End Up Here

who am i? who am i? invisible

Lia, Evie, Maisy and I make our way towards the makeshift stage in the center of the room. I avoid Calum's gaze as much as possible as the opening notes of "Disconnected" are played. I recognize some of the people here as Lia's various friends she's told me about. Others are strangers and must be friends of the band. Lia grabs my hand and says, "Come on, let's go to the front to get a better view!"

I am hesitant, but eventually we make our way up to the front. Coincidentally, the girl that Calum was talking to earlier is right next to me. Great. This should be fun. 

I try to enjoy the first song but all I could think about is this bitch beside me. And it gets worse. As the show continues, I see that Cal keeps looking at her more than me. In fact, I realize the whole band is looking at her basically the whole time. I realize that it was wrong of me to feel jealous because I have no idea who she was, but at the same time, I couldn't help it. 

"Dude, what's wrong? You aren't vibing with the tunes!" Lia exclaims.

"Do you not notice that all four of them are just staring at this girl next to us?" I whisper in her ear. I look back up at the stage and notice that Calum saw me whispering to Lia. He gives me an odd look but I don't react. They start playing "Out Of My Limit" and again, he looks at that girl. 

They play a few more songs and I try to enjoy ignore everything and enjoy the show. Once it's over, people start filing out of the common area, but Lia and I wait with Evie and Maisy for the guys. 

"So are you ready to do the interview?" Lia asks, turning to me.

"Fuck." I whisper. I had completely forgotten. "I really don't want to do it anymore, but I mean it is my grade so I guess I have to."

Evie and Maisy say they have homework to do, but we all exchange phone numbers before they leave.

Lia and I head over to the couches and wait for the guys to pack up.

"Do you think there's something going on with that girl? Is that why you were upset?" Lia asks me.

"I know it's dumb, I know! But you saw it too right? Isn't it weird how they were all staring at her the whole time? Something's gotta be up," I tell her.

She squeezes my hand to comfort me. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Just focus on the interview and get this done!"

Before we know it, the boys head over to the couch and I try and focus on the questions I wrote earlier.

"Are you ready to do this, guys?" I ask, halfheartedly. They all nod and sit down. Calum seemed to notice that I was in a weird mood because he kept looking at me. I turn on the voice memo app on my phone and begin the interview. 

"So how did you guys first get into music?" 

"Well we've been friends since middle school and we all had a love for the same type of music. The band kinda formed itself in high school in my garage. We would come home from school and play our instruments and attempted to write songs." Ashton tells me. 

"Actually, we all kinda liked different types of music, didn't we?" Luke asks. 

"Yeah Luke you liked Broadway stuff right?" Michael chimes in.

"Shut up, Michael. I was in one musical ever and now you say I love Broadway," Luke argues.

The rest of the interview goes on like this, with lots of slight disagreements between each band member's opinion. It was all in good fun, but I was becoming worried it would be weird on paper. After only five questions, I decided I just wanted to go back to my room for the night, tired from all the stresses that had happened at the show. 

"Okay guys, that's all I have for you. Thank you for letting me interview you!" I tell the guys. Luke, Michael, Ashton, and Lia get up, but Calum stays behind with me.

"Listen, Nova. I can tell that something's on your mind. You know you can talk to me right?" Cal asks.

"It's dumb," I mumble.

"Nothing you could say is dumb," he responds.

"Fine, I guess. Who was that girl you were talking to before the show? You seemed really interested in her the whole damn time you were on stage. The whole band did."

"Oh, that was Bella. She's a music management major and she's starting her own record label and is looking for bands to sign. She told us before the show that if we performed well she would probably sign us! That's why we were looking at her so much," he laughed. 

"Oh my God really? That's so exciting!" I was relieved that she wasn't just some random girl Calum was talking to. He saw the relief on my face and smiled.

"And don't worry, you looked way better in that shirt than her," he winked. I couldn't help but grin back at him.