Love Is Hell

“Five minutes guys,” Tim announced as he poked his head into the dressing room.

The energy in the room instantly awakened as the guys stood up and started doing preshow warm ups. They all grabbed their instruments and made their way towards side stage as I followed them.

They gathered in a circle and started clapping and hollering.

“One, two, one, two, three, four!” Jared shouted before they all started chanting.

“We like to party! We like, we like to party!”

I watched from the side as they excitedly danced around and chanted. Once they were finished, they all lined up by the side of the stage, ready to head out.

The lights dimmed and screams erupted from the crowd. One by one they ran out on stage. I felt a hand pat my shoulder as I looked up and saw Garrett’s retreating figure jog out on stage. The lights were still off, but you could make out the guys standing on stage from the lights of the cameras.

Finally, Pat hit his drumsticks together, the lights turned on and they began playing their first song.

I’d never been to a concert before, well a rock concert that is. I was dragged to a few benefit concerts, but those consisted of classical music and formal, important people drinking champagne. Nothing like this. This concert was completely different, loud music and sweaty people moshing, jumping around and crowd surfing.

Just watching the energy from the crowd and from the guys performing I could feel the adrenaline and the need to jump around and let loose. But, this was a completely new experience for me and quite honestly I didn’t exactly know how to let loose. So I had to settle on just standing and bobbing my head.

After they finished their first song the crowd screamed. John quickly took a sip of water and walked back over to the microphone.

“Hey Seattle!” he shouted into the mic. The crowd erupted into screams again, “I’m John O’Callaghan, and we are The Maine!”

The crowd screamed and I couldn’t help but laugh a little as all the girls squealed over John’s crooked smile. But, I couldn’t blame them, John was definitely attractive. A huge flirt, I’ve gotten to realize, but he had every right to be. He had all the girls screaming his name, telling him that they wanted to have his babies, how could he not love that?

“This next one you might know, it’s called I Must Be Dreaming,” they started playing as the crowd jumped up and down, singing along to every word.

All the guys on stage were just as hyper, running around stage, trying to pump up the crowd. Every time one of them would get closer to the crowd the girls would scream and try to reach out and touch them.

Their set wasn’t too long, about thirty minutes since they weren’t the headlining band. In between songs they would talk to the crowd, make jokes and fool around. Garrett definitely liked talking to the crowd. He and John would tease each other a lot.

“Alright guys,” John spoke into the microphone after they finished one of their songs, “This is our last song for the night. We hope you guys didn’t think we sucked too badly and thanks for not falling asleep on us. If you know this song, sing along.”

He picked up his acoustic guitar and once they started playing the first chords of the song, the crowd screamed loudly and waved their cell phones in the air.

“Surrounded by familiar faces, the people that you love to see…”

As they played the slower song I couldn’t help but listen to the lyrics and almost feel sad.

The song was carefree, probably talking about being home with friends and family and just having a good time. A happy experience that I never had the chance to actually experience myself.

Once they finished their song they thanked the crowd and ran off stage.

Garrett being the first one off stage ran towards me and gave me a huge, sweaty hug.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust, “Ok, thanks for that…” I mumbled as I tried to pry his sweaty body off me.

He let go and smiled widely, “So, what did you think? Were we good?” he asked excitedly.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I nodded, “Yeah, you guys were really good!”

John, who was standing nearby smiled smugly, “Definitely one of the best concerts you’ve been to right?”

I shrugged, “Yeah I guess since it was the first concert I’ve ever been to.”

“What!?” Kennedy exclaimed as he dried his head sweaty head off with a towel, “You’ve never been to a concert before?”

I shook my head no, “Not unless you consider benefit concerts where an orchestra plays.” I said as I followed them back to the dressing room.

When we got in the dressing room, the guys handed their instruments off to the techs and continued to dry off. They then began changing into clean shirts. I awkwardly turned around and faced the wall as they stripped their shirts off.

“You ok Lorraine?” Garrett asked as he walked over behind me.

I quickly turned around to see him giving me a weird look.

“You guys were changing so I…” I mumbled and motioned towards the wall.

“Garrett, don’t make fun of her. She was just intimidated by my amazing guns.” John said as he flexed his arms.

Garrett rolled his eyes, “What guns?”

They then started bickering about John’s nonexistent muscles. I shook my head as I watched and listened to their argument.

Kennedy laughed as he came over to me. “Trust me, you’ll get used to this.”

&&

After cleaning up the dressing room and watching the rest of the bands perform, we made our way back to the bus. As we arrived at the bus, some fans were waiting outside, hoping to get pictures and autographs from the guys.

They eagerly greeted the fans and happily signed t-shirts, pictures and body parts. In every single picture that they took with a fan, their genuine smile shined brightly. I realized that this was what kept them going. All their fans excitedly talking to them and complimenting their show. With every ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you too’ I could truly tell they meant it.

I made my way through the crowd and quickly slipped inside the bus.

About ten minutes the rest of the guys piled onto the bus. They all collapsed around me on the couches and excitedly talked about their performance. Even though they were hyper from the performance, they eventually settled down and relaxed as we watched TV.

After watching four episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air I tiredly looked around at everyone, noticing how they were all asleep. I looked to my right at Garrett and noticed that he was still awake barely.

I smiled and nudged him with my shoulder. He looked over at me and smiled tiredly.

“They really love you, you know.” I said breaking the silence.

He looked at me confusedly, “Who? The fans?”

I nodded, “and the guys,” I said motioning towards the sleeping figures spread out on the couches and floor around us.

He smiled and nodded, “Yeah, they’re all awesome, but the guys can be pain in the asses some time.”

I laughed and rested my head back, staring up at the ceiling.

“They might be, but they’re your family. I can tell that no matter what, they’ll always be there for you. You’re lucky… don’t take that for granted ok?”

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and saw him staring at me. He slowly nodded, “Yeah, ok…” he responded quietly.

I sighed contently and closed my eyes ready to get some much needed sleep.

As I slowly drifted off to sleep, I heard the TV turn off and felt a warm blanket being placed across me. I snuggled into the soft material and rested my head on the warm pillow.