I Know I'm Not The One You Call When You Are Alone

I was sat in Joshua’s living room alongside him with Dan, Max, Matt & Chris. The hours were getting closer to them playing their first ever show. They were supporting Set your Goals. To say they were nervous was an extreme understatement, Josh hadn’t stopped squeezing my hand for the past half hour, my poor hand was now an off white yellow colour.

“Guys, I promise you will be fine. You’ll absolutely nail it.”

“I’m just so nervous, we’ve never played in front of an audience before. It’s only ever been you watching us.” Josh fretted.

“Josh, if you guys play even half as good as you do for me, then you’ll have no problem winning those kids over.”

“Thank you.” He whispered into my ear.

“We need to leave now.” Josh’s mum announced.

Piling into cars, we made our way to the venue.

Arriving at the venue, I had to drag Josh out the car, he was like a sulking kid.

“Josh. Get out.” He just sighed.

“Seriously. What’s wrong?” I said squatting down to his level.

“I’m just so nervous, I’ve just got this feeling, I’ll sing the wrong words or not sing it low or high enough or I’ll do something to ruin this.”

“Ohh Josh, babe you’ll be fine trust me. And so what if you screw up, these kids barely won’t know or care.” Well actually they might but I don’t want to scare him. “You’ll never know unless you try.”

“I guess you’re right. I’m going to do this for you.” I simply smiled at my confused best friend.

“Thank you.” I whispered, kissing his forehead.

After Josh begrudgingly hauled his ass out of the car, I dragged him round the back of the venue and through the doors.

“Josh, we need to soundcheck.” Said the drummer, cashing into us.

“Ok.”

The five guys took their places on the stage and did their warm ups and checked to see if their equipment was tuned and what not.

“I need to volume in my mic turned up.” Josh said eyeing the sound man.

“Yeah, I need it a little lower in my bass.” Said Matt, turning the tuner.

When they had sound checked they went in the back room, loosely called the ‘dressing room’. It was more like a little bit of space with a door. That was all they had.

It was 15 minutes before they were due onstage, it 5 minutes before all the awaiting kids got let in and Josh hadn’t stopped pacing for about half an hour.

“Josh. Please sit down. You’re making me dizzy!” I scowled at my best friend, grabbing hold of his shoulders and stopping him.

He stopped a minute looking at me. “I-I-I..” he stammered then sighed.

“Just have a glass of water and sit down. Just chill dude.” Max said trying to calm his friend.

Accepting the water from me, he sat on the beaten up brown couch and downed the drink in 2 seconds.

“Jesus man!”

“Guys. You’re on.” Said Bobby.

“K.”

The guys stood and made their way to the stage. Giving Josh one last reassuring glance, he jumped on the stage as if someone had shoved a hot poker up his ass!

“Hey Surrey! We’re You Me At Six and we shall entertain you for the next 30 minutes. Hope you like us.” Josh winked. Gah. Confidence came quickly, and I’m happy for him.

They started off with Promise Promise which got the crowd going, and moving about. Next came, Noises, This Turbulence Is Beautiful and If I Were In Your Shoes.

“Thank you. Ok so I want to dedicate this next song to a girl who means a lot to me, my best friend Lexi Miller. I love you. This song is called Taste.” Josh looked at me a grinned.

They then broke into one of my favourite songs. I was so happy that I nearly cried. That guy has a way of making me feel like I was on top of the world. Why did he have to do that?

When they finished ‘Taste’, they played the last song of the set.

“This is our last song guys, thanks so much for watching us, we’ve been You Me At Six and this song it called Save It For The Bedroom.” Perfect song to end a perfect show.

I have no idea why Josh was so nervous, he was like a total proffessional up there. Josh jumped around the stage as Max went wild as he always did. Taking one long hard look at my friends on that stage, tears started to build up in the brim of my eyes. At that one moment I felt something I hadn’t really felt before. Pride. I was so proud of them. They finally got to play on a stage in front of kids who were willing to enjoy themselves even if this band was just the support act.

As they last came came to a close, the 5 members gave a final wave at the eager crowd and exited at my side. I ran to them and engulfed them in a huge hug. The tears spilled over and I couldn’t stop. They took a step back to ask what’s wrong.

“I’m just so proud. You’ve done so well to get here and I-I-, you’ve made me proud to know you guys. I love you all.”