SOBER FEELINGS - Joonas Porko

15 - hit the stage

"Guys do you think we should go after him?" I asked in a low, guilty voice and threw a look over to Joel, Aleksi and Niko who just shrugged their shoulders in response.

"That's just how Joonas is. He disappears but eventually he will turn up again." Joel answered and adjusted the fabric of his black leather top. Despite the fact that I was certain the blonde-haired vocalist knew his friend well enough to predict his actions in those kinds of situations, the anxious feeling that appeared in my guts once I saw how Joonas wandered off on his own still didn't want to disappear.

"I think we should go after him. Don't you think he seemed upset?" I insisted determined, knowing that that the three guys wouldn't dare to leave me hanging. I didn't know Joonas as long as they did but I knew how a person that was deeply upset looked like even if I only had been able to catch a quick glance of the man with the curly hair before he disappeared from my view.

"You know what, fine. Let's look for him before he decides to do something stupid. Joel and I will look on this side of the premise, you and Niko can search this area." I was surprised that out of all people it was Aleksi who spoke up since I had percieved him as a rather quite and shy person up until now. But the dark-haired one seemed to be as equally concerned as I was about Joonas' sudden disappearance and soon the four of us started to wander around, not exactly knowing where to look for the blonde guitarist.

"One of your shoelaces is loose." Niko remarked and pointed at my shoes while the two of us were aimlessly walking across the field that would be filled with hundreds of fans in only a matter of hours.

"I know but we gotta find Joonas and-" before I knew it the brown-haired one had kneeled down infront of me. Niko proceeded to take the two thin shoelaces between his fingers. He looked up at me, his deep brown eyes glistening in the faint sunlight.

"We don't want you to trip, do we?" Niko tightly pulled on the shoelaces and twisted them in a loop. The slight smile that he gave me almost made me forget why I was standing in the middle of a field but I quickly snapped back to reality when I saw Joel and Aleksi running towards the entrance in distance.

"You're right. I am very clumsy." I brought up and turned around to see if I could spot Joonas somewhere but no man standing nearby had a even slight resemblance to the good-looking guitarist.

"I'm sure Joonas is fine. As long as he has his beer there's nothing we need to worry about." The vocalist patted my boots before getting up and giving me a wide grin. Whenever Niko was looking at me like that I felt the strong need to cup his cheeks with my hands just because the little dimples appearing on his face whenever he smiled were just too adorable.

Just now I realized that Niko and Joonas were entirely different from each other. While Niko was the definition of a dangerous looking guy with a soft heart, Joonas was the guy that looked like a 90's rockstar and also acted exactly that way. The man with the blonde curly hair was extremely quick-witted, his jokes one of the kind and his flirty personality was the reason why just becoming friends with him was a lot harder than I originally expected.

Suddenly the intense memory of our drunk kiss found it's way back into my mind. The past few hours had been so exciting that I had almost forgotten why interacting with the handsome man was a torture at times. That stupid kiss, that stupid memory loss.

"Lyra? You there?" Niko waved his hand infront of my eyes and I winced. "Let's check back there. I think I saw him walking in this direction." I answered absent-minded as my brain decided to replay the images of Joonas laying his lips on mine over and over again in my head.

Niko and I were now heading in the direction of Tommi's van. The closer we got to the vehicle, the louder we could percieve the yelling and screaming of dozens of fans once they spotted the brown-haired vocalist. The noises almost became deafning in my ears once we reached the drummer's car and checked the area to see if Joonas had been retreating to this place but the guitarist was nowhere to be seen.