FicWad

Backstage at The Metro, Emily and Sarah were sitting with Fall Out Boy as they waited for the support band to finish their set. Sarah was sitting next to Pete on a couch and they were in deep conversation. Emily watched Sarah edge closer to Pete as she sat opposite them with her back against the wall. Patrick was watching a video game that Joe and Andy were in the middle of, but he didn’t seem to be concentrating on the game much at all. Every now and then when Emily would glance over at the video game in progress, she would notice that he was looking at her. One of the times, Emily managed to catch his eye and he smiled at her sheepishly before blushing. Emily didn’t particularly think much of this, but she knew that if Sarah had seen it, she would have said that Patrick liked her. But he couldn’t, could he?
Emily’s thoughts were interrupted as the support act came rushing into the room and the stage manager yelled at Fall Out Boy to get a move on. Joe and Andy stopped their game even though they were in a crucial bit, Patrick headed off down the corridor to the stage and Pete jumped up excited and held out his hand to Sarah. Emily witnessed all of this before slowly standing up and following everyone down the corridor Patrick had disappeared into. He was a little ahead of Emily but suddenly held back a bit for her. Emily grinned as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “You ready?” He asked.
Emily nodded and took the action as a friendly gesture; one that showed that he probably only did like her as a friend. For some reason that Emily couldn’t figure out, she felt a little disappointed about this. They continued down the corridor until reaching the end where Patrick dropped him arm from around Emily’s shoulders.
“Good luck,” she said to him as he grabbed the guitar he was going to use first.
“Thanks,” he replied smiling “See you out there.”
He turned around and ran out onto the stage with the other guys as Emily and Sarah stood there watching from the side. Emily was swept up in watching Fall Out Boy as they began to rip into their first song, but she also began to feel the uncomfortable feeling of standing next to Sarah who hadn’t apologized for being so rude earlier on. Just as the first song finished she turned to Sarah and spoke, “You know Sarah, about before,”
Sarah cut in, “I’m sorry for being a jerk,” she said, “I just wanted to be on my own with Pete but I should have let you in on the conversation.”
Fall Out Boy began the second song and Emily had to yell over it to Sarah, “That’s alright,” she yelled, “I think you’re right, you and Pete do have a connection.”
Sarah hugged her, “I’m hoping that he might ask me out tonight.”
“Let me know if he does,” Emily said before they both turned back to watch the guys playing again.

In the middle of the seventh song, Emily grabbed one of Patrick’s guitars and got herself ready to go out on stage. The time had come to play Basket Case with Fall Out Boy. Sarah patted her on the back as she adjusted the guitar to fit her height which was slightly shorter than Patrick. Finally, in what seemed like slow motion to Emily as her heart began to beat faster, the seventh song was finished and Pete was talking into the microphone.
“We have a special guest for this song,” he said into it as the crowd cheered and screamed, “Her name’s Emily so make her welcome.”
Emily heard a mass of claps coming from the audience as she walked onto the stage. Patrick motioned to her to come over to him and so she went and stood next to him and faced the audience. She could barely see the faces out in the sea of the crowd but she could tell that The Metro was packed. She pulled her eyes away from the audience and looked at Andy who counted into the song and then they began to play Basket Case. Emily played through the song with surprising ease even though her hands were numb from all of the nerves. At the end of the song Pete asked her to take a bow and she did before Patrick gave her a hug. Then she had to run off the stage because Fall Out Boy had to keep gong on with their set. Sarah was jumping up and down at the side of the stage as Emily came off.
“So what did you think?” Emily asked in an excited voice.
“That was so awesome,” Sarah exclaimed, “And I’m not teasing you but Patrick gave you a hug.”
“I know,” Emily said as she finally came to a realization, a realization she originally hadn’t wanted to happen. In fact she had been certain that it wouldn’t, but things had changed. Emily now knew that she was falling for Patrick and that she was falling fast.