Current time: 3.00 pm

"Coco- don't-" Adalyn said within laughs. Coco was drinking a milkshake and was threatening to drop it on Adalyn. She succeeded to drop a few drops on Adalyn's black jacket. There were small bright pink spots on her right shoulder. She turned her head to see those spots.

"Coco!" She gasped. "They better come out when I wash this."

"It will don't worry." Coco said as she continued to laugh.
"I've finished my food. We also have to go back. It's," Adalyn opened her phone to see the time, "3.00 pm. Eat quickly." She said as she threw a used tissue paper ball at Coco. She ducked when it came at her, so she wasn't hit by it.

"Haha sucker!" She said while sticking her tongue out.

"Okay fine. Shall we go now?" Adalyn asked.

"Yeah sure." They both got up from their seats and walked up to the counter of the café they had lunch at. The worker prepared their receipt and Coco paid. They came out of the café and walked back to their hotel. It wasn't that far. Within ten minutes, they'd reached. They went up to their room and changed their clothes.

"What now?" Adalyn asked as she sat on the bed with Coco who was scrolling social media.

Coco kept her phone on the bed. She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, call Michelle and ask her."

They both were ready to go to the venue.

"Okay." Adalyn said as she dialled Michelle's number. She picked up as soon as Adalyn had dialled.

"Hello Michelle."

"Where are you?"

"Me and Coco?"

"Okay, we'll come."

"My camera, okay."

"Bye see ya."

Adalyn cut the call. Coco looked at her with a questioning look.

"Well, we have to go to Michelle's room. There everyone is already waiting for us." Adalyn said as she got up and picked up her camera bag. She put her camera and extra memory cards along with more necessary things. Coco got up and picked up her phone. Both of them got out of the room and walked up to Michelle's room. Coco knocked and after two knocks the door opened revealing Michelle.

"Hi girls! Come in." She said while making way for them to enter. Everyone was sitting there. Adalyn and Coco sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Adalyn you excited?" Joel asked. Everyone was extra chirpy in the room.

"Yeah of course." She smiled.

"Well, first thing, don't worry that you won't do well. It's your first concert, so it can be a little hard to click pictures. But me and Michelle are here to train you and make you an even better photographer than you already are." Joel said.

"Okay, bring it on then!" She exclaimed allowing laughs and chuckles escape from others' mouths.

"That's the spirit Adalyn!" Nate said. "Now let's go!" He said as everyone made their way out of the room.

"Yay whoo!" Everyone cheered as they made their way down to the van. They all sat inside and Ruel put on music again and everyone began grooving to the music.

"Michelle," Adalyn called out to Michelle who was sitting on her left.

"Yes?" She asked.

"How far is the venue?"

"Well, it's a little far. 15 minutes atleast. We'll reach till 4.00 pm."

"Okay."

"Don't worry. Have fun right now." She said as Adalyn laughed. She began dancing along with Michelle and Coco. Ruel and his team mates were screaming the lyrics and Adalyn was making the best out of the moment.

"We've reached!" Beau exclaimed. Why was everyone so chirpy today? Everyone got out and made their way to the venue. First all of them went inside the green room and kept all of their stuff there. Then they made way to the hall where Ruel had his performance.

"Wow." Adalyn let out. The hall was extremely big. It could contain a large number of people. Ruel, Beau, Chelsea and Jack made their way to the stage and started their warm ups along with the sound check.

"Cause you're my painkiller
When my brain gets bitter
You keep me close
When I've been miserable"

Ruel began singing Painkiller, and this being one of Adalyn's favorite songs, she began dancing and grooving to it with Coco. Ruel got off the stage and walked up to Adalyn, while singing the song. He took Adalyn by her hand and brought her on the stage and twirled her there.

Both of them were having so much fun, they had no idea that they were prohibited from doing anything like that.

"Ruel! Adalyn!" A scream snapped them out of their fantasies. They turned around to see Nate with an angry expression on his face. The music had stopped playing and Chelsea had stopped singing but they both had no idea.

"Adalyn come down please and sit in the green room with Michelle. Ruel, continue your singing." Nate said as Adalyn came down from the stage and walked to the green room with Michelle. As she was making her way out, she heard the music continue and Ruel's sweet voice filling the room.

Michelle and Adalyn sat down on the couch in the green room, not saying a single word; an unsettling awkward silence settling around.

Ruel, on the other hand, had no motivation to sing further.

"Ruel, that wasn't right. You know you aren't allowed to do that." Chelsea said calmly. Ruel was sitting at the edge of the stage now.

He took a deep breathe before saying anything. "Yeah I know, it just...," He took a pause, "happened." He finished.

"I know you both aren't happy with this, but it's for your own good, yeah?" Chelsea said as she hugged him.

"Yeah." He said with a soft smile, gladly accepting the hug.

"Come on let's sing." She said happily while letting a hand out for him to hold. He held onto her hand and both of them walked up to their certain positions and continued the soundcheck.

_______________[Time skip]________________

"Come on team. All hands on deck." Beau said, letting his hand out. Everyone piled their hands on top of his, including Adalyn.

"One, two, three, go team!" They all shouted together, raising their hands up after the chant. They all walked to the stage and Beau opened the door. The cheering of the crowd was audible and boy, was it loud.

"You ready?" Michelle asked an excited Adalyn.

"Yes!" She shouted over the crowd as both of them walked up to their place between the barrier and the stage.

The team excluding Ruel made their way to the stage and began playing the intro tune. It got the crowd acting up. After the intro was over, Ruel made his way on the stage and began singing Dazed and Confused.

"Oh I've been dazed and confused
From the day I met you
Yeah I lost my head
And I'd do it again
Either I've seen the light
Or I'm losing my mind
There's something 'bout you
That's got me dazed and confused"

Ruel sang while moving on the stage, with only one name on his mind:

Adalyn

He tried to push her out, but no matter what he did, it felt like as if he's dedicating this song to her only. His eyes kept on looking at her, with the camera in front of her face. That made him sad, as he was unable to look at her eyes. But he couldn't let her distract him, so he kept on singing.

She was clicking pictures and was singing along, making the best out of this. She lip synced the song, and tried so hard to abstain herself from removing the camera from her face and looking deep into his eyes. But, she couldn't so she kept on clicking pictures, pushing his thought out of her head.

Adalyn was able to capture a few pictures but others weren't good as Ruel was moving around a lot.

After Dazed and Confused, Ruel began singing Not Thinkin' 'Bout You. He stuck the mic in the stand and continued singing, and in between he pulled out the mic again and constantly pointed the mic towards the crowd, signaling they should sing now.

"All the times we had
Keep on rushing back
Filling up my head
I don't wanna think about
What I'm feeling now
I wanna push it down
I wanna block it out
I don't wanna think about...
You!"
He sang, thinking about her. He can't think about her, at all. That's not good for him.

She lip synced, thinking about him. She can't think about him, at all. That's not good for her.

Then he sang Real Thing and Face To Face, which went on smoothly for both of them. He had created a barrier in his head between himself and her and tried his best to push her out.

She focused on her photography and didn't let his thought disturb her and distract her from what she does the best.

"Adalyn," Michelle called out, "let's get a few shots from there." Michelle pointed to a spot few steps away from them. Adalyn nodded and both of them went up to that specific spot. They took a few shots from there for many songs, and soon, it was time for the last song:

Painkiller

"Oh here it comes again." Ruel said to himself in his head.

"Oh here it comes again." Adalyn said to herself in her head.

The first verse with the chorus went along smoothly. Then came the second chorus.

"Window seats as the plane starts leaving
Miss those streets where my knees were bleeding
Homesick veteran
I left my bed again
Oh looking for heartaches, headaches
The doctor says I'm diagnosed with shit days, mistakes
But I'll be fine
But I'll be fine."

Ruel controlled himself from walking to Adalyn and feeling her hand in his own, but no, he couldn't. He shook these thoughts out of his head as the bridge came on.

"Please never leave me cuz I'm barely holding on
You give me a reason
To keep on breathing."

"Adalyn, you give me reason to breathe. I wish I could make you and call you mine, but unfortunately I can't. But one day I will." Ruel said to himself in his head as he continued to sing.

"CloOoOoOose." He sang in the end.

"I love you London! Have a good night!" Ruel screamed before running off the stage. All of the others made their way back to the green room.

"Oh my god!" Adalyn screamed as she made her way to the green room.

"It was amazing!" Ruel said as he plopped on the couch.

"You aren't done yet. You have meet and greet now." Kate said after she hugged Ruel.

"Oh right! Lemme change." He said while running to the washroom with a new bunch of clothes.

"So Adalyn," Kate called out, "did you have fun?" She smiled.

"Yes! Oh my god! I loved it! He is so hype on the stage and I had the time of my life. It was so much fun clicking pictures." She exclaimed, not able to contain her excitement.

"Let's view a few pictures, shall we?" Michelle asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if my pictures are any good." Adalyn said modestly.

"Oh nonsense. They'll be completely alright." Michelle said. Adalyn switched on her camera and began scrolling through the pictures.

"Adalyn these are so good!" Michelle screamed.

"Really?" She asked.

"Oh. My. God." Ruel came out of the washroom in his new clothes and peeked at the images. "These are amazing!"

"Thank you so much, really." Adalyn smiled.

"Look at this one." Coco said while pointing to the second picture. "You look so weird." She laughed.

"Shut up Coco." Ruel said as he walked away, leaving Coco as a laughing mess.

"Ruel come on. The meet and greet is about to start." Joel said.

"Okay." Ruel said while following Joel to the venue where the meet and greet had to take place.

"Adalyn, Michelle, come on guys, let's go." Joel said while going to the venue.

"Okay." Adalyn and Michelle said in unison as both of them made way to the venue.

______________________________
Author's note
This all is interesting isn't it?

This chapter was inspired by the Free Time World Tour diaries. Those really helped in writing this chapter.

Hope you all like the new cover! It's designed by love3grl kudos to her for that!

What's your favorite song from the Bright Lights, Red Eyes EP?
I enjoyed 'up to something' a lot.

Thank you all for the love and support you've given me on this piece of trash. I love you all. <3

With love through health and sickness
Keziah