She'll Fall in Love With You

Comic Book Conventions Ruin Everything!

Emma-Lee’s POV
I had to talk to Pierre before we left. There was no other choice for me. It was a MUST. I looked over at him quickly to see if he was terribly swamped with teenies and other fans. I was surprised to see that there were only two girls where he was. Probably because everyone had already left. I went to grab Lauren’s arm, but she wasn’t there. I turned around really fast to see where she went and I saw her walking around the merch booth to the back of it. She disappeared for a moment- then I saw her emerge from under the big ‘Simple Plan’ sign that hung at the back of the booth. When she got in the booth, Pat greeted her with open arms.

“Yay! Now I don’t have to be a loser and be here alone!” He exclaimed as he hugged her.

“What about the guys in the band? You have them.”

“Yeah, but they are always signing autographs and talking to fans, so they don’t really get a chance to talk to me. That’s why I asked you to come over on this side to hang out with me.” he explained, flashing her a smile.

It seemed to me that Lauren was set, and wouldn’t miss me if I went over to talk to Pierre. I looked at them again before I turned around and they were both smiling and talking. Satisfied that Lauren wouldn’t miss me, I walked over to Pierre. The little teenies had left and he was sitting behind a table reading a magazine. Trying to be cute and clever (which I’m not very good at) I said:

“Whatcha reading?”

He looked up real quick , then he must have realized who I was because he closed his magazine and really quickly stood up causing his chair to get knocked over. I muffled my laughter as I watched him helplessly fall over himself.

“Uh, oh! Hi..uhm sorry. Stupid chair." he mumbled while trying to pick up the chair.

His movements slamming the chair down caused the stack of magazines to fall and subsequently he spewed a string of choice words while trying to catch them all.

"I can’t.. ugh. Jeez, um..oh god." he looked up at me nervously while trying to pick up everything.

As he had everything picked up and fixed he stood up straight and put his hand in his pockets and got all embarrassed as he looked at me.

"Sorry. Hi!”

I managed to keep my giggles under control.

“Hi there. I’m Emma-Lee.” I replied coolly.

“I’m Pierre. So… uhm, did you want an autograph or something. Or did you want to buy something?” He replied nervously.

“Actually, both. I’d like an autograph, but I need a sweatshirt, because I’m just a little chilly. What have you got?”

He smiled and started acting like one of those crazy salespeople.

“Well pretty lady, right here we have an official 2005 Simple Plan Tour Hoodieee! Only $35! And over here we have the Simple Plan ZIPup hoodie. Only $25! So what’ll it be little lady?”

The whole time he was going on I was cracking up. I knew I loved this boy. He was so funny and he was great looking, but what really got me was his eyes. He had the most beautiful eyes. I was dying with laughter which helped get my mind off the cold.

“Uhm, I think that I’ll take the Official tour hoodie! 35 bucks right?”

“Yep. Let me get Pat. He normally does this stuff.”

“He’s a little busy.” I said pointing out him and Lauren who was now on his lap looking at a magazine of some sort.

“Ohh, right. Well I’ll see what I can do by myself then.”

“Let me just get my money.”

I checked my back pocket. No money. I checked my front pockets, and still no money. I started to panic. What happened? Did I get pickpocketed? Did Lauren have my money? Then it hit me. I had put my money on the little pocket inside the big pocket in my hoodie. Which I had lost in the mosh pit. Just great. Just when my night was starting to get REALLY good. Pierre must have noticed that I entered ‘Panic Mode’.

“Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost or something.”

He leaned onto the table and looked me in the eyes as he said it. And there was real concern in his eyes. Not just courtesy. My heart just about melted. I was already falling.

“Um, not so much. I lost my money. Well not really because I left it in my sweatshirt and I lost my sweatshirt in the pit, and I just-”

I was about to start crying. I had $150 dollars for everything and now it was gone. I WAS gonna cry. And here it goes… the floodgates were open.

“It’s okay, really. Don’t cry Emma-Lee. We’ll fix it.” He reached out and wiped the tears from my face. “We can go down to the stage and look through the lost and found stuff and see if it’s in there, and if it’s not then well, we’ll get to that if we can’t find it. But for now take this.”

He took off his jacket and put it around my shoulders. I slipped my arms into the armholes and then wrapped my arms around myself. It smelled really good and was still warm from him wearing it.

“Wait right there.”

“Uhm okay?” I sniffed and wiped away the rest of the tears.
I watched Pierre disappear behind the merch booth then a couple seconds later he came jogging out from the side of the booth and up to me. He had something in his hand. As he came up next to me I realized that it was another sweatshirt. A ‘Role Model’ one. He grabbed me gently by the arm and pulled me in the direction of the stage. But instead of letting go of my arm when I followed him, he slipped his hand into mine and just held it. Not too tight, but tight enough. Snug is a good word I guess. As we walked toward the stage I thought to myself that this was going to be a night to remember. No cliché intended. I was going to remember this for the rest of my life.

Pierre and I walked hand in hand down to the orchestra pit. When we got there we went to the very front where the guard rail was, precisely where I hung my jacket and searched the ground. We found a couple sweatshirts and a pair of underwear, but not my sweatshirt.

"Well, it doesn't look like we are having much luck up here. Let's go to the back and search through all of the lost and found crap there." Pierre said after about five minutes of searching.

"Alrighty. Sounds like a plan."

I giggled to myself like I always do whenever I say a sentence including the words 'simple' or 'plan'. I had been doing it since I became obsessed with Simple Plan when I was a junior in high school.

We walked out of the orchestra pit and then through this gate thing on the side of the stage into this maze of hallways behind the stage.

"Are you hungry?" He asked me while turning around a corner in the maze that was the backstage area.

"A little. Why?"

"Because I'm gonna stop by our dressing room place and get some stuff. So I was wondering if you were hungry because we may have some food in there."

"Oh, okay. That sounds good."

We took a few more turns then reached a door that had a paper taped to it that said in large black letters 'Simple Plan'. He opened the door and we walked inside. I saw Sebastien sitting on a couch in the corner of this room that had a couple chairs and mirrors with lights around them. He had an acoustic guitar and was playing a song. I kinda recognized it, but didn't really put a lot of thought into it. I guess I didn't really care. He diidn't look up until Pierre walked over to him and asked him a question.

"Do you know when we're leaving? And what we're doing tomorrow?"

He stopped and looked blankly up at Pierre, then over at me, then back at Pierre.

"Uhm, probably in about an hour. The crew is still packing everything up, then we're going to the hotel and I guess we're doing promo stuff tomorrow. Why? And who is she?"

"I'm Emma-Lee." I introduced myself and did a little curtsy.

Seb laughed and got up and shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you Emma-Lee."

"You too." I smiled and then walked over next to Pierre.

"You said there was food. Where is it? I'm kinda really hungry."

I wrinkled up my nose and made a funny face. It seemed appropriate at the time. For what reason, I have no idea.

"Oh yeah! It's right over here." he pointed me over to a table that had a bunch of random food and drinks on it.

I grabbed a bag of chips and a bottle of water, then walked back over to the boys and plopped down on the couch.

"So, if I'm not mistaken, there are 5 people in this band. And only two are here, which leaves 3 unaccounted for. Where are they?"

"Good to see you can add!" Pierre joked. "They're probably by the bus signing autographs." He looked to Seb to see if he was right. Seb just nodded.

"Alright, so what are we doing here? Besides nothing?"

Hey, I was hanging out with 1/3 of Simple Plan...I wanted something exciting to happen. (I say 1/3 because I count Pat...2/6=1/3.. See? I really can do math)

"I don't know...let's get out of here and try to find Pat and your friend. Her name is Lauren, right? Who knows what they're doing."

"Yeah, her name is Lauren. And that's probably a good idea. She is known to get into some trouble sometimes." I gave him a little smirk.

He came over to me and grabbed my hands and pulled me up of the couch. He let go of one of my hands, but held on to the other one and kind pulled me closer to him. Seb kinda raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

"Well, bye Seb! It was nice meeting you."

"You too!" he smiled back at me.

"Later, man." Pierre said goodbye too, then we walked out.

We spent the better part of an hour trying to find Pat and Lauren, but gave up and climbed into a set of bleachers and just sat down and talked for awhile. During a lull in the conversation, I mustered up the courage to ask him about the 'moments' we had earlier that night. To make it easier, for myself probably, I decided to take the 'joking' approach.

"So Pierre, do you make it a habit to stare at fans while you are singing? Just curious because I'd have to say we had a moment back there."

He kinda laughed and then got quiet. Even though it was dark I could tell he was blushing.

"Well, to tell you the truth, no. I don't. You just kinda..." he trailed off.

"Kinda what?" I was curious to know.

"I don't know. I guess there was something special about you. You weren't the typical kind of girl that comes to our concerts."

"You could tell all of that just by looking at me?" My question was a whisper.

"Yeah, I guess I could."

With that he leaned forward and I could tell what was going to happen next. And I couldn't wait. I leaned slightly forward too, numb with excitement.

"Emma-Lee! Is that you?"

I snapped my head up real quick to see Lauren jogging towards me.

"We have to go, like right now."

"What!? Why?"

"If we want a place to sleep tonight, we have to leave now. If we don't get to the hotel by midnight, they're gonna give our reservations away and there is some comic book convention in town and they'll be gone like THAT." As she said it, she snapped her fingers.

"Umm, okay. Let me just say my goodbye's. Oh yeah. Um, Pierre, this is Lauren. Lauren, Pierre."

"Hi, Pierre. Nice to meet you. Sorry I have to steal Emma-Lee away from you. You guys looked like you were having fun."

I glared at her and she shut up.

"Uhm. No problem. You guys have to have to have a place to sleep tonight, so you gotta do what you gotta do. Emma-Lee, we're in town till tomorrow night doing promo stuff like Seb said, so I'll call you alright? And maybe we can hang out."

"That sounds good." I hoped he couldn't see that I was smiling like the Cheshire cat.
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This will always be one of my favorite parts of this entire story, no matter how juvenile it is. This is the part that actually inspired me to write this way back when.. I had a dream that went somewhere along the lines of a lost sweatshirt and talks on the bleachers. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. :)