It must have been two weeks ago now since I joined. I love every second of it. The people. Photos. Every basically makes me feel safe. Like I have someone there for me all the time! But it all started off very hard and very early.
Id been a fan of Macklemore and Ryan lewis for some time now and began to take a 'like' into a 'love'. Their music began to fill the cracks in my life where things were going wrong, where I didn't feel myself. I listened to their music in any space of time that I could and watched videos of them just to make me smile.
It's was about the summer of last year. I went to my first ever concert. Guess whose it was!
I got out the car in the car park, while it was still moving and my dad was trying to park it, because I could see the O2 from where I was stood. The big banners out side printed "Macklemore&RyanLewis" with a photo of them behind it. I ran to the lifts because if I ran down the stairs I was most likely to collapse with excitement. I pretty much ran through London too. People say "the skyline is beautiful" but I'd been here on so many school trips and outings that it was like second nature to me.
We got to the arena. I stood there ten minutes before my dad came trailing behind. He weaved his way between all of the barriers and people to get to me, then he finally reached me and gave me a lecture about how I shouldn't have run off and how much he was worried. I don't think he was that worried because it's not like he didn't know where I was going! We got there really early because I told him the concert was about 10 in the morning. He wasn't too happy about getting up at six o'clock on a Saturday morning. Oops. We stood waiting in the queue for hours. Dad had sussed what I'd done when it went way past the ten o'clock mark.
I was crouched on the floor when suddenly the crowd started screaming and moving about. It was twelve o'clock? The concert doesn't start for another three hours? Dad couldn't see what was going on but I was able to look through peoples legs. Only just. They were flailing and flapping all over the place! I saw some Jordans. White and red. And chinos. Then someone and came to stand with the mystery pair of chinos. Mr black jeans. Then I went numb all over. It can't be.
They made their way down the queues talking to various people. I was making up a speech in my head for ten minutes. Then they got to the people in front of us. I was literally crying at this point and my dad had no interest in Ben or Ryan. He didn't know what they looked like or anything. I let it slip past me because they were stood right. Next. To. Me. Then they got to me. Dad was leaning against the barrier behind me not paying much attention to the situation. I scrapped the speech in my head when ben said hi. I just let the tears roll down my cheek. "Is she okay?" Ben asked my dad. My dad put his hood down to lean round me and see if I was okay. "She's fine" he shrugged "it's because you're stood I front of her" but dad's eyes lit up in a kind of scary way.
I turned to look at ben. His eyes were the same. " dad stop it! You're scaring them" Ben put his hand on my shoulder not taking his eyes off my dad. "It's okay Bethany". Wait. Did he say Bethany? DID HE SAY BETHANY. How did he know my name? 'John.' Ben said with a grin on his face. 'Ben Haggerty' my dad replied. WHAT. I was so confused! My didn't even know who Macklemore was until today! They shook hands, not like they were in a business meeting, like they were best friends.
Being scared to my inner soul was not on my 'to-do lost' for today. I was now really confused and ben started talking to my dad. Ryan gave ben a little nudge and he moved over. He gave me a really cheeky smile and began talking to me. 'Ive heard a lot about you' he said nodding. 'You're very special to ben and I'. I looked behind me in a comic way, smiled and pointed to myself 'me?'
Suddenly my dad had hold of me under the armpits so that he could lift me how he did when I was little. He had no trouble lifting me. Whenever he'd do something fun with my little sister he'd say to me 'ah you're too heavy'. BUT NO. The moment he wants something, I'm light as a feather. Ben put his hands around my waist to make sure my feet were on the floor the other side of the barrier before my dad let go. He had hold of my hand now and Ryan helped my dad over the barrier. Not going to lie, it was a little funny. But I've got to give credit to my dad. I was holding Macklemore's hand while watching my dad climb over a barrier with Ryan trying to give him tips on how to army roll over it. My dad screamed 'there's a reason why I'm not in the army' and chuckled. All three of us did too.
