“Let’s get a drink, yeah?” Simon said.
I nodded, and we pushed our way through the crowd toward the bar. Once again taking my hand, Simon tugged me forward, and I stood closely behind him as he waited to order our drinks.
Olivia and her boyfriend hadn’t arrived yet—not that I was complaining. Maybe I’d get lucky and she’d decide not to come at all. I doubted it, though. My ears rang from how loud the music was, and I swallowed a few times, hoping my ears would pop and I’d be able to hear a little better.
“What do you want?” Simon asked.
“Oh, water please.”
My throat was on fire from screaming so much, and it would only get worse once Black Veil Brides took the stage.
Simon turned back to the bar, and I glanced around. My gaze swept the room and landed on a tall figure standing in the corner.
He had dark hair, strong features, blue eyes… He looked so much like Jaxon, but it wasn’t Jaxon. This guy had smaller muscles and was slightly taller. I was positive he was the same guy I’d seen standing across the street from the bookstore the other day, though. What was he doing here?
As if he could sense me staring, he met my gaze.
My heart raced, and the pull in my chest was so strong I had to consciously force myself not to move, despite the tingling in my legs, that restlessness that wouldn’t go away until you moved or stretched. Thank God Simon was still holding my hand; otherwise, I would’ve approached the strange man and demanded to know why he was following me.
I licked my lips, my gaze still hyper-focused on him. The corner of his mouth lifted into an almost smile, and his eyes narrowed slightly, like he was trying to figure out who I was and why I was staring at him. His arms were crossed over his chest.
There was no denying how attractive he was, and the butterflies that were dormant when Simon touched me were now in a frenzy. I took a deep breath, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from him. It was as if he had me under some sort of spell.
“Chloe?”
The twisted syllables of my name drew my attention back to Simon. He held out a bottle of water.
I took it and smiled. “Thanks.”
He ushered me away from the bar, and we perused the vendor tables filled with band merchandise. He picked up an Asking Alexandria CD and flipped it over to read the back.
While he was occupied, I looked around for my tall, dark mystery man, but he was gone. Disappointment landed like an anvil in my gut.
It was creepy how much he looked like Jaxon, though, right down to the same piercing blue eyes. Maybe Jaxon had a brother he never told me about. But what were the chances Jaxon’s brother would be at this concert? Or that I’d be the one to see him?
Simon set the CD back on the table. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
He shrugged. “You seem distracted.”
“No… There’s just a lot of people, and it’s hard to talk with all the noise.”
He nodded, but I wasn’t convinced he believed me. In the other room, someone announced that the show would resume in five minutes.
Simon’s eyes lit up. “C’mon.”
“We should get closer to the stage,” I said loudly over the crowd.
He stopped and glanced back at me. “Yeah?”
I grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I want to make sure we’re right up front for BVB.”
If things got out of control, we could always go back to the VIP section, but I wanted the full rock concert experience. Who knew if I’d ever get to do this again?
Excitement welled in my chest, and I shouldered my way through the crowds until we were directly in front of the stage. Then I noticed Olivia and her boyfriend. They stood a few feet away from Simon.
When she saw me, she scrunched up her face in disgust and rolled her eyes. Jaxon’s advice ran through my head—she’s a mean girl, you be a meaner girl.
I gave her an equally dirty look. Seriously, what was her issue with me? Just because I wasn’t filthy rich, and I had more brains than money that made me somehow unworthy of being in her presence? Well, she could go suck on a nail gun.
The arena was plunged into darkness, and the crowd erupted with deafening screams. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, colorful lights jumped around the room, changing from white to blue to purple and back again.
The band members burst onto the stage, and the shouts grew louder. My heart thundered in my ears, and I wore a grin that threatened to split my face.
The early beats of “Wake Up” started, and I threw my hands in the air with an excited whoop, my body swaying to the music. The electric energy around me was contagious, and I sang along loudly, knowing no one would actually hear me.
Beside me, Simon had one arm in the air, steadily rocking forward with a fist pump.
Fog billowed from the stage and swirled out toward the crowd. My chest tightened, and my eyes burned. I coughed, blinked, and waved my hand in front of my face, but the fog only seemed to get thicker. My vision blurred, and everything around me shifted out of focus.
Something frighteningly familiar hung in the air—the fog, the fear, the confusion—I’d been in this situation before. Hadn’t I? I wasn’t positive, but the feeling I had been was so strong it threatened to choke me.
Taking a few steps back, I looked for a way out of the crowd, a place I could escape to for a moment, just long enough to catch my breath. Someone bumped into me, and I stumbled into someone else as people rushed closer to the stage, ping-ponging me between various bodies. I was
