Page 3 of Ravaged For You

Ravaged’s one-night-only performance in this city.

And things are getting quite crowded.

There are so many people around me waiting to get inside that I’m beginning to feel claustrophobic, and I worry that I won’t find my friend…

But then I see her.

“Marie!”

I worm my way through the mass of fans to the girl I recognize. She’s pretty easy to spot, wearing a black t-shirt that’s emblazoned with the word RAVAGED written in white painted font over the front. Official merchandise, I suspect. I wonder how much the band must make from selling cheap products like that.

Nope, Maddie. Less criticizing. You’re here to experience something new and unfamiliar, remember?

I’m happy to find her in the crowd; I’m a pretty short girl, but Marie is even shorter. She turns her head in my direction and gestures me over. I’m practically breathless by the time I reach her.

I flick my light brown wavy hair back.

“So. Many. People. To. Get. Through.”

Marie envelops me in a hug. I hang onto my ticket with dear life. Don’t want to lose that.

“Hey, girl. I’m so glad you could make it! I honestly didn’t think you would come in the end,” Marie says. “I didn’t think this was your cup of tea at all.”

I shake my head. “It was a nightmare trying to get through security. I was practically manhandled like I was in prison or something.”

“Ravaged are the biggest band on the planet,” Marie replies. “Gotta vet everyone coming in to see them.”

I look around at all the people streaming into the arena. “They sure are the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, we’re here now,” Marie says. “How about we get inside?”

“Yep. Let’s get ready to fight our way in.”

Marie is a colleague from work. We’re not exactly the best of friends or anything, and we don’t have much in common, but my New Year’s resolution has been to make more friends and just be more… friendly. It all comes back to my mother. “You’re so alone in that condo of yours in the middle of LA,” she told me the last time I saw her.

And those words stung. Because they’re the truth. I’ve isolated myself.

So, yeah. I made a New Year’s resolution to say yes to more opportunities and to be less, well, isolated. I’ve had a life cowering away from life, and now I want things to change. Accept life more. With my mother’s words ringing in my ears, I woke up sober and regretful on New Year’s Day a few months ago and the first thing I did that morning was to write out say yes more on a post-it note. I stuck it on the wall next to my bed to remind myself every morning.

And I also wrote something else under it.

Stand up for yourself, Maddie.

The two things I’m going to live by this year. Hopefully.

So when Marie approached me in the office out of the blue and invited me to see Ravaged and said she had a spare ticket, I instantly put my hand up instead of naturally declining.

Say yes more. Stand up for yourself.

Got it.

Hey, it’s either see this band or spend my Sunday night doing something geeky and alone and isolating in my condo. Something that definitely goes against my New Year’s resolution.

As we slowly make it up the stairs to Door A – where we’re meant to go as marked on our tickets – Marie leans in close to me.

“You watched those YouTube clips I sent you, right? Ravaged’s music videos?”

“Um. Maybe not, sorry. I know I should’ve before I came here, but I didn’t have time between work and getting ready and...”