Reach for the stars [Martin Garrix]

Epilogue

Epilogue

Amstelveen

17:59

"Wait, refresh it again," Martijn said, scanning the screen of the laptop, which was right opposite them. Noelle and he were lying on the covers of Noelle's bed together, staring at the screen of Noelle's laptop, waiting. 

"I already did like a thousand times," Noelle replied, raising her voice from the worry. She couldn't bear to wait - it would have been best if she could just skip all the nervous waiting. 

"Try again." Martijn clicked the touchpad and refreshed the page for probably the hundredth time. 

"I'm trying," Noelle moaned, clicking the touchpad again and again, violently. She could feel her nerves beginning to give in, as she struggled to calm herself down. "Nothing is working." 

"Shit," Martijn cursed under his breath, the word audible only to himself. He stared at the screen in disbelief - this could not be happening. The song was supposed to be getting released at six o'clock and it was one past six already. What if something had happened and everything went wrong? What if Spinnin' suddenly decided to not release the song, without notifying them?

"Refresh it again," Noelle exhaled, "one last time and then I give up." 

Martijn nodded in response, too worried to say anything else. He could feel the anxiety building up in his body, starting from the bottom of his stomach and up his throat. Pressing the touchpad one more time, he stared at the page refreshing slowly, hoping that everything would finally be alright at the end. 

Noelle's phone rang. Martijn's did too. A notification. Martijn stared in disbelief, as he saw the name of their track pop up on the screen, right at the top of Spinnin' channel. Their names were not there yet, but the name of the song already was.  Animals was ready for the world to hear it. 

"Press it, press it." Noelle's eyes shone brighter and brighter with excitement, which Martijn could relate to - he himself was extremely excited to hear the track, even though they have heard it a thousand times before already. Still, there was something different about it now, released by a major record label. 

He pressed the icon, waiting for the audio to load. It took less than a second to do so, but even that amount of time was too long for them because they wanted to hear it straight away. Noelle hated waiting, especially when the nervousness inside her was peaking. She felt her hands shake, as their song began playing. 

When the beat dropped, Noelle quickly got up and began jumping on her bed, putting her hands up into the air and dancing as if she was attending a rave. After a few moments, Martijn decided to do the same. Their song was playing loudly in Noelle's room and the two danced together, feeling carefree and finally - accomplished. 

Noelle's heart pumped faster and faster, adrenaline building up inside her veins and travelling swiftly, pulsating to the sound of the beats as if her body knew the song. It probably did. This was her song - she was a part of its creation, her voice sounding soft and steady, Martijn's melodic sounds accompanying it. 

They continued dancing until the song stopped. It felt like those minutes passed so fast and Noelle could not believe it, she could not believe all of it. She felt like everything that had happened to her was no more than a pleasant dream and that in a few seconds she would have to wake up to the harsh sound of her alarm and face the tough reality.