Jan was immediately on her phone looking for an event that’s happening nearby. Kyle was looking at the street signs and an electronic map on the side of the street to find the nearest subway, or bus stop, or maybe an MRT.
Lee was consoling Hazel who was still in his arm as they walk on the pavement.
Everyone felt like they lost something that night, but none was feeling worse than Hazel. They knew they had to do something together to get rid of the aching feeling of losing their tickets at the last moment before the concert. They have to make it a night to remember.
“Look … there’s a festival at a night park, it’s not far from here, we can get there by MRT and then a 5-minute walk,” Jan pointed to her phone.
“What kind of festival?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know … it doesn’t say, all the other events are at clubs … they have a minimum age to enter,” Jan explained.
“A night park sounds like fun … they probably have rides and games, or shows, right?” Lee assumed.
“Yeah, I think we should go there … are you up for it?” Jan asked Hazel.
She finally broke away from Lee and forced a smile, she didn’t want to be the one who ruins everyone’s night with her moping. “Sure … do you want to?” she asked Lee.
He shrugged, “I’m in … are you feeling better?” His eyes softly landed on her face.
She nodded lightly, “Thank you … I’m sorry for making everyone uncomfortable.”
“Hey, don’t be sorry, it sucked what happened … but it doesn’t mean we can’t still have a good night, right?” Jan interrupted.
“She’s right, and I promise … we’ll go to his next concert, okay? I’m giving you my T-shirt and a promise … so you have to cheer up,” he pinched her chin gently.
She laughed lightly, “Okay … let’s go … maybe they have beers there,” Hazel nudged Jan’s arm.
They laughed and had their arms over at each other’s shoulders.
**********
If it wasn’t for Hazel, Lee wouldn’t be in Goldstone either. When Hazel asked him to go to the concert with her, he knew it was going to coincide with a competition entry he wanted to join, but the thought of being with her was already felt like he was winning a competition. It wasn’t a hard decision.
When he first saw her at school, she was a freshman on her first day of high school. She walked past him in the corridor, she didn’t notice him, but he did. She seemed shy, always kept her head down but once she looked up, she was breathtakingly beautiful, at least for him. His eyes were glued to her, his heartbeat a little faster and he learned something new that day, he found out for the first time how it felt like to have butterflies in his tummy.
He always seems to look for her every day ever since, just to see what she was doing. He saw her talking to Jan after class, at the cafeteria, they were inseparable. He saw her at the soccer field all the time after school. He later found out her name and who she was. When Kyle was getting close to Jan, he took the courage to ask him if he could introduce him to Hazel.
She was more than what he had imagined. She was sweet, funny, smart. To be close to her made him feel happy. Just the way he did when he was staring right into her eyes at the MRT going to the night park. She was talking to him under the white lights of the MRT cart, she was holding on to the pole and he hung his hand on the handle above his head. All he could think about was will he ever find the courage to tell her how beautiful she is when she talks about the things she loves, how much he loves the crisp of her laughter, the crinkle on her nose, how his heart swell whenever they’re together even when all their plans were shot to hell.
Their friendship made him feel warm inside and he didn’t want that to change. He wanted more, or so he thought, because every time they were standing so close to each other, he couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her. But he didn’t want to jeopardize what they already have. It made him nervous just thinking about it, especially because he knew how she felt about Theo. Being her best friend was safe, it kept her close, and maybe, for now, that was enough.
The night park was nothing compared to what would have been the best concert in her life yet, but it was something to get her mind off looking at people posting their moments inside the arena where she should have been.
There was a magic show with a fire-breather which she found fascinating. A few rides on the carousel while drinking a couple of beers that Kyle bought with his fake ID. Talking about how annoying Peyton and Theo were and predicting that they will probably get into a fight after the concert. They played all sorts of games of darts, shooting hoops, and shooting cans off a metal chicken. Lee actually won a huge teddy bear that he carried on his shoulder the rest of the night.
They got into a photo booth and took four sets of pictures for each to remember the night by ‘the night they didn’t go to that concert’, they were laughing about it at the end of the day and just having fun together. A few more beers did the trick.
At exactly 12 AM, they shot fireworks like it was New Year’s eve, at least that’s how they saw it with their tipsy eyes. Lee had his arm wrapped around Hazel’s shoulders from the back as the four of them watched the sky lit up by the explosions of stars. And then Jan saw it, Hazel’s wide smile as her hands clung to Lee’s arms when he gave her a tiny kiss on her head. She lit up just like the sky that night.