Joel Hokka / Blind Channel - ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS (English)

3 - error

"What the hell did you do now?" Joel looked at Joonas in despair, while pulling his own hair. "I didn't do anything, I just wanted to open the file and now it sais file corrupted." Joonas yelled and shrugged his shoulders. Just from being with the guys for a couple of minutes I could already tell they were totally chaotic.

I mean what did you expect of six guys working together. Not to behave like civilized human beings for sure.

"Let me see." Aleksi slightly pushed Joel to the side, squinting his eyes trying to decipher the error message that had popped up on the big screen. "That's weird. Let me grab my mac book, I am sure I uploaded the file to the cloud last time we were in here. Maybe that will help." Aleksi went off to get his laptop while the others kept staring at the screen nervously.

"Can I take a look? You don't want to know how many complications I had with Pro Tools files in the past, honestly. Maybe I can help fix it." I suggested and everyone seemed to be okay with my suggestion, except for the man with the blonde long hair of course, who once again had to utter something rude.

"Watch her touch anything and suddenly all the other files are corrupted too. If I were you I would watch out Joonas." The fact that Joel was standing right next to me, eyeing me while openeing the source code made it way too hard not so say anything back.

I pulled myself together for Aleksi's sake. I knew how much he wanted me to get along with his bandmates so I did the best I could and that also included ignoring Joel until he stopped being so unbearable and rude.

I quickly scanned the source code and immediately found a line that seemed pretty off to me. So I started deleting some letters and typed some new lines of code while I could feel the others watching my actions in anticipation. "I don't know why or how but it seems like the system paths have been set up incorrect. But that's not a big deal." I kept on typing until I thought my job was done and closed the window with the the source code.

"Now try again." Joonas double clicked the file and Pro Tools opened without any further complications or error messages.

"You're a genius." Olli patted my shoulder and the others cheered. Aleksi came back in the recording room looking at me proudly. I could see in his eyes how happy he was that I seemed to get along so well with them or almost anyone of them for that matter.

"Now that that has been fixed, Joel you're up for the chorus." Aleksi said and Joel disappeared for a moment but reappeared seconds later behind the window pane.

I was really curious to see if talking big was the only thing the guy with the blonde long hair did so well or if he had other talents too. "I'll play the track from the last two verses before the chorus so you can drop right in." Aleksi said and Joel nodded and gave the boy with the black hair a thumbs up.

I really hoped Joel didn't see how astonished I was when he set in for the chorus. His voice was so powerful. It was clear but at the same time raw. His vocals were just so perfectly crispy and his way of singing gave me the chills.

I could have listened to him sing that chorus over and over again but after three takes Aleksi was perfectly happy with the recording and signalized Joel that he did an amazing job and should come outside to listen to his singing blending in with the instruments and other elements of the track.

"You absolutely crushed it Joel." Aleksi said after playing the recording which immediately gave me the chills again.

I heard how my phone rang in the other room. Normally I would have just ignored the ringing noise but I was pretty sure it was my mom who was calling from Germany.

Since I hadn't talked to her in days I figured this call I shouldn't ignore. I left the recording room, sprinting to the table where I had layed my phone on and picked up.

"Hey Mom!" I almost yelled after picking up, waiting for an answer. "Naomi sweetheart, how are you? I know it's late but I just wanted to check in, see how you're doing. Have you found a new apartment yet?"

I heard my mothers voice at the other end of the line. "I'm fine mom, I'm fine but you won't believe who I ran into Mom! I ran into Aleksi and I'm currently sitting together with his band in their studio. You know, he even offered me to stay at his place until I find a new apartment."

I knew my mom loved Aleksi just as much as I did. Everytime she came over from Germany to Amsterdam to visit me, she nearly talked more to the Finnish boy than to me, her own daughter.

Everytime she left she told me how handsome Aleksi was and that she thought he was really nice.

"Aleksi? Oh that's great to hear sweetheart, that you two have connected again. Say him hello from me, will you? I need to hang up Luke is barking, I'm sure he heard your voice." I could hear our family dog howl and bark in the background. "Alright mom I will. Take care. Love you mom. Bye." I ended the call and looked at my mom's profile picture.

It was a picture of us when we had been on vacation in Sweden last year. When I saw that picture guilt started to arise in me again. I knew my mom always acted like it didn't really affect her that I moved thousand miles away from home where she couldn't easily visit, but I knew my mom. I knew how much she missed me right now and sometimes I felt a little selfish about leaving her all on our own. Luke was the only one she had now.

"You're in my way." I was so deepened in my thoughts that I didn't realize Joel had been standing infront of me, probably for a little while, waiting that I would notice him and move away from the fridge. "I get it, alright. You don't like me." I sighed and stepped aside, watching him walking past me and open the fridge. "Don't like you. That's an understatement." His voice was cold and his eyes were filled with hatred.

I still couldn't figure out why he was behaving the way he did and who knew if I would ever find out. "Alright,
say whatever you want. I don't get it. I didn't do anything that would justify your rude actions towards me." I crossed my arms, looking angrily right into his piercing blue eyes. "Your existence is reason enough." He hissed in my ear as he walked past me, which gave me chills all over my body. "Well fuck you." I mumbled and sat down on one of the couches as I slowly became tired.

I stayed a few more hours and because it was already so late at night Aleksi offered to drop me off at home. He would get me in the next morning along with my most necessary things, to move in with him for a couple weeks.

I was excited to spend more time with the black haired boy. When I thought about our time together in Amsterdam I remember us laughing together, sitting at the table eating our almost burned dishes and watching crappy horror movies, I really missed that. I was also looking forward to spend more time with the other guys.

When Aleksi and I left the studio along with the others Niko said that I was always welcome. In fact they could really use some help with producing and mixing for the upcoming album that they were recording. Aleksi had other projects that he had to complete too and couldn't dedicate every single second of his time to this album. So this was even an opportunity for my career in a sense.

The only thing that was a thorn in my side was, who would have thought, Joel. I was very in need of harmony in general and hated nothing more than injustice so he was the reason I was going crazy inside right now. I tried to convince myself that if I would just be more distant to him, the problem would just magically resolve but deep down I knew it probably wouldn't be as simple as that.

Author's note:
Hey everyone. Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed the chapter :).
Somehow they get longer everytime which isn't exactly my intention but I guess that's a good thing, right?

Probably gonna go write a few more chapters today and tomorrow so I can update this story regulary for y'all.  <3