This Love Was Accidental

I sat shotgun in John’s black car while he drove. Kara, Rian, Halvo and Kennedy were squished in the back.

“So whose concert is it?” Kara asked. The three boys exchanged frustrated glances as it was the umpteenth Kara and I had asked them.

“Rian, get Kara to just wait until we get to the venue, okay?” John sighed. Kara and I looked at one another with irritated looks; we were both annoyed with the lack of information.

John pulled his car into a small venue’s parking lot. I recognized this venue as the place where small bands and local bands played. I absolutely adored this place ever since I was 14 and John started taking me to watch his friend’s bands.

“Is it a local band? A small band? Who? John, who!?” I was practically bouncing off the walls. I tugged at John’s sleeve while he gave me an amused smirk. I groaned as he showed no sign of telling me anything. “Whatever…”

I exited the car. I heard doors opening and chatter from trailing behind me as I walked towards the entrance. Of course, it was still early and the door was locked. I leaned against the glass door, tapping my foot impatiently.

“Yo, we’re going into the back today!” Rian called. I looked at him strangely, but shrugged it off anyways. I had gone through the backdoors plenty of times since over the years, I had become close to the owner of the venue.

We all circled around the building and found the brown backdoors, wide open and welcoming us in. The doors were left unguarded and open; it looked pretty tempting to any burglars passing by. I hopped up the stairs and walked in; a cold breeze from the air conditioning wrapped around me, relieving the need to sweat.

“Lilith!”

I looked to my left to see who had called for me. A man stood with an inviting smile, waving at me.

“Ronald!” I rushed over to him and shared a quick hug.

“So I see you’re here for your brother’s show!” he grinned. I could feel my eyebrows slightly twitch upwards.

“Say what?” I asked with wide eyes. His face mirrored mine; both of us were shocked.

“Damn it Ron! You weren’t supposed to tell her,” John whined as he came up towards me. “You knew?” I questioned him. John looked at me as if I had just grown a second head.

“No shit,” he laughed. I chuckled along, realizing how stupid I was for asking.

“Gotta run Ron! Sound check,” John winked before dragging me off to a hallway. I staggered behind him, watching him look at doors that passed us while we walked.

“Aha! Found it.” John pushed open the door. Inside revealed all my friends, and Garrett. I chorus of “hey”s and “yo”s were shot my way. I grinned back, immediately plopping myself on Jack’s lap.

“Grats guys!” I cheered. They all whooped and hollered. I could tell they were all stoked for this. I knew it wasn’t The Maine’s (John’s band) first time performing, but they were new to it. Rocket however; this was possibly only their second performance together since Nick was flying solo in the beginning. I knew for sure ATL had done a hand full of shows back home; they even toured a bit during high school.

“Rocket, you guys have sound check now,” John announced. The four boys nodded and scurried off to the stage. When Andrew stepped out, John slammed the door shut and locked it.

“What the fuck!” I yelped. He grinned at me. “You’re not hearing anything until the actual concert.” I glared at him and leaned back into Jack.

“Jack, can I listen to your sound check?” He laughed and wrapped his arms around my stomach. “Don’t count on it,” he chuckled.

\m/

Three hours. I sat there, in the dressing room with Kara for three goddamn hours. Was it fun? John now has a bruised arm, courtesy of yours truly. They finally let me out a half an hour before the venue opened to venture around. I probably covered almost every place except the basement; Jared wouldn’t go with me.

The clock struck six and people began pouring in. I was shocked at the amount of people that showed up. Who knew they were so popular? I didn’t intend for that to be mean, but the last show The Maine played was at a bar with about, fifty kids. At the moment, two hundred minimum were spilling through the doors.

“Lils’! Show starts in a bit, might wanna grab barricade with Kara,” Pat winked as he walked by me on stage. I nodded and ran off with a smirk. I found Kara in the dressing room snuggling up to Rian; they were disgustingly cute.

“Kara! Barricade! Must go now!” I squealed as I tried to form coherent sentences. She laughed as she stood up from a pouting Rian. She shook her head.

“Have you never been to one of your brother’s shows?” she laughed. I hooked arms with her as we walked out.

“Every single one of’em, but the crowd for this one is just wow!” I gushed. I skipped down the stairs at the side of the stage with Kara by my side. I pulled her to the barricade, dead center in front of a mic on the right side of the stage since a few girls had grabbed front and center.

The crowd grew behind Kara and me, surprisingly not squishy. Soon, the lights dimmed and small cheers erupted from the crowd. Four people walked onto stage, making the crowd cheer and whistle a bit louder. Probably no one could recognize the four people form their silhouettes, but a glint of bright red hair at the mic gave it away.

“It’s Rocket!” I squeaked.

Then, guitars started playing a song I had heard this morning. If Only They Knew began to blast through the speakers as the lights turned on. Nick was sway side to side as he sang his eyes half lidded. Halvo was rocking to and fro, nodding his head to the beat. Justin strutted around on stage professionally, strumming like it was nothing. Andrew…well, he was just fucking rock out.

”They don’t see you like I do, baby!”

The crowd was beginning to squish up on Kara and me, but leaned back a bit at the end of the song. Their entire set was made up of five songs: If Only They Knew, Just Another One, Fear Of Flying, I’m Not Saying Goodbye and ended with Dakota. They were amazing, end of story.

Next was John’s band, The Maine. The five boys started up right when their feet hit the stage.

”I fell asleep last night, but I woke up too late. Everything I loved, I began to hate.”

John pranced around on stage, frequently brushing his hair out of his face. Pat looked so odd hitting those drums with such force since he was so small. Kennedy occasionally sung back up, but travelled around the stage whenever he could. Jared looked so focused as he went from Pat’s drum set and back, it was adorable. Garrett…he head banged while skipping around on stage, his headband keeping his hair out of his eyes unlike John. But his mic sat untouched and directly in front of me. Not gonna lie, it made me cringe a bit. How was he going to react to seeing me every time he stepped back in his spot?

The song ended and the crowd hooted and hollered. I grinned proudly at my brother, who winked back. Garrett positioned himself in front of his mic, smiling like he just won a million bucks. This was the first time I had actually seen him smile his smile since the break up. Well, that is, until he made eye contact with me. Garrett frowned at me and looked away quickly towards others in the crowd. I could see his grip on the neck of his bass; his knuckles were practically white. Why did he hate me so much? It was just a kiss.

“The next one’s called The Town’s Been Talkin’!” John announced. He whooped and waddled around on stage. I let the thought slip and drop to the ground. For all I cared, the situation could be stepped on by every single kid in the room and I wouldn’t care.

They played five of their songs and a cover before leaving the stage. I couldn’t shake off how Garrett looked at me through the entire set though.

“Oh fuck! How are you guys doing tonight Tempe?”

Alex Gaskarth smirked at the crowd before him, clad in pink guitar and all. The crowd cheered back, louder than a thousand kids could ever.

“Holy shit! You guys have got some lungs!” Jack began, laughing through the mic.

“Mind if you and I use some of that lung power tonight in a hotel room?!” Jack continued. The crowd laughed and jokingly agreed back.

“I thought I satisfied you enough in the dressing room bro!” Alex chuckled.

“No way man, my dick is not impressed by you,” Jack teased.

“Damn it!” Alex huffed.

Kara and I laughed as they suddenly started playing.

“Inquisitive and thoughtful, she was the challenge he'd been waiting for,” Alex began singing. A could hear a few people behind me singing along with Alex.

\m/

I was coated in sweat and Zack’s water. My cheeks felt hot and burning along with every other exposed part of my body. My cardigan had made its way on stage during All Time Low’s performance; I would get it back later.

Kara and I squeezed our way out of the crowd, heading backstage and towards the dressing room right away.

“That was fucking wicked!” I shrieked when I caught sight of Andrew in the hallway. I tackled him into a hug from behind. He awkwardly patted my arm that was wrapped around his waist - that tall son of a bitch. I hopped onto the next closest person; it was Alex.

“You guys were awesome!” I gushed while squeezing him tightly. He yelped in pain while trying to get me off of him.

“Ow, ow, ow!” He repeated once I let go. “You bruised me,” he pouted. “My God Alex, you’re such a baby,” I teased while flicking his nose. It only caused his face to scrunch up. “I don’t like you, go away!” He stuck his tongue out at me. I placed my hand over my heart and gasped. “Well fine! I’ll just go somewhere else with Kar- where’s Kara?” I looked around, trying to find the brown haired girl that was by my side earlier.

Alex winked and began walking off. “With Rian at the merch tent,” he called before rounding the corner and heading towards the God-knows-where. I chuckled and walked into the dressing room, finding it empty. Then, I spotted Garrett on his phone whilst he lounged on the worn couch. Once his eyes settle on me, he glared before moving his gaze back to his cell.

“Could you be anymore mature?” I asked harshly. He furrowed his eyebrows but kept his sight on the screen of technology in his hands. “Answer me Garret,” I demanded. He didn’t show any sign of interest in me. “Is it because of the kiss?” I spat. That finally shook him.

Garrett rushed towards me and placed his hand over my mouth.

“Don’t be so fucking loud,” he whispered. I glared at him.

“Why do you care so much Garrett?” My words were muffled by the palm of his hand. He looked at me as if the answer was crystal clear.

“My girlfriend broke up with me, and then I make out with you. Hm, I don’t sound like the greatest guy do I?” he growled.

“So it’s about rep?” I asked, still muffled by his hand.

“No, it’s not. I could care less about my reputation, but I hate when people dislike me.” His voice had softened, but the grip he had on my face had tensed and tightened.

“Why do you hate me then?” I asked; my voice too had softened. He removed his hand and dropped his gaze to the floor. No reply was given. “Garrett, why?” I repeated. His eyes flickered to me for a moment before returning to the floor. “Do you even have a reason?”

“I do!” he defended.

“Do tell,” I impatiently demanded. That was all I was doing.

ASK ASK ASK.

DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND.

Garrett didn’t answer though; he simply stared at the floor with sad eyes. I suddenly felt bad for treating him like this, right after a bad break up.

“Look Garrett,” I began. I placed a hand on his shoulder and he visibly flinched away.

“I’m fine! Leave me alone,” he snapped before grabbing his keys from his pocket and storming out of the dressing room. I ran into the hallway, but he was nowhere. I walked quickly down the hall before a loud, metallic slam caught my attention. I raced down the hallway, trying to find a metal door. I finally found the brown doors that I had cam in through earlier today.

Shoving open the door, I could see Garrett unlocking his obnoxious yellow car.

“Garrett!” I called. He pulled open his door and slid in.

“Leave me the fuck alone!” His door shut and the car immediately started. I stood at the top of the concrete stairs as I watched him drive off in the wrong direction of his house.

Where the fuck was the boy heading?