Radio Love // l.r.h

Chapter 3

August 1st // 6:58 pm

Only two minutes until the opening act starts and I'm having a nervous breakdown for what felt like the millionth time that day. It was getting so hard to calm myself down. The thing is, I wasn't even panicking. My heart just keeps racing from excitement and I can't stop shaking. I sort of felt numb, like I wasn't actually there.

My vision started to blur a little as I walked to my spot in The Pit. I quickly realized how much I regret wearing black skinny jeans. Now all I could think about was how sweaty I was. When I meet Luke he's gonna think I'm disgusting. Thank God I packed perfume in my purse.

Through all of my stress, I remembered what my mom told me to do. I closed my eyes and tried to picture my "happy place". I pictured being backstage with Luke. He has his arms wrapped around me and his chin propped on the top of my head.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale, I repeated in my head.

"Everyone take your seats, the show is going to start in five minutes," a deep voice sounded through the arena.

The whole crowd started to cheer.

The Pit quickly became packed with teenage girls. My anxiety kicked in for many things but (luckily) claustrophobia wasn't one of them. All of the girls were chatting amongst each other except me. I felt awkward being alone, even though being with my mom would have been worse.

Four girls suddenly started to shout the lyrics to Unpredictable, immediately catching my attention. The girls next to them joined in. I decided to join right along with them. Soon all of The Pit was singing. By the second chorus, the whole arena was in unison.

"We're like an army," a girl with a bleach blonde pixie cut laughed.

"Totally," I laughed back.

* * * * * *

As the opening act finished their last song you could sense the excitement and eagerness of the crowd from a mile away. The act took a bow and made a quick exit.

It's time, I thought. Deep breaths, Beatrice. Deep breaths.

After about fifteen minutes of the stage crew setting up for the headliners, the deep voice spoke again. "Please welcome, Five Seconds of Summer!" he said.

I completely froze. I couldn't believe it, I'm actually seeing my favorite people on planet earth. This was a dream. It had to be.

But it wasn't a dream.

Everything was happening so quickly, it was difficult for me to comprehend. I closed my eyes for a second and took another deep breath. As I opened my eyes Ashton, Calum, Luke and Michael walked up to their mics.

My jaw dropped like a cartoon character.

Luke was wearing the usual black band t-shirt but decided to ditch his signature flannel. Michael wore his all black attire, snapback and I was even close enough to see his eyebrow piercing. Calum was wearing a white muscle tank that said something that was blocked by his bass.

I moved my head to see what Ashton was wearing. "Oh my god." Nobody could hear my voice over all of the screams from the crowd.

Ashton wasn't wearing a shirt. He'd only done that once or twice before during a show.

Although Ashton's lack of a shirt was fabulous, I couldn't stop staring at Luke. He was directly in front of me. The love of my life was standing right in front of me.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Ashton," the shirtless drummer said into his microphone. Suddenly most people stopped screaming and started listening.

"I'm Calum, bassist."