ten
When I was still in school, I was the concert kid. I was the kid always going to concerts, always posting on social media, the kid always late because I stayed out with band members—and Ashton—until the early hours. That's just who I was, and I'm still pretty damn proud of it.
There's a thrill about concerts, something really special about them. I felt although I was being united with these hundreds or thousands of fans, all of us coming together for one thing: Music.
I liked watching the musicians, seeing how they reacted. Were they happy? Usually, they were. It was able to be seen that they were thrilled to be up on stage, random kids screaming their lyrics back at them.
I always thought their happiness was real until I met Luke.
I'm now twenty-five pages into this issue—you are too, congrats—and I never thought I'd get this far. I never thought I'd be able to waste so many words on a boy like Luke Hemmings.
Luke is so happy on stage. He's smiling and laughing and breathing in the vibe that his loving fans are giving off. But, before show, he was angry. He was yelling and screaming and threatening to leave.
He was in that pissy mood until he walked up there. In fact, he was still grumpy until the lights began shining on him. I now know that everything is fake. Everything I've fed myself off of since the age of eleven is fake.
All those reviews I wrote are fake. They weren't happy, were they?
Luke isn't happy to be up there, he's miserable. He doesn't know what he wants but he doesn't want to be up there. His little boy fantasies were wrong and this is not what he wants. I'm sure of it.
I'm sitting on the steps of side stage, I can see his back and a little bit of his side. He's tense, I can see it in the muscles bulging through his white tee shirt. He takes a step back from the mic, a quick mili-second flashes as he looks right above my head.
He looks angry. He looks although he's about to pass out from exhaustion.
Did he eat today? I wonder. Did he get enough sleep? Did he drink enough of water? Is he feeling alright? Is someone being mean to him?
I watch Luke go back up to the mic, his lips curling. I can't believe that everything is this fake, I can't believe the thousands of people in front of him don't realize that this is all fake. He isn't happy. He doesn't want to be here: Wherever here is.
I want to hug him but I also want to punch him in the face.
Everyone has their bad days, do you think it's fair that Luke isn't really allowed to have one?
Do you think Luke is ever going to let Mike into his head?
What are your predictions?
