All at Once

Chapter Thirty-Two

Everywhere I looked, brightly coloured flags, faces and clothes filled the horizon with technicolour bursts of life. Everybody seemed to be smiling, their beaming auras reflecting the way I felt inside.

"Okay, you're all done." The voice next to me pulled my attention away from a serious bout of people watching.

Looking down at my arm, the black, swirling flowers sat boldly against the lightly tanned skin all the way from my elbow to my shoulder.

"It's amazing," I grinned, standing up to check out the inked design in the full-length mirror. "I love it, thank you so much."

"You should get it done permanently when we get home," Noah smirked, as he ducked out of the tent behind me, two large cups of cold beer in his hands.

Striding over, he placed a soft kiss on my bare shoulder as he reached over to place one of the cups into my hand.

"Seriously, it suits you," he whispered into my neck.

"Noah," I hissed, turning around and placing a hand on his chest, "People are looking."

"Let them look," he shrugged, using his free hand to pull my waist into his body, a few drops of amber liquid spilling from my cup. "I don't care if we end up getting papped, I want as many memories of this weekend as possible."

We'd been at Glastonbury since the festival had opened on Wednesday. Blending in among the early revellers, we'd been able to enjoy our own mini holiday for a couple of days with only a few interruptions for selfies and autographs.

It had been bliss. Admittedly, being given our own luxury three-room Tipi on behalf of Brave Music, tucked away securely in the VIP camping area, had made it more blissful than if we'd been cramped into a tiny two-man tent like most people our age.

But, cramped in a two-man tent or sleeping under the stars with nothing above us, anywhere with Noah would have been perfect.

After I'd paid the girl who had skillfully turned my arm into a temporary garden of beautiful black orchids, Noah and I wandered over to the world music tent. He'd heard that some Spanish guitar duo were playing a mid-morning slot and had been like a kid at a theme park, checking the timetable obsessively and ensuring our VIP badges would guarantee entry to the tent in case it was full.

We needn't have worried. The tent contained barely a few hundred people by the time the man and woman strolled onto the stage, each carrying an acoustic guitar and smiling from ear to ear.

As their set flowed through one incredible display of musicianship to the next, the tent began to fill with more and more bodies. By the time they introduced their final number, it was at capacity.

Wrapping his arm around my shoulders as we stood squeezed among the sweaty crowd, Noah looked down at me with a huge grin.

"Told you they were amazing," he beamed. "I want to try and get backstage to meet them after, is that okay?"

Rolling my eyes, I flicked the Access All Areas badge that hung from a lanyard around his neck.

"I don't think you'll need to try too hard," I laughed.

After nearly an hour in Ronaldo and Gaia's tour bus, watching Noah turn into his very own version of a fangirl over their performance, we said our goodbyes and headed back towards the VIP camping area.

"I didn't think we'd be that long, I'm sorry," Noah said, looking sheepish as he checked his phone for the time.

"Don't worry about it," I smiled, "It's not like we're on a schedule this afternoon, is it? What time are the rest of the boys getting here?"