Chapter 1
I awoke the next morning to the sound of my phone making noises. I groaned as I rolled over and started pressing random parts of the screen, hoping to shut it up. I still hadn’t willed myself to open my eyes. When the phone kept making noise, I finally opened my eyes, and unplugged it. It was a text from Daniel.
‘Concert is at 170 Russel Street. Doors open at 7:30pm. I will be catching the 6:09pm train from Greensborough tonight. If you and Amy want to come, let me know ASAP.’

I read the text, then looked at the time.

7:48am

I had arrived home at nearly 2am the night before, so getting up was a mission. I slowly got dressed, and contemplated giving my hair a brush, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. I was just too freaking tired.

I walked out into the kitchen, and walked to the pantry, grabbing the box of cereal. However before I opened it, I felt something. A lack of motivation…

“Welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order.”

“Hey, could I please get a Bacon and Egg McMuffin, five hash-browns, and an apple juice?” I said to the speaker that was just outside my car window.

“I’m sorry, did you say five hash-browns?” said the voice from the speaker, in slight disbelief.

“Yes, five.” I said slightly annoyed.

“That will be $12.34. Drive forward please.”

I drove through and paid for my breakfast, before grabbing it from the last window and making my way to school.

I rocked up to homeroom a few minutes early, eating my breakfast that made the cereal I otherwise would have had look unworthy for even the dog to eat, as the rest of my class arrived. The roll was marked, and the bell signalling the start of first period rang. I made my way to the common room, as I had no classes until after recess. My school had this stupid rule where we had to be at school the whole day, even if we only had one class, otherwise we would be marked as absent for all of them. Their way of trying to make us study in our spares.

I found a couch in the common room, put in my earphones, and fell asleep to the song I had written to perform at my audition. I needed to eat, sleep and breathe this song to play it well enough at my audition, and was willing to take some drastic approaches.

I awoke with a fright an hour later, to being shaken. With my sight out of action, and hearing preoccupied, Amy giving me a shake to wake me up, in all honesty, scared the crap out of me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Amy said, as she sat down next to me.

“Don’t worry,” I yawned with a grin, “How was psychology?”

“Same old,” Amy replied, sipping her coffee. “How was sleeping?”

“Surprisingly satisfying,” I remarked, “And unproductive, but I try not to think about that.”

Suddenly, I remembered Daniel’s message.

“By the way, Daniel messaged me this morning.” I started to say.

“That’s cute that you and my cousin have your little bromance thing going on,” Amy interrupted, “Just remember who your girlfriend is.”

“Would you ever let me forget?” I asked.

“Probably not.” Amy said with a grin.

“Anyway, he was asking if we wanted to go to a concert tonight,” I said, “What do you think?”

“It’s Tonight Alive playing, isn’t it?” Amy asked.

“Not sure,” I replied, “He didn’t say.”

“He mentioned it to me a few weeks back, and they are the only decent band playing tonight.” Amy explained, “So I am pretty certain it is them.”

“Okay, you are going to hate me for this…” I said, “But who are Tonight Alive?”

Amy groaned.

“I can tell how much attention you pay when I choose the music.” Amy muttered.

“Well can you show me one of their songs?” I asked.

“Nope.” Amy said quickly, “We are going. And if you listen to anything before tonight…”

“Okay, I get it.” I huffed, pulling out my phone, “I will tell him we are in.”

‘Amy and I will be there. See you at the station.’


School dragged by, and finally, we reached the end of the day. The bell rang signalling the end of the day, and as per usual, I had never been so happy to hear it in my life. Just like yesterday. And the day before. And last week.

Amy and I made our way to the car, and drove out. I plugged my phone into the head-unit and continued listening to the song I was going to be playing at the audition. Amy groaned when the first note played, and she realized what we were listening to.

“This again?” Amy asked, “Haven’t you memorized it yet? I know I have.”

“Doesn’t hurt to keep it fresh in my mind,” I explained, “I am good at piano. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I am a damn good pianist. But good isn’t going to cover it. If I want this scholarship, I need to be the best.”

I noticed Amy frown slightly, before trying to hide it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing…” Amy said quietly, “It’s just…”

“You know I can’t stay here forever,” I said, “Music is all I know, and all I want to do. And Melbourne isn’t an easy place to make it. I thought we talked about this?”

“I’m not going to see you for months at a time. If you get this scholarship, you will be in London. I will be at uni next year. I don’t think either of us would have time for an overseas trip to visit each other.” Amy replied.

“What do you want from me Amy?” I asked, starting to raise my voice, “Do you want me to give up on the opportunity of a lifetime? Just so we aren’t long distance for a few years? I get it. You don’t like the idea of me living on the other side of the planet! But whether I do is my decision! Not yours!”

There was silence for a second, before Amy started to cry.

“Look, I’m sorry for shouting at you,” I said to Amy, as I slowed down the car and pulled over, “But seriously, what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t expect you to give up something like that for me,” Amy said quietly, “But I just wish that you wouldn’t spend the small amounts of time we do spend together preparing for the thing that will ultimately take you away from me. It’s like you are here, but I can tell that you would rather be in London.”

I was shocked at what she was saying, but she was right. She was trying to spend as much time with me as possible, in case I did end up moving away, but during this time, all I can think about is leaving.

I unplugged my phone from the head-unit, and passed the auxiliary cord to Amy.

“You pick the music. From now on, whenever I see you, you have my utmost attention,” I said, “But just remember if I get the opportunity, I am going. I can’t stay here forever.”

Amy nodded, and started to smile again.

“Come on. Let’s try and forget about this, and have a good night.” I said, trying to sound cheerful as we pulled back out onto the road.

I dropped Amy off at home, before making my way home. I had considered just staying at Amy’s for the afternoon, but decided that for the benefit of everyone else, I needed a shower. I still reeked of campfire from the night before, as well as just smelt bad in general from the day, and all the clothes in my car had been there for a few weeks and needed a clean.

I arrived home and quickly showered, shaved, and found some clean-ish clothes. A pair of black jeans that had only been worn once in the last week, that I picked up from my floor-drobe, and a semi casual button up shirt, which hadn’t been worn since I last went to a birthday party. Once I was ready, I made my way back to Amy’s house.

When I arrived, I saw Amy waiting by the lounge room window. As soon as I pulled in, she came out the front door and got in the car. I noticed her wearing a shirt I had never seen before. A black shirt with a large Tonight Alive logo on it. She must have gotten it from their last gig.

“So you really like Tonight Alive huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, they are one of my favourites. One of the best bands to come out of Australia,” Amy explained, before grinning, “You would know if you weren’t such a music snob.”

I snorted with laughter.

“Music snob?” I asked, “Just because I have slightly higher standards of music. Daniel said it himself last night, most rock music is power chords distorted beyond recognition.”

“Not exactly sure what that means, but trust me, Tonight Alive are amazing.” Amy said, “You will wonder why you never listened to them earlier.”

“We will see…” I said, as we pulled into the Greensborough train station car park. It was 5:45pm when we arrived, and the regular commuters were starting to leave, which made it easy to find a spot nearby. As we made our way up the ramp, I noticed Amy getting ahead of me. Usually, due to her small size, she was the one falling behind, however she was excited for the concert.

“Wait up.” I shouted out with a grin.

We made our way into the station building, as Amy walked over to the Myki machine to top up her ticket. However, every time she would put in her coins, they would just fall to the return chute.

“I’m not sure why they ever brought in this stupid Myki system.” Amy muttered, “Been nothing but a pain.”

Amy made her way to the counter to have the attendant top up her ticket, whilst I went to the machine to pay by card. Once we were sorted, we made our way out onto the platform.

“Hey, over here!” shouted Daniel from the other end of the platform. Amy waved as we made our way over.

“It’s been a while, “ I said sarcastically as I shook his hand, “Been waiting long?”

“Got here about a minute before you guys.” Daniel said. He stopped when he heard the noise of the train arriving, as it stopped at the platform. When the doors opened we found a bay of four seats. Amy and I sat together, as Daniel sat opposite us, resting his feet on the empty seat next to him. The train soon took off, and we were on our way to the city.

“So how did you get these spare tickets?” I asked Daniel.

“When they went on sale, I got some friends together and got a few,” Daniel explained, “I was the one who bought them all, and most of them my friends paid for. But I had a bit of a falling out with a few of them, and they refused to pay for them. So now I got tickets that I wanted to get rid of. “

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay you back for them?” I asked Daniel.

“You already did. By stopping me from getting that fine last night,” Daniel laughed, “Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

We arrived at Flinders Street Station, and walked up Swanston Street, getting food at the McDonalds there. As we sat down, I couldn’t help but drool at the sight of the Spicy Jalapeńo Burger I was about to devour.

“You know they don’t have those in England, right?” Amy said with a sly grin.

“Oh hell, really?” I responded, “I guess I will have to find somewhere else to go then.”

Daniel burst into laughter. We ate our dinner, and made our way to the venue. When we arrived, the line was starting to get long. The doors weren’t even open yet.

We got to the back of the line, and waited, being antisocial on our phones and soon became thankful we came as early as we did when we saw the line grow exponentially.

The sun went down, and not long after, the doors opened. We showed our IDs to the bouncers as we walked through, and soon after, we found ourselves in a large, dark room, full of people.

Against one wall was a stage, where various roadies were setting up drums, guitars and amps, and in the centre of the room was a sectioned off part which housed the sound and lighting desks. The opposite wall, and the two adjacent housed the bars, and one had an ATM, which probably would have charged a small fortune in fees to use.

“Who’s the support band?” I asked Daniel.

“Hands Like Houses.” Daniel replied, “Post-Hard-core group from Canberra.”

“Post Hard-core?” I asked, “Does that mean we will be listening to some idiot scream and try to convince us it is music?”

Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment.

“Amy was right. You are a snob.” Daniel chuckled, “And there are a couple of screams. But it is mostly clean. Trent, the singer, actually has an amazing voice.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” I said jokingly.

“Snob…” Amy muttered under her breath, to which Daniel and I burst into laughter.

“Do you want a drink?” I asked Daniel.

“You stopped me from getting into a ****-heap of trouble last night!” Daniel said, “I should be buying you drinks!”

“Get over it.” I said with a laugh, “What do you want?”

“I’ll have a Corona,” Daniel said, “Thanks.”

I went to the bar and got Daniel a Corona, as well as a Canadian Club for Amy and myself. Though there were a few beers I liked, I generally wasn’t fond of beer, especially during the colder months. And Amy hated it.

I went back to where Daniel and Amy were standing and gave them their drinks.

“You’re drinking?” Amy asked, slightly concerned, when she saw my Canadian Club.

“Generally one goes to the bar for drinks?” I replied.

“Yes, but you are driving home. You’re on your P’s remember?” Amy lecture, “.00?”

“Amy, it’s one drink.” I said, “The support band aren’t even up yet. It’ll be two hours before we leave here, another twenty minutes by the time we are on the train, and about another forty before we get back to Greensborough. It’ll be fine.”

“Cut him some slack Amy!” Daniel said, putting his arm around my shoulder, “He seems smart enough!”

“This bromance thing has got to stop.” Amy muttered to herself. Anything else she was going to say was interrupted by the sound of the drum kit on stage and a relatively quiet lead guitar playing a high-pitched intro. Then the rhythm came in. It had begun.

“Get ready for the time of your life!” Daniel shouted over it, barely loud enough for me to hear.