Alex pulled away as soon as Carrie left.
"I'm sorry Charlie, but I have to explain."
He untangled himself fully and tried to leave in search of her. Charlie grabbed him by his wrist.
"Alex, there's nothing we can explain to her, we can't even do it ourselves."
He considered this.
"Fine, are we an item now?"
Charlie shrugged.
"If you wanna be…."
Both boys smiled.
"Of course I do," he said, and put his hand on Charlie's cheek, which Charlie kept there with his own "but I've got to make sure she's alright."
He gave him a quick peck on the cheek his hand wasn't being held to.
"Alright, go, quickly!" Charlie demanded.
Alex had only been gone for 5 minutes and Charlie was overcome with a combination of mixed feelings. Confusion over what had happened, jealousy, once again at Carrie because he'd ran to find her, loneliness because he was by himself and longing because he wanted him to come back. He put on Parrot Stories, Alex's first album, at full blast and sang along as loudly as he could.
She was at the concert now, alone. Well, friend-less, Alex-less. Hopefuls kept recognizing her and she kept forcing fake smiles, giving pinky promises and posing for pictures with them. Any other night the smile would be genuine and she would be happy to do anything that a fan asked, but not tonight. Tonight was different. She looked up, out into the crowd and she could see thousands of people singing along, but she could see hundreds of people in that same crowd with their pinkies high in the air. There were so many people there who cared for her and wanted her to be happy that it hurt to think about. She burst into tears.
Carrie had already gone, along with Alex's way of getting to the concert. Luckily he still had his ticket, but he also had hers and thought about how she'd be left outside of the Apollo, then he realized how stupid that was considering the fact she was the sister of one of the band members. He was going to have to get there by another mode of transport, and fast….
It'd been an entire hour and Charlie missed Alex so much he was actually feeling empty. He was worried, and had nothing to do with himself, and there was no way he could do something like make a video or at the very least plan out one. All of his thoughts were centered around his new boyfriend. His boyfriend. Alex was his new boyfriend. Yes, he could get used to saying that.
Carrie was making her way through a box of tissues backstage when she saw the maddening mix of black and white clothing and could hear the sound of his heels from those hedgehog shoes. He spotted her as well, and his expression turned to worry as soon as he saw her puffy red face, though she still looked pretty despite this. He quickly shuffled towards her, avoiding staff carrying random objects around.
"I'm sorry," he said "you shouldn't of had to see that."
"It's fine, I'm fine."
"You're not fine though, you've been crying!"
"Oh don't be that self centered about your love life Mr. Day, it's not because of just that".
He smiled.
"Well what else is it?"
She paused, trying to find the words to express her feelings.
"It was seeing all of those hopefuls, all of those kind, lovely people who admired me though I'm nothing special."
Her opinion of yourself shocked him.
"You are special! You're special to me, and to the hopefuls, and to the nermie army for riding around half naked on a horse, and to your other friends, and to your family and to your brother, who's out on stage right now, dedicating the songs he's singing to you! Don't tell me or yourself you're not special Miss. Fletcher, don't you dare, because you know it's not true!"
She sniffed, and took another tissue from the box. He put his hand on her shoulder and she cried some more, put her head into her hands and sobbed, so instead he patted and rubbed her back slowly, before engulfing her in a hug and shushing her.
"It's fine, just cry, you'll feel better when you're finished" he promised.
She buried her face into his chest and stained his fashion crime t-shirt with her tears whilst he patted her head and comforted in the best way he could, avoiding catching the staffs eyes surrounding them because he imagined the scene did look a bit silly.