I held up a finger to quiet the group before me, and like I had them all entranced, they obeyed. “Do you want it?” I asked, oozing as much sex appeal into the question as I could. They answered in a chorus of high-pitched screams. Smiling, I brought a hand to my ear. “Well, if you want it, I’m gonna have to hear you ask for it.”

As the corresponding screams surely tore a hole through the fabric of the universe, I shot a smile at Kiera. She beamed at me, hooting and hollering along with everyone else. I loved seeing her like that—carefree, overjoyed…in love. It made this moment even better. And it was already pretty fucking awesome.

Flicking my wrist at Evan, I gave him the signal to start the song. He began it instantly. Since this was a once in a lifetime show for us, we packed the lineup with every hit we had—all the songs that got the crowd at Pete’s on their feet. There were quite a few to choose from, and Matt and I had had some minor disagreements about the list, but in the end, we’d come up with an amazing concert.

Adrenaline surged through me as I strummed my guitar and sang my heart out. The fans were going nuts—screaming, jumping up and down, singing along. It made me soar with joy. God, I loved this. As we moved into the next song, I set my guitar back on its stand. I wouldn’t need it for a while, which meant I’d be able to engage the crowd more. I started getting more and more into it as the set progressed, picking fans at random and singing directly to them. Thankfully, no one passed out at the personal attention—it had happened before, and it always freaked me out whenever it did. I’d feel horrible if someone got hurt because of me; enough people had been hurt because of me.

When we were finally playing our last song, I could barely believe it was over. It had gone by so fast. I put everything I had into that last song—poured every fiber of my being into the words. Performing was one of the few times I felt completely truthful, and some of my songs were more personal than fans realized. Real events, real pain, and in some cases, real abuse. It was kind of a miracle that I could sing about topics that I had trouble talking about, even to my closest friends. Maybe that was because I could brush off songs as just being reflections on humanity—I’m just singing about life, not necessarily about my life. There was a fair amount of anonymity in the artform.