Sapphires POV
I manage not to cry after hearing the news. How could I have been so fucking stupid? Of course it was Michael who stole the money. He had literally been rubbing it in my face less than an hour ago. How did he even know? He was fucking messed up. This was fucking messed up.
I lean my head against the brick wall, my eyes shut. I don’t know how long I’d been hanging in the hallway for. Long enough for the worst case scenario to come creeping into my mind. I would never think Michael would hurt the boys before. But I know he did hurt them, not physically, but mentally. He used the second thing they wanted most to hurt them, to ruin the first thing they wanted. Michael was selfish enough to do this, to get his own shitty band signed. Fuck.
The sound of footsteps break me out of my thoughts. I turn to see Brody and Jason walking together, Brody with his drum sticks. They must be heading to side stage to get ready to go on. I can’t believe it’s already time for the competition. Jason sends me a smirk as he passes, as Brody just looks down. I’ll never understand Brody. He seems like such a nice kid.
More footsteps come into earshot, as Sam is walking behind. He smiles at me, leaning against the wall opposite me.
“Hey” He says, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Hey” I say, half smiling.
“You coming down to watch us?” Sam asks.
“I’ll consider it” I smirk, mockingly. Sam chuckles, his brown hair falling over his eye. I stare at him, the familiar feelings seeping back to me. I can’t let him get to me. He’s the competition.
“I’ll see you round… Saph” He waves, his face still holding that smile. He pushes himself off the wall, leaving me staring widely into his back. I take a deep breath, looking straight ahead again. That was weird. I knew he wasn’t a dick when Jason wasn’t around, but this was different.
I mentally scold myself and begin to follow down the hallway, to the bar.
“Sapphire”
I jump in fright, snapping my head to look at Tre who appeared next to me.
“Fuck!” My hand flies to my chest. Once again, I’ve started to be given heart attacks again.
“Sorry” Tre lets out a laugh, holding my arm to support me. “You heading to the bar now? Strutter are about to go on” He says, making sure to say Strutter with disgust.
“Yeah” I breathe. “You ready for tonight?”
“Somewhat. Good thing we got the money thing sorted out”
I roll my eyes. Billie must have told Mike and Tre already. It was a surprising reaction though. I was thinking more of the “I’m going to kill that fucking bastard” for Tre’s reaction, but this was nice. We walk out from the curtain, seeing the sea of people taking seats at tables. I didn’t think they’d get a full house for something like this.
“Wow” Tre’s jaw drops. I smile at his reaction. His widened eyes read over the crowd, as he looks like he’s going to start jumping up and down.
“Holy shit!” Tre yells a little too loud, making people sitting at the bar turn around and laugh at him.
“Come on Tre, shows about to start” I pull him along, where Billie and Mike were standing at the back.
“Hey” Mike nods at us. I nod back smiling, letting go of Tre’s arm. Billie half smiles at me, and I hope a blush is not prominent on my face. I hesitantly smile back, turning myself to face the stage. The same greasy black haired guy from the “jump in” comes up on stage. He grabs the microphone, making the annoying high pitched screech echo through the speakers. After a beer is thrown by someone, the guy on stage nervously clears his throat.
“H- Hey everyone…” He stutters.
“Get on with it!” Someone shouts from the crowd. After a couple of minutes of constant banter, I zone out. My head unconsciously turns to Billie and I finally take a good look at him. His hair looks like his hands had run through it endlessly, and his green eyes didn’t hold that familiar gleam. He looked…. Sad.
Maybe he was stressed about preforming, maybe he was stressed about Hayley, maybe he was stressed because of me. Maybe I was the one who took the light behind his eyes because of my stupid problems about Michael. If I hadn’t gotten with Michael, this wouldn’t have happened. This is all my fault.
“Please welcome the first competitor on stage…. Strutter!”
A roar of cheers ring around the room. It seems like some fans have followed the band out here. I’ve only heard these guys play once or twice, and I knew they weren’t amazing. With instruments, yes. Sam and Joe were playing high level guitar at age 12. And Brody, he’s awesome on drums. The only problem is the lyric writing, they were really simple. They wrote a majority of their songs as pre-pubescent teens so let’s just say they’re not the best.
Sam comes on first, his arms raised in the air. I can’t help but smile watching him. He rambles on about The who, Pink Floyd, led Zep, Sound Garden and The Rolling Stones so much, and now he actually gets the chance to experience what they experience. Well, down sized a lot.
Jason and Brody come out next, huge smiles on their face. They introduce themselves, earning cheers and whoops from the crowd. Their first song begins and the mosh pit at the front of the stage starts almost immediately.
“Hey, wanna go join?” Tre excitedly asks Mike, jumping up and down.
“Maybe later buddy, I wanna stay dry for the show” Mike pats him on the shoulder as Tre pouts. I can see why Mike said no. Tre in a mosh pit does not end well. Billie laughs, taking his full attention off the band on stage. I wonder what he’s thinking. He doesn’t seem mad at me, but he still seems sad. And I hated to see Billie Joe sad.
I stand on my tip toes to see the line of judges sat at a long table. There sat Chris, Kyle, a Taylor Momsen look alike, and finally… shit! The Goth chick! The one that Billie made out with!
“Hey Billie, check out the judges” I point a thumb at them, biting my lip. Billies face goes pale as his eyes land on the girl. Mike and Tre stare at us puzzled while I begin to laugh.
“Hey, don’t worry!” I turn to Billie. “Maybe she’ll give you an advantage!”
Billie playfully hits me in the arm as Tre jumps in the middle to ask what’s going on. I look up at Billie, a smirk on my face as he clenches his teeth.
A mop of red hair behind Billie catches my attention.
Michael.
I watch as he turns around, checking to see if anyone is following before disappearing behind the curtain. He’s going back stage.
“You explain Billie... I’ll be right back” I slowly say, not taking my eyes off the curtain.
“Wait where you going?” Billie tries to call out, but I’m already off. I weave through people watching the show, and avoid the mosh pit as best as I can. Soon, I reach the curtain hanging off the side of the stage and I quickly slip through to the hallway.
Time to confront Michael Clifford.
A/N I'm so sorry for this filler chapter, I promise the next chapter will be better.
I have a new fanfiction, if anyones interested called Welcome To Paradise.
Its a collab fanfic written by me and @potterheadproblem_73 so we would appreciate it if you checked it out, and gave it some love. We update once a week but they're long, and the first chapter is already posted.
Instagram: @billiejoefinestrong
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