23 Days

I had arrived at the concert venue with Ashlyn and Jude over ten minutes ago and was surprised to see that there weren’t many people there. I hadn’t expect a bunch of people there, but I was expecting more than there actually were. There was - including myself, Jude, and Ashlyn – approximately 25 people standing around and that was not including the many band members. I knew that we were a little early and the first band didn’t even go on for another fifteen minutes, but I was kind of hoping that some more people would file in and make it look like this place was a tad bit more crowded.
Jude turned and looked at me and Ashlyn before shoving his hands in his pockets and ducking his head. “I’m going to go get some water,” he mumbled before walking back towards the bar. I looked over at Ashlyn as she began giggling and raised a brow at her, causing her to give me a goofy grin. “What are you laughing at?” I questioned her. She shrugged her shoulders and gestured to Jude at the back of the venue, “Him. I’m laughing at how awkward he is.” “Oh, yeah. Understandable,” I chuckled and nodded at her before turning my attention back to the stage where the band members begun to set up.
Jude was kind of an odd kid, as most of us are. The easy description of his would be a typical little emo kid. He was just a little bit taller than Ashlyn and I and had jet black hair, in which he had most of it in his face and the rest teased out. He was also an awfully quiet fellow who didn’t quite fit in with Ashlyn and me’s little group. Ashlyn was that happy and bubbly person, and I being more laid back and cool about everything. Jude never participated in anything that Ashlyn and I had been doing, so I was quite surprised that she even convinced him to come to this show, but I figured that consider his appearance, he might how showed her this music.
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked back over at Ashlyn just as Jude had walked back over to us with two water bottles skillfully place in his hand. “Did you get one for us?” Ashlyn questioned, wrapping her arm around Jude neck and smiling. Jude nodded at her answer and wrapped his free hand around her waist. She pecked him on the cheek and giggled, “You’re so sweet. Thaanks, babe.” He nodded again. “I can’t believe you two are together,” I mentioned, rising at brow at the both of them.
Jude looked over at me and reached his hand out, holding the unexpectedly cold bottle against my bare arm, causing me to jump back. I quickly took the bottle from him as he began to snicker at me and my reaction and rolled my eyes. All three of us jumped as a loud vibration pulsed through the speakers by the stage, causing us to look at the stage and see the bassist playing. Ashlyn laughed and pulled away from Jude before grabbing his and my hand and dragging us towards the small crowd that was gathering around the stage. “I want to be close to the stage but not too close,” Ashlyn shouted at the Jude and me and she stopped and looked around the crowd for a good place to stand.
Soon enough, Ashlyn found a place that she thought would be good and the first band, which I think was called Venom Love Tears, finished sound check and proceeded onto playing. A little after VLT finished playing and got all their gear off stage, Fearless Fiends played. Finally, Framing Hanley got on and a sudden uproar of screams from girls, including Ashlyn, from the crowd erupted as the singer, Nixon, appeared. It had turned out that while the other bands had been playing, a bunch more people had piled into the smallish venue so that there was a now a larger crowd.
They played a lot of my favorite songs such as Stupid Girl, The Burn, Photographs and Gasoline, and Bittersweet Sundown as well as a couple of songs that were new. They even did Lollipop as an encore when the entire crowd had chanted their name for a solid two minutes and of course, the entire crowd went crazy. There were girls screaming and singing a long, people trying to climb up on the stage and sing with Nixon and whatnot. It was interesting, that’s was for sure.
Ashlyn grabbed onto my arm and shrieked, jumping up and down as the band finished and fled offstage, “Oh my god! That was so fun, Rian! Wasn’t that fun? Oh my god.” I laughed at her and nodded, “Yeah, now calm down.” She stopped jumping and grinned, “Let’s go meet them or something.” She latched her hand onto Jude’s arm and dragged the both of us out of the large crowd and towards the FH merch table where only a few people were lingering. She removed her death grip from my arm and pulled out her wallet. She bought herself and Jude a Framing Hanley t-shirt and begged me to get one as well, in which I decline. Yeah, I wanted merch, but I was broke. I needed what money I had for food and for my apartment.
“Can we leave?” Jude mumbled, ducking his head and hiding his face behind his hair. Ashlyn sighed and looked back at him, “Okay, party killer. We can go.” She looked at me and I nodded at her with a smile. I was glad that I had gone to the concert. It was really cool and fun, plus I got to spend some time with Ashlyn, and even Jude, although he didn’t say more than 10 words. Literally. Ashlyn clung onto my wrist and held Jude’s hand, leading us to the exit of the venue when I was bumped – more like practically getting run over - by somebody, almost getting knocked off my feet.
“Hey!” I shouted almost instantly, “Watch where you’re fucking walking, asshole.” I regained my balance and whipped around to look at what dumbass ran into and was shocked to find that it was Nixon standing there with an apologetic look on his face. “Oh, shit. I am so sorry, dude,” I apologized to him, “That was completely my fault. I thought you were-”
“Some asshole?” he questioned me with his thick Tennessee accent and raised a brow, chuckling. I chuckled along with him and nodded, “Yeah... Yeah, I’m real sorry about that.” He shook his head at me, “No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” I pursed my lips and nodded at him again, feeling slightly stupid. He laughed at me and held his hand out towards me, smiling, “I'm Nixon.” I grabbed his hand in mine and shook it for a second, smiled back at him, “I’m Rian.”