Exit Wounds | Noah Sebastian

E L E V E N

I watch Noah emerge from the green room, he sticks his tongue out at me before walking around and greeting the new guy. Noah pulls him into a one armed hug and claps him on the back while they laugh. Noah catches me watching them and waves me over, I raise my eyebrows at Jenna before weaving in and out of people to make my way over to them.

"Delaney, this is my friend Tony. He's staying with me for a few days and doesn't know anyone here, would you mind keeping him company?"

"I don't mind at all, bye Noah," I look pointedly at him, he smiles secretly at me but makes his way backstage.

"Do you want to go get a drink?" I ask, hitching my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the bar.

"Sure," Tony smiles widely, showing a set of perfectly white teeth.

Tony and I grab beers and I pay for Tony's despite his protest, we walk to the end of the bar so we can still see the stage. Noah's band was setting up, but they weren't playing yet.

"How do you know Noah?" Tony inquires, taking a sip of his beer. I take a moment to watch his plump lips wrap around the bottle before I answer.

"I live in his basement," I shrug with a laugh. Tony's face breaks into a grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "What about you?"

"I'm in a band too, our paths have crossed a few times," he grins.

"Are you a singer like Noah?"

"No, I play the guitar," he smiles again, showing his perfect white teeth.

"That's my second favorite instrument," I tell him, because I'm loyal to Finn.

"Second?  What's your first?" He asks, leaning a little closer to me.

"Bass players are her favorite," Finn says and wraps his sweaty arms around me. I hadn't even noticed they had already played and finished.

Tony takes a step away from me almost imperceptibly and I realize how my relationship with Finn must look to an outsider.

"Tony, this is my best friend, Finn," I tell him and Finn lets go of me to shake his hand.

Tony's grin is back as they greet each other. I didn't want to make assumptions, but it seemed like he was interested in me.

"Are we going out or going home?" Finn asks when Noah makes his way over to us.

"Let's all go back to Noah's, we could have a fire," I suggest, pleadingly to Noah. I wanted to keep talking to Tony and I didn't want to do that at a loud bar.

Noah shrugs, "sounds good to me." I glance at Tony out of the corner of my eye and follow Finn and Noah out.

The ride back to Noah's is loud. Finn and Noah were talking loudly about the show and I was talking over them because I was drunk. Tony seemed a little overwhelmed, but tried to keep up with us.

I left the guys to put my stuff down, and put on a sweatshirt. I grab a bottle of bourbon on the way out and see the guys had managed to get the fire going.

The four of us sat around the fire, The Mars Volta playing softly from Finn's phone, while we took turns drinking from the bottle.

"So, Tony, I hear your band is playing the final show with us," Finn says to Tony and I perk up a little.

"Yeah, the rest of the guys won't be in until next week, but we're all really excited to play," Tony says animatedly, completely comfortable talking about playing music.

"What kind of music do you play?" I asked, turning to face Tony. There wasn't an inch of skin to be seen on his arms or neck, his teeth were perfectly white and his canines came to severe points.