Hurricane

I don't even honestly know what possessed me to walk into the club that night. I didn't set out planning on ending up there. I'd never been there before. No friends convinced me or anything like that. I just had a fake ID that had worked almost every time, the advantage of looking much older than I was, and some sort of something compelling me to cross into the sweaty, claustrophobic club. So I did.

As soon as I stepped past the bouncer and into the club, a rush of loud rock music hit me firmly in the face and I knew I was in the right place. The energy was electric, the kind of place that you couldn't walk out of, even if you weren't sure why you were there.

I'd been wandering around scoping things out for almost an hour when there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to be greeted by a pair of brilliant blue eyes looking into my soul. He smiled at me in a way that told me he was actually friendly, not just a creep. I smiled back, and then he looked me over for a long moment, like he was deciding something.

"I'm Jared!" he yelled over the roar.

"Evangeline," I said, my enthusiasm matching his against my will. I was very wary of strangers. I always had been. Normally this overly-smiley pair of baby blues would've seriously creeped me out, but for some reason they weren't.

"Evangeline?" he questioned, rolling out every syllable like he'd never heard them before. I nodded and he smiled again.

"I'm in the band that plays next. I sing," he said matter-of-factly, the same way a child might.
I nodded again, which made him smile more. "Are you staying for the music?" he asked, like the thought that I wasn't deeply disturbed him.

"Yeah, I think so," I said, and he smiled the most brilliant smile of all.

"We're called Thirty Seconds to Mars. I really hope you like us!" he said cheerily, and with that he disappeared back into the crowd. He didn't wait for a response, didn't even say goodbye. One second he was there, and the next he wasn't, yet somehow I still wasn't creeped out by him at all. If anything, I just really wanted to see his band play even more.

It was another twenty minutes or so before the lights finally went down and the room got quiet. Jared came out onto the stage holding a guitar and everyone in the venue began screaming for him. It was obvious that this was not the first time that they'd played in this particular club.

A few songs in, I was mesmerized; in love. Not necessarily with Jared or the music itself, just with the electricity that they seemed to possess as a band. It was a while before I even got a good look at the other guys' faces, and the moment in which I did is one I'll never forget.

It was a break between songs; Jared was rambling about something. I couldn't have told you what for a million dollars. Why? Because I was locked in a strange staring contest with the sexiest, most mysterious looking man I'd ever seen in my entire life. I could tell that he loved the way I was looking at him, it was as if he was feeding off of it. In a smooth motion, he whipped his shirt over his head and tossed it somewhere far behind his drum riser. He shot me a sly smile, and what looked like a wink.

My eyes didn't leave him once for the rest of the night. I'd never been so mesmerized by anyone in my entire life. The intensity with which he hit his drums gave me feelings that I would've, before then, never known that drums could give me. I was in love and I didn't even know his name, didn't even care what his name was. I wanted him more than I'd ever wanted anyone in my entire life, and I'd never even said a word to him. It was like he'd wormed his way inside my brain somehow and I just couldn't shake him.

When the show was over, I stood there for a long time, kind of just staring off into space. I have no idea how long I was there before a bartender yelled at me, breaking me out of my trance. I stumbled out of the club, feeling drunker than I'd ever been, even though I was completely sober. The whole walk home, my ears were ringing and my brain was swimming with images of this man; this animalistic drummer that had somehow gotten inside of my head. I don't remember much else from that night, other than falling asleep still thinking about him. I needed to find out who he was, that was for sure.