When Jade heard about Monster Mash, her first thought was that they were a group of dumb teenagers with little talent but a lot of marketing and hair spray behind them, nothing new.
She definitely did not expect six oversexualized guys, all with unreal bodies, clothes that seemed more appropriate for a Halloween party IF they were wearing something and, she had to admit, great voices.
But! A boyband was a boyband.
It didn't take more than abs and handsome faces to make an average girl fall in love, did it?
Well, Jade was not average, and she refused to pay attention to the invasive tastes of girls her age.
Because she was not stupid, nor did she fall easily for chiselled jawlines like many plastic or desperate girls...
Wow! Jade sounded like a horrible person even to her own ears!
Because yes, Jade could be very condescending when she was younger... Seventeen days ago.
Good thing she wasn't like that anymore!
And she thanked Monster Mash for that.
Oh the irony!
She used to be dark, Goth and rude... Now she was only dark and Goth.
Darkness and kindness are not at odds, right?
Being rude and being dark are two very different things.
And being intelligent was not the same as invalidating the tastes of others, or her own.
It didn't make her better, now she knew.
She had given up trying to always be the 'smartest and darkest' in the room to just be herself and enjoy life and music regardless of gender.
Monster Mash had changed her for the better.
At first, all she knew was that the boyband had the whole world crazy, and that they became known for their strong vocals, signature harmonies, and were ranked as the best vocal boy band in no time, but they also became the closest group to their fans and they openly respected the boybands that preceded them, be it Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, One Direction, Big Time Rush, CNCO, all of those. They were also not silent either when saying that they had been greatly inspired by BTS and that they admired their art and discipline, and they even started as a duet in favour of a good cause singing covers of Girlbands like Blackpink, Little Mix and even Fifth Harmony.
In Jade's eyes, this was nothing more than a publicity stunt, but after getting to know the boys better, she knew that all their words were sincere.
It seemed like yesterday when she fell in love and her life changed.
And to think that, at first, she hated them!
But the guys didn't make it easy when she heard them sing for the first time either.
The first song she heard was 'Call Me Your Monster' and the music video, which had not even been uploaded for twenty-four hours and already had eight million views, was quite the sight, she could not lie. The guys were all dressed as bikers, in colourful faux leather vests with no shirts nor sleeves because... Abs and biceps?
When the video was over, and the boys ended up in a ring of fire in a junkyard surrounded by drifting motorcyclists, the only thing that Jade asked herself was...
Who put six powerful voices, particularly similar to those of Zayn Malik, Adam Lambert, Alejandro Fernandez, Patrick Stump, John Cooper and David Phelps, together to sing this kind of misogynistic song?!
Was it even music?!
Why were they singing... That?!
And why were these six boys so shouty?
Because yes, they all could sing and were pretty impressive, but what kind of obscene, sexist lyrics were those?!
Was this what Jade's generation enjoyed?
And that music... That strange mixture of R&B, Dance-pop and Reggaeton... Why?! Just why?!
She would never listen to that!
It was an aberration! Degrading and sexist music, sung by superficial jocks who, although talented, should be ashamed of... That!
It was a calamity! She would never hear nor support them... No!
Jade had a lot of self-respect and strong ideals against all of this.
And honestly? She had too much of a good taste in music to fall for this.
Or so she used to say.
Actively rejecting what Jade thought was empty and shallow 'teenage' music gave her the sense that she was somehow better and more informed than the people around her, but that all changed when Jade gave Monster Mash a second chance and watched the music video for their debut single: My Beautiful Freak.
Jade wasn't crazy about the melody, but the words were really sweet. It was about a girl who considered herself a freak, but that was exactly what drew the boys like moths to light.
It was as if they were singing into the ear of all those girls who felt like outcasts, telling them that they loved them just the way they were.
The video was nothing complex or elaborate, just six guys who hated sleeves dressed in chains, faux leather, and furry coats, singing inside an old castle, ending with a mini concert in the courtyard with maybe fifty people cheering them on. The lack of budget was noticeable!
Initially hesitant about what Jade assumed was a troupe of floppy-haired boys who looked as if they'd been designed in a lab by scientists to appeal to girls her age and younger, she soon became strangely fascinated by not only the band but also the peculiarities of each individual member, the specific dynamics that existed between them, and the millions of fans who felt the same way.
And it was a pleasant surprise that not all of their songs talked about sex and domination or fight for control in bed, which she was already beginning to like. In fact, many of their lyrics talked about embracing your flaws, being the best version of yourself, saying no to toxic relationships and... Wow!
Maybe she judged the boys too quickly.
And maybe she also considered them to be dumb-headed, selfish gym jocks way too quickly, because they were all philanthropic, altruistic and intelligent.
Well, Jade had been wrong about them in every way.
The voices were good, the music was catchy, they were the nicest people ever, they were all handsome and had some killer style too!
So, before she knew it, she started spending money on second-hand teen gossip magazines that had Monster Mash on the cover, she started making her own collages, she saved a thousand photos of them on her phone, she learned all the lyrics from their two albums, spent entire afternoons dancing in her room, looking for fun facts about the boys, and hell! She even looked up the boys' weight, height, birthdays and zodiac signs online!
And she definitely wasn't going to talk about the secret folder she had on her laptop full of photos of them shirtless!
Oh! That was her dirty, dirty little secret!
Had she become a plastic or stupid girl?
To hell with acting superior! The unhappiest people are the ones who spend their time wearing masks!
Jade would no longer judge anyone, not even herself, for being passionate!
And as time went by, Jade began to get more and more involved in Monster Mash, taking the time to meet the boys through interviews, laughing at their silliness, and even fantasizing about them.
Frank Rubinstein, Draco Von Stroker, Alycandro Alfaro, Finn Seamons, Zeth Rahman and Everett Frostakov were the names that became her mantra.
They became her life teachers, her friends, her family.
She became part of the Monster Mash fandom.
Exactly seventeen days after hearing 'Call Me Yours Monster' for the first time, Jade was already a Masher to the core, and now she was dressed in a white Monster Mash T-shirt and a purple skirt looking at those flawless faces on Melody's television.
They all had hypnotic eyes and gorgeous smiles.
She was mesmerized, captivated by them.
On Melody's bed, inside a typical fangirl's room, her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
There were six posters on the wall, one for each boy. Teen Life magazine had released a six-volume special which included those posters and detailed information on each of the band members, and Melody had gotten all of them, although she said those were gifts from her Aunt Carol. The room was so big and full of mugs, photos, framed T-shirts, and souvenirs that it looked like a museum.
Melody even had a bedspread and towels with the faces of the boys on them.
Jade always died of envy whenever she visited Melody, but not tonight.
This was a special night.
She wasn't alone at home reading fanfics on her phone, nor studying lying in bed with her feet up barely paying attention to whatever she was studying, it wasn't even a night of feeling the boys embracing her while she blew her ears listening to their songs in bed with her headphones at full volume.
No...
Tonight, Jade and Melody had agreed to watch a concert live. It would have been great to go and see the guys on stage, but a livestream was the best option since the tickets sold out in five minutes and the streaming service's premier pass was way cheaper.
It was a shame, since Melody and Jade lived only a two-hour drive from the big city, specifically the stadium, where the boys would perform for their last concert of the tour.
But Jade was never the type and girl who sold a kidney to get a ticket, nor would she take the ticket for free, because she knew that the excitement of seeing the boys in real life just a few feet away from her would make her faint.
She simply wouldn't contain her excitement.
Just watching the boys on television was enough to make her hyperventilate, hence why Melody decided to open the window to get some air.
Jade didn't know what was happening to her, but seeing a concert and hearing the deep, medium, and high voices of the six boys had her feeling too emotional, lost in perfect harmonies and sounds she couldn't name.
For that, there was Melody, the daughter of a famous vocal coach, and daughter of the owner of a record label in Los Angeles.
Jade had her doubts about coming to Melody's room to see Monster Mash live at last, but now she couldn't think about leaving. She didn't even want to think that the concert would end sooner or later.
Experiencing Monster Mash was almost entirely reliant on feelings. It was emotional, not logical; instinctual and kind of accidental.
Her relationship with Monster Mash represented the purity of her love for something.
There was a tickling in her gut, a certain weight in her breathing.
Her heart was beating a thousand times per hour.
Right now, halfway through the concert, Jade felt so warm, relaxed, empowered, like she could do anything now. Like nothing mattered anymore. No one else existed besides this band and her.
And then they sang the song that started it all...
Call Me Your Monster, the first single of their highly anticipated third album.
It was as if the world around Jade had disappeared.
For the first time, she felt that she belonged with someone...
With them...