Page 53 of The Summer of ’98

I was more than ready. The excitement was palpable. Tonight promised to be one of the best nights of my life and I couldn’t wait.

Ellie

Cass and I broke into a loud applause and cheer when “Dream On” finished. We had a decent spot, considering how many people were here. We were off to the left about halfway back from the stage, and we were sandwiched but Leroy and Noah stood behind us so that we had a bit of room to dance.

“We should go and get a water from the concession stand?” Cass shouted when the next song intro started up.

I leaned into Leroy and shouted. “We’re going to get a water.”

“We’ll come?”

“No.” I shook my head as Cass tugged on my arm. “Save our spots. We don’t want to lose them.”

He nodded and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before Cass dragged me away. It took us a little while and a lot of apologies before we broke free at the back of the pit. Security guards gave us polite smiles as we skipped over to the concession stand at the back of the arena.

The fresh air was a blessing. We weren’t out in the total open. But even just being free of the packed-in area was a relief. I fanned at my face as we jumped into the line, still moving to the music while we waited. There was no alcohol being sold since it was a sixteen-plus event, but there were a lot of people picking up chilled bottles of water and snacks.

The line moved at a fast pace. I suppose the fact that there weren’t a lot of options to choose from kept it moving. When the man in front of us was finished handing his cash over, he spun around and walked straight into Cass, standing on her feet and almost dropping his bottle of water down her front.

“I am so sorry,” he apologized. He looked concerned that he had hurt her.

“It’s not a problem,” Cass shouted back as she stepped forward with me. I leaned on the bar and peered at her over my shoulder but she was occupied with the man so I purchased a bottle of water each and figured that we could share with the guys.

I stepped back into place beside her and handed the water over. The ground underneath us was sticky from all the beverages spilled on the hard concrete floor.

I guzzled back big mouthfuls of water to rehydrate while Cass talked with the blue-eyed boy. I wasn’t listening and it was too loud to pick up on the conversation, so I just stood idle while she had a chat. There was nothing flirtatious in her body language, so I wasn’t concerned when I saw Noah making his way toward us through the throng of concertgoers.

He apparently wasn’t as placid about the conversation because his gaze narrowed and he stormed forward, all but knocking me out of the way as he gripped Cass’s upper arm. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Having a conversation dipshit,” Cass ripped her arm out of his hold and glared. “I’m not you, Noah; I can have a chat with the opposite sex without wanting to fuck them.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, it did appear that guy looked a little bit disappointed, but he regained himself and gave Noah a shove in the chest. “Don’t handle her like that, man, it’s not cool.”

Noah shoved him back and I began to panic at how this was escalating so fast. “Don’t tell me what to do with my girlfriend, man.”

Cass and I stood behind Noah, who appeared to be growing really agitated. She glanced over at me and winced as though she knew this was on her, but she didn’t mean for it to get out of hand. I didn’t think it was her fault; Noah was acting like a hothead.

Cass leaned around and gripped Noah’s bicep. “Noah, come on—”

“Quiet,” he shoved her off again.

“You’re an asshole,” blue-eye boy shouted and stepped forward. “Stop handling her like that.”

“Mind your own fucking business,” Noah took a handful of blue-eyed boy’s shirt in his fist and punched him in the jaw. My hand flew up and I smothered a loud gasp. That was so uncalled-for.

The boy regained himself and lunged forward, his closed fist connecting with the side of Noah’s face. Cass started screaming and attempted to jump between the boys, who were now engaged in a full-on brawl. Dozens of people surrounded us within seconds, and I was getting shoved left and right as they scrambled to get a view of the fight.

I tried to keep my feet planted in a firm stance so that I wouldn’t end up on the floor. It was hard considering I was stressing out over Cass, who was now diving on top of Noah while he pummeled the blue-eyed boy. The boy wasn’t going down without a fight, though, and he landed some painful-looking blows to Noah’s stomach.

Unintentionally, the fight ended up getting closer and closer to me, and I was sure that I was about to get an elbow in the head, when I was pulled back at the arm and drawn into Leroy’s chest. He used his strong arms to shove a few people out of the way and stared at his brother with a violent glint.

“Stay here,” he ordered, as if I would wander off. He went over and ripped Noah off the stranger, throwing him into the ground and leaning one knee on his chest.

The blue-eyed boy looked as though he wasn’t willing to let the fight go, but Leroy held Noah down by his throat and looked up, saying something to the guy that I couldn’t hear. My heart was pounding, and the crowd was still pushing and shoving so hard that I kept tripping while I watched. Leroy turned back to Noah. The blue-eyed boy didn’t leave, but he wiped the blood on his nose and made no move to attack further.

“Stay the fuck down, Noah,” Leroy yelled at his manic brother, who was thrashing under his hold. “Chill out!”

Suddenly the crowd started to dissipate as security broke through, shouting inaudible orders. Cass sprinted toward me and started to pull me along with the rest of the departing onlookers. “Come on, let’s go.”

---