Dinner went pretty well. I hadn't really expected it to be so fun but Aaron's friends were hilarious.

They kept on insulting Aaron the whole time and that annoyed him to a great extent hence making my day,or night. Whatever.

Amanda was the only one who seemed a bit lost but that was only because her boyfriend couldn't come.

But even she couldn't keep herself from enjoying, because Aaron's friends were really fun, much to my surprise.

I guess I'd expected them to be typical high school jerks but they were nothing like that.

I went home with Aaron and Amanda and Aaron kept grumbling about how much his stomach hurt from eating so much.

I couldn't blame him. I'd eaten a lot too. The food was incredible,which made the night all the more better.

It had been quite a while since I'd had this much fun.

From the very next day I dedicated all of my time to the preparations of the concert which was in nearly four days. And I would have been pretty nervous about it, had I not been as busy as I was.

I had to call Mr.Meyers about fifty times for all sorts of questions that I had.

There were a lot of things to be taken care of and I wanted everyting to be perfect .So,obviously I didn't get a minute's rest for the next few days.

It was now Friday,just a day before the concert.

I was at the Woods' house, but with the band.

They all went on and on about the next day. They were all so excited about this whole thing. Nervous too, but excited as hell.

I'd barely spoken to them for the past week because both them and I had been so busy with our own preparations.

When I listened to them play, I could tell they'd worked very hard. They sounded amazing.

Aaron kept coming in and going out, which annoyed no one,except me,for some reason.

I guess they were too caught up in their work to notice.

I mean I didn't mind if he just sat there and hung out but he literally kept leaving and coming back every ten minutes.

I managed to ignore him but I couldn't resist yelling at him later that day, when he continued doing what he had earlier when Josh and the others were over.

"Can you stop?"

"Stop what?"

"Annoying me. I'd really appreciate it,thanks."

"I literally didn't even say a word to you."

"You're still annoying."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're.Still.Annoying."

"You wanna say that again?"

"I think you heard me pretty well the first time," I rolled my eyes.

He moved closer to where I was standing near the desk.

"Aaron,seriously, don't," I warned him as he walked closer to me.

I was not going to let him kiss me again.

He laughed."What? You think I'm gonna kiss you? I'm not. Kissing you is like kissing a wall," he said. "No fun."

Ouch.

"Well,I'm not surprised you've done that before."

"Done what before?"he asked,confused.

"Kissed a wall," I smirked, proud of myself for coming up with that one.

He raised his eyebrows and shook his head."You're..."

"Amazing?Awesome?Perfect?Flawless?Beautiful?I know."

I don't think I'd ever used so many adjectives in a sentence before.

He shot me an annoyed look which made me grin victoriously.

He turned to walk away.

Take that, loser!

But unfortunately, I seemed to have said it out loud.

"Oh you're dead" he said before all hell broke loose.

***

It was finally the day of the concert.

Everything was set.The lighting guys, technicians and everyone was ready. And most importantly, the band.

I was in a room backstage,with Cole. Trent had gone to check on the band, to make sure they were ready on time.And the band was in a separate room.

I was feeling really anxious.

"Stop pacing around like that, Ash!" Cole said in exasperation when I'd been walking around nervously for over fifteen minutes.

I looked at him."Huh?"

He gave me a flat look.

"Ashley," Trent said as he entered. Everything is going to be perfect, alright? You know how hard you've worked at this. It's going to be great," he said reassuringly.

I hoped he was right.

"Thank you Trent," I hugged him.

That gave me some confidence but the weird feeling wouldn't go away.

I checked the time on my phone.

7:15

Exactly fifteen minutes to go.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I couldn't understand what was up with me. I mean, it wasn't like I was the one performing, right?

"Guys, I'm just gonna go out and check things,yeah?"

"Sure," Trent replied.

Cole was busy playing Temple Run on his phone and merely nodded.

I walked over to the stage and peeped through the curtain to see how many people there were. To my disappointment, most of the seats were empty.

Frowning, I went to the room the band was in.

I knocked.Josh opened the door. "Thank God you came!" he exclaimed, looking worried.

There it was. Something was wrong.

"What's up?" I asked, frowning.

"It's Jordan. He left a few minutes ago, saying he was going to the toilet and he hasn't returned since."

Fuck.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Alexa intercepted before I could say a word. "That bastard isn't even answering his phone!" she yelled, looking pissed off.

I resisted the urge to burst into tears. I had worked so hard on this. I wasn't going to let it get screwed up.

"Alexa. Calm down.We have to think of something," I told her, though I was still freaking out inside.

"But what? No one knows the songs that well and the chords and everything. Fuck this."

It struck me then."Wait."

They both looked at me questioningly.

"Aaron."

"What?"

"He saw you guys rehearse a few times, right? And I remember his sister told me he plays the guitar too. I'm sure he can manage to sing."

"Well...Yes.Yes! Call him now!" Alexa exclaimed, suddenly looking excited again.

I nodded quickly and ran out the door, back to the room I'd been in. I'd left my phone there.

To my delight, Aaron and Amanda were already there, talking to Trent and Cole.

I quickly explained everything to them.

"Aaron will you please help?"

"Sure,I'll do it, " he said simply.

"Please Aa-Wait, what?"

"I'll do it." he replied with a small smile. "They'll have to tell me about the songs again real quick though."

I was still deeply surprised but now wasn't the time to ponder.

"Thank you so so much,Aaron!" I gave him a quick hug. "Okay, now it's-" I paused to check the time.

"Right,we still have five minutes before the show begins.Come on," I quickly led him to the room backstage ,so that Josh and Alexa could quickly tell him what he had to do.

There was just one minute to go now.

Aaron , Alexa and Josh came out of the room and got on stage. The curtains were raised as Trent announced,"The show begins."

****