Life of the Party

{3} The Concert Pt. 1

About a month after my birthday, the day of the concert has finally come. But I haven't decided who I will bring with me; I have two tickets, but so many friends! Maybe I could take Sara with me. That would be a nice thing to do. But she doesn't even like Shawn Mendes. I could sell the extra ticket and go alone... no that wouldn't be any fun. Besides, who is looking for tickets for a concert the day of?

Still laying in bed, at 10:16, I force myself out of bed on this exciting Saturday, the day I have been waiting for.

"Hey Sara," I shout downstairs, expecting her to already be up. "Wanna go to the concert with me? If not I'll invite one of my friends." No reply. I go down the hall to her room. I bang on the door.

"Sara," I say, hoping she is in her room. Where else would she be?

"What do you want, Emily?" She practically screams from behind the door, and I infer that she is still in bed, being lazy like me.

"I wanted to ask if you wanna go to the concert with me today, 'cause I if not that's fine, I'll just text one of my friends."

"Yeah I wanna go," I hear her half-muffled voice through the door.

"But you don't like Shawn Mendes," I protest.

"But you asked me to go. And I wanna go. So suck it up Emily 'cause I'm coming!" Then I hear her giggle, and her footsteps charge toward the door, and then she opens it. Since I WAS leaning on it, I fall on the floor quickly and I start laughing. We have a weird family.

~ ~ ~

After LOTS of preparation, and by preparation, I mean make up, curling my ombre hair, slipping on another pair of skinny jeans, and adjusting my crop top I bought just for today. I WAS MEETING SHAWN MENDES!!!

I went downstairs, inhaled some waffles mom made (I'm surprised she had time to make them, she's never home anymore), and grabbed my keys off the counter.

"SARA!" I yelled up the stairs. "Get down here! We wanna check out the venue before the concert starts don't we?"

She comes running down the stairs, wearing a floral skirt, a cute green top, and silver flip flops.

"Well you look nice," I say, and smile. Then I put on my white converse and we head out the door. It was 11:03 am by the time we left, and the concert started at 3, and the meet and greet was at 6, about an hour after the concert was supposed to finish.

~ ~ ~

The drive to the venue would take about 3 hours and since we were going to a Shawn Mendes concert, I decided not to play his music in the car ride there. In fact I actually let Sara pick some of the music.

We were already having so much fun cruising 75 on the highway, blasting the speakers to my favorite pop songs, ones that Sara liked, and we were just talking about life. I would graduate next year, and probably move out to live my dream. Sara would stay with mom for another 2 years, if mom was still responsible enough. She had seemed so careless lately.

"Hey," I said to her, thinking about mom. "Why do you think mom is never home? She rarely talks to us now, and doesn't even wake us up or say good night. She doesn't text at all during the day. She's even been forgetting to get groceries - our fridge is running low."

"Yea, Em, I did notice all that but I have no clue what's going on. Maybe we should ask her," Sara pressed the button and her window rolled up automatically.

"How will we ask her if she never talks to us and if she is never home?"

"We wait."

"Maybe you should talk to her, Sara, you have always been her favorite,"

"Hey, that's not true, we both know that. But I will try to say something to her. Maybe she's just really sad about our dad and the divorce."

"Still? After almost 6 years? Don't you think it's time she started dating someone new?"

"I agree Emily, but she is her own person, and honestly I think we should let her deal with whatever she is dealing with."

"Ok. Two weeks. If she doesn't take the initiative in those 2 weeks to say something, or try to get home before we go to bed, then we should speak up. But we need to be respectful daughters and giver her her space, if that's what she needs."

~ ~ ~

We drove through a McDonalds and got lunch around 1. I ordered a crispy Chicken McWrap with bacon, yum, and my usual drink, a large sweet tea, no ice. Sara got a happy meal because she wasn't too hungry, and knowing her, she just wanted to save room for concession food at the concert. She also likes seeing how shitty the toys are.

I drove with one hand on the wheel, the other holding my sandwich, and my eyes on the road. The music continued to blast for the remaining hour. Sara eventually fell asleep in the passenger seat and I just drove until I got there and had to pay a stupid parking price of $5.

"Wake up Sara, we're here!" We were outside a gigantic building and I could hear the crowd bustling around even from the outside. Teenage girls my age were swarming like a hive of bees toward the entrance, and there were probably a lot more inside.

"Wh-wha-what huh?" Sara said, startled when she woke. I pretty much dragged her by her arm out of the door and I handed her the concert pass.

"Come on Sara, chug your caffeinated ice tea so you can WAKE UP FASTER! WE ARE AT A FREAKIN SHAWN MENDES CONCERT!!! LET'S GO!!!!!"

My inner fangirl was truly shining.