Short Love Stories

The Concert

The fans were screaming.

            It was 6:40 and the concert was close to beginning. I grabbed my water bottle and unscrewed the cap, then took a long swig of water. Man, it was hot today. Although it was late afternoon the sun was still high up in the sky, glaring and prickling at my skin. I could just feel the sun burning into my skin, almost as if it were digging into it. It didn’t help either I was wearing a black and white baseball tee either. But the shirt was now my favorite and I was wearing it even if the temperature was nearing 100 degrees. And besides, this was lucky weather, considering it was the middle of July. And either way, I wouldn’t let an opportunity like this ever pass me by. It was Warped Tour for crying out loud. Not to mention the fact that I wasn’t here on my own…

            At the thought of this I quickly snuck a peek up at the tall gangly boy who was standing to my right. My cheeks warmed as I looked at him and it wasn’t from the sun. He was reading the track list of a CD he’d bought along with the shirt I was currently wearing from one of the many booths and stands. I took this moment that he wasn’t aware of me to study him because quite frankly it was my favorite thing to do. I just never got tired of doing that. It was like he was the most interesting thing in the whole universe. God, even now the way he affected me was incredulous. I could get lost just staring at a pretty face like his. His skin was slightly blotchy from all the heat, and his bottom lip was tucked in, almost like if he was biting on it but not quite, in that adorable way of his as he continued to read. His hair, which he’d cut at the beginning of the summer, was growing back now, so the old lock that would curl onto his cheek was slightly visible. Since he wore his hair parted to the left, it was all kind of flopping forward because his head was bent down and I couldn’t see the rest of his face. My eyes trailed further down and I felt a smile tugging on the corner of my lips when I took in the oh-so familiar dark blue v-neck shirt he was wearing. It was my favorite shirt of his, and it complimented his skin wonderfully. My eyes glanced back up to his face when I saw him straighten up. He slightly shook his hair back into place and then scratched at his cheek lightly before turning over the album in his hands.

            “Have you heard any of their stuff?” he asked, finally turning to me, and it was like someone flipped a switch and my heart was suddenly racing. I took in a sharp intake of air and shook my head.

            “Uh no, not really,” I said apologetically. “I’ve heard maybe one or two songs, but that’s about it.”

            “Oh,” he replied, and then added, “They’re pretty cool.” He handed the album over for me to see. “You should listen to some of their new songs.”

            I studied the album cover while he put his hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans; our roles were reversed as he watched me examine the CD now. When I was finished, I looked back up at him and smiled.

            “I like the cover,” I told him, and a grin emerged.

            “Yeah, me too,” he agreed. I held up the CD.

            “Do you want me to put it away for now?” I asked, gesturing to my bag and he nodded.

            “Yes please,” he said, and then watched as I slipped inside the bag I had slung across my chest. We both looked back up at each other and identical, small smiles appeared.

            “Thanks,” he said, with another heart-stopping grin of his. I mumbled, “Mhm,” and turned away, feeling my cheeks blush again. I grabbed onto the rusty, fading rail in front of us, ignoring the slight stinging pain I felt for a few seconds. I looked out at the rest of the crowd and the empty stage before us. It was jam-packed, a sea of mostly teenagers, mostly sweaty, and the majority holding their shiny cameras in the air, waiting for something to happen. Some even had posters.

            “Hey, Ivan,” I suddenly said, out of impulse. “Where’s your poster?”

            I looked up at him with a serious wide-eyed expression, and he stepped closer to me, a smile on his face.

            “Poster? I thought you were gonna bring it,” he replied, and I let out a laugh.

            “Hey, hey don’t blame this on me” I replied, trying to keep serious, but it was a lost cause, “You’re the one who forgot. What kind of a fan are you?” I asked, doing my best to make an appalled face. His smile was wider.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” he said, going along with me.

            “No, ‘sorry’ isn’t gonna cut it,” I told him. “Now we look bad. That can’t happen.”

            “Aw, man,” he said, pretending to be disappointed, and I let out a laugh at his expression.

            “I don’t think I can go to any more concerts with you, Ivan,” I continued, resuming my serious face.

            “What, no, that’s not nice,” he replied, staring at me with wide eyes. “Really?”

            “I’m just kidding,” I said, smiling. “It’s nice to know you’d be willing to do this again.”

            “Of course.”

            “So I haven’t gotten on your nerves yet?”

            “Nope.”

            “You sure?”

            “Positive,” he said, looking down at me with a smile. “I wouldn’t want to go with anyone else.”

            I managed to hold back a grin. “That’s so sweet,” I said teasingly, playfully punching his arm. We laughed, mostly at his reaction which had been grabbing onto the spot and feigning pain, and then settled down because all of a sudden there was a change in the atmosphere. I leaned forward, grabbing onto the rail again, and scanned the crowd, pleased to see the concert was about to start. More and more people were starting to get anxious which was only adding to the concert air. We had some pretty decent seats, not necessarily on the ground level, but up in a section off the side. Either way it provided great view and kept us out of the moshing area which was something I was terrified of. As I watched eagerly, Ivan moved closer beside me, and our arms were brushing by each other. I tried not to focus on all the raging butterflies in my stomach because he tended to do that to me a lot, distract me. Just his very presence made my mind go haywire. And besides, we were just friends. I mean, it’s not like there’d been any advancement on either side, even though I was crazy about him on the inside. But being friends was better than nothing at all, so I accepted it.

            Just as I was trying hard not to concentrate on him, he gave me something to focus on. My hand clutched the railing and since he had moved beside me I guess he accidentally put his hand on the railing as well, but it’d landing on mine. Thinking this was an accident, I quickly started moving my hand away but his hand grabbed on fast to mine and I looked up at him. His eyes were wide and staring at mine all the while doing that lip thing again. He briefly glanced down at our hands and then back at me, as if gauging my reaction. Understanding that it’d been no accident, I relaxed my hand and smiled up at him, before intertwining our fingers together.

            “It’s about time, you know,” I told him, and he let out a small laugh. We stood close side by side, our hands tightly holding onto each other, and I leaned my head lightly against his arm. He turned to look at me, with that smile still on his face, and it was just perfect, finally. After all that waiting, I guess it did pay off.