"Let's go, Caleigh, we'll be late!" Sadie shouts from her room as I dress up in her bathroom after taking a bath the second time around.
"It's only three-thirty, Sadie," I say, emerging from the warm, steamy confines of the bathroom, wringing the water out of my hair and comb it. "The concert doesn't start until eight o'clock, and the first meet-and-greet session is at five. The second one comes at the end of the concert itself. What are you hurrying up about? Calm down, would you?" I blow-dry my hair, my light brown waves hanging a bit at my shoulders and floats on my back.
The blonde skirts into the room, doing a last check on herself. "Because it's already three-thirty. Pretty sure there would be traffic later on and we have to get there early so we can hear the sound check, plus we get to be the nearest to the stage." She spritzes herself with perfume and stares at me, like boring her eyes into mine would actually speed up my actions.
I add the usual bow in my hair and a coat of lipgloss on my lips before we finally leave. Sadie and I hop in the car as soon as we are done fixing ourselves, and she drives the car faster than a speeding bullet.
We get to the concert venue in time, almost the first ones in queue. Once their sound check starts, we all go wild, hearing the first notes of All Time Low. Then comes Heart Vacancy. They don't really sing the songs wholly; just a few parts of them. I couldn't contain myself. Noise, screaming, and fangirling everywhere. And at Jay's high note in Heart Vacancy, my heart does a relapse and my stomach does a three-sixty. Goose bumps appear on my skin. I'm afraid that I'll lose my voice and hearing before the actual concert starts.
The bouncer calls the ones who have backstage passes, which signals Sadie and I to go. I heave a huge sigh of anticipation and try my best to stay calm, although I'm not ready. I am never going to be ready. I could feel it is going to feel surreal. And, again, I am never going to be ready.
"Oi, it's you two!" says Tom, wrapping Sadie and I in one humongous bear-hug as we approach them. He gives us pecks on the cheeks, his stubble scratching my skin, before Jay joins the group hug after coming from a pool of other fans.
"Hey, Sades! Hey, Cales!" Jay says, enthusiastically, quite proud of his new nicknames for us. His long, thin arms coil around us, and surprisingly, he takes a flip camera out of his pocket and focuses it on all of us. I hide my face, away from the camera's beady, judging, eyeing lens. "So, here we are, first gig of the tour, and I'm here with Tom and two amazing fans in the first meet-and-greet session today!" He directs the camera at Sadie, the latter waving her hand quite timidly (believe me, she's only trying to control herself and manifest proper etiquette), then wraps it around Jay again. He grins and says, "That was Sadie. And this is Caleigh."
"No," I immediately say, shielding my face with a hand, and covering the camera with the other. I could hear Tom and sadie laughing at me. "No, Jay, no. I look horrible at the moment. Are you putting that in a WantedWednesday flip? Please don't; you don't want to ruin a perfectly good flip, do you? Please, I beg of you."
He laughs that really annoying laugh of his, and hugs me, still holding the camera. "Yeah, I'm supposed to document what happens for every gig, love, so you have no choice but to show that pretty face of yours! Go on, don't be shy!" He circles an arm around my waist and my whole body tingles over. I lean my forehead on his shoulder and couldn't help but smile giddily yet shyly into the camera with an awkward wave of the hand. "'Atta girl!" He turns the camera to Tom and asks, "So, Tom, how do you think the gig's gonnna go?"
Tom sticks a thumb up and does his hot, signature smoulder. "It's guna rock," he says in his thick, sexy accent. "It's guna be amazin', we're all guna have an ah-mazin' time." And Jay stops the flip saying, "Let's go find Nathan!"
Tom skips away to talk to the other fans. We see Baby Nath walking towards us with a grin, coming from a conversation and picture-takings with Max, Siva, and the others. "Oi," he greets. "Hey, Sadie. Hey, Caleigh, hey." God, that smirk, I think. He shoots a few scenes for the flip, and he and Sadie talk for a while (and I am pretty sure he is beginning to fancy her or some sort), so that leads Jay to pull me to where Max and Siva are.
We banter for a few minutes, laughing so hard that our stomachs ache. The banter is mostly full of humiliating Jay and being sarcastic as fuck. So Max tells me, "You're one of my favourite people now. You can make me your big brother. Thanks for making me laugh." He is still laughing as he finishes the sentence. "Apparently, she likes taking the mickey out of you, Jay! She's such a legend!"
"Caleigh, you're a bad girl," Jay says with a mock-sad expression and I hug him with a laugh.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Jay," I start, "but you're just insult-able! I love you though!" And I get distracted suddenly by the vibrating phone in my pocket. A text from Sadie lights up my screen and I immediately open it after excusing myself from the lads. I think I'm starting to or I already am falling for Nathan, it says. Stop me. I glance at her, and I catch her eyes as she talks to the said boy, and I wink slyly at her, implying that I wouldn't do what she asks me to, no matter how much I'd want Nathan all to myself. I want her to feel what I feel every time she teases me about liking Jay.
Nah. Sorry, mate. No can do, I text back.
Caleigh, you're giving yourself a hard time. Fine, leave me be with Nathan. And I'll leave you with the one you loathe the most. ;) she replies. And I'm scared. Of course; she knows how to turn things all around. If there's one thing she's cunning at, it's twisting scenarios and blackmailing people. I'm quite terrified. Bile rises up my stomach.
The bouncer calls us back and says that we should go to our respective areas because it's time for the crew to prepare the lads for the concert. We say our goodbyes and our see-you-laters, hugging each other before we, the fans, disperse to our places and they, the lads, to theirs.
We queue to get to our respective areas. I hold the Frankie Sandford sign with one hand whilst gripping onto my best friend with the other. She's holdng the 'Lost Children' one with her other hand. We are both in the front area so we're nearest the stage, but there are still quite a number of people in that area.
After the DJ spins tracks to keep us entertained before the show starts, the lights dim. More screaming everywhere. My throat burns and there's a sharp pain in my head, throbbing and throbbing and throbbing as I scream. I'm going mental. So does Sadie. So does everyone else. And once the lads step onto the stage, wearing black combat suits of some sort, blasting out to Lose My Mind, the screaming gets unbelievably louder. I'm scared that a vein in my brain might explode. I hope not. "I'm gonna looooooose my mind, oh, oh," we all sing.
The setlist is as follows: Lose My Mind, Say It On The Radio, A Good Day For Love To Die, Let's Get Ugly, their Taio Cruz Medley, Made, Weakness, and Personal Soldier. After starting with quite an energetic set of songs, they sing us their love songs which get us smitten. And then they sing Heart Vacancy. "But before we start with Heart Vacancy," Tom says with suspense in his voice, "...we're gonna need five of you to personally sing to." And the crowd goes wilder, including me. Adrenaline surges through my veins.
YOU ARE READING
Bittersweet Serendipity
FanfictionCaleigh's a fangirl. She's already got her heart set on Nathan and Tom, and her luck gets her to fall for Jay. And she hates it. She hates how he makes her feel. She hates how he makes her feel so vulnerable and weak and awkward and mad. Mad and men...
