Overjoyed

Chapter 8 - The night was all you had

The guys were playing ‘Laura Palmer’ at full blast when Dan and I emerged from backstage, still hand in hand. “You want to sit on stage with us?” Dan asked jokingly. “No, it’s okay,” I giggled back at him, “I'll stand over there” I said, pointing to the area just in front of the stage. “Okay” he said, and winked as he unfortunately let go of my hand.

After the sound check we had all gone backstage and I chatted with Dan and the rest of the guys. Hair and makeup artists were running around the dressing room powdering here and gelling there and soon we could hear the noise of restless fans outside. “I’m gonna go join them” I said, and in a moment of either bravery or madness, lightly kissed his cheek. The guys whooped and cheered and I flushed with embarrassment and Dan’s cheeks reddened as well.

I mentally chastised myself as I joined the scores of fans in front of the stage. How could I have done that? I had met this man the day before for fuck’s sake. My train of thought was broken by a steady chanting of the word ‘Bastille’ erupting all around me. Soon the stage lit up and the guys walked on. Dan took the mic, and in his lovely accent said, “Hi, we’re Bastille” and I melted a little bit.

After about an hour of high energy jumping around to their upbeat songs, they slowed things down a bit. Dan’s gaze met mine, despite the lighting, and he stared right at me as he sang, “oh I feel overjoyed.”  My heart was threatening to break out of my chest, beating hard in time to Woody’s drum.

After the show I was escorted backstage by a podgy security guard. There were fans everywhere trying to get a glimpse of the band. Quite a few of them pretty girls wearing t-shirts with Dan’s face on them. Okay then. As I stepped into the dressing room the guys were being interviewed by a pretty blonde lady. Dan was smiling as he said, “The response was really wicked.” I caught his eye and his smile broadened. “Uh Lacy, this is Eliza” he said to the woman and beckoned for me to sit down next to him, which I did gladly. “Just a few more questions okay” he murmured to me and squeezed my hand gently. Naturally, the subject of the interview changed to questions about Dan and my relationship, which made us both go bright red as Dan explained that we were just good friends.  I guess it wasn’t appropriate to mention we’d only met the night before.

After the interview Dan led me outside where he went on to meet fans and sign things. I stood watching him interact with them, taking pictures and receiving little gifts and I felt sort of proud. I was proud of this man and how talented he was and how gallantly he handled all this attention. More so, I knew already that I wanted this man. Fuck.