Silver Lining

11. Unfortunate meetings

26 days before

We arrived at the PlayFest event about ten o'clock on Saturday morning. There were people everywhere, and we were so thankful for the tinted windows on the bus, because otherwise there would be fans trying to get onto the bus. It can get pretty wild sometimes. We were taken through to a room which had kind of been set up as a dressing room, one for the girls and one for the guys. Although no one was getting changed, we all touched up on hair and make up.

After twenty minutes, a woman wearing the black PlayFest crew shirt and headphones with a little microphone came in. She covered the microphone so that the rest of the crew couldnt hear her. "Is anyone in here not ready to be transported backstage?"

No one said anything, so she took her hand off the microphone and said "Girls ready for backstage. Six minutes."

We followed her through a series of hallways. The venue for PlayFest was a large stage, with a ginormous area for the crowd to stand. We got backstage, where the guys were waiting for us. Backstage wasn't really the usual backstage set up, it was just a large room that had doors leading to the outdoors stage.

"Opening act in four minutes." The woman said, and we all grinned at each other excitedly. The opening act was a band named Kicker that had become famous through YouTube. After them was a couple of other YouTubers either singing or talking, including Laurel and I. This was the first year PlayFest had asked us to be a main act. We had always been in PlayFest since it was started three years ago, but this year we were talking in the opening part and it was so ridicoulsly exciting we couldn't even deal.

At that moment, we saw Kicker, the band walk onto stage on the tv on the wall backstage. Although there was no sound, you could see the crowd going crazy for them. I felt my stomach twist a bit when I saw just how many people were in the crowd. It's not like I hated public speaking or anything, but there was an awful lot of people out there. I was still mostly excited though, Laurel and I have always wanted to do this.

Our turn to go on stage rolled around quickly, and we walked out of the door on the left of the stage. My pumps clicked on the polished marble stage, although the sound was lost beneath the sreams and cheers of the crowd. A lot of people were holding up signs. A big one had been done in glitter on black paper, and it looked really cool. It said 'We love you Madison and Laurel!!!' and there was a big heart in red glitter. We smiled and waved at the crowd as we walked towards the middle of the stage, my nerves suddenly gone in all the excitement.

"Hello everyone!!!" Laurel and I shouted, and the sea of people shouted hello back. It was the coolest feeling.

"First of all, can we get a selfie with everyone? Because we could probably break the world record for most people in one selfie, just saying." I said, and the crowd cheered.

Someone from the PlayFest crew ran on stage and handed Laurel a selfie stick. First we took a photo on laurel's phone, than my one. Laurel and I were in the corners of the photos, with the sea of people in the background. It was instantly my new favourite photo.

"Who wants us to take a selfie on their phone?" Laurel asked, and everyone screamed MEE! It was wild. We went to the front of the stage, and people were nearly chucking their phones at the stage. We picked a random girl standing at the front, and when she passed us her phone, I think she nearly died. Me and Laurel sat on the edge of the stage, so that most of the photo was of us, the girl and her friends, but you could still see the rest of the crowd stretching into the distance. "What's your name?" Laurel asked her, handing the phone back.

The girl looked a bit shocked, it was hilarious. "H-Hilary," she said.

"Cheers, Hilary. For letting us have your phone," I told her, my voice ringing out through the speakers connected to our headsets.

***

The meet and greet had been set up with three YouTubers at a table. I was at a table with Laurel and Matt, and the line streched way into the distance. That way, when someone finally got to the front of the line, they go to meet three of us. This was my favourite part of the whole trip so far. I just loved meeting fans, but sadly it can be a bit hard to do safely. Events like this are the easiest places to meet fans.

I was looking down as the next person walked up to the table. In fact, I didn't notice him until Laurel said hello to him. I looked up with a huge smile on my face.

It didn't stay there.

Michael was in front of me, grinning.

"Hi Madison," He said. "I'm a huge fan. Can I get a photo with you?" His grin was awful, twisted. I wanted to throw up. I looked over at Laurel and Matt. They didn't know about Michael, I had always kept the fact he stalked me a secret. Theo didn't agree with it, but he didn't say anything. I looked back at Michael. I had to act normal. Matt and Laurel could not know anything was wrong.

"Sure." It was hard to not let my voice shake. I stood up, my knees practically knocking together. I prayed Laurel and Matt wouldn't notice. I shifted slightly towards Michael so he could take a selfie, but I still left a bit of distance between us. Michael closed the gap, and put his arm around my waist, his hand resting on my hip.

I felt so disgusting, I just wanted to slap his hand away. Thank God the security guard came to the rescue. "Hands off her!" He said, walking briskly towards where me and Michael were standing. He must of seen how uncomfortable I was.

In that moment, the second that felt like hours, Michael leaned in close to my ear. "I believe in you, that you'll make the right choice," he whispered in a low growl. His trademark saying.

Michael had already taken the photo, though.

The security guard walked Michael away, and I stood there, shocked. The security guard came back over to me. "Are you alright, Miss Shaw?"

I nodded, slowly. "Th-thank you." There was nothing I could do to keep my voice from wavering this time.

I sat back down in my seat beside Laurel. There was no fans there, because the guard had said to the people that we were just taking a break for a minute, which I was thankful for. "Are you okay, Madison? He was a bit creepy," Laurel said, concerned.

I nodded and said 'Yes, I was fine.' But I wanted to yell 'No I am not fine! And he is so creepy, but there is nothing I can do about it and he just makes me feel so disgusted with myself!' I wanted to cry, and to bury my face into Theo's shoulder, and smell his soft scent of spicy aftershave.