.4 - Andie's Wish

Two peas in a different pod—that's how I would like to describe my relationship with my best friend Janea Alba. But as time goes by and now that we are two college girls trying to find our own path to life, I was starting to think more like she's a corn kernel and I'm just a mung bean. That's probably what it was ever since we became friends but it's just now that I'm realizing that analogy. We are both entirely different in many ways that I could think of. She's a corn kernel because she's way above the ground and I'm just a mung bean buried on the ground. She's blessed with a rich parent who could give everything that she wants and needs if she asks and I'm just working hard to pay for everything. She's overly popular even now that we are in college and I'm still the less popular one. She's gifted with such a beautiful face and an eye for a good style while I'm generally one of the less beautiful one and to top that off, I have a really horrible sense of style. I'm pretty certain of the fact that we have a lot of differences as a person and I can't name them all but it's worthy to note that even with those differences we are still best friends.

What I love about Janea is that she never made me feel less of a person even when she's angry with me. She has a sharp and brutal tongue, sometimes sarcastic but it always feel like it's coming from a place of love and support. She would read me to filth and I'm supposed to feel bad for myself but then when I do a moment of pondering and self-reflection, I'll eventually realize that she has a very valid point. She's also very generous with what she have and isn't afraid to share everything. Food, clothes, gadgets and even stories that she encounters. She's very much an open book to me.

I am extremely thankful for having a friend like Janea.

We took the bus shortly after I changed into this grunge outfit and the ride was two hours longer than I initially thought. I'm gritting with so much excitement that my heart is jumping in agitation. The feeling is hauntingly similar to the feeling of a child having a trip to Disney Land and while I haven't gone to that specific theme park or any theme park before, I know the feeling of finally having something that you've been dreaming for a long time.

When we got to the bus stop, I was the first one to jump out of the bus. Janea was just a slowpoke and I even had to wait for her to let everyone from the bus move out. She finally emerged after a while and she was holding a monopod and was already taking a video of herself. This girl is really becoming narcissistic and this isn't supposed to be the time for her to be one. We need to go to the entrance as soon as we can because I'm sure there's going to be long long queue.

"Hurry up, Janea!" Focused on the way towards the concert premises, I screamed at Janea who was busy taking a video of herself behind me. I know she's creating a story for her ten thousand followers on Instaglam. I know her that well and this isn't going to be just a simple Instaglam story but rather a power point presentation or even a short film chronicling her Sunset Flava concert experience. "You can take videos later!"

"Just a second, girl. I need to rerecord this in a different angle." She replied.

I kept walking and just ignored Janea as she was busy doing her own narcissistic business behind me. She's keeping up and I'm actually quite surprised that she can walk fast while filming herself. I can't get mad at her anyway. We eventually arrived at the entrance and I was right, the queue was unsurprisingly long and since we only got a ticket for general admission we had to suffer and wait for hours.

I was agitated to the point of impatience throughout the whole waiting time and I kept on drinking water. It's relatively hot but that's not the reason why I'm drinking water every minute. I'm just getting heated by the excitement inside of me. This is really happening and although I'm aware that I'm living this reality, I still think this is just a dream.

Janea finally ceased from filming but that's not the end of her self-obsession quite yet. She was now busy putting on some filters on the photos that she took. I watched her do all of the magic tricks while still drinking water every few minutes. She posted one photos after editing fifteen which was a total waste of time. After a few minutes she finally shifted her attention towards me.

"This is clearly your first time attending a concert, huh?" Janea spat out.

"Ahuh."

"You have got to stop drinking water because there's no way you can get to the comfort room during the concert." She blurted out and I instantly understood the reason behind that.

"Holy crap!" I almost screamed but managed to tone down my voice. "Why didn't I think about that?"

"Mhmm. Lesson number one; When you are going to a concert like this, don't drink a lot of water when the concert has not started yet or else you'll have to decide between peeing yourself, missing a good moment of the concert or the worst, you might get lost in the crowdon your way back from the loo." Janea explained which made me feel dumb for not thinking about those simple details myself.

I was just so charged and excited about this concert that it went off my mind. However, it's already too late for me. I've already drunk two bottles of water and I guess I'm just going to choose getting lost in the crowd. That's probably the easier choice and I can just call Janea so we'd meet each other halfway.

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" I asked.

"That's now your problem. Don't put the blame on me, girl."

I shook my head in absolute disbelief. The line hasn't even moved yet and it's already 5:35 in the afternoon. The sun will soon set in a few more minutes and we are still lined up here. To think that Sunset Flava is just still breaking out to the mainstream with only two EPs under their belt, the queue of fans is surprisingly long. I'm sure they've sold out this concert and I'm more than happy for their success.

I tried checking the entrance and there's a whole different line separate from ours with some ropes in between. Perhaps that's the line for the upper and lower box area which was a bit more expensive. At the furthest corner, I could see a lot of securities and police standing on guard. There are also barricades around their area that's definitely set up to divide the regular people from the celebrities and other big personalities that came to watch this night's event. Every vehicle that moved at the area looked pretty expensive and it's quite understandable because this is going to be Sunset Flava's last concert before they release their debut album. Speaking of their debut album, they've been working for over two years in the industry and yet they've only put up two EPs and a few standalone singles. They've been teasing their debut album since last year and we're still waiting for it to come out. I'm pretty sure it has already generated enough buzz and I'm excited to hear more of their efforts.

I took my backpack off and returned the water bottle that's already empty. I can't believe I consumed two bottles of water and to think that the second one wasn't even mine was wild and selfish of me. I drunk Janea's water and she didn't even bother to stop me from that. I guess that's because she was busy doing her own thing. I brought out my phone and thought of taking a few selfies with my best friend. I thought we were going to take just a few photos but of course, I was wrong all about that. Janea snatched my phone from my hand and she was now the one taking the photos. She thinks I'm not good at finding the right angle for our faces to look stunning and she's most definitely right about that. We already took a bunch of photos and she's not even satisfied with one. She deleted every photo and we only ceased taking selfies when we heard the announcement that they're already letting us in.