The Love of a Stranger

From The Sidelines

We both arrived at the venue of the gig Bastille were playing at and it was massive. Our voices echoed around the big empty hall.

"Wooaahh, you guys are playing here? It must be terrifying, it's so big!"

"Yeah, not helping the nerves Laura." He slyly said.

"Sorry. Wait, you still get nervous?"

"We all do. But Dan is so pessimistic that he is our representative of how nervous we all are" Will butted in.

"Surely you must've gotten used to it by now?" I asked.

"Well why don't you stand in front of the microphone, centre stage and imagine a room full of screaming people." Dan said as he guided me to the middle of the stage in front of the microphone.

"Okay maybe it is a little daunting, but you'll be fine." I shrugged it off, he was right, how can anyone has the nerves to do this without having the nerves? Mind boggling.

"Why don't you sing something?" Joked Kyle. I started to feel my heart pound and my body temperature rising.

"No way, I know how much you love cats Kyle but if you heard me sing, you'd change your mi-" before I could say anything else, a hand covered my mouth.

"What she meant to say is that she loves singing and she is great and she would like to test the microphone." Interrupted Dan. God, sometimes I wish I didn't sing at all. I moved his hand away from my face.

"There is no way I am singing in front of you guys. Do one of your songs, just test it, see if it works then we can go okay? I am not singing." I was starting to get annoyed. I came here to watch not to perform.

"Please?"

"No!" I shouted. My voice hit off every wall and echoed for about 3 seconds. The guys stared at me as if I had just killed someone, it made me uncomfortable so I turned away from them not giving a second glance and walked backstage, made my way out into the audience, climbed my way up to the top tier and sat in a seat watching the boys do what they do best. They knew that I had gone backstage, but they didn't know I had gone out into the audience, they couldn't see because of the bright spotlight that hit them. They had just finished practicing and once they did they started talking to each other.

"Laura's a bit annoyed is she not?" Started Woody.

"I think so, don't know why, she can sing I've heard her. It just annoys me that she has something very few people have and she doesn't want show it." He said combing his hair with his hand. I didn't want them to know I heard so I quickly ran through the hallways to the backstage area. I tried to control my breathing - which was always a struggle - and sat down on one of the couches pretending to look through my empty Facebook feed, then in they walked.

"How was it?" I asked.

"Good, fine, everything's sorted for tonight." They a joined me to sit on the couch. It was an eerie silence. I had never felt awkward around them before and it started to get uncomfortable.

"Sorry about earlier..." He mumbled. I shrugged it off.

"It's okay, I was just overreacting." I mumbled back. Sam, their manager, walked in. He was feeding us information like how many people were coming, where instruments were going to be placed and the song order. They all nodded their head along in synchronisation while I blankly stared at him. This information wasn't for me so I didn't pay attention. A couple of hours later and the hall was filling up fast. I watched from behind the curtain and you could see many people holding banners, phones up in the air taking pictures of the set and people pushing and shoving desperately trying to get as close as they possibly could.

It was time. I wished them luck as they brushed past me stepping onto stage, Dan was the last to pass.

"Good luck." I murmured. I wasn't quite sure if he heard me, but I got a nod of the head as a response. I continued to watch from backstage mouthing the words to every song. It was amazing. He performs like he's done this all his life, the way he dances and prances around the stage makes me giggle, God he's gorgeous. It makes me jealous watching them do what they love, it makes me feel like I will always be the one watching from the sidelines, but then again, I couldn't possibly do what they do. Every now and then he would turn to face me and either point, smile or wink, either way it still made the butterflies in my stomach flutter.

Hours later and the concert ends. I watch the four sweaty bodies walk past me as they head back stage to celebrate like they do after every concert. I couldn't stop thinking about what Dan had said earlier about me and how I have 'a gift'

"Well done guys, another brilliant performance." Said Sam. High fives, knuckles punches and hugs were being passed around the room.

"Well how was it?" Dan asked me interrupting my day dreaming.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, it was amazing!" I said adding as much enthusiasm as I possibly could.

"What's wrong?" He asked with concern. Yet again seeing straight through my lies.

"Yeah I'm fine I'm just tired." I weakly smiled. He placed his arm around me and we both went home together. He did his usual routine of entering the flat, filling the kettle and flicking it on. The flat was in a bit of a state so I took the liberty of cleaning it up. I subconsciously started quietly singing to myself as I cleaned. I noticed Dan, at the corner of my eye leaning against the work top with his arms folded staring at me. I stopped immediately.

"I don't know why you hide that brilliant voice of yours." Shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm just don't want to show it off, they're are plenty of other people that do that already."

"But you could do something with it, since your unemployed. I know people who can get into the music industry if you want?"

"No, Dan, I don't. Just forget about it."

Oh if only he knew.