Afire Love// ed sheeran

Normal

With any songs mentioned in bold, play the songs along to get the feel.
---

Alyssa.

That is me. I am a boring, normal girl. I have long blonde hair, muddy brown eyes. I am nothing special or extraordinary. This is the story of a love that burned brighter than any flame. This was our love, a special kind of love, afire love.

***

I walked down the empty sidewalk, the headphones pressed into my ears. Taylor Swift was the soundtrack of the night. I was on the way to her final show of the Red Tour in New York. I was wearing black jeans, a red tshirt, and red flats. The streets were vacant, eerily quiet.

A line of people began to form as I started nearing the stadium. Girls in short skirts and handmade signs danced around, belting out songs from Taylor. I kept my head hung low, keeping to myself. I didn't like confrontation or talking much. Being quiet was my thing because I was tired of people and their lack of kindness. The line started to creep up and eventually I was handing my ticket to a woman. She stamped my hand and directed me to the most amazing seat ever, first row right in front of the stage. I felt the excitement rise inside me.

A few girls sat beside me, dressed up in tight dresses and sky-high heels. I felt myself laugh a bit. This was a concert, not a club. I sat in my chair, listening to the roar of the crowd. The room was full of a beautiful energy. It was wonderful to think that so many people could be together and be happy about the same thing.

Someone stepped onto the stage. His hair was the color of fire and he was wearing jeans and a tshirt. He carried a guitar, stepped up to an orange microphone and began to strum his guitar. Cheers erupted, girls screaming for this boy. He recorded a guitar part on his loop pedal, played it back, and kept building up the song until his one man song blasted over the speakers. The music was incredible. (You need me, I don't need you//warner live room version)

"Now I'm in town, break it down," he began to rap. He continued to strum as he rapped smoothly, sending the audience into a fit of screams. Some girls rapped along, memorizing the quick lyrics and fast lips that spit out wise rhymes. Other girls danced along, nodding along to the pounding beat and shouting "you need me, I don't need you" along with the red haired boy.

Then there were people like me, standing in utter shock of the talent pouring out of the boy's lips into the microphone. His eyes were screwed shut and you could feel the love of music and performing coming off of him. As he got to a particulary powerful part of the song with stronger language, his fingers slid along the guitar strings faster and harder. I found it hard to believe that he could strum so hard without injuring himself. As the song came to an end, he stopped the recorded guitar music. The crowd was alive with screams. He stepped up to the microphone.

In a heavy british accent he said, "I'm Ed Sheeran. My job for the next half hour is to entertain you all." His face was damp with sweat, his cheeks red. He shouted, "Can I get a hell yeah?" The entire crowd, me included, screamed hell yeah. He continued in that beautiful voice, "Now, if you guys know the words to any of these songs, sing along. If you don't know the lyrics, make it up. If you don't want to sing, you came to wrong show." He started recording his guitar again.

***

The final song of Ed's set was here sadly. He looked out at the crowd, a smile on his lips. "This is Lego House." (Lego House)

"I'm gonna pick up the pieces and build a lego house," he began, strumming on his guitar sweetly.

As the song continued on, his eyes roamed around the audience as if he were missing something, looking for someone. His eyes lingered on a few girls but never for more than a second. He looked like he was trying to find one girl out of thousands. He continued to sing, looking for her. I felt his eyes on me. I expected them to fall away from me, from the bland girl in front row. But his eyes lingered on me as he sang the last chorus, a smile spreading across his cheeks. I found myself singing along, an equal sized smile glued to my face. "I'm out of sight, I'm out of mind

I'll do it all for you in time

"And out of all these things I've done I think I love you better now, now," we sang together. I laughed to myself at the though of how ridiculous I sounded. He couldn't possibly be looking at me. I was just a girl in the crowd, singing along to a song. He had done this exact thing a million times before. I pushed a strand of hair out my eye nervously and tried to fight back the nervous laughter that rested in my stomach like heavy bricks. The show came to an end and he tossed a few guitar picks into the audience, girls diving to catch the little bits of plastic touched by the mystical Ed Sheeran. He threw his empty bottle of water in and girls grabbed at the empty bottle, any souvenir they could get their hands on. After all, his lips had been on that bottle.

Then, he pulled off the plaid button up that was tossed over his tee. The girls braced themselves for the fight to receive this magical piece of cloth. But he didn't throw it into the crowd as expected. He walked up to the very edge of the stage and folded the fabric into my shaking hands. His eyes were a deep blue sea, never ending. They were a night sky, twinkling with beautiful constellations that had yet been discovered.

"Thanks for being my singing partner," he whispered, his voice raspy from the mixture of singing, shouting, and rapping that he had been doing a few minutes before.

I was shocked, warmth rising into my cheeks. My hands shook as I smiled at him. "Thank you for such a wonderful show." He smiled at me. I could see locks of hair plastered to his face with sweat but he still looked incredible. He had the type of face that girls wanted to kiss and boys wanted to have. He waved to me as he backed away from me and departed back stage.

The girls next to me, the ones in the heels and dresses, screamed, giving me high fives. The one with blue hair shouted, "I knew he was looking at you!" I supressed a giggle as I tugged on his sweaty plaid shirt over my red tshirt.

***

The rest of the concert went by in a flash. Taylor came out, performed her butt off. I was intrigued by the dynamics of the show, the dancers, the violinist that played as Taylor changed into her outfit for I Knew You Were Trouble. I felt a nagging feeling inside my brain, though. I loved Taylor and her music. It was brilliant and extravagant. But Ed, he was simple and alone on that stage but he could beat out any overproduced show in the world. His music and voice had the power of many. I absentmindedly clunged to his shirt all night, clutching it to my body to keep it safe.

As the show ended and the crowd flooded out the arena, I smiled to myself. I hadn't been this happy in quite a while. I had not known Ed before this show but I knew him now.

I decided to grab a bite to eat at a local bar and grill named Spark's before I went home. The place was filled with people, none of them from the show. The lighting was dim, the music low. There was a crowd of a few people towards the back, primarily guys. I sat by a window, my focus on the passing fans with their Taylor Swift glow sticks and tshirts.

This is the type of thing I loved, seeing people made genuinely happy by a person that they cared about. I heard an accent in the back but I couldn't make out the nationality. I pulled the shirt around me, warming me up. I heard laughter and smiled to myself, thinking of Ed's smiling face handing me his shirt as if I were the only girl alive.

"I like your shirt," a voice said from next to me. His red hair and blue eyes were the first thing I saw as he sat in the chair across from me. His smile was bright, his hair tossed messily on his forehead. His eyes were as deep as they were earlier, when he sang to me. "I'm Ed, but you probably already know that."