Beneath Your Beautiful

his mouth fell open, parting with feigned hurt and mostly laughter. “hey, i am not an ass kisser, just ask my friend who wanted the picture. she has some not-nice words for me and she doesn’t even know who i am.” chris garnished his snetence with a glance in the direction the other girl had headed and a lighthearted chuckle. “nah, we don’t have a set. i’m just here to hang, support some friends, that kind of stuff. you?”

chris’ soft grin faded into a chuckle, eyes glazing over her facial features. “oh i’m extremely thankful for this,” the boy paused, looking around at all of the festivities and the sound of a crowd cheering on another performance, probably from one of his friends. “i’m thankful for it every day. i can’t imagine myself not being involved in music or performing. didn’t shakespeare say something about all of the world being a stage, or something like that?”

“someone just told me they won’t be buying my next album because i wouldn’t take a picture with them. guess it’s a good thing i’m the lead singer for afterparty and not ‘the guy from that boyband’ like they thought i was.”

will you recognize me in those flashing lights? i try to keep my heartbeat but I can't get it right.

will you recognize me when I'm lying on my back? somethings gone inside me and I can't get it back.

ezra breathed the salty filled air and took in the muffled voices that sang off the stage as he barely hung onto his beer bottle. he swished the liquid inside the bottle from side to side before looking up to rae. the boy grinned, bursting out laughing just at the thought of rae throwing up on stage, “ooh– that would be a pr nightmare,” he continued to laugh before taking a sip of his beer.  “mm, i could– but i’d rather stay out here,” ezra looked over at his friend, “people get crazy up there.” the boy thought back to the time he would go up to the barriers, it was fun until he got a bloody nose. he shook his head, realizing that probably wouldn’t be happening during lily caine’s performance. 

“i’m goin’ up there tomorrow though,” he smiled, reluctant to be performing at the festival. truely, he was really excited to perform at this festival. he loved the rush he got from being on stage, the lights fluttering everywhere and the voices from the crowd singing along. it brought a smile to his face just from thinking about it. the boy quickly snapped out of it as he took another sip of his beer.  

       she couldn’t help but reluctantly join in on his laughter. it was a comforting sound. “ oh, that’s funny to you, huh? me, barfing on stage. well, jokes on you, i haven’t done that since i was six. ” she teased, picking up her gin and tonic with careful fingers as she brought it to her lips. her head was fuzzy and her stomach was aching, but the outfit she was in today was likely to give her a baby bump if she ingested so much as a strawberry so she’d opted for sporadic alcohol consumption. “ you just gotta out crazy them, chew up some alka seltzer and froth at the mouth or somethin’. see how many people wanna listen to toxic next to someone with rabies. ” she said with an unabashed confidence, like her advice was foolproof.

sawyer hadn’t realized who she’d been sitting across from until she spoke, her nose to busy buried in her phone, but when rae did speak she had the sudden urge to get up and run. thankfully, she was pretty drunk already otherwise this would be even worse than it was already going to be, “yeah, i totally get it. me and the girls aren’t performing this year or anything, so, but if we were i’d be a lot more sober right now.” she replied in a quiet voice, bringing her drink back to her lips. she glanced around for a place to flee if necessary 

ezra kept quiet as the brunette spoke, looking over in the distance at the busy stage. lights flashed every other second as the bass seemed to tremble the ground beneath his feet. at this point in the festival ezra was sacked out under the tents with his shoes off, to feel the realness that was the grass below his feet. “Mmm,” he agreed nodding his head slowly before glancing over at the many intoxicated bodies in the distance, dancing and yelling. “yeah, i can’t imagine doing that,” he spoke softly to his friend, knowing that he’s probably done it before. nothing close to hardcore drugs, but probably after a few shots of alcohol. it wasn’t as bad, right? he looked back at rae and finally cracked a smile at her silly joke, which was something that he loved so much about her.  

vivi scratched the back of her head, not sure if rae had been talking about her, because if that was the case she needs to be more discreet. “that’s crazy, who would ever do such a thing?” she asked innocently as she hit the blunt sitting between her fingers. “i’m not sure what perish means, but i mean, i find myself with a lot of energy when i smoke.” she admitted offering it to rae. “but it also depends on the scene i’m in and the goal i’m trying to reach for the night because if i’m straight up chilling then i would also, straight up perish, whatever that means.”