stories from the city; damon albarn

7-

Blur was performing.

And yeah, they were good.

Damon Albarn hadn't lied to her when he said that he brought energy to the stage. He was seriously playing his personality up to the audience, prancing and strutting around. It was a perfect balance, especially compared to the bubbly persona Alex had, cigarette dangling from his mouth, and then with the quiet but thundering Graham.

It worked well. It was fun.

However, he wasn't just entertaining the audience, often or not he'd turn around to face the side of the stage she was on, where she, Justine and Avery were chatting.

Well- more like Avery and Justine.

Chloe was more enthralled with watching Blur for the first time.

He would turn around and blow a kiss, wink or wave at one of the three girls. While it would seem like these affections were for Justine, his eyes were consistently locking with Chloe. And she knew it. This wasn't something she could make up, but she didn't know why he was doing it.

Boys in bands were such teases.

Pulling out her camera, Chloe began to work off duty, putting on one of her best lenses, she started to shoot the band, focusing in on Damon and taking shots of the performance, the purple green lights reflecting down on the stage.

Justine tapped her on the shoulder, and grinned "you enjoying it?"

"Definitely. They're one of the best that I've watched today."

She nods "yeah I remember the first time I saw them. Except it was no where near this big. It was some shit party at Graham's school."

Avery snickers "God they were rough in the early days. Love them. But it's nice to see the improvement."

Justine laughs as well, and Chloe settles back into her work, figuring that she could spend more time trying to figure out Damon if she had a camera in front of her, hiding her staring from the two girls next to her.

He still had her lighter. She didn't want to be apart of his "pretty girl stolen lighter" collection and definitely didn't want him telling people about that. Then she also needed to figure out whether he was hitting on her. Some of his actions and comments were confusing.

1- he had a girlfriend, but they were in an open relationship, except his girlfriend didn't like him fucking people they knew.
2- the trailer
3- his words

It was all overwhelming. She would've much preferred whatever cheeky comments Liam Gallagher was cooking up, at least she could understand his intentions clearly.

"What do you all think of Oasis?" Chloe asked out of the boy, setting her camera down, watching as Damon went up to Alex and rather cheekily smacked his ass.

"Their singer is fit." Avery said quickly, shrugging as she lit a cigarette

"Oh my god!" Justine says nudging her, and laughing a little bit. "You're so damn rude."

"It's true! I was watching their set earlier and was losing my mind at him."

This was when Chloe picked up her camera and began to shoot again, this time aiming for Dave, trying to get some of his action on camera in There's No Other Way.

"I met them earlier. Seemed nice enough. A bit of a cunt though."

"Which one?" She questions

"Eh they're both cheeky bastards. Nothing you wouldn't like." Chloe says snarkily

"Who pissed in your bucket?" Justine asks

"Your boyfriend. He still hasn't given me my lighter."

"Good luck with that. I'm telling you. It's like a kink or some shit. He collects them." Justine says watching him from afar.

Meanwhile as There's No Other Way wrapped up, Damon took a long breath, and then paused to make a little speech.

"We've got a special guest for you tonight.. Rumor has it that we have who? Who is it Graham?"

"Hm? I think it's Noel Gallagher. Right?"

"Wrong." Damon says coyly

"We're going to bring out a very special lady and her guitar. But first, someone is owed a light."

Justine snickers as Avery starts fixing up her guitar and begins fussing with the tech who was trying to mess with her strap.

"I took a pretty girls lighter today, and all day she's been complaining to get it back." He rolls his eyes and digs through his pockets, looking for the lighter, finally pulling it out and showing it to the crowd.

Chloe sat her camera down, staring at her lighter in his hands. "What is he doing?" She asks Justine, her eyes stuck on the stage.

"No clue. This is news to me."

He turns around looking at Chloe before pulling the microphone of the stand and close to his face "You wanna get your light Chlo?"

She stands up.

"Come and get it." He waves it in her direction and she dashes onto the stage, narrowly avoiding tripping over equipment or wires.

He runs away, crossing into Graham's territory of the stage, hiding behind the guitarist he says into the microphone "Too slow."

"You want it?"

She nods her head

"Go in the barricade and get it." He winks and then tosses it down into the empty space between the stage and barricade.

He points to her camera and says "Chloe here is a photographer. However I think we need a variety of photos."

She flips him off and runs off to retrieve her camera, watching as Justine sort of stares at her blankly. "He's a fucking weirdo." She states, flipping through her camera bag to find the right lense for the barricade."

"He's giving you the lighter?" Justine questions

"Yeah..It's just my lighter though." She shrugs, not getting why the woman looked like she was in near disbelief

This was all interrupted by the sound of a loud guitar riff, covered in distortion cutting off Damon's new speech. "Oh. Looks like our guest got antsy. Welcome Avery Pince to Glastonbury!"

And there they went. The all American performer was fucking rocking out, like a mess all over the stage. It was kinda funny, seeing how Graham was all put together, and a scrawny girl was throwing herself around with an orange Fender Duo Sonic.

By the time Chloe made it down to the barricade, the song was at its climax, Avery practically shredding her fingers, down on her knees in the center of the stage, Damon standing over her, allowing for tension to build up.

And as much as Chloe hated Avery Pince.

She could play the guitar. And she could definitely make you want to be her.

As the song closes an end, Avery and Damon lock eyes, her head lifting up and playfully he pushes her down to the floor of the stage, watching her sprawl out on the dirty floor.

"This is what Justine and I like to do in the bedroom." He jokes "Avery just likes to demo it."

The crowd gets loud after that.

Meanwhile, Chloe began searching the ground for her lighter, only when she picks up what she believes to be her lighter, she finds a different one, a cheaper one, with a message scrawled out into it.

"U Lose"