-21- Oh no
-April 16th, 2014-
-Annie-
It was 5:47, Molly got out of her geology lab and discussion in exactly 3 minutes. This meant 3 minutes until I pick her up and we drive to Chicago for the night. Meanwhile, I have been bickering with Niall over the phone.
“We are not starting this again. I want to forgive you Ni, Niall…. I do want to forgive you. I just can’t do that right now. We have to be over. I need space and I need time to think. I have exams coming up and I really don’t want to deal with this right now. I need to focus on me, and you need to focus on the tour. I want what is best for you.” I said calmly into the phone, I didn’t want to falter on the official decision to break up with him.
“Right, I know that Annie. But the offer still stands.”
“What offer?”
“Bogota. You can still come with us. Maybe bring Molly? I told you you could come to the first week or so of shows. I want you to be there. Harry and Zayn miss you. We can be friends, it will be like old times. You still deserve the vacation, please? I already have your plane ticket. I’ll get one for Molly too. Come on Annie!”
“Oh… right Bogota. Uh..” I hesitated.
If I did go I know I would have a good time. I did miss Zayn, and Harry, and his awful jokes and cute little dances. The shows were always fun for me, and Niall was paying for my ticket. If Molly went that would make it more fun. It’d be a good start to summer. Maybe Perrie would be there, it beats the icky April weather in Michigan.
I saw Molly coming out of the science building, I was more than ready to head to Chicago. “Okay Niall, I’ll think about it. Look, I gotta go. We can talk about it later.”
“Alright. Well the option is still there. Bye babe.”
The passenger side door opened and Molly flung her backpack into the back seat of my little grey Corolla. “ROADTRIP 2K14” She exclaimed before sitting down and shutting the car door.
She plugged in the GPS and put in our friend’s address from high school. She was at De Paul University, her dorm happened to be about 15 minutes from the Riviera. We planned to stay there for the night and catch up with her before leaving early to wait in line the next day.
“What are you laughing about?” I asked as Molly was slightly giggling from the passenger seat of the car.
“Oh, Calum just texted me something. But they just arrived at their hotel for the night.”
“Please date. Wait, will you text Michael something from my phone really quick?” I asked glancing down at my phone that was in the cup holder.
“Looks like he already texted you.” She told me as she slid over his name and unlocked my phone. “He said- ‘Just got to the hotel. When are you coming?’”
“Hmm, just say I’ll see him tomorrow, and I’ll talk to him more when we get to Chicago.”
“Okay…sent it.” Molly put my phone down and we continued to listen to the new ‘She Looks so Perfect EP’ on the way to Chicago. I was so excited to hear these songs live, I knew they would sound thirty times better live.
--
“You made it!” Alyssa said as she met us at the front of her building so she could check us into her dorm.
We went up to her small dorm room and met her two roommates. We ate dinner at the dining hall and were talking in her dorm when I got a text from Michael.
* Call me? Are you in Chicken-go?” *
I laughed at his weird name for Chicago.
*No, but I’m in Chicago(:*
Within a few minutes I was getting a phone call from him. I walked into Alyssa’s shared bathroom and closed the door.
“Hi”
“Hi. Are you coming to our hotel?”
“No, I’m sorry. We are with a friend from high school, I’ll be there tomorrow though. Well, Molly and I actually planned on just waiting in the line for general admission.”
“You’re kidding me?” He laughed and continued “You don’t have to do that, I can get you two both a pass, I thought we were going to hang out before the show tomorrow?”
“Well, Molly and I haven’t been to a concert in a long time and want to just kinda wait outside with everyone else. I’ll see you after the show though, I promise.”
“Then you’re coming with us to Detroit right?”
“Well we both have class Friday morning. We are skipping all day tomorrow for the concert, so after our classes we will leave.”
“You’re killing me. You know that?” He lightly laughed into the phone. “But as long as you’ll be there in Detroit, I’m okay with it.”
“I will be there!”
“You promise?” He asked.
“Yes, I promise Mike.”
“So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then? After the show? When you’re all smashed together from being in the mosh pit at our show?” He laughed.
“You’ll be the gross and sweaty one. But yes, I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Alright. Have a good night.”
“You too, bye.”
“Bye.”
I hung up and walked back into Alyssa’s room.
The rest of the night was spent talking and laughing with Molly, Alyssa, and her roommates. Molly and I went to bed early that night after showering.
-
Before I knew it, it was concert day. Concert days to me were always very serious. Molly and I climbed down from Alyssa’s small dorm bed and went into her bathroom to change and put on our makeup.
Molly wore a tight black crop top, black leggings, and a red and white flannel with brown combats boots. I wore my tye-dye ying yang shirt, with my jean shirt over it with a pair of black leggings and my black boots. Not going to lie, we looked pretty good. My makeup was light and I sprayed my hair with texture spray so it would have some volume. Molly and I double checked for our tickets, and set our phones on airplane to save as much battery as possible. Before doing so, I sent a quick text to Michael.
*Waiting in line all day for your dumb band. You’re killing me. * I sent it as a joke obviously, but I hope he understood that, and I hope he caught on to the light flirting I was getting into.
“Thanks for letting us stay Lyss. See you soon, good luck with finals.” I said as I hugged her goodbye and she checked us out of her dorm.
We hopped in the car and drove past the venue. The Riviera was one of my favorite venues in Chicago. It was older and it was where I saw Ed Sheeran for the first time, so it kind of held a special place in my heart. The inside was beautiful with it’s high ceilings and old rustic feel. I hated all the people that were always in there, but every memory I have there is a good one.
Some girls were already lined up and we were more than ready to wait in line. It was about 8:00 in the morning and all we had to do was find parking. We brought a small bag with some snacks, water, and a camera in it to wait in line with us. We parked in some shopping center parking lot and locked the door before walking a block and a half to the venue and getting in line. It was still cold out, so we took our coats with us and decided we would drop them, and the bag with food off back at the car once it was closer to the start of the show.
“Well, this is the end of it.” Molly said as we found the back of the line and sat down in our huge parkas. Most of the fans were a few years younger than me and everyone was bundled up in their blankets and coats. The sun was shining, which was helping us warm up a little. It was a high of 53 degrees today, so not too bad.
The next group of girls came up behind us and set down their blankets. There were three of them. One looked about my age, the other two were younger but I wasn’t quite sure.
One of the older sisters looked at me with huge eyes and her mouth dropped open.
Oh no, here we go.
I smiled nicely at her and before she could take a breath I brought my finger up to my lips and made a quick ‘shushing’ noise. I didn’t want to cause commotion, or be mobbed.
“You’re….oh my goodness…Annie. Right?”
“Don’t be silly Sarah,” one of the other sisters said before turning to me and her mouth dropped also. “Annie….hi……”
I honestly thought it was completely weird when girls came up to me and freaked out. Like I wasn’s as pretty as Perrie or the other girlfriends. I didn’t have some cool job or a stick thin body. I went to school and had nothing super special about me, so it was weird when girls treated me like I was also a celebrity. I was the furthest thing from it.
I gently smiled and said hello.
“Can we, wow, I love you. Sorry, uhm…can we get a picture?” The girl looked around for someone to take the picture and spotted Molly. “Oh my god, you two are both here. You guys are like friendship goals. Are you gunna date Calum?”
Molly just laughed and told the girl she would take the picture of us four.
The three sisters came on either side of me and we all smiled and posed for a picture.
“Thanks so much.” One said.
“What are the chances you are here. This is like some fanfiction.”
-
We ended up finding out that the sisters were here from Wisconsin and they were 20,18, and 15. Mandi was the oldest, with orange hair and a tall frame. Sarah was the 18 year old and she had long brown hair and dyed the ends a purple, she was a Michael girl, good choice. Bri was the youngest and had a tall frame, just like her other two sisters. The three said they always traveled around and went to the One Direction shows together. They were really sweet and after the initial shock that Molly and I were in front of them in line, they seemed to calm down and we made really good friends with them. We would watch their stuff while they went to go get lunch and they would watch ours if we left. I loved how close the two fandoms were. Ashton a lot of the time said how the fandoms were really protective of the bands so sometimes they didn’t get along, but at concerts everyone seemed to get along and It was nice to see so many girls bonding over one thing.
“My stomach is growling, we should put our coats away and then grab some lunch.” Molly said.
It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and we had eaten all our snacks. We decided we would call Jimmy Johns so they could deliver us food before taking our coats back to the car.
-
“We parked right here? Right? This is where we parked?” I said looking around at the small shopping center parking lot.
“I swore we were parked right here?” Molly said looking down the row of cars.
“Oh no…” I said looking at the sign on one of the light posts in the parking lot. It was a sign talking about cars being towed. This is not happening…
“Call it, we have nothing to lose….” Molly said standing next to me.
My heart was pounding and I started to feel nauseous.
“Hello? This is Stacy at Lincoln Towing.”
“Uh hi, I think my car is towed. It’s a grey Corolla, with a Michigan license plate.”
“Yes. It’s here. We are across from the cemetery on Clark street. You’ll need $200 to get your car out.”
“Oh, okay, thank you.” I said before I hung up the phone.
“Well, they have it. It’s $200 dollars to get out.”
“Well, we have to go. I’ll put it in my phone.”
Fuck. Fuck. Shit. My mom is going to kill me. I hope I have 200 dollars on my card. How the hell did we not see the sign? Shit, what if we are late for the show? How long does it take to get there?
My heart was racing and I felt like I was going to throw up at any second.
“It says it’s this way. A 12 minute walk.” Molly said heading off toward a cemetery.
The walk there was silent both of us probably freaking out inside. We were walking with a mission. We turned the corner to see 5sos’ tour bus, with security around it. They were telling girls not to walk behind the bus, but Molly and I snuck in through it, probably because we didn’t look like a 15 year old fangirl, and I swear to God that I hear Ashton;s giggle on the bus.
I should really call Michael, if for some reason I miss the show I’ll feel awful. I don’t want to wait in line anymore, I want to see him.
We turned a corner and saw the sign. It was the sketchiest building I have ever seen in my life. There was no inside, it was simply a little doorway in the side of the building. I walked into it and the women told me I needed $200 to bail it out.
I gave her my card only thinking of what my mom would say when she sees I just dropped that much money.
She’s gunna be so upset. I need to call her.
“Here ya go, have a good day.” Gee, thanks Stacy. I’ll have a great day.
“Hey, at least we didn’t wait till after the show, we would have been stranded here and it would have been another few hundred dollars to get it out.” Molly said as she made sure all of our bags and everything were still in the back seat.
We found another parking spot in a neighborhood nearby and we were both still on the verge of a mental breakdown. We got back to our spot and told Sarah, Mandi, and Bri what happened.
“I’m sure Niall will pay you back. He probably has more money than he knows what to do with.” Bri said.
I didn’t feel like correcting her and telling them we weren’t together so I just laughed and pulled out my phone to tell my mom what happened. Molly pulled out her phone to tell her mom what happened.
My mom was at a teacher’s conference all day so I left a message. “Hi mom. Everything is okay, but I just wanted to tell you the car got towed and we bailed it out. I just wanted to let you know. Molly and I are both okay, just a little shook up. I’ll see Saturday. Call me when you can, love you.” I hung up the phone and could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Before I started to cry I decided to call Michael to see if we could get let in now.
I waited for him to answer but he is probably in a radio interview, or meet and greet or something, so he didn’t. I sent him a quick text asking him to call or text me because I wanted to come backstage but didn’t know where to go.
I was starting to get nervous and had butterflies in my stomach.
-
It was an hour before the show started and the line just started to move. We were all shuffled down the line and into the arena. Molly and I were towards the front of the line but ended up being in the middle of the floor for the show. The girl next to me did a double take and gave me an up-down look and said “You’re Annie aren’t you?” I nodded and turned to Molly, trying not to pull more attention to us. The same girl tapped my shoulder and continued: “I saw a few pictures of you around here today, but didn’t think you would actually come. I’m glad Niall broke up with you. He was way too good for you anyway. One Direction is just awful.” I take back what I said about the fandoms being nice to each other.
I was used to getting some hate from fans but Niall was always there to tell me they were just jealous right after. I just asked if Molly and I could move to the left a little more. With the amount of people that were around, I felt like a sardine in a sardine can. I could barely reach down to pull my phone out. I was still waiting for Michael to respond but he hasn’t. I texted them all and so did Molly, but they must have all been busy.
The lights soon dimmed and my ears almost started to bleed as all the teenage girls’ screams erupted and filled the venue. I won’t lie, I started to freak out too. Fangirling was a comfortable thing for me to do. No one here judged me.
The boys came on and a bunch of my worries started to melt away as soon as I saw Ashton climb up on his drum set. I could feel the huge smile grow on my face as Michael took the stage.
“Calum’s arms! I’m dying!” Molly yelled in my ear and I couldn’t help but agree, they all looked so good on stage. Michael wore a dark green and blue flannel, I bet his eyes looked really good with it.
They came right on stage with ‘18’ and Molly and I jumped and danced along to it. Michael was right, it was a bit of a mosh pit, I was already sweating and the girl next to me kept elbowing me, but for some reason , I didn’t mind.
The music suddenly went quiet and the crowd started to talk to one another. Ashton left his drum kit and walked to the edge of the stage trying to quiet everyone down.
“UHM, OUR SOUND ISN’T WORKING. WE WILL GET IT FIXED AND BE RIGHT BACK. I’M SORRY. WE LOVE YOU!!” He yelled and him and the boys exited the stage. The crowd was confused and soon everyone’s phone seemed to buzz at one time. The crowd erupted in chanting ‘5sos’. Molly pulled out her phone to show me the tweet Ashton sent out apologizing to us again about the speakers blowing out.”
I soon felt my phone vibrate and it was a text from Michael.
*Damn speakers, lol. Sorry I haven’t seen your text until right now. Hope everything is good (: see you after the show. X *
Soon after I received the text Luke was back on stage followed by the others. They started their set over and Molly and I danced through the entire thing. Never in my life have I screamed so loud and been so in love with people as when Calum and Michael did the jump in Voodoo Doll. Molly and I basically gripped onto eachother for our dear lives. I didn’t even want to pretend I wasn’t having the time of my life.
-Michael-
Switch, strum, strum, leg kick, spin, spin,spin, “KEEP ON WHISPERING IN MY EAR, TELL ME ALL THE THINGS THAT I WANNA HEAR, CAUSE IT’S TRUE, THAT’S WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOUUUUAAAAAAAAA.” Strum, strum, run over to crowd. Where is Annie? I thought I saw her for a second, but the crowd is moving too fast and the lights are blinding me a little. I hope she’s still here. Shit, run back, I’m gunna miss my-- “KEEP ON WHISPERING IN MY EAR…”
-Annie-
The show was absolutely amazing, every single part of it. I was so happy I came and the hectic day was totally worth it. I was so excited to see Michael. He sent me a text telling Molly and I to go to the right of the stage and exit through that door, and come to the stairwell where we should see security and they knew we were coming.
We walked down the stairs and down the hall to their dressing room. Molly asked me if she looked cute and I said yes and she said I looked good too, not too sweaty. So we entered into the room and all the boys’ faces lit up.
“MY TWO FAVORTE GIRLS!” Ashton was the first one up and hugged both Molly and I at once.
“Hey!” We said in unison.
I looked over Ashton’s shoulder to see Michael waiting patiently. He came up to me and gave me a hug. “You made it!”
“I told you I would!” I said as I let go from the hug and he pulled me into his body by my waist.
“It sucks you guys can’t just go straight with us to Detroit tonight.” Calum said giving Molly a pouty face.
“When do you guys leave for that?” I asked.
“Not for a few hours. Crew has to take down and pack up and we can’t leave until a bunch of the fans go home. They’ll wait out there for hours.” Ashton said, taking a seat on the couch.
We spent a good half hour telling all the boys about the awful car situation and what else happened as we waited in line today. Ashton and Calum sat down with beers on the couch. We finished talking about the show and Luke had gone to shower and talk to Liz who was on tour with them for a few shows and was a very kind lady.
“We can go walk around, well inside…” Michael said to me getting up and stretching his arms.
I was right about his flannel shirt. The green went very well with his eyes.
We walked out on stage and I saw Ben.
“Girl with the crazy dance moves, right?” He said pointing to me.
“That’s me.” I said blushing and looking at the ground.
“See you tomorrow Ben!” Michael said as he started walking to the end of the stage and jumping off.
He offered me a hand down from the stage and started laughing.
“What?” I asked.
“I can’t believe your car got towed. I actually feel really awful. What did you even say? I have a huge red van and I think it’s in your lot.” He said leading us up a staircase to the upper balcony.
“No it’s not that car. It’s a little grey one. But Clifford would have been a hassle. He would never make it this far.”
“You’re sure you have to go back?” He said leading us down the balcony to the front row of seats. He shuffled between the seat and sat in the middle. I sat down next to him.
“Yes, I’m sure. But I won’t be waiting in line tomorrow. I’ll be backstage with you.”
“Good.”
We spent a few minutes watching the crew pack up and the Riviera looked completely different from an hour or so ago with hundreds of fans enjoying the music.
“I’m glad you’re here Annie.” He said softly and put his arm around the back of my chair.
“I mean your band doesn’t totally suck.” I joked.
“I’m serious Annie.”
“I know. I should be thanking you for coming to see me.”
“It’s nothing.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder and his arm came around my back and he rubbed my arm. I felt completely comfortable with him. I lifted my head up to him and just looked at him.
“What?” He asked.
“Nothin’.” I continued to stare at his face looking at his red lips.
“Do I have something on my---“ I cut off his sentence when I moved my lips close enough to feel him breathe out against mine.
He took my queue and closed the gap between our lips.
The kiss was gentle but meaningful. His lips were soft and he pulled me closer to his body. I pulled away first and blushed.
He lightly laughed and kissed me quickly on the lips again.
“We should probably get you back, yeah?” He said standing up and taking my hand to lead me down the stairs.
Oh no, did he not like me? He did kiss me back, so he had to? Was I too forward? Was it awkward. Shit, that was a dumb idea.
He dropped my hand before getting to the room with everyone else. Molly and Calum were sitting on one couch while Ashton was air drumming on the other. Luke was talking to someone on the crew and Michael and I joined Ashton on his couch.
“Is it time to go?” Molly asked when she saw me walk in.
“We should think about it, we have a bit of a drive home.”
“School is the most dumb thing ever.” Calum said looking at Molly.
“Dumbest, it is the dumbest thing ever, Calum. Maybe you should have stayed in school.” She teased and he rolled his eyes at her. “But we should go, I have class at 10, and as of right now that only means like 5 hours of sleep for me.”
“You should go then, we need you ready to jam out tomorrow. You had a long day today anyway.” Michael said rubbing my arm.
So it wasn’t as awkward as I thought.
I stood up from my spot and grabbed my wallet and keys.
“Bye everyone! See you tomorrow. Have a good night.” I said waving goodbye.
“I’ll walk you to the door.” Michael said getting up and following behind Molly and I.
We walked down the hall and up the stairs to the door.
I quickly hugged Michael and he rubbed my back.
“Text me when you’re home. Okay?”
“I will.”
I saw Calum give Molly a quick kiss on the cheek and I really hoped she would have some juicy details about her and Calum for me on the ride home.
Michael held the door open for us and I turned around once more to wave goodbye.
Molly and I were freezing in the cold night weather. All of a sudden I remembered the fans.
Shit.
Loud screams were heard.
“GROUPIES!”
“TELL ASHTON I WANT HIM TO BANG ME.”
“WAIT, THAT’S ANNIE. ANNIE! CAN I GET A SELFIE?”
Two security guys helped us past the fans and we walked past the tour buses to a different road a few blocks away from our car.
“So you and Calum?” I nudged Molly.
“It’s nothing. He just had his arm around me. I’ll see how tomorrow goes. But the little freckle on his cheek is really adorable, don’t you think?” She asked and I had no idea what freckle she was talking about.
“Sure.”
“BUT, what about you and Mike?”
“We kissed.” I said as I slowly ran away towards the car. Thankfully is was still there.
“You what?!? Are you going to date him? Oh lord, is he a good kisser?” She asked rubbing her hands together to make them warmer.
“I don’t know. We can talk on the way home. I just wanna get back to school at this point. It’ll be like 4am our time by the time we get back.” I sighed and turned the car on and started to drive down the road while the GPS loaded.
“I know. Name of the game: Stay Awake.”
A/N
MINNIE KISS. That's all i have to say. Do you think Annie will go to Bogota? Do you think Michael feels awkward about the kiss? This is a long chapter. Sorry. Hope everyone has a good week of school. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE LOVELY ZAYN :) you are more beautiful than anyone I know. :) xx