Fanboy (boyxboy)

Chapter 4: Ticket

"Nobody calls you Ashley."

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It takes a moment to register what is in his hand. An envelope with his full first name scribbled on it. Nothing more. No one in his friend group called him Ashley. The only person to ever call him Ashley had been his dad, who always despised the shortening of names. "You are called Ashley because that is your name." He would say.  But Ash despised it. Maybe for the most part because he didn't get on with his father.

"What do you have there?" Lucy questions as she approaches the bar. 

"It's for me, it seems to be hand delivered."  Ash holds up the envelope for Lucy to read.

"Ashley …." She says, squinting her eyes a little as she reads. "Nobody calls you Ashley. Open it, see who It's from."  She says as she gets comfy on a bar stool. 

Ash begins to pull at the seal of the envelope to reveal some card inside. He pulls at it to reveal a ticket. "Ultimate Crush VIP." He reads along the top. He looks at the ticket, clamped between his finger and thumb for only a brief moment before it is snatched from in between his fingers. "Hey!" 

"Oh…oh my God! Ash…you have a UC ticket!" Lucy jumps from her stool, holding onto the ticket so tightly that if they had legs they wouldn't have been able to escape. 

"And?" Ash shrugs. 

"Jesus Ash, not this again. UC, ULTIMATE CRUSH!" She now waves the ticket in his face. "And not only that, a VIP one too! Who sent you this?" 

"I don't know and it doesn't matter anyway. I don't like Ultimate Crush, you have it." Ash says, as he walks over to the front door to open it. 

"Wait wait wait!" Lucy hurriedly follows Ash to the door. "How can you say you don't like them if you don't even know them?" She questions. "Plus, this envelope had your name on it. Not mine, it's meant for you and I do feel as your friend that I should at least insist you go." Lucy places a hand to her chest with sincerity, making Ash smile. 

"Ok, ok. If I must." He sighs, "When is it?"

"This Saturday, 20:00 hours." Lucy replies, looking at the date on the ticket, reading out loud. 

"This Saturday?" Ash breathes out a heavy breath. "I can't, I'm on a late shift." 

"Ash? Hello Ash?" Lucy begins to knock on Ash's forehead as he tries to push her hand away. 

"Hey, stop that! What's that for?" he complains. 

"Who is responsible for the shifts?" Lucy says, tilting her head to one side. 

"Well, me. I'm the supervisor." Ash says. But why she had to ask, she knew that already. 

"Bingo!" 

"Bingo?" 

"Swap your shift you fool!" She says laughing.  Ash just shakes his head at her before he unlocks the door and flips the sign to 'open'. He takes the ticket from her grasp and heads back to the bar to push them back into the envelope. 

It's then he sees it. What looks like a yellow 'post it' note, creased up at the bottom of the envelope. Ash puts the ticket on the counter as he pulls out the scrunched piece of paper to read, 

Meet me at the arena. I have something of yours.

Ash frowns at the seemingly cryptic note, before the penny drops. He puts his hand on the pocket of his shirt, realising the absence of his name badge, which he for some reason, had told the company to etch Ashley on it. At least now he had an idea of who may have sent the ticket.

***

There was no doubt that Ash felt like the odd one out. Not totally, but almost, as he stood like a lost sheep in front of the arena. It was evident he didn't have a clue as to what he was doing as he looked around him at the cluster of die hard fans talking very loudly about things he had no knowledge of. Maybe he should have clicked on the multiple links Lucy had sent him about the group, but as usual, Ash was being stubborn. He didn't even want to be here, but curiosity had gotten the better of him as to who the writer of the note was and if his assumption was right, why did he have to meet him here of all places?

He takes out his ticket, reading it once again. 'VIP'. Maybe the guy had a VIP ticket too and was waiting for him in the vip area. He heads to a door, away from the line of regular ticket holders to stand behind a much smaller queue. The two teenage girls in front of him turn to see Ash standing behind them. They look at eachother and grin before facing the front. "He's a fanboy." One whispers to the other." 

"That's so cute." Comes the quiet squeak of a reply. 

Ash could hear every word. He wanted to say something. To correct their mistakes. He wasn't a fanboy, whatever that was. He was here to solve a mystery and soon, he hoped the mystery would be solved as the doors allowing the VIP access opened…