"Are you ready?" Maddie shouted over the extremely loud music, her eyes wide with excitement like a puppy's would be. We were front and center in the audience, and the opening act's last chords rang out in the speakers. The boys would be on soon and I couldn't wait any longer, my heart was beating out of my chest in anxiousness. Luckily, I had taken my pills so nothing would happen, but still. I was excited as hell.
"Hell yeah!" I cheered, throwing my already sweaty arms into the air as I cheered for the band before they left the stage. I quickly turned on my camera, hoping to get a few shots of the boys walking onto the stage.
Soon enough, Bondy appeared out of the right side of the stage, guitar swung over his neck. Maddie of course went wild, and he shot her a wave and wink as he walked over to his mic on the far left side. Bob was next to walk out, I made eye contact with him and shot him a thumbs up and a smile, which he returned before sitting down to his drums. Benji was soon to follow, not having to walk much as his mic was already on the right side. Eventually, Van joined the rest of the boys on stage, running to his middle mic. His eyes were shining brightly and a huge grin was painted on his face.
He was absolutely gorgeous.
Gorgeous may seem too feminine of a term to describe him as, but my God, he was so pretty. The lights hit his eyes just perfectly, so that the bright blueness of them popped out like a flower in a field of weeds. His dark lashes shielded the oceans he had captured, and they were honestly much more voluminous than mine. But I think my favorite thing was the crooked smile that hung just above his chin. It was filled with so much passion for what he did that I could not take my eyes off of him. I quickly snapped a picture.
"Hello, Kansas City! We're Catfish and the Bottlemen, hope yous enjoy the show!" Van called out into the microphone. I cheered loudly with the crowd, throwing my hands into the air to clap as they began to play the chords for Homesick. I belted out the lyrics, not taking my eyes off of Van. The way he closed his eyes and sang out passionately, hitting every note perfectly, made my heart melt. And the way he moved his hips...my God...those hips....
Long story short I wanted to do things to that man.
I snapped more pictures of the lads (although most of them were of Van) as the night continued on. I was having an absolute blast, dancing and shaking my hips to the tunes and belting out the lyrics with Maddie. However, the highlight of the performance was probably when they played Outside. It was my absolute favorite, and the way Van winked at me while seductively pressing his swollen lips against the mic made me feel some type of way. I made sure to take loads of pictures, never wanting to forget that moment.
As they played Tyrants, the last song of the night, I was a little disheartened. I didn't want it to end. Although, the thought of getting to go back to the trailer and hang out with Van afterwards made me perk up quite fast, and I enjoyed the last 5 minutes of the concert.
"KC, you've been a lovely crowd! Thank yous for having us!" Van shouted into the mic once it was finally over, sweat dripping from his hair and face. He licked his lips and caught my eye, smiling at me. I smiled back, proceeding to look towards the ground. People started pouring out of the venue, and it instantly felt about ten degrees cooler in there.
"Let's go get a drink!" Maddie grabbed my wrist, leading me to the small bar in the back of the venue. A drink sounded amazing right about now.
"Six shots, please!" Maddie told the bartender, who nodded. I gave her a funny look.
"What? You can't have beer all the time. We're celebrating the boys' great concert and the fact that we'll get to go home with them afterwards, live a little!" She laughed, nudging me with her shoulder. I sighed, there was no way I was getting out of this.
Once the bartender was done pouring the shots, Maddie thanked him by handing him a couple of bills. She split the order in half, sliding three filled shot glasses towards me and kept the others for herself.
"You ready?" She asked excitedly, practically bouncing up and down. I'm not sure why she was so hyped up about this, it was just alcohol. The type of alcohol that I hated too, with no pleasant taste at all. Plus, it physically hurts the back of your throat to drink it so what's the point, really?
"Sure, I guess." I groaned.
"One, two, three!" She counted down, downing the shots one by one as she finished. I did the same, closing my eyes and throwing my head back as I quickly swallowed the drinks which burned like hell. I coughed a bit at the end, resulting in Maddie laughing at me.
"This is why I like my beer." I grumbled, taking the liberty of ordering myself one.
"Hello, my darling." Bondy said, wrapping an arm around Maddie's waist just as my beer was placed in front of me on the bar. He kissed her cheek and she giggled, causing me to squirm in awkwardness and swivel my barstool a bit so that I wasn't facing them directly. I took a sip of my beer when I felt a pair of large hands sit atop of my shoulders.
"How'd you like the show, love?" A raspy voice that I loved way too much asked me, hot breath hitting my ear. I shivered.
"Amazing!" I swiveled my chair around to face Van, who was grinning like a little kid on Christmas morning. Sweat rolled down his forehead and temples, and he looked extremely attractive in that moment.
"I'm glad you liked it, Kat. What'd you think about Outside, aye?" He asked, winking. A burst of confidence erupted in me (probably from the shots I just took and the beer that was running low in my mug) and I leapt forward, latching my hands around the back of his neck, bringing him in for a huge hug. He began to chuckle, but soon stopped as I whispered into his ear, brushing my lips against it. His sweaty hair rubbed against my face but it didn't bother me much.
"Class." This time it was his turn to shiver and I smirked to myself. Their Welsh lingo was quite fun to use, I especially liked 'class' and 'lads'.
I pulled back from him and grabbed my beer, taking a sip of it and staring up at him innocently. His eyes were wide and I internally praised myself for shocking him.
"I-I need a ciggy." He stuttered, racing out the front doors. I laughed and swiveled my chair around to face the bar again. I felt lonely now, Bondy and Maddie were deep in a conversation and I didn't want to interrupt so I pulled out my camera and flipped through the pictures that I had taken tonight. Most of them were pretty damn good. I had one of Bondy concentrating really hard on playing his guitar and I made a mental note to print that one out for Maddie, she'd adore it. There was one of Benji singing into the mic and one of Bob flipping his hair wildly as he beat on the drums. I smiled, I really liked that one.
"Whatcha lookin' at, aye?" A voice said beside me. I quickly turned to see none other than Bob sporting a small dimpled grin and a dark blue towel hanging around his sweaty neck.
"Hey! Great job on the show tonight!" I jumped up, greeting him with a light hug. He returned it politely and sat down at the open barstool next to me.
"Thanks, you seem to have enjoyed it by the way you were dancing in the crowd." He chuckled, ordering himself a beer. I respected a fellow beer drinker.
"I didn't think you'd be able to see me." I blushed, suddenly feeling embarrassed.
"Oi, I saw you alright. Flipping your hair everywhere and staring lovingly at Van. Quite cute." He teased, taking a sip of the ale that had been placed in front of him.
"You were doing the same thing!" I laughed loudly, finishing my first full drink and ordering another.
"Oi, I was not!" He hollered.
"See for yourself!" I handed the camera to him as he gazed at the picture of himself with his hair flung widely around his head, frozen in time.
"Wow, this is actually proper amazing!" He gasped, flipping through the other pictures I had taken.
"Thanks, I guess I'm a bit of a photographer." I smiled to myself.
"A bit? These are class!" He shouted, causing me to shush him. He giggled, taking a sip of his beer as people began to stare. I began to tell him about how I had just recently got a job as a photographer for a big name magazine company, and he congratulated me.
"Oi, Benji! Where've you been, lad? Come check out these photos Kate took!" Bob hollered again as Benji walked towards the bar. I shushed him again, to which he replied another giggle.
"He's a major lightweight, should be drunk by the time he even finishes that beer," Benji chuckled, earning a 'shut up' from Bob,"but anyways, I was outside, on the phone with Dani."
Dani was Benji's girlfriend. She was really beautiful, with an always-changing hair color and high cheekbones. I hoped to meet her sometime.
"Look at these pictures, lad. They're class." Bob shoved the camera into Benji's hands and I winced, hoping he didn't break it. He didn't.
"These are fvcking class, Kate! Are you a photographer?" He asked. I nodded.
"That's really cool! Would you mind printing this out for me? I think Dani would like it." He blushed. I 'aww'ed before he rolled his eyes and gave me the camera back. Just as I was about to turn it off, I looked at the screen and gasped at what I saw. It was a picture of Van playing his acoustic guitar during Hourglass, with a spotlight on him. My hand was up and in the frame, almost as if I was about to reach out and touch him. I absolutely fell in love with this picture, it was gorgeous. Probably the best shot I've ever taken. I smiled, knowing that I'd print out several copies of this.
"Wow, that's a really great shot." Benji piped up, ripping me from my thoughts, "by the way, did you do or say something to Van? Because he's outside pacing back and forth with a fag lit in his mouth and he looks proper frazzled." I laughed really hard just hearing this.
"I may have messed with him a bit." I smirked, finishing my second beer and ordering yet another.
"Well, you need to go talk to him or something because he looks like an absolute wreck." Benji coaxed. I giggled, downing the rest of my third beer. I was definitely buzzed at this point, with three shots and three pints of beer in my system all downed within an hour.
"Alright, I'll be back!" I swung my camera around my neck and hopped out of my bar stool and back onto the ground, walking towards the front doors to go find Van.
Once I busted the doors open, a cold blast of air hit me and I shivered. I pulled the jean jacket around my arms as the cold air still flew up under my dress.
"Van?" I called out, my teeth chattering.
"Over here, Kat." A raspy voice said about ten feet from me. Sure enough, Van was just as Benji described, pacing back and forth with a cigarette tucked between his teeth. He blew out a puff of smoke as I neared him.
"What're ya doing?" I asked, rubbing my arms up and down.
"Having a fag, what does it look like?" He laughed, causing me to frown,"oi, I didn't mean it like that, love. C'mere." He said, opening his arms out for me, noticing how cold I was. I ran into them, smiling as his warmth spread through my body. I hummed in contentment.
"Thanks, love" I stood up on my tiptoes and whispered into his ear, just as I did earlier, making sure to brush my lips against his cold ear.
"Fook, Kat. You've gotta stop doing that." He said breathily, tightening his grip around my small frame.
"Why? I like it, it's funny." I hiccuped.
"Because then you make me want to do things to you.." He whispered into my ear.
"Oh really now?" I smirked, pulling away from him slightly so that I could look him in the eyes. I ran my hand down his chest slowly, watching how wide they became.
"Kat, stop. You're drunk."
"Hmm, not really." I sung out.
"Ah, fook it. You're so hot." He groaned, pushing me up against the brick wall of the building harshly and connecting his swollen lips to mine.
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o shit whaddup
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