Don't Bet On It

Chapter 13 - The Show Must Go On

The song for this chapter is 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers

This chapter is dedicated to pro2rules, who made me realise why I started writing this story and why I fell in love with writing. So thanks!

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He did keep asking me, five times over the following two days. The only reason he stopped was because I had agreed to come to his band's gig at Olly's coffee house. Rae, Robin and Casey were going aswell; the former two to keep an eye on me and the latter to support Sam.

The guys spent all day talking excitedly about the show, all except Noah. While the rest of the band had put up flyers around the school and in some of the local stores to advertise that they were playing; Noah had been getting progressively more nervous each class I saw him in.

In English we had to sit back in our normal places, so he was across the other side of the room. We were going through the play and analysing key scenes for an essay we had to write on top of our project work. However I couldn't pay attention, every five minutes I looked over to Noah and saw him getting paler and paler.

When the final bell rang, I packed my notebook and copy of Romeo and Juliet into my bag; I wanted to catch Noah before he left. Unfortunately he'd already gone when I lifted my head back up, cramming my stuff quickly into my bag I rushed out of the classroom. I called back to Robin and Rae: "I'll see you guys at the gig later." and left before getting a reply from them.

When I reached the hall I just caught sight of him turning the corner at the end, the complete opposite way to the exit. Where was he going? Following in the same direction I finally caught up with him when he stopped at his locker in the languages hallway.

“Hey. Are you okay?” I tapped him on the shoulder and he shot a foot backwards and slammed hard into the lockers.

“Jesus Christ!” His eyes were wide and his face was deathly pale as he turned to look at me. His chest heaved up and down as he rubbed his right shoulder where it had impacted with the steel locker door. “You scared the life out of me!” I reached out my hand and touched his arm gently trying to ignore the tingles that sent goose bumps across my skin.

“What’s wrong?” I was aware of people staring at us as they made their way home but I didn’t care.

“I’m freaking out just a little bit about tonight. I don’t think I can play in front of everyone. If I don’t I’ll let the guys down and they’ll hate me, leaving me with no friends.” He leant against the lockers sighing and staring at his feet. I pulled his chin up to look into his eyes but he shrugged my hand away. Right! Grabbing his hand I dragged him into the nearest classroom away from all the prying eyes.

“I’m gonna mess up so bad and everybody will hate me and then the band will split up and it will be all my fault.” He’d started rambling nervously to himself as soon as we’d walked into the empty classroom.

“You’ll be fine!” He wasn’t listening and was still babbling to himself.

“I can’t do it, not with all those people watching me, I’ll lose it and ruin every song . . .”