Strictly speaking, running after the gates are open shouldn't be necessary. We are waiting right in front of the barriers surrounding the section before the stage, so we're sure to get in first. Still, Raven starts bouncing impatiently the moment the security guards begin to remove the chains linking two barriers together. The crowd around us is getting restless, pushing us forward. We only pause for a moment to have our green paper wristbands checked, proving our eligibility to enter the Golden Circle, and then we are past the barriers, and the stage is just tens of feet of barren ground away.

"Run!" yells Raven, sprinting ahead, along with other fans that trickle in through two more entrances.

I grab my backpack and take off after him.

The excitement of the running, cheering people rubs on me, and by the time I reach the barriers in front of the stage, I'm grinning from ear to ear. Raven is there already, his hands squeezing the metallic bars. In a blink of an eye, people slam at the barrier to his right and left, and I realize that the front row is lost for me. I take the place right behind Raven, dropping my backpack to the ground, and reach past him with both hands, bracing myself on the barrier against the impacts of more people taking their places around us.

"Yay!" Raven turns around within the circle of my arms, his eyes gleaming, and smacks me on the lips before whirling back to the stage. "Front row! Best place ever! They will put the drums there, and Gordon is usually to the left with his guitar, so Jared is got to be somewhere around here, right in front of us!"

He jumps up and down, while I stand there, stunned, not sure if I should tell him off for kissing me or just pretend it hasn't happened. In his overexcited state, it's possible he hasn’t even noticed doing it. If there was a stranger in my place, he probably would have kissed them just as well, simply out of excitement.

"Enjoying yourself?" says a big, rocker-type forty-something guy standing to Raven's right. "Want some, to calm your nerves?" He gestures at him with a half empty beer bottle.

"No!" Raven beams at him. "I don’t want to calm down! And I need my head clear and my bladder empty to enjoy the show."

"It's another good four hours before they start," the guy says. "You'll have to drink something."

"Yeah, but my chaperone here doesn't allow me around alcohol." Raven nods at me, and the man turns to look.

"Oh, you're together? Have fun." He makes a greeting gesture with his bottle at me, and then, when Raven turns away, nods at him approvingly and mouths to me 'hot chick, huh?"

I roll my eyes and look away.

The sky is clear, colored in washed out shades of dusk. The crowd is dense already, and when I look back, all I can see is a sea of heads. For a band that's almost never on MTV or in the charts, 'Fake Drug' surely has an impressively devoted fan base. The majority of the audience seem to be in their thirties and forties, and only few are as young as Raven and I, which makes sense given that the peak of their popularity has been around the time of their first and second albums twenty years ago—if the Wikipedia article was to be believed.

I notice a few people that look like cross dressers, just like Raven has predicted, but I must admit that he's probably the only one who has managed to pull it off without looking ridiculous.

"Want me to go get us some hot dogs?" he says, turning to me again. "He's right, we'll need to eat something. I wouldn’t want to collapse during the show from low blood sugar." He kicks my bag on the ground. "You can put this here, so that nobody would catch my place."

"No," I say. "I don’t want to go looking for you if you choose to disappear."

"Dude, this is like the only place in the world that I wouldn't want to disappear from." He retrieves his phone and shakes it in front of my face. "And you can call me if you need anything else. Your number is the first on my speed dial now, did you know that?"

I hum uncertainly, more pleased with this information than I have any reasons to be. Still, letting him go somewhere alone in a place where he can possibly find drugs, alcohol or a quick hookup isn’t something I could allow.

"You’re not going anywhere. I promised Catherine to keep an eye on you. We have chips and water in my bag if you're hungry."

"Okay." He leans forward and wraps his hands around my waist. "It's totally okay."

"Stop touching me," I groan. "Is there any way I can teach you that apart from threatening you with a knife?"

"What's wrong with hugging? You're clearly enjoying it." He squeezes me tighter, the heat of his body traveling through his dress and my tee shirt, kindling the parts of my body that I prefer to remain dormant. Then, he laughs and lets go. "I'm just so happy right now, I wanted to share it with you."