Travel // Shawn Mendes

five

The whole line turned to stare at me.

How am I supposed to respond to that?

Suddenly, an idea pops into my head, and I turn to look at Julie before laughing.

"I told you! Even your friends thought I looked like the girl in that video!" I say this loud enough that others out of my cousin's friend group can hear me, and Julie groans, playing along.

"But you don't look anything like her! Sí, there's your hair and nose, but that's it!"

"You're not her?" One of Julie's friends ask, and I shake my head. She was standing in the line next to VIP, which I assumed was general admission, which meant I was going to be in line with her for a while.

"No, but I wish. I would do anything for one dance with Shawn Mendes." I tell her, and they all laugh as Julie introduces me to the large group.

"Where are you from?" The girl in the GA line asks, and everyone looks more than interested to hear my answer.

"Um, I used to live in Wisconsin until middle school, and I live in New York now." I answer, and they all gasp in awe.

"What's it like?" The girl with highlights in her hair, seated next to Julie questions.

Dirty, crowded, and busy. But the pizza's great. I almost tell them, but settle for an answer I know won't lead to a million questions.

"Just like anywhere else."

As we change the topic and continue to talk, one of the girls who hadn't said anything open their mouth.

"You look so much like the girl who danced with Shawn."

The group agrees with her and I laugh coolly. When were they going to let this drop?

"I know! We could be twins, really. So many people spoke to me after he posted that video, I felt bad when I told them it wasn't me."

I almost mentioned that most of the people were Jen's followers, but if I brought up who Jen was, that would be the topic for the rest of the conversation, so I decided against it.

"I wish you were meeting Shawn too, then you could fool him on pretending to be that girl." One of them say, and we all laugh.

As the conversation moves on from there, I find myself wondering something, and decide to speak my thoughts.

"This may sound weird, but how do you all know English?"

It confused me, and I was interested in their answers. Last time I came to Spain, a lot of the locals didn't speak much English, if they did any at all.

"They all go to my school." Julie answers, and it clicks.

Julie went to a private school, where she's been learning English since around first grade. No wonder they were all fluent.

Hours pass, and although the sun was now setting, I felt as though my brain was completely fried from staying out in the heat for so long.

Julie and her VIP friends had gone inside about an hour ago, and I'd already seen the picture of Julie and Shawn on her Snapchat. Shockingly, there wasn't one tear on her face, and she wasn't clinging onto Shawn for dear life like I had imagined.

"Nora, look." Natalie, one of the girls waiting with me said, and I turned to see people getting up, the two large gates at the front opening and people standing at either side.

I lifted the sunglasses Julie gave me momentarily, just to make sure what I was seeing was real.

"We're going in!" She says, cheering, and I laugh, pushing the sunglasses back in place. The concert was going to be inside, but Julie demanded that I not take of the sunglasses, under any circumstances. Probably just to recognize me, but it was still strange.

After going through security, I turn around to search for Natalie and the others, but freeze when I can't find them.

I realize that if they weren't behind me, they had to be in front of me, so I rush into the building of the concert, finding one of the girls a moment later, then following her into the pit where the rest of the group was.

Shockingly, I was much closer to the stage than I thought I would be. If I stepped a few feet closer and stretched out my arm, I could touch it's ebony surface.

"Nora!" I hear, and look ahead of me to see Julie, only a row in front of me. Before I can wave, she speaks again, her words causing me to go in shock.

"How'd you get away from me? Where's your cane? I'm right in front of you, reach out and you'll grab me." She says this all very loudly in Spanish, and my eyes widen.

The girl in front of me moves out of the way and Julie grabs onto me, then pulling me next to her and faking worry.

"This is why you wanted me to wear the sunglasses?" I ask, and she nods proudly.

For a second I think about just letting it be, and staying here, before feeling a pang of guilt, both for the row I just stepped in front of, and the girls I waited in line with, who were no doubt probably giving me a dirty look now.

"Julie, this isn't right." I point out, and she looks at me questioningly, as if to ask when I've been all about the right thing. Still, I felt bad.

"It's just a row, Nora."

"Yeah, and so it wouldn't matter if I went back, since it's only a row. You don't have to come, but I'm going." As I pardon myself and walk back towards my original spot, I'm surprised to find Julie following my steps, then groaning.

"This is why you've got the better shot at going to heaven than me." She jokes, and I smile.

As the crowd is singing along to a Spanish song blasting through speakers that seemed to be coming through every corner of the venue, I see Julie has left my side, and joined a small circle with her friends, all of them jumping to the music, which causes me to smile.

"Tengo, tengo la camisa negra!" They shouted in union, and all of a sudden, the music stops, and red haired girl walks onto the stage, causing the crowd to scream.

"Hola, Barcelona!" She greets into the mic, before beginning to speak for a second longer, then going into her first song.

"Lolah Galinter has got to be the most talented girl out there." Natalie says to me, and I smile.

This girl, was obviously not Shawn. Instead, she was the opening act, and everyone was obsessed with her. I didn't lose sleep over her, but I enjoyed her music, and she had a great voice.

After singing about five songs, she says goodbye to her fans, and the stage is still for about fourty-five minutes, until a familiar eighteen year old with a guitar walks to the center, the crowd going ballistic.

"Hi guys!" He greets, which causes the screams to get even louder.

"I'm Shawn Mendes." He continues, as if we didn't already figure that out. After the crowd successfully pops my eardrums, Shawn smiles (completely adorable, by the way), then introducing the first song he would be singing and beginning.

Too soon the concert is over, and after his encore we all realized that he wouldn't be coming back to the stage, then filing out to the exits and getting a breath of the cool, night air.

"That was amazing." Cat, one of the girls, says, and we all agree, smiles on each of our faces.

We all stand in front of the venue as more and more people leave, waiting for Natalie, who was currently buying merch and agreed to drive us home.

After about fifteen minutes she's back, a shirt in her hands. Now that the group is all together, I expect us to say our goodbyes, and walk off to Natalie's car.

That's not what happens.

Instead, Cat lets out a mischievous grin, and comes close to our circle, as if she didn't want anybody else to hear what she had to say.

"So, who's ready to go find Shawn?"