Sonata

I didn't know so many milestones were happening in one night.
Curtis had a girlfriend, and she seemed to actually be good for him. Really good. Kantarli had a lot to offer, from what I observed, and she kept him in line.

Which was definitely a first.

And by "keep him in line", I mean telling him to shut up when he was getting off track or just being typical Curtis. Or wiping his face with a napkin when he spit his drink down his chin by accident.

It was almost too cute; sickening.
And I was wondering if Oli and I looked like that.

I had never seen him on an intimate level, and I wondered if he was well behaved with all his girlfriends, or if Kantarli was the exception. If she was one of the only ones that could stop him, mid-prank, from causing shenanigans. If she would be around a lot longer than expected, and if she would become a new, and somewhat permanent addition to this unspoken gang we've got going.

Oli shrugged, but had a sort of amazement in his eyes that couldn't mask his surprise.

"Mus' be some'fing special. no bird can tame Curtis, at leas' none I've seen."

Honestly, I liked her.
She wasn't some bar whore that periodically hung around and sucked the boy dry of his time, like some of the leeches him and the others encountered. She fit in well, at least with Oli and I, and laughed at anything mildly humorous, even inputting her own jokes and contributing to conversation in healthy doses.

She didn't act any differently because they were so-called 'superstars', but she did squeal at times when he'd put an arm around her and whisper things in her ear. I laughed it off, feeling refreshed by her bubbly, and overall, positive attitude.
She went to the bathroom, and that's when Curtis' mouth became twice as active.

"Aw, she's great, ain' she? Am glad she came."

"Did you think she wouldn't?" I asked.

He shrugged.
"Well, I dunno. 's a roll of the dice on a firs' outing."

"I think she's right for yeh mate." Oli added, grabbing my hand from under the table.

I blushed and squeezed it back.
Curtis was watching us with this dazed look.

"Wha' about you two?"

I raised an eyebrow.
"What about us?"

"Yeh'r always like tha'; 'olding hands an' snoggin' all the time-"

"We don't 'snog' all the time." I corrected with slight annoyance.

I didn't want them thinking that this was just some physical relationship, when it really wasn't. Sure, Oli and I kissed, but it wasn't like we were glued to the face. If it was any one of us, it was mostly him. He was the one always initiating the intimacy, and I was the one trying to tone it down.

I couldn't help it if he gave me those eyes, or nuzzled his nose in the crook of my neck, or breathed in my ear so softly that it caused currents of sensations to pass through my nervous system.
Curtis widened his eyes.

"Ok ok, sorreh. But i's true."

Totally contradicting his apology.
Oli just shook his head and took another gulp from the beer I had gotten for him. He smacked his lips together and looked off to the other people occupying the building. Most of them were swaying around to the music blaring from the speakers that occupied every corner of the room.
I tried to spot any of the other boys.

Matt N. was on the edge of the sea of people, talking to some kids; roaring in laughter about something only they knew, and patted on of them on the back as he tried to recover.

Matt K., well, I knew where he would most-likely be. I just had to scope out every female and see if they had some creepy perv next to them. And as if my suspicions were confirmed, there he was. Attempting to seduce a girl that was at the end of the bar; probably burning a hole in his pocket from all the drinks he was buying her, with bigger plans in mind.

As for Lee, he was nowhere from the lengths I could see. He could've been by the bar also, maybe even rolling his eyes at his friend's dog-like nature. Maybe in that vast group of people, swaying along with them. But the more I thought about it, he was surely backstage; helping to get things set up, thinking that the boys were also contributing, but not realizing that they were actually just mingling and raising their alcohol intake.

Tom was chilling at the merch table, as always. He watched as everyone drank and made fools of themselves, and his completely sober self shaking his head at their idiocy.
I smiled towards him, even though he couldn't see it.

"'s a big crowd tonite."

Me and Curtis both took a second glance and nodded in agreement.
It was one of the biggest, from what I'd seen. It was packed to the max, with people having to shimmy their way through the sea of bodies just to get to an exit. So crowded that the slightest wrong move of your arm can have you spilling your drink.

"Yeh think it'll be like tha' one time at the rabbit?" The two boys turned to each other and began to engage in a talk that was foreign to me.

But still, I listened.

"I 'ope not. We were lucky teh get out, with them pigs righ' behind. But you're right, a lot o' people..."

"Wait, what happened?"

I couldn't help myself. They were obviously discussing something from the past, and since I had known Oli, or just any of them in general, they had not told me much about the kind of people they were before I met them. They didn't tell me that they were from England, but they clearly were.

They only things I've learned about them were that they had a band, they played illegally, and that Tom and Oli were related. It was all one sided; me telling them about my life and them listening, or just Oli listening. Like previously mentioned, I had talked to him for hours about everything.

My father.
My lack of a life.
Being with him.
The future.
Everything.

He'd always keep the attention on me, with every aspect of our relationship; watching me like a hawk, being ridiculously affectionate, and everything in between.
So it was only fair that I could ask about this one thing.

They both stared at me, with alerted expressions, but I was guessing that was because they hadn't expected me to talk.
To try to get involved.Curtis glanced over at the side of Oli's face, using his eyes to ask for approval, but Oli had already started talking.

"The Rabbit was a club we use teh play at, 'til too many people came an' ruined everythin'. got the feds on our arses, an' they've been lookin' fer us ever since,"

He leaned in closer.

"If these blokes 'ere rat us out, tha's it. Fer now, 'til we think of some'in else."

Something else?
What else could they do? Were they planning on just finding another place to perform? Were they really that persistent? I saw the seriousness in their statures, and I knew that it wasn't a lie. They were definitely serious.

They had a passion bigger than I could imagine. Bigger than I could fathom. It was life or death for them. Music was life, and giving it up was like building their coffin and paying for the funeral.

"So...what are you going to do if that happens?"

"Well keep tryin' o' course." Curtis interrupted.

Oli nodded in agreement.

"Aye, we 'ave teh. We 'ave a job teh do. We gotta keep goin' 'til they listen, o' else nothin'll change. 'em bastards don' understand. Don' fuckin' understand. But they will soon..."

He had disgust plaguing him; his hand was constricting tighter and tighter around his beer, and his eyes were narrowing with every word that was spoken. He overlooked the crowd, and I could tell that he was imagining them as the army against him.
I tried to see if giving his hand that squeeze would help any, but he yanked it away and slammed his fist on the table.

I jumped.

A sudden, sharp pained thought must have struck him, for he was also snarling. We didn't even notice Kantarli standing at the head of the table, with a curious air about her as she cautiously took a seat next to Curtis, who then kissed the top of her head and happily welcomed her back.

Even though it was painfully obvious that something had just happened.

I did him a favor and grabbed the bottle out of his other hand, so he wouldn't hurt himself and moved it farther up the table. He peered at me, then back down at himself.

"Yeh alrigh' mate?"

Curtis slinked his arm around his shoulder; swaying him back and forth a little bit like it was all a good time. His arms around both his girlfriend and his best friend, they looked like drunken buddies singing out of pitch and laughing about it.

So many milestones, and by that I also meant that Oli was opening up to me in a whole new way, and revealing that they could be in trouble by the mass of people packed to be saved by a melody. He was worried, but he was determined.

But there was also a dark gleam in his eyes, and then, Oli said something so profound I didn't know how to take it.

"These bastards 'll neva forget meh."