"Excuse me? Who are you? What are you doing inside this dressing room?"
It was already too late when I tried to hide behind the costumes. I became frozen when I heard a woman's voice. A woman with a pixie-cut wearing this white power suit showed up along with a buffed guy who looked like his shirt is way too small that it's on the verge of ripping itself apart.
My knees seem to wobble when it sank in to me that I'm caught in the open but more than that, I was thinking about the bottle clutched in my hand. I was worried that they might see the glowing bottle but I was instantly confused when I noticed it magically ceased from glowing. I'm pretty sure it was blinking and glowing unearthly just a few seconds ago and now it turned itself off. I know I've been having some delusional moments in my life and I'm imagining things that I wanted to happen but I'm mostly imagining scenarios with Draik and Sunset Flava. That's just about it. I am almost certain that I'm not hallucinating when I saw the bottle was glowing a while ago.
"Hi." I let out breathily. "I…..I'm… Josie. The new make-up artist?!!" I replied hardly questioning my own words. I don't even know what to say primarily because I'm overcome with fear and confusion at the very same time. I'm confused as to why the bottle seemed to magically ceased from glowing and then I was afraid about getting caught. I just spat the first thing that came out of my mind.
"Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be at the backstage?" The woman asked staring at me with such inquisitive eyes.
"I…I just came here to…."
"Hold on. Where's your ID?" She pressed on and I immediately knew that I'm not going to get away with this. "I don't remember having a new make-up artist on the team."
"I…." I'm really scared and that's more than enough for my tongue to tangle itself and prevent me from giving a word. On top of that, I'm not really good at hiding my scared face and I'm pretty sure this woman is smart and she promptly picked up on that.
I just smiled awkwardly and then out of the growing fear, I just thought of escaping this room. That's the only option that I could think of. In fact, it's the only option that I have left in mind. I'm cornered in this dressing room. I put the bottle inside my backpack and then began running straight towards the door. I didn't even realize that they are standing right at the door. I bumped hard into the guy and I felt his rocky muscles. I felt like I just deliberately bumped myself into a wall with the sturdiness of this guy.
"You're not a make-up artist, are you?" The woman scowled at me. Shoot, this is really bad.
I ignored her and tried to push the guy out of the way but he was just a beast of guy and I'm just a tiny little girl. I don't have the slightest strength to even push this guy out of the way. He was just standing with his arms across his massive chest as he stared down at me and no matter how I push to tip him off, he's just colossal.
"You're just another obsessed fan. How did you even get past the guards? I cannot fucking believe someone let you walk in here." The woman was obviously pissed off based on the way she enunciated the words. Not only that she's pissed off, she's also irritated at the fact that some obsessed fan got inside here without being caught.
"I'm sorry." I whimpered.
"Didn't you saw the sign back there?"
"I'm really sorry, I just got lost."
"Ricky, get this crazy obsessed woman out of this stadium!!!" The woman ordered with such authority as she sauntered away.
Ricky picked me up with such ease as if I'm just a helpless toy. "Hey, get your hands off of me. Hey, I'm not crazy!" Struggling from the firm grip of Ricky, I yelled at the woman.
I'm well aware that I'm obsessed with Sunset Flava and I'm going to continue to be obsessed over them but I'm not crazy.
"I don't care if she paid money for the tickets. Just get her out of this place!"
Screaming at the top of my lungs, I desperately wiggled my strength off like I've been fighting beasts and monsters yet Ricky isn't showing any signs of weakness or even wearing off. I tried kicking his thighs but just like his chest, they were rock hard and I think I'm not doing the slightest damage. Ricky effortlessly carried me from the dressing room towards the hallway and eventually outside the entire stadium. He just dumped me on the asphalt ground as if I'm a worthless trash bag that needed to be thrown away.
"Ouch!!!" I screamed landing straight on my butt. I felt very disrespected and extremely humiliated both at the very same time.
"Don't ever let her back in." Ricky uttered towards the shorter guards.
"Copy that!"
Gritting in regret, I stayed on the ground for a while and I was just trying to let what happened sink in. I didn't envision something like this to happen and I'm substantially pissed off at myself for going inside that dressing room. This isn't how I wanted my first Sunset Flava concert to go down. This isn't how I thought this concert would go and yet here I am outside the stadium. The guards don't even want to look at me in the eye and I think I deserved that.
If I didn't go further behind that restricted area, then I might still be back there screaming my heart out. If I didn't even consume two bottles of water in the first place, then I won't be rushing towards the comfort room and for sure, I'd be jumping out of joy back there. Now, I could only imagine those kinds of scenarios because clearly, it's not going to happen. Janea must be enjoying herself back there even if she's not a fan of the band and I'm left out here to miss the whole concert. I'm left out to anguish in utter jealousy.
I could still hear the music coming from the stadium and I instantly realized that there's no way I'm going to get back inside now. I wanted to cry but I know I can't do that because this won't happen if I just took some time to think about my actions. I put all the blame to myself. This is all on me.
"Fuck!" I cursed out as I picked myself up. I quickly dusted myself off and began walking away. I am feeling nothing but anger and disappointment right now. I'm angry and disappointed at myself for ruining this dream concert for myself. Janea was just being supportive and real when she scolded me earlier. She was right that I don't want to ruin this concert because I've been dreaming of it ever since and yet I ruined it. She bought this concert ticket for me and I just fucked it up.
As I was walking away, I brought out my phone and started dialing Janea's phone number. It was just ringing for a long while and it led me to believe that she's really having a blast with Sunset Flava. I kept on dialing her phone number but it kept on redirecting me to voice mail. I paused from walking and then thought of leaving a message to her just to let her know what happened and then I suddenly thought maybe I don't want to let her know I ruined this for myself. Maybe I don't want her to think that I wasted the ticket because I'm way too much obsessed and stupid and maybe I am also crazy. She's probably going to blow up on me big time and I know she's the kind of person who doesn't filter her words and will say it how it is. She will surely rip me to shreds.
I fucked this shit up and there's no going back now that I'm out of the concert premises. I've dreamed of this for a while and I thought I'm going to finally see Draik and Ace and Yousef and everyone else live. It was so close yet so far. Damn it!
I ended up going home by myself. It's the only decision that's not going to make me regret anything. It's way better than beating myself of. I'm sure the concert will be finished in the next six hours and that's way too long for me to be staying outside hearing the music and the people singing along with the track. I'd succumb out of jealousy.
I took the bus alone and while I was alone, I played some other music that's not from Sunset Flava. It's a conscious decision that I had to make in order to feel good for a while. I'm just upset about the turn of events that I don't want to hear any music from them for now.
By the time I got home, I went straight towards my room. The first thing I did was to bury my face on a pillow and scream as hard as I could. I wanted to vent out my regret and disappointment. As I was screaming my emotions out, I noticed my backpack was glowing. I suddenly remembered about the bizarre bottle that I got from Yousef's paper bag. I grabbed the backpack and took the bottle out.
"What is this shit?" I mumbled under my breath.
Aside from the feeling of disappointment, anger and regret, this is the only thing that I got from that concert. This eerie bejeweled bottle that looked like it was from a different era. I didn't even get the chance to see the whole Sunset Flava in person and that sucked. The stones that were encrusted on the bottle were glowing again, they each have their distinct way of glowing. I checked the bottle for some kind of switch because there's no way this is glowing on and off by itself. I turned it around and I even checked the bottom but there's nothing other than the stones and some intricate writings that I'm very unfamiliar with carved on the surface.
The longer that I stare at it, the more I become lured by the lights. I scratched my head and I thought to myself, what if I open it?