Lighter

t w e n t y - t w o

'cause some things hardly change
but nothing ever stays the s a m e . . .

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"You guys are fucking incredible! Can we play one more song for you?" Cole's hoarse voice echoed throughout the entire venue, his question being followed by a fair amount of cheering. The smile that came across his face was contagious, even as he ducked his head down and his stringy blonde locks fell in front. "That's what I like to hear," he then mumbled into the microphone.

As he announced the name of their last song, my friends and I all joined in with the rest of the crowd in singing along once Hudson's bass started thrumming and Jonah kicked in on the drums. It seemed like we said it every time we saw Patch, but this had to be their best show by far.

After years of working their asses off, being the opener band for hundreds of shows, and drawing a big enough fan base, they finally got to have their chance in the spotlight. A nearby club owner had heard about them through word of mouth and had secretly been attending their shows for the past few weeks. He instantly saw something in them and realized how much raw talent they had and wanted to book them for their own gig. It's something they've been striving to do ever since being in the band really took off for them, and it was obvious in their stage presence the entire night that they couldn't have been more adrenalized.

The band invited everyone they knew to the special occasion and the amount of people that showed up was incredible. There wasn't a single person in that place that wasn't having the time of their life. Or at least where we were standing it seemed like that, which was just to the left of the stage on Jayce's side, a couple of rows back.

With most of their songs being short, headbanging, punk anthems, they come to an end pretty quickly. In a flash, they were off the stage while the place remained dark and everyone kept on cheering. All there was left to do was wait for them to come back out to play their encore – the most bittersweet part of a concert.

"Hey," Ronnie's voice was in my ear suddenly, his arms coming around my body from behind to hold me. I didn't take my eyes away from the stage and angled my head so I could hear him better, the screaming fans surrounding us making it a little difficult. "Have you decided what concert you wanna go to for your birthday?"

"Not yet," I smirked up at him. "I have a couple in mind. I'll let you know as soon as I pick one." Then I stuck my straw in my mouth and sucked up the rest of my cranberry vodka mixture, our eye contact not breaking.

I've been twenty-one for nearly a month and I still can't get used to the fact that I'm allowed to walk up to the bar and get a drink other than water. It was the one and only alcoholic beverage I had for the night, the overpriced cocktail in a teeny plastic cup not doing much to phase me. Cheyenne treated me to the drink and I couldn't say no the first time, but the second time I definitely did. And the third time too. Like I always say, getting stupid drunk isn't really my thing.

She was off in her own world with Tommy right near us, the rest of our gigantic friend group chatting away until the guys came back out to play their final song. My eyes left Ronnie's as I glanced around to find Kurt talking with Orlando, Marcus with a girl of course, Jonah's girl Paige smiling along with a couple of her own friends, and so on. I could still feel his gaze on me while I observed everyone.

"Why are you staring at me?" I giggled, my focus on Cheyenne and Tommy who were gossiping about something on the former's phone, their faces slightly lit up by the screen.

"Just thinking about how lucky I am to have the hottest girl in this whole place all to myself," he replied, as smooth as ever in his usual fashion.