Don't Look Away Because Dreams Only Last for a Night

Kate

3 weeks since that night, that amazing night. And Zack’s gone again without a word. I thought he was going to change, but it turns out, he never did.

4 weeks gone by. Nothing. Not a trace of Zack. I wish he would tell me where he was so I wouldn’t be so worried.

5 weeks gone. It was starting to bug me, and the people around me seemed to see it. I can’t tell them though. If they found out Alex left, I was done for.

6 weeks gone. I figured it was only going to get worse from here.

7 weeks gone. I feel like an idiot counting the weeks, but who cares anymore? Maybe I shouldn’t care anymore. Maybe if I pretended not to care it wouldn’t bug me so much.

8 weeks gone. Still I’m here counting the weeks. Maybe he isn’t coming back.

9 weeks gone. I’ve given up hope.

I went to school looking like a zombie because I’d stay up all night and wait by the phone to see if he would call. But of course he never did. Finally someone spoke up.

“Man, Kate you look like zombie” Julie said as we walked to class.

“Well geez thanks Juls for the complement” I said a bit sour.

“I’m being honest with you. You look like crap, go home, sleep and I’ll meet you at your house after school”

“No. Julie. I can’t go home”

“Why not?”

“Every time I do, I think Zack will call and I can’t fall asleep,” I explained.

“Alright, I’ll let you stay at my house”

“Really, you would do that for me?”

“Yes. I’m your best friend remember?”

“Yeah. Sorry”

“It’s ok, come on” she said pulling me along. “So how long has he been gone?”

“Around 2 months”

“There’s still hope” she said smiling.

“How can you say that?” I questioned it like she was crazy.

“Well, he does seem really into you”

“So? He probably found someone else”

“Would you stop assuming that. He’s in a band. Maybe they went on tour” Then it clicked. CD = Tour.

“That’s it. We need to Google when they are in our town”

“Oh, you’re not Googling anything. You need to sleep. I’ll do it”

“Do you think, if you find anything, that you can buy tickets?”

“I’ll try”

“Thanks” I smiled as we reached her house.

“Today’s a mental health day. Now get some sleep,” she said as I lay on her bed and tried to sleep. After 3 hours of trying to fall asleep, I finally fell asleep because I was so tired. When I woke up the clock read 5:00PM

“Hey sleepyhead”

“Hi” I mumbled. “Did you find tickets?” I asked as I moved around.

“Yeah I did”

“You did?” My head shot up. “Did you buy them?”

“I did. The concert is tonight”

“Tonight! Where?”

“No idea. A venue I’ve never heard of before, but it’s ok, my mom said she would drive us”

“Oh well thank your mom for me”

“Yeah, yeah. Come on we have to go if we want to see them perform”

“Oh well yeah” I said as I grabbed my bag and we hoped in her car. It was a really small venue, but people were showing up in dozens, it was crazy. There were no seats inside so it was like a huge mosh-pit. We stayed at the back. I didn’t want to be seen.

The show started with some random band singing maybe seven songs, then “All Time Low” came on and everyone was screaming. They started with Jasey Rae in which I cried. Then coffee shop soundtrack, Break Out! Break Out! They sang a couple more that I couldn’t remember the name of.

Then they closed their part of the concert with Lullabies. I balled like a baby. I’m glad we were in the back because no one saw or heard us. I felt like Alex was singing right to me and Zack was playing just for me. At some points I for sure thought they knew I was here because they would look over and smile. Maybe it was a coincidence, but other or most of the time I should say, Zack looked very depressed. Maybe he missed me.

I already told Julie we were leaving after their show, and once the song ended that’s just what we did. Neither Zack nor Alex will ever know I came that night, but it was ok, I planned to keep it that way.