Just A lonely Star

So we had been on tour for a week now, we had been to Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh and now we were back in London, we’re here for two days and then go to Wales and Ireland. Up to now, I loved tour life. Every morning I woke up, grabbed breakfast with the guys, saw the city with Josh, got lunch somewhere, watched the show and worked the merch store, did photography with Tom, chilled with the guys and then snuggled with Josh in my bunk before falling asleep and doing it all over again. We hadn’t had much chance to party due to just being tired, but now we were back in London and it was Tom’s birthday so we’re gonna party tonight and I could not wait! The venue the band is playing tonight is the Brixton Academy. It was so big compared to the others! It holds almost 5000 people and the gig had sold out weeks ago apparently so everyone was very excited and nervous.

Right now, I was sat in a Starbucks, with Josh and Elissa, just chilling before the gig.

`So, how’s tour?’ Elissa asked me, oh, how I had missed her!

`It’s actually really good! Ollie gave me a merch job and Tom lets me take photo’s it’s so fun!’

`Sounds like you’ve made an impression on everyone’

`She has, everyone has fallen in love with her’ Josh said, smiling at me.

`I knew they would!’ said Elissa. `Talking about love, I’ve heard stories about you two…’

`Oh, no! What have you heard?!’ I said

`Just stuff about you two, and showers, and bunks…’

`Max, told you this I s’pose?’ Josh asked

`…Maybe.’

`May, I don’t know if you know this but ever since I was 14 Max and Elissa have always had
weekly consultations about ways in which to bully me.’

`You’re so paranoid, Josh! Anyway, im nervous about tonight, like, really nervous!’

`Liss, you’re gonna be fine. When have you ever messed up at a gig?’ josh said

`Wait, Liss, are you singing tonight?’ I asked, excited.

`Yeah, im the female vocals in Always Attract so Joshy here has asked me to join him on stage
to night’

`Oh my gosh. This is gonna be perfect, Liss! You guys have the nicest voices ever and
together, just wow!! I’m so excited!!’ I was practically jumping up and down in my seat now, my voice so high I’m surprised I hadn’t deafened them all.

`Oh, May I do love you and your enthusiasm! Can’t wait until you two are back from tour, it’s been lonely around the house lately’

`It won’t be long, sis. Then you’ll have all my tour laundry to do’

`Hmm… now im kinda wishing tour was longer…’ Elissa joked.

We sat there chatting for ages until Josh decided we needed to get back to the venue before it got too busy outside. But sure enough when we arrived, there they were. At least 2000 fans all lining up already, 4 hours before the gig. Some closer to the front were lying down, in sleeping bags, fans closer to the back, stood up, chatting. The atmosphere coming from the queue was amazing, everyone was obviously buzzing. Josh looked at me, worry over his face, he didn’t know what to do.

`If I walk past casually will anyone recognise me?’

`Probably, how about you put your hood up and walk, looking downwards. We’ll all walk in
separately’ Elissa said

`Good plan, Liss, you go first. That’ll distract some people, then May and then me, ok?’

`Sounds good to me’ I said.

Elissa started to walk up the line on her pursuit to the venue’s
entrance. I heard a few screams as people recognised her, fans started running up to her asking for pictures. I took this as my queue to go and made my way inside alright, Elissa had everyone distracted enough so that Josh was able to sidle in the door way, head down, hood up without being noticed.

`That was impressive!’ I said. Josh nodded in agreement. He had been strange today, quite tense, maybe he was worried about the show.

`You ok, Joshy?’ I asked, putting my arm around him

`Yeah, just thinking about stuff’ he said, smiling down at me. His phone vibrated in his pocket, he checked the message, his smile turned into a grimace and then he said to me,

`I’ll see you after the show, yeah? I gotta go sound check and stuff’

Before I could answer he was walking off already, further into the venue. Well I guess I wasn’t
wanted today. I spent the next few hours on the bus, being taught how to play Fifa by Max and Chris. Needless to say, I sucked.

It then got to about 5.30 and doors were set to open at 6. I had to go to merch, this time our merch stand was actually inside the main venue hall so I’d be able to watch the whole gig from the merch stand. I went to the bar to get Ollie and I some drinks for the night and then went and sat at the merch stand. This was one of my favourite parts of the show, the first rush of fans filing into the venue trying to get to the barrier. And sure enough, tonight was just as crazy, I watched them all as they ran to the front of the stage, trying to get as close as they can.
The atmosphere in the room was insane; we had a few people coming to buy t-shirts already and then the first band came on. It was a band called Canterbury, personally, I love them, they had a great sound and they got a good reception from the crowds most days.
The next band on were Deaf Havana, a small British band, also. Josh had told me about how they’d all been friends for ages and had toured before, back in the band’s first few years together. The crowd loved them, singing along to almost every word, it was great. And the band themselves were absolutely amazing people too.
The last support band was a band called Kids In Glass Houses, I hadn’t had the chance to speak to them much on tour yet as they had always been out and about do various promos for their latest album. I loved their sound though, they’re the kind of band that you can dance to so, sure enough the crowd went crazy during their set, dancing, jumping, moshing and singing along as though their lives depended on it. I had learnt most of the songs from each bands set by now and I was still not bored of watching them, they were all very talented young men.

But, now it was time for the main attraction, my five boys, to come on stage. I could see Rob, Luke and other tech’s running around the stage trying to set up. The gap between bands was nearly thirty minutes long, many people had come to buy t-shirts, posters, wristband and hoodies from us now, and we had made a great earning tonight. And me and Ollie had spent most of it dancing around and singing along like most nights. A few drinks had been drunk by now and counting money was becoming progressively harder.

The lights dimmed, scream issued from the crowd. They all started chanting. `YOU ME AT SIX!’ over and over. Then you could see the flash of blonde hair as Dan took his seat at his drum kit, stood up on a massive podium, the light shining on him, the rest of the stage in darkness. Then came Matt, another spot light hitting him, on his podium, he strummed his guitar, starting the intro slowly. Then Max came on stage, a third spotlight on him, lights at the back of the stage flashed, giving the crowd a glimpse at the stage, the next person was Chris, on the other side of the stage, yet another spotlight on him and his podium. All three guitarists were strumming, Dan was drumming. There was only one person missing. A few seconds passed, the music built up and then a figure walked onto yet another podium, next to Chris’, and then a light shone, there stood Josh, microphone in hand, dancing and jumping around. Then the lights went out of control, flashing everywhere, almost blinding the audience, the band made their way on to the main stage are and Josh shouted into his microphone;

`Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are YOU ME AT SIX’

The crowd started jumping around in excitement, the shouts increased and then the lights all went up, in an orange glow, and the intro to Save It For The Bedroom started. The intro was amazing in itself but it was nothing compared to the rest of the show. The band stormed through sixteen songs from both of their albums. The crowd jumping and moshing until their hearts content. Crowd surfers were everywhere, it looked like chaos but it was so cool. Elissa had come on during the acoustic rendition of Always Attract and had blown the minds of everyone in the room. The set was almost two hours long, including an encore of three songs. The last song was The Rumour. And it was the most perfect way to end a legendary night. This for sure, was the best gig I had ever been to and the look on the kids’ faces as they left the venue, proved that it would not be forgotten by them either.

All I wanted to do was run backstage and see Josh, congratulate him, kiss him, hold him and tell him how proud I was but as I looked in front of me I realised that would have to wait. There were a few hundred people wanting to buy merch all crowded in front of us, trying to push to the front of the queue. This would take forever! I could see Ollie was stressing out about the amount of people there was to serve so got stuck into it, selling hundreds of t-shirts, hoodies, posters and wristbands to what felt like the whole of Britain. I was exhausted, still a little drunk from earlier and really excited to see Josh. Time seemed to drag and go really slowly as I sold the merch but finally after more than half an hour of serving the customers; we were down to the last 15 or 20 customers.

`May?’

`Yes, Oliver?’

`Just go and see Josh, I can see you’re almost exploding with excitement to see him so go, I
can handle the last few people’

`Are you sure?’

`Yes, now go before I change my mind’ he joked, he looked so tired, I made a mental note to
buy him a round of drinks later on.

I made my way out of the merch booth, and walked past some fans.

`Hey!’ I felt someone tap on my shoulder; I turned round to see a young girl about 14 stood
there.

`Hi?’ I questioned, growing impatient now.

`You’re Josh’s new girlfriend aren’t you?’ she asked

`Im just a friend’

`Oh, well I was just gonna tell you that I think you guys make such a cute couple, and was
wondering if I could maybe have a picture?’

`Well, thanks I guess, that’s so sweet and sure. You got a camera on you?’

`Yes, thank you!’

I posed next to the girl and her friend took the picture of us.

`Thank you so much, May.’

`No problem, I hope you enjoyed your evening!’ I said as I walked away, desperate to see Josh by now.

What that girl had said was so cute, Josh had been wrong. The fans do accept me and seem to actually quite like me; this made me feel so great. Maybe if I told him, we’d be able to make our relationship more official and I’d actually be able to call him mine? I hope so, I couldn’t wait to actually be able to be seen with him in public, as a couple instead of hiding away in our bunks.

I walked up to the stage, showed my VIP pass to the security guard and was let through the barriers so that I could climb the steps onto the stage and go to backstage. I walked through the backstage area; lots of people were walking around trying to get everything loaded back onto the vans after the show. I walked down the corridor that the dressing rooms were on. I was about half way down when Max came up behind me.

`MAY!!!’ he shouted

`Hey Max, do you know where Josh is?’

`Yeah, he’s in the dressing room still, I think’

`Ok, care to join me?’ I asked, holding my arm out for him to link. He did and we both walked down the corridor.

I found the room, the door had the words `You Me At Six’ written on the front of it, and opened the door. I walked into the room first, I looked around, searching for Josh, and then I saw them.
Josh was being pinned to a sofa by a girl, both of them locked in an embrace so intense that they failed to notice us. Josh’s trousers were unbuckled, his hands up the girls shirt. He was touching her how he touches me. They carried on as I stood there, tears building up in my eyes.
That’s when Max noticed them. I heard a gasp of shock as he recognised who it was. The girl broke apart from Josh’s lips both of them darting their eyes towards us. The girl smiled at me, slightly embarrassed. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Josh.
All I could think to do was run and escape this room.
So I did.
As I ran I heard Max, shouting at Josh. I reached the end of the corridor; I heard footsteps running towards me, shouting my name.

`May! May! Stop!’ I heard him shout.

My name was coming from those lips, those lips that had been interlocked with another’s mere seconds before. I turned around slowly, still not daring to look at him.

`May, it’s not what you think’ he pleaded, I could hear the pain in his voice.

I bet he was just annoyed that he got caught.

`I knew you were too good to be true.’ I said, barely loud enough for him to hear, the tears spilling from my eyes.

`May, I love you’ he said

Those three words, the ones i had been dying to hear were now the words that were making me want to die.

`Don’t fucking lie to me, Franceschi. I was just another notch in your bedpost’

And with that I left with nothing else to do but run away.