in my sleep | elijah hewson

01| perfect places

it's just another graceless night
☆☆

The Garage, London, Martha Hendrix' home for the evening.

Martha Hendrix was to play a one off gig at the garage in London, which sold out within a day of the tickets going on sale. After coming back from opening Catfish and the Bottlemen's UK tour a couple months ago, Martha has been writing and creating music to release an album. This was her first return to the stage in two months.

It was going to be a special one, her two best friends in the audience as always. Kyra, Simone, and Martha were flatmates when the three of them first moved to london. Despite not living together anymore, their bond is greater than ever.

'You look insane.' Simone exclaimed, fussing over Martha who hated ot be fussed over.

'This is gonna be fucking incredible.' Kyra grinned, wrapping an arm around her best friend. 'I invited some guys from the bar last night, they're in a band too so, were eager to come.'

'Cool.' Martha nodded her head. 'Yous better go, I don't have long until I'm up there.'

'Alright, rockstar.' Simone smiled, hugging Martha one more time and squeezing her face with excitement. 'Go smash it.'

'Love you!'

Martha was a bag of nerves in the wings, awaiting the cue to take the stage and play the songs she wrote on her bedroom floor at nineteen. Everything changed after the catfish and the bottlemen tour, so many more people were listening to her EP's and showing up to her random shows like this. It meant the world to Martha, this was her wildest dream unfolding before her eyes.

The lights went out, and she wandered invisibly to her spot on stage. The people in the front row could see her but that was all, and all they did was stare up at her with eyes of admiration, the kind of look that made everything feel worth it.

When the lights went up, Martha went straight into her first song, 'Perfect Places'. Her music meant the world to her, and to see the smiles on the audience's face, hundreds of people singing and dancing to lyrics she poured her heart and soul into, it's the kind of feeling you could never describe.

Martha scanned the room for familiar faces. There was a small section dedicated to her friends, not thatshe had invited many. Kyra and Simone were thefirst ones she spotted, they were dancing and screaming the words like this was the best concert they had ever been to, to them, it was. Bob and Benji form Catfish were there too, watching proudly as Martha headlined her own show which had doubled in capacity from before her time with Catfish.

There were some other familiar faces which caught her off guard though, she knew exactly who they were, but did they know her? How could they? Martha couldn'  fathom the fact that those four guys could possibly know her name, and were nodding along to her songs out of politeness.

Simone and Kyra were talking to them though, in the break of the songs Martha would look up and catch a whisper, which only added to the confusion. There was no way her best friends had invited those guys, there was no fucking way.

Martha was good at playing things off though, and if anything, she felt she had to prove herself evenmore now. She gave it her all, more than ever. The crowd helped her case, jumping to upbeat songs and swaying with flashlights on to more quiet intimate ones. It made Martha smile, the impact music has on people speaks volumes words can't.

She knew she was good looking too, that everyone in the room watched her in awe as she paraded round that stage like she owned it, and  for tonight she did. It was mesmerising to see her perform, you couldn't blame her for the fact all the videos posted of her went semi viral.