I Chose Nothing

16

     The concert was loud, the crowd singing along was louder. The concert lights were bright, the lead singers voice was strong, the bass made a deep rumbling noise in John's stomach. The only thing that John could hear that was louder than the performance was the sound of Marc singing along at the top of his lungs, however he wasn't the only one doing that. The sound of the crowd singing matched the lead singer, who let the crowd sing a few parts of the song on their own. There were people selling candies, popcorn, hotdogs, drinks, whatever you could think of they probably sold at that concert. John bought a bottle of water, since he wasn't really hungry. Marc on the other hand, bought a hotdog and a large cola drink.

As time passed and the first performance transitioned into the second, Sage still hadn't shown up. "Yo Marc, I'm going to call Sage I wanna make sure she isn't lost or something you know?" Marc nodded and placed his coke on John's seat to save it. John stepped outside, the smell of something burning filled the air. He looked around and saw a large black smoke cloud far off on the highway, 'Jeez pretty bad accident.' He thought to himself as he pulled out his phone and called Sage. Straight to voicemail. "That's weird." He muttered to himself, he tried again, voicemail, one more time, voicemail. On the fourth time, he left a message and went back inside. Marc nodded his head up once he saw John, he shrugged in return. He walked back to his seat, trying his hardest not to bump too much into dancing and singing people. He got to Marc, "What happened? Did she answer?" John shook his head, but before he could explain, Marc told him to wait while he stepped outside to try and call.

Although it could be true that John didn't have signal for his phone to make calls, that couldn't be probable since the phone rang. It rang for a split second then went to voicemail. He assumed that the car accident was what made her late, the highway would've had to have been blocked off due to the fire that he assumed was there due to the smoke. People stopping by to look at the accident, and first responders on their way to help the situation is what he thought made her late. That was the only acceptable response. The concert continued and John sat down. Ten minutes passed and Marc hadn't returned, then fifteen, then twenty. John grew a bit worried of Marc as well, the concert had calmed down by a lot. Everyone in the crowd was sitting while the singer played a slow, sad sounding song. John stood and looked around for Marc's bright red letterman that he chose to come in, after about a second of looking he saw it, Marc's phone was to his ear and he appeared to have been on the phone with someone. 'It's probably Sage.' He thought hopefully, sitting back down, the weight of worry lifting from his chest.

The stage was quiet, as was the crowd, only slight whispers being heard, the moment everyone was waiting for was on its way. Everything was still, including time. It almost felt like a dream to John, dreaming of a wonderful concert that was so much fun. Dreaming of having a fun life away from home, dreaming of having fun friends that made him happy, dreaming of growing flowers, dreaming of her. He couldn't believe it was real. His mind was brought back to the present when Marc burst through the entrance of the concert hall, "JOHN!" He shouted in what appeared to be pain, before he could respond Marc began to run towards him and pull him out of his seat, John didn't fight back. Marc kept repeating the same words "Oh god..." Over and over again, it made John nervous. He got in the car and realized what was happening, "Where are we going?" John asked, clicking in his seatbelt. Marc's heart dropped, how was he going to tell him what had just happened? Marc turned over and began to explain, "We're going to see Sage..."

Then every minute, every hour
Every boy would find what I found in your arms