amnesia | tyler joseph

15.

Though she had nothing against them, she really hoped she wasn't about to waste precious time listening to teeny-boppers when she could be making money. "What can I get ya?" Charlie leaned over the bar, bracing her elbows on the wood and balancing her chin on her hands. "Budlight."

The bartender eyed her for a second. "You old enough to get one?"

She watched him with unamused eyes. "You really gonna make me pull out my ID?"

She swore she caught a hint of a smirk before he dipped down to retrieve the drink. Charlie turned back towards the stage, only just noticing how the lights had dimmed and the pit had began to scream maniacally.

"Enjoy the show." She slid a five over and took her beer, drawn towards the movement on stage. There were definitely two of them, one who was clumsily making their way onto the drums in the dark and the other lurking in the shadows behind the piano.

Then it was as if chaos has erupted.

The singer leaped from the piano clad in all white, simultaneously singing even in mid-air and as he landed back gracefully onto his feet. He didn't seem phased in the slightest, never pausing or off-key as he continued.

Her breath caught.

"I ponder of something great

My lungs will fill and then deflate

They fill will fire

Exhale desire"

It was them — the same band who Tyler and her had been listening to in her dorm.

Both the drummer and singer were hidden by masks, only revealing their eyes and mouths.

She couldn't help but join in with the crowd, the lyrics falling from her lips sooner than she could think them. Her heart drummed along with the beat, her gaze never wavering from the beautiful singer. He leaped and flailed about, his movements matching his voice so well that tears swelled up in Charlie's eyes.

She wished she loved something that much.

So much so that she could just.. Let go and never fear judgment.

The song ended as soon as it had began and the audience cheered with everything they had. Only, unlike the others, Charlie's world spun from its axis when the singer lifted his hand to rip off his mask. It was a simple thing, something that only aimed to give the crowd the entrance they would remember forever.

Charlie's heart jumped into her throat when his face was revealed. Dark eyes framed with long eyelashes, brown, messy hair and most of all, that crooked smile she'd come to love so, so much.

"Tyler?"

She didn't know what to think. How could she be upset? How couldn't she be upset?

Tyler was singing, singing in front of at least five hundred people when she'd only heard him sing a handful of times. He was full-out grinning that shit-eating smile she wanted to smack and kiss off every time he did it.

But he was enjoying himself — it was so easy to see. How could she be upset when Tyler was obviously on top of the world?

He hadn't told her though. Why hadn't he told her? Why had he kept something so big a secret?

Then, everything made sense.

His constant disappearances, the random calls from Josh (who, she realized, was friends with Mona) and how he was always leaving for multiple days at a time. He was playing shows as much as he possibly could. He was leaving his education, team and his other friends for an entirely different life.