In front of me, on my palms were two free tickets to Orlando, Florida. I might sound like a basket case but, the tickets meant a golden chance to meet my favourite boy band, Before You Exit. I called my partner-in-fangirling, Diane with my hands shivering under the tickets. She picked up on the third ring.

                Without even saying a brief hello, I squealed “Diane!” I knew she could not bear the squeal. “Orlando is waiting for us!”

                The speaker of our phones might be broken by our high-pitched, eardrums-blowing squeals and screams. It was my aunt who gave me the tickets. She knew how much I loved amusement parks and Orlando is a city filled with Magic Kingdom, Discovery Cove and Universal’s Island of Adventure. Cherishing the perks of being close to my wealthy aunt, I cajoled her for a free trip to Orlando. Amusement parks were just a mask to hide my true agenda. The truth was I wanted to meet the McDonough brothers who had coloured my days with their uplifting songs. Their songs were the only thing which made me forget my insecurity of my looks and appearance. Meeting them was my desideratum.

                Three days later, we embarked on a long butt-aching journey to Orlando. Ignoring the vertigo and jet-lag, Diane and I did actually dance euphorically as we landed on Orlando’s ground. Along our way to the hotel, the sceneries were unbelievably picturesque. Palm trees appeared on both sides of the road, and then came the amazing skyscrapers and flamboyant front gates of the amusement parks. My heart leapt with joy, my mouth hung open by the excitement that rushed furiously in my veins.

                As we arrived at the luxurious hotel, Diane crashed her body onto the inviting mattress. I joined her and stuffed my ears with earphones and turned the volume up, synchronizing Diane’s fatigue-filled breaths with the faint sound of Before You Exit’s songs from my iPod. Jet-lag conquered us and we fell asleep, surrounded by the grand, dream-like surrounding of the room.

                I woke up three hours later, enlightened by the insanity of a teenage girl to meet her all-time favourite boy band. I took a brief shower before I went out for a stroll to a Starbucks nearby. As I looked into the mirror, I saw the reflection of a plain girl with an unusual long chin, flat nose and unacceptable oily, pimply skin. That was me. Self-consciousness and lacking of confidence slowly tortured my thoughts. I was sick of watching myself in the mirror, brooding over the obvious imperfection of me. As the insecurities crawled inside me, I turned on my iPod, chasing away the negative feelings with the succor of Riley McDonough’s sui generis voice then, left the room.

                There were barely any people in the café but, the silence was broken by contented laughters from a bunch of teenagers around the table in the corner. I ordered for cuppa cappuccino and mochaccino for Diane. Unexpectedly, a familiar deep voice called me.

“Hey, girl.” I turned to where the voice came from. “Are you a tourist?” It kind of reminded me of a Death Cab for Cutie’s song.

I thought my whole body was melting like birthday candles igniting on the thick icing. I felt like running around the Starbucks, screaming ‘OMG’ over and over. It was Connor McDonough, the eldest member of Before You Exit, calling me inside a café. Not to mention, my mind went hysterical as both Riley and Toby turned to me, smiling the warmest smiles. A jitter “Yes” escaped my lips. I could not get my eyes off them.

Then, Riley spoke, “Welcome to Orlando. Come, join us for a drink.”

Enthusiasm and jitters danced insanely in my head. I walked to them and self-consciously sat on an empty chair beside Connor, in front of Riley McDonough. A goofy smile was still plastered on my face. This is not a dream, I thought repeatedly in my head. Riley was the first to start our conversation. He asked me about how I enjoyed my trip to Orlando. Although I was ruled by self-consciousness, the trio were easy chatters and so friendly. I did not have much problem conversing with them, with the exception of my lunatic heartbeat. I told them everything about the trip.

“What makes you admire us a lot, Raina?” Riley asked with a flick of enquiry in his hazel eyes.

I left the drop-dead gorgeous part about them as the answer and said, “I am a girl with a high-level of self-consciousness. I have never felt pretty. I have never felt confident. Your songs are like my confidante, my strength, but every time I took off my earphones and your songs stopped playing, the pessimistic part of me came again.” I was letting it all out. “By the way, thank you so much for colouring up my dull life.”

The trio smiled upon hearing my words. A sudden silence grew but, Toby killed it quickly. He said he had an idea then, pulled his brothers closer and whispered something. I chewed on my lower lip to overcome the awkward feeling inside me. They stood and invited me to follow them. We walked past the buildings and palm trees with the brothers cheerfully singing All Time Low’s Weightless. The heat of Orlando perked up the day and quietly, I joined them singing songs too. Bonhomie seeped surrounding me. We got into a white-painted five-storey building. To my surprise, we stopped in the middle of a studio.

Guitars –acoustics and basses- hung like a guitar show on the white-painted walls. The studio smelled like the band room at my school where I used to go daily when I was the orchestra member. Connor gestured towards a couch behind me, indicating me to sit on it. Three of them sat in front of me with guitars in their hands.

“To the girl whom we just met, we hope this song and all the memories of our encounter in the past hours will change her mind on herself. Frankly speaking, she is really an awesome girl. Keep this on mind, Raina, you’ve got a nice smile and I like that,” Riley announced before they started strumming on their guitars.

Confidence and happiness blended in, sending optimism all over me. The brothers played and sang with such great panache. I recognized that song. It was I Like That.

‘You’ve got that smile; you’ve got it all,

I know I’m right, you think I’m dead wrong.’

I had always loved the song. When they sang it live in front of me, I started to realize I had my own uniqueness. I am beautiful in my own way. I could not see what people see in me. All this time, I’d been picking up my flaws like weeds, pondering how people could see them as roses. At that time, the McDonoughs made me see it. The strumming guitars harmonized their amazing voices perfectly and I still could not believe that was really happening to me.

They brought me to a short tour around the Orlando downtown after that. It was a helluvah day. I had never had that kind of contentment in my emotions. The trio sent me back to the hotel where I left the almost-forgotten Diane. The night lights of the city became the witness of our farewell. I took the chance to snap some photos with Connor, Riley and Toby. Before I went through the main door, Riley gave me a paper bag before they left with wide grins and friendly waves.

Diane was in the shower when I came into our room. I sat on the comfortable mattress and took out the content of the bag. It was I Like That EP CD. As I opened the CD case, their autographs filled every space at the back of the cover.  When I flipped open the small card inside the case, Toby wrote ‘KEEP THAT MUSICALITY (:’ and beneath his message was Connor’s message, ‘Before you exit Orlando, make a difference.’ The last was Riley’s. He wrote, ‘Stay positive, Raina, life’s too short to be down all the time. Break limits you set for yourself. Do something you wouldn’t do yesterday. –Ri’

This piece is actually a Continuous Writing essay that I sent to my English teacher. When the other students didn't send essays to the teacher for a particular period due to the examination, I wrote it as an act to release stress from the gut-wrenching exams and submitted it. Surprisingly, my English teacher put this one sticky note telling me to keep writing if I enjoy doing so and she knows an agent of a publisher who is interested with young authors. It has always been my dream to be an author and I didn't have any idea that this mere essay about Before You Exit would be the piece that helped me seeing my chance to put my dream into action. I am grateful to God and thanks to Before You Exit too. I'm sorry for any factual errors in the essay about Orlando cuz I've never been there. -Rina