just quick I wanna say if anyone is wanting to or willing to make a new trailer I'd love that! I wasn't happy w how mine turned out haha (I'd give you the credit of course!) and also if you ever have feedback I'd be more than happy to hear! I'm always wanting to learn and make the story good for you guys!
"Cal, you're back! How was your night?" Ashton greeted him in the hallway the day after he had left with Sadie, wiggling his eyebrows with insinuation. Calum scrunched up his face as he pulled his room key out of his pocket.
"It was great, but I've been 'back' for a few hours," he said, unlocking his door and propping open the door with his foot so he could glare at Ashton who hadn't noticed his presence.
"Oh." Ashton furrowed his brows, shaking it off not long after. "Sorry. Anyway, we're leaving soon. Quinn dropped off an outfit for you."
He glanced into the room after opening the door until he found a clock, once he found the time he realized they weren't going to the concert just yet, and if Quinn picked out an outfit for him they weren't off to do any job either. "Where are we going?"
"Interview," Ashton told him quickly, reaching behind the door and handing Calum the outfit as another door clicked open from the other side of the hall and just a little further down. Delaney poked her head out to see if the voices matched who she thought they did, while Calum took the hanger from Ashton's hand.
"Look who's back!" She smirked at Calum, who rolled his eyes and dropped the hanger still closed in his fist to his side.
"I've been back since like ten-thirty!" He groaned.
"Oh. Sorry," she said with a small frown noticing his genuine frustration. "Is that for the show?" She pointed to the covered outfit after deciding to change the subject.
"No. An interview, apparently," Calum shrugged. "Not that it'd matter if I was there because no one would notice."
"Calum, we've been in our rooms the whole time!" Ashton snapped back at him, honestly.
"Yeah, you seem like you're everyone's favourite. Don't worry," Delaney smirked, quickly switching Calum and Ashton's expressions. Calum was now wearing a grin and Ashton furrowed his brows. A door to the left of them opened to Luke, who paused after seeing them and stopped in the doorway, delaying whatever he was doing to watch.
"I don't think that's fair to assume," Ashton stated, crossing his arms over his chest.
Calum held his hands out to stop Ashton from continuing, even though he wasn't planning on it. "No, I think that it is, actually."
Delaney laughed with them, the conversation trailing off as they brought their attention to the boy observing them. He noticed the focus shift to him, so he snapped himself out of his silence with a small shake of his head and lazily pointing towards Ashton, "Uh, have you got my outfit, Ash?"
"Yeah, here one second," Ashton nodded and did the same thing for him as he did for Calum, grabbing the covered outfit for Luke.
He nodded as a quick and silent 'thanks', before holding it up and examining it through the clear plastic pane.
"What kind of interview is it?" Delaney asked.
"The regular kind. I don't know," Ashton said, shaking his head. "Just your average kind."
"Is there an audience?" She pressed on for more of their clearly limited information.
"Yeah, I think there is..." Ashton trailed off, looking quickly to Calum, who shrugged since he was more clueless than Ashton when it came to their plans.
"There is," Luke mumbled, undoing the outfit's zipper. Which could be done easily in his hotel room. Probably could be done easier in his room than standing up in the hallway.
"Why?" Calum asked what the three of them were wondering just as one more door opened to Michael. He pointed to Ashton, opening his mouth to speak but was stopped by Ashton's hand.
"Outfit?" Ashton predicted his question
"Yeah. Do you have it?" Michael asked, getting a nod from Ashton just as Ashton repeated the process of grabbing the personalized outfit and handing it off. "Why, what?" He poked at the conversation he walked into.
"Oh yeah, why do you ask?" Ashton continued since he actually knew the context of the question.
"Could I come?" Delaney asked, earning a confused look from everyone except for Michael who was pre-occupied now with his outfit. Luke only looked up at them for a quick second before clearing his throat and going back to fumbling with his outfit.
"I mean, I don't see why not. But I don't see why you'd want to either," Ashton told her with a shrug.
"It might be fun. It will be more fun than just sitting in my room and waiting to be told what to do," she said, leaning her head against the door frame. "If there's an audience I can just sit at the side or whatever so you can see me the whole time."
"Yeah, that's true." Michael shrugged before ducking back into his room to change.
Delaney nodded, glad that they agreed. So far they had been mostly reasonable with her requests. They didn't really seem to care for the most part as long as they could keep an eye on her. Luke usually had something to say about it, but this time he stayed quiet and continued to adjust small things. "Alright, then. I should go since I actually have to pick out my own outfit," she raised her eyebrows at them with a smirk.
"Out of the pieces that were all picked out for you," Calum defended himself, furrowing his brows as she disappeared back into her room to do what she had said and put together a quick outfit to wear while sitting silently in a crowd for a while before the concert. After grabbing something simple, she walked just outside her room to wait patiently for the others, who took a long time for four boys who had their outfits pre-made for them.
Luke was the first to come out of his room wearing a black and white striped button-up shirt over top of a plain back shirt and black leather pants. They each took a second and looked at each other before Delaney pressed her lips together in the place of a smile, not knowing what else to do in the awkward moment.
Thankfully, Michael came out after only a few seconds of silence wearing an all-black outfit, which made Delaney smirk after all the times she had heard Quinn complain about that very instance.
She couldn't stop herself from letting out a small laugh when Ashton appeared, also wearing black jeans and a half-buttoned black t-shirt. Calum broke the pattern with the addition of a forest green jacket overtop of his black jeans and t-shirt.
A dark car and a driver to go alone with it were waiting on the street to take them to the interview. The windows were tinted to shield the boys from anyone who might pass them. It was probably standard for celebrities, but she wondered if it had ever protected them from more than just excited fans.
Even before reaching the place of the interview, those same excited fans lined the outside of the building with signs, just waiting for the boys to even glance at them. The tinted windows did their job because not one person looked twice at them as they passed. Little did they know that their favourite band was in there. Knowing even less what that band was really about.
"That's a lot of people," she mumbled, staring past Ashton out the window at the diverse group of people all equally anxious to get a look at the four boys.
"Yeah," Ashton agreed. "It's still weird to think about sometimes."
She nodded as they turned into a parking garage and the fans disappeared behind a wall. She had trouble understanding it and she wasn't even a part of the group.
Just after the car was parked, they were greeted by six different bodyguards to protect and escort them into the building. Three of the six shot her a confused scowl, seeing her only as another person to take care of without knowing why. She was pretty sure she would've been left behind if Michael hadn't grabbed her arm and pulled her ahead of him. She made herself walk faster than normal so she wouldn't get the back of her shoes stepped on.
They were led through a series of long and unnecessarily complex hallways and even up two flights of stairs to a small room, mimicking most of their temporary dressing rooms. Sitting there was a lady with unnaturally bright red hair, tied in two braids accompanied by a bearded man sitting idly, just waiting for the band to arrive.
Upon seeing the band and Delaney walk in, their faces lit up. They stood with open arms to greet the boys with a hug. The girl reached Delaney and stopped, furrowing her brows at the stranger. "You're not in the band," she told the unecessary cheesy joke with a laugh. "You must be a special friend of one of the boys then." The girl raised an eyebrow suggestively, pointing a manicured finger at her.
Delaney already didn't like the interviewer and her bold assumptions. "No, I'm not," she said, pursing her lips, knowing she didn't owe anymore of an explanation.
"She's family, actually. Cousins," Michael went deeper into the explaination, pointing between the two of them with his thumb. The rest of them looked just as uncomfortable as Delaney felt, finding anything in the room to look other than at each other. The two interviewers didn't seem to notice as they quickly told them they had only a few minutes before they would go out into the audience.
"So, if you want to head out into the audience now and we'll meet you out there," the man said, referring to Delaney. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't know how to inconspicuously decline.
"No, she's just gonna take a seat when we go out there," Luke declined for her, attracting a head-to-toe stare from the red-headed interviewer.
"Alright, then. We'll have a seat put out for her near the front," the man said, poking his head out a door to the side and giving the instruction.
Delaney stood with her hands clasped together, feeling bad for the trouble but knowing it was not at all her fault and that the band was the focus and top priority. They'd forget about her as soon as the interview started.
The two interviewers told them they were going to introduce them and to come out when they heard cheering. They didn't have much time to complain about the pair of them when the cheering loudly erupted from the other side of the wall. One of the bodyguards who still stuck by their side gave them a nod, permitting them to go. Even though Luke had already started.
Ashton motioned to her, pointing from his eyes to her to let her know that he would be watching her sit down and making sure she didn't do anything else. She nodded, not having any other plans anyway.
They all walked in a line out the door past the wild crowd who were only a few inches away from their idols as they walked onto the raised platform overlooking the audience, each taking a seat on a plain white couch that just fit the four of them and was next to two standalone chairs that the two interviewers already occupied.
Delaney took a cheap plastic chair that matched the other hundred in the crowd. Hers was pulled ahead of the front row enough that she was closer to Calum than the people behind her.
"Yeah, thank you guys for coming!" The woman said.
"No problem, we're happy to be here and to see all of our beautiful fans out there," Ashton charmed the crowd, gesturing out towards all of them. A loud 'aw' came collectively from the group, making Delaney roll her eyes. Not at the crowd, of course. She was well aware that she would've felt and reacted the same way if her idol had said that to her. She was rolling her eyes at Ashton, though.
"So you boys have just started the tour for your newest album, Youngblood?" The man started off the interview with a mild question that everyone there surely knew the answer to.
"We have," Michael agreed, nodding.
"How has that gone so far?" The man asked them simply, leaning into the conversation.
"Yeah, it's been awesome so far," Luke started, staring down at the microphone he held. "Every crowd has had so much energy and known the words right away even though the albums only been out for a short time. And yeah, it's just been awesome." He spoke thoughtfully and carefully to them and the audience.
Delaney leaned on her palm, staring at him as he talked. She could see how he thought hard about each word and wanted to get exactly his point across. The boys said short words of agreement before the interviewers moved onto speaking directly about a few of the songs. They talked about a few, but what interested her was the last one they spoke about. "So, tell us a little bit about your song Better Man," the lady read from a card she held with her organization's logo printed on the back.
"I think that one was Luke's doing, mostly," Michael said, thinking back to their time recording it. Luke nodded slowly as everyone turned to him, waiting for him to provide any insight he had on it.
He took in a deep breath, scratching the corner of his mouth before speaking. "Yeah, so...for this one...it wasn't one that I had to sit down and come up with an idea for it. I just started writing it one night and then brought it into the studio and Michael helped me kinda connect the dots and finish it off," he still spoke carefully, seeming to find his way around information he didn't want to give up. But something told Delaney there was more to that than what he was saying about it. She didn't know the lyrics well, but she intended to take a closer listen next time she heard it.
"Right on," the man nodded, turning back to his cards. "I think that one thing we can all agree on is that the entire album is great." He turned to the crowd, setting off cheers from everyone sitting there, including Delaney's short round of applause.
Three of the boys smiled along with their clapping, but Luke stood out from it. His smile quickly melted as he scrunched his face, stretching his neck upwards as the cheering died down, and looked suspiciously over top of the crowd. After the crowd had calmed enough, the interviewers transitioned into some other questions.
While they spoke, Luke kept his wary stare fixed on the back wall of the room. He nudged Ashton next to him and whispered something, making sure their microphones were far enough from their mouths that not a sound could be heard.
During their hushed conversation, Delaney turned to see whatever he had seen but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. When she turned back to them, Ashton waved his hand at Luke, dismissing whatever he had noticed.
He took in a breath, running his hands along his black leather pants as he turned back to the interviewers. Not, letting his eyes stay fixed for too long without them flickering back to whatever he was looking at. Every few minutes Delaney would join his wandering looks, just searching for whatever had him so on-edge.
Which he clearly was, based on the nervous looks and the running of his fingers along the edge of the mic. Simply seeing the anxious habits made Delaney squirm in her seat like she was waiting for something but she didn't know what or when.
"I think it's time to open up the floor for fan questions," the woman said, peering down the aisle between chairs, which filled within seconds with a line of fans ready to ask questions. They went through the first few questions, all basic ones that they were pretty sure they'd answered before. The band didn't mind, they and their answers changed so frequently that it didn't really matter.
Luke didn't even answer any questions after the one about Better Man. It wasn't long until the questions ceased and Luke lunged from his seat, his eyes completely focused on the back of the room. Delaney and most of the crowd turned around suddenly to see what he was looking at, seeing immediately two people wearing casual outfits who had been sitting quietly in the back row. Not anything that really caught the eye.
But now they had stood, and after Delaney had started looking they reached in their different pockets. One was wearing a simple hoodie and the other a flannel. Just as she caught the glimpse of a sleek black gun, simultaneously prompting a series of high-pitched screams from the crowd, a strong hand gripped almost entirely around her arm and pulled her sharply towards the same door they came through.
Her heart picked up its pace with the panic of the guns in the room and the person still dragging her away without even the smallest warning. She tripped over her feet as the person began pushing her instead, catching her before she had the chance to hit the ground. She was turned at an angle to fit them both through the door. Her breathing grew heavy very quickly with the combination of sudden cardio and alarm, vision blurring at the pace of the movements to the point she became too disoriented to do anything other than blindly keep going in the direction she's being forced in.
The person had grabbed her other bicep and pushed her to a run in front of them through the same series of hallways they had come through to get there. During a long stretch of bland doorways and dim lighting, she was able to makeout Michael's head poking out from a corner based on his platinum hair, waving them closer. She craned her neck to confirm that it was Luke pushing her to run along the grey carpeted hallway. "Come on!" Michael told them urgently, but in a hushed tone as to not be overheard, hinting to Delaney that whoever had caused the terror in the other room was possibly coming after them.
As Delaney and Luke grew closer to Michael, Delaney felt one sudden shove into Michael, who stumbled back before pushing her once more into a small, dark, storage room with one window, where Calum and Ashton sat against the wall. Ashton took one hand from where it was clasped with the other and motioned for her to come sit next to them. She stumbled towards them, still confused and dizzy, but more than willing to sit down. "What the hell?" She whispered, leaning against the wall and letting herself slide down to a sitting position.
Calum pressed a finger to his lips as the door closed quickly, followed by a small click. Presumably, a lock that she didn't think would hold back the armed people for too long. Luke and Michael came quickly to them, sitting down beneath the curtained window, chests rising and falling much like Delaney's was while they fought to catch their breaths. "I fucking told you, Ashton," Luke mumbled, biting his bottom lip immediately after while he moved a thick silver ring along the length of his middle finger.
"I don't even know how you knew, man," Ashton said quietly, sighing just after.
Luke shook his head, "It was the hats. They're dicks. It's like they fucking want to be seen." As he brought up the hats, she thought back to the people they had just run from. They were wearing extremely bright coloured hats for people you'd think would want to blend in. But, she felt it unfair to judge since she didn't think anything of it and barely took a second look even with the neon beanies. "Because even though it was obvious it was them, it was still way too fucking close."
"Who are they?" Delaney asked, keeping her voice down as much as she could as to heed Calum's warning. Luke shrugged the question off, running a hand through his hair in distress. "...You don't know who it is?"
"They're following us around. They have been since we got into all this shit but they only show up every so often, we never know why or when," Calum explained to the best of his abilities, staring absently at the floor.
She would press on for more information, but the loud crack of a bullet colliding with a wall in the near distance was enough for her to shut up. "We have to go," Luke muttered so quietly that Delaney barely understood him as he stood urgently, springing up to pull open the curtains and allow the bright sunlight to come down on them, greatly contrasting the dark room and making those who remained sitting have to squint and cover their eyes from the sun.
"Out the window?" Michael questioned as Luke fumbled with the locks until it slid open, letting a cool breeze in immediately.
"Yes, out the window. How else?" Luke shook his head and stepped aside, looking at Delaney before moving his eyes along the rest of them. "Who's going first?"
Delaney kept quiet, still feeling sick from the first pang of anxiety when Luke jumped from his seat during the interview. She thought about how the people in there must be terrified and scrambling to escape. She jumped out of her thoughts at a second bullet from the hallway, a little louder and closer now.
"Fine, I'll go," Ashton stood, staring at the door after hearing the shot. He first sat in the windowsill with his legs dangling out before twisting his body and gripping just the bottom of the frame. Her breath hitched as she watched his hands disappear, followed by a loud thud. Luke peered out the window, and nodded, assuring them that the thud was actually the indication of a safe landing.
"Mikey, go help Ash get us a way out," Luke pointed, earning a nod before Michael followed the same process Ashton had. Dangling his legs before twisting his body, his fingers disappearing from the frame and a thud. A nod from Luke and Calum got up to follow. "Wait down at the bottom, Delaney will come out after you and you'll both go find the other two while I'm getting out."
"You're not gonna try-" Calum started as he slipped his feet into the open air.
"No," Luke stopped him. "I'm not gonna try. Now go."
Calum nodded slowly and slipped carefully out the window with a thud. Luke again looked out the window and rolled his eyes before giving a small thumbs-up, a small grin despite the circumstances. Delaney was almost positive Calum had thrown the thumbs-up first, and Luke was only returning the gesture before turning to Delaney, his face turning immediately solemn. "You're up."
She swallowed before getting up much slower than she knew she should be moving, but she couldn't help it. One more gunshot got her onto the edge, staring down at the paved pathway where Calum stood, looking up at her. Then quickly get distracted by something else. She stared down at her feet dangling in the air, feeling Luke hovering just behind her. He didn't say anything, despite her long period of hesitation in the time of high stakes.
The pounding of her heart nearly drowned out the loud slam of the previously locked door against the wall, followed right away by a loud, "Go!"
She panicked yet again, using her fingers that were wrapped around the window's ledge to pull herself forward, not even looking back to see who she knew had burst through the door. It was only enough to make her fall, the side of her body scraping down the side of the bricked building. She winced at the scraping, even before she fell square on her back. She gasped for breath at the impact that knocked the wind out of her and found herself grateful that they were only on the second floor.
"Jesus, Delaney. What the hell-" Calum started, jogging over to her before they both heard three shots. At least one of the three shattered the glass window where Luke was supposed to be escaping from. "Oh, fuck," Calum said, avoiding the glass.
Calum picked up his speed and helped Delaney up from the ground, suddenly realizing the urgency of getting away, and pulled her around the edge of the building. She tried so hard to keep up with him, but after the fall she felt like she didn't even have full control over her legs or body and the portion of herself that she was controlling felt like jelly.
The gunshots had completely ceased after the glass shattered, and Delaney barely had time to wonder what was taking Luke so long when the two of them found Ashton and Michael working together to get into a beige Honda car.
"Where's Luke?" Ashton shouted before his tongue settled back between his lips in his focus.
"Coming. I hope," Calum shouted back just as the door on Michael's side popped open and he got in, continuing to work on starting the car as soon as he sat down. Ashton took the passenger's seat since Luke wasn't there to do so. Calum reached the car and made his way around to the opposite side, stopping with the handle to stare at something just over her shoulder.
She whipped her head around to finally see Luke sprinting towards them, no longer wearing the striped button-up on his shoulders. He continued running towards them as the car came to life due to Michael's hard work. "Get in, Lane," Michael shouted to her, shifting the car into reverse to get them out.
Luke was still pretty far, and the two men had just turned around the corner, not far behind him. She hesitated, looking back to him and wondering if they were really going to leave him behind. "C'mon!" Michael shouted again.
She nodded and pulled herself quickly into the car, reaching for the handle to pull it closed until Ashton stopped her, "Leave it open."
Without questioning it, she retracted her hand despite seeing no reason to it. "Are we just leaving him here?"
"Of course we're not," Calum scrunched up his face, nearly disgusted by the idea that they'd leave him behind
"Then-" She began to question it further as the car shot backwards, and she followed Calum's eyes out the door which now faced the wall of the building that Luke ran along the side of. The car sped up to meet him, slowing just enough for him to reach out and grab above the open door.
Delaney saw this and quickly slid towards Calum, glad she realized in time even though the others figured that was an instruction that was fair to leave out. His grip stayed steady on the outside of the car, using it to guide him into the seat next to Delaney as he jumped in, using his grip to swing himself rather gracefully into place.
As soon as he pulled his arm into the car, Michael again picked up the speed fast enough that the car door closed on its own. It took only a few seconds for the car to reach the two men, who now both held guns, pointing and aiming them towards the moving car. Luke's chest rose and fell quickly after running to recover his breathing. And apparently, he didn't have enough breath to warn Delaney to duck as the others were on instinct. He instead, placed a hand just between her shoulders and pushed with enough force to push her down, and make it the slightest bit painful. That wasn't his intention but it was definitely the result.
She was happy to take the pain as soon as the bullets came crashing around their surroundings. With each and every shot she winced, sure it would be the one to hit Michael, who could only duck so much while trying to drive.
Even she was still struggling to catch her breath and the awkward position didn't help, neither did the second shattering of glass in the last few minutes. Each person in the back seat felt the broken glass rain on them, little nicks in their skin barely a concern. "Stay down," Luke mumbled so quiet over the noise outside the car that only Delaney heard, and barely.
The noise of gunshots faded quickly, but the window, which now had a nice sized opening in it (thanks to the bullet) made plenty of noise to make up for it. The high speed they were going and the natural summer breeze combined to create enough noise to uncomfortably fill the car, even without any of their voices.
They slowly rose from their crouched positions now that it was safe, and they were far enough from the venue that no fan would see they stole their car and were driving around with a shattered window.
It raised goosebumps along her arms, which were crossed over her chest as she stared at the car's navigation screen, trying as hard as she could to ignore her increasingly anxious stomach that made her feel like she'd throw up any second.
"So," Ashton said after a long while of none of them speaking. "Who's ready to play a show?" He looked up at the three in the back seat, who all faced him with plain, unimpressed expressions. They weren't fully able to appreciate the joke after what they had just gone through, and Delaney wondered how he was able to make the joke after that. "Glad you're all so excited because there's nowhere else to go," he continued his joke after no one laughed, turning back to face the front.
"If they've been following you, won't they know to find you there?" Delaney asked, moving her eyes to the road in front of her.
"We never have to be alone at a concert, there are too many people there that could catch them so they've never tried to come to a venue," Michael explained.
"Yet," Calum added, slipping quickly under Ashton's entertaining influence with a small smirk.
"We can't stay in the hotel tonight," Luke stated, his arm resting on the car door, holding the side of his face at the perfect angle to stare out the window.
"We shouldn't," Michael agreed, using the rearview mirror to see him. "But where else are we gonna go?"
Luke shook his head, he was both mentally and physically worn out and didn't want to have to come up with a plan. They all thought for a while, and Delaney ran her hands along her bare arms in an attempt to warm them up just as she had an idea. "Where's the next concert?"
"Uh," Ashton thought out loud. "Must be Toronto, right?"
"Yeah, I think," Michael said.
"And how far would you say the venue is from the Niagara border?" She continued her thought out loud, on a roll for actually getting her questions answered by the band.
"I dunno. Probably like four hundred miles or something like that. Why?" Ashton answered again, furrowing his brows as he turned around again to face her.
"So, like seven hours," she whispered to herself, so tempted to follow their pattern and not satisfy his curiosity. But she knew it was for their safety. "It's a long drive but my dad has a condo in Toronto. I lived there for a long time growing up but he hasn't been there in...years, I guess."
"How would we get in?" Luke joined in the conversation, also turning to face her.
"The lock is my thumbprint. He might've taken mine off, but I doubt he's even had the chance to go over to do that if he wanted to," she explained her simple idea, sparking looks between the four boys, but no immediate denial. Even from Luke.
Michael took in a breath after a while and shrugged, "It's the best we've got."
"I'll make some calls before the show and we'll decide then," Luke nodded, repeating the nervous act of wiping his palms along his legs.
"You willing to drive that long, Cliffo?" Ashton nudged his shoulder.
"Hell no," he scrunched his face. "I'm having a nap before the show and then I'll drive halfway. You guys can split the other half, I don't care."
"That's alright, just keep your eyes on the road right now," Calum joined the conversation specifically to scold him, causing him to dramatize his turn around to glare at him, but something else caught his eye.
He let his eyes flicker back to the road, so he knew where they were going, but nodded at Delaney. "What happened to you?"
She lifted her arms, knitting her brows together as she searched herself for what he was talking about. It didn't take her long to see the tear in her shirt down her ribs, where some light scratches had stained the shirt with a small amount of blood, which brought the distant stinging of it back to her focus. "Oh," she said after realizing, shifting her positioning to avoid getting blood on anything. Or Luke, who had leaned into the car door to give her space. "I wasn't careful getting out and slid down the side of the building, I guess. I didn't notice this, though."
"There'll be someone to help you clean up when we get there. We'll just say Luke pushed you or something. They'll believe it," Calum joked, making even Luke let out a small laugh.
"Not a bad first injury on the job, though," Ashton said, looking back to smile at her, holding out a fist for her to bump. Which she did. But not without wondering more about them, if they were able to go through something like that and take only a few minutes to recovering before being able to make jokes and bump fists.
What other things had they done that made this a mundane event in comparison?
"Wait, first?"
I better not see any Better man slander