

"Go guys, go go go!" Cressida nudged us on stage.

The stage was completely dark, with the gentle glow of the audience as the only light.

We stood, spread out across the stage.

This is going to be interesting.

The intro started as a single spotlight fell on each of us, with the band name stretched across a large screen behind us.

The song continued and it was going pretty well.

We announced the live Q&A, and took a short break to set up for White Winter Hymnal.

We brought out chairs and mic stands and began.

The arena fell silent as Kirstie started, "I was following the, I was following the, I was following the-"

"I was following the," I joined in.

The song continued as each of us joined, and clapped along to the music. It was great because a lot of the audience clapped along too to the various parts.

I looked around at my friends. I realized that I'm sitting here with my four best friends in the entire universe, and I wouldn't change that.

In 50 years, I'm going to look back and I'm going to remember this moment so vividly. I'll be sitting at home with my kids and grandkids and I'll remember this. I won't remember being bullied in school, or being told I wasn't good enough. I'll remember that one time that I got to tour the world with the people who meant the most to me.

This is a moment that will stick with me till the day I die, and I'm okay with that. There isn't anything I would rather be doing with my life. Good thing this music thing worked out. I was a kid with no plan B. There's not a thing I would rather do. This was my dream, and I'm here living it. How many people can say that they got to do that?