Friend, Please

1.9

Alissa's POV:

Looking out towards the closed curtains my stomach starts to turn and flip. What if they don't like me? What if I fuck it up? What if I swear and there is a little kid at the show? What if what if what if?

"Ali?" Calum taps my shoulder cause me to jump. "Wow there, it's okay. You that nervous?" He asks as my body swivels to face him.

"Uhm yeah, just a lot." I say exasperated.

"Hey you've performed before, this isn't any different." He says holding me in place by my shoulders.

"Yeah it's only twenty thousand." Calum says.

"Yeah, only twenty thousand. No biggie, pssh not like the biggest show I played was ten thousand. No it's hella chill mate. Super dope homie. Imma bust it out." I state frantically.

"Okay stop with the wanna be fuckboy, Alissa. Seriously you will do fine." He reassures me. Taking a deep breath the stage left manager comes up to me.

"Okay here is your headset." She says handing me two headphone shaped things. "Those go in your ear." She smiles. I place them in but they now just have to cords dangling. "Okay now here is this. Plug those into it." She hands me a walkie talkie shaped cube. I plug the two cords into it. "No you need to put the cords through the backside of your shirt." I look up at Calum with pleading eyes.

"Ugh okay hold still." He whines, but takes the cords out of my ear. He turns me around and pulls the neck of my cropped top out and slides the cords down.

"Hey t-that tickles." I giggle.

"Well too bad." Calum huffs trying not to laugh. "Okay turn around please." He asks sweetly. Turning back around he plugs in the cord to the weird box thing.

"Okay perfect. Now you will be able to hear yourself over everything else." The stage manager smiles.

"Thank you." I smile sheepishly.

"Anytime I will get you in five, okay?" Nodding she walks off.

"So are you excited?" Calum asks.

"Well, of course I am." I say in an obvious tone. "Got any notes or tips?" I curiously ask.

"Well we have a bit of a 'set script' you could say but mostly it's one of those 'in the moment' type of thing." he responds using his hands to make parenthesis with his hands.

"Really? You guys are scripted?" Astonished by his words. He reaches his left arm to rub at his neck. Something he only did when he was uncomfortable with what was being said.

"Well yes and no. We do say a couple of the same things in every city. But, a lot of it is just us." He sighs.

"Oh." I respond. We enjoyed the comfortable silence until the woman comes back with her clipboard in hand.

"Alright, Alissa you are on in two minutes." She warns.

"Okay," I mumble.

"Well I better get back to the boys." Calum smiles.

"Okay."

"Oh, just give me a hug you goof." He laughs tugging me into his chest. Nuzzly into him I can feel his heart beating.

"One minute." A stage hand shouts.

"Go get them." Calum says releasing me from his grip. I nod agreeing with his statement.

I approach the side of the stage grabbing my ukulele. Taking a deep breath watching the stage manager countdown from five.

When her finger hits one all of the lights in the stadium go out. She gives me the cue to go on. Breathing through my nose I strut on to the stage.

"Hello, Manchester." I smile as the lights hit my face.

"My name is Alissa May, and I'm here to sing to you." I try to laugh off my awkwardness however I fail miserably. "Well, I'm just going to get to it." I smile looking down at the crowd who seem to be smiling back at me.

I start to strum out the beginning of Sacrilegious. "Sunday morning, wake up early. Skip church service to find my jesus. I know, it sounds so sacrilegious. But, I just don't belong in a place like that. I love the cause but not the act."

I finish up Sacrilegious and move onto Cherry tree.

"This sadness is slowly killing me, these thoughts are haunting me. They're so unholy." I sing out softly. "And now I am alone. I hope one day you pick up the phone." I look up at the crowd to see the twinkling lights of cellphone lights.

Strumming the last chord I set my ukulele down and take the mic off the stand. "Okay, that was honestly the coolest thing ever. Like legit if you guys look around when you all have your flashlights on it looks frick fracking amazing." I smile widely.

"Okay moving on this is one of my favorite songs ever by one of my favorite artists. This is In Too Deep." I grin.

"The faster we're falling. We're stopping and stalling. We're running in circles again." I say prancing around the stage.

"Cause I'm in too deep and I'm trying to keep above in my head instead of going under." I say shaking my hips to the beat in a childish manner.

As I finish the off the last song, space, I thank the crowd. They return in screams. I rush off the stage going to the back.

"You did it." Ashton shouts as I enter the dressing room. His long arms wrap around me.

"Thank you?" I ask giggling.

"We heard some of it and you sounded fucking killer." Luke smiles taking me in his arms as Ashton lets go of me.

"I knew you'd be amazing so, I'm not too surprised." Calum laughs pulling me into an embrace.

"Well thank you for not being too surprised." I say mockingly.

"Anytime sweet cheeks." He grins.

"Where's Michael?" I ask after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"Here." I hear a raspy voice grumble from the couch. "I'm going to get ready." He murmurs standing up walking past the four of us.

This is going to be a long ass tour.