Right Now, I'm Anyone's

“I’ll talk to you later, babe,” I said, smiling as I kissed the corner of Levi’s mouth, before I got out of his beat-up Honda Civic and walked quickly through the rain. I reached the back entrance and noticed there were two white vans outside, which weren’t normally there. I went into the main room; Zoë was in there, talking to a couple of guys I’d never seen before. I shrugged that off and left, making my way upstairs to the staff room so I could hang up my coat.

“Hey, Gee,” I smiled. “Where were you last night?”

“At my sisters,” she laughed. “Didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Oh, Gee, you could’ve come home. We just had dinner and watched a film.”

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Not a big deal, I got a good night’s sleep on my sister’s couch anyway.”

I rolled my eyes and hung my coat up. Georgia mentioned that John wouldn’t be in today – he had some more important things to deal with, instead of hanging around Flux doing nothing, as usual. I slipped my phone and my iPod into the pockets of my jeans, before following Georgia out of the staff room, along the corridor and back down the stairs to the main room. Georgia and I separated to do our different jobs.

I was on the stage, checking the speakers, lights and other equipment when Maddox skipped – really – up behind me and pinched my sides, making me squirm away.

“Hey there, little...thing,” he smiled. He looked happier than anything I’d ever seen, and he looked like he had something really big or exciting to tell me. He was practically bouncing off the walls.

“So,” he said, dragging out the ‘o’. “Some of the bands got here about an hour ago.”

“I thought they weren’t supposed to turn up until this afternoon?”

“So did I. They didn’t know that,” he laughed. “But anyway, to my point.”

“You actually have one then?”

He scowled and slapped my head lightly. “Yes! Now shut up or I won’t tell you.”

“Okay, go on.”

He paused, his – failed – attempt at building some tension. “Deaf Havana and that unsigned band I told you about are here.”

I smiled, wide. “I love Deaf Havana.”

“I know.” He smirked. “Follow me, and I promise you’ll love me forever.”

I laughed, and Maddox grabbed my wrist, leading me towards the back curtain of the stage. The guys that were talking to Zoë at the bar had disappeared now, and she was moving around with her headphones clamped over her ears. Maddox led me down the stairs stage-right and into the plain, cold corridor, leading to the dressing rooms. He pushed open the door of room five and smiled at me, before stepping inside.

“Oh, alright Maddox, mate?” There was a guy with shoulder-length brown hair, covered in a sock-like hat. “Who’s your mate?”

“Hey Lee,” Maddox responded, pulling me into the room completely. “This is Leila; she helps me with riders occasionally and works on music and light tech.”

Lee stood up and made his way over to us. He smiled and grabbed my hand, shaking it. “Nice to meet you, Leila. I’m Lee, Deaf Havana’s bassist.”

I was tempted to say that I knew that, but I kind of understood how weird that can make people act. Let’s just say there was a very, very awkward silence after I told Tom Whittaker that I already knew he drummed for We Are The Ocean – before they were even known.

I stuck with, “Nice to meet you too” and a smile.

“Where’s everyone else man?” Maddox asked, leaning back into one of the plain plaster walls while I perched myself on the arm of the customary sagging sofa – the kind that came with every dressing room, all over the world, one size fits all...shut up.

“I think James, Chris and Tom are looking around and Ryan’s in there” – he jerked his thumb in the direction of the bathroom through a door coming off the dressing room – “checking out the shower.”

Those showers were crap. Obviously, they were kept clean. But you still wouldn’t want a shower in one.

“Someone say my name?” a voice called from the bathroom. The voice was followed by Ryan Mellor entering the dressing room, his brown hair brushed neatly into place and his blue flannel shirt riding up slightly.

“Yeah,” Lee said. “Ryan, meet Leila, Maddox’s mate.”

“Oh, hiya,” Ryan smiled warmly in my direction and shook my hand. Ryan was one of the vocalists for Deaf Havana. Lee and Ryan were quite lovely once you got talking to them. Maddox and I must’ve been in there for at least half an hour, just talking completely nonsense with them. Lee challenged me to a game of Tetris on his phone, then sulked like a toddler when I beat his high score.

“Cheat.”

“Sore loser,” I laughed as he pouted. I stood up and stretched my arms up over my head. Maddox stood up, eventually, and told Lee and Ryan that he had a lot more work to get to – though, not technically true for me – and we said our goodbyes. We made our way back towards the main room together in a comfortable silence.

“You’re right; I love you so much more for that,” I said once we got back to the stage.

He laughed. “I will be a God in your eyes when all the bands get here.”

*****

It was about one in the afternoon, and I’d just got back from my lunch break. When I got back, the amount of white vans outside had increased by two, and there was a medium sized black bus parked around the corner. I wondered who it could be now.

I went straight to the staff room, dropping off my stuff minus my phone and iPod before I went back down to the main room. I hadn’t had a lot to do, so I decided I’d help Zoë out behind the bar. She had me stacking beer bottles in one of the small fridges under the counter and I helped her clean out the ice buckets.

“Leila?!” Maddox shouted from the stage. I stood up and nodded my head up at him, letting him know I heard. He bounded over to the bar and leaned against it, his elbows holding most of his upper body upright.

“You got your iPod today?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” I said.

“Gimme.”

And I handed over my iPod. Maddox gave me a little wink and a small, devilish smile before swiping it from my hand and rushing to the sound board a little ways from the bar. He was fiddling around with the buttons, and I swore I’d murder him if he messed up my settings. A couple of seconds later, he’d plugged in my iPod and started blasting out Single Ladies by Beyoncé. Zoë and I were nearly wetting ourselves when he started doing the actual dance.

“Come on!” he shouted, waving his hand at me and Zoë. She shook her head and took her cigarettes out of her pocket, indicating that I was on my own. Before I knew it, Maddox ran behind the bar and grabbed me around my waist, then started carrying me onto the floor.

“Dance!” he ordered, starting up himself. I rolled my eyes and complied; just because we could and it was fun. Callum and Georgia had come to the stage to see what was going on, and then laughed and joined in. I couldn’t dance that well, I was laughing so much, because as something by David Guetta came on after Beyoncé, Callum and Maddox started dirty dancing.

I heard cheers coming from the stage and saw Lee, Ryan and who I assumed to be Tom – their drummer – standing there. Georgia and I had to hold onto each other so we didn’t fall over when the three of them ran to join in. Georgia was grabbed away from me by Ryan and forced to dance again.

I laughed as Callum dipped Maddox really low and almost dropped him, before turning around to leave them to it. However, when I turned around, I walked straight into somebody and unbalanced myself. I fell onto my arse and felt a bit stupefied. Whoever I walked into laughed and held out a hand to pull me up.

“Careful,” he said, laughing at me. Hang on, why do I recognise that voice? I grabbed his hand and stood up, looking at the man I’d walked into. He definitely did look familiar; short dark hair, slightly tanned skin, dark eyes. I kept on staring and he was giving me this really, really strange look; like he thought I was a complete lunatic or something. I noticed, under his short hair, he had massive plugs; they looked like dinner plates.

“Jake? Is that you?”