All We Know

“Happy birthday dear Gabby! Happy birthday to you!” Molly, Logan, Gigi and I clapped as Gabby blew out her candles.

“What’d you wish for?” I asked as we pulled the candles out of the cake.

“I can’t tell you or it won’t come true!” Gabby said, smiling. “Duh,” Molly, Logan and Gigi said in unison.

I smiled and shook my head. I was never one to wish on 11:11 or shooting stars. I believed in karma and that was pretty much it.

After we ate enough cake to satisfy ourselves, I covered the remaining cake and put it on the chair next to me.

“Present time!” Molly said, handing her present over.

Gabby tore open the paper to find Johnny Depp’s autobiography. She smiled and hugged Molly.

Next, Gigi gave her a giant bottle of Smirnoff, sort of a joke because Gabby was the last one out of us to turn 21. Logan’s gift was a couple of her favorite CDs, stuff that Gabby hadn’t listened to, but would probably like.

Everyone turned to me, curious what my gift would be. I smirked as I handed over a tiny package, about the size of a granola bar.

Gabby eyed me as she tore off the paper. She held a box that used to hold a necklace in her hand. She slowly lifted the lid off and let out a scream. Molly, being closest, slapped a hand over Gabby’s mouth and we all looked over to the bartender.

He had glanced over to us and gave us a look that clearly told us to keep it down, and then continued mixing the drink he had.

Molly removed her hand from Gabby’s mouth and hissed, “What’d Anna get you?” Gabby pulled out the tickets in the box wordlessly. She flipped them to face us so that we could read what was printed on there.

The Astoria presents: Paramore’s Secret Show, September 18 2010.

“Oh my God. Anna, these tickets must have cost a fortune!” Molly said.

“Ok, well my cousin’s boyfriend’s sister is sort of like a total band slut-“

“Oh that’s nice,” Gigi cut me off.

“No, seriously. She dated Zack Merrick from All Time Low, Derek Ries from Push Play, and apparently she had a brief fling with Taylor York from Paramore, which is how I got these.”

“You’re the best,” she said, hugging me across the table.

Four days later, we were on our way to the Astoria. Gabby was nearly shaking with excitement. We had decided to listen to Cobra Starship on the way there, instead of Paramore. We didn’t want to get tired of the songs before we even got there.

When we arrived at the Astoria, a nondescript building in North Philadelphia that usually held small or secret shows, there was no one around. We parked around the corner and went up to the side door and knocked.

A big burly looking guy, probably the bouncer, opened the door for us. “Yes?” he asked gruffly.

I held out the tickets. He took a look at them and nodded, handing them back. “Go ahead in.”

We had to walk downstairs to get to the club, to make it even more exclusive or something like that. The inside was fairly small, with the bar at the one end and the stage at the other. It looked like everyone who scored tickets were already there, and Paramore was set to play in about fifteen minutes, so Gabby and I hit the bar. We each ordered a cocktail, and by the time we were finished, Paramore had started playing.

Everyone was clustered over on the left side of the stage where Taylor and Jeremy were playing, leaving the right side, where Josh was playing, wide open.

I smirked, knowing that Gabby had just the teensiest crush on Josh, and pulled her over to that side of the stage.

It was weird, not being able to mosh, because we were just sort of standing there, bobbing to the music. However, it was still nice, because Josh would look over to us and smile a lot. It was really intimate.

In the middle of Ignorance, Josh stopped playing, took his mic off the stand, and held it out in front of my face, signaling that I should sing. I shook my head and pushed it over to Gabby. “I’m a horrible singer!” I shout-whispered. Gabby, however, was not as self conscious about her singing as I was, and sang part of it.

After the concert ended, Gabby and I checked out the merch. We bought a few Paramore shirts, but unfortunately, we didn’t have a place to put them.

I asked the bouncer if I would be able to put the shirts in my car and re-enter the Astoria, and he glanced over me. “Do you still have your ticket?”

I nodded.

“Sure thing, darling.”

I smiled at him. He wasn’t unattractive and I was okay with him being creepy as long as he didn’t follow me home or anything.

When I returned to the Astoria, Gabby was at the bar, another cocktail in front of her. By the looks of it, most of the crowd had already left. We remained in the club because we were going to go out to a club after the concert anyway and this just made it more convenient.

A half an hour later, everyone had left and we were about to go as well. Gabby was spinning around on her barstool listlessly and I was playing with my napkin. She spun back around to face me and grabbed my wrist, her face urgent. “Anna,” she hissed

“Yeah?” I asked in a whisper.

“Look casually behind you. Is that Josh Farro?”

I glanced over and turned back to her, smiling. “Uh huh.”

“Oh my God.”

“Are you going to go over there?”

“Hell no!”

“Ok,” I said, prying her hand off my wrist and standing up. “I will.”

I walked confidently over to Josh and smiled. “Hey Josh, I’m Anna.”

He smiled as well. “You’re the girl who didn’t want to sing along.”

“Yeah, a lifetime of a sister ragging on your singing voice really brings down your self esteem.”

“Sorry to hear that,” he said grimacing. “Well, fuck the haters, right?”

I laughed, “Yeah. Anyway, my friend’s sitting over there, and she’d really like to meet you.”

“Well then, let’s go see her.”

He put an arm around my shoulder and we walked over to Gabby. I could see that she was going to die of shock and happiness.

“Hey, I’m Josh,” he said, smiling.

“I-I know. I’m Gabby.”

“Well, Gabby, Anna, it looks like you’re the lucky winners, that is, you are the only people who actually stayed after the show.”

“What do we win?” I asked, smirking.

“Ummm…” he trailed off, looking around. “You get to hang out with us in our bus?”

“Sounds good,”

“Alright, let’s go,”

Gabby stood up and Josh wrapped his other arm around her. “Wait a second, you two aren’t creepy fangirls or anything, right?”

Gabby and I both laughed. “No, we’re not, we swear,” she said, smiling and shaking her head.

Josh shrugged. “Good enough. Let’s go!”

Gabby and I wrapped our arms around Josh’s back and followed him outside and to the tour bus.

When we arrived, Josh took his arm off of my shoulders and knocked on the bus door, before replacing it. Taylor opened the door within the minute and then looked back into the bus.

“Jeremy! Zac! Josh brought whores again!” He shouted.

We then heard Hayley’s voice shout back, “Stop calling every girl you see a whore! You’re just a douchebag.”

Gabby and I laughed before following Josh into the bus.

“Hey everybody, this is Anna and Gabby. I found them. Anna and Gabby, this is everybody,” Josh introduced us.

Gabby and I got along very well with the rest of Paramore, and we ended up staying in the tour bus until well after 2 AM. It was only until their bus driver said that they were leaving for Washington DC that Gabby and I finally said goodbye and left. Before we went, however, Hayley wrote her cell phone number, as well as Josh’s on our arms and told us to keep in touch.