Love, Music, Amali

by Mia Mitns

  Levi looked at me from across the table and smiled. We somehow started discussing cartoons. We talked about how one character always tried to beat the other.

  “So pick one. Cats or birds?” he asked.

  What kind of question was that? I scrunched my eyebrows. “Cats or birds?”

  “Yeah, if you could choose, which one would win? The cat or the bird?”

  “Oh . . .” I said. This dude was so strange. He appeared to be very interested in what my answer would be. No wonder he was “mysterious.”

  “So . . .” he said.

  “Um, birds . . . why?”

  “Just wondering.”

  That’s all I get? I thought. Maybe I could find out more. “Speaking of birds, you should come and see this red bird that just started visiting me. It came by this morning, and it returned after I got home. Until today, I’ve never seen red birds where I live.”

  “He’s bringing you luck.”

  “I guess, and it could be a she for all you know . . . How do you figure the luck thing?”

  “I have a feeling,” he said, smiling.

  “Well, luck or not it’s such a pretty bird. It’s a shame that we rarely get to see them where I live.”

  “So it’s a favorite rarely seen bird?”

  I shrugged. “Possibly. Why are you so into birds anyway?”

  “My family. When I was young, that was all we would do— chase or hang around birds. So the birds remind me of home.”

  “That’s sweet! You know what I’d really like to see? An eagle.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That’s a big bird.”

  “I know, but it would be cool.”

  Levi smiled. “So, Jes said you are reluctant to come see us tomorrow.” He put a spoonful of tomato soup in his mouth.

  “It’s true. I don’t really like your band,” I said.

  He started choking on some of the soup. He grabbed some water and quickly gulped half of the cup down. He started coughing so I leapt out of my seat and started patting and rubbing him on his back. He finally calmed down.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  I sat back down and he laughed. “That’s a first. It’s going to take me a while to get past that rejection.”

  “The whole world doesn’t revolve around you.”

  “You’re right it doesn’t. Only 97% of it does,” he said and smiled.

  I tried to hold back a smile.

  “It’s OK to smile. It doesn’t mean you have become a fan of Kantana.”

  I tried even harder to not smile. I had to bite down on my tongue. I don’t think my efforts had any effect.

  He reached for my hand, which sat on the table, and wrapped his fingers around it. “You see this? This is what I’ve been missing. This you can’t buy.” He locked his eyes into mine. His eyes had to be ebony; there was no green in sight.

  I admired his eyes for a while . . . with my mouth open, I’m sure. I was a surprised at his admission. He didn’t even know me really, so how would he know? I guess he was the one writing all of those first sight love falling lyrics.

  We lost time talking about random things until a few minutes before the restaurant was about to close. Then we walked to my car.

  I know I had a big smile on my face as we walked. I looked at him and he seemed happy too. It was good to meet someone so caring and nice. He did a lot of things to help other people. I had misjudged him. I thought he was probably a controlling, arrogant jerk.

  When we reached my car, I turned around to say goodbye, but I didn’t want the night to end. I couldn’t say anything.

  He was already very close to me. The street light casted a healthy orange glow across his face. He smiled then reached his arms out to wrap around my back and lower waist. He pulled me in closer to his warm chest.

  I felt the cotton fabric of his shirt as I slid my hands around his torso. His hand found the back of my head. He tilted his head slightly, so his forehead was next to mine. His lips brushed mine. Then they pressed against my lips and my tongue greeted his.

  His kiss felt just as good as I imagined. I didn’t want to let him go each time we parted for air. Our lips met several times, over and over again. I didn’t want to stop, and we didn’t for a while, but I had to pull away. He looked confused.

  “We have to go. Someone may see you,” I said. Why did my common sense aka anxiety of being seen intimately with him step in? I was enjoying that.

  He nodded and hugged me one more time, a long time, and he slowly let go. He looked wounded.

  I grabbed his arm before he got too far away. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be fine.” There was no joy in his voice. It changed.

  I thought, what does that mean? “I’ll be fine.” I squinted.

  “I’m fine Amali!” He didn’t seem mad, just disappointed.

  He cupped my face and looked at me for a while. Then he rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “See you tomorrow,” he said. His voice was too quiet. I barely heard him.

  I tried to smile as I said goodbye. I squeezed his arm then got in my car. I waited. I wanted to make sure he got in his car. He did. Then I slowly drove away as I tried to make sure I saw that he was alright. He left too, and so I picked up the speed and drove back home.

  ---

  10:30 p.m.

  When I got home, I watched some TV as I tried to forget about the sadness that filled Levi’s body. He had become so cold and seemed lonely so fast.

  As the time progressed, I decided to start getting my things ready for work the next day. That was when I heard a noise. I got closer to my bedroom window and heard a cat. It was odd. We never had cats randomly purring at night in our neighborhood. My mind took me back to thinking about Levi’s question, “Cats or birds?” This couldn’t be. Could he even . . . I decided to try and ignore my thoughts and the cat as I went about my tasks.

  The cat kept purring. It was getting so annoying that I went downstairs and peered out of my blinds surrounding the front door. No wonder the cat was so loud. The black cat was sitting on my doorstep.

  It turned around and stared at me with its oval jade eyes. Then it started purring softly. It seemed lonely. I couldn’t ignore it. I felt bad for it.

  I went for my kitchen to see if I could give it something to drink. I only had almond milk. Um . . . I quickly turned on my laptop and searched for “almond milk & cats.” No, almond milk was not for cats. I should give the cat water, so water it was.

  I filled up a plastic bowl with water and opened the front door. As I bent down to set the water on the ground, the cat ran in.

  Oh no! I thought. I can’t have this cat in here! I’m allergic to cats! And I don’t know how to take care of them. I hoped it didn’t have any diseases and wasn’t aggressive.

  I closed the door in a panic and called Talli. My heart was hitting me this time. I started sweating; I knew I was panicking. I tried to find the cat as the phone rang. I looked around my sofa and in the kitchen. Then I found it. The cat turned its head and looked at me before it ran upstairs.

  No! No! I didn’t get too far running up the stairs when I heard Talli’s voicemail. I hung up and continued to climb the stairs. When I reached the second floor, I threw my phone onto my dresser and began to search for the cat. I couldn’t find it. I began searching another room, and it purred. The cat sounded like it was coming from my room.

  I walked briskly back to my room and took a look around. No cat. I headed to the second bathroom and heard another purr. Again it seemed as though it was coming from my room. I checked; no cat was there.

  I left my room for the third time, and the cat didn’t let me get to the next room before purring. It was like it was playing a game with me. It made me furious because I was tired. I just wanted to get the cat so I could carry it to a shelter and then get back home to sleep.

  I went back to my room. And there it was. Those green eyes were glowing at me through the darkness. My hand was quivering as I flip
ped on the light. The cat stayed still as it sat on top of my comforter. I walked slowly towards the cat. I was holding the box I planned to capture the cat in. I was very slow, moving carefully.

  I lifted up the box slowly. The cat leaped toward me, I jumped across the room, and the cat ran away! Agh! I screamed. I chased the cat back downstairs and around the living room a couple of times.

  When I got tired, it went to the door and started scratching. “No!” I screamed. I opened the door, hoping to startle it and stop it from scratching, and the cat ran out. I chased the cat, but it was too fast.

  I couldn’t see the cat anymore. I thought, surly someone will find it and bring it to safety. As for me, I was tired, and I was going to bed.

  Chapter 4

  The next day, work went by quickly. It was over just as it began. It was probably because Talli and I were excited about the concert. Yeah, I actually was excited. I wanted to see what Levi was like up there commanding thousands of people. I wanted to see him even though I knew I probably would be bored about three songs in.

  I told Talli a little bit about what happened the night before. She kept nudging me all day whenever Kantana’s commercials came on. I shouldn’t have done that.

  At the end of the day, I headed home to prepare for the concert. I found the red bird waiting for me outside of my garage. I wanted to visit with it, but it flew away after I parked my car. I headed inside and got ready.

  The concert was set to start at 7 p.m., so I met Talli and her Kantana friends at her house around 4:30 p.m. Her friends were thrilled. They were able to bring along another two fan friends due to the tickets Jes gave us.

  “I can’t believe it! Second row!” Nicole, one of Talli’s friends said.

  “And backstage passes!” Talli said, holding up another envelope.

  “What?!” the rest of us said, wearing complementary looks of shock on our faces.

  “So y’all are going to go backstage too? Lucky!” Tamra, another friend, said.

  “No, all of us are going backstage!” Talli said.

  The girls were elated and started cheering.

  “What do you mean? Where did you get those from?” I asked as I pulled Talli to the side.

  “Jes of course, he knew not to trust you,” Talli said.

  I smiled as I shook my head. I knew that it would be kind of fun to see Levi after the show, in his environment, even if it was due to some corny music. I stopped myself. I decided I would try to quit focusing on how much I didn’t like the band that night. I would appreciate the positive things.

  I didn’t want to ruin the evening by whining about Kantana. Besides, I had to have something to say to Levi, Jes, and the rest of the band when we went to see them backstage after the show.

  The girls and I rode in a limo, complementary of Jes, downtown to the American Airlines Arena. There were so many people there already; they were so excited and rushed for the front doors. With arm in arm, the girls and I made a human chain so we wouldn’t get separated from each other as we made our way in.

  Inside wasn’t as chaotic as outside. Traveling side by side, split into a couple of rows, we made our way around the ovular hallway. I was about to head to our seats, but Talli and her friends wanted to look at the merchandise first.

  Thankfully, we didn’t have to walk too far to find a seller. As I made my way to the table, I glanced at the merchandise. All of it was overpriced. Were they kidding? Nope, and people were buying it like crazy. Everything from T-shirts, to bags, to pins, to koozies, to hoodies, to posters, to shot glasses, to pins, they had to have. I imagined how nice it must have been to be Kantana. They were cleaning up, and the fans were happy to spend.

  I looked at some more merchandise as I waited for Talli, who was picking out some things to buy. I had the urge to tell her to get the shot glass. I had to admit. I really liked the idea. OK, I loved the idea.

  I think Talli knew better and bought a glass for me. She got two, and she didn’t even have a shot glass collection, I did. After Talli was given a bag with her purchases, she looked at me and smirked.

  “I knew you really wanted one,” Talli said. “As a good friend I saved you the embarrassment.” She laughed.

  I pretended to not know what she was talking about. It was going to look good in my shot glass collection though.

  After the rest of Talli’s friends received their goodies, we went to find our seats. The arena felt grand as we walked under the covered walkway and entered section 105. The lighting was unusual. It was dimly lit inside the arena, and the concert hadn’t even started yet. It was filled with dark blues, purples, shades of gray, and black.

  We descended the stairs and found Talli’s friend’s seats. Their seats were perfectly situated. The seats were pretty close to the stage on the side of the arena. I could see across the entire stage. It was just a little bit above eye level. Talli and I said goodbye as the girls took their seats, and we continued down the stairs to the floor.

  The usher stopped us and checked to make sure we were going to the right section. Then we were released and allowed to find our seats in the “FLOOR” section. As we passed through the sea of folding chairs, I looked over and up to the stage. It was massive.

  There were tons of electric and acoustic guitars in the rack to the side of the stage. A large drum set and a few microphone stands lined the back of the stage. Small speakers and multi-color guitar petals graced the front. Hanging above were loads of lights waiting to be lit. I hoped they wouldn’t shine one of them in my face. It seemed like every time I went to a concert, a light always found me and blinded me for some time. I hated that.

  As I was engaged in my thoughts, I almost ran into the extension from the stage. Good thing Talli grabbed my arm.

  “Girl, you gotta watch out,” she said. “I know this isn’t like the plain stages you are used to seeing.” She laughed. “Come on. We are actually on the other side of the walkway.”

  Once we were on the other side, we found and took our seats. Whoa, we were close! I actually would be able to see Kantana’s faces and the notes the played on their instruments. It might be fun just due to that alone, I thought.

  It wasn’t too long until the opener for Kantana came on. She was pretty good, but she was also carved from the same genre of music I didn’t like. I participated with the clapping and repeating some lines of the song anyway. Talli and I were being silly so it was fun.

  The lights on the stage went back out and curtain the closed. Talli and I chatted for about 45 minutes as we waited for the techs to switch out the stage. Then the lights in the arena went off.

  The girls in the audience started screaming as we directed our attention to the stage. The curtains were pulled back. The band walked out and took their places. Then the yellow and white lights flashed, and Kantana started their first song. Then the rest of the lights were activated— red, pink, and orange ones.

  At five songs in, I was actually surprised by their performance. It was pretty good. They could all sing and play their instruments. They had good interactions with the crowd. They made us feel excited to be there. Their back-up dancers were entertaining. Some of the members of Kantana danced with them, un-choreographed, which was funny at times. A couple Kantana members had no rhythm at all.

  I looked around. The women, girls, and some guys in the audience were going crazy! They were my other source of entertainment; they made the concert more fun. When I looked back to the stage, the lights blinded me. I was so mad but was grateful that it only happened once. Otherwise, the lighting really added to the show. It was like they had a certain dance they had to do with each song.

  I watched Levi for the most part as he made his way around the stage, engaging the audience. He actually sang with some passion. Who would have known it was possible? He came out on the walkway several times, but he didn’t interact at all with me.

  I was fine with that. I didn’t want any unnecessary attention drawn to me. Jes did, however, engage in some eye sex
with Talli, and she ate up the attention. He kept looking at me and smirking after. I couldn’t help but laugh.

  More than a few times I caught myself singing along and Jes pointed me out a couple of times. I was a little embarrassed. But I was also surprised that I wasn’t mad at myself for singing along. I found out I knew more of their songs than I thought. I still hated them for that though . . . Kantana and their repetitious songs. I looked around again. Everyone was having fun and so was I. I was glad I went.

  After the show was over, Talli and I waited until most of the people were gone. Then she motioned for her friends to come down to the floor. We all got a little more excited as we put on the backstage passes. It made us feel a little more important.

  Talli led the way through the tunnel— our pathway to the mysterious backstage. Then we headed toward the room Jes told Talli to meet them in.

  The room wasn’t too large, but it was a pretty good size. It was also just about packed and people seemed to be going crazy in there. It was loud. There wasn’t music playing yet. It was just loud due to a lot of chatter. It also was dimly lit, not too dark though.

  I took a deep breath as I followed Talli and her friends into the room. There were tons of women everywhere with a lot of men trying to talk to them. A lot of the women were creative with their fashion styles. Their outfits covered just enough skin. There were also a few who were practically naked.

  I looked around, trying to find either Jes or Levi as we headed for the center of the room. I found Jes in the corner surrounded by women. He had his arms around two of them, and another one was about to press up against his waist.

  I made my way up to Talli and leaned over to her ear. “Did you see Jes?” I asked. My eyebrows rose.

  “Well he said he was a player,” she said.

  “Do you want to get out of here after I find Levi?”

  “Yeah, it’s not my kind of place either. Hey y’all,” Talli yelled, getting her friends’ attention. We were all standing in a circle. “If it’s OK with y’all, we are going to leave after we find Levi.”