The Mainstream Way

SourirexBeau

"No."

"Pwwwwease?"

"No." Alex Russo shook her head stubbornly at her cousin/best friend, Mitchie Torres, who was slumping in her seat at Alex's decision.

I mean, to turn down a JONAS concert? How could she?

"Allie! C'mon, they are GODS. Like, in the truest sense of the word." Mitchie whined.

"Mitchie, no matter how 'attractive' they are, they are also disgusting and untalented, and they are not nearly as deserving of their fame as someone who can actually sing!" Alex replied, raising an eyebrow in defiance.

"Oh, please. I saw you tap your foot at 'Paranoid'. They are sooo getting better, and you know it." Mitchie retorted. "Plus, I know Joe Lucas is not that talented, and Kevin only knows one instrument... but Nick... I mean, Nick..." She sighed and fell back onto the bed she had previously been kneeling on.

"Oh Jesus, Mitch. Fine. I'll go. But only to droll a bit. I am NOT going to enjoy it. Bible." Alex gave in, falling back onto the bed, too, so she and Mitchie were both looking at her ceiling, which had a poster of Paramore plastered on top of the deep purple paint.

"Thank You! Oh Allie, you will not regret this. Trust." Mitchie squealed. "Now... what to wear?" She smiled devilishly and stood up, skipping over to Alex's closet.

"Hmm, can I borrow this?" She asked, raising one eyebrow and spinning around so Alex could see the yellow v-neck shirt she was holding against her chest.

"Yeah, whatever." Alex said. She stood up and slipped out of her Aerie sweats. She pulled on a pair of darkwash skinnies and then a purple and white striped t-shirt. Placing a black knit beanie on her waist-length curled hair, and slipping into black boots, she looked up at Mitchie. "Done."

"No, no, no! You need to be more enthusiastic! Here put this on..." She threw a vintage Beatles shirt at her and then pulled a pair of purple shorts out of Alex's drawer. "And this..." She threw the shorts at her, too. Scanning the rest of Alex's outfit she shrugged. "Much more 'Concert'." She said.

"Um, newsflash. It's time you read the rules of concert-attendance." Alex replied. Then, to Mitchie's dismay, she pulled out a notebook with an actual list of rules.

The Rules Of Attending a Concert:

(Though I hate rules, these ones are actually useful.)

1. Do not wear the shirt of the band you are going to see to the concert. Way to wannabe-ish.

2. Don't wear the shirt of another band. Even if the people in concert are doing that, you can't... I mean, don't hurt the poor band's feelings!

3. Please, don't get drunk. Bad things happen when you get drunk.

4. Don't get in a fight with the bouncer (if there is one) because well, you won't get in.

5. Always sneak up a few rows. Who doesn't?

"But," Alex said, once she knew Mitchie was done reading the list. "Since I do not care about this particular band's feeling, I shall wear this shirt. What're you wearing?"

"You're so annoying." Mitchie said, but she was giggling. She stuck her tongue out and then glanced at her outfit. "And I'm thinking black skinny jeans, my black heels, your yellow shirt, and the white studded vest."

"Alrighty." Alex said. "Let's go." She added, noticing that Mitchie was dressed. "By the way, why didn't you give me more notice? Coming over like an hour before the concert to beg me to go with you? Am I a SECOND CHOICE?!"

"No..." Mitchie rolled her eyes. "My parents gave the tickets to me last minute. Mom won them on the radio. Which brings me to this: we get to go to the Meet and Greet, too!"

"Joy." Alex deadpanned.

"Mhm." Mitchie said, ignoring Alex's sour attitude. "'Kay, let's get outta here!"

"Yeah, yeah." Alex said, grabbing her black studded bag.

"Get ready for fun!" Mitchie said.

"Fun...?" Alex questioned curiously, as if she had never heard the word before.

"Come on," Mitchie rolled her eyes, pulling her best friend out of her room.

Two Miles Away.

"Nick, let's go. There are like a million fans waiting out there." Joe Lucas urged his brother forward, where there was a white table waiting with over five hundred posters sitting on it, and three sharpies.

"Wait...." He slipped into his black leather jacket and glanced one last time in the full-length mirror. "Alright, let's go."

"And... action." Kevin Lucas said, slipping into the view of hundreds of teenage girls... and one boy.

Two Hours Later.

"I'm sick of this." Joe whined.

"Five minutes ago you were the energetic one." Nick replied airily, searching the crowd. As "sensitive" as he was, he did enjoy checking out the better-looking bunch of his fans.

"Two hours ago," Kevin corrected.

"Whatever." Nick said, just as two brunettes approached him. They were both gorgeous, but one was stunning. Her brown ringlets fell to her waist and her chocolate brown eyes were focused on the ceiling. She had an iPod Touch attached to her purple shorts, and he tried to get a peek at what she as listening to. Nirvana. Impressive. The girl beside her was fidgeting and smiling widely, a gap evident in her otherwise perfect teeth.

"Hi." Nick smirked at the stunning one, noticing that Joe was aiming for the gap-toothed girl. "I'm Nick." The girl looked away from the ceiling and looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and then pulled out one earplug. Nick could hear the music, it was so loud.

"Huh?" She asked rudely.

"I said, 'Hi, I'm Nick.'" He repeated.

"Oh." She shrugged. "No kidding."

She said it with such ease, with such a care-free wonder, that he was immediately drawn in. She was funny and sarcastic without trying. It was like breathing to her.

"Um, yeah." He said uneasily. "Poster?"

"Sure..." She said. "It'll make me, like, a hundred buck on Ebay." Nick heard Joe snort in the backround. Nick cracked a small smile.

He poised a sharpie above the poster. "What's your name?"

"Why would you want to know? You can't put it on the poster... no one will buy a poster with a name on it... well, a name that's not yours." She said. He laughed and simply signed his name. Before they left though, the girl in yellow beside her leaned forward and whispered in Nick's ear.

"Her name is Alex. She likes to play hard-to-get. Though, you know, I don't think that means she likes you... yet. She sort of hates your band. We have front row tickets. Do what you will with that information." She winked and walked away. He should have stared, but instead her stared at the girl beside her... named Alex.

"Ready to play?" Joe said, pulling Nick away from the fans. Before they completely disappeared, they turned back and smiled, then in unison yelled "Sorry, we have to get to the concert! Enjoy it!"

As they stepped on stage, Nick scanned the crowd for a face- Alex. He always fell too hard, and he knew that. But Alex was special. She was a hater. One of the girls who undoubtly called him a "fag" at one point in their lives... a "cute fag", granted, but a fag.

His heart sank as his eyes found her. She was sitting. No one sat at a JONAS concert. Not only that, but she was listening to her iPod Touch... again. He noticed that she was having trouble hearing with all the screaming, but still. She was trying to avoid even having to listen to him. She was disgusted by him.

Why the hell would she ever fall for him?

So he did what he knew how to do: he sang.

And he stuttered and messed up and forgot lyrics and played the wrong song and he overall did worse than he ever had. All because of her. She was messing with him. When she stopped in the middle of the concert so she could put her hair in a ponytail, and bits of the curls fell out and framed her face gracefully. Then twenty minutes later when she took the ponytail out, and she shook out her hair so it flew up into the air and then cascaded down towards her waist. Her best friend- Mitchie- looked at him and started laughing almost hysterically as Alex decided to apply lipgloss. Nick almost shouted into the microphone for Mitchie to not tell Alex what Mitchie obviously knew. Luckily, she chose not to. But then he saw her leave early... it was about ten minutes before the concert was planned to end, but why did she leave? So he sped up "Black Keys" as much as you can speed up a ballad, and then he jumped up and shouted into the mic, "Sorry, no encore tonight! We love you guys!"

"That was terrible. Did you see Nick? Who forgets the lyrics to their own songs!" Alex complained to Mitchie. But in the back of her mind she was wondering why he had constantly looked at her. There had been hundreds of girls at that Meet and Greet, and thousands in the arena. Why choose to look at her? Way to make someone waaay unconfident.

"Oh please, it's cause' he was smitten!" Mitchie giggled into her palm.

"Huh?" Alex gave her a look. She hated when Mitchie did this. She always talked about how no guys liked her, and whenever they met a hot guy, as soon as he left, she'd turn and squeal...

"He totally likes you!"

Which is what she said at that moment.

"No." Alex rolled her eyes. "He's Nick Lucas. He does not like Alex Russo. Plus, he's not my type. Way to 'brooding musician'."

"But you love brooding musicians." Mitchie replied. "Remember when you obsessed over Jeremy from Chorus class for weeks?"

"Correction: I love brooding musicians who actually have talent." She corrected.

Nick heard the entire conversation.

Intent on proving her wrong, he told his body guard to invite the girls backstage, because he was already being dragged away by the crew. He planned to sing to her a song that hadn't gone through Disney.

And that night, Nick Lucas kissed a hater.

And surprising herself:

She kissed back.

AN: sorry it's so mainstream. hence the title. whatever, i was bored. ps: i won't be on for a week because i'm going on vacation. sorry guys!