Adolescent Foolishness (A Fearless Vampire Killers Fanfiction)

Chapter Twelve

"Hello, Bristol!" I hear Crilly yell at the top of his lungs into his microphone. The crowd cheers, obviously ecstatic to be seeing Ashestoangels onstage again. "Now, some of you will know this one, it's from our new EP!" And then the band starts up their set with Dorian, and just like that chaos breaks loose. The venue goes crazy; a mosh-pit starts up in the centre of the rather small crowd, which Kier, Laurence and Luke rush into yelling hearty war cries, and Crilly begins climbing the light fittings and singing into his microphone, grinning like the Crilly-cat he is. To my left at the barrier, Shane is singing along and nodding his head in time to the music, smiling slightly; to my right, Aryssandra is screaming every word, grinning almost as madly as Crilly as she head-bangs to the music. I, on the other hand, just absorb the tension evident between Shane and I: it's obvious he's feeling awkward about the whole situation, and about me too. Dammit, I keep making things awkward between us...stupid Wooly...

"Everything changes, everything ends... Everything changes, fall down..." No shit.

The band finishes up after a few minutes, and Crilly prances up and down the stage, swinging his microphone and grinning. "It's been a while, it really has! And now..." I tune out a little as I feel a hand slip into mine, and I glance to my left to see Shane is engrossed in the show at hand. I glance to my left shortly after, and see Arys blushing furiously, her hand in mine upon the metal barrier. I smile, squeezing it gently, and she flushes an even deeper shade of red before concentrating on what's happening onstage. Jim is drumming away without a care in the world, grinning as he batters down on cymbals and drums, and Nico is plucking away on bass strings, not quite as lively as I am onstage but still seeming to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Falkor is strumming on his guitar and singing into his microphone in time with Crilly, and as the band break into Candles the room goes mad, the mosh pit circling menacingly in the centre of the crowd. I can see Kier prancing around like a loon, and Luke and Laurence are yelling the lyrics to the song as they run around with a load of kids and do their mosh-pitty thing.

I see that Shane seems to be frowning considerably and I sigh; I don't like seeing my Timid troubled. I nudge him gently, and then he glances towards me, looking mildly surprised.

"What's wrong, Barrone?" I practically yell in his ear. He just shakes his head.

"Nothing." He replies.

"I don't believe that for a second. Tell me!" I tell him sternly; he just shakes his head, and then continues to watch Ashes perform on the stage. I sigh deeply; I just can't seem to win with this guy, can I?!

Their set lasts a while, although probably not as long as ours usually is (but then again, we always seem to break the allotted curfew time), and by the time they finish I can see that Aryssandra is a grinning wreck of squeaks and "that was awesome"s. After insisting we go meet the band (how adorable, it's almost as though she's never- oh wait, never mind...she's not Shane, I forgot), we group up with the others again, dragging Kier from a giant group-hug with two of the support bands and hoisting Luke from the centre of a gaggle of squeaking fangirls. Over at the merch-stands, I can see Nico traipsing around lazily, never up to doing much work besides playing bass it seems. Crilly is hassling away with selling merch, with the help of one of their merch guys Will, in between signing tickets, giving hugs, jumping into photos with fans, and dammit he's doing a better job than I ever have, for sure. Laurence goes over to help him out, much to some fans' shock and amazement, and I grin at them; you'd think they'd never seen a random Beveridge before!

Over in the corner, laughing with some older fans of around our own age, is Jim, and Arys and I decide to go over and say hi; after all, he looks like he could use the help, those fans seem a little touchy-feely to be honest. I notice how Arys's hand is in mine the whole time, and can't help but smile at the thought. This feels nice, it's not complicated or anything, not like it is with Shane.