I Know The Way You've Been Living

“Melanie! Why are you still doing here? It’s 9 AM and you’re already late for school!” My mom yelled outside my door.

“I’m not going to school today mom, I have newspaper duty today” I said as I opened the door, letting my mom in.

“Newspaper duty? Since when did you join the newspaper committee?” She took a seat on my bed with her pink and purple apron still hanging on her neck.

“A few days ago, I figured I have to get busy with extracurricular activities for my resume. I’m going to this music festival down at the beach to cover the music section. I swear to God I’m not skipping school mom” I explained to her because when I mentioned I’m going to a music festival her eyes went big and I know she was going to ban me from going.

“Why is there a music festival on a school day? That event organizer must be out of their minds. Well, I trust you so don’t do anything-stupid okay Melanie?” She pointed at me with her spatula

“Promise! Scouts honor!” She laughed and went out from my room. I sighed, I really don’t know what to wear for today. I want to look pretty, but not overdressed for a concert.

I walked over to my dresser and figured out what I’m going to wear. Since it’s pretty hot out, I opted my pastel pink shorts and paired it with a loose mint colored tank top. I tied up my hair into a messy high bun and put on the simplest make up; mascara, eyeliner and lip-gloss.

I grabbed my small sling bag and put my camera, note pad and pen inside it. I checked my phone and slipped on my black converse. I was about to go out from my room when I saw Zacky’s car outside with the rest of the guys. Shit, I can’t deal with them right now!

I ran downstairs hopefully I could sneak into the kitchen and go out from the side door without seeing them. But as if the world is conspiring against me, as I hopped off the last level of the stairs, they all burst into the living room.

“Hey! Why aren’t you at school?” Zacky walked towards me with his serious face

“I have newspaper duty, going on an observation. Don’t worry, I cleared it with mom” I answered as I walked towards the door

“Wait! Are you sure you’re not just skipping school? You know I was your age once” He raised his eyebrows, God! He can be such a pest sometimes.

“Yes, I’m sure. Now I’m going to go, I’ll see you guys later”

Oh God I really hope I wont.



The festival is right by the beach; it was packed with people and cars! There are loads of tents and food carts placed all over the festival area. I have no idea where to go and I have no idea where Blake is, seriously in a place like this, it’s like trying to find a needle in a pile of needle. I reached into my bag to get my phone when it rang; it says Blake Nordrum on the called ID.

“Blake? Where are you? I’m here already” I looked around, looking for a guy that’s holding a cellphone, which is basically every single guys that are in here.

“I’m here down by the cotton candy cart, it has a giant cotton candy on the top of the cart; can you see it?” He answered

I looked around to see a giant cotton candy, and it turns out it was about 200 meters from where I was standing.

“Yeah got it, I’ll be right there”

“Alright” He hung up the phone and I started walking towards the cart.

I found him wearing a navy blue V-neck t-shirt with white surfing shorts, standing exactly next to the cart holding a big pink fluffy cotton candy on his right hand and his cellphone on his left. His hair is messy, almost like after-sex kinda hair, which is really… extremely sexy on him. Oh Mel, snap out of it!

I walked towards Blake and he smiled at me when he saw me, gesturing the cotton candy to me.

“Hey, have you been here long?” I took a piece of that cotton candy and popped them into my mouth. Hmm… How I love cotton candies.

“Nah, about 15 minutes. I saw this giant cotton candy and figured that girls love these things right?” He laughed and I laughed with him, oh God he’s so cute when he laughs.

“So, when’s the concert going to start?” I asked as we started walking towards the entrance. Last night Blake said he has my tickets so I have nothing to worry about, I do have to pay him back though.

“In half an hour if they stick to the schedule, you wanna walk around? Hopefully we get to see the band members that are still preparing”

I nodded and we both got inside the festival, we both got stamps and walked straight to the main stage. We were right in the middle, not too far and not that close to the stage either. For photo purposes, this is a great spot.

“I think Avenged Sevenfold is playing first, I didn’t see the lineups by the entrance” Blake bent down to talk to me, people here are really loud so I couldn’t hear him if talks way up there.

“How do you know?”

“The techs, I recognized them from their DVD” And just as he said that, I saw the Berrys on the stage walking back and forth setting up the stage.

I automatically hid behind Blake and cursed under my breath. Shit! They can’t know that I’m here or I’ll be dead.

“What are you doing?” He chuckled and turned around

“Nothing, Uh… The sun is just too hot” I fanned myself; honestly I’ve experienced worse heat than today.

In 5 minutes, the guys went on stage and the keyboard on ‘Critical Acclaim’ blared on the speakers. Thousands and thousands of kids screamed and sang along as Matt sang the song. I’ve always loved watching them play, it’s like they’re a totally different person, a cool and mysterious but also funny individuals that in real life? Not so cool and mysterious. At all.

I saw Zacky on his usual corner, banging his head and putting on his cocky face while playing crazy riffs on his guitar. Same goes with Brian, with his usual cool and calm face, he looks as confident as ever.

Why is it that whenever I want to get away from something, it always finds its way back to me? Whether its Patricia or Brian, they’re always there whenever I turn around.

I was watching Brian play when he looked into my direction, I swear I could see his face looking confused and trying to see clearly whether it was me or just somebody else. I hid further behind Blake to prevent Brian from seeing me.

The guys played about 10 songs and they gave away the stage to Underoath, they were pretty good but I’d say not as good as the guys. We took pictures and asked kids around about the concert and about the environment cleaning stuff. By the time we were done, it was already 5 PM and the sun was going to set soon. Now we’re heading out the exit and walked towards an empty parking lot.

“Today was great! They all played well don’t you think?” Blake piped up after a quiet an awkward walk

“Yeah! Definitely, I can’t wait for tomorrow’s concert” I grinned up at him, we’re now walking up to his car, a black 2002 BMW 3 Series.

“Do you need a ride home?” He asked as he jiggles out his car keys from his pocket

“Nah, its fine, my house is close from here; I’ll just take a walk. But thank you though”

“Alright, so I’ll see you tomorrow?” He shot me the most genuine smile I’ve ever seen, and those dimples… Ah!

“Yep! I’ll see you tomorrow”

Phew, I didn’t think today would go this smoothly. I thought the guys would caught me with Blake and would start giving me shit about skipping school to go to a festival with a guy that I only knew for a week.

But even with all the hiding, the heat and the tiring walk, today was definitely one of my favorite days of my entire life.