Who We Are

Date.

"You nervous?"

I looked up to Ronnie's grinning face. "I'm not nervous," I replied softly.

Ronnie chuckled and continued to drive. We were on our way to the bar downtown. It was getting darker and darker outside the window as we drove farther into the city. Ronnie turned the headlights on as we hit the Vegas strip. I sat up a little straighter and looked out the window of the car.

Vegas was known as the City of Sin but to me, it'd always been beautiful in its own way. The lights on the buildings were turned on and they counteracted the dark. The buildings were towering over everything and in every direction there was different color. The lights from the buildings glinted off of every piece of glass and made the colors blend together. For as far as I could see the lights stretched on.

"Have you ever been down here at night?"

I looked back to him. "Of course I have," I replied, "I do live in this city, you know."

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "You live next door, Kat. It's kind of hard to forget."

A smile slid onto my lips at his bitter tone. I turned my attention back to the lights outside the window. I was slightly mesmerized. But soon enough we'd passed the main strip and ended up on the outskirts of the tourist areas. Ronnie parked the park outside a small little bar. It wasn't dirty or threatening looking, it was homey little building where people of all ages congregated.

Ronnie nodded towards the place. "You really to go in?" he asked, looking me over.

"Yeah," I said eagerly before I unplugged my seatbelt and pushed the heavy door open.

Ronnie walked around to my side and grabbed for my hand. I let him take it and pull me past the people who were loitering outside. They, mostly guys, looked at the two of us as we walked up to the front of the building. I smiled at them politely.

"Come on, Kat," Ronnie chuckled, tugging on my hand, "We're going to be late."

I caught up to his pace and walked right beside him. "Did it start already?" I asked as Ronnie pulled the door open for me and the sounds from inside assaulted my ears.

"Kind of," Ronnie replied. He wrapped his tattooed arm around my waist and held me against him as we squeezed between the large number of people who'd gathered here.

The place wasn't very large but it was decent. When you walked in the door there was a large bar to the right with counters that went in a complete circle so that the bartender could stand in the middle and serve everyone. Ronnie led me around the bar and up five steps to a much larger room that held a large stage to the left. This room was packed from wall to wall.

"Do you want to come back stage with me?" Ronnie questioned, pulling me towards the door to the right of the stage.

I knew there was confusion on my face as I asked, "You can go back stage? I thought that area was restricted or something?" I grabbed Ronnie's hand as he pushed the back stage door open with a teasing grin.

"They know me around here," he replied simply.

I was surprised by the size of the back stage area. There were people littered all over the place. Most were standing in groups of four or five in the first room that we entered. When we continued back farther the crowd thinned out to a point where there wasn't anyone else around.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we went through another door so that the two of us where the only one in the hallway.

Ronnie grinned at me. "Don't worry," he laughed, "I'm not taking you to a secluded place so I can ravish you and leave you stranded." He laughed and smirked at me when he saw that I wasn't chuckling with him. "Relax, Kat, we're just heading around to the other side of the stage. There are more people in the left room. Max and the guys are there."

I was surprised. "They are?"

Ronnie nodded and slid past a random guy who came sauntering out of the door. "Everyone is excited to meet you," he told me as he pushed open the black door.

I put a charming smile on my face as the room became a lot brighter and I saw that there were more people hanging out in this room.

Ronnie grinned when Max shouted out to him. "You're fucking late," Max claimed moving over to us, "We got bumped back a spot, you asshole."

Ronnie laughed and took his hand from mine so that he could shove his friend away. "Screw off, Max, I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yeah, yeah," Max muttered, rolling his eyes. He then turned his attention to me and grinned crookedly. "You came out, Silverstein," he said, "I'm not surprised. Ronnie always gets what he wants."

I glared at Max and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Shut the hell up, Green," Ronnie demanded, shoving past him.

I followed both of the boys over to the rest of their group. They were the same boys that were always seen sitting on Ronnie's front porch. I knew their names, as did everyone who'd spent at least a week in my school.

The most intimidating boy's name was Robert Ortiz. No one had ever seen him smile and if it hadn't been against school rules, he would've always had shiny, silver aviators covering his eyes. I was thankful that he was wearing glasses so that I didn't have to look him directly in the eyes.

The most interesting looking boy had incredibly white hair, a slender face, and friendly smile. He was the same one that'd jumped off Ronnie's porch to confront his younger brother as he tried to make his way into my house. Bryan Money was most commonly known as just "Monte".

The last boy that I didn't technically know was named Omar. He was the heaviest-set boy and his hair was plain black and fell around his round cheeks. He didn't seem to always be with Ronnie, but he was there quite a lot.

"Guys," Ronnie shouted at them, causing them to stop shouting at each other and look at the tattooed boy. Ronnie looked relieved as they calmed down. "This is Kat," he introduced, "She's my neighbor."

I chuckled at his introduction.

He looked at me in question. "What's so funny?"

I smiled at him. "You've never introduced me as your neighbor before."

"I've never actually introduced you before, Katerina."

A guy came barreling through the door and caught the attention of everyone in the room. The nervous man looked around at everyone's faces and seemed relieved when his eyes landed on Ronnie. "Escape the Fate on stage in fifteen minutes," he called, seemingly talking to the group of grungy boys that I was standing with.

"Was he talking to you?" I asked, turning back to look at the five of them.

"She doesn't know?" Robert asked Ronnie, his tone dark.

"Know what?" I questioned.

Ronnie turned to face me and grinned down at me. "I'm in a band," he replied with excitement. Then he added, "And we're playing tonight."

Now I was really surprised. "How come you didn't tell me before?" I inquired, running my fingers through my light locks.

Ronnie shrugged. "I didn't think you'd actually want to come," he retorted. He wrapped his arm over my shoulder and turned back to the guys. They chatted for a couple more minutes before they decided that they better get out there.

As Ronnie led me to a spot on the side of the stage were I could stand, I realized that I had no idea who played what in the band. As they left me alone for just a moment to get their things, I was actually growing more excited as I stared out at the group that was currently on stage.

The band on stage finished their songs and filed off quickly, each of them caked in sweat. They ran past me as I stepped back automatically.

"Scared of a few musicians, Kat?"

"As a matter of fact," I replied to Ronnie, "No, I'm not."

Ronnie grinned cockily and moved to me where I stood looking out over the stage and the people in the crowd that I could see from this angle. "Good. I wouldn't want you to be afraid of me and my friends," he replied as the guys lined up behind him so they could climb the steps and head out onto stage.

I looked over the five of them, my eyes lingering over Ronnie the longest. He was the lankiest of them all, almost the tallest, too. Underneath his skin there were some muscles, though, no matter how sinewy he looked.

He wore a sleeveless black shirt with a design on the front that I didn't recognize. His arms were covered in tattoos that as well as his neck. His raven hair was choppy and hung in his eyes but it was a flattering look on him, one that had my stomach fluttering.

"Break a leg," I called to them as they filed past me and out to the stage. I noticed that Ronnie and Robert were the only ones who weren't holding instruments. I watched as Robert moved to the drum set and sit down, picking the wooden sticks up from the snare drum and twirling them between his fingers a few times as a kind of warm up. For some reason I was elated as I realized Ronnie was the singer.

I held my breath as the music started. And I let it out involuntarily as Ronnie's voice sounded through the building.

"Situations, are irrelevant now!
She loves the way that I tease,
I love the way that she breathes."
♠ ♠ ♠
(: Hey.

If you want to read something else that I wrote, you should check out Hugely Invisible
It's something that I hope you read & comment so you can tell me what you felt/thought about it. It's a very short one-shot about a subject that not a lot of people pay attention to (when it comes to writing). It affects a lot of girls, nowadays.