Let's Go For A Pint (Vampire/Humor)

9.2 TRDoA

The morning before I handed in my resignation letter, I headed to the mall to take care of some grocery shopping. While we weren't low on food, we were heavily low on tea. Carmen was subbing for an undergraduate pharmacology course usually taught by Dr. Black while she was away at a conference. If not for that, she'd tag along with me. When I arrived, the centre area started filling up with people, but as I was about to leave, it was packed. Performing on stage were none other than Boys from Venus. Instead of having their mini-show in the afternoon when most finish work or school, they had it right in the middle of the day. The audience would've extended to the third level if they did that, but my guess was some of the younger fans skipped out on school whether they had permission.

The band was performing one of their newest songs when I left the supermarket. Compared to their early stuff, the lyrics weren't subtle about sex, nor did they have any innuendos about getting into a girl's pants. They did, however, sing about some girl destined to be with one of them. The tune sounded slightly outdated, but the generation of fans from their early days can't help but feel nostalgic by wildly dancing to it. Once the guys finished prancing about, a woman with crazy hair walked onto the stage. At best I could describe it as a dark pink, more or less magenta that changed into white near the end. She pretty much had hair belonging to an anime character. I want hair like that.

Anyway, she appeared on the stage and screeched into her mic, "Give it up for Malik Khoury! Justin Carter! Jonas Horan! And Donnie Knight!" As she called each of their names, they either danced or struck a pose. The first one she called out, Malik, was mixed middle-eastern and English who sported a trimmed beard and one of those topknots with the sides of the head shaved hairstyles. Justin was black, African-American if I'm going to be politically correct. He had short, curly hair. Jonas was your Nazi Germany Aryan poster child with the blond mane and blue eyes. Okay, it was mostly blond due to the lighting, but he'd still be their poster child if he were a natural blond.

Then there was Donnie. His official bio on the band's website mentions nothing about his ethnic roots, but fan sites and media outlets have speculated him to be from Iran or a nearby country. He was born with an ethnic name that wasn't marketable at the time would be my guess.

Seeing that I couldn't swim through the sea of people, I decided to stay a while, even if the screaming was unbearable. Part of me knew telling Carmen about this would make her jealous, and I was okay with it. She was going to see them face-to-face in a couple of nights anyway. So, after the Boys sat down, anime hostess, who happened to be Lacey Gee from Star Gossip Daily, began interviewing the band.

"It has been 25 years since you guys formed as a band. You've split up, done your own solo things for the past ten, and now you're back together. What made you guys decide to do this reunion?"

Jonas had the mic with him first and answered, "Just as you said, we've started out 25 years ago and we felt we should do something special. We actually got together a couple years back and started planning this album amidst our busy schedules."

"Speaking of the album, how would you describe the sound compared to your earlier works?"

Jonas handed the mic to Justin. "A lot of it is new material in terms of sound and style. Musical trends have changed over the years and us too. After the breakup, we, namely Malik and I, went in different directions musically."

Malik nodded his head in agreement. If I can recall, he released an album of whatever the equivalent of religious pop music for Muslims is called. Fan sites claimed one reason for the group's split was his decision to take Islam more seriously, but not too seriously. Then again, fan speculation was just speculation.

"But we still wanted to keep a bit of our old sound too," Justin added on. "Our fans from when we first started will be sure to recognise us in this album."

"Totally," Lacey agreed. "I've listened to it like a million times now, and I definitely do pick up hints of the old sound." She shifted in her seat and moved a neon pink strand away from her face. "Now we turn to social media. One fan wants to know how you guys stay so young. Do we have a picture we can put side by side?"

A projection showed a split screen between the Boys on stage and an old photo from when they first broke out into the pop music scene. Justin and Donnie sat in the back, and Malik and Jonas sat in the front. All wore tacky, brightly coloured, long-sleeved shirts. Just for fun, they even tried to match their wacky facial expressions even though they weren't sitting in the right order like the photo. Justin and Malik had swapped places.

"So, tell us, are any of you still single?" Lacey asked in a teasing tone.

Donnie took the mic from Justin. "That's a secret one lucky fan and a friend will find out when we give away our last pair of VIP passes."

The crowd screamed at that announcement. You'd think they'd lost their voices by the time he opened his mouth. Anyway, Lacey picked up an envelope and handed it to the Boys. Malik took the envelope and ripped it open. With Lacey holding up the mic to his face, he announced, "The winner of the final set of VIP passes goes to Chelsea Beaulieu."

"Congratulations, Chelsea," Lacey exclaimed as a petite, red-haired girl was escorted to the stage. What a lucky woman she was. Not only did she win the final pair, she was the first to come in close contact with them. I wasn't a big fan of the boyband yet I was actually jealous that she got to do that. Fuck.

Anyway, after a brief photo session for a group selfie, the band was escorted off the stage. Just as they were exiting through the backdrop curtain, Donnie stopped for a moment to wave at the crowd. He scanned the entire crowd and somehow he spotted me. Now don't get me wrong, he could be looking at the people near me, but I had a strong gut feeling he looked directly at me. I wasn't the tallest girl there, and I was close to the back. If he was looking in my general direction, he wouldn't take three whole seconds before exiting the stage.

Creepy.

And because of that, I ended up late for work. I should've ignored the large crowd and pushed my way through, but if I made that choice, this story would turn out differently.

And then strange things happened.

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For this part's interactive question, Boys from Venus band members reference a number of boy bands or artists who were members of boy bands. Can you guess where they come from? A bonus if you can figure out what the title of this part is a reference to.

Of course you know the drill by now and comments are greatly appreciated.

Song featured: "You Are The Only One" by Sergei Lazarev.

Edited: 05/24/2021