Please Don't Try and Turn On the Lights

6. In Concert

Alex rang up the other guys and made arrangements to meet up with them half an hour later. I took a quick shower and suddenly realised that I didn't have any clean clothes, make up – or even a hairbrush.

"Alex, I'm sorry, but I have to swing by my hotel and pick up some stuff before we leave," I said as I stepped out of the bathroom only wearing a towel around my naked body.

"Sure – how come?"

"I need some clean clothes and some other stuff."

"Can you wear the same shorts as you wore yesterday?" he asked me.

"Sure?" I replied, not really knowing where he was going with this.

"I'm sure we can find you an old T-shirt of mine you can wear. I mean, if you're up for that?"

"Uh...Sure," I said

He went to his suitcase under the bed and pulled out a white T-shirt with a big lemon on it.

"Stone Roses?" I read out loud.

"Yeah, it's an old one," Alex shrugged, "No biggie."

"Thanks!" I said, "It's pretty cool."

"Yeah, I guess it's alright."

"What if I ruin it?" I asked him

"You won't ruin it. Plus its old as hell and I never wear it anyway." Alex approached me slowly, "and to be honest, I'd love to see you in one of my shirts," he snickered, "So.. do I get to see you wearing it?"

"If you trust me with it, sure, give me a second and I'll put it on," I said.

"No towel fun?" he pouted at me, "I mean, I've seen most of it before anyway," he snickered once more.

I gave him a small punch on the shoulder, "get out of here, loser," I laughed.

"Yeah, I deserved that," he said as he made his exit and closed the door behind him, leaving me to get changed.

-

The entire day passed by in a blur of alcohol and before I had a chance to realize just how drunk I was, it was 8.45 p.m and the guys were going to play in fifteen minutes.

"Nervous, love?" Alex laughed at me.

"A bit, actually. I mean, there's a lot of people out there!"

I knew it was silly to be nervous seeing as it wasn't even me who was going to perform. I was just going to stand behind the scene with Miles until he made a guest appearance on some of their songs.

I was quite excited to hear their music. I had really only heard the biggest hits on the radio and the only song that I could really recall was something with a brain or a guy called Brian. I never really got the reference when the song was huge.

"Ready?" Nick asked the other guys as he put his arm around me, giving me a small squeeze. The rest of the guys nodded and Alex took a red candy and chewed it slowly before exhaling, adjusting his shirt collar and combing his hair.

I could tell that Miles was getting quite nervous now too.

"Hey, Rhea. How do I look?" He asked me and held his arms to the side. Miles was once again wearing a crazy-coloured silk shirt and yellow tinted sun glasses. It wasn't really my style but I had to admit that Miles looked radiant.

"You look...Fluorescent!" I laughed

He looked at me with a puzzled expression, "Is that good?"

I nodded, "It's very good! It makes me want to wish the sun had set just to see if you glow in the dark"

Alex, who still hadn't gone to the stage, looked at me with bulging eyes.

"Hold on," he said as he pulled out a small notebook from his back pocket and quickly scribbled something down.

I couldn't tell what he was scribbling and before I had had a chance to ask him about it, he had turned to the stage with a "see ya!"

"What was that all about?" I asked Miles.

"Lyrics," Miles said, "you just gave him an idea"

"I did?"

"Yeah, you did. It happens from time to time, " Miles shrugged and acted like that wasn't a big deal but I was honoured beyond belief.

-

The guys were radiant on stage!! Alex moved so sensually and sang like a dream. I recognized more songs that I thought I would (I had no idea that I had been singing along to their "Flourescent Adolescent" on karaoke numerous of times in my university years) but my absolute favourite was 'Cornerstone' - a song that I had never heard of before.

Miles chuckled next to me when they played that one.

"What?" I asked him.

"You should see the video for that one. That's all I'm going to say. No further comments"

Alex didn't really talk much between the songs, but before the last song of the night, Alex took the rock-and-roll pose he had tried to teach me yesterday.

"Oh oh oh!" I exclaimed, "He's going to yell 'ladies' now, ain't he?" I asked Miles excitedly.

"Yeah, wait 'til you see the crowd! They love it"

Alex held up his right hand and screamed: "RHEEEE-AA" instead of ladies. The crowd went nuts!

I was completely perplexed. Miles nudged his elbow in my ribs saying, "will you look at that," he said, winking at me.

"Rhea," Miles muttered to himself and smacked his lips almost as if he was tasting the sound of my name.