As he finishes, the audience pauses for a beat before erupting into cheers and applause.
“Thank you,” Marcus says into the microphone. “I’d like to introduce you all to the band. To my left, on bass, is Lachlan.” The crowd claps and cheers as Lachlan gives them a salute and a smile, his handsome, dimpled, and unshaven face causing more than a couple of girls to whoop a little louder than necessary. I grin when I see him wink and point at a couple of them.
“On the keyboard is Jack.” Applause and cat calls ring out again. Jack holds his hands up and laps up the adoration.
“On drums, is my brother Theo. He writes most of our songs.”
Theo does a short beat on his drums as the crowd cheers for him. When I look at him, I expect him to have his usual scowl in place. But he’s actually smiling, it’s a good look for him, and I find myself wishing to see him happy like that when he speaks to me.
His eyes fall on me, and I realise that I’m staring, caught up in the joy he’s displaying. When our eyes lock, my heart leaps up in my chest and it’s as if the air is somehow charged in the distance between us. Although, it might just be me experiencing it, because his smile lessens before his eyes shift to something on his drum kit that he quickly starts adjusting.
A pang shoots through me, and I find myself looking away quickly, embarrassed that I was so openly gawking at him. Taking a deep breath, I set a smile on my face and focus on Marcus, who is waiting for a pause in the applause to introduce me.
“And tonight, we have someone new to introduce you to. The gorgeous woman with the fiddle, standing to my right, is Naomi.”
I grin and nod my head as the crowd cheers for me. Stephanie, Gary, Erica and Amy let out loud cat calls and thump their fists on the table, causing my grin to become so broad, it’s closing my eyes and I can hardly see. I resist the urge to look behind me, even though I can feel Theo’s eyes on my back. I don’t want to see him scowl and ruin this moment.
“Now, it’s her first night with us. So, you need to let us know if you like her stuff so we keep her. Do you think you can do that?”
The crowd cheers, letting us know that yes, they would happily rate my performance tonight. Geez, no pressure there, I think.
“I’m sure she’ll dazzle you,” he says in a low voice, close to the microphone as he looks directly at me. Something passes, silently, between us, it’s in complete contrast to what happened just before with Theo. When Marcus looks at me, he displays want and admiration. But Theo, well… I don’t really know what it is – it’s not hate. But it’s not anything good either. It’s just raw emotion, and I don’t know what to make of it.
Marcus keeps his eyes on me as he announces the next song. “This one is called ‘It’s a Crime’.”
Jack plays the intro to the music before Marcus starts to sing. It’s just the two of them together, piano and voice.
Please get out of the way
This is not what it looks like
I’m in the wrong place
I’m not looking for you
Toward the end of the first verse, Theo comes in with a slow double boom, emanating from the bass drum. This is the first song I’ll be singing in as well as playing. My violin comes in at the beginning of the second verse and stops just before I sing,
Please don’t fight… me
This was all Theo’s idea, instead of having me harmonise with Marcus during the chorus, he felt that if I took on the role of the woman the song was about, it would create a more intense emotion. Marcus sings back to me as if we’re arguing.
Don’t steal my heart
When you know it’s been broken
The song continues with me singing, begging him not to fight my advances and him singing in return about why the woman can’t have his love.
As the music swells, he becomes louder, more insistent, as we both sing,
I will fight,
I will fight,
I will fight you.
He draws out the last note, and as he finishes, I sing a single word.
No
I play the final notes out along with Jack on the keyboard. It’s a slow and solemn song. It leaves me feeling as though I just lost something, and I wonder where the lyrics come from.
The crowd cheers again, whooping and hollering at us. As I lap up the attention, I can’t believe I was studying to play classical violin. The applause from a classical theatre is so much more restrained than this and I suddenly understand why a lot of musicians have such big egos. This feeling is amazing.
The rest of our set flies by, and the show is over far too quickly. Before I know it, we’re done and Marcus is taking me by the hand and waving at the crowd as we leave the stage.
People congratulate us on a great show as we head backstage. They are so complimentary towards me, and I can’t seem to get the grin to leave my face. Even though I desperately want to seem cool right now.
“That was probably the best damn show we’ve ever done,” declares Jack, the moment we are in the back room. “We’ve never had a crowd that excited. We’ve got to keep her Theo.”
“I know,” he says, his eyes glancing down to where Marcus is still holding my hand. I don’t know why, but I immediately let go, feeling a little like I just got caught cheating on a test.
He doesn’t say anything else, he just walks out of the room.
“Where is he going?” I ask.
“Probably to get paid. He’s very efficient with these things,” Marcus explains, turning toward me. “Anyway, let’s forget about my permanently sour-faced brother for now. How did you feel up there?”
“Like a rock star,” I laugh.
“Better than the school stuff we used to do huh?” he adds, mirroring the grin I’m sporting.
“Yeah, and better than anywhere I’ve ever played.”
“Well, get used to it Nomes. We are going to go off!” Lachlan prophesises. “I can feel it in my bones.”
“Yep, they loved us tonight. Good things were already happening for us, but now we’ve got a sound that the others don’t have. We’ve got her,” Jack puts in, pointing at me with his bottle of beer, handing one to me at the same time.
I gratefully accept it, taking a thirsty drink of the cold amber liquid.
“She’s got a name you jerk,” Lachlan laughs, taking a bottle for himself and throwing another to Marcus.
We all toast to our great show and continued success.
“Well, I have to go and visit the ladies,” I announce, setting my bottle aside and standing to make my way out the door.
“I’ll show you where they are. Don’t go out to the general area, you’ll be so bombarded with admirers that you won’t get back here,” Marcus informs me with a grin.
We head down the narrow hallway, weaving our way past stacks of chairs and other backstage paraphernalia.
As we round the corner I see an open door that obviously leads to a bathroom, judging by the tiles on the floor in the doorway.
“I’ll wait here for you,” he informs me in a low quiet voice.
I turn to him and smile, ready to let him know that he doesn’t need to. But the look in his eyes has my words evaporating before they’ve made it out of my mouth.
“You really were great tonight,” he practically whispers, tucking a wisp of hair that’s come loose from my bun, behind my ear.
The gentle brush of his fingers against my cheek causes my eyes to flutter closed for a moment.
“You were pretty great yourself,” I whisper, my voice husky and thick as I speak. I can’t help the way I feel around him. I’m right back in high school, loving every bit of attention he gives me and silently begging for more, even though I’m not sure I actually want it.
“I’ve missed you, you know?” he tells me, lightly brushing his fingers down the side of my face and looking at me intently.
My breathing becomes deeper as I slowly lean towards him, feeling drawn to him. And just like in high school, he pulls back, leaving me wanti
ng – just like he always has.
My eyes prick, but I fight my emotion with a smile. “Yeah, I’m sure you have,” I attempt to joke as I step away, moving toward the bathroom. “Listen, you go back. I’ll meet you in there when I’m done.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”
“It’s fine. Go, I’ll be fine.”
He nods and disappears quickly around the corner. I roll my eyes at myself for letting myself show any sort of interest in him. If this band was going to work, I can’t let myself get caught up in Marcus Bailey again. No woman survives Marcus, I’m not going to let myself endure the ‘Let’s Just Be Friends’ speech. I avoided it last time. I wasn’t willing to risk running a repeat performance.
After visiting the bathroom and sorting myself out, I make my way back to the others. As I round the corner, I see Theo heading towards me from the opposite direction, so I nod and smile politely, even though I would rather run and hide somewhere so I don’t have to be subjected to another one of his hooded looks.
“Everything worked really well tonight, don’t you think?” I ask him, feeling trapped and trying to make small talk.
“Yeah it was fine. I’m not going to fight them on letting you stay if that’s what you’re asking,” he tells me curtly.
“Oh… I wasn’t, I was just…” I splutter, completely taken off guard by his abruptness. I expected a grunt, and maybe a nod. Then I thought he’d just move on into the room with the others. Even more surprisingly, he continues.
“Listen, I don’t want you getting the wrong idea here. I didn’t want you in the band. I’d still prefer it if you weren’t in the band. But the guys like you and the fans seem to like you too. Just don’t mistake my acceptance for want. I’d still prefer it if we found another cute girl to play the fiddle and sing for us,” he explains, his eyes dark and unfriendly. “Someone who has no interest in sleeping with my brother.”
“What? No… that’s not what I…” I struggle to find my words as my eyes prick for the second time tonight. I stop trying to speak and instead search his face for some sort of reason as to why he’s behaving like this towards me. “Why are you being like this?” I whisper finally.
“Look at my face Naomi. Look at me very carefully. Tell me who I am.”
“I…” I frown, shaking my head slightly and looking over his features. His eyes are dark – almost black. It’s really hard to see where the pupil ends and the iris begins. His hair is also dark, but in a brown chocolaty way, and is slightly long on top, but clipped close to his scalp on the bottom half. He has very definite features. Compared to Marcus, Theo is all hard lines and angles. But he’s still beautiful, despite the anger he seems to direct towards me.
Seemingly of its own accord, my hand reaches up, and I lightly touch my fingertips to his dark stubbled jaw.
The moment my fingers connect with his skin, a shock flies up my arm. He flinches his head back, confusion flashing over his face, briefly dissipating the hard set of his features before he regains his composure almost immediately.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“So am I,” he says, pushing his way past me and into the room with everyone else.
Slightly rattled from the interactions I just had with the Bailey brothers, I stay just outside the door and peer inside. There are plenty of faces in there I don’t know, and in true Marcus fashion, he has a random girl hanging off his arm already.
I just stand and stare, my emotions rolling around inside of me. I’m not really sure what I should be doing right now.
“Naomi,” a voice calls to me from inside the room. I turn my attention towards it and see Stephanie and Gary smiling and waving at me.
I can’t help but grin back and head over to them, wrapping my arms around them both as they congratulate me on my performance.
“It was so wonderful Nomes. We loved it,” Stephanie gushes.
“Yeah, you were great kiddo,” Gary tells me, his balding head showing small beads of sweat from the heat of the room. Gary is a few years older than Stephanie and I. She met him at a nightclub almost as soon as we finished school. He must have a thing for curvaceous redheads, because they haven’t been separate since then. But his thinning hair makes him look much older than his twenty-eight years, as well as the fact that he has a habit of calling anyone younger than him ‘kiddo’.
“Naomi! Well done tonight.” Both Amy and Erica call out together as they bounce over to me.
“We’re so glad you decided to play with them. How great is it that you’re all together again?” Erica rambles.
My brow creases slightly. What does she mean ‘all together again’? I’m just about to ask them when they bounce off again, and I’m pulled into a conversation with Lachlan and Jack as they introduce me to some other friends of theirs.
I mingle for maybe an hour, before I decide I need to go home. I’m struggling with the fact that Marcus is having his ear cleaned by the tongue of some random girl, coupled with Theo’s animosity towards me – it’s like I can feel it radiating out of him from across the room.
“Do you mind if we go?” I ask Stephanie and Gary, who are standing quietly in the corner talking to a man with spikey black hair.
“Thought you’d never ask,” Gary tells me, leaning close to my ear before he speaks again. “To be honest with you, this scene is making me feel really old. I don’t think I have it in me to party anymore,” he laughs. “Not when we have a one year old to wake up to in the morning.”
I mention to Jack that I’m going home, and he gives me a big hug and once again tells me how great the show was tonight. I simply nod and smile, then collect my things and follow Gary and Stephanie outside.
“What’s wrong?” Stephanie asks, once we’ve stepped out onto the quiet of the street. “You seem really down for someone who just put on such a fantastic show.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I reply, shaking my head. “It’s just… I don’t know if I can do this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know if I can watch Marcus with a new girl every night. And then there’s Theo,” I explain.
“What about him?”
“I just...I don’t know if I can handle working with someone who hates me as much as he seems to. I don’t know if it’s worth it,” I admit.
“I don’t hate you,” a deep voice says from behind us.
Gasping, I spin around to find Theo only a few steps back from us. “Are you following me? Haven’t you made me feel shitty enough tonight?”
He moves forward so I’m forced to look up at him. “I’m not following you. I’m simply heading home myself, and I overheard you,” he states calmly, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans as he stares down at me.
I feel tiny having him this close to me, not to mention I don’t trust my hand not to try and touch him again. So I take a small step away, just to gain some distance. “It’s rude to eavesdrop.”
“I’m not going to apologise for overhearing you bag me out,” he states. I notice a slight pull at the corner of his mouth – he finds this amusing!
“I wasn’t bagging you out,” I object, placing my hands on my hips as I stand my ground.
“Listen, if you can’t handle being around me, then that’s fine. Leave the band. It’s no skin off my nose. But don’t do it because you think I hate you. Because I don’t. You’ve got me all wrong.”
“Well what am I to think Theo? You’re always glaring at me, and telling me you don’t want me around. Is that how you like someone?”
“If I hated you, I wouldn’t bother speaking to you. I wouldn’t bother wasting my energy on you.”
“Jesus Christ! Just tell me what I did to you so we can deal with it and move on!”
He opens his mouth, and I think that he’s actually about to tell me. But he looks over my shoulder to where Stephanie and Gary are standing, pretending they aren’t listening in, and clamps his lips shut.
“Well?!” I prompt, holding my hands out at
my sides. This mystery of how we’re supposed to know each other is really driving me nuts.
“Listen, it’s not important. It’s obviously my shit to deal with. Just… just be at my place for a jam on Tuesday, alright? We need to work up a new set for next weekend,” he informs me, side stepping me and striding ahead of us. “Unless you’re too scared of course,” he calls over his shoulder, before nodding once at Stephanie and Gary as he walks past.
“What the hell was that about?” Stephanie asks me, as we stand there watching him walk away.
“I don’t have a friggin clue,” I tell her.
“Are you still going to quit the band?” she asks, linking her arm in mine as we start to walk with Gary to the car.
“No. I’m not going to quit the band.”
***
The next couple of months is a blur of rehearsals, gigs and gatherings. We are booked out every weekend, and I’m starting to wonder if I should quit my bar job. At the rate I’m going, I’m never going to get my Kindle back off Kylie. She seems to be forever covering my shifts.
I’m exhausted, working as much as I can at the bar and playing with the band. On top of that, I’m still negotiating my relationships with the guys in the band – although, I should really just say my relationship with the Bailey brothers.
Jack and Lachlan are easy, they show up to rehearsals and recording sessions, they play the music and do whatever work is needed. I can talk to them, and they treat me like a member of the band – like a friend.
Marcus however, treats me like a girl. More pointedly, like a girl he’s interested in. Admittedly, I like the attention. It’s nice to have a man like Marcus flirt with me, and it’s fun to flirt back. But I’m smart enough to realise that it doesn’t really mean anything. I don’t think that Marcus is actually capable of any sort of real feelings towards a girl – except the want to sleep with them of course.
Theo, well… he’s still difficult, but he has toned it down. As long as we keep our interactions specifically about band business then we’re all good. Thankfully, we’ve been too busy for anything else.
We’ve been working to get an album ready to sell at our gigs and online. There’s barely been a minute spent not working. So after this Friday’s performance, I’m dead on my feet and sitting quietly in the back room, waiting for it to be time for us to finish up.
A Beautiful Melody Page 6