Only In It For A Minute

“Thank you so much, we’ve been The Maine and we’ll be back real soon,” John said as the guys put down their instruments and ran off stage. We were now in the small town of Yeovil, the second date I was on the tour for. I had chosen to stand out in the crowd for this show since it was a small venue and there wasn’t much room on the stage or side of stage. As I saw the guys disappear, so did I as I made my way out of the building and towards the bus. Walking out, I saw them get stopped by a few fans that had rushed out after their set too and I walked onto the bus leaving them to it. A few minutes later, Jared and Pat came onto the bus and sat down in the downstairs lounge with me.

“That was a really hot show tonight,” Jared commented.

“It was so sweaty out front, I can’t even imagine what it’s like for you guys on stage,” I said.

“That’s got to be the hottest show we’ve ever played in the UK,” Pat said. Jared and Pat downed bottles of water as they tried to cool down and Kennedy and Garrett made their way onto the bus, both looking very sweaty too. Garrett groaned as he sat down next me.

“Ew, you stink dude,” I said, turning to him.

“I feel fucking disgusting,” he said as he wiped his face with a towel.

We all sat there for a few more minutes talking about the show and John still hadn’t gotten on the bus. I sighed, stood up and walked over to the steps to the top level.

“When John gets on, can you tell him I’m up here?” I asked, and they agreed.

I went and sat in the top lounge on my own, partly to get away from the smell of the four sweaty guys and partly because I felt like I was spending more time with them than I was with John. I did love their company, but that wasn’t the main reason I was here. I had been looking forward to seeing John more, and I understood this was his job and that he was the frontman, but between soundcheck, meet and greets, interviews, their set and then meeting more people outside, I didn’t get to see John a whole lot.

Once he did eventually get on, I heard a few muffled words between the guys downstairs before he made his way up the steps.

“What you doing up here on your own, pretty girl?” he asked, walking over to me, bending down and kissing my forehead.

“I couldn’t stand the smell downstairs,” I said.

“What’s up?” he asked, sitting down next to me. I looked up at him blankly. “Come on, I know you enough now to know when something’s up. So what is it?”

“I just...I wish we got to spend more time together,” I told him.

“I know, I’m sorry, this is a really busy tour since it’s only our second time in the UK,” he told me. “I didn’t realise how much Tim had booked us to do each day.”

The next of day in Brighton was much the same and I barely got to see John, or the rest of the guys, again. We were now in London again and it was the last date of the tour and I spent most the day hanging out with various people of the tour and talking to people who had come along early for the show, including Lizzie and Lucy. Josh, Max and Dan from You Me At Six were here too to see their friends Mayday Parade and they spent some time talking to The Maine guys as well after getting to know them on Warped Tour.

When it came time for The Maine’s set, me, Lizzie and Lucy stood up to go out front and find a space in the crowd where we’d be able to see them from. Josh, Max and Dan all said they’d come out too and followed us into the crowd. They got stopped a few times by fans that had recognised them, but eventually they made it over to us. We were quite close to the bar and the boys kept offering to buy drinks for us too, which we accepted.

As The Maine played through the first few songs, I sang quietly to myself, making eye contact with John a few times and smiled widely at him. It was honestly amazing getting to see him do what he loved again and hearing his voice live was killing me. They just finished up playing The Way We Talk, when John went and grabbed his drink from the back of the stage and came back to his microphone.

“So I just want to say how great it is being back in your beautiful country,” he began “And you’ve certainly got some pretty girls on this side of the pond,” he laughed, looking straight at me, making me smile even more. “This next song is for one of those pretty girls in particular, someone very special to me. This song’s called I Must Be Dreaming.”

He placed his drink back down and the guys began playing as Lizzie and Lucy turned to me and squealed in reaction to what John had just said.

The fact that John dedicated the song to me meant so much, not only because it was one of my favourite songs by The Maine, but also because it was the first time that John had made any sort of public acknowledgement towards me in front of his fans. Obviously they didn’t know it was directed at me personally, standing in the crowd, but it was the fact he did it at all.

They made their way through a few more songs before John stopped to address the crowd again.

“So we’ve got three more songs left for you boys and girls,” John started saying, receiving cheers from the crowd. “This next song is about where I come from. Obviously I love home and all the people there, but nothing beats being on the road with my best friends, getting to visit new places and meeting some amazing people along the way. So this song is for the ones we leave at home and the ones we meet.” John placed his acoustic guitar over his head and Jared and Kennedy began the intro to Don’t Stop Now. “This is a rock and roll song so I want to see you all moving out there, is that alright?” John told the crowd, again receiving screams, and then began singing the words.

They finished up the set with We’ll All Be and each of the guys had left the stage one by one as John was stood alone singing the last lines of the song.

“Thank you very much, we’re The Maine, good night,” he said, before leaving the stage himself.

The six of us made our way backstage once they finished. Walking down the corridor, I could hear voices coming from the room they were sharing with Mayday Parade for a dressing room. Once we entered the room, we found the guys cheering and chatting to the Mayday guys about their set and about the crowd. I walked over to Jared first, who was sat down drinking water and wiping his face with a towel.

“Good set tonight,” I smiled at him and sitting down.

“Yeah the crowd was great. They were really lively, makes playing the songs so much more fun,” Jared told me. I looked around the room seeing the other guys all doing the same as his was. Everyone that had just walked in had also dotted themselves around the room talking to various people I could see Lizzie and Garrett sat together talking as Lucy was sat with Max, Kennedy, Pat and Tim. Josh and Dan were talking to Jeremy and Jake from Mayday Parade. Then I saw John who was in the corner on his own. He was wiping his bare sweaty chest with a towel as it rose and fell rapidly. I excused myself from Jared and walked over to John.

“Pretty good set tonight,” I said, causing John to lift his head and look at me and smile.

“Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he said as I sat next to him.

“I really did, plus I kinda liked what you said up there too,” I told him.

“I meant it, you are very special to me,” he said, pulling me towards him and then onto his lap. He kissed my cheek as he wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me to him.

“Thanks baby,” I said, cuddling into his bare torso.

We managed to spend the rest of the evening together this time, once John had cooled down properly, gone out to meet a few fans and then changed his clothes. Everyone had decided that since it was the last night of tour and there were so many guests, that we should all go out once the show had finished. Mayday Parade had just come off stage and we cooling down whilst we were all gathering up our things to take back to the bus. The two bands stayed around outside for a bit talking to the few fans that had stayed after the show to meet them and get pictures, which I didn’t mind so much since I had the girls with me.

“You and Garrett look pretty close tonight,” I commented as the three of us sat on the bus.

“Yeah, you know, I didn’t realise how much I missed him until I got to spend time with him again,” she said. “It suck that they’re leaving again in a couple of days.”

“I know,” I sighed.

“What do you mean? You’re going with them!” she laughed.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to leave you guys behind.”

“No, I’m having any of this, stop putting a damper on tonight, this was meant to be a fun last night together with everyone and that’s what it’s going to be,” Lucy said.

Eventually, everyone had come back, got changed and was ready to go. We headed to Camden, where we knew there were a few good clubs. Once all of us got in and filled up the club, we began to separate as people went to get drinks or headed straight for the dance floor. There was a lot of us that had come together, Mayday Parade and crew, The Maine and crew, me, Lizzie and Lucy and Josh, Dan and Max, so we basically packed the club out. The DJ was playing a lot of good songs and we sang our hearts out to them, whilst downing drink and after drink. John more or less stayed by my side all night and danced with me, placing kisses on my lips when he could.

It was the early hours of the morning when we decided to head back to the bus, where Lizzie and Lucy were also going to be staying for the night. The boys had another long day of press tomorrow so we stayed up talking for a bit but decided to all retreat to our bunks to catch some sleep after a while.