The library

March 19th-20th

So I grabbed the strap, pulled it over me head, grabbed the neck and absolutely smashed the body of the guitar against the temporary stage floor. Like a rockstar. Like a real rockstar.

So what? It looked proper fookin sick. And it earned a laugh from the lass out front.

"Thank you for a fookin mental night everybodeh! You've been fantastic!" I grinned as I spoke down the microphone.

As Helders came to my side, I slithered my arm around his waist and pulled him to my side. Me eyes eagerly scanned the audience as I stepped back from the microphone and Matt seemed to instinctively know what I was doing and who I was searching for.

"Middle left, to the right of the big lad with the red shirt." He spoke, his lips brushing against my earlobe.

I followed his instructions and sure enough I caught sight of Charlotte, staring straight back at me with an expression I couldn't decipher for the life of me even if I tried.

I shot her a wink but she probably couldn't see for the lights. Me and Matt turned uneasily (we were both rather close to getting shitfaced) to our right and headed for the door that will transport us back to the private room of the bar.

I held up a peace sign back to the crowd, me arm perched on Matt's shoulders, just before we entered the cramped, dimly lit room. The walls were purple and lined with velveteen sofas, or couches I s'pose, of the same tone. A broad chandelier dangled from above, casting a grim yellow saturation upon everything present in the room. Jamie and Andy had already scouted out the bucket of iced drinks left out for us on one of the many sofas in the room.

The heavy door slammed shut as me and Matt messily walked down a couple of steps into the room.

"Fookin mental kick that were, weren't it?" Jamie said as he allowed a lazy rendition of a smile upon his face as he opened a bottle of Smirnoff ice.

"Of course you go for the Smirnoff ice." I quipped which sent Matt and Andy into hysterics.

Jamie somehow started to go visibly red, even under the dirty yellow lighting. The guitarist fished an ice cube out of the bucket and pelted it at me, the missile narrowly missing my left shoulder, making me join in the laughter

*****

An hour had passed since the end of the show and I had sobered up a little by now. In contrast, everyone around me was absolutely fooked.

Andy and Jamie both invited a couple girls in each so I was now surrounded by seven drunk people who could hardly sit straight for more than five minutes and can barely string a collection of words together.

I sighed and got to me feet, fishing into the pocket of me jeans for a half full pack of camels. Smoking was a habit I quickly got into in the aftermath of me eighteenth birthday. Me and the lads smoked and drank loads before turning eighteen so it wasn't really a big deal to anyone anymore when they saw me with a cigarette dangling out of me lips whenever we rehearsed.

I hobbled out the private room, into the bar. By now the stage we had played on as well as the crowd we'd performed to were gone. Our instruments had been packed into mine and Helders' cars by The Boardwalk staff and we'd be on our way home relatively soon.

I approached the bar and sat down on a stool, aching for some alcohol that I hadn't tasted yet tonight. I allowed my eyes to wander around the room.

That's when I saw her.

Charlotte was sat at the other end of the bar with her head in her hands, though there were no bottles or glasses around her.

I hastily got to me feet and tried to not make much noise as I approached her even though my sounds would most likely be drowned out by the same quiet pop music that was being played in the private room.