Kaleidoscope Eyes

“You didn’t come to the party.”

The voice was half reproachful and half joking, but when Isabella looked up from the tomatoes she was cutting, she saw Travis giving her his best puppy eyed face. She put the cutting knife down and wiped her hands on her apron, collecting the words together in her head before speaking out slowly.

“I told you parties really weren’t my thing. Plus I was really tired.”

Today the heat was intense again. The cutting stations for vegetables and the like were all outside next to the mobile kitchen, under a great big shade. Here it was possible to wait out the great lunch heat, but you still had to try and ignore the sting of the sun if you wanted to get anything done.

“But I really wanted to see you,” Travis said still trying to soften her up with his wide eyes and big grin.

However, Isabella just shrugged her shoulders and made to turn back to her work when Travis’ exclamation prevented her from doing so.

“At least come see my band’s set today?” He asked hopefully, still with the eager glint in his eyes.

Isabella took a couple of moments to consider. She had gone on this adventure with the promise that she wouldn’t try to not get caught up in anything, she just wanted to be herself for a while and not have to worry about the consequences. She really just wanted to stay focused on her kitchen work and keep a low profile so she could get her head together.

But also she felt like she had to live a little. So Travis’ invitation seemed like the first sign that she should start living now.

So it came that Isabella found herself stood at the side of the stage, a newly acquired ‘Access All Areas’ pass clipped to the back of her jeans shorts, watching music fans flood the limited area before the stage. She smiled to herself as she thought of Lorain back at home, who would be furious when she found out that her older sister was stood right by the stage during a We The Kings set.

Travis had introduced Isabella to all his bands mates, who had smiled graciously at her, but had sent Travis that look which only boys can give it each other when the undisclosed topic is about a girl.

She watched the boys run out on stage and was surprised at the reaction that they received from the crowd. Isabella had rarely been to concerts as all her favourite artists were long dead. The only times she had been in sticky sweat coated venues were when she had to accompany her sister. These were the types of concerts that were spent at the bar with a drink in order to survive.

So she was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed watching We The Kings. Maybe it was to do with the fact that her comfort levels were very high, she was not smushed in the crowd between some six-foot giant and another person’s smelly armpit. Or maybe it was because the energy from the music reached her even where she stood.

She tapped her foot in time to the music and smiled out at the band, enjoying every moment of it.

“They’re good aren’t they?”

A guy had suddenly appeared beside her, also surveying the scene in front of him. He had his hand stuffed in the too tight pockets of his jeans and the loose wife beater top that he wore fluttered the in gentle breeze that had picked up after lunch.

Isabella smiled up at the boy with dyed dark red hair through her sunglasses and nodded.

“Yeah they’re really good.”

A silence fell between them as they continued to watch the boys on stage wheel around with their guitars. Both of them tapped with feet in time with the drum beat and both had identical smiles on their faces as they watched Travis run towards the barrier with his microphone.

The two of them watched a couple more songs in silence before the boy spoke again.

“Are you part of the Kings crew?” He asked looking down at her with a smile.

“You mean tour crew? No, no I’m not. I work in the kitchen,” she said with a small smile as she saw the surprise dawn on his face. He obviously hadn’t expected that response and it made her smile.

The boy next to her was about to say something else but then all the guys from We The Kings ran off stage, having just sung their last song. They were dripping with sweat and the heat was radiating off them, but their faces were adorned with great smiles of joy and achievement.

Travis handed his guitar over to a tech member and turned to the guy next to Isabella with a grin.

“Hey Garrett, you liked what you heard?”

The person, now identified as Garrett, nodded his head with a small smile and carried on chatting away with the members of We The Kings. Isabella began to zone out as she watched the swelled mass that was the crowd diminish slightly as some of the individuals left, but their spots were soon filled by new faces eagerly awaiting the next band.

“Where’s John?” Drew asked after having downed a whole bottle of cool water.

Garrett looked up from his conversation with Travis to smile at Drew.

“He’s pacing backstage getting all nervous and worked up, you know what he’s like. He saw the crowd for A Rocket To The Moon and now he’s freaking out a bit.”

Drew nodded in understanding.

“Yeah it’s only the second day, he’ll be fine next week.”

The conversation quickly shifted again and soon Isabella found herself excusing herself saying that she had to be back on duty. Travis insisted on walking her back to the kitchen trailer, where band members who had just finished a set were queuing for coffee and fruit juices.

Travis leaned over to give Isabella a surprise hug.

“Thank you for coming to watch our set today, it really meant a lot.”

She was surprised by Travis’ actions and the way he seemed to be totally focused on keeping her attention and surprising her. After all he had asked her to a party when he barely knew her and was already laying a great deal of significance on her having watched his bands’ set.

But nonetheless she smiled up at him graciously, waved him goodbye and then she threw herself into her kitchen chores.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of the trailer as well as the intense heat in it, kept Isabella occupied as she carried on cutting the bread for the seven hundred cheese toasties that had to be made before nine in the evening.

Isabella was thankful when the last kitchen appliance was shut down at ten-thirty, and when she watched David and Master Chef and organiser Liz, lock up the kitchen. The make shift cutting and serving stations had also been packed up ready for the next day where they would be driving all day to the next city.

She was about to turn to face her best friend with relief etched in her face, when a sudden hand on her shoulder stopped her. Isabella shrieked and wheeled around to see a sheepish looking Travis.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with a grin.

“What are you doing here?” Isabella said, hand on her chest trying to come down from the shock. “Isn’t there another party tonight?”

Even though she had only known Travis for two days now, she had already realized that he was one of those boys without whom a party was not a party. He was the joker, the one that had everyone in stitches as he pulled pranks on other bands and jokingly mocked other people.

“Yes there is and that’s exactly why I’m here,” he grinned at her.

She knew what was coming even before he opened his mouth. Travis dragged her to her bus and ordered her to get cleaned up and looking pretty. He waited patiently outside whilst Isabella took a shower, the whole time grumbling to herself, and put on a new change of clothes.

Once she stepped off the bus in denim shorts and a baggy grey v-necked long sleeve, she knew that Travis was going to drag her to the party whether she liked it or not. She sighed to herself, as this plan of Travis’ slowly became a reality.

The party was held in the middle of some buses in the parking lot, a DJ booth had been set up and various band members, none of which Isabella recognised, took turns in putting on new songs. There was a table with an unbelievable assortment of drinks and cups and several people already looked like they had revisited the table one time too many.

No sooner than Isabella had taken this all in, a red cup was pressed into her hand. The smell of the alcohol stung her nose and she looked sceptically up at Travis.

“You know I have to get up at six to work right?”

“Live a little!” Travis said throwing his arm around her shoulder as he mixed himself a drink.

She took a small sip of her drink and grimaced, but before she had the time to ask Travis exactly what he had given her to drink, he was dragging her off again. He introduced her to all his friends and their friends and their tour mangers and their crew members, and soon the names of all these people were spinning around Isabella’s head as she was introduced to one drunk person after another.

After a while she had lost sight of Travis. He had gone over to the DJ booth to request the current DJ, some guy called Gabe from a band that was called something like Cobra Spaceship, but he must have gotten distracted on the way by another one of his friends. Isabella didn’t like standing in the sea of all these people, still holding her first drink, waiting for him.

Parties always made her uneasy, maybe it was to do with her dislike of alcohol. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t like the stuff, she just didn’t like what it did to people: how it had the ability to force their most unpleasant side out in dangerous situations.

Soon the overwhelming feeling grew, the music thudded against her abused eardrum and the drunk raucous shouts seemed to surround her. So grabbing a bottle of water from a near by table she took this with her and walked away from the party to two of the buses parked further away.

There the noise between the two buses was muted and she could now hear herself think, the deep blue darkness was comforting after the set up building lights that had illuminated the party. She sat down on the tarmac that was still warm from the intense sun attack in the afternoon, resting her back against the cool exterior of the bus. Gratefully she opened her bottle of water and took a long gulp from it.

“You are probably the only person here that is actually drinking something non alcoholic,” came a sudden voice from not too far away from her.

She jumped slightly and squinted her eyes so that she could see better down the corridor that the two buses formed. Slowly her eyes became used to the darkness and after a while she cold see the distinct shape of a tall and lanky guy, who was also resting his back against a bus. But unlike Isabella who was holding her bottle of water, he was clutching a red cup that seemed still full to the brim.

Isabella nodded, although she wasn’t sure if he would be able to see in the dark. But she heard the sounds of movement and soon enough he was sitting right in front of her, crossing his long legs and looking at her curiously. She could now make out the elegant shape of his cheekbones and could see the mass of brown hair, which was styled in a way that was meant to look as if nothing had been done to it. His pupils were already small black points amidst hazel eyes, and she knew that this cup was not his first. Far from it.

“Would you like some water?” She offered slowly, not sure what to make out of this situation.

She held out the bottle and he took it from her, a slow crooked smile spreading out on his face. He didn’t say anything but this didn’t perturb Isabella. She liked how he didn’t feel the need to fill the air that was thudding with the music from the party with unnecessary chatter. The silence between them felt poignant and was not awkward. In fact she enjoyed it.

He smiled at her again shyly before taking a sip of water, and Isabella was astounded by the butterfly reaction that her stomach seemed to have towards his smile.