For You | bws

chapter eight

Brad

"Tris!" I shout through the backstage of the arena. One of the technicians asked me to get Tris so he could get wired up as we are on stage in half an hour. James and Con are ready, in fact, more than ready. They're so hyper Joe is starting to get concerned - although he's joking. I see Tris running over with his drumsticks in his hands, the neon orange light was all you could really see as we were backstage and The Tide are currently performing their last song at the moment. The Tide were signed to us not too long ago, they're pretty good. The sound of screaming fans singing along to Young Love gets your blood pumping. I herd Tris and the technician murmur words to each other, talking about Tris' solo or something. Tour has been good so far, it's only our fifth show tonight, we're currently at Liverpool and moving on to Manchester tomorrow I think. The only hard thing has been being away from Maddie. I miss her touch, her kisses, cuddling on a morning when she didn't have work, just spending time with her was probably my favourite thing to do - and being away from her has been extremely hard.

Suddenly, the lights went out as The Tide said their goodbyes to the crowd after Young Love came to an end. The four of them run off stage still holding their microphones in their hands, they had huge smiles on their faces as the crowd roared with cheers and screams. Tris had finished having a conversation with the technician and stood next to me as James and Con stood near the entrance to the stage. The four of us stood with huge grins on our faces as Nate, Levi, Austin and Drew told us about how the crowd was.

"That crowd was wild!" Austin shouted as he wiped the sweat from his face. We all laughed in agreement before Drew spoke up.

"I swear someone tried to pull me off the stage, man they were crazy." He laughed. I adjusted the earplug in my ear and straightened the wire that ran down my back and to the small box clipped to my jeans.

"You all did great." James said. We all then exchanged hugs and handshakes before the four of them disappeared to rest.

"Fifteen minutes!" Joe shouted and smiled at us. We all cheered and got last minute drinks so we wouldn't dehydrated or pass out with lack of energy. Everyone has said I am usually quiet, I say it's because I'm resting my voice for the shows but it's mainly because I feel lost without Maddie. Yeah it sounds pathetic, but it's quite hard when you have spent a year together then suddenly leave for a month.

"Brad, come here!" Con shouted over as I took off my jacket so I wouldn't sweat too much on stage. I placed it neatly on a chair next to where Joe was standing and headed over to the boys.

"We need to rub our chins together!" Tris shouted excitedly, like a child. I laughed at him and put my arms behind Tris and James' necks, with Con standing opposite me.

"Let's have fun tonight!" James cheered and we all rubbed our chins together, it's a tradition we decided to do - it's for good luck. We all cheered and got hyped up, ready for the excited crowd awaiting us.

The time finally came, the time was exactly nine. The lights went out and the crowd screamed, the piercing sound of their shouts and roars erupted the arena. The backing track to Last Night was played as we all ran out on the stage, the four individual spotlights pointing at us. Tris made his way to the drum kit, Con stood with his bass on my left, James stood with his guitar on my right and I stood in the middle with my microphone.

"How you doing Liverpool?!" I shout into the microphone for the crowd to then scream in reply. The backing track to Last Night still played but Tris was drumming along to it, James and Con stood ready too. We all nodded to each other then started to play. Everyone screamed, shouted, cheered and some were even crying, wow. Never in a million years would I think that we could have an impact on someone like that.