Neighbors

Even the Stars Forget to Shine

Alex stood center stage behind the microphone, his pepto pink guitar slung across his chest and fingers poised to the correct chords and ready to strum a unique rhythm. The bright stage lights forced a thin layer of sweat on his forehead from the heat emitted within the bulbs. His eyes scanned the crowd spotting a few familiar faces from school but he failed to spot the one face he was hopelessly longing to see. He turned around shooting Rian a brief look but the drummer only shrugged in return, shaking his head that he too didn't know where the brown haired girl was.

Alex let out a huff of hot air and stepped up to the microphone "We're All Time Low and this song is called Hit the Lights" he shouted out enthusiastically to the crowd and launched into the song. The audience bobbed their heads along to the beat, getting more and more into the show as they played through the set list. By the end of their Blink 182 cover of 'Dammit' the audience was screaming at the top of their lungs for the four lanky teenagers.

"Thanks, I'm Alex; we have Zack on Bass, Jack on Guitar, and Rian on drums. You guys have been awesome and we have been All Time Low!" Alex yelled out, throwing his sweat covered toweled into the middle of the crowd and running offstage, the other three boys following his actions.

"That was fucking insane!" Jack screamed excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet

"You guys need to work on some stage presence" Rian noted, always the one to make the critical adjustments for the band.

"Not me, I don't want that attention" Zack quickly retorted and the other three boys nodded understandingly. It's not so much that Zack was too shy to be a front man; just his personality compared to Jack and Alex was a lot more reserved. Among the four boys he could always come up with quick retorts and jabs but in front of others he held back more.

"Yeah, I dunno. I wasn't really in the right mind guys...I just; she said she'd be here. She said it right? Rian?" Alex paced around the hallway, finally turning to stare straight at Rian as if he had lied to him just to get his hopes up.

"Dude" Rian placed a hand on Alex's shoulder "she said she would be here. Maybe you just didn't see her" he reasoned to the stressing boy.

"Or maybe she fucking didn't come!" Alex fumed, "maybe she just—"

" 'Lex!" Jack elbowed his best friend in his side, effectively cutting off his rant. Jack nodded his head behind them causing Alex to follow his path where his eyes landed on the culprit of his current argument.

Madison stood there in the hallway in shorts and a light cardigan which she had pulled over her hands and wrapped tightly around her body. Alex noted the dark bags under her eyes and the bruises that splattered across her bare legs. Madison self-consciously wrapped her arms tighter around her frail body as if she were trying to just disappear.

"I" she coughed, her hands reaching for the wall to hold herself upright until the fit passed "I think maybe I should just go" she said, her eyes meeting each of the boys and lingering on Alex's before she turned away and began walking the same path that she had just arrived on.

"She looks so...sick" Jack muttered under his breath. Alex could only nod his head before he was chasing after her. He didn't understand how she had gone downhill so quickly in just a week's time. He didn't understand. She said she was going to live longer. She said stopping the treatment would help her and Alex couldn't understand why she had said those things when now she was doing so poorly. He couldn't help but think that maybe she lied to him, and maybe she was just trying to die faster.

His mind was reeling with theories, scenarios, and questions as he ran throughout the small venue looking for Madison until he final found her crouched down on the floor coughing blood from her lungs. He ran towards her, kneeling down when he reached her and began comfortingly rubbing her back to soothe the coughs out of her body.

"Hey, hey....you're okay. You're okay, Mads" he repeated the phrase over and over until she fell back into his chest, exhausted from the attack her body just battled through. The tears fell from her closed eyes and a quiet whimper fell from her lips.

"Shhhh, it's okay now. You're okay, I've got you now" Alex whispered quietly and wiped the remains of blood from her chin before cradling her in his arms. It was in that moment that Alex realized how so dreadfully wrong he had been. It didn't matter that he was just a kid himself or that other teenage boys were underage drinking and partying instead of taking care of a sick girl. It was in that very moment that he realized he would never be able to leave this girl alone to do those things. He realized just how scared he was just watching the attack; he couldn't even begin to fathom how terrifying it must be for her or how alone she must have felt. It was in that moment that he realized Madison wasn't just some sick girl, but she was his girl and he would never ever want her to feel like she was battling through the cancer alone. He decided then that all of his unanswered questions didn't matter, that the only thing that mattered was the girl in his arms.