Chapter 4
It's been 4 since since we arrived in Glasgow.
4 hours down, and we have probably been in every shop available, and spent all the money that was own. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you catch my drift. We have done A LOT of shopping. A lot of shopping and no eating, I'm starved.
"Hey guys, we hitting this restaurant soon? I'm going to die!"
"God Mell, you and food. We'll be heading in what? 5 mins?" Char replied through sorting out her shopping and trying stuff on. Currently, I was in the middle of a fashion show.
Picture it; three girls all giddy with their shopping, laughing and gushing about the clothes they bought, and I'm sat here with my stomach rumbling. No happy!
"C'mon guyss! It's half 5. I need foood. You can try on the clothes when we're back, deal?" I whinned through their excitement.
As soon as the words had passed through my lips, each of them stopped what they were doing and turned towards me. Lou was the first to move, by throwing her new top at me before bursting out with laughter – only to be joined by Shel and Char 10 seconds later. Yeah, I'm probably just as confused as you are.
"Am I missing something here?"
"No, of course not! We just want to look nice, that's all." Lou replied.
"Yeah, is that so wrong Shan?" Shel piped in.
"Yeah, Shan. Is that so wrong?"
They were all ganging up on me now.
"No, no. That's not so wrong. Just hurry the hell up."
We'd been walking for 20 minutes before we stopped. Stopped where exactly, I had no clue. I'll tell you this though, we were at no restaurant, and I wasn't getting any food soon by the looks of it. Speaking of which, whereever we were, there were a lot of people. Excited people. Sqeauling people. People of which looked like they were waiting in line for a gig…
In the 20 minutes or so we'd been walking, not much talk had been going on. Well, not from my part anyway. Only wee whispers where communicated between the three people that were meant to be my friends. Okay, I know I sound a bit pissy. I am. This is meant to be something to cheer me up, and it wasn't. I'm hungry and cold and wet and was feeling a bit left out.
All Time Low.
All Time Low.
All Time Low.
All Time Low.
Those three words keep appearing. We've been in this queue for over half an hour now, with conversation being light on my half, whilst my friends are some what buzzing. It's clicked now if I'm honest, just I don't have the heart to let them in on it as, I can tell they're wanting to tell me. But really, did they honestly tink that I wouldn't end up finding out when we're in the actual queue? Did they really think nobody would actually wear any merch to the gig? Sometimes, I do wonder about those girls.
The bass had kicked in. The crowd were mental. My mind was fixed on the stage. My heart racing with my blood pulsing. It was time. The surprise, the amazing surprise my friends had arranged for me, was finally here. They were finally here. All Time Low
I had guessed right earlier about it being an ATL gig, but being the good friend that I am, didn't let on when they decided to tell me, when we were actually in the Barrowlands room. I jamp up and down, screamed and maybe got a wee bit teary eyed, but lets not dwell on that. I thanked them a million times, and probably killed them with my hugs, but what else was I meant to do? My three best friends in the world arranged this for me. Arranged for me to come see my favourite band, in the world. The band that just so happened to be there when, quite frankly, nobody else was. Or truthfully, when I wouldn't let anyone else to be.
But enough about the moment of reveal. I am here, with my best friends about to see my favourite band, it honestly couldn't get any better than this! Here and now, I wouldn't trade this for the world.
We were all buzzing. The energy from each and every single person in the room was bouncing off one another, only helping to fuel the enegy within me more. BOOM! Rian was on stage. As his drum sticks hit the drums, screams and shouts and cheers escaped the lips of hundreds. Then Zack. And Alex. Then, Jack. They were all there. With my ribs pushed against the barrier, the only thing stopping me from getting any closer to the tall, thin man that stood directly in front, and the pounding of the crowd behind, with Char and Shel either side and Lou next to them, I was ready. I was fucking ready to go mental.
Are you having trouble finding sleep at night?
Or does your lack of confidence tell you everything's all right?
I trust your good intentions
That you're watching over friends,
you must think that I'm crazy
If I don't see through that grin.
"Keep the change, you filthy animal" to start with. This night was going to be amazing. As the song played, and the bands energy pulsed, the crowd responed by echoing every word, and hitting back as hard as we could.
I don't know how long All time Low have been on stage. And I also don't know how long it's been since I'd last seen my friends. Somehow during "A Party Song", I lost them. Fortunetly, I'm stilll at the barrier. Still standing directly in front of Jack Barakat himself, although, he does tend to move a lot so that statement doesn't remain true the whole time. But you catch my drift.
Through the Jalex banter and the crowds enthuseasm this gig is turning out to be the best gig I've ever been too. I was giong mad. Singing every single word Alex threw at us, jumping along to every second and laughing until my sides hurt at the hallarity of Jack and Alex.
It was that time of the gig. The part where it's only Alex remaining. Alex, his guitar and mic. It's that time where everything slows down. There was a change tonight, Alex had decided he was going to opt for a cover of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream". As it was a well known song, there was nothing stopping us, nothing stopping me from giving it my all, yet again, whilst swaying in time and lapping up every moment. With the lights shining bright down on us, as I look around, I see a hundred faces plastered with smiles. Sweaty, red faces with huge grins. These grins mirroring the way I feel. Joy. Happiness. Excitement.
Perfectly, as soon as the song had begun, Alex had changed the song to "Remembering Sunday". The that never falls to make me cry. The song that holds too many memories and feelings. As the crowd began to sing, I crumbled into a million pieces.
Leaning now, into the breeze remembering Sunday
He falls to his knees, they had breakfast together,
But two egss don't last like the feeling of what he needs.
Now this place seems familiar to him,
She pulled on his hand with a devilish grin,
She led him upstairs, she led him upstairs
Left him dying to get in.
Just as we were getting to the verse that would have been the wonderful Juliet Simms, something, somewhat magical happened. As the tears finally escaped my eyes, Alex himself looked towards me, stopped what he was doing and stared. He stared right at me before taking hold of his mic and speaking.
"Hey, don't cry. Smile. That's it. You okay now?"
He had spoken to me. Alex Gaskarth. Alexander William Gaskarth had spoken to me. He just asked how I was. He's looking at me, he's waiting for an answer. Am I okay? Oh, I don't know. Of Course not. I'm a wreck, but Alex, He's there.
I nodded.
"Good. Do you mind if I carry on now?" He asked with a grin on his cute wee face.
I shook my head.
And he continued. And while he continued, everybody around me stared. Just like Alex had done a minute ago. And they continuted to stare, before turning away, directing their attention to the man on stage, and catching up with the song. Just as the attention was focused back on the singer, he was gone. Just like that. Now, I know there's always on encore, but in this moment, it feels like tonight has simply flew by me. Now also seems like a good opportunity to seek the gang out, without actually moving. You think I'm going to give up this front row space up? No chance. I still need to get a guitar pick off Jack. It's going to happen!
Two brown eyes were staring at me. They were getting closer, and the hand that belonged to them, was reaching out towards me. I couldn't move. Staring towards the perfect brown eyes, I couldn't help but notice a smirk forming on the lips that lay beneath. I still couldn't move. I was getting batered from behind and both sides. Everybodt was reaching towards the hand, except me. I couldn't. I didn't know how to. All sound and time had stopped. I feel like I'm in some film where everything just, stops. It's only you and silence.
Then, something magical happened.
Something more magical than Alex Gaskarth speaking to me.
Something that I could only dream of.
