Dressed up in Faded Costumes

Summer vacation was the start of the empty houses and packed highways; families taking trips to the beach and new places unseen. For Liam, Matt and I, this was the time that we had for our rehearsals and well, casual jamming.
We were at Matt’s home recording studio on a very hot day in LA. At least in the studio it was much colder.
This was also the time when Liam and I remembered the video again.
“Hey, Matt can I open my account on your PC?” Liam asked.
“Yea, sure,” he said approaching the two of us.
Liam opened his YouTube account and found that the video had over 500,000 views. My eyes widened in disbelief and I smiled so widely that it probably reached my ears.
“Whoa, look at you!” Liam said.
“What’s that video?” Matt asked.
“It’s a video of Michelle singing ‘Hear You Me’.”
“Really? I wanna see…”
I couldn’t say anything. I was happy and shocked at the same time.
“Can I see the comments later?” I asked them both.
Liam stood up and kissed me on the head. “I’m so proud of you.”
When Matt was done, we checked out the comments and the latest one was the most shocking to all of us.
“lisasays Hey, I love her voice so much! Are you in a band or something? Can I have you as my guest on my Sweet Sixteen? <3”
We immediately replied, so psyched out.
“@lisasays I’m Liam, the girl in the video is my girlfriend, Michelle McAdams. Yes, we have a band with a friend of ours, Matt. I’m glad you like her, she’s amazing isn’t she? Please feel free to message us. We’ll definitely be open to playing gigs.”
“Are you sure about this?” Matt asked Liam.
“About the gig?” he asked. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“But, we’re barely rehearsed.”
“It’s not about getting it perfect; it’s just about doing it our way. Heart, passion and everything.” I said.
“Exactly.”
We waited for a reply from lisasays. We played a few songs to pass time and to just have fun through the music we had.
These were the kinds of moments I treasured in life. When I’m with friends and family. When I hear an epic joke and I tell it over and over again. When I’m in a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life. This was the moment I knew that we were really on our way.
It was now past 3 and nobody had eaten lunch yet. We spent the whole day in the studio just messing around—the guys were doing stuff that guys do, and I was just watching them make total fools of themselves. Matt and Liam were two very shy people when I met them. So I felt really happy that they were being their crazy selves when it was just the three of us.
“Is anybody hungry like me?” I asked them.
“I can get some food from the kitchen, if you want,” Matt said.
I smiled at him in a persuasive and grateful way. And so Matt went out to get the food and I was left with Liam inside.
“How’s California for you so far? Got a chance to meet any celebrities yet?” he asked.
“I have been the most unlucky person,” I said sitting down on the couch with my feet up. “I live in the most star-studded place in the world, and all I had the chance to see was Emily Deschanel fifty feet away.”
He laughed at me. “I’ll take you out sometimes to Hollywood. You like that?” he smiled.
“Sure,” I smiled. “That would be awesome.”
He walked towards me and sat beside me. He put his around me and looked at me with a huge smile.
“Are you happy?” he asked. “I mean, with how everything’s turning out?”
“Right now, I really am,” I said.
“I’m attending UCLA in autumn,” he smiled.
“Really? I’m so proud of you!” I said giving him a hug.
“Thank you. It’s gonna be hard for me to go though.”
When I was about to kiss Liam, Matt enters through the doors bringing a plate of cookies and an awkward face.
“Whoops, sorry for the interruption,” Matt said covering his eyes with his other hand but still with a grin upon his face.
“Oh, wipe that grin off your face, Matt!” I said walking towards him with an aggressive smile.
I took the plate from his hands and placed it on the desk where we were starting with writing some of our own material. And he continued to smile with a goofy grin.
“Oh, stop it,” I said, probably blushing now.
“I didn’t see anything,” he said laughing.
“That’s it,” I went at him with a laugh.
I play-hit him a few times as he continued to laugh.
“For the record, I thought it was gross,” he said when I stopped, but he was still smiling.
I shook my head and went for the chocolate chip cookies with Liam.
The second I set my hands on the cookies, I was the Cookie Monster. I couldn’t stop eating.
“These are amazing,” I said swallowing down a cookie.
“Thanks,” he said. “Mom loves to make them everyday.”
“So what are we going to do now?” I asked my while my mouth was full.
They both just laughed at me quietly.
While we were rehearsing a song we all loved, which was ‘Get Up’ by Mayday Parade, Maria and Leila gave Liam and I a surprise visit since we didn’t know that Matt had invited them over. I didn’t stop singing instead I brought my performance level up even more since I could only do that in front of hand-picked people at the time. Both of them watched from behind the glass and I smiled as they could finally see how much I really loved to sing.
“Hey!” I ran over to them and gave them both hug.
“That was awesome,” Maria said. “You got one hell of a voice there, Elle!”
“Really? Oh thanksies…” I blushed.
We messed around in the studio a little more, and went on to the inside of Matt’s house in his game room.
“This is an amazing house, Matt,” Leila said. “And it really wasn’t necessary that you send Garrett to pick us up.”
“Yeah, it felt really weird,” Maria said. “But thanks a lot for inviting us.”
“Garrett? Oh don’t worry about him; he’s the one who insisted to pick you guys up. He wanted to get out of the house and he asked me if I had any favors to ask him.”
“Well, that’s very nice of your brother,” Leila smiled.
“There’s a reply,” Liam said from across the room while he was with Matt and an iPad2. “There’s a reply!”
The three of us ran over as we practically were all cheek to cheek to another person’s cheek just to see what the reply was.
“I have an upcoming Sweet Sixteen and I want her to sing Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. Her voice will be perfect for it. Almost all the guests coming have seen her on YouTube. Am also looking for a band for the party, know anyone? Strictly a band who knows how to play any The Maine or Mayday Parade or All Time Low song. Anyway, is it okay I have her as a guest performer? Thanks much.”
“What’s going on?” Maria asked?
“Yeah, I have no idea why Maria and I rushed here,” Leila continued.
“Well, you gotta hit a reply now!” Matt said. “Ya gotta admit, this is big for first timers.”
“That’s perfect! Where are you based? We live in LA; anyplace outside California is going to be hard for us to go to. Anyways, we can also be the band you want (: we’ll be freakin’ happy to play for you. Give us a call on this number anytime you want. 510xxxxxxx.” We replied. The number Liam typed was mine because his phone was having problems, and he didn’t even think of typing down Matt’s because we were all so caught up in the moment and we probably all forgot.
When we replied, we finally got to breathe as we scattered from the sardine-position we had earlier. The giddiness was there, and the excitement was climbing.
She didn’t reply that day, but we still were so happy we had a possible first-gig coming up. It was in those little moments that I remember starting off so small and troubled; with a huge possibility of stardom because of the pure talent I saw in everybody. It was those little moments I treasured so much; moments like those are underrated and underappreciated—sometimes like the five of us.