(4) Out of Control: An All Time Low FanFiction Romance

Chapter 17: Surreal

        I rocked back and forth slowly on my heels, wringing my hands together in front of me. I was standing stage-side after peeking out at the growing crowd of people. It was loud already, with the hundreds of people talking, and I could only imagine how it would sound when those hundreds of people were cheering and screaming.

        Maybe I was a little nervous. This ws our first show of this size, we were used to playin in small bars in Boston, not sold our arenas. If the guys were the least bit nervous, it wasn't showing.

        Porter and Zave were making sure their guitars were fully tuned, and Maverick was somwhere behind me, drumsticks in his hand as he air-drummed a song in the open space in front of him. We were all waiting for our cues, being the new band and the least known, we were going out first to play a few songs and then we'd introcue The Summer Set. After them, Yellowcard came out, Hey Monday and then All Time Low. It was a slow show, but the variety would keep people interested, I was sure.

        "You nervous?" a voice said from behind me, pulling me out of my thoughts and making me jump. I turned around, feeling my heart beat race as Iooked up into Jack's dark eyes. He was closer than I'd expected, leaving only a small inch or two betwene our bodies. I had to tilt my head back slightly to meet his gaze. He had a baseball hat on, brim turned slightly to the side, with the hood of his sweatshirt puled up over it. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of the zup-up covering the ends of the JAGK label on his t-shirt.

        "Holy shit," I breathed, pulling slightly at the end of my shirt. I was wearing destroyed skinyn jeans, and a baseball t-shirt with 3/4 sleeves colored a bright purple. The fabric ended just around my waistline, revealing skin if I moved a certain way or stretched. "Can you not do that?" I turned away from him, looking back out at the stage that was almost completely set up for us.

        "You do seem a little on edge," he mused, stepping forward to stand beside me. He pulled his hands from his pockets and stretched, the hem of his t-shirt moving up his stomach a little before he let his arms fall down heavily to his side. He sighed deeply, listening to my response.

        "Yeah, because you just snuck up on me," I muttered, frowning down at myself, this situation reminding me of being back home. Hunter had done the same thing, sneaking up on me, condifent and finding it absolutely amusing.

        "Ah, so it's me?" he grinned, looking down at me. I rolled my eyes at him, looking down at my hands that were still picking at the edge of my t-shirt. I stopped, letting my hands fall back to my sides.

        "Do you need a reminder of last night?" I said, my turn to smirk at him now, head turned slightly towards the side. Jack laughed, shaking his head, remembering how I'd whooped his ass at Six Cup last night.

        "You got lucky," he muttered, and I nodded, unbelieving.

        "I'm sure that's what it was," I said, smiling.

        Somebody stepped behind us grabbing our attention, before either one of us could say anything else. We turned to see Lauren stopped, half-turned, as if she'd been walking past and noticed us.

        "You all ready?" she asked, glancing between Maverick and me, and then at Porter and Xavier who were making their way over. They were all beaming, eyes shining with anticipation. Maybe it was just me that had butterflies moving around in my stomach.

        "Hell yeah," Maverick grinned, flipping a drumbstick in the air before catching it, too wound up to stay still for even a second.

        "Good, you have one minute," Lauren smiled slightly and then continued walking away. I bit my lip, hands runing through my mess of curly hair as I turned back towards the stage, towardst he microphones set up, one waiting for me.

        "You want a little luck?" Jack said quietly from beside me, his voice coming out softly by my ear. I felt his hands brush against the waist of my jeans, his knuckles touching a small part of bare skin. I rolled my eyes to myself before I looked at him, seeing him wiggling his eyebrows in my direction as the main lights on the stage dimmed, smaller colored lights flashing, grabbing the attention of the crowd. They all started to scream, the sound louder than anything I'd ever heard before.

        "No thanks," I said, watching as my band mades moved out onto the stage first, running up to where they were supposed to be. I smiled at them, feeling that I didn't need any luck. I knew I was ready for this.

        "I think I'll be just fine," I took a deep breath and followed the guys, running up to the middle of the stage, grabbing the microphone with both hands, mouth almost brushing against it as I spoke.

        "Hello Philadelphia! How are you all doing tonight?" I said loudly into the microphone, my voice stretching throughout the arena. I beamed as the screaming started up again, despite the fact that we were a new band, nowhere near as popular as the bands we were playing with.

        "That's fantastic," I laughed, reaching up to brush my bangs out of my face. "So, I'm Natalie, and this is Porter," I said, pointing to my left, "This is Xavier," I continued, pointing to my right, "And that idiot back there is Maverick," I finished, making a face at his as I turned, watching his hands move as he made the punch line sound on his drums. I noticed Jack still standing off to the side, arms crossed over his chest as he watched, Lauren now standing behind him, happily smiling.

        I turned back around, looking at the faces of the hundreds of people before me.

        "This is our first tour, our first big crowd, so how about you guys make this the best first show ever?" I said loudly and then took a step back, listening to another eruption of screams, growing more excited from how responsive the crowd was. I looked back at Maverick, nodding slightly. He grinned, moving his hands to start the beat of one of our songs.

        "So, this is one of the songs off of our EP," I said loudly over his drumming. "It's out now, and if you manage to find our merch girl hanging around, you can get one from her," I drummed my fingers along the stand, the familiar beat of one of my favorite songs pulsing through my ears. I glanced at Xavier as he started playing, nodding his head as he stared down at his feet as he started before looking up and meeting my eyes, a wide grin on his face. Porters' bass started up to my right, and I knew my part started soon. I started bobbing my head slightly along with the beat, glancing around at the guys before turning back towards the audience.

        "Whether you guys know the words or not, I'd like to see you up and moving around! If you know the words, think you know the words, or are just smart enough to pick up on the chorus, I wanna see you singing along, okay?" I said loudly, pulling back from the microphone to take a deep breath.

        I turned forward again, lips as close to the microphone as possible as I started singing, closing my eyes for a few moments, the same way I always did when I started, getting myself lost in the music. Opening my eyes again to the crowd in front of me, it all felt so surreal. I couldn't imagine anywhere else in the world that could even come close to comparing to where I was now.