How Summer Turned Upside Down

Chapter 2

I saw the screen flash a bright white and my podcast Welcome To Night Vale, stopped for just a second and I immediately jumped up and grabbed my phone to see who had texted me, I was expecting the text to be from Sidney, but what-ever kind of God is out there wanted to mess with my emotions since the text message was from Mike, Oh, Mike Elliot with his beautiful jet black hair with the sides shaved thin clashing against his snowy white skin and blindingly bright blue eyes.

His text read, Hey Leticia, did I spell it correctly? Anyways I was wondering if you would want to go to Interactive Introverts with me, idk if you're a fan of them or not, 'my sources' tell me you're like their biggest fan ever!

I was lost for words after reading his first ever text to me. We barely knew each other at this time, so was I really going to accept an invitation from basically a stranger? YES!!

Hey Mike, (yes you did spell it correctly), and yes I'd love to go with you, and these 'sources' are correct I am a massive fan of all three of them.

Great, I'll book the tickets now, can't wait (also thanks for letting me know that it's the correct spelling), I'll be using it in the future ;)

And that was it, the first time we had ever talked, was him asking me to technically go on a date with him, I was so excited but at that time I didn't know that he'd get VIP tickets, but he did or at least now I know he did.

And so, the day came around, I heard a car hoarn outside, and since we were fifteen it was his abusive dad, (but I didn't know that he was abusive at that time) I hopped in and immediately felt super uncomfortable in the car, like something was off about the two of them. I mean I had just gotten into a car with two people I didn't know, but yet I was so excited about the show that I didn't think about it. Suddenly Mike turned to me and spoke.

"So, Leticia how long have you enjoyed Dan, Phil and Ingrid?"

Basic conversation harmless right, wrong! I wasn't ready to speak since I was so in my head that I just started talking without really knowing what I was saying.

"Umm, *sigh* A-about, no, um" I physically had to take a before speaking to gather my rapid racing thoughts.

"Sorry, about that, uh I've been watching them since 2015, but honestly I only started watching Ingrid in mid-2016 since I didn't know about her channel and neither did a lot of people, h-how about you?"

"Uh, I've only been watching the three of them for about a year, so if somebody makes a reference to an older video, I might not understand but hey that's life, hehe"

Suddenly his dad turned around and said, "So Leticia how long have you and Mike known each-other?" I didn't know how to respond since we didn't know each-other, but Mike responded for me "well, um we've known each-other for about a month now, right?"

I nodded, I was still confused to why Mike had asked to me go with him to this show. We sat in silence the rest of the way, with the radio playing, I watched as we passed the busy city life, people running to and or from places, bins overflowing, young kids running away from their parents or children sitting on a bench with their parents crying about an ice cream that had fallen onto the pavement. It was about five o'clock when we made it to the theatre, I was curious to why we there so early but I didn't mind, his dad left us and in no time we were standing in line with a bunch of other people standing next to each-other, I nudged a bit closer to him. Suddenly I realised why we were there so early.

"Wait!" I said shocked, he turned to look at me, eyes wide.

"What is it?"

"Did you buy the VIP tickets!?"

"Yes?" I looked at him dumb founded, I had never gotten to meet the people who gave me the most joy in the world and now I was going to meet them with the boy of my dreams, I honestly thought I had fallen asleep in my aunts car as she drove me to the show, but no this was reality, I was living my wildest dream right in that moment.

"Did you not know?" he quizzically asked, looking at me like I was so clueless, he must have thought I had pieced everything together in the car but no, I had only figured it out, in that exact moment.

"Oh! I thought you had figured, but yeah I wanted to surprise you with the VIP tickets, you don't have to pay me back by the way" he said while I was routing through my bag hastily desperately looking for my purse so I could give him some money for the ticket, because I felt really bad since the VIP tickets were really expensive.

I couldn't speak, I was so surprised, but I was glad that in my bag I had brought a drawing and my original three plushies because I did the same thing in 2016 but I never had the chance to sneak in a picture or slid the drawing onto the stage or give it to one of them before they started or after the show ended and I had planned to do the same thing again this year, but I didn't have to because of the tickets so I started thinking about what I was going to say to them, I mean it had to be sentimental since they were all such big role models in my boring life.