Polaroid Cancer

By the time Bring Me the Horizon is on stage, Casey is extremely sleepy and keeps nodding off on Maudie’s shoulder. Maudie continues gently nudging her awake with her elbow. Eventually, Casey is offered a Monster and she gladly accepts it. Thankfully that does the trick and helps spry her to alertness.

Being on stage is definitely a completely different experience then being in the crowd. Casey didn’t have the constant fear of being crushed to death and could enjoy the show a bit more. Though she had to admit it was awkward standing there, it made her feel like a groupie.

“Isn’t this amazin'?!” Maudie yells into Casey’s ear.

“Yeah!” Casey agrees with a huge smile.

Maudie hands Casey another drink and she takes a sip of it. Blech, rum and coke. Handing it back, she returns to watching her fiancé bounce around on stage. His long arms remind her of monkey arms and she bursts out in a fit of laughter. One of Maudie’s eyebrows is raised in concern.

“I want yeh all t’meet me lovely fiancée!”

Abruptly her ears are buzzing. What she was hearing couldn’t be real.
“Casey, get yeh pretty little arse on stage!”

She snatches up Maudie’s rum and coke and quickly swigs it down before she numbly makes her way on stage. Her eyes are completely focused on Oliver’s brown orbs; Casey isn’t quite sure if she wants to punch him in his pretty face or hide behind him. She restrains both actions and manages a half smile. Her body is tingling so bad that her limbs feel detached.

“In all me life, I never anticipated marrying anyone. But if yeh find him, or her, snatch th’ opportunity up because they could be gone in an instant!”

The crowd screams at the top of their lungs in agreement. Beyond the blinding lights, Casey can see some couples dotted in the mass putting arms around each others shoulders. Casey can’t help but get a bud of warmth in the pit of her stomach. How can one person hold so much power over thousands? It was unbelievable. Her respect for Oliver grew even more. She had a bigger understanding of why he loved the stage so much.

Casey quickly snatches a kiss on his cheek and attempts to wander off the stage, with a subtle wave to the crowd. A lot of the fans holler and wolf-whistle at her, but there are also a lot of jealous looks from girls up in the front and suddenly Casey just wants to get away. Oliver pulls her back for one more solid kiss, only this time flat on the lips, and he made sure to make it longer then usual. By the time they are done, Casey is beet red and stumbling to the side of the stage toward Maudie.

Maudie is holding Casey up.

“Get… me… a… fucking… drink…”

Casey collapses on the floor as Maudie disappears briefly and comes back with another rum and coke.



The next morning, Casey’s head feels like it is going to fall off of her shoulders and roll on to the floor with a thump. Her eyes are sore and she stifles a loud yawn as she gets herself up out of the small bunk that is shared with her fiancée who is buried under the blankets. Silently thankful that no one else is awake, Casey locks herself in the bathroom and splashes water onto her face.

In all her years of drinking, she had never been so wasted as she had been last night.

Nothing emerges when Casey tries to recollect what happened after Oliver had called her on stage with him. She didn’t even remember walking off stage, all that did emerge was demanding Maudie to bring her a drink and after that… bits and pieces-Casey’s face suddenly goes a vivid red.

“Oh, Jesus… oh Jesus!” Casey slams open the bathroom’s slider door and with hurried steps, glides to Oliver’s side. She begins pulling pillows and blankets off of him and shakes his shoulder wildly once she finds him. “Oli! Oli!”

“Yeh, yeh, m’awake,” He mumbles, his eyes fluttering open and close, “Wha’ is et…?”

“Did you were a condom!?” Casey says in a loud whisper, leaning close to his face, praying to God no one over hears.

“Did I wha’…?” Oliver asks as he yawns loudly and scratches his jaw line.

Her body bristles up and she presses her hands to her burning cheeks, “Did. You. Where. A. Condom?”

“Ooooh, naw,” Oliver says, rolling onto his back and stretching out his body.

“What?!”

“O’course I did,” He laughs, “We should do tha’ like last night, again.”

“Oh, shut up,” Casey sighs, punching him in the shoulder and getting to her feet.

“Owww, what the ‘ell?”

“I’m taking a shower.”

“Can I join yeh?”

“No, it’ll be too cramped,” Casey says pointedly and scowls off back to the bathroom.