Metanoia [H.S.] Harry Styles.

2

   Meraki
(v.) to do something with soul, creativity, or love; to put something of yourself into your work.

                      Maeve
  My band is here tonight to perform in a battle of the bands. There's about 6 entries into this competition. When we were given the schedule of the each performance time, We almost considered stepping out soon as we saw that only 5 minutes after us was the band Meraki. I'll get into why later. I pulled the curtains open while pulling my guitar behind me to reveal the backstage area.
Speak of the devil.
Facing us was none other than Meraki. They had made a huge mess, bottles of vodka laying on the floor and white powder that I could only assume to be cocaine laying in lines on the coffee table in the middle of the couches. I look over at the lead singer of this fucking disaster, Harry, in annoyance.

"Forget there were more people coming here besides you all?" I asked him while kicking the glass bottles out of my way. Harry shot a bitchy smirk and sat up from his previous hunched over position on the couch.

"Oh we knew. Just didn't bother to be warm and welcome when we figured out you and your band would be the ones sharing backstage."

I shot my middle finger to him and the rest of the couch after his answer and began unpacking my bags with the rest of the band.

It's safe to say that me and Harry have had a bad history together.

From events like spitting in his face after he called me a bitch at a music festival a few summers ago to telling every girl he had an interaction with that he had STD's, we had grown to not like each other. I pulled out the guitar and amp and sat on the coffee table to start tuning.

Jack, our drummer, and Chelsea, our bassist, made their way to the dressing room while Ava who is the bands back up singer stood beside the couch awkwardly watching me work the knobs on my guitar. She was new to our group, replacing the old girl who was kicked out of the band a few weeks back. Ava is a beautiful singer and always shows up on time, her social skills just aren't that great yet.

"Av, could you go grab me an energy drink from the machine please?" I asked her in attempt to give her something to do rather than sit in uncomfortableness. She nodded at me as I pulled out a few dollar bills and handed them to her. She made her way out of the room now with a new task on
her mind.

"So, why'd you all show up late? We were told like, months before what time to get there." Niall, the opposing band's guitarist asked me. "Really shows your dedication to winning."

He was just as much of a dick as Harry was. In fact, the whole band is pretty much unbearable to be around.
"Things happen sometimes Niall, just be glad we fucking showed up," I sneered at him.

"You're not our only competition tonight. Don't act like your God's gift to us." Liam the bands drummer said, rather obnoxiously butting himself into the conversation.

"All I'm saying is that you all would piss your pants if we weren't here and you had to perform against entirely foreign people." I shot back.

Ava re-entered the room with my drink in hand at the same times as Jack and Chelsea came out of the dressing room with new outfits on, reuniting us back together. I took the drink from Ava's hand along with a "Thank you" and made my way to the dressing room that Jack and Chelsea had just come out of.

"Let me know when we go on!" I yelled out to the room while walking through the small door to the dressing room.

I stepped into the room, facing the huge vanity in front of me. I looked rough, considering I had gotten ready 7 hours before arriving here. In an effort to look presentable, I walked over to the garment bag hanging up on the wall to find an outfit.

After sorting through the clothes of all 4 band members, I picked out a short black dress. I pulled off my previous clothes-a The Grateful Dead t-shirt along with a pair of jeans-and replaced it with the black dress and a Jean button up to cover my shoulders.

After I was changed, I plopped into a metal foldable chair and pulled out a cigarette, attempting to relieve some stress before I had to perform. As I lit the cigarette with the liter that was left in my pocket, the door was swung open by Harry.

He moved his lanky legs across the room to stand in front of the chair I was sitting in.

"What do you want?" I asked him while cranking my head up to get a good look at his face.

His long hair stuck to his forehead right above the dark eyebrows that were always turned downward. It was like he had a permanent glare plastered onto him.

"I want you to give me a cigarette." He responded. Without giving me time to answer, he pulled out another chair and unfolded it beside me.

I sighed and pulled a second cigarette out of the box and handed it to him. He sat down in the metal chair, stuck the cigarette in his mouth, and leaned over to me so I could light it for him. After taking a few puffs from the cigarette, he stuck it between his index and middle finger and began to speak again.

"So, who's the new girl?" He asked referring to our new back up singer.

"Her name's Ava. Why? Do you wanna get in her panties or something?" He pursed his lips at my reply in annoyance.

"Might just do it if she's easy enough." He answered.

"Well, she's not. She's the nicest one we've got and wouldn't dare get near you." I sneered at him.

"I was joking." He answered back.
"I don't find it funny." I replied.

He then stood up with a shit eating smirk and dropped the cigarette to the ground, smushing it with his shoe.

"Anyways, good luck tonight. You're gonna need it after the shit show that was pulled last time you all performed." He said.

Without another word, he walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

The "shit show" I'm guessing he was referring to was the last show we had before we had to replace our backup singer, Elle. She was out of her head on drugs at the time and later got us kicked out of the bar we were performing in by trying to hook up with the DJ whose Dad just so happened to run the establishment.

The show was honestly a mess, and it was even worse when you had five dick heads snickering at you in the front. Meraki had showed up to watch us since we had released a new album, but it just so happened to be a rough patch for our group because of Elle. After the terrible performance and embarrassing fit the owner threw when he found Elle all over the DJ, we decided to let her go and replace her with Ava.

While in Mid-thought, the dressing room door had opened again revealing Jack. "Meraki is going on now, we better get going," he said. I put my cigarette out with my shoe and followed him out the door.

The backstage room that previously had the opposing band members laying across the couches was now empty for other than me and Jack. I followed him out of the room back to the dimly lit bar, finding a seat next to Ava.

Merika had just finished setting up as Harry stepped up to the microphone.

"How are we doing tonight Tusker's?"
He yelled into the mic.

The small crowd let out an applause in return.

Harry pulled the guitar strap over his shoulder, preparing for the performance.

"I like what I hear." He replied to the crowd.

"This first song is one we wrote last month called Medicine. If you pick up on the words feel free to sing along." He said.

The fact that there wasn't a single drop of anxiety in his voice gave me anxiety. The usually tense crowd loved him even before he played a single song because of the way he acted like he didn't have a care in the world.

I braced my self to witness their performance, gripping my hands to my seat almost as if I'm trying to ground myself. "Medicine" wasn't a familiar song to me. They must've just now decided to start putting it on stage.

Before I could get another thought in, I heard the tapping of the drum sticks filling the room.

"1, 2, 3, 4!"