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“Holy…” Thalia muttered under her breath as my picture became bigger and bigger as the bus drove forward. She knelt on the couch to look even closer at the stadium. “You get to see this every time?” She asked, breathless, still obviously culture-shocked at my life.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. I remembered my old self feeling exactly like that the very first time I saw my face on a stadium billboard. It was absolutely crazy. “I’ll be the first to admit, seeing that every time feels unbelievable,” I confessed, leaning against the couch right next to her. “But there’s something even more insane that happens before a show.”
As if on cue, the roaring screams of fans started to fill the motorcoach as we approached the driveway of the stadium. There were thousands of fans that stood outside, behind large metal barricades, holding signs and yelling. It was an incredible sight and realization of how important this all was for the fans.
“Isn't it just crazy? Just to think that all these people came to see you.” Thalia shakily asked, placing all the weight of her body against the head of the couch. She seemed in utter disbelief at what she was witnessing.
Another chuckle escaped my lips as I stood up from the couch and walked to the other side of the tour bus. “It’s crazy to think that I’m just a man from Detroit,” I said. “But these people see me asDamian Apollo.”
Thalia shook her head, setting the brown locks moving around her face. She kept staring at the people outside, but I couldn’t stop staring at her.
Chapter 14
Thalia
I’dbeeninstadiumsbefore as a spectator and, of course, I understood they were massive spaces and that completely selling out one of them was a huge achievement.
Damian had left the bus to get prepped by his glam squad. I laughed as security took him through the screaming fans held back by the metal barriers. He was gracious and waved to the screaming mostly-female fans until he disappeared into the building.
A little while before the concert was to begin, I ventured out. All the fans were gone so I was able to quickly slip into the arena and find a place backstage.
But I never realized just how big they were and how much space sprawled beyond the seats and the stage. Before you even saw the fans, there were so many people backstage, yelling, moving around, driving on golf carts, and just complete organized chaos.
It was a…production.
The floor was thumping underneath my feet from the pre-show music pumping through the giant speakers. People were making their way to their seats with a random holler and cheer coming out from any direction every few seconds.
“We love you, Damian!” A group of girls screamed from somewhere, their voices so loud and full of passion that they pierced through the entire space.
The house lights were still on, and it was a clear display of the number of people slowly but surely filling up the place. At the other end of the stadium was Damian’s intricate stage. It was shaped like an X with the two ends on the backstage side running upwards like a waterfall. On the screen were the words “The 404 World Tour” in bold font. There was anticipation in the air. It was Damian’s first show back after a long time, and the crowd went wild when the house lights finally went down.
The show started, and the stadium was filled with neon glowing bracelets that illuminated the dark stadium like a starry night sky. The roar of adoring fans grew louder and louder as the entire stage initiated a countdown in the style of a retro computer. The timer started at ten, and with each second passing by, a heartbeat echoed throughout the stadium, and I was positive that my own was matching its rhythm.
Everyone felt the excitement, but all I could feel was an intense overwhelming anticipation. I was about to see a man I saw every day for the past month or so take it on stage, with full costumes and props and special effects as opposed to his usual sweatpants and hoodie look. I was about to see a man who I once knew as a young and upcoming artist, now the world’s most famous musician.
I was about to see a man who I once dated take on the stage and under the spotlight that I yearned for. And I still yearned for it, but now that I was seeing it in action, I couldn’t imagine the immense amount of pressure he was feeling. Tens of thousands of people in one place, not to mention the people outside who couldn’t get in but decided to stay just to be here. This was insane to take in all at once.
“Four, three, two, one!” The crowd counted along with the countdown on the screen, and when the timer hit zero, a familiar guitar riff boomed throughout the stadium, causing an even louder uproar of screams from the fans.
“Are you ready, Phoenix!” Damian’s voice rang out, but he was still not on stage. Still, the crowd went even wilder. I swore I could feel the earth shake from beneath me. Suddenly, a gush of white smoke came from the center of the X stage.
“Da-mi-an! Da-mi-an! Da-mi-an! DA-MI-AN!”The crowd chanted over and over as the smoke slowly dissipated, revealing Damian being lifted up by a contraption, standing center-stage as the screens behind him showed a variety of fireworks to help brighten up the stage and make the entrance even more crazy.
“He knows how to put on a show,” I muttered to myself. No one could really hear me. It was impossible for anyone to hear me with the piercing screams of his adoring fans. Honestly, I couldn’t blame them. With Damian standing in front of them in a blue vest and a skin-tight black shirt underneath, I could understand their hunger.
He lookedgood. Even I couldn’t deny that. His hair was styled, still in a rockstar undone sort of way, but it accentuated the strong, sharp angles of his face. And those eyes…man, did they sparkle under those stage lights.
The familiar guitar riff reverberated through the stadium again, and this time, Damian and his band continued to play the very song that made Damian a success.
“Cause the world’s just a little bit brighter with you,”Damian started to sing, starting with the chorus, and every person in this room started to sing along with him, creating a stadium-sized harmony.“And I’ll always be here, that’s true,”he continued, and anyone with a somewhat trained ear could easily tell that he was singing live instead of lip-syncing. His voice came out smooth and velvety, and it sounded a lot like his recorded version, but you could also hear the slight variation of the melody. It was a clear sign that Damian truly was a master of his craft, to the point where I was getting pulled into the show. I knew I was staring in awe at his stage presence, and I didn’t even care. I just felt… good at the moment.
“In a crowd of a thousand faces, across the endless blues,”Damian continued to sing, his voice effortlessly melting my heart to the point where I could feel my legs turn to jelly. Suddenly, he spotted me at the side of the crowd, standing like a lost animal. He made direct eye contact and gave me a warm smile.“In a crowd of a thousand faces, I only see you.”
A sudden rush of blood filled my cheeks, but I wasn’t given enough time to react to it as the beat dropped and the entire stadium was up on their feet, dancing and singing along to Damian absolutely killing it on stage with the guitar. I was… wired. I was beginning to lose myself in the moment. The sound of the guitar started to course through my body, my head filled with nothing but the tone of Damian’s voice. The fans screamed louder and louder, and I found my feet starting to move to the beat of his songs, and my voice singing along with the lyrics.
At that moment, I was a goner. Simply under the spell of one Damian Apollo.
Every single song, every single instrument, every single lyric that came from his show, I felt running through my veins. Not to mention that the way he smiled for his fans, the way he interacted with them, and the way he made all of them feel seen, made me feel soft and a lot of respect for him. He made sure that every cent people spent on his show was worth it, without missing a note or a beat. It was mesmerizing, especially as the sweat started to drip from his forehead and neck. His tight shirt was slowly drenched, outlining his mouth-watering muscles for everyone to see. I could see a handful of girls already swooning at the sight of a sweaty Damian Apollo, and I would never say it out loud, butgirl, I had that.
