THE PIT | JYATT

III

       Jaeden woke up Saturday morning after a long night of roller skating, laughing, taking pictures, and having fun with his friends. His head sort of hurt but it was a good kind of pain.
       After his alarm, his phone gave him a notification saying "52 new Twitter notifications!" It was probably from his P!ATD stan twitter account— he had a lot of mutuals attending tonight's show along with him.
       As he predicted, Twitter was the spawn of the notifications. He replied to his messages with a smile then proceeded with his daily routine. As usual, he took a shower, brushed his teeth, the usual.
       Tonight, however, would be the best night of his life. He'd see his favorite band live, go to one of his first concerts ever, get merch. It was all kind of surreal to him.
        Until 3:00 PM, the time when Jaeden planned to leave his house, he listened to P!ATD and watched fan edits. How else would he prepare to ruin his vocal chords and scream louder than ever?
         At 3:00, he quickly ran out to his car, got in, fastened his seatbelt, and floored it. Even though the show didn't officially start until 7:00, he had to get to the venue early and secure a spot in the front of the pit.
        Jaeden's ride was quite enjoyable. He, as usual, blasted his music while driving down the highway and continued to blast it in the parking garage in which he parked. The people working in the garage didn't seem to mind; they were probably used to it by now.
         When Jaeden arrived at the front door of the venue, he was fourth in line. That meant he'd be getting a good spot in the front row!
         To pass time for the two or so hours he'd wait outside, Jaeden took to Twitter. He looked through his friends' tweets and other people's videos from past concerts. It made his excitement grow even larger.
         Jaeden made sure to keep his phone usage to a minimum so he'd have enough battery to film his favorite songs. He'd already analyzed a leaked set list from Twitter so he knew when to charge his phone and when to pull it out to record.
        Not long after Jaeden arrived, the line began growing faster than he could name every single P!ATD album in order of release (which was hella fast). Old people, young people, really young people, and everyone in between began lining up.
        Due to the length of the line, the man working security began letting people in. As soon as Jaeden made it through the metal detector and ticket check, he, quite literally, sprinted to the merch booth.
         He knew he couldn't go into the arena without buying a t-shirt. He bought the first one that caught his eye then proceeded to rush into the arena. Luckily, Jaeden still managed to secure a front row spot.
       He found himself sandwiched in between two teenagers. On his left stood a short girl, probably 15 or younger. On his right stood a curly-haired boy wearing a 2011 P!ATD t-shirt. He had a contagious smile that, in Jaeden's mind, lit up the whole arena. Therefore, Jaeden decided to introduce himself.
        "Hey," Jaeden said to the boy next to him. "how long have you been listening to Panic?"
         Due to the growing noise, the curly-haired boy shouted his response. "Oh hi! Probably since I could walk?"
        His response caused Jaeden to laugh slightly. "Literally me. Anyways, I'm Jaeden."
        The boy with the curly hair smiled when he heard Jaeden's name. It was cute. "That's cool! I'm Wyatt!"
         "Wait, let's say our favorite Panic song on three..." Jaeden suggested as the two began to count down from three.
         "3...2...1...." The two paused and then shouted in unison, "NEARLY WITCHES!"
         "Wait, that's so cool!" Wyatt replied, holding up his hand for a high five. It seemed like natural instinct for Jaeden to high five him back.
         "I know right!" Jaeden replied, glancing at the stage. "Wait, I think the opening act is coming on soon!"
         Both of the boys turned to face the stage. Lights were being turned on slowly and mics were being adjusted. The tech crew brought out speakers and hooked up electric guitars. It was all happening right in front of their eyes.
         "This is awesome, I've never been to a concert before!" Jaeden told Wyatt. Immediately after, Wyatt made the most overly exaggerated 'I'm very shocked' face.
          "Never?" Wyatt asked, acting as if the whole scenario was impossible. "Oh my God, all I do is go to concerts!"
         "Lucky! I wish that were me." Jaeden replied with a small half smile. Going to concerts a lot would be really cool.
While the boys continued their conversation, they were interrupted by the arena becoming pitch black. Everyone was hollering. Obviously, even without prior knowledge, Jaeden knew that this meant the concert was starting.
The opening act was named Two Feet, or something. They were really good and some of their songs were recognizable. Yet, they all sounded the same to Jaeden (and Wyatt agreed with him).
"Okay, so now, there's usually at least a thirty minute gap in between the opening act and the main performer." Wyatt told Jaeden as soon as the opener exited the stage.
"Wait, why? Can't he just walk on stage like right now?" Jaeden was confused as hell because this was his first ever concert.
"Well, he could technically. But they have to set up the stuff on the stage like his fire machines and whatever and then he has to warm up his voice and all that good stuff!" Wyatt replied with a rather lengthy run-on sentence.
"Oh yeah, that makes sense." Jaeden told Wyatt with a smile. It didn't make much sense, but he didn't want to annoy Wyatt. Why would he want to annoy a cute boy he'd just met?