Keep Your Heart Wide Open.

For the next few minutes Gianna along with the rest of the guys carried in instruments, speakers, and boxes of merch. The guys went to the back to get ready for sound-check. Gianna stood at the wooden table, unpacking various t-shirts and arranging them in perfect piles. She kept the rest of the boxes beside her chair. She started to hang up signs with prices and put out a tip jar as she heard a piano being played.

Gianna turned around and looked up at the stage, which was empty, except for Joel sitting at a piano. He didn’t look up from the ebony and ivory keys as Gianna started to inch closer. She crossed her arms over her chest and walked up to the stage so that she was standing right at the front.

Finally, Joel looked up from the keys and smiled. “Hey,” he said, looking back down at the keys. Gianna climbed up onto the stage and walked to the grand piano. “Hey. You play?” She smiled down at the boy who was now smirking, the slightest trace of blush on his cheeks. “Well my mom is a piano and vocal teacher. So naturally, I took some lessons growing up,” he said, smiling at the memory. Joel pushed some hair out of his eyes and turned back to Gianna. “How about you? Do you play?” Gianna looked down, studying her feet, and chuckled lightly. “Me? No. I mean, I’ve always wanted—“ She trailed off, looking down at Joel, who had scooted over on the bench and was now tapping the spot beside him, inviting her to sit down.

Gianna hesitated a second before joining Joel on the old wooden bench. She watched as his fingers moved so flawlessly over the keys, as if it were second nature. When he finished the little piece of music, he turned to Gianna. She smiled. “It’s so pretty. What is it?” Joel shrugged. “Just some music I’ve been playing around with. No lyrics yet,” he said, toying with his lip piercing.

Gianna turned her attention to the keys in front of her, tentatively easing her right index finger onto one of the ivory keys. She tried to move across them, but it just sounded like a cluttered mess. She turned her head around to face Joel, and laughed. “It sounds so pretty when you do it.” He bit his lip and inched over a little bit more towards Gianna. “You just need to know what notes to play,” he said, as he moved his arm around Gianna, placing both of his hands over hers. Gianna turned her eyes back to the keys as Joel slowly lifted her hands, guiding her to the keys. With a little pressure here and there, he showed her all of the keys and how to play them. With his hands over hers, she played the same little tune that he had played just minutes before.

She smiled and turned to face the blonde haired boy sitting beside her, who was smiling back. All of a sudden John came from backstage, hands in his pockets. He stopped walking and looked between Joel and Gianna. “Am I interrupting something?” The pair smiled, clearly both trying to stifle a laugh. “No.” John shrugged his shoulders and took his hands out of his pockets. “Well, doors are going to be opening soon. We should move out. And Gi, you should make sure you’re ready to be bombarded.” Joel got off the bench and walked towards John, waving to Gianna. She thanked John sarcastically and stood up from the bench, watching as the boys walked away from her. She couldn’t help but blush as John turned around to her, smirking as he shot a glance at Joel.

Gianna tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear as she placed the finishing touches on her merch table, letting out a large sigh as she finally took a seat. She closed her eyes, knowing that her moment of peace would not be lasting too long. She then opened her eyes as she saw the doors open and heard the excited voices of concertgoers. She sat up in her chair, flipping through a magazine. Before she knew it there were tons of people standing around her table asking for various t-shirts from The Maine, This Century, and Austin Gibbs. “Black tee in a medium!” “Can I have a bracelet?” “I asked for an extra small!” Gianna now wondered why she had ever agreed to this in the first place. Of course it wasn’t all bad. Most of the people were really nice. But then there were those select few that made her want to rip every hair out of her head one by one.

When everyone had finally filed in and were standing in front of the stage waiting for the show to start, Gianna finally had some peace and quiet with the occasional customer every now and then. She watched as Austin took the stage, kicking off the show. His set was fun and soon enough it was silent again, the crowd waiting for the next band. Gianna had turned back to her magazine, flipping through the pages upon pages of high heels and patterned dresses. She was so occupied with her magazine that she hadn’t heard the next band come on stage. She hadn’t heard the crowd go wild as they started to play. She lightly tapped her feet to the sounds of the music, finally realizing that it was no longer silent. Soon enough she even found herself singing along.

Suddenly she stopped singing and threw down her magazine. “Wait.” She ripped through her bag that sat at her feet and pulled out her iPod, scanning through the songs until she found what she was looking for. She thrust her headphones into her ear and gasped. It was the same song that she was hearing in person at that very moment. She put her iPod back into her bag and looked up at the stage to see none other than This Century performing. Gianna could hardly believe her eyes as she watched them play, especially as she watched Joel sing his heart out into the microphone.