Long Way Home

"So how was your day? Meet any weirdos?" One of the other staff members asks Niomi as she pulls on her hoodie.

Every day, when their shifts end, the staff headed to the locker room where they change into clothes that are more appropriate to wear in public and gossip about the people they (they being those dressed up as characters) had met and taken pictures with that day. It was quite common that they'd recall stories about their day, including any strange people they'd been forced to interact with. It was all just part of the job.

"Not really, just a lot of kids," was the answer that Niomi usually gave because yeah, it was Disneyland. However, as she thought about it she remembers the brown haired twenty something year old she recognised from one of the bands she had seen at Warped Tour one year – All Time Low – and how he had tried to pick her up using his own lyrics. Had it been anywhere else and in any other situation, Niomi would of replied with some witty remark, maybe even gone along with him. But since she was at work where everything she says has to be family friendly and more importantly, she had to stay in character, she could do nothing but reply the way she did so she wouldn't lose her job. "Some guy hit on me with his own song lyrics."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, it was actually pretty funny." And it was. Niomi had found their encounter hilarious. She could see how embarrassed the poor guy had gotten but that just made it funnier, in her opinion anyway. Probably costed the guy a bit of his pride and dignity but hey, it wasn't exactly her fault that she'd told him she was looking for Peter. It was still definitely the most exciting thing to happen to Niomi in a while.

-#-#-#-#

Driving home Niomi thought more about what had happened with the guy. To be honest, she kind of wished she could of replied to him with something other than what she had to say because the guy had seriously made her day. She was tired and probably a tad bit overly patronising with her cheeriness, and he'd made her day much better by using that dumb pick-up line.

And he was hot.

She had recognised him almost straight away. Well, she knew what band he's in but couldn't for the life of her remember what his part in the band is. Didn't know his name, either, because she was one of those people who couldn't be bothered to search up members of said band and follow their social media accounts, or whatever. She did know a few of their songs though, including the one he had used as a pick up line.

As she pulled up outside her apartment building, Niomi snickered with a shake of her head, thinking about how amusing Finley was going to find her story about the band member using his song lyrics to try and pick her up.

Finley – being Niomi's best friend someone that Niomi was beyond grateful for and loved like family. See, Finley's an amazing friend. Niomi knew that as soon as the two had met, back when Niomi was the new kid with a nose piercing and obnoxious purple hair. The only person who'd bothered to talk to her was Finley Walkers.

The thing that made their friendship special was their understanding of one another. They both understood that even though they love each other to pieces, sometimes they needed space. Finley was exactly what Niomi needed, she was her rock. Finley kept her afloat when she felt like she was drowning and made sure that she knew just how amazing she was. They made each other happy, and were all each other needed.

It didn't take long for the two to become best friends since they had so much in common. Finley instantly liked Niomi because of her music taste and Niomi liked Finley because she didn't treat her differently, like an outcast, unlike everyone else. Niomi still remembers the exact moment they became best friends; they were 14 and talking about the future when Niomi said she wanted to live in America, somewhere on the East Coast, and Finley told her that was also her dream. That was the moment the two swore they would achieve that dream together and here they were, 9 years later and have lived in the States for 3 years. The first two were spent in New Jersey but Niomi had somehow gotten a job at Disneyland so the pair moved to Florida.

"Hey Finn, I have a funny story to tell you," Niomi calls as she walks through the door of their apartment.

"I'm in the kitchen, come talk," comes the reply. Once she'd reached the kitchen, Niomi launched into the story about the brown haired man, Finley laughing once she had finished.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure All Time Low are playing here tomorrow." Finley says as her laughter dies down.

Niomi rolls her eyes, "Well they're obviously playing since they're here."

"Shut up you idiot, I mean we should see if there's any tickets left and go." Finley suggests and yeah okay, Niomi was totally up for that since she loves concerts and it would just be a bonus to see that guy again as she could totally tease him about it.

"Sure, have a look," was her reply as she began making herself a cup of tea before she went to bed. She had worked later than usual tonight since she had stayed for all the fireworks and the night time shows that the park put on, meaning it was now almost 2am. The good thing was that she now had a couple days off before she had to work again.

"Okay, so I bought tickets, we need to pick them up at the door before we go in. Doors open at seven, that cool?" Finley asks as she pocketed her phone and stood up, placing her now empty mug in the dishwasher.

"Sweet. I'm going to bed. Goodnight Finn."

"G'night Ni."

-#-#-#-#

"Ni! Niomi! Niomi! Wake up, Dammit!"

The aforementioned female opens her eyes, rubbing the sleep away as she grumbled some form of insult towards best friend. She slowly pulls herself up into a sitting position as she looks at the red haired female who's smiling down at her expectantly – exactly what she's expecting though, Niomi had no clue, but that was what Finely was like.

"What the fuck do you want?" She grumbles, voice laced with sleep.

"You need to get up!"

"Why?" Niomi whines as she throws her head back into her pillow. "It's my day off."

"Yeah, but we're going to that All Time Low concert, remember?" Finley says, and okay she knew this would happen so she isn't really that bothered but still, it'd be nice for Niomi to co-operate.

"I know that, but doors open at seven you said, so we don't have to leave until six, because neither of us care about getting to the front." Niomi states. She closes her eyes again, completely ready to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours. It'll only take her about 45 minutes to get ready and like she had said, neither cared about getting to the barrier, so she really had no need to rush.

"Yeah but we need to get ready and we're going for food first so we're setting off at five, therefore you need to get up now," Finely huffs. She pulls the duvet off of the elder, eliciting a groan from her. She rolls her eyes, "Dude, get up! It's four in the afternoon!"

Niomi sits up at that, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. "Did you say four?!"

"Yes, fuckwit. It's four, well nearly twenty past now. So get up!"

"I need to get ready! Why didn't you wake me sooner?!" Niomi shouts. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and jumps out, making a start to the bathroom.

"I am going to hit you," Finley grumbles monotonously as she rolls her eyes at her best friend's behaviour. Whenever they had plans, she always has to get Niomi up, because for some reason she was incapable of doing so herself. Finley was an early riser, so she was always the first up on weekends whereas Niomi didn't like to see the A.M. unless it was necessary, like when she was working.

After showering, Niomi walks back into her room now fully awake. She throws on her ripped at the knee skinny jeans, her Adventure Time muscle tee with the Ice King on the front, and her black vans that she should probably get a new pair of since they have holes in and were falling apart but she's had them since she was 15 so they're her favourites.

As she does her make up Niomi starts to feel excited about the concert. Being at a concert is probably her favourite place to be. The atmosphere, the people, the way you can feel the music, everything about concerts excited her. To Niomi, it didn't even matter who's concert it is, her and Finely have been to many that were bands they'd never heard of but went just to have fun and they still threw themselves into the crowd. Niomi has been to too many concerts to count, simply because they're the only place she feels at peace, which is weird since they're loud and full of people, but they're when she feels she can truly be herself and just get lost in the music. Music is home for Niomi, it's her saving grace, the only thing she is sure is permanent in her life. Being surrounded by music is where she's always ed to be, her dream job being a muaic photographer or just working for a live band. Music is Niomi's true love.

"Hey, are you ready?" Niomi is pulled out of her thoughts by Finely walking into her room, dressed very similar to Niomi except she was wearing a t-shirt with Kevin McCallister on the front.

"Yeah, where are we eating?" Niomi asks. The pair grab their phones off of the kitchen table and head out the front door.

"I was thinking Subway?" Finley states with a smile. Subway was a tradition for the pair that started when they were 14. Every Thursday they would take the bus into town and go to Subway where they'd always order the same thing because everyone knows that you can't change your Subway order. Eventually it turned into whenever they went into town, they had to get a Subway and the tradition still stands, even now in a different country and 10 years later.

"Awesome." Niomi climbs into the passenger at of Finley's car. Whenever they went somewhere together they took turns to drive but if it was a long journey then one would drive there and the other drive back. Since Niomi drove them in her car to the cinemas last week, it was Finley's turn today.

As they drove, the two twenty three year olds listened to one of their favourite bands, The Front Bottoms, and sang along loudly, laughing as they did. Being in the car with each other was one of their favourite things and they'd often take drives with no destination with the music blaring and no one but each other for company.

-#-#-#-

"So, are you excited for the concert?" Finley asks as she takes a bite of her sandwich. The pair were sat in their usual seats in front of the window. They had first picked the spot because you could sea the ocean from it.

"I guess. I'm just excited to go to a concert, it's been like three weeks." Niomi replies with a chuckle. She was used to going to a gig almost every week but hasn't been able to because of work.

"Me too man. We're losing our touch." Finley replies, laughing. "I listened to some of All Time Low's stuff last night, they're pretty good."

"Yeah, I've heard a few. My favourite is probably Somewhere In Neverland, but that's a given." "Niomi smiles, referring to her obsession with Peter Pan. It was her favourite story because she could relate to the boy so much. They both imagined a place where they could escape to, both never wanted to grow up, and they both had no parents.

"Well, it's a good job the guy used that song to hit on you with then," teases Finley, she still found the whole situation hilarious.

"Shut up, idiot." Naomi rolls her eyes fondly at her best friend.

"Do you even know what you're going to say to him?"

"Nope. I probably won't even see him anyway, he'll be too busy with all his fangirls." Niomi jokes earning a laugh from Finley.

Fangirls amused her and Finley a lot, they think it's hilarious that there are all these teenage girls who think they're going to grow up and marry their favourite band member and sit at home writing fanfiction about them. Both of the females also enjoy taking the piss out off themselves over the fact that they used to do exactly the same thing.

"It's ten past six, we should head out." Finley suggests, standing up and throwing her rubbish away, Niomi doing the same. Together, the two girls walk out of the fast food restaurant and get into the car, ready to head to the concert.

They drive in a comfortable silence with the music playing. They arrive at the venue at around 6:45 to see that most people are already inside. Once inside, the pair try and avoid the hundreds of teens wearing All Time Low shirts and head into the crowd. The support band is a band called Tonight Alive, who both girls actually quite like, so they push even further into the crowd and jump around with everyone else. By the time the intro for All Time Low begins to play, Niomi and Finley are only a few people from the front, they don't know how they got there but they did, and as the intro to a song Niomi recognises as Lost In Stereo begins to play, she sees him.

Now, she had totally checked him out a little when they met but now she could do it properly. She was right about her first thought though, he was hot. She couldn't see his eyes due to the lighting but his hair was a milk chocolate colour that looks like it had taken a while to get it into the 'messy bed head' style, the muscles in his arms were shown perfectly thanks to the Glamour Kills tee he was wearing that he had cut the sleeves off of, and his legs looked amazing in the skinny jeans he's wearing and it's a complete injustice but he's totally got better legs than she did. Overall, Niomi just found it even funnier that he had hit on her because he was absolutely gorgeous, and she was just average and boring and plain.

"So, which one's loverboy?" Finley smirks, shouting over the music and the screaming fans.

"Frontman," Niomi yells back in order to be heard over the loudness of everything else, looking over at her best friend.

"Ooh girl, he's smoking."

The two laugh and focus back on the band, getting lost in the music.